Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Amazon’s Spring Sale is back, and upon first inspection, it’s not looking like a vintage year. There are some discounts on quality PC gear, but a deals collapse has left them buried under forty thousand tonnes of overcomplicated toothbrushes and collagen peptide powders. So, so many collage peptide powders. I didn’t know there was this much collagen on Earth.

It’s still my job – it is still my job, right? Okay just checking – to dig through the Paltrow-adjacent junk and yank out the good stuff, so let’s start small with a few quid/bucks off one of my favourite Steam Deck docks. The JSAUX 6-in-1 Multifunctional Docking Station may have a clumsy name but it’s a keen bit of accessory design, with the port-adorned central block (which acts as a stand in docked mode) able to detach and pull double duties as a portable USB-C hub. It’s perfect for Steam Deck/Asus ROG Ally/Lenovo Legion Go/Zotac Zone etc. owners who want to keep employing that extra connectivity when taking their handheld away from home, and the Spring Sale has chipped the already-aggressive price down to £38 / $31.

Read more

Paradox have announced that 4X space strategy game Stellaris‘s next major overhaul will launch on 5th May, alongside the game’s BioGenesis DLC pack. The latter adds living spaceships together with new civics, traits and megastructures, but I’m more interested in the 4.0 update, which they’re branding the “phoenix update” in that it aims to overhaul performance problems caused by the 4X game’s update-bloated systems, while making “guidance and pacing” changes with new players in mind.

It doesn’t sound nearly as exciting on the surface as living spaceships, I’ll grant you, but this is a 4X game, don’t forget – the mythological firebird is in the detail.

Read more

Nic: To kick off this verdict, I have no choice but to ask my most insightful question: how Assassin-y is this Assassin’s Creed Game?

Jeremy: This is the first AssCreed game I’ve engaged with since Assassin’s Creed II, which I watched my roommate play through in university. So my opinion is not especially scientific, but from what I’ve seen it is very Assassin-y. The story – which is serviceable if not anything original – revolves around tackling a group of masked bad guys known as the Onryo (that’s Japanese for ghost), who are introduced with cool chanbara-style music. You’ve got to kill all of them, and sometimes you have to kill other folks who are connected with them, and in general there is a whole lot of assassinating going on, either with Naoe (who slices and dices with the standard hidden blade) or Yasuke (who has a ‘brutal’ assassination where he shoves his katana into someone’s face).

Read more

Open world sci-fi RPG Beta Decay is being delightfully greedy. The game’s retro PS1-inspired art style hides some furious ambitions. It will be a “dystopian RPG where you can build spaceships, join factions, and fight for territory in a newly discovered star system,” according to the Steam blurb. The game’s previous trailer showed some swish (if somewhat prototypey) cover shooter combat. But the game now plans to launch into early access this year, developers Rotoscope Studios have announced. And this time they’ve brought the big guns, literally. Mech some time for the trailer below.

Read more

When Lords of the Fallen came out in 2014, it was interesting to see another developer daring to mimic From Software’s Souls formula. But now that it’s a whole genre, seeing another big-budget soulslike just doesn’t feel special anymore – even Star Wars has had a crack at it. So what’s The First Berserker: Khazan bringing to the table? What fresh twist or novel setting makes this soulslike stand out? To be frank, I can’t see one. If I were to be as reductive as possible, I’d say it simply takes some core ideas from Nioh, and slaps Sekiro‘s parry on top.

Some of you might read that and think this anime-eyed action RPG sounds derivative. Others will probably salivate with glee. Well, both reactions make sense. There’s absolutely nothing original about The First Berserker: Khazan. It might also be the most fun I’ve had playing a soulslike in years.

Read more

Earlier this month I had the chance to check out Remedy’s forthcoming Control spin-off game FBC: Firebreak, which casts you as a bunch of weaponised office gremlins fighting the extra-dimensional Hiss and other “paranatural” lifeforms in the corridors of the Oldest House. The game is a co-op first-person shooter, which is a bit of a departure from the likes of Alan Wake 2. How, if at all, has Remedy had to change to make a game like Firebreak? Have they, for example, hired up a bunch of seasoned FPS devs? I put the question to game director Mike Kayatta and Remedy’s comms director Thomas Puha.

Read more

Sorry Australians, you can’t confront the horrifying psychological manifestations of your inner turmoil. It would be too much for you, according to the government. The country’s classification board recently refused to grant upcoming horror game Silent Hill f an age rating, essentially preventing it from being sold in the country unless certain elements of the game are toned down or altered by Konami. But it’s possible the developer will do just that, as the classification board has retracted their ruling. At least for the time being.

Read more

Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! As a reward for sticking with this column for so long, I’m delighted to announce that we’ll soon be rolling out the chance for you to write in with a detailed list of all your most subversive ideas and which books inspired you to hold them, and in return I’ll send you an email alerts if those books ever appear in this column. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is widely considered a classic so I’ll just call it ‘McCarthyism’ for simplicity.

This week, it’s the co-founder of Finji – publisher of such luxury games as Tunic, Wilmot’s Warehouse, and Night In The Woods – Bekah Saltsman! Cheers Bekah! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?

Read more

There’s no better news than “game that hasn’t had an update in years just received one”, and this week that applies to Battle Brothers. Despite first releasing eight years ago – almost to the day, its eighth anniversary is in a couple of days time on March 24th – and not receiving a new update in two years, developer Overhype Studios has come back to the game not just with some fixes, but with some new content too.

Read more

Everybody loves a good fairytale, but I’m sure you can agree that some kind of twist on a Brothers Grimm story is a bit overdone by now, so how about a game based on folklore from Normandy? Carimara: Beneath the forlorn limbs is exactly that, a self described “short and creepy fairytale” that has a look about it where I can easily imagine walking around its world and think “cripes, it smells a bit around here, ‘ey?”

Read more