Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The makers of Cyberpunk 2077 host a podcast every once in a while, in which the studio’s developers chat about what’s going on in the company. In the latest episode, they’re discussing their (relatively new) Boston studio and how it’s spearheading the as-yet-enigmatic sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. There’s a lot of middle-managey chit chat but one thing that stood out was one developer’s earnest remarks about what he considers some of the sci-fi RPG’s shortcomings.

“I see that we didn’t push the envelope far enough in some places, for instance,” said Paweł Sasko, Associate Game Director at CD Project RED. “Like, let’s say the homeless crisis… when I look at it, I’m like, we weren’t far enough in ’77. We thought that we were dystopian, but… we just touched the surface.”

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I think I’ve written about it a bazillion times here on RPS, but I do think Elden Ring is a massive open world game that’s a bit too large and in charge. I reached the exhaustion point once, and now the DLC’s come out, I’m scared I’ll reach it again despite the fact I think it’s very good. It’s interesting then, that FromSoftware’s president Hidetaka Miyazaki sees Elden Ring as “the limit” for FromSoftware in terms of project scale (cheers The Guardian for the interview, and PCGamer for the spot). I think it’s a great thing, personally.

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Assassin’s Creed fans “can be excited about some remakes” of the older games in the open world series, permits generous soul Yves Guillemot, via one of those odd promotional things disguised as a conversation. They’d like to “revisit some of the games we’ve created in the past and modernize them,” Ubisoft told Ubisoft about Ubisoft.

Elsewhere in the blog, Guillemot repeatedly praises what he sees as the potential for generative AI and how it “can enrich NPCs to be more intelligent, more interactive,” saying this could “potentially extend to animals in the world.” So, look forward to remake Ezio putting glue in his pizza sauce I suppose?

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Frostpunk 2 is being delayed so its developers have time to address player feedback gathered during the beta earlier this year. The survival citybuilder was originally due to begin shovelling orphans into the furnace in July, but those dear children now have a reprieve until September 20th.

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You can tell when a major Steam sale goes live, because the Steam store stop loading. If you can make it past the “something went wrong” message you’ll find that the Steam summer sale is now underway.

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I’m getting into the bad habit of posting just after the end of work. In this case, I’m doing it because the whole affair might be over and done with when I return to my desk. New York-based Nolen Royalty, creator of impish experimental games about bouncing DVD logos and staring contests, has made another one that consists of a website with one million checkboxes. It’s the best thing I’ve played all year, possibly.

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Albatroz is a “backpacking adventure RPG” that takes place in The Forbidden Lands, a photogenic wilderness “where two worlds converge”. You are jaded city worker Isla, and you are here to search for your missing brother, who was himself searching for the mystical mountain of Albatroz – locally known as “the walking mountain”, for reasons that you will never guess. There’s no combat, and no enemies that I can see – instead, you’ll occupy yourself with equipment management, repairing your dinky car, and improving your hiking skills using points earned by doing favours for villagers along the way.

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YouTube is a stocked repository of hours upon hours of Elden Ring lore. Ranni’s ending? No worries. Miquella and St. Trina? We got you. Mohg and the Formless Mother? Say no more. Turtle Pope? Sit back. The frenzied flame? Make yourself comfortable. The Elden Ring itself? One page is not enough to contain it all.

And yet, what use are any of you when I cannot find a single solitary lore snippet about these idiot worms?

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When the ageing, silent character you play in puzzle adventure Selfloss performs a roll, it is a tumble of such poignant melancholy I spent the first five minutes of my time with its Steam demo just keeling about in the starting area. It’s a ponderous, pained roll, creaky and ancient. If it has i-frames, the ‘i’ stands for “I would like to not do that again for at least five minutes, please.” Each time you roll, or sprint, your character wipes beads of sweat from his brow, and you can tell the exertion is genuinely taxing. My man is exhausted. Also, surrounded by fish, both symbolic and literal.

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I mentioned it briefly in my Shadow Of The Erdtree review, but there’s one area of the DLC where your steed Torrent is so scared they refuse to be summoned. That’s because said area is a woodland that’s been steeped in shadow and chaos for so long, large goats don’t dare clop their hooves. What I hadn’t expected was that relying on my own two trotters would be so… revelatory. It’s made me reconsider exploration in Elden Ring’s open world, and conclude that using Torrent as a taxi service contributes to a feeling of disconnection.

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