The Sims 4’s next expansion Enchanted by Nature looks perfect for cottagecore lovers on TikTok circa 2020 Naturally! Image credit:Maxis/ EA Despite having received a plethora of updates, bits of DLC, and expansion packs over the course of the past 11 years, there are still things that featured in The Sims 3 that The Sims 4 is yet to receive. Seriously, The Sims 4 has been supported for twice the length of time The Sims 3 was, and yet it’s only this year that it’s getting a pack that features fairies....

The studio behind Journey have brought their “peaceful” MMO Sky: Children Of The Light to PC Free-to-play now on Steam Early Access Image credit:thatgamecompany It’s been lovely to see Thatgamecompany bring the likes of Journey and Flower to PC, following their debuts on other platforms long before, and oh look here comes their latest too. Sky: Children Of The Light is now available free-to-play in early access on Steam, inviting everyone to explore a pretty world full of pretty sights and sounds in this “peaceful” MMO....

The Sunday Papers Image credit:RPS The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web. I don’t know what Sundays are for, or indeed any other moment of spare time. Listlessly re-watching YouTube videos and refreshing BlueSky then feeling bad that I’m wasting my time rather than playing the games I want to play or reading the books I want to read? Probably. At least this way I stumble across some articles worth reading....

The Sunday Papers Image credit:RPS The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web. Sunday! What more do you need to know? “AI is here to stay” is a common refrain. Mike Cook tackles the meaning and limits of that phrase , with apt comparisons to asbestos. While you don’t need special protective gear to remove ChatGPT-written blog posts, the major advantage asbestos has is that we know what it looks like and can identify it with confidence once it has been detected....

The Sunday Papers Image credit:RPS The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web. Sundays are for crossing all your fingers and toes that you’ve not picked up a cold while travelling across the country in a packed train. I will be collecting precautionary supplies of Lemsip, Olbas Oil, and sage (you can never be too careful around this time of year, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future are working overtime)....

The Sunday Papers Image credit:RPS I will spend this Sunday nursing a chest infection, probably by wrapping blankets around myself and watching YouTube videos until sleep comes. Let’s first round up some good links with writing and videos about videogames. This is surely the best link this week: an hour-long video on how to beat “every possible game of Pokemon Platinum at the same time” . That is, coming up with a set of game inputs that can win billions of possible permutations of the game, as determined by its RNG, when played simultaneously....

The Sunday Papers Image credit:RPS Sundays are for more Gene Wolfe. I’ve finished Shadow Of The Torturer now, and I think Claw Of The Conciliator might be even better so far? Before I become ever more enamoured with Severian’s self-mythologising antics, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things!) This is an older piece, but pertinent since the ridiculous “strong men/hard times” meme has been doing the rounds again recently....

There shall be no Sifu 2, says Rematch dev, because “chasing safe bets is a death sentence” OK, but please do a martial art now and then, Sloclap Image credit:Sloclap Sloclap’s foot-to-ball game Rematch is very good , and has been doing very well, with over three million sales to date, but some of us yet grieve for a time when kicks were reserved for torsos and limbs. Which is to say, some of us have been hoping that Sloclap might return to the martial arts realm in which it has hitherto made waves....

There’s a desktop-grade Nvidia RTX 5050 after all, and it’s out next month I’d give it a fifty-fifty chance Image credit:Nvidia Yesterday’s launch of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 laptop GPU was quiet, yet nonetheless featured a surprise: there’s also a desktop version of the RTX 5050 , set to release (exclusively in third-party garb – there’s no Founders Edition) in “the second half” of July. Quite the turnaround for the non-laptop XX50 lineage, which was widely assumed extinguished following 2022’s RTX 3050 ....

This Cyberpunk 2077 quest mod finally subverts a talking vending machine’s tragic demise with a happy ending Because V’s flat clearly needed a joke-dispensing mechanical therapist Image credit:CD Projekt / Deceptious Remember Brendan from Cyberpunk 2077 ? If the answer’s no, I don’t blame you. He’s a talking vending machine you can run into and end up going off on a short series of side quests about, but I totally missed him in my fist couple of playthroughs....

