Rock Paper Shotgun – PC Game Reviews, Previews, Subjectivity

Not everyone can hang with the console cowboys in cyberspace; some of us can merely gaze in wonder and astonishment at what keyboard wizards accomplish in Zachtronics games. But if you're not a kewl enough d00d to hack and program in Exapunks, the latest Zachlike, you can now at least play people's created in-game games for free. Zachtronics last night released the TEC Redshift Player, a free standalone simulation of Exapunk's fictional in-game handheld console. And the way to play Redshift games is cute: you download pictures of cartridges (which magically contain the data) then drag 'em in into the deck.

"So it turns out Jagged Alliance: Rage is not-terrible," our Alec declared in his cheery way after playing the latest revival of the venerated real-time tactical combat series. It was surprising, seeing as many other attempts have ended up bleh, but even more surprising is that it was due to launch barely six weeks after being announced. Well, that part at least was too good to be true. Having previously planned to launch it tomorrow, September 27th, publishers THQ Nordic today announced Jagged Alliance: Rage is now due December 6th. I've asked, and they say the delay is for "Balancing and fine-tuning." To tide folks over, they have blorped a new trailer.

Befriend a skateboarding reaper, scale a mysterious industrial murderhell tower rising from futureTokyo, murder murdered-out zombies, eat frogs, and loot loot loot in Let It Die, the free-to-play roguelikelike action-RPG from Grasshopper Manufacture. Following its 2016 debut on PlayStation 4, Let It Die launched on PC this morning. As you'd expect from the makers of makers of No More Heroes and Killer7, it's a bit of a silly one. I've played an hour and a half of it today and will at least return to get a better sense of what this procedurally-generated permadeath murderhell even is. First, meet Uncle Death.

Surprise, surprise, the Xbox 360 controller continues to be the most popular button masher on Steam, according to new figures released by Valve yesterday, but the Nintendo Switch Pro controller is also proving to be a "pretty popular" choice as well, the numbers show. It's still got some way to go before it matches the 27.2 million Xbox 360 controllers that are currently registered on Steam, which make up 45% of the total controller ownership, but ever since Valve introduced an update in May earlier this year that enabled the full feature set of Nintendo's new pad, it's quickly risen to become the 7th most popular controller on Steam.

Mud! Mud! Glorious mud! Nothing quite like it for cooling the petrol. Always happy to wallow in the hollow, Dirt developers Codemasters today confirmed a return to the sim-ish side of their mucky racing series, announcing Dirt Rally 2 for launch in February 2019. Or 'DiRT Rally 2.0', if you're the daft gits in charge of naming these things. Here, come watch the announcement trailer for some grubby cars.

If you're sick of old people telling you you'll never amount to anything, then the launch trailer for Assassin's Creed Odyssey should be right up your street. The game's out next Friday, so you can spend the intervening time deciding whether you're going to stab a Greek prophet who's clearly rubbish at his job.

The new Ass Creed is big on choices, with branching quest paths and the option to play as a man or a woman right from the start. I had a little go on Odyssey at EGX, and I'm definitely going to play as Kassandra because Alexios was an arse.

Mega-budget as it may be, Final Fantasy 15 has always been content to walk its own road, so it's not that weird that its latest cross-promo update is with a game that doesn't exist yet. In a big patch released today, Prince Noctis can stumble into a new adventure with Sarah, protagonist of upcoming mobile RPG Terra Wars. It's being developed by Mistwalker, a team of ex-Square Enix folks. Those playing FF15's online multiplayer can now also dress up in Lara Croft's iconic tomb-delving gear, and listen to some Tomb Raider tracks on the radio in-game. Nifty.

Good things take time, and the lush sprite art in Lunar Ray's just-released Metroidvania Timespinner clearly took a while to make. Even when it was Kickstarted four years ago, Timespinner looked striking, and the extra time in development has only done it good.

Looking a lot like genre grandpappy Castlevania: Symphony of The Night (just check those powerful walk animations), it tells the story of a young woman travelling back in time to avenge her family by destroying an empire. While mechanically familiar, this one absolutely captures the look of the SNES era's best, with a PSX-era soundtrack. Below, the launch trailer.

Today brings one more twist to the story of Telltale's tragic end. As reported by Polygon, the company has been hit by a class-action lawsuit filed by a former employee over a possible breach of local law.

The prolific adventure studio laid off almost its entire staff last week (minus a skeleton crew who will stay on for a little while longer) with no warning or severance. The suit alleges that this was in violation of California employment law (the WARN act, specifically), and the studio may yet owe the fired staff a full 60 days pay and benefits.

Other dino-park management games may boast 'authenticity' to a cinematic ideal, but sometimes you just want to put silly hats on primary coloured dinosaurs. WashBear's Parkasaurus made its early access debut today and looks to indulge that fantasy, as well as being a proper management sim.

Just because it's bright and cute doesn't mean that there's no chance of dinosaur rampages and fangoriously devoured guests either, but at least it'll be a funny story for the survivors. Below, a bright and very bouncy launch trailer.

I've always thought the best RPGs are the ones where you have a home to come back to, to celebrate victory and plan your next - Pathfinder: Kingmaker, you get your own town. Released today, Kingmaker looks like familiar Baldur's Gate-esque RPG adventuring, but with personal purpose. You're securing your lands, and in-between quests you get to develop your burgeoning kingdom.

Based on the almost-D&D tabletop RPG Pathfinder (and its Kingmaker campaign series), the game was Kickstarted by devs Owlcat Games last June. Below, the launch trailer.

