Industries Of Titan started out as an ambitious concept. A hybrid of a factory layout/logistics sim, integrated into a
city builder, combined with an RTS, all wrapped up in a satirical dystopia encouraging you to be the most appalling villainous hypercapitalist possible.
All of those parts are present, and as a bonus it’s incredibly gorgeous, with strong voice acting and a distinctive soundtrack that will haunt my head for weeks. Most of its parts are made to a high standard, it’s tragic that its final design just doesn’t work at all.
Of all things, IOT reminds me of Fragile Allegiance. You’re a ‘founder’, sent to an already colonised and abandoned Titan to build a new city at the behest of the Council. You’re a ‘founder’, sent to an already colonised and abandoned Titan to build a new city at the behest of the Council. First, by salvaging its ruined buildings for minerals and isotopes, then mining for surface deposits, all of which goes back into your building resources. Curiously, you never combine two resources to produce a third, you can only upgrade minerals through a tier system. Higher tier resources are more potent, meaning, for exmaple, a building site will accept 100 raw minerals or four higher tier units. It’s a bit strange, but it mostly works.
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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide have laid out their plans to improve the co-op shooter’s shopping and crafting systems. The gear system changes, due to arrive in the next patch, do sound like improvements to the current state of things. These plans do not sound better than entirely ending the tedious grinds of random rolls and making numbers bigger. Why improve when it would be better to remove?
Re:Call was high on my list of surprise recent indie hits. It has a great premise, for starters – change history by meddling with your memories and playing out different versions of events to arrive at the ‘correct’ solution – and executes it brilliantly. Its GBA-style visuals and larger-than-life character portraits give it a real sense of charm and personality, and its mystery story of murder and corporate conspiracy had hooked me in real good.
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Honkai: Star Rail is the first turn-based RPG in the Honkai / Genshin Impact universe, and its final beta started earlier today on PC and mobile. Pre-registration has now closed, but you might be able to gain access through the game’s 
V Rising continues its early access with a free expansion coming in May. It’s meaty, overhauling a few areas of the game including magic progression, spellcasting, and lair building in preparation for the endgame. But it’s also “giving you more of what you already love” with new weapons and spells, boss battles, areas, and factions. Quite a lot to sink your teeth into, then.
chill little potion brewers that let you coo over a bubbling cauldron all nice and cosy like; there’s your darker, more 
Octopath Traveler 2 demo which was released on console yesterday was nowhere to be found on PC.
best external SSDs, and it’s currently discounted at B&H Photo Video to $80 for a 1TB size – not bad!
the RPS review from erstwhile hardware editor Katharine to prove it. Nowadays, PCIe 4.0 drives are becoming more common and PCIe 5.0 is on the horizon, but the SX8200 Pro – in a newer 2TB size – is still an awesome value for the performance on offer. It’s down to £117 at TechNextDay when you use code TND-10, a healthy £35 below the next-lowest price at CCL.