The Maw – 19th-24th February 2024

Another week of PC game releases is upon us and oh heck, slow down. There are an alarming number of games out this week that I want to play, from large-scale 3D productions to itty-bitty time-killers, each sinisterly appropriate to my Steam stats and wider research interests. Are videogame publishers and The Maw in cahoots to overwhelm me with impulse-buys and sabotage my attempts to Report the News? It’s possible. It’s possible. The Maw can be pretty cunning for an indiscriminate force of cosmic famine. The creature has been known to forge alliances with misguided mortals, seeking to flank and overwhelm harried news writers. How else to explain Phil Spencer’s T-shirts?

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Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story review: a charming crafting RPG plagued by busywork

Riot Forge’s last stab at publishing smaller spin-offs from indie teams has resulted in Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story, which at first glance has all the things I love in self-proclaimed cosy games: gorgeous pixel art, laidback objectives and characters cute enough to trigger primal cheek-squishing instincts. But despite looking like an SNES classic and playing like a mix between Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, Bandle Tale unfortunately ties itself in knots with overly grindy crafting that had me rubbing my temples in an effort not to combust.

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Grab Intel’s Core i5 12600K for just £167 all-in at Amazon UK

The Intel Core i5 12600K remains a powerful CPU for gaming and content creation even in 2024, and offers better value than successors that use the same socket, like the 13600K and 14600K, due to similar performance at a lower price.

Today you can find the 12600K for £167 at Amazon UK as a US import, versus £221 for the same CPU via Amazon UK itself. That £167 price includes an import fee deposit and shipping too!

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Suicide Squad devs say login and server issues are “not an easy nut to crack”

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has already had bug fixes and a balancing patch, which is good news for players able to hop into the live service hero-biffer. It’s less good news for those players struggling to play at all due to login issues and server issues.

Rocksteady say addressing these is their top priority, although they ask for patience as the problems are “not an easy nut to crack.”

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Elden Ring publishers Bandai Namco cancel at least five games, target future “emphasis on quality”

Coming off of 2022’s biggest game in Elden Ring has been a tricky time for Bandai Namco, it seems. The publishers have announced that they have cancelled “at least” five games in the works to help overcome a significant drop in income over the last year, adopting a new approach to development that will focus on quality.

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Alan Wake 2 is Remedy’s fastest-selling game yet, shifting over 1.3m copies, but hasn’t made a penny of profit

Alan Wake 2, last year’s best horror game, best game overall or best-game-featuring-an-unexpected-but-extremely-welcome-musical-dance-number depending on who you ask, has shifted over a million copies. Musical dance numbers don’t come cheap, though, so it’s still yet to turn a profit – despite outpacing the momentum of any of Remedy’s previous games, including Control.

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If you’re enjoying Cobalt Core, you should play Sunshine Heavy Industries

I promise I’m not trying to turn RPS into a Soggins the Frog fansite, but… If you have a) been enjoying Cobalt Core as part of RPS Game Club this month, and b) especially like it when Soggins turns up with his ship of malfunctioning missile launchers, then I implore you to make Sunshine Heavy Industries your next port of call in your Steam library. It’s what the Cobalt Core devs Rocket Rat Games made first, and you can immediately see a lot of shared DNA between the two games – not least its chunky, charming pixel visuals and some crossover between its cast of characters – including our pal Soggins.

It is, I should stress, a very different game to Cobalt Core – it’s a sandboxy spaceship builder with zero combat involved, for starters – but I’ve been playing it again this week ahead of some other Game Club-themed articles I’ve got cooking, and I’ve been having a lovely time with it. Not least because I get to spend more time with Soggins the very smug frog, all while listening to even more excellent chill tunes from Cobalt Core composer Aaron Cherof.

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Baldur’s Gate 3’s latest patch improves smooching, idle animations, and a bazillion other things

Baldur’s Gate 3‘s latest update has, as per most of their updates, a colossal number of improvements. Notably, there are new animations for folks who hunker down in your camp and a speedier way to dismiss unwanted companions. But most importantly of all, the smooching has been improved tenfold for fans of romance, or voyeurs who relish virtual characters trading saliva.

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