Footballing car game Rocket League will begin its second season next week, on 9th December.

Rocket League is getting on for five years old, though recently relaunched as free-to-play with a seasonal battle pass and an eye-catching Fortnite promotion to encourage in new blood.

Next week's new season will bring the second Rocket Pass, themed around music, with items to unlock that react to menu and arena tunes.

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Psyonix has decided to end support for the Mac and Linux versions of Rocket League, saying both platforms combined represent a tiny percentage of its active player base.

After a final patch in March, online functionality will be deactivated for the macOS and Linux versions of the game, which means Mac and Linux players won't be able to play online multiplayer or access the in-game store. Offline features including local matches and splitscreen play will still be accessible.

In a post on the Rocket League subreddit, Psyonix community chief Devin Connors said the company couldn't justify the time and resources it would take to keep the game updated on Mac and Linux after it updates its Windows version from 32-bit to 64-bit, and to DirectX 11 from DirectX 9 later this year.

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I suppose it's only a few polygons, but still, modders have acted with remarkable speed to put Elon Musk's latest meme vehicle in almost every conceivable game. While many of these Cybertruck mods are not yet publicly downloadable, several YouTube videos have appeared displaying demo models and early attempts - some of which, er, look better than others.

One of the more basic models for GTA 5 has been demoed by YouTube channel Elite Rejects, with neither of the video's hosts feeling particularly impressed by the truck. It really does look like a texture pop-in problem - but then, so does the real life Cybertruck.

The best one I've seen for GTA so far is by YouTube channel Fred Walkthrough, which already has working lights and genuinely looks like something straight out of Cyberpunk 2077. It's still a work in progress, and the creator says they're not yet ready to publicly release the build, but it's already looking nearly complete - it even has a cupholder with coffee.

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It's all change for Rocket League this December. After four years of monetisation built around randomised loot boxes and DLC, developer Psyonix will soon be jettisoning both.

Rocket League's loot box replacements have already been well-documented, of course. When Psyonix rolls out its new monetisation overhaul some time in December, blind randomised Crates (ie. loot boxes) with pay-to-unlock key mechanics will be replaced by Blueprints. These are rewarded through regular play and, crucially, show players the exact item that will be crafted should they wish to spend premium currency to do so.

Blueprints, however, are only one half of Psyonix's new monetisation plan; December's update will also introduce a premium store where players can, also using the new premium Credits currency, purchase specific items directly.

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As is now tradition, Rocket League is poised to unleash its annual Haunted Hallows event for this most spooky of seasons. However, the four-wheeled footie game's Halloween celebrations are getting a bit of a shake-up this year, thanks to a special Stranger Things tie-in.

Rocket League's latest Haunted Hallows event kicks off next Monday, 14th October, and will once again see players battling it out on the pitch to earn Candy Corn, which can be used in the seasonal store to unlock autumn-inspired items.

According to developer Psyonix, this year's tie-in with Stranger Things will manifest in an additional range of unlockable items, all inspired by the Netflix show, and a specially spooked-up version of Rocket League's Farmstead arena. This will see the stage receive an Upside Down makeover, including blood red skies and the imposing form of the Mind Flayer - both of which, along with a few of the promised seasonal cosmetics, can be seen in the trailer below.

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Psyonix will be jettisoning paid, randomised loot boxes - or Crates, as it calls them - from its hugely popular four-wheeled football game Rocket League later this year.

Crates, which are tradable, were first introduced to Rocket League in 2016 ("to fund our eSports prize pools and events", claimed Psyonix at the time). They can be acquired by completing online matches, and award a single, random cosmetic item from a set of possible options - including vehicle bodies, decals, rocket boosts, goal explosions, trails, and wheels. However, to open one and claim its contents, players first require a key.

Keys are predominantly a purchasable premium item, although a number have, to date, been included as intermittent tier rewards in Rocket League's paid Rocket Pass. The functionally similar Decryptors (which open crates but prevent item trading) also feature in small quantities as free Rocket Pass rewards, and have appeared during special events.

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Summer is (supposedly) upon us, and Rocket League is celebrating the season with a nostalgic trip back to the 80s - and a nine-week run of events and goodies, inspired by the era's most iconic movies and TV.

Developer Psyonix is calling its sun-bleached 80s event Radical Summer, and things get underway on Monday, 10th June. The focus is entirely on iconic movies until 1st July, with the highlight arguably being the arrival of Rocket League's new Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Car Pack. This introduces the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Battle-Car, Ecto-1 Wheels, Proton Pack Boost, Slimer Topper, Ghostbusters Player Banner, Ghostbusters Avatar Border, and the Stay Puft Goal Explosion - all for an entirely reasonable $1.99 USD (likely to be around 1.69).

Players can also take part in online matches to earn Cassettes during the whole nine-week event, and these are used to unlock in-game items - inspired by the likes of Karate Kid, Back to the Future, ET, and The Goonies during movie weeks - in the Radical Summer Event Store.

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UPDATE: Epic has offered an update on the confusingly worded statement issued to press earlier today regarding Rocket League's future status on Steam, now insisting that it has "not announced plans to stop selling the game there".

In its initial press release, Epic wrote that "The PC version of Rocket League will come to the Epic Games store in late 2019. In the meantime, it will continue to be available for purchase on Steam; thereafter it will continue to be supported on Steam for all existing purchasers." That combination of In the meantime and thereafter reading as if Rocket League's sale on Steam would continue only until it transitioned to the Epic Games Store later this year.

In a new statement issued to US Gamer, however, Epic has said, "We are continuing to sell Rocket League on Steam, and have not announced plans to stop selling the game there...Rocket League remains available for new purchasers on Steam, and long-term plans will be announced in the future." All of which feels a lot like a game of semantic evasion, but for now the takeaway is that Rocket League may or may not continue to be sold on Steam post its Epic Games Store debut. Make of that what you will.

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Rocket League's long-awaited cross-platform party feature will finally be heading to Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC on February 19th, as part of the incoming Friends Update, developer Psyonix has announced.

Rocket League's cross-platform party system, which was originally expected to launch last year, is an extension of the cross-platform features introduced to the game in January. That initial update enabled players to randomly matchmake with or against each, regardless of platform, across all available Online match types - including Casual, Competitive, and Extra Modes. However, this month's Friends Update goes a step further.

When it arrives, Rocket League players will gain access to the new Friends List. Friends can be added to this from any platform (via the new RocketID system), and can then be invited to join Parties and Clubs. This means that, for the first time, it'll be possible to buddy up and play matches with specific friends, no matter which platform they're on.

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Psyonix has announced that Rocket League's long-requested PlayStation Cross-Play Beta support is now live, meaning that players on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC can finally indulge in a spot of four-wheeled footie together as one.

This time last year, of course, such an occurrence would have seemed practically unthinkable. Sony remained doggedly resistant to calls from fans and developers for console cross-play on PS4, even as more and more games enabled play between Switch, Xbox One, and PC. Finally though, last September, Sony relented, unveiling its PlayStation Cross-Platform Beta - a programme which, initially at least, would be limited to Epic's all-conquering Fortnite.

Fans of Rocket League, which has featured cross-play support between Xbox One, PC, and Switch since launch on Nintendo's platform, were hopeful that PS4 players would soon join in the fun too following Sony's announcement. At the time, Psyonix was enthusiastic about implementing the feature, but acknowledged that progress would depend on Sony.

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