Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Head over to the Epic Games Store on April 4th and you'll be able to grab The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition and Thief (2014) for free and to keep forever. Like a thief!

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger has you circle-strafing Quake-style level layouts at high-speed while you shoot demons to the beat. I meet the news that it's getting a VR version this year with some trepidation, therefore. Do I really want to vomit on the beat?

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Earlier today, megacorp Embracer announced they were selling Borderlands developer Gearbox to Take-Two. During an investor call about the divestment, CEO Lars Wingefors confirmed that this brought an end to the restructuring process Embracer announced last year. He was also asked whether this meant Embracer had plans to start acquiring other studios again.

Wingefors said it was "way too early" to restart "the M&A engines."

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Sega Of America employees have become the first a major US video games studio to ratify a union contract. The contract covers guarantees minimum yearly pay increases for around 150 staff through 2026.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A regular rogue's gallery of independent game developers - including the makers of Dead Cells, Slay The Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Spiritfarer, Terraria and V Rising - have clubbed together to run their own videogame showcase: the Triple-I Initiative. Initially screening on 10th April, it'll be a 45-minute, unhosted, back-to-back series of trailers, reveals and surprise game or demo releases, designed (as per the press release) "to highlight fan-favorite games and hype up established indie classics as well as new IPs". It could become a yearly thing, but that'll obviously depend on how well the first showcase goes down.

According to a few of the organisers, the IIIIs - as they shall now and forever be known - reflect a high level of anxiety even among more established indie teams about finding an audience, together with a feeling that they aren't being served by existing showcases like the Geoffies, with their blockbuster headliners, celebrity cameos and extended Kojima soliloquies.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

You wouldn't believe how long I've been bumping Command & Conquer Generals down the list because "but it's abandonware and a pain in the hole to run" makes for a more frustrating read than "and it's available here".

Ever the afterthought, Generals has shimmered between abandonware and temporarily available in some obscure place with no fanfare (I think? I honestly lost track) for years, but it's now available in a bundle on Steam as part of whatever needlessly awkward thing EA are doing this month. There's suddenly an opportunity to get into why its design and atmosphere make it probably my favourite of the whole collection, and why I wish I could say that without adding that it indulges in a lot of boring early-00s racism.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Alongside announcing plans to buy Borderlands developers Gearbox from the collapsing wreckage of Embracer Group, Borderlands publishers Take-Two overnight casually mentioned that they are "in active development on next installment in Borderlands series". This isn't a formal announcement as much as a businessblast to hype shareholders, so it didn't have anything specific to say about what Gearbox are up to with their wildly popular and deeply unfunny looter shooter series. It had seemed curious that the much-delayed Borderlands movie was coming out five years after the latest main series game and with no new one in sight.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Pepper Grinder is one of those games that has so many great moments in it that recounting them would almost feel unfair to anyone hoping to play it. There are feats of platforming prowess on show here that should really be experienced fresh and unsullied by rudimentary descriptions of them, because to say anymore would be to spoil the surprise. This feels doubly important when the game itself is so fleeting in length, its brief and dizzying journey through the dirt, magma, ice and marshy bogs of this strange, treasure-stuffed island coming to a swift conclusion in just over three and a half hours. It left me wanting more the moment the credits rolled, but deep down I know it's also perfectly formed just the way it is. Rather than outstay its welcome, Pepper Grinder shows up, performs its party trick, then gets the hell out of the way, leaving you to bask in the warm glow of a good game well done.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

A month ago Arrowhead's CEO revealed the existence of Joel (technically J.O.E.L., in game), a game master running the galactic battle of Helldivers 2. A human being who gets up in the middle of the night to throw more robots at players if they're doing too well. We at the RPS Electronic Wireless Show podcast think this is a good thing, in broad terms, and we discuss why (but also hope Joel is allowed holidays), as well as the response the community of players has had, which is also very interesting. Plus a straw poll indicates that only one of us would enjoy be at the middle of a maelstrom of chaos and being the Helldivers GM as a job. Bet you can absolutely guess which one of us it was.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

You know me and Soulslikes. We're not particularly best buddies most of the time. We've had a couple of successful outings over the years with the likes of Death's Door and Hollow Knight and company, but anything with pure FromSoft blood running through its veins has always left me cold. Void Sols, however, is an upcoming Soulslike that feels like it might be able to satisfy both sides of the 'git gud' camp, appealing to nervous dodge-rollers like myself while also giving hardened Elden Ringers a run for their money. It's all down to its plentiful supply of approachable customisation options, allowing you to ratchet up the difficulty if you're finding things a bit easy, or knock it down, reapply your stat points, and even create whole new loadouts - each with their own individual stat combinations - to win the day. It's all wonderfully considerate, and having played the free demo that's just launched on Steam, I'd strongly recommend giving it a go if you're feeling in need of a little training ahead of Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree coming out.

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