In medieval strategy sim County Of Fortune you run a whole county’s worth of quarrelling towns Unless you persuade them to get along Image credit:Nepos Games Nepos Games are the two-person studio behind Nebuchadnezzar , which Nate Crowley called “two thirds of an outstanding historical city builder”. They’ve just informed me they’re making a new building sim called County Of Fortune , out in Q4 2025. It ain’t a city builder , though....

Jackbox Party Pack is finally adding a shared launcher to switch between the best of each game collection The Jackbox Megapicker will be out next month, and it’s free Image credit:Jackbox Games There’ve been a ton of Jackbox Party Packs over the last near-decade, each following a fairly similar structure: one or two standout games you’ll want to replay, a couple you might dip into every now and then, and at least one you’ll try once and then never bother with again....

Jurassic World Evolution 3’s low system requirements spoiled by mention of AI-generated scientists GPT-Rex Image credit:Frontier Developments Recently announced dino management sequel Jurassic World Evolution 3 already has some system requirements, well in advance of its October 21st release. You can give them a peep on the game’s Steam page , where they’re revealed as a refreshingly light list of relatively attainable cards ’n’ chips, with a mere 25GB storage requirement – a welcome bucking of recent trends for 100GB-plus SSD installations and extravagant GPU demands ....

Kerbal Space Program 2 producer confirms mass layoffs, contradicting CEO’s remarks Executive indecision Image credit:Private Division A producer on Kerbal Space Program 2 has confirmed that those working on the space flight sim are being laid off en masse. We already knew that the developers at Intercept Games would be losing their jobs thanks to a closure announcement from Washington State . Until remarks from Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, muddied the waters....

Last Epoch continues to look like a worthy Diablo challenger ahead of next month’s full release Launch trailer gives a taste of both lore and monster-slaying Image credit:Eleventh Hour Games Last Epoch is gunning for the action-RPG crown long held by Diablo (and recently contested by the likes of Path of Exile and Grim Dawn ). With the power of time travel - and a flash-looking launch trailer - on its side, the indie hopeful certainly looks set to put up a decent fight when it exits Early Access in just over a month....

Lie to futuristic billionaires so you can steal their stuff in Pentiment and Pratchett-inspired Better Than Us Vampire Therapist’s devs will examine the consequences of “extreme wealth inequality” when the latest work arrives in 2026 Image credit:Little Bat Games As you can see in the trailer above, Better Than Us casts you as a master thief whose goal is to infiltrate the swanky parties of the year 2200’s richest bastards and manipulate them into looking the other way as you swipe some of their stuff....

Manor Lords dev wants you to decide whether the game should allow egg monopolies No egg puns exist, unfortunately Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Hooded Horse “Given the opportunity, players will become a merciless egg baron and sit chuckling on a throne of shells while medieval Europe cowers beneath their imperious yolk,” is what I assume Soren Jonson once said, and it looks like Manor Lords is proving this timeless adage right once more....

Marathon players on PC won’t need a PlayStation account, say Bungie No more of that carry on Image credit:Bungie You won’t need a PlayStation account to play Marathon on PC, promise Bungie as their shooter’s marketing blitz picks up speed. Previous games under Sony’s umbrella, such as Helldivers 2 , caused frustration and backlash when PC players were forced to register for a PlayStation account just to play online. But it looks like Sony’s recent backpedalling on this requirement will save the upcoming extraction shooter from pissing off PC folks....

Mech Engineer’s demo is for people who love hateful interface design Meching the best of it Image credit:MicroProse If you heard loud swearing last night in the Watford area it may have been one of two things: 1) me cussing out my (borrowed) Steam Deck while stealthily accessing the wifi from outside a closed public library, as I don’t currently have broadband at home, or 2) me subsequently trying to make head or tail of Mech Engineer , in which you take charge of a mobile undersea metropolis and send squads of painstakingly assembled robosoldiers to semi-auto-battle squidgy alien fauna....

Microsoft are reportedly blocking employee emails containing the words “Palestine” or “Gaza” Microsoft have “taken measures” to reduce “politically focused emails”, says spokesperson Image credit:Microsoft Microsoft are reportedly blocking employee internal work emails that contain the words “Palestine” or “Gaza”. The report in question comes from No Azure For Apartheid (NOAA), a group of Microsoft workers formed to protest the company’s then-alleged supplying of AI tech to the Israeli military - something Microsoft have since confirmed , while also stating that their own internal reviews found “no evidence to date that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies have been used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza....

