Rock Paper Shotgun – PC Game Reviews, Previews, Subjectivity

I've played my fair share of MMOs over the years. Despite the excitement that used to come with an online world stuffed full of unknown people, I've started to feel some put too much "massive" in the MO. The next game by the folks known for the Shelter series—the ones about animal moms protecting their babies from hawks and rivers and such—is what they're calling a TMO, a tiny multiplayer online RPG. Every new image or video I see of Book Of Travels convinces me that I really want TMOs to be the next big (but small) thing.

We've heard hardly a peep from the Marvel's Avengers corner since Crystal Dynamics announced a delay earlier this year. They're not ready to unveil more just yet, but the Avengers are allegedly reassembling. The developers will be hosting a livestream on June 24th to tell us more.

Over a decade after the last samurai game of the series, Samurai Shodown is getting a reboot. SNK have reimagined yon olde fighting game from 1993 for the current generation of button mashers. Shodown just got slapped with a launch date right around the corner on June 11th. A collection of past Shodown games will join it on the same day.

June's not quite here but we're already being treated to a few digital showcases in the style of E3 presentations. Wholesome Direct rounded up a whole 55 indie games with varying styles of kindness and cuteness to show off in a 35-minute show. A few big names like town sim Ooblets and boat manager Spiritfarer showed up to join arms with some smaller but equally swell looking games you may not have heard of. You can rewatch the entire show below.

If you've been debating whether to sign up to Humble's gaming subscription service Humble Choice recently, then now is absolutely the time to do it, as Humble have slashed the cost of a year's subscription by 40% off for new subscribers. Hurry, though, as this limited time offer will end tomorrow on May 28th at 11.59pm PT.

Ah look! Summer's on, which means that both I and my wallet are about to start sweating. Me because of the oppressive humidity and my wallet because of my oppressive desire to own Dragon Age: Origins on five different storefronts for reasons I cannot explain. GOG have spun up their summer sale machine and would ya lookit that, Dragon Age: Origins—and many other RPGs and not-RPGs—are indeed on sale. Have at it 'till June 15th.

Oh sure you've played Dark Souls with your Donkey Konga bongos and Untitled Goose Game with a goose costume, but this new weird controller mod could give you a serious workout. Someone has modded Grand Theft Auto V so you can ride its bicycles by pedalling your actual real bicycle, using one of those smart bike trainer kits with sensors. It's a bit like virtual races in Zwift except you'll race round fake Los Angeles instead of generic Yorkshire, plus you might get hit by a car.

You, there, stop that. You've got new videogames to play. Good Old Games has just launched free demos for Desperados 3 and the System Shock remake, along with a handful of other upcoming games. I've already had a sneaky play of both tactical cowboys and cybernetic spaceship loners, so I can already tell you they're worth your time. Aren't I good.

This is also another chance to check out Carrion, a horror game where you are a horrible mass of sticky tentacles.

Cities: Skylines continues to be one of the best management games around, but expanding your plans of urban domination can be a costly venture when there are so many DLC packs to dive into. Handy, then, that Humble have constructed their latest bundle all around Paradox's excellent city-builder, letting you grab the base game for just £1 / $1 and up to 11 DLC packs for a grand total of £14.50 / $18. Here's what's on offer.

Alienware's 240Hz gaming monitors are firm favourites here at RPS, so it's definitely a cause for celebration when we can slice £100 off one of them. This time around, it's the AW2521HF on offer, which is the flashy Freesync successor to the excellent AW2518HF, and you can currently pick it up for £330 over on Dell’s deals site.

Yesterday, I reported that Audi driver Daniel Abt had been suspended from his Formula E team, after getting someone else to race for him in a charity esports event. Well, now he's been straight up fired by Audi because of the incident. Last night, he posted a 14-minute video explaining the situation. Abt said that the reason he got pro sim racer, Lorenz Hoerzing, to drive for him was because they wanted to "create a funny story for the fans."

The Fallout 76 clown car continued its strange journey this week, as the recently semi-redeemed MMO stumbled over another technical hitch.

The popular in-game event Fasnacht Day was expected to start on Monday, but was quickly stalled by a bug. Players reacted with great frustration as the event was taken down, depriving everyone of an hourly semi-charming, semi-creepy masked robot march. Bethesda report that all is now well, and the event restarts today.

