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My hunt for a JRPG that doesn't bore me into uninstalling it within two hours continues. This time, I'm casting my eyes across Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, an action-RPG in which you explore a prison city and hack up monsters with a sword. Something tells me that it won't be the JRPG to hook me, but I'll give it a try when it releases on PC on July 6th.

Samurai Gunn 2 has resurfaced with a new trailer and a planned summer release date, three years after first being announced. The quicker-than-quick arena fighter sequel introduces online multiplayer and a story mode, but otherwise its blades-and-bullets ballet looks as stylish and slicky brutal as the original.

Bamerang has the best trailer of any game this year so far. It's a local multiplayer game about tiny people battling on top of a mountain with boomerangs in order to please a giant green goddess who will shake them if they fall. It's out today.

If you were a building, what kind of building would you be? I'd like to say I'd be a grand old hotel down by the sea, but over a year of lockdown eating makes it more likely I'd be a dilapidated old factory and condemned as a fire hazard.

Buildings Have Feelings Too! suggests there might be hope for me, anyway. It's a game in which the buildings of feelings - and wants, fears, arms and legs. And it's out now.

Valve have been experimenting with new ways to explore Steam games over the past year, with some interesting results. But among all the GIFs, automatic videos, and algorithmic recommendations, they finally a few months ago started testing a more obvious improvement: better categories.

They've now launched onto the live version of Steam, letting you browse games by sub-genre, theme, and how many players they support.

Apex Legends' new season is just a couple of weeks away, and today Respawn released a launch trailer announcing a brand new game mode. Named Arenas, it looks like players will soon have the option to duck out of the usual battle royale mode, and jump into a little 3v3 shoot 'em up. Catch the trailer for yourself below; it features lots of cinematic fights, at least ten Mirages having a party, and a first look at new Legend Valkyrie spreading her wings in the Apex Games.

Thursday is free game day on the Epic Games Store, and this week brings a pair of crackers free to keep. You have one week to grab deck-building beat 'em up Hand Of Fate 2 and, if you missed its previous giveaway, Alien: Isolation again. Good games there.

Fanatical are holding a massive 'Insanity Sale' right now, with savings of up to a whopping 98% up for grabs. New flash deals are being added all the time, and one of the latest highlights is The Banner Saga 3 for 75% off, taking the culminating chapter in Stoic's epic turn-based strategy trilogy down to a ridiculous £4.68 in the UK. Big Varl boy Bolverk approves.

This week, after a post by Graham inspired a big discussion in the RPS Discord, the Electronic Wireless Show Podcast is having a best combat in games special. In a surprising move we manage to not have a huge discussion about what constitutes 'combat', but we do discuss what Batman would do if he went to the London Aquarium with Matthew.

Aside from that, there are surprisingly few digressions this week. Us, staying on topic? Armageddon must be upon us. But there is a moment where Matthew reveals that he basically thinks he should never be punished for anything, and Nate provides a bumper Mortal Kombat-themed Cavern Of Lies.

Epic Games are continuing to do strange things that I do not understand. I'm not talking about that whole #FreeFortnite debacle with Apple (though I suppose this could be somewhat related). No, this time it's about the odd choices of PC apps they're bringing to their store. Today, they added the Itch.io app, which is another, better, game store that's technically a competitor? They've added a handful of other apps too, and made a new section in the storefront where you can find them all - an app store, if you will.

Frontier Developments today announced the release date for their next Elite Dangerous expansion, Odyssey. This is the one which lets moonmen roam freely on their own two spacelegs, exploring planets and getting into first-person shooty violence. Star Citizen Lite, kinda.

Oh, to be a sentient turnip. A little stubby-legged jackanape with a serene, blank smile, several very fashionable hats, and a fondness for destroying paperwork. An unlikely hero, is Turnip Boy: he is a turnip, he is a boy, and he has evaded some taxes (specifically, taxes owed to Mayor Onion, an onion who is also the mayor). In this specific case, it's pretty clear that the tax thing is a flimsy excuse for Mayor Onion to get Turnip Boy to carry out dangerous and annoying errands. But off you pop on a colourful 2D action adventure anyway.

Lenovo are holding a flash sale on a wide range of PC hardware right now, with savings of up to 50% up for grabs. The best deal I've spotted so far, though, is £300 off their superb Legion 7i gaming laptop, bringing this once £2000 RTX 2070 Super-powered laptop down to £1700.

During an ordeal of a live event to usher in Season 3 of Call Of Duty: Warzone, it's original map Verdansk was nuked. And while the reworked map doesn't go live until tonight, some players managed to sneak in and see how it's changed. My first impressions? Looks pretty nice, honestly.

It's a little-known fact that Ubisoft generate product ideas by writing game names, mediums, target audiences, and such on scraps of paper, popping them into a big hat, then drawing a handful to discover their next big hit. This foolproof system recently produced the combination of [Assassin's Creed] [Book] [For Children, But Really For Parents] [Mister Men crossover], leading Ubisoft yesterday to announce a series of Mister Men and Little Miss books starring the murderers of Assassin's Creed.

Microsoft have confirmed that their upcoming DirectX tech to help eliminate game loading times, DirectStorage, will be supported by both PCIe 3.0 SSDs and the newer PCIe 4.0 drives. This is excellent news for SSD owners, as it means you won't have to shell out for an expensive PCIe 4.0 SSD like Samsung's 980 Pro or WD's Black SN850 to take advantage of this new storage tech.

