Sonic Mania 2 was never in the works because Sega and its devs wanted to move away from pixel art and “make something fresh”

Sonic Mania 2 isn’t in development and never was, according to the devs behind the celebrated 2D revival of the blue hedgehog. Contrary to rumours, that’s not because of a falling out between publisher Sega and Sonic Mania’s devs, but because both sides of the creative team decided they wanted to make something new.

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Get the 1TB WD SN850x NVMe SSD for £48, a new historic low

The WD Black SN850x is our top SSD pick for PC gaming, offering some of the fastest load times we’ve ever recorded – so I thought I’d let you know that the 1TB size of the drive has dropped to £47.99 on Ebay when you use code APPLY20 at the checkout. That’s a tiny fraction of the drive’s original RRP and the lowest price we’ve ever recorded for this size. All told, it’s a hugely impressive deal.

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Gravity Circuit feels far fresher than any other retro platformer

I have a complicated relationship with retro-style games in general, and no particular fondness for the Everything Was Nintendo school. Or platformers, or double jumping, or dashing, or neon, or being alive in general. Dislike is the wrong word, but “weary neutrality” about covers my feelings when another retro platformer comes down the game tubes.

Gravity Circuit, however, is good enough that I can’t not mention it here. It’s loud and bright without being obnoxious or overwhelming, fast and precise without being overly demanding, and generally just a damn good effort at creating a modern action platformer whose main influence is obvious, but isn’t just going through the motions for the sake of nostalgia. I’m saying it’s good, yeah? Maybe not quite for me, but good anyway.

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Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart system requirements, PC performance, and best settings to use

I bloody love Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. It’s a meaty and satisfying action-platformer with possibly the best-executed comedy and character work of the entire series; a series that’s essentially grown up alongside me, in tone as much as technical sophistication. I wish I had the time to review it properly but, with a weekend and a Baldur’s Gate 3-shaped boulder bearing down, I’m staying in my hardware lane to focus on the performance of and best settings to use in Rift Apart’s new PC version.

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Sci-fantasy roguelike Caves Of Qud is getting a full release in 2024, after 15 years of development

In a move that, if it happens a third time, will become a trend known as “doing a Dwarf Fortress“, Kitfox Games are taking on publishing duty for Caves Of Qud, a proc-gen roguelike retrofuturist epic that generates funny patch notes and terrifies me, personally. Development started in 2007, before the game hit early access on Steam in 2015. And now, 1.0 is on the horizon.

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The best indie games rocking the show floor at Bitsummit Let’s Go 2023

Japan’s biggest yearly indie games event returned to a blisteringly hot Kyoto last weekend, just in time for the world-famous Gion Matsuri taking place in the city that same weekend. Bitsummit Let’s Go was the name given to the 11th incarnation of the event, expanding to three days for the very first time – also featuring over 100 games, the largest showcase yet. With so many games on show it’s hard to narrow them all down. Keeping with the event’s spirit of showcasing independent talent and undiscovered gems, I’ve chosen to pick out some of the smaller games peppering the show floor and highlight just a few favourites.

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It’s time to say goodbye to the immaculate vibes of reviews editor Rachel Watts

It’s always a sad day when someone leaves the Treehouse, and today we bid adieu to Rachel Watts, as she leaves being our reviews editor for pastures new. Rachel definitely left an impression here, and I know she’ll do the same wherever she goes. For now, join us in saying goodbye with some nice comments, and a look at some of Rachel’s coolest work for us here.

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The RPS 100 (2023): our top PC games of all time (50-1)

Welcome to Part Two of The RPS 100 for 2023, our annual countdown of our favourite PC games from across the ages. Earlier this week, we ranked our favourite games from 100-51, which can be found over in Part One of this year’s list. But now it’s time for the big 50, going all the way to our collective number one. And I’ll tell you now, it’s not the same as last year.

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Homeworld Remastered Collection is currently free to keep on the Epic Games store

Homeworld Remastered Collection, the bundle which contains prettier versions of cult-classic RTS’ Homeworld and Homeworld 2, is currently free to keep from the Epic Games Store. We thought it was a corker of a collection when it first released eight years ago, so strategy-heads who like to build space fleets may want to get on this one.

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