It's Friday, which means the weekend, which means a few extra hours to be wrung of all their gaming worth (unless you have other plans, but that's totally okay too). However, should you find yourself inexplicably game-less as all that additional play time stretches ahead of you like an endless road 'neath a moonlight sky, you might like to know that Torchlight is currently free on the Epic Games Store, while Age of Wonders 3 is free on Steam.

Torchlight is, of course, the first entry in (sadly now defunct) developer Runic Games' two-strong series of superb fantasy-themed action RPGs. Given that Runic was established by Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer, founders of Blizzard North, and Mythos designer Travis Baldree, it's not a huge surprise that Torchlight wears its Diablo influences proudly on its sleeve.

But its a wonderful example of the genre (and its sequel is even better, should you be interested), with Alec Meer's Eurogamer review saying, "it's the best Diablo-like since Diablo II, and a very real rival to the upcoming Diablo III. Even though there is nothing new or truly unique about Torchlight, nothing at all, that it so confidently and prettily takes the fight to Blizzard is an enormous compliment about how well put-together this is."

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The studio behind WTF-y puzzle-platformers Inside and Limbo, Playdead, has been secreting screenshots of its next project within its job posting advertisements.

While it may seem as though Playdead hasn't shared anything concrete beyond a solitary image shared on Twitter way back at the beginning of January 2017 - and then one more in March 2018 - turns out we might just have been looking in the wrong place.

A number of screens from a game that we know don't come from either of Playdead's prior releases have been included inside online job listings, and while some were clocked by Resetera a few months back, a couple more have since popped up (thanks, PC Gamer).

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Subscription gaming services such as Xbox Game Pass, EA Access and PlayStation Now have become a good deal for players - or at least, a good way of ensuring you never reach the bottom of your pile of shame. As this year's E3 festivities made plain, they are now central to platform holder strategy, with Microsoft releasing all its first-party titles on Game Pass, and Google Stadia to ship with its own, currently rather meagre subscription game service. But are they always a fair deal for developers? The details of these partnerships remain closely guarded, but in a panel discussion at Gamelab last week hosted by GamesIndustry.biz editor-in-chief Matt Handrahan, some of the people behind Crusader Kings, Rime, Q.U.B.E. and Inside offered broad thoughts on Xbox Game Pass in particular.

"Consumers want as many games as possible, as free as possible, and you can't get anything for free, so you need to find the right price, but that's the angle," began Dino Patti, co-founder of Playdead and latterly, Somerville developer Jumpship. "Developers need to look at what does this get me, and for me, and I might be biased, but I think the way business is for Game Pass, it's the first time it's actually what I would consider fair for developers.

"[All the other times] I've been suggested subscription it's never worked out, because they don't know what developers need, and in the end, it is developers putting out a game for free!" Patti went on, adding, "with Game Pass they're doing it correctly for the developers."

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