!.04-Rock Paper Shotgun

!.04-Rock Paper Shotgun


Audio-only RPG The Vale launches its accessible adventure in August

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 03:42 PM PDT

Hear that? It's the approaching release date for audio-only action adventure The Vale. The accessible adventure about a blind princess challenges you to combat driven by audio cues and haptic feedback. Developers Falling Squirrel have announced that you'll be able to tackle the adventure yourself next month, although you can also take it for a spin right now in a demo.

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Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters are out and fans are already fixing the fonts

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 02:33 PM PDT

The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters have launched today, bringing versions of the early Final Fantasy games to PC that we hoped would finally be prettier than the not so nice-looking mobile ports we'd been treated to in the past. They are prettier, indeed, and even have new music, but all that was slightly overshadowed by the frankly terrible interface font choice. Fortunately, fans work fast and there are already instructions for "fixing" the pixel remaster fonts just hours after launch.

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Gabe Newell says gamers have never had a great mobile hardware option

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 01:38 PM PDT

Valve announced their portable PC gaming machine earlier this month and the interviews and details about the Steam Deck have been rolling in steadily since. Among them, courtesy of another IGN interview, are some of Steam Deck's origins. President and co-founder Gabe Newell says that the Deck began as a "natural conversation" about how Valve would contribute to PC gaming in the future, and also dished some of the early names from the Deck drawing board.

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Type long and prosper with 50% off Roccat's phenomenal Vulcan keyboard

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 12:30 PM PDT

Roccat's excellent Vulcan 100 mechanical keyboard is 50% off at Amazon UK today, dropping from £140 to £70. That's an outstandingly good price for a full-size UK keyboard with an aluminium chassis, per-key RGB backlighting and tactile Titan switches.

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Get a top-tier Razer gaming laptop for £735 off, plus £700 of extras

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 12:08 PM PDT

Razer's Blade laptops are expensive, especially when they're specced out with the best possible components - but wait a year, and they start to become more sensibly priced. That's the case now, as last year's Blade Pro 17 gaming laptop, once sold for £2235, is now retailing for £1499. That's a decent deal for a 17-in laptop with a 300Hz screen, RTX 2080 Super graphics card, 10th-gen Core i7 processor and 512GB of storage. What takes this to the next level are the free gifts you get with it - including £700 worth of Razer gear in all. Here's what you need to know.

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Tribes Of Midgard could be the second smash hit co-op viking game this year

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 10:46 AM PDT

Yet another viking adventure has set sail to some strong tail winds, proving that folks are still plenty hungry for more Norse adventures. Action slash 'em up, Tribes Of Midgard just launched yesterday and is already seeing concurrent viking numbers that rival the early days of explosive early access viking hit Valheim earlier this year. We could have another lodestone on our hands, judging by the 25,000 players already jumping in just on PC.

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PUBG leaks suggest it’s going free-to-play, and getting a zombie survival mode

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 09:43 AM PDT

Battle royale pioneer Plunkbat could finally be joining every other battle royale game by going free-to-play, according to a new rumour. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds has so far avoided the route that Fortnite ran with until it had all the money in the world. But an upcoming and (currently unannounced) free week could test the waters for a full-on free-to-play switcheroo.

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Halo Infinite's first multiplayer technical preview starts tomorrow

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 08:27 AM PDT

With its launch planned for the end of this year, Halo Infinite is now just about to put some Spartan boots on the ground. As we found out last weekend, 343 Industries are planning a technical test for parts of Infinite's free-to-play multiplayer. They'd initially said it could kick off as early as this weekend. Look at that, your weekend of Halo-ing begins tomorrow, in fact. The first technical preview for Halo Infinite begins this Thursday, July 29th.

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Boyfriend Dungeon's sword dating is the most realistic video game romances have ever been

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 07:30 AM PDT

Boyfriend Dungeon is half a dungeon-run action game where you clear levels of a "dunj" of monsters generated by your own subconscious, and half a dating sim where you can shack up with the very weapons you use in said dungeon runs. You may have heard of it already, because the concept is, just, incredible.

