We’ve just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It’s a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you’ll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.

2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets. (more…)

Elite Dangerous is giving its pilots more space goodies today, including two new rustbuckets to whoosh around in its galactic theatre of lasers. This is part of the second update for their latest season of treats, Beyond (free to those who already own the last big expansion, Horizons). Basically: you astrobods are getting new spaceships to fly and new aliens to blow up. But this continuing trickle from developers Frontier is also making shipbound pilots like myself wonder: why don t my legs work yet? (more…)

Among the many player-run organizations in sandbox space sim/MMO-lite Elite: Dangerous, few have the glowing reputation of the Fuel Rats: A philanthropic alliance dedicated to rescuing stranded players that have carelessly used up the last of their hyperdrive fuel out on the far fringes of charted space.

Yesterday, it was the Rats’ turn to be rescued, after one of their fueling bases of choice nearly fell under quarantine. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot> of people willing to lend a hand to these humble heroes of the spacelanes.

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Elite Dangerous is now four years old somehow, or five if you count the various betas. In that time, it’s gone from impossible promise (ah, those halcyon 2012 Kickstarter days) to absolute bedrock of modern PC gaming, what with its blend of solo noodling about, lethal PVP sandbox and slow-burn, community-driven storytelling. Whether it’s quite what we expected a new Elite game to be half a decade ago is an enduring question, but by this point it’s very much its own game, including embracing the ‘Seasons’ concept that’s so hot right now (er, again for about five years). Season 3, ‘Beyond‘ is kicking off at the end of this month, with a headline wordcount-challenging update named Elite Dangerous: Beyond – Chapter One.

It introduces a whole mess of changes, including new types of ship and traders, revisions to crime and the punishment thereof and an overhauled mission system. (more…)

Space games have experienced a rebirth over the past few years, particularly space sims, but as many in the comments pointed out, you don’t need to be sitting in a cockpit to enjoy the stars. This updated list broadens our search for the best space games on PC, throwing strategy games, roguelikes and at least one RPG into the mix.

Read on to see what the top picks are.

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Boldly-going space sim Elite Dangerous is due to start its third season of updates, named Beyond, by the end of March but spacefolks will be able to check it out a bit early. Frontier Developments have announced an open beta test for Beyond: Chapter One will begin on January 25th, inviting all players to check out its additions and kick ’em around to see if they break. New features in it include objective-driven Wing Missions for squads, prettier planets, a new warship, and changes to mission rewards as well as crime and punishment. Oh, and those alien cuties are coming. (more…)

Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games.> But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol’ breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.

Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.

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An explorer in Elite Dangerous who was stranded outside our galaxy has been rescued thanks to a trio of pilots who flew out to refuel her. The rescue mission took days to plan and execute because of the long distances involved. But eventually the explorer, Commander Persera, was returned to the milky way after setting a new record for travelling further from Sol than any other player. Not to mention spending a full week in the void between galaxies.

It feels like both one of the shortest and longest weeks of my life, she said. (more…)

An explorer in Elite Dangerous has ventured into the void between galaxies, seeking to break the record for travelling the furthest distance from our own sun. But due to a miscalculation, they ve run out of the fuel necessary for a return trip and are currently stranded further than any pilot has ever been from civilisation. Now the fuel rats a collection of players who save player ships from dereliction by refueling them are mounting an ambitious multi-ship rescue that will take two days to complete. (more…)

Oh dear. A pilot in Elite Dangerous has fallen for a cheeky prank. Commander SpeedyBebop undertook a six-hour journey to Hutton orbital (a remote space station orbiting 0.22 lightyears from its parent star) after hearing that a free Anaconda awaited anyone who travelled there. This is one of the space sim s most expensive and powerful ships. But when he arrived, he discovered the whole thing was a ruse. There was no Anaconda. And it turns out he s not the first one to fall for this prank – it has become a running joke among Elite s pilots. (more…)