"Horror" and "automation" are concepts I'm used to seeing together in fiery/weepy essays about late capitalism. I'm less used to seeing them together in videogame marketing blurbs. Horror, in an automation-based game? Why, games with automation are supposed to deliver the finest and most methodical of chemical highs. They are supposed to feel like building yourself a better brain out of candy-coloured conveyor belts and smelters. They are not supposed to make you afraid.

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Civilization 7 developers Firaxis have undergone a "staff reduction" affecting an unspecified number of workers today, publishers 2K have confirmed to RPS.

News of the cuts broke via a series of posts from now former Firaxis writer Emma Kidwell. "I was affected by the layoffs at Firaxis, and am open to full time writing work at your studio," she wrote on LinkedIn. "I'm an incredibly adaptable writer who wrote on Civilization VII and Marvel's Midnight Suns during my (nearly) 5 years at the studio, and I encourage you to keep an eye out for my former colleagues who were also laid off."

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Star Trucker, Raw Fury's answer to what Euro Truck Simulator might look like in the year 3000, is now a year old, and has celebrated that fact with an update that finally lets you whip out your wheel and pedals.

Ever since I gave it a go with a controller prior to letting my Game Pass subscription crumble into dust, this is a day I've yearned for. After all, what good are truck sims, be they Euro, American or something more Snowrunnery, if you're not operating the controls of your great metal haulage beast by flicking flappy gearbox paddles, or sawing away at a circle clearly designed for something a bit sportier?

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Well, who could have seen this coming: Hollow Knight: Silksong has taken Steam offline, or at least, laid waste to large swathes of it. Within seconds of its release this afternoon, Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight sequel brought Valve's servers to a halt, cue endlessly loading pages when trying to access the checkout, browse the store or do much of anything.

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Hollow Knight: Silksong has officially buzzed across the thin red line between "entirely hypothetical object of mass hysteria" and "existing videogame that you can play on your PC". Team Cherry's new metroidvania is live now on Steam and GOG. You can actually buy it with your actual money. Should> you buy it? Sadly, I don't yet have a Hollow Knight: Silksong review for you, because Team Cherry have decided not to distribute any codes in advance. If you're reading a Silksong review right now, the reviewer is either a worryingly close confidant of the developers or a filthy bloody liar or some other, totally innocent third thing.

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Content warning for discussion of mass killings, sexual assault and sectarian hatred.>

Very early on in Hell Is Us, you come to a village that might as well be titled "War Crimes Theme Park".

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After rapidly declaring that they were looking into action the other day, Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have released a hotfix aiming to rectify some of the crashing that's affected players diving Into the Unjust.

Unlike the giant worms I've still seen hide nor mandible of, it didn't take the studio long to address reports of an uptick in technical issues for the shooter following the update's arrival on Tuesday. Here's hoping that these fixes'll help keep thing a bit more stable.

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Roblox will roll out selfie-based "facial age estimation technology" as a mandatory requirement for all of its players, as part of efforts to "limit communications" between minors and adults they don't know.

The corporation behind the massive game filled with smaller games, many of which are made by young people, say they aim to bring in this measure by the end of 2025. The news is part of a "long-term" vision for child safety in the wake of the US state of Louisiana's lawsuit against Roblox Corporation over child safety concerns, with Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill accusing the game of being a "overrun with harmful content and child predators".

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