This ROG Ally X/Steam Deck charging dock is $35 off today at Best Buy It’s an all-in-one dock that handles power, peripherals, and 4K display. Image credit:ASUS Image credit: ASUS ASUS ROG 65W Charger Dock – HDMI 2.0, USB-A & USB-C for ROG Ally – Black $29.99 (Save $35) See at Best Buy I think ASUS knew exactly what they were doing with this one. It’s a charger, yes, but it’s also a clever little dock that pretends to be way more expensive than it is....

Ultrafast shooter Tribes 3: Rivals gets a Steam Next Fest demo, is out in early access “soon” There’s a zippy new trailer too Image credit:Prophecy Games The latest haul of Steam Next Fest demos is so vast that I initially missed Tribes 3: Rivals , a game I’ve been cautiously coveting, among them. While this high-speed FPS has been playable in a number of semi-open alpha tests already, trying it out is now as easy as sliding into its Steam page and hitting the big green demo download button....

Unbeatable review Chord bless Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Playstack A raucous, scrappy rhythm game with a surprisingly heartfelt story to tell. Developer: D-Cell Games Publisher: Playstack Release: December 9th 2025 On: Windows From: Steam Price: $28/£25/€25 Reviewed on: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, Windows 10 A game where music is illegal and you do crimes. It’s the perfect tone-setting tagline for Unbeatable, a rhythm game about a bunch of young adults (and one child) rebelling against an oppressive regime by playing raucous garage rock....

Valheim’s volcanic Ashlands update gets first proper trailer and breakdown New hazards, new weapons and siege equipment, plus thoughts on washing machines Image credit:Iron Gate AB Valheim , the popular norse-inspired survival game , is set to get even deadlier and at least several percent more volcanic with its upcoming Ashlands biome. The new biome is due to enter public testing as we speak. Highlights from the update include a new set of ‘flametal weapons’ to wield, imbued with powers like lightning and nature magic....

Velvet 89 is a free hidden object game that tells the story of the 1989 Czechoslovakian revolution Crowd-sourced Image credit:Charles Games Velvet 89 is a free hidden object game that tells the story of communist Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution” in 1989, which brought an end to 41 years of one-party rule and led to the founding of a parliamentary republic. The game released earlier this month, and you can find it on Steam , iOS and Android....

Walkable Neocities: A website about potatoes, and a thing that is happening now Now! Image credit:Agricultural Research Service As of March 2025, free web revival host Neocities has over 1,000,000 websites. That is one million tiny or sometimes large acts of creation. A million people taking things that are inside of them and thinking, hey, this would be cool if was outside of me too, and also on average quite pink or quite black or a bit sparkly or with excellent menus....

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is getting a sequel and Total War: Warhammer 3 is getting a big red dog Clifford? is that you? What have they done to you boy? Image credit:Creative Assembly/Sega Skulls! You’ve got one. I’ve got one. Everybody has a lovely skull keeping their lovely face right where it should be. Warhammer is big, so it needs must have multiple of them, hence their yearly event Skulls, which collates a bunch of Games Workshop related announcements into a sort of bizzaro world Nintendo Direct if Yoshi was actually a parasitic corpse emperor....

Watch out Prince Of Persia, there’s another platforming-packed Metroidvania coming to steal your crown Tales Of Kenzera: ZAU impresses with its 30-minute Next Fest demo Image credit:EA Confession time, folks. Of all the games shown off during The Game Awards last December, Tales Of Kenzera: Zau was the one I glossed over the most. Listen, it was very early in the morning at the time, and it must have come at a peak eyes-glazing-over moment for me....

What are we all playing this weekend? Well? Do tell! Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/London, Paris: Fisher, Son, & Co., n.d. [1843?] Brendy Both the second season of Arcane and the follow-up to Wolf Hall are starting this weekend on TV, so I will probably forgo games entirely to enjoy those. But having finished Mouthwashing (read Ed’s review! ) I’m in the mood for more good surreal horror. So maybe I’ll squeeze in some… Paratopic ?...

What the Golf? devs’ utterly bizarre racing game What the Car? escapes mobile onto Steam this year Drive, sprint, swim, fish, chop, cook, fly, sing… Image credit:Triband What the Car? is a zany racing game in which you are a car with legs that must race around various courses to get the best time possible. Except sometimes you’re not just a car with legs, you’re also a car with a jetpack....