Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Well well, looks like it's casual Friday over in the village. The deadly baddies of upcoming horror sequel Resident Evil Village have all cast off their spooky faces and transformed into puppets. Yes, including your favorite large lady Alcina Dimitrescu. She's joined by the felty faces of Mother Miranda's other lords for a silly little skit. Actually, one of them's a puppet twice over, somehow. They do look quite cute this way though, even when they're murdering each other.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Not too far back we learned that Hitman 3 developers IO Interactive are working on an upcoming James Bond game. Makes total sense, sure. Guy in a suit with guns and gadgets murdering lots of folks on secret missions falls neatly into their repertoire. What comes as more of a surprise is that the third game they're working on is something totally different. According to rumors, it might be a medieval setting with dragons. Go on then, IOI.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

What a world, what a world! Recently I read a book called The Appeal, which I enjoyed very much. The framing of it is a couple of junior lawyers going through a bunch of case notes they've been sent, and so the book itself is mostly emails and messages between the central cast of characters. You have to figure out the shape of what you don't have by looking at what you do. It's very good!

So, inspired by that, this week I've got three text-based games for you, but with a twist. They each do something a bit different, maybe in how they play with the format, or how they bring in interactivity. For a bonus, definitely check out the Pokémon parody in a font file that Lauren wrote about a couple of weeks back.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

If you're tired of dungeon crawling, perhaps you're up for a bit of dungeon defending. Anti-crawler Legend Of Keepers has cleared the early access floor and has headed up to a full launch. You'll hire on as a manager at Dungeons Company and devise a series of traps and minions to keep those pesky "heroes" off your property. Management is tough though, because your minion employees always seem to be getting into trouble and need you to command their battles. The full launch for Legend Of Keepers comes with a new update adding new monsters, modes, and more.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

In this week's episode of Warzone Audio Bang, we go nuclear. And by this, I mean that James and I discuss the aftermath of Verdansk's explosive transition into the 1980s, as opposed to, errr, starting a nuclear energy company.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The Destiny 1 raid Vault Of Glass will return in Destiny 2 on May 22nd, Bungie confirmed last night. And they have good news for people interested in trying the ultra-hard raid race Challenge Mode that's in effect for the first day: you won't need to grind a huge amount to reach its Power cap. In fact, you might not need to grind at all - you may already be past it. Given that hard Destiny is some of the best Destiny, I really do recommend giving that a go.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Video games and mythology go so well together, don't they? Dragons and swords and sexy gods are made for this medium.

This week's Mystery Steam Reviews celebrates those aforementioned beasts and hotties, as we focused on video games based on folklore.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Most humans will instantly grow attached to any inanimate object if you put a face on it (preferably a sad one, as if it needs your help). This is possibly so we won't immediately hoof any unattended baby into the oven, because using cold logic they are a helpless and easy source of food, but emotions tell us that they are cute and we don't want the baby to cry at the oven being all hot. Buildings Have Feelings Too!, a puzzle/city management game that's heavy on the puzzle, is the reason I will never again enjoy a video of Fred Dibnah explaining how to demolish a massive great industrial chimney, because now I know it had little arms and legs, and spoke with a voice like the sound of a heap of bricks shifting around.

It had hopes and dreams, that chimney. It wanted to be useful, it would have changed to a different kind of industry if you'd only given them the chance! Hell, it would have even moved to a different part of the city! But unfortunately doing any of those things in Buildings Have Feelings Too! is way more complicated than the simple process of turn oven on, put baby in oven, close oven door. Thankfully, a hotfix has updated the most annoying control issues so at least I no longer want to pull out my own fingernails while playing.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I had very good intentions when I started playing Resident Evil 7 for the first time earlier this year. "Resident Evil Village doesn't come out for months," I said to myself. "It's a 10-hour game, that's plenty of time to get this finished." Reader, I have not finished Resident Evil 7. After finally beating old Mr Baker down in that claustrophobic basement with the swinging meat sacks, I put down my controller and walked away. It had been a particularly stressful evening of dying, chainsawing and more dying, and I needed a break. I had intended to go back, but recently when I've had a spare hour or two to decompress with a game, I've more often than not gravitated towards a quick round of lovely chill Dorfromantik than put myself through the remaining horrors of the Baker estate.

I did, however, finally go back to Resi 7 last night, and golly, as much as I hate the horrible rotting corpses of the Bakers three, I had forgotten about the sheer horror of Ethan Winters' mangled hand. Look away now if you don't want to lose your lunch.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Tactical horror FPS GTFO had a big update yesterday, wiping away all its old levels once again, and introducing fresh ones with eerie new environments to explore. This time it seems nature has returned to the Complex (the big underground compound you're sent into), with plant life beginning to grow amongst the horrors. Unfortunately, that plant life seems to have contributed to the horrors too, because you'll now find "spawner sacks" hanging from the ceilings. I don't fancy meeting what comes out of them.

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