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Gaming
Releases, platforms, and the people making the games.
271 stories archived
Forza Horizon 6 is lightweight enough to perform on just about any PC - though its new ray tracing modes slam on the brakes
Forza Horizon 6’s bootful of PC-specific tech features was apparently stuffed enough to warrant a big, colourful blog post about them. Ultrawide support? Yes. DLSS 4 and FSR 4? Both. Ray tracing? A resounding hai, those souped-up lighting and reflection effects escaping FH6’s car-ogling mode and adorning its open world for the first time in the series. Actually playing the thing, however – and/or spending enough time in its benchmarking tool – reveals that its PC performance highlights mainly concern the absolute basics. On standard settings this is most definitely a smooth-running game, one that’s capable of scooting along on budget builds and handheld PCs while zooming through frames on powerful graphics cards. But, that’s not necessarily with the help of bleeding-edge tech. Upscalers like DLSS disappoint more than they impress, and the performance tax levied by those RT effects will drag you down from supercar luxury to framerate poverty. Read more
Sektori's solo developer can finally pay themselves a salary after Nintendo Switch 2 success
Last week's Nintendo Switch 2 release of Sektori, a brilliant twin-stick shooter that's a lot like Geometry Wars, has finally met with enough success that the game's solo creator has been able to pay themselves a living wage. Read more
Exodus' former studio head James Ohlen touches on why he left Archetype Entertainment: "I was running on fumes"
Back in December of last year, despite being the head of the studio, James Ohlen left Archetype Entertainment, also leaving his role as producer on Exodus behind. It was a bit of a surprise, given that he co-founded the studio after having retired from BioWare in 2018. Now, in a recent interview, Ohlen explains why he made the call, coming down to potentially the most unifying experience in game dev: burnout. Read more
For its 24th anniversary, Final Fantasy 11 is getting a free trial upgrade that lets you play it for as long as you like
Final Fantasy 11 is the MMO that just keeps on ticking. It's the game's 24th anniversary today, which still isn't old enough to make it the longest running MMO, but does make it old enough for those of you that played it when it came out to have grandkids. The game isn't just still running either, but getting new updates too, with a livestream held on the Japanese Square Enix YouTube channel yesterday marking the anniversary with details of what's still to come. Quite notably is the fact that the free trial is getting massively expanded. Read more
Sony announces price increase for new PlayStation Plus subscribers "due to ongoing market conditions"
Sony has announced that PlayStation Plus prices are rising for new customers in "select" regions, but that if you're an existing subscriber, the price change does not apply - not unless the subscription lapses or changes. Or unless you are in Turkey or India. Read more
Subnautica 2's no-killing ethos "will be a continued point of resistance" among players, say Unknown Worlds, but they have no plans to change it
With the early access release of otherworldly diving sim Subnautica 2, developers Unknown Worlds are dealing with some familiar criticisms about the new survival game's absence of weaponry or outright combat elements. Speaking to RPS among other journalists in a roundtable interview, design lead Anthony Gallegos acknowledged that Subnautica 2's emphasis on living with, rather than confronting larger, dangerous organisms will be "a continued point of resistance" for some players, while reiterating that it's the heart of the game. Read more
CD Projekt Red has enlisted Destiny 2: The Final Shape's narrative lead for The Witcher multiplayer spin-off Project Sirius
Kwan Perng was one of the main writers on celebrated Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape and Guild Wars 2 expansion End of Dragons, and now they'll be the lead writer on CD Projekt Red's multiplayer Witcher spin-off Project Sirius. Read more
EVE Online's Cradle of War expansion wants to make the space MMO more welcoming to new players, before killing them in galaxy-wide omniconflict
The effective onboarding of curious yet noncommitted first-time EVE Online players is a conundrum that developers Fenris Creations, formerly CCP Games, have been trying to solve for decades. Many are enticed by the MMORPG’s purely player-spun tales of espionage and military adventure, only to bounce off its dense hull of complex economic spacemaths and a sandbox occupied by oft-unpunished pirates and con artists. Perhaps the game’s next big expansion, Cradle of War, will have more luck when it launches on June 9th. Read more
Forza Horizon 6 will unleash the Wankel-powered Furai to kick off its Festival Playlist car additions
Forza Horizon 6 is out in full next week, so naturally Playground Games have already started to spool up the motors of its live-service events and car rewards. The Festival Playlist gets going on May 21st, and fittingly its first series will offer a chance grab one of the funkiest concept cars Japan have ever produced. Read more
Lego 2K Drive is being delisted in a matter of days despite only being a few years old - grab it before it's bricked over
Lego 2K Drive is set to be delisted from storefronts next week, an update to its various pages by publishers 2K has revealed. The brick-heavy racer's listings are biting the dust three years on from its release in 2023, with its online servers set to follow around this time next year. Read more
Come dribble with me over this pitch for Total War: Redwall, in which Shrimp 'n' Hotroot soup is a vital strategic resource
Total War: Redwall is not an actual Total War game, unfortunately, nor even a mod like Mossflower TW. It's an evolving pitch from Reddit user BuildingAirships, one among many thousands circulating on yonder internet, like logboats riding the rapids of Noonvale. The latest update is about a potential cooking and feasting system, with all of the comestibles sourced from the groaning banqueting tables of the Brian Jacques books. Read more
