Thunderful unveiled SteamWorld Build earlier this evening, the next entry in their genre-hopping series of games about colourful robot pals trying to make their way in the world. As the name implies, this one’s a citybuilder, and I’ve been hands on with an early build of, err, Build, to tell you all about it. No, I’m not sure what’s going on with the previously announced
Headhunter right now either, but in some ways, I’m glad it’s Build that’s coming out first.
After all, it’s been a hot minute since the last SteamWorld game came out, and Build is shaping up to be the perfect reintroduction to what made this series so special. It goes right back to its roots, reframing that classic SteamWorld Dig story of mining for gold and treasure with a new, management-style eye for town-planning, while also paying homage to where it all began for these jolly old rustbuckets way, way back on the Nintendo DSi. That’s right. SteamWorld Build may be a citybuilder on the surface, but down below it’s a mining and tower defence ’em up – and having lost several hours to my demo build already, it’s really something special.
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Windosill. It’s still a joy to poke and prod at the wee indie puzzle game, tugging on orbs, spinning carousels, and jabbing at the many beaks and eyeballs and mouths and noises emerging from an ever-shifting box. It’s such a reward for curiosity. And it still looks great too, with that unaging smooth vector art from developer Vectorpark. Now it’s out on Android phones and tablets too. I bought it, and really enjoy how much a touchscreen adds to the tactile experience.
, but they’ve now revealed they’ll be investing billions of dollars into driving breakthroughs in AI. Microsoft will be pumping the money into futuristic tech firm OpenAI, which operates Turing-botherer chatbot ChatGPT and its artistic relative DALL-E. OpenAI’s already received two investments from Microsoft, one in 2019 and another in 2021. This third investment is intended to be “multi-year” and “multibillion dollar”, allowing both companies to “independently commercialize” whatever budding Skynets emerge.</p><p><a href=)
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Dead Space takes place isn’t exactly a floating Hilton once its crew have been turned inside out by a bunch of drooling flesh moths, but there is ample evidence that the Ishimura was a miserable place to live and work long before that happened. This is why the planet cracker class vessel is still remembered as fondly as other iconic spaces such as City 17, Rapture and the Spencer Mansion. Despite its fantastical contexts, the Ishimura is a believable location, one where the work itself is deemed more important than the workers who do it.
survival game. Have as many people also explored the chilly seas of similarly excellent standalone expansion 
Songs Of Conquest‘s developers have laid out its 2023 roadmap, which will take it from its current early access state all the way to version 1.0 sometime this autumn. Along the way the strategy RPG will receive a finalised map editor, new maps, campaigns, and units, a co-op skirmish mode, and regular AI improvements.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf apparently hit alpha in October last year, suggesting development was advancing as planned. Now production director and BioWare veteran Mac Walters has left the studio – one of several lead developers to depart over the past couple of years.
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The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind arrived on PC, one mod has finally given us the option to ignore all the questing and just enjoy capturing the game’s fantastical scenery on canvas. With the Joy Of Painting mod, you can set up your field easel anywhere in Morrowind, daub some brush strokes on a canvas, and even flog the painting to earn a bit of cash.
The Last Starship is heading out of alpha and into early access on Steam this spring, RPS can exclusively reveal, and there will be a public demo going live later this week on January 26th. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as the Captain Kirk or Commander Adama type, then you’ll have a chance to construct and run your own spacecraft, and choose what missions you take on in this spaceship