Red Barrels' scare fest Outlast 2 may stand as an indirect follow-up to its forerunner it s set in the same universe, but breaks from the first s show-stealing Mount Massive Asylum setting and follows a different cast of characters but a new five-issue comic book series aims to bridge the narrative gap between the first and second outing, the developer has announced.

Following the exploits of the unscrupulous Murkoff Corporation, issue one focuses on how Chris Strongfat Walker wound up with superhuman strength and a disliking for pretty much everyone and everything that crosses his path.

Walker, you may recall, is the recurring brute that stalks Miles Upshur in Outlast (and Waylan Park to a lesser extent in its Whistleblower DLC) but, besides scant info gleaned from the odd document scattered here and there within the hospital, the player is offered little explanation as to how he became this way.

This is where the comic comes in, and how all of this ties to Outlast 2 s narrative will undoubtedly become clear as the comic series unfolds. Outlast 2, by the way, promises things like walking over charred baby pits and crotch-stabbing. Do read on at your peril.

The first Outlast, the way we saw it, was that it was going to take your physical integrity, Red Barrels' Phillipe Morin told Tyler in the following video interview. In this one we want to take your mental integrity as well.

Outlast 2 is due to launch later this year, however issue one of The Murkoff Account can be read for free here.

In early 2013, Digital Extremes finally released the free-to-play space-ninja shooter it had wanted to make for over 13 years, but that doesn t mean it was a happy time for the studio. Every publisher with an opportunity to back Warframe had passed, and most even said outright it would fail. With no investors and a couple of other subpar launches around the same time, employees were laid off and morale was low, but the game was being made.

Almost four years after players first got their hands on it, you won't see a Warframe booth at PAX or E3, or ads on billboards. You won't find reams of op-eds about it on mainstream gaming sites not like similar games such as Destiny, at least. What you will see is weekly updates and patches, and a regular spot among the top 15 most played games on Steam by concurrent players. With 26 million registered users worldwide, Warframe is one of the most popular free-to-play games available. Digital Extremes did what no one thought it could, and the naysayers are now coming to them for advice.

The idea for Warframe existed as early as 2000, though back then the project was called Dark Sector. According to its first press release in February of 2000, the goal was to merge "the intense action elements of Unreal: Tournament with the scope and character evolution of a persistent online universe." It didn't happen, and the Dark Sector that released in 2008 was something altogether different and according to an interview with Giant Bomb, the message from publishers was clear: don't do sci-fi. But Digital Extremes never forgot about the original concept.

This concept trailer for Dark Sector from 2004 looks more like Warframe than the actual Dark Sector game released in 2008.

Before Warframe, Digital Extremes was a work for hire studio being contracted out by larger developers. It was partnered with Epic Games (then Epic MegaGames) to make the very first Unreal, working on the series through Unreal Tournament 2004. It worked on the first BioShock and developed the multiplayer for BioShock 2. One of the last games Digital Extremes made before starting work on Warframe was The Darkness 2, which creative director Steve Sinclair describes as a bit of a swan song for us in the old world of You re a work for hire studio.

You re not an employee within some publisher beast, Sinclair continued, You re work for hire, and you re disposable. Digital Extremes studio GM Sheldon Carter lead the Darkness 2 team and echoed the frustration of not having full control. I work on Darkness 2 for three years with