However, I can sense some scepticism from you, reader, and that's natural. I have to confess, from my time with the first two hours of the game, its dungeons are probably the weaker part. But the dating bit is both absolutely joyous (each weapon gets an over-the-top, beautiful transformation video like off of anime) but also very interesting. I am not only invested in the romances, but I care about them more than with any other video game romance I've played. Not in spite of them being literal tools that I use, but because of it.

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The world flag samurai I'd pick as video game protagonists

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 07:30 AM PDT

The other day I watched the women's peloton race at the Tokyo Olympics, and I understood precisely nothing. All I knew was that Anna Kiesenhofer, a total underdog, was on course for a gold medal. I stuck with it for ages, just to see her cross the line and crumple with happiness. God, I love it when the Olympics are on.

And Japan's showing hasn't only brought emotional sporting moments to our screens, oh no. Athletes stormed into the opening ceremony to orchestral versions of video game classics, and now I've discovered that the world flags have been reimagined as samurai. This, in particular, is excellent and having had a good look at many of them, I'd say there's a few that would make some good video game protagonists.

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Hell Let Loose escapes from early access to the Eastern Front

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 07:14 AM PDT

I delved into WW2 shooter Hell Let Loose a couple of months ago when I needed a break from Overwatch. I was in the mood to be an everyman soldier, just doing my job wherever the fighting was, seeking out anonymity amidst the carnage. So I fell into the trenches of Foy, and spent a few weeks shooting at pixels darting across huge, gorgeously rendered fields.

As it happens, I was playing it on the cusp of its own victory. The multiplayer shooter has just been released from early access, with version 1.0 pushing onwards to the Eastern Front.

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Immersive sim Weird West wants to say yes to your every whim

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 06:02 AM PDT

Introducing a hands-off preview session of upcoming RPG Weird West the other day, creative director Raf Colantonio offered a short, sweet summary of its central design principle: "Say yes to the player". We were to expect no arbitrary canyons disguising linear levels here, he promised, nor quests designed to funnel us into binary decisions. Instead, we were to look forward to a literal wild west of open decision-making; a persistent world with its own internal rhythms, through which we would be free to mosey in whichever style we fancied.

Inevitably, then, when the demo (played by game director Gael Giraudeau) got underway, I glossed over the bleak discovery of the player character's son, shot dead by eerie cowboys, and commanded Giraudeau to pick up a dead wolf. It seemed the right thing to do, given the whole "say yes to the player" thing. And to be fair to Giraudeau, he picked that wolf right up. He carried it around for a bit, dodging a tornado in the process, before finding an egg in a haystack, chucking it in the air, and shooting it with a gun. Not bad, Weird West. Not bad.

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Steam Deck killed any need for A Total War Saga: Troy's Linux port

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 04:49 AM PDT

Professional porters Feral Interactive are no longer working on a native Linux port of A Total War Saga: Troy. Valve’s work on Proton, a game-specific compatibility layer that’ll power their Steam Deck portable, has created “generally less demand for native titles,” according to Feral, meaning the upcoming Steam release will rely on Proton, or other compatibility programs, to run instead.

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40% of you played the most boring class in Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 03:45 AM PDT

Last night, BioWare released a fun infographic with stats about player choices in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Most of it is pretty unsurprising, with players mostly choosing to be the good guys, opting into peace and Paragon points. But it also has info about what backgrounds and classes players chose. And I have to know, in a game where you're able to play as techno wizards and space sorcerers, why did 40% of you decide to play the class in which your only special skill is "has several guns"?

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Microsoft Flight Simulator's performance should be less turbulent after its latest patch

Posted: 28 Jul 2021 02:51 AM PDT

Though I’d prefer they added an airship, or at least a sofa with birthday balloons attached, I’m still very excited about Microsoft Flight Simulator’s new patch. The update brings some significant performance improvements that should bring higher frame rates, smooth out stuttering, and reduce strain on your whole system. Along with some exploration improvements and world map upgrades, it’s a very helpful patch.

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