Hooded Horse reveal Substructure, a factory sim from a top Factorio modder in which you excavate the layers of a rogue planet Express elevator to hell (and upgrade materials) Image credit:Hooded Horse If you were Senior Floor Manager of Earth, and a weird planet innocently appeared on the fringe of our solar system, what would you do? I would probably not zip out there and plant a factory on that planet, in much the same way that I wouldn’t high-five a bear-shaped shadow on the edge of a campsite....

How Mel Brooks and Twilight inspired a vampire visual novel mixing funny with therapy Little Bat Games’ creative director talks through our feelings on Vampire Therapist Image credit:Little Bat Games After writing about the upcoming visual novel -ish game Vampire Therapist (in which you are a vampire, acting as a therapist to other vampires) back in the middle of January, developer Cyrus Nemati reached out asking if I’d like to ask him more questions about it....

How payment networks control the definition of acceptable sex in videogames We speak to adult industry researchers and Stripe alumni about Steam and Itch.io’s NSFW content cull Image credit:Take-Two Interactive To speedily summarise a lot of very knotty reporting, last month a bunch of credit card companies and payment processors forced Steam and Itch.io to alter their definitions of acceptable sexual material in PC games. Seemingly faced with the prospect of having all transactions blocked, the two storefronts now require developers to comply with the extremely open-ended adult content policies of their financial partners....

How to get a Horse in Manor Lords Here’s how to purchase a Horse in Manor Lords Image credit:Hooded Horse Want to get Horses in Manor Lords? When it comes to beasts of burden in Manor Lords , Horses have a relatively minor but important role to play in your growing settlement. When it comes time to export goods to merchants located off of Manor Lords ’ map, Horses will make the process faster and more effective....

How to get all Companions in The Outer Worlds 2 The locations of all six Companions, and how to recruit and upgrade them Image credit:Obsidian Wondering how to get all six Companions in The Outer Worlds 2? As with every single one of Obsidian’s RPGs, it’s all about the friends who accompany you on your journey, and The Outer Worlds 2 is no different. With a motley cast featuring everything from a friendly robot to a lady who worships rifts in the time-space continuum, The Outer Worlds 2’s cast is wondrously varied....

How to install Zenless Zone Zero on the Steam Deck The quickest, easiest way to play HoYoverse’s stylish RPG on your Steam Deck Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun Steam Deck Academy brings together all our guides and explainers on getting the most out of your Steam Deck, no student loans or sweaty dormitories required. Installing Zenless Zone Zero on a Steam Deck is pretty straightforward, especially compared to the nightmare that was getting fellow anime-styled RPG Wuthering Waves to behave on the handheld ....

How to play Uma Racing A full rundown of controls, sprinting, zone, spurt, and more in Uma Racing Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Uma Racing Community Need a hand learning how to play Uma Racing? We’ve all had the exact same first experience jumping into this Roblox racing game. You approach the stall to begin your first-ever race, watch the epic preamble, get ready, the doors open and then… nothing. All your competitors launch down the track while you slowly and sheepishly stroll forward, furiously tapping every combination of random keys you can to figure out how they’re running so darn fast....

How to unlock The Duchess in Elden Ring: Nightreign With The Duchess, you’ll be quick and they’ll be dead. Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco Looking to unlock The Duchess in Elden Ring: Nightreign? She’s one of two hidden characters in the game, but is much simpler to access than the mysterious Revenant . That doesn’t mean the game spells out how or when you can earn the right to play as The Duchess, but you will get everything you need very early on....

I’ve found some awesome last minute prebuilt gaming PC Prime Day Deals that are cheaper than building one And less hassle than building one if you’re quick enough! Image credit:MSI / ASUS Image credit: HP HP Omen Max 16 Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX RTX 5080 Gaming Laptop Was: $2,549 Now: $1,439.99 (56% off) Use code: LEVELUP20 at checkout See here I had my eye on this beast when it dropped under $1,700....

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is both a more “relaxed” Wolfenstein and Riddick plus Nazis Game director Jerk Gustafsson talks us through a hands-off demo Image credit:Microsoft MachineGames have made a decent living as the creators of satirical alternate histories in which you messily murder Nazis using mighty double-handfuls of shotgun. There are Nazis to fight in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle - a globe-trotting, tomb-robbing adventure featuring a Lost Ark-era Harrison Ford - but as you’d expect from a Lucasfilm adaptation, there’s rather less of the bloodshed....

Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS review: Windows get ye gone An inconsistent handheld, yet hopefully a sign of little PCs to come Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS specs: CPU/GPU: AMD Ryzen Z2 Go (as tested, AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme also available) RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X (as tested, up to 32GB available) Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD (as tested, 512GB also available) Display: 8in, 1920x1200, 120Hz IPS Ports: 2x USB-C, 1x 3....

Make your complaints heard about bad games, says Dragon Age veteran Mark Darrah, but “your $70 doesn’t buy you cruelty” “When you celebrate layoffs at a studio because the game that you don’t like didn’t do that well, you’re crossing a line” Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Electronic Arts Answering GDC’s 2023 survey, 78% of respondents said they considered the harassment and toxicity developers receive from the public to be a serious issue....

Manor Lords publisher’s time loop tactics RPG Every Day We Fight is out today in early access The age of sandbags is coming to a close Image credit:Signal Space Lab It’s the open environments of tactical RPG Every Day We Fight that have most caught my eye. Huge warehouses, bases, and ruins so stuffed with cover and walkways as to suggest the dominant species on the game’s pre-alien invasion earth were sandbag piles....

Microsoft cancel Perfect Dark reboot and shut the developers down in the name of “continued success” Together with “several unannounced projects” Image credit:Crystal Dynamics / The Initiatives Microsoft have cancelled their Perfect Dark reboot and closed its development studio The Initiative in the course of this week’s scything sacrifices to their actually rather healthy bottom line . In a statement, head of Xbox Matt Booty also confirmed the cancellation of Rare’s Everwild , alongside “several unannounced projects”....

Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 3 brings back fan-favourite maps, adds new perks and modes You could call it somewhat of a Rebirth Image credit:Activision Activision have revealed what’s coming to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone 2 in its upcoming Season 3 update. For Modern Warfare 3, there’s a slew of new and remastered 6 vs 6 maps, new modes, and Zombies story additions. As for Warzone, highlights include the return of fan-favourite Rebirth Island, biometric scanners, new perks, and four new weapons....

Mouthwashing review: converging timelines make for an impressive and succinct descent into madness Everyone on the ship has great oral hygiene, to be fair Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Critical Reflex Developer: Wrong Organ Publisher: Critical Reflex Release: Out now On: Windows From: Steam , itch Price: £11/€12/$12 Reviewed on: Intel Core i7-12700F, Nvidia RTX 3080, 16GB RAM, Windows 11 Mouthwashing ’s greatest triumph is placing you at the scene. The first being the most obvious crime: a captain steering their space freighter into harm’s way, entirely on purpose....

MSI reveal the Claw, the first Intel-powered Steam Deck rival THE CLAW! THE CLAW! Image credit:MSI MSI are the latest gaming gear makers to unveil a Steam Deck -alike, announcing the Claw as part of their CES 2024 showcase. The Claw – great name, by the way – actually looks and sounds closer to the Asus ROG Ally than Valve’s handheld, being a Windows 11-based device without any flashy hardware tricks like the Lenovo Legion Go ’s detachable controllers....

Is that Shadow The Hedgehog??? Image credit:Samsung Image credit: Samsung Samsung PRO Plus Sonic 1TB microSDXC + Adapter $69.99 (40% off, was $116.99) See here This 1TB Sonic Edition microSD from Samsung is our top pick for Steam Deck, which matches the same specs as the standard edition. With blazing read/write speeds up to 180MB/s and 130MB/s, it’s built for rapid game loading and smooth 4K recording. It’s got A2, U3, and V30 ratings for apps and video, plus rugged protection against water, X-rays, and drops....

My Summer Car review: A sordid sim of piss and pistons that won’t hold your disgusting little hand Masochism and the art of motorcar maintenance Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / AmisTech Games Developer: AmisTech Games Publisher: AmisTech Games Release: Jan 8th, 2025 On: Windows From: Steam Price: £11/$15/€15 Reviewed on: Intel Core-i7-11700F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10 I can’t get out. I’m trapped in a tractor full of beer and spare tires....

Neva review: a Ghibli-esque platformer with tight visuals and loose combat A step above Gris in ambition and execution Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital Developer: Nomada Studio Publisher: Devolver Digital Release: October 15th 2024 On: Windows, MacOS From: Steam Price: TBC Reviewed on: Steam Deck Neva is the Sophomore effort from Nomada Studio, who you may remember from their beautiful, dreamy platformer Gris . Neva is not a literal sequel to Gris, but it certainly seems to be one in a spiritual sense, as it, too, is a floaty hand-illustrated platformer fond of metaphor....