A Quake modding group have just polished off a game jam in which they challenged themselves to recreate every singleplayer map in id Software's 1996 FPS from memory alone. That is, they were forbidden from replaying the original game before they started. As Slipseer user iLike80sRock puts it, "if somehow id1 was wiped off of all computers in the world, do we collectively remember the maps well enough to recreate them?"

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Prior to getting a big, fat, four-hour demo with it at Gamescom, I was worried that banging on about Silent Hill f’s newfound enthusiasm for monster fighting – with all its parries, zippy dodges, and slow-mo focus meters – would be doing a disservice to its bolder, more 'interesting' series departures, like the new 1960s setting or its deep embrace of homegrown Japanese culture and myths. A certain missing of the point, like setting out for a lovely drive through the Scottish highlands then stopping to gawp at a lightly crashed Peugeot on the hard shoulder.

But no. Combat is as deeply ingrained within Silent Hill f as guilty moping was to Silent Hill 2, and from what I’ve played, doesn’t work nearly as well.

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Tetris Effect developers Enhance have released a new demo for their forthcoming Lumines Arise on Steam, alongside news that the spacey rhythm attack game will launch on November 11th. If you missed Tetris Effect, it's a game about making deletable lines out of falling blocks while standing in the middle of a very musical supernova.

Lumines Arise, meanwhile, sees you arranging clumps of blocks into 2X2 scoreable combinations, which are removed from the playing field by a horizontally sweeping Time Line. While standing in the middle of a very musical supernova.

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Helldivers 2's homaging of Starship Troopers and/or parodying of real-life fascist interventionalism continues with Into the Unjust, a sizeable game update that will take you out to the Terminid Hive Worlds for a spot of cave combat. According to multiple geographers interviewed by RPS, caves are located underground. That's going to cause problems if, for example, your entire military strategy depends on being able to call in air support whenever you choose. The same geographers also allege that caves are dark. That's going to cause problems if you like to see the things you're shooting at.

Helldivers 2 Into the Unjust launches 2nd September, and why read the rest of this evidently stupid news piece when you can just watch this seven minute "deep dive" (comedy whoopee cushion sound effect)?

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Well, it happened again: the Maw devoured a Monday. My recent, highly suspicious news article about a sudden "bank holiday" was, of course, a hasty PR smokescreen to avert a stock market crash. In Horace's name, we have now forced the Maw to sick up the missing Monday, but locating the gag reflex of a cosmic monster has its risks, and there have been a few casualties.

Mark has theoretically been "on holiday" since last Wednesday, returning tomorrow, but that's another piece of disinfo - he's actually stranded somewhere in the Cretaceous period. James, meanwhile, has come down with a case of the Schrödingers, neither away at Gamescom nor back at his desk. I am going to email him shortly - fingers crossed the quantum binary collapses in a way conducive to preview write-ups. As for this week's new PC games - here you are. I've included the regurgitated Monday, but please handle with care as it's still rather radioactive and, er, talkative.

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No sooner had I hit publish on a lovely (and very cheap) deal for an Acer monitor, than I spotted the Samsung Odyssey G5 Ultrawide had seen a discount of its own.

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The school year is a-coming, and as a result, there are some great offers to be had on PCs and other gaming hardware that’s ideal for newcomers looking for some graphical grunt for creative projects during the day and something that’ll let them ‘click heads’ at night.

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It's a free and simple territory control game from hobbyist dev snow-kiss, in which you switch your tiles between rock, paper or scissors to claim those of opponents. I'm not sure the idea has serious legs, but I like how it thickens when you have more than two participants and a more elaborate board setup.

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Sundays are for trying to work out why your feet don't work. I wore too-tight shoes during a house move a few months ago, and now if I walk for too long I get pain under my third and fourth toes. Fortunately, I don't read with my feet. Here are some internet worderings that caught my attention this week.

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I woke up far too early this morning, to stand in a queue for far too long, all to play fan-vexing (and newly release-dated) soulsvania Hollow Knight: Silksong on the Gamescom show floor. No pre-release review codes? Pah – I couldn’t even get a demo appointment at the most demo appointment-centric games event of the year. How’s that> for rejection.

Anyway, Team Cherry might just not be that into me, but I might well be into Silksong. It’s a little quicker, a little more dynamic, and to these fingers, a little more difficult than the first Hollow Knight. But it entirely preserves that tight-as-a-drum feel of the original’s sword swishing, and deploys it against insectoid baddies that challenge and frustrate in practically identical ways.

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