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One of 2024’s grandest and hardest first-person exploration games just got a lot easier No, I’m not telling you which one until you click the link Image credit:Rubeki Games I’m still bumbling, tumbling and blundering through the cavernous labyrinths of first-person spelunking sim Lorn’s Lure , in which you are an android exploring a series of enormous machines and sunken artificial habitats. I hope one day to level up from “bumbling, tumbling and blundering” to “running and jumping”....

One of Ukraine’s most famous mines has been preserved in Minecraft to help rebuild a school bombed by Russia The real-life Soledar salt mines were captured last February after more than a year of fighting Image credit:United24 You can now explore one of Ukraine’s most iconic natural landmarks - and the largest salt mine in Europe - in Minecraft . The virtual replica of the Soledar salt mines and their surrounding town, occupied by Russia troops for the past year in real life, has been led by the wartorn country’s government in an effort to help rebuild a school destroyed during the conflict....

Out today: Afterlove EP, the visual novel about grief and rock music from the creator of Coffee Talk Straight from the heart of Jakarta Image credit:Pikselnesia Afterlove EP is the new visual novel and/or broken hearts album from Indonesian developers Pikselnesia. It’s the sad, sleepy tale of a musician, Rama, who is trying to put his life back together and reconnect with his old bandmates in Jakarta a year after the death of his girlfriend, Cinta....

Overwatch 2 season 16 is here, bringing in its new mode Stadium and the ability to say no, you can’t play as Mercy Dammit, I’ve been banned from Blizzard World Image credit:Activision Blizzard In a free world, all Overwatch 2 heroes would be playable no matter how annoying they might be to face off against because sometimes them’s the breaks. We don’t live in a free world though, not anymore at least, as Overwatch 2 season 16 starts today ....

Path Of Exile 2 early access review: an expressive, characterful ARPG with plenty to chew on Down in the bonehoard Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Grinding Gear Games Developer: Grinding Gear Games Publisher: Grinding Gear Games Release: Dec 6th On: Windows From: Steam Price: £24/$30/€28 Reviewed on: Intel Core-i5-12600K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10 At any given moment I am in the center of a wonderful vortex of skeletons. Bones splash and rattle and burst out of the ground in sharp, horrible spurs....

Persona 3 Reload review: a high school reunion better left in the history books Persona-ly, not my cup of tea Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Sega Developer: Atlus Publisher: Sega Release: February 2nd 2024 On: Windows 10 From: Steam , Game Pass Price: £60/$70/€70 Reviewed on: Intel Core i7 10875H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2080 Super, Windows 11 On the 23rd of May, I strode out of the exam hall with my head held high....

Phantom Line, the “paranormal SWAT” shooter from former Cyberpunk and Bioshock devs, has a time-limited demo Available until the 18th of June Image credit:Antistatic Studios Phantom Line , the PVE co-op shooter formerly known as Hornet, has an early demo available until the 18th of June, 2024. It’s from Antistatic Studios, who include former Cyberpunk 2077 , Bioshock , and Borderlands devs among their ranks. The FPS lets you and up to three great mates fill the ectoplasm-stained tactical boots worn by members of the ‘paranormal SWAT’, where you’ll explore large maps and try to contain strange goings on....

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds creator wants to build a “metaverse” but says it might take 15 years and can’t explain what it will look like yet I’ve never metaverse I fully understood Image credit:Playerunknown Productions Brendan Greene, the modder-turned-millionaire who designed battle royale game PUBG: Battlegrounds , wants to make his studio’s next game a “metaverse”, although he says he’s wary of using the term. The project is called “Artemis” (at least for now) and you won’t be seeing it any time soon....

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown’s first story DLC, Mask Of Darkness, arrives in September That is all Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Ubisoft It’s a good thing I’m a big fan of Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown , because it’s only that underyling fandom that’s making me write this post about the upcoming story DLC. The tease during this evening’s Ubisoft Forward did nothing for me, other than confirm a name, Mask Of Darkness, and a release window in September....

Restaurant Tycoon 3 codes (February 2026) Redeem these RT3 codes for free Cash and Diamonds Image credit:Ultraw Looking for Restaurant Tycoon 3 codes for Cash or Diamonds? In Restaurant Tycoon 3, you’ll build and manage your very own restaurant. It’ll be a bit small at first, seating only a few customers at a time. Don’t worry - after some hard work, you’ll expand your restaurant, grow its menu, hire employees to do the hard work for you, and even earn upgrades like a drive-thru and advertising to boost the number of customers you get, all while raising your restaurant’s star rating....