The game event cancellations are pushing even deeper into the year now, as Blizzard have announced BlizzCon 2020 is a no-go. The event usually takes right at the beginning of November, but due to ongoing concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic they've made the decision to cancel it.

"We've talked about different paths we could take, and how each one could be complicated by fluctuations in national and local health guidelines in the months ahead," they said. "Ultimately, after considering our options, we've come to the very difficult decision to not have BlizzCon this year."

While the Silent Hill series still seems basically dead, and maybe that's for the best, parts will return in Dead By Daylight. The 1v4 multiplayer horrorshow's next DLC pack will introduce Silent Hill, with Cheryl Mason as a playable survivor, Pyramid Head as a killer, and the school as a new map. DBD has long had guest characters out horror films, from Halloween to Scream, so this is fairly natural. Hell, it's better than Konami tend to treat Silent Hill.

Ubisoft today announced revamped rereleases of four vintage games from the colony-building strat-o-sim series Anno, due in June. The Anno History Collection will bring new versions of Anno 1602, Anno 1503, Anno 1701, and Anno 1404 will newfangled fanciness including 4K resolutions and multiplayer matchmaking, all while preserving save compatibility.

"Skyrim Grandma" Shirley Curry has drastically cut back on her videos for the sake of her health and enjoyment of the game.

The 84 year old started sharing her Skyrim games in 2015, and her warm, joyful videos made her famous enough to get her own mod, and even a role in the next Elder Scrolls game. She's racked up over 800,000 subscribers on YouTube, but only a tiny percentage are active viewers, and the work and pressure involved are affecting her health.

I have not seen the Captain Tsubasa anime nor read the manga, but I am very into what I've seen of Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions. A football game where players have extremely anime special moves sounds wild. Allow me to describe my favourite from this new trailer: after a player slides forwards on his bum, two lads launch off his outstretched feet and, holding hands, surge into the air to simultaneously kick a ball so hard it lights up with blue flame. Yes, please, thank you.

Seeing as real-life racing has been suspended due the Covid-19 pandemic, Formula E started its very own series of virtual races in rFactor 2 to keep up the racing season online. The Race At Home Challenge features actual Formula E drivers as well as esports players, competing together to keep fans entertained and raise money for Unicef. But alas, one driver went ahead and tried to cheat the system, getting an imposter to drive in his place at this weekend's event.

In homage to one of the all-time action-RPG greats, Minecraft Dungeons has a secret level where you can fight herds of murderous cattle. Mojang's own action-RPG launched this morning, and folks have already discovered a nod to Diablo's infamous cow level, where wizards will be sent to mow down hordes of mooing mobs sprouting mushrooms. Killing cows: a cornerstone of the genre.

If you didn’t figuratively fill your boots with Memorial Day sale items over the weekend, you’ll be pleased to hear that Best Buy still has a few solid offers for the PC gamer with money to burn, including a whole host of pre-built gaming PCs and gaming laptops up for grabs, plus loads of discounts on mice, keyboards and Samsung's 240Hz CRG5 monitor.

The Dota 2 International 10 Battle Pass has landed, and the ground hath buckled beneath its weight. There is a silly number of new cosmetics and features for those who buy it, and a few new features for those who don't. Everyone now gets to play mini-games during those inevitable mid-game pauses when one player vanishes, and everyone can join newfangled player guilds where you jointly earn cosmetic rewards. Only Pass owners can create guilds, but I bet you know at least one sucker.

Folks rooting around in the recent release of Mafia III's Definitive Edition have found part of Berlin, a level scrap likely from a cancelled espionage game. Supposedly a project Hangar 13 started after Mafia 3, the game known as Rhapsody was never announced but whispers have leaked out before. Now here's a rough outline of Berlin, which might be the most we'll ever see of Rhapsody. That's a nice little find, though it's less nice that some players are reporting the Def Ed has brought new technical problems too.

Quantic Dream's trio of old PlayStation exclusives are being plonked in front of a new set of PC players next month, as Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human and Beyond: Two Souls are arriving on Steam on June 18th. They first launched on PC last year via the Epic Games Store, and it's not long now before they're freed of their exclusivity shackles. So, which will you try first? The murder mystery about finding your stolen kid? The android simulator that makes you decide if robots should be free? Or will you become a young girl trying to figure out what's up with her weird friend? You decide!