Новости за 05.04.2024

Behind its DLC microtransactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s most divisive element is arguably Dragonsplague, the pawn-infecting sickness that your AI companions can catch while questing online and may eventually drive them to murder entire settlements’ worth of NPCs.

Helldivers 2 is getting a new premium warbond next week, offering some explosive new options to take into battle, aim at an enemy bug or robot, and then accidentally kill your entire squad by mistake. Or maybe that’ll just be me.

Deck Nine, currently responsible for heading up the Life is Strange series having handled spin-off True Colours and remasters of the first two games, have been accused of fostering a toxic workplace home to sexism, mismanagement, crunch and abusive treatment of staff left to linger by the studio’s higher-ups.

Relic Entertainment, the freshly-independent developers of Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Age of Empires IV, have confirmed a number of job losses. The layoffs come just a week after the studio announced their sale from former owners Sega, returning them to independence after two decades.

I think we might be nearing the point where there are Too Many Retro Zeldalikes, and specifically Too Many Link’s Awakealikes – recent candidates include Isles Of Sea And Sky and Blossom Tales - but I’m definitely willing to go adventuring with Castaway, in which you are a spaceman called Martin who has crashlanded on an island’s worth of gently rounded, 8-bit scenery.

Fulqrum Publishing have just released a story trailer for New Arc Line, a new steampunk fantasy RPG in which dragons rub shoulders with zeppelins, and dwarves are as abundant as air pollution. I hadn't heard of it before and am quite interested, partly because the game sports some wonderfully mangled and colourful dystopian maps, and partly because it's a story of immigrants trying to find their way to an inevitably deceptive "shining city of progress", rather than the typical Chosen One fare.

In the dingy portside taverns that pop up, seemingly unbidden, like roiling blisters along the coastal towns of the Old World, the name Count Noctilus is spoken only in hushed whispers by those blasted enough on grog to forget themselves. They are sure to be swiftly rebuked by their fellows for playing dice with fate, those still of sound mind rightly afeared that the name may echo through the brine and tickle the ears of the dread captain himself. On the seas he calls kingdom, Noctilus is without equal... Читать дальше...

Ever since Lords Of The Realm, I've had a soft spot for feudalism sims. Although faux-medieval games are common, there aren't all that many about regular people and regular concerns. Even LotR was increasingly about battles and armies as it went on, rather than the unique management parts.

Friends! Jaegers! Evas! Lend me your radar dishes or cybernetic ear trumpets. Developers Storm Trident and publishers Forever Entertainment have popped up a Steam demo for their Front Mission 2 remake. Tucked within its coils there are two whole levels, Rimian Base and Batari Forest, together with a Garage where you can customise your Wanzer and access to the in-game Network menu.

For a handheld PC, the Steam Deck benefits an awful lot from having a mouse and keyboard plugged into it, and nothing enables this marriage of portable and peripheral like one of the best Steam Deck docks. And it’s not just USB connectivity that gets a boost – external displays, rock-solid Ethernet connections for game downloads, and power delivery all make dock usage a preferable alternative to simply hooking up Bluetooth accessories. Along with a microSD card (and possibly a better case), these... Читать дальше...

As a valued RPS supporter, you’re likely aware that you possess legal ownership of the fleeting thoughts I have right before falling asleep at night. It’s actually in the T&C, right under the bit about Horace’s claim on your organs. Good news: such interruptions are plentiful, and so too will be content. Here's my latest:

Yesterday, if you can believe it, marked the tenth anniversary of The Elder Scrolls Online. That's a whole decade of tromping across Tamriel with your mates, and a whole decade in which I've watched tentatively from the sidelines, thinking about dipping my toes into the MMO pool, but never quite building up the courage (or lining the walls of my bank account) to fully take the plunge. I've heard all the horror stories about starting a new MMO from other members of the RPS Treehouse - particularly... Читать дальше...

As World Of Warcraft Classic - an MMORPG that is, confusingly, a new version of the old version of World Of Warcraft - enters phase 3 of its Season Of Discovery, PCGamer has an interview with some of the devs where they talk about the decision to not run Player Test Realms - servers where they roll out the new content to smaller numbers of players to road test it. This means that when they launch new stuff for Seasons Of Discovery it'll probably break more often, but it means players get to discover brand new things together. Читать дальше...

The long-serving top producer of legendary RPG series Dragon Quest has stepped down from the role, according to sources that spoke to RPS Maw tribute site Bloomberg. Yu Miyake, who has been involved with numerous DQ games since he joined Enix in 1989 as marketer on DQ books, is moving on to head up Square Enix’s mobile games.

A big 'ol patch is coming to the System Shock remake next Thursday, headlined by "[reworking] the entire final fight with new mechanics and a unique flow" and adding a female character option for our hacker. Update 1.2 will also tweak and fix and fiddle with heaps of other things. Our System Shock review called it "a breathtakingly beautiful and astonishingly faithful remake that proves the enduring power of Looking Glass design" when it launched last year, though I would say System Shock's final battle is one of the most dated parts... Читать дальше...

Thrones of Decay, the upcoming expansion for strategy game Total War: Warhammer 3, will now be available to purchase as either three separate faction packs, or as a bundle at a discount. So, if you don’t fancy shelling out the full £19.10 for all three factions, you can grab new bits for either Nurgle, the Empire, or the Dwarfs for £7.49. If you do buy just one to start off with - say, to get a feel for the quality of Thrones of Decay as a package - you’ll get a 15% discount on the remaining two packs in the future. Читать дальше...

Goblin Stone released almost a month ago, but we haven't written about it yet, and it feels like you should know about it. It's a turn-based RPG, it's a roguelike with permadeath, it's got XCOM-style base-building, its got card-based combat; it is extremely your sort of thing, if you're the exact statistical average of Rock Paper Shotgun readers.

Vlambeer, developers of Nuclear Throne, Luftrausers and Super Crate Box, among others, called it quits back in 2020, so that co-founders Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail could work separately on other projects.

Roblox allows its players to create and monetise their own creations within its ecosystem. Across the entire breadth of Roblox game makers, a lot of money is made. At the individual level, however, the vast majority of creators making work within Roblox never earn enough to cash out their earnings - and some of those creators are children. This has long led to allegations that Roblox is exploiting child labour, generating value for Roblox Studio and its shareholders in the process.

Ubisoft racing game The Crew shut down on March 31st, rendering the game unplayable for everyone who bought it since its release ten years ago.