Death Stranding's been a big hit on PC, judging by publisher 505 Games' recent financial report, and now Japanese peripherals maker Tsukumo are showing it some love with an official Bridges-themed PC case. The custom case has been designed in conjunction with developer Kojima Productions, and it recently launched in Japan for ¥26,800 (that's around £186 if you want to import it). It's a lovely-looking case, capturing the monolithic design of the game's Bridges buildings down to a tee. But let's be honest. If there's going to be an official Death Stranding PC case, why is it not shaped like an orange BB jar?

During last week's Resident Evil Showcase we found out about the upcoming Resident Evil 4 VR that's coming to the Oculus Quest 2. Oculus have now had their own showcase event, and they've revealed more about its VR features and remastered visuals. It's launching later this year, they've now confirmed.

As Call Of Duty: Warzone has been teasing, its battle royale map Verdansk has indeed gotten nuked. Part one of The Destruction Of Verdansk has already kicked off, with later parts queuing up shortly after until season three lands on Thursday, April 22nd. If you can get through the login queue, it looks like you'll be doing your best to avoid becoming zombified and then getting a nuke dropped on you and all the zombies afterwards.

Once again, lips are flapping with rumours of a Knights Of The Old Republic remake. No one has officially announced they're redoing the BioWare RPG set years before Star Trek, but rumours have gone round for a few years, often with Aspyr Media attached as the developers. Well, those same rumours have come back round again. KOTOR is one of the few BioWare games I haven't played (DS9 was more my bag), so I have to ask: would you still recommend it to me today? Or tell me if you're clamouring for a KOTOR 3 instead?

Tales Of Arise, latest in the long-running Tales Of series, has indeed arisen. After being delayed last year without announcing a new release window, the next Tales Of game has officially set a date for the new adventure. Arise will launch on September 10th this year. Even better yet, we've finally gotten a good, lengthy look at its combat system in a new video.

People of the games jury, please turn your attention to The Great Ace Attorney games. Previously, these two historical lawyer 'em ups hadn't launched on PC or in English, both of which they'll be doing in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. This combo release has been foretold by leaks already, but there are no remaining objections now. It's official. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles launches on PC on July 27th.

For the last year, there's been one SSD that's completely ruled the roost in my best SSD for gaming rankings, and that's the WD Blue SN550. Few SSDs have come close to matching its fast read and write speeds and competitive pricing, and it remains one of the best value NVMe drives you can buy today. However, we might finally have a worthy alternative to the SN550, and that's Crucial's P2.

It sure has been a week for the Rockstar games vault. After accidentally pulling a bunch of their games off Steam on Monday, then bringing them back, some other older Rockstar games got a treat. The PC versions of Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire now include all their DLCs for free. A nice little treat for the back catalogue.

The tutorial for medieval first-person slasher Chivalry 2 felt like I'd attended my first zumba class run by Stanis Boratheon. I was told the art of warfare lay in the swing of your hips, not your sword. And that to riposte, you match your opponent's movements. But to break someone's guard you use your legs. Got that? Orders were barked, "sir yes sir", and I barely kept pace.

Then I was enlisted into the Siege of Rudhelm. I'd need to stoically defend a fortress with all the moves I'd learned, and I was stressed out. So when the gates opened and I roared my battlecry, naturally, the little I remembered escaped from my mouth and into the breeze. I swung wildly with zero hip-action expecting to get cut down, only to find it worked quite nicely. I even sat down mid-battle and remained unscathed. Then I realised no-one knew what they were doing at all, and I relaxed.

The big Resident Evil news everyone wants today is more info on the VR version of Resident Evil 4, which should come at the Oculus Gaming Showcase tonight. That'll be nice. Looking forward to that. But also, to the excitement of very few people, Capcom are holding another open beta test day for Resident Evil Re:Verse, the deathmatch spin-off tacked onto Resident Evil Village for some incomprehensible reason. I guess it's fitting.

“News from the emperor, my liege”, cringes the chancellor, as he loiters awkwardly before the door of his lordship’s privy. But the only answer he gets is the rhythmic thump of buttocks on wood: once again, the Duke is having intercourse. The chancellor is used to this sound, of course. It is the furtive drumbeat which underscores courtly life in this game of Crusader Kings 3, beneath the faint and ever-present cacophony of the War. And it is distinctly uncomfortable to listen to.

As the video games industry continues trying to cram itself into as few companies as possible, French publisher Focus Home Interactive have announced they've bought a majority stake in Streum On Studio. They're the French studio behind the delightfully ambitious E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy as well as two Warhammer 40K shooters published by Focus Home, Space Hulk: Deathwing and the upcoming Necromunda: Hired Gun. Honestly, they seem a fair fit. And hey, they've made a new Necromunda trailer too.

In the months running up to the release of Ori And The Will Of The Wisps last year, I was gripped by an irrational fear. I'd loved Moon Studio's first Ori adventure, Ori And The Blind Forest, with a fierce and fiery passion. Even now, I still love the bits everyone hates, from its ineffectual combat to its heinous boss escape sequences. But as news struck that its sequel would be taking a slightly different approach to its Metroid-like structure, favouring branching, almost Zelda-style hub worlds, and ditching its unique save system, I was worried that Will Of The Wisps might end up losing what had made Blind Forest such a special game for me. As I said, the fear was irrational, as Will Of The Wisps wasn't just better than Blind Forest; it was probably about as perfect a sequel as I could have possibly hoped for.

Microsoft have been dipping their toes into cloud streaming games for a while now, but today sees the launch of an Xbox Cloud Gaming beta for Windows 10 PCs. What this means is that some paying subscribers of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be invited to a closed beta whereby they can play games in their web browser, without the need for a lengthy download and install beforehand.