Hey, what are y-- get out of my house. No, I meant the mine, where the miners work. Not my house. Get off my armchair, stop eating my -- oh, okay, one fight, but then you’ve really got to go. This free update in Absolver won’t news itself. The skinny fighting game has just added new kicks and Bruce Lee punches and armour and powers, you see, but most importantly players can now dive into an abandoned mining complex where a random assortment of rooms and enemies will let them harvest a shiny new type of moneystuff to spend on fashionable new waistcoats. I’m going down there right after I knock you out. Here, this is your controller. Yes, the broken one. Hiiiiiiiiii-YAH!

A ragtag group of animes, their doctor dog, and their pet tank are out to save semi-magical notEurope from the notNazis during notWW2 through the powers of friendship and turn-based tactical squad combat in Valkyria Chronicles 4, released today. While the first game in Sega's series took six years to come from consoles to PC, this one is nicely launching on the same day for us all, so huzzah. And it's pretty deece, Steven T Wright said in our Valkyria Chronicles 4 review, albeit with a flaws unfortunately familiar from earlier in the series. But did I mention your doctor dog - your dogtor? Your animes have a dogtor. Meet him in the launch trailer below.

You have three weeks to cancel plans and make new ones with all your pals, as Jackbox Games have announced their next bumper bundle of local multiplayer foolishness is almost here. The Jackbox Party Pack 5 is coming on October 17th, which is a Wednesday so maybe shoot for the 19th or 20th to fill a room with your chums (or a chatroom, if you don't mind wangling it online) to rap battle with robots, draw silly things, play an alien game show, answer weird trivia in You Don't Know Jack, and more. It's hard to guess which Jackbox games will be hits ahead of time, but each Party Pack is always fun to work through to discover the hot new weirdness.

A couple of my friends went to Art Sqool but would never talk about it, so it's great to finally get a peek at what that was actually like for them. It turns out Art Sqool campuses are very big on the colours yellow and pink, and unsettling oversized objects that protrude from a reality adjacent to our own. No wonder they stayed mum.

Art Sqool is an upcoming simulation that aims to authentically recreate collegiate artistic learning, complete with the neural network that grades every student's MS Paint-like creations. I've had the song from the trailer below mewling away in a corner of my brain for the past five days, so I'm hoping that writing about it can provide some catharsis.

Telltale Games have confirmed that they will indeed release episode two of The Walking Dead: The Final Season today as planned, despite last week's sudden and massive layoffs, and there is a chance they'll be able to finish the full four-episode season "in some form." Several potential partners have shown interest in supporting the series, Telltale say, though this is far from settled and it could all still collapse for business reasons. Not to mention that some former staff have said Telltale's Walking Dead team were amongst those laid off, so they'd need to, er, rehire folks. But it's a glimmer of hope for the game, at least.

Loot boxes are retreating across the Belgian front as Guild Wars 2 apparently becomes the latest game to axe sales of premium currency in the country, as reported by Gamasutra. While subscription-free (and free-to-play in general, if you don't mind missing out on expansions), Arenanet's successful MMORPG has always had loot boxes. The in-game premium shop offers keys to unlock randomly dropped boxes, as well as various random goodie bags. Those are now legally considered gambling, according to the Belgian Gaming Commission.

Leather-clad raiders with neon green mohawks roam irradiated monuments to capitalism, their acid-spitting lizard-dogs in tow. Ashes 2063, by modder Vostyok is about as 80s an apocalypse can get, even after filtering it through a 2018 iteration of a 90s game engine. It's a free post-apocalyptic FPS (or total conversion mod, if you're old-school) built on the ever-popular GZDoom engine. Its first episode launched yesterday.

While 98% new, Ashes 2063 still requires some manner of Doom data file to fill the gaps. Fortunately, the (free) Freedoom will suffice, if you don't own Doom 2. Below, a launch trailer.

Military FPS-heads who look back fondly at Battlefield 4's modern messy urban combat might want to take a peek at World War 3 next month. Developed by Necrovision studio The Farm 51 and announced back in June, it looks and sounds very much in the vein of Battlefield games past, and enters early access next month on October 19th, sneakily preempting the delayed Battlefield 5.

Below, a trailer from Gamescom last month, showing off its grey and smokey battlefields, cover destruction and other militaristic gubbins.

Warhammer 40K Space Marines in Terminator armour stomping through levels shooting aliens in their many faces is fairly familiar and easy to understand, even when playing out as turn-based combat in Space Hulk: Tactics, but their Genestealer foes are a bit trickier. Unlike some recent Spulk games, Tactics will let us play as those sneaky Tyranids too, which will be novel for many who didn't play the original Games Workshop tabletop wargame. So, what do bugmen want, how does one go about pretending to control a larger force of bugs than one actually does, and just how delicious is a Space Marine's face? Some of these questions are answered in a new trailer below.

There's more to pro Rocket League today than punting giant balls into goals, as Season 9 opens up four previously 'casual' playmodes for ranked competitive play. More serious players will have to add cyber-volleyball (Dropshot), rocket basketball (Hoops), motorised ice hockey (Snow Day) and power-up filled anarchy (Rumble) to their car-to-ball resume.

On top of this, season 9 brings the usual slew of cosmetic goodies, more music, a bunch of Hot Wheels toy-themed DLC and a new stadium. Below, a DLC trailer plus a peek at the now-competitive extra modes. You can see the full patch notes for Season 9 here.