RoadCraft is a heavy construction sim from the makers of MudRunner Restore industrial sites across the globe with the power of cranes and pavers Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Focus Entertainment/Saber Interactive Announced at this year’s Geoffcom, RoadCraft is a new game courtesy of the vehicular bods behind MudRunner and SnowRunner . This means it’s very much a simulation game where you’re fighting terrain with tyres, except this time you aren’t just driving about, but managing a fleet of machines to carry out heavy construction work....

Russia bans Roblox, with state censor accusing it of spreading “LGBT propaganda” and “justifying terrorism” Roblox hosts content which can “negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children”, according to Roskomnadzor Image credit:Roblox Corporation Access to Roblox has been blocked in Russia, with federal censorship and media oversight agency Roskomnadzor accusing the platform of distributing content “justifying terrorism” and spreading “LGBT propaganda”. According to Russian media reports, the state body said Roblox has become rife with content that can “negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children”....

Rust adds a jungle biome - the biggest change to its map in 9 years Vine work Image credit:Facepunch Studios Survival hellscape Rust has added a tropical jungle biome to its procedurally generated maps, the biggest change to the landscape of the game in nine years. It’ll appear close to where new players spawn and hides a number of threats and fun. Poisonous snakes will skitter through the undergrowth and riverside crocs will chew your face given the chance....

Shapez 2 early access review: splendid abstract factory-building with room for a few more surprises Shaping up very nicely Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Gamera Games Developer: tobspr Games Publisher: tobspr Games, Gamera Games Release: August 15th 2024 On: Windows, MacOS, Linux From: Steam Price: TBC Reviewed on: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, Nvidia RTX 4080, 32GB RAM, Windows 10, 3840x2160 Over 2000 hours spent in various factory games makes me a bit of a purist, I suppose....

Sony are officially working on PC game support for the PS VR2 headset Currently in testing, could be ready this year Image credit:Sony The PS VR2, Sony’s currently PS5-exclusive VR gaming headset, looks like it’ll be latching onto the faces of PC owners as well. Tucked away in a PlayStation blog post about upcoming PS VR2 games, Sony Interactive content communications manager Gillen McAllister confirmed that Sony are “currently testing the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC” and that the plan is have this extra support ready within 2024....

Speaking of Black Friday handheld PC deals, here’s the Lenovo Legion Go at its lowest price ever Save £221 / $200 on the most unique portable PC around Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun Okay okay, just one more handheld deal then I’ll look at some desktop stuff. But here’s a properly chunky Black Friday discount on the most endearingly out-there Steam Deck rival to date, the Lenovo Legion Go : the 512GB model has shed hundreds of pounds/dollaridoos to fall all the way to £479 / $500....

SSR Wives is a sparky throwback survival horror with romantic intentions and iMacs for save points “Liminal labyrinths” await, tank controls encouraged Image credit:Hen Studios / Rock Paper Shotgun SSR Wives: The Murder Of My Winter Crush is Silent Hill 3 for people who like the chibi proportions of Final Fantasy 9 and also, people who hoot in adoration when they see a low-poly model of an iMac. I am both of these people....

Stalker 2’s broken A-life system is finally working as designed, according to GSC Game World New update also brings new guns, QOL fixes and official mod support Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/GSC Game World S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has a sizeable game update that promises to finally get the game’s A-Life system working as intended. For those just joining us - perhaps because you only popped into existence the second you entered my field of view - A-Life is developer GSC Game World’s noughties-era buzzword for the pervasive simulation of NPCs throughout the open world , leading to unpredictable interactions and conflicts and the general sense that things are happening without your input....

Streets Of Rogue 2’s latest dev diary is a crash course in proc-gen map building The new word on the street is CHUNKS Image credit:tinyBuild The first Streets Of Rogue was an RPS favourite when it launched back in 2019 (we literally couldn’t stop playing it ), and we’ve known for a while now that its sequel, Streets Of Rogue 2 , is due to arrive later this year. Ahead of the game’s launch, developer Matt Dabrowski has started releasing a series of dev diary videos detailing his design process and how it’s all coming together....

Sword Of The Sea is an enveloping, but not cutting meditation on “flow”, Journey and vintage Tony Hawk “The land is dead. What do you do with a sword?” Image credit:Giant Squid Back when Matt Nava was art director for glistering mountain pilgrimage Journey , he and his colleagues at thatgamescompany took a research expedition to California’s Pismo beach, a swathe of desert that rolls right up to the Pacific Ocean....