Minecraft’s getting cuter baby animals whose single pixel eyes you can stare into as you nudge them into lava Oink, oink, fssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh Image credit:Mojang Minecraft ’s getting marginally cuter with its next update, as it continues to pretend it isn’t designed for the express purpose of teaching innocent children that in order to survive, you’ve sometimes got to beat some pigs and trees to death with your bare hands. Baby farm animal mobs, long just mini-mes of their adult versions with slightly different head/body size ratios are getting their own unique appearances....

Monster Hunter Wilds: How to beat Doshaguma Learn the Doshaguma’s weaknesses, drop list, and more Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Capcom Need tips on how to beat the Doshaguma in Monster Hunter Wilds? The Doshaguma is a giant bear with an attitude problem. This is one of the most aggressive monsters you’ll encounter in Monster Hunter Wilds’ early game, whether through the main missions - which see you up against a pack of Doshaguma and their terrible alpha – or via turf wars on the map....

Monster Hunter Wilds’ unconvincing biomes would shine with some of Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s disempowerment Seikret longing Image credit:Capcom There are no wilds in Monster Hunter Wilds . Instead, beautiful dioramas. The fauna are as ferociously believable as ever, but the flora are plastic aquarium plants. You regard each new environment with wonder precisely once, then adopt the suction-hungry gaze of a Kirby-esque loot inhaler. You turn off your Seikret’s auto-trundle just to feel the wind in your hair, then realise the freedom it offers is roughly analogous to the the freedom you have to stand up and scratch your bum on a bus....

Mystery adventure Engraving has you drawing lovely parchment maps - shame about the horrible forest graveyard Ordnance Survey just can’t find the staff these days Image credit:Raffaele Picca I have recently moved to an area that’s surrounded by forest, or at least, by swathes of greenery that feel like forests when you’re far enough inside them, even if they don’t meet whatever quantifiable definition is currently in vogue. My dreams are ablaze with scenes of sunlight percolating through shifting layers of beech and oak, with visions of dirt paths winding through bramble....

Nightingale: How to get Stone Blocks Here’s how to get Stone Blocks in Nightingale Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Inflexion Games Wondering how to get Stone Blocks in Nightingale? When it’s time to get started building your base in Nightingale , you’re going to need a few basic building materials. Stone Blocks are key components for a good number of the structures on your crafting list, and while obtaining these chunks is a simple affair, you might still feel a bit lost if you’ve only just spawned in your Abeyance Realm at the very start of the game....

Nioh 3 has a demo out on Steam right now, if you’ve got a spare 80GB of space knocking about The good news is that your demo saves can be carried over into the full game Image credit:Koei Tecmo Oop, beefy boy alert. I know that’s a bit of a rude way to introduce Nioh 3 ’s freshly released Steam demo, but to be fair said demo is asking for about 70GB more of my precious drive space than the Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties demo I grabbed last week....

Nioh 3: All bosses, Masters, and Formidable Enemies in order All bosses from every era of the game Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Koei Tecmo Want a full list of all of Nioh 3’s bosses and their locations in order? The world of Nioh 3 is full of devious yokai who want to bring your shogun-in-training down to size. From possessed generals right out of Japanese history to hags with sinuous fire and ice heads, there’s a wide variety of bosses on display - not to mention Formidable Enemies, which are difficult foes that you can run into by completing sidequests, called Myths, or simply by exploring the wide open world....

Northgard, Dune and Wartales devs Shiro Games reveal sci-fi MMO SpaceCraft Coming to early access in 2025 Image credit:Shiro Games 4X strategy and RPG stalwarts Shiro Games have announced SpaceCraft, a “massively multiplayer management and crafting adventure” set in Normandy during the Middle Ages, haha, of course not - it’s set in space. They won’t be winning the T.S. Eliot poetry prize with that title, but I guess it gets the job done....

NYT Connections hint and answers (Saturday, April 27) eed a hint for today’s Connections? Read our guide for help with Connections #321 Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NYT This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out the Connections hint for Wednesday 11th February ! Want a hint for Connections today? Piggybacking off the monumental success of daily puzzle game Wordle , the New York Times has another fantastically popular word game out now....

NYT Connections hint and answers (Thursday, January 11) Need a hint for today’s Connections? Read our guide for help with Connections #214 Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NYT This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out the Connections hint for Wednesday 11th February ! Want a hint for Connections today? Piggybacking off the monumental success of daily puzzle game Wordle , the New York Times has another fantastically popular word game out now....