"We see this as the beginning of the end of the Apple Tax worldwide" - Fortnite returns to the App Store globally as Epic prepares for "the final battle"
Fortnite has returned to Apple's App Store around the world (*excluding Australia) as Epic Games proclaims "the beginning of the end of the Apple Tax worldwide". Read more
Palestinian pseudo-stealth game Dreams on a Pillow paints a difficult, poetic picture in its first look at gameplay
Back in late 2024, Palestinian developer Rasheed Abueideh announced Dreams on a Pillow, a "pseudo-stealth adventure game." It's set during the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing that saw Israel violently displacing Palestinians and dispossessing their land and homes, serving as Abueideh's emotional response to the attacks on Gaza that began in 2023. And now, as a second round of funding continues, a first look at gameplay has been offered up. Read more
Mixtape will be safe from a music licensing related delisting, ensured by its developer paying extra for the privilege
The first thought that probably arose for most people upon seeing Mixtape for the first time was probably something along the lines of, "that's a lot of licensed music, wonder how long it takes before it's delisted." Music licensing is notoriously a pain in the ass, and considering how embedded into the story every song that's in the game is, it certainly seemed like Mixtape was doomed. But according to its devs, there's nothing to worry about. Read more
At last, the Bullet Heaven genre - popularised by hits like Vampire Survivors - has been sanctioned by Steam
The bullet heaven genre, poplarised by relatively new hits like Vampire Survivors, finally has a dedicated tag on Steam. Read more
Microsoft launches Xbox Player Voice portal to listen closely to player feedback, fans immediately ask for "great game exclusives"
It's been roughly three months since Asha Sharma took over Xbox, and changes to corporate and business direction haven't stopped coming. From scrapping the "This Is an Xbox" ad campaign to dropping Game Pass prices in exchange for new Call of Duty titles not being on the service from day one, today's Xbox is already feeling different. However, Xbox leadership knows the work is only starting, and it's closely monitoring player feedback via the newly-launched Xbox Player Voice. Read more
Sleepover is a cosmic horror visual novel about the last person on earth and the stranger who shows up at their front door
A concept that quite genuinely keeps me up at night is the idea of waking up one day and every other person on Earth disappearing. Couldn't possibly tell you where this fear of mine stems from, all I can say is that I would imagine such a reality to be a cosmically nightmarish one. Enter Sleepover, a post-apocalyptic cosmic-horror visual novel that sees in that exact fear of mine, the key difference being that its protagonist isn't alone after all. Read more
Fence off a free-spirited horse that can't stop eating grass in the daily puzzle game enclose.horse
There is a horse in the middle of the field. It wants to escape, run free, to graze upon the grass where it thinks it is greener. The horse knows not of the dangers of the outside world, for it is simply a horse. So what must we do? We must put up enclosures to form a pasture for the horse, yet we only have so many walls to use, so we must be choosy. This, more or less, is enclose.horse, a daily puzzle game where you must stop a horse from running away to eat grass. Read more
Nintendo has just announced Wario Ware-like game Pictonico! for mobile phones, and it looks absolutely bonkers
Nintendo sure loves its surprise announcements, and the latest feels especially chaotic even if the game reveal is rather bite-sized. Pictonico! appears to be heavily inspired by Wario Ware and launches next week on mobile phones. Read more
Sony reportedly confirms it's ditching PC versions of its single-player PS5 games
It has reportedly been decided: Sony will keep its narrative single-player games exclusively for PlayStation 5, no longer converting them to PC. Read more
Subnautica 2 mod makes creatures killable, despite its devs' desire to convince players to "use non-violent and more creative solutions"
Subnautica 2 is deliberately designed to nudge you away from seeking violent solutions to your 'oh lordy there's a giant leviathan chasing me' problems, with devs Unknown Worlds having been clear that strong feelings have propelled them down that path. Yet, as they've also acknowledged, not every Sub 2 player will agree: cue a mod that makes creatures killable quickly springing up now the survival game's out in early access. Read more
This week in PC games: Tokyo-drifting in Forza Horizon 6, communist grifting in Disco Elysium follow-up Zero Parades, or dystopia tifting in puzzle game Phonopolis
Have no fear, dear reader. Yes, I am once standing in for Edwin to battle The Maw and bring forth its tidings of upcoming PC games. But the beast has not eaten our news editor. Not this time. Instead, Edwin's been called away to Krakow where he will be using his creature-wrestling skills to tussle with a dragon. Read more
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book review
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book might be the loveliest surprise of the year so far. It certainly is for me. Going in, I don't think I was expecting too much. There's the slightly forgettable title, for one thing, and then I'd picked up the idea that, since this wasn't a Zelda or a mainline Mario, I could probably give it a miss. Read more
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is both bootleg Disco Elysium and a spirited interrogation of fake culture in all its guises
For many players, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies will never be anything other than a seedy clone of ZA/UM's reputation-making Disco Elysium – a soul-sucking forgery of a doomy leftist masterpiece, whose original lead writers and designers have been ousted by scheming executives. It's appropriate then, that, Zero Parades proves obsessed with clones, forgeries, bootlegs, and the ways in which these entities can be wielded for erasure and displacement. Its opening third is a comical squabble over notions of authenticity and (thereby) identity, an interrogation of connoisseurship and the notion of the 'genuine article' as vectors for assimilation. Read more