Valve has teased the announcement of Valve Index, seemingly its new VR headset.

There's not much to go on: just a single image and a pretty empty website (thanks, Ars Technica). Early reporting suggests the website initially included a date - May 2019 - but the image is now blank (at least, it is for me here in the UK). That said, a dig in the source code, however, reveals the website meta description tag still says: "Upgrade your Experience. May 2019".

The hardware matches the leaked images of an alleged Valve VR prototype headset that first appeared online last November (although the clock on the desktop computer in the background revealed the photos had been taken much earlier in July 2018). The images were completely unverified, but given their complexity, the number of units shown, and the authentic-looking Valve logo printed on the circuit boards, we said at the time that if they were not genuine headsets, they were incredibly detailed fakes.

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There's a moment in an oldish film - I think it's Mad Dog and Glory but I wouldn't bet on it - where a guy is taking a photo of a New York street in the dead of night and a deer turns up. I can't remember the guy's reaction - I think it's De Niro but I wouldn't bet on it - and I can't remember how it fits into the plot. Yet I remember, even as it happened, realising that it was too much, too good, too brilliant and clear and luxurious a moment for the rest of the film to ever recover from. It was a birthday cake dropped in the footwell of a car. A city street at night and here's this deer, this ghost of the wild. There's an unforced surrealism to it, the same surrealism I felt a few years back bussing through Hove at midday on a Sunday - it is always Sunday in Hove - when I spotted a fox standing insouciantly outside a mobile phone shop as if pondering a trip to Nero's.

Urban deers must be deployed carefully, I think. They carry such a weight of obvious meaning and emotion that they can become trite. And yet even at their tritest they have such a wonderful effect, such an ability to lift the mood and break the narrative and distract. I've been playing The Division 2 off and on, mainly off, over the last few weeks. The Division 2 is set in a ruined Washington DC where mankind's grip has weakened and nature is making a tentative comeback. Fireweed and saplings sprouting through the sidewalk, moss growing on the bleached faces of the great and good and forgotten. Often at the beginning of a mission you'll be crouched low and racing towards an enemy camp and there it will be, the urban deer, rising to its tottering legs and bouncing off. Headed to the next mission, presumably, where it will do the same thing again and I will stop, again, the magic weaving its spell for the nth time and against all odds.

I have seen this deer in a number of games over the last few years. Anywhere that cities have fallen and norms have crumbled. In Crysis 3, walking through a flooded valley, beautiful water glittering in Manhattan canyons, I looked up from my bow and there was the deer, startled, moving away. I wonder if I saw it in Enslaved, darting around a tree that had grown up through the middle of a skyscraper. Maybe not. Maybe I just imagined it. Maybe De Niro just imagined it.

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Developer Ice-Pick Lodge has announced that its ambitious, long-in-the-works open-world survival horror follow-up, Pathologic 2, is finally coming to PC on May 23rd.

Pathologic 2 is a bit of an odd one, falling somewhere between not-quite-remake, not-quite-sequel. Instead, it's something of a re-imagining of Ice-Pick's notoriously wonky, narrative-focussed original cult-favourite - which charted the strange, bleak deterioration of a plague-ridden town from the perspective of three different characters - expanding on core events, enriching the existing lore, and more.

The ultimate goal in Pathologic 2, as was the case in the 2006 original, is to explore the town, talk to its very odd inhabitants, and survive the 12 in-game days that make up the experience. There are fights to be had, food to be scavenged, and side-quests to complete - some of which might ensure the survival of secondary characters and reveal more behind the weird events that have befallen the town. That amounts to a deeply atmospheric, wildly unsetting jaunt into the terrifying unknown. For instance:

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It's been eight years since Bulletstorm first popped up on our screens, and now it's about to land on a new one.

Announced during Gearbox's PAX East presentation, Bulletstorm: Duke of Switch Edition does exactly what it says on the tin, bringing outrageous shooting and Duke Nukem to the platform. It's due to arrive sometime this summer, but no exact release date has been given just yet.

Playable Duke Nukem was first added to the remastered version of Bulletstorm in April 2017, along with further improvements to the game's visuals. The remaster earnt itself a Eurogamer Recommended for "[cramming] in as much added content as possible". Ian also had fun rediscovering the pretty messed up things you can do in the game - something to keep you entertained while we wait for this on-the-go version.

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Developer Hopoo Games has surprise-launched its co-operative rogue-like shooter sequel Risk of Rain 2 on Steam early access, and it's available for purchase now.

The original Risk of Rain, a gloriously mad side-on action-platformer, launched in 2013 and was enormously well-received. Its nifty trick was that, having slapped players down upon an alien planet and armed them to the teeth, enemies grew rapidly more bountiful (and tough) as time ticked onward. As such, it quickly devolved into a giddyingly frantic, cacophonous dance of rapid levelling and item acquisition in order to survive. Eurogamer liked it to the tune of 8 back in the day.

Risk of Rain 2 follows the same basic format but makes some major changes along the way. Most notably, it ditches the first game's 2D perspective, and rather gloomy minimalist pixel aesthetic, for some vibrantly hued and fully-3D escapades. It's playable either solo or in teams of up to four, and features randomised stages, items, enemies, and bosses.

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We're a fair distance from Halloween, but Dead by Daylight is determined to let you get your spook on all year round - and now you can survive the night as Ash from Evil Dead.

Ash will be voiced by original actor Bruce Campbell, who also appeared in a short video to promote the new game character. Campbell announced his retirement from the role when Starz cancelled the Ash vs Evil Dead series last year, so his decision to resurrect the character comes as something as a surprise.

The appearance of Ash in the game itself, however, comes as less of a shock to fans, given that perks relating to the character were spotted in the recent Demise of the Faithful update.

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I thought he was just another corpse at first.

Body bruised and blackened, he looked dead, anyway. That said, I'm so used to death at this point - both the humdrum and the heartbreaking ones - I barely register the bodies scattered around, and didn't notice this one at all until he raises his head. He lifts bloodshot eyes to mine and begs for mercy, pleads to be put out of his misery. Clem stares back, unblinking.

My gut instinct is to oblige, of course. Perhaps yours would be, too. But I hesitate. I have no idea how many bullets are in the chamber of this misappropriated firearm. What if I'm one bullet short for a key fight later? What if stopping this guy from turning now means he isn't there to attack someone - someone bad - further on in the story? My decision-paralysis roots Clementine to the spot and I realise how deeply Telltale's evocative take on Robert Kirkman's cruel, zombie-soaked universe has affected me.

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With the sun full in the sky and the flowers in bloom (and, also, me already wearing shorts because of course), it no longer seems unreasonable to ponder matters of the summer - including the impending annual charity speed-running event Summer Games Done Quick, which has just unveiled the full 2019 line-up of games set to receive the go-faster treatment this June.

This year's Summer Games Done Quick runs from June 23rd to June 30th and will once again be held at the DoubleTree Hilton in Bloomington, Minneapolis. All money raised during the 2019 event will go to Doctors Without Borders, and the current, newly revealed, games list includes over 180 accepted and bonus category speed-runs.

A lingering look at the line-up reveals ample treats for speed-running fans, ranging from old-school favourites to modern day classics, and everything in between.

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Here's my gaming metaphor of the day: Tropico is like that one friend you have - you know the one - who you see at regularly reoccurring events and don't speak much outside of that. Whenever you do manage to catch up with them, though, it's like you've never been apart.

Tropico used to come around every 2 to 3 years with a few new features, the core idea always intact. You take control of a dictator tasked with leading their island nation - and their own wallet - to glory. How things play out is dictated less by you and more by the demands of the factions that represent the different interests of your people. Ignore their demands for too long and you risk a rebellion.

Under new developer Limbic Entertainment factions are the main feature the sixth instalment introduces. Rather than gentle nudges from one or two factions to keep up with things, you now eventually deal with all eight available factions simultaneously. It's impossible to make everyone happy, as every demand you fill for one group will cost you standing with another. To turn Tropico into a thriving paradise you need to keep things in balance, traditionally the last thing you expect from a despot.

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Inkle, the studio behind the superb video game adaptations of Steve Jackson's Sorcery and the breathtaking Verne-inspired 80 Days, has announced that its enormously ambitious archaeological adventure Heaven's Vault will be coming to PlayStation 4 and PC on April 16th.

Heaven's Vault is described as a "huge, incredibly flexible" narrative game that "seamlessly, fluidly" adapts to players' choices as their story unfolds. It follows the adventures of archeologist Aliya Elasra, who, with a little help from her robot companion Six, must plot a course across a world known as the Nebula in search of a missing academic.

As with Inkle's previous interactive-fiction-style games, Heaven's Vault is a story-focussed, non-linear adventure, that's heavy on the (invariably well-written) text - albeit this time expanded out into a fully-3D, and strikingly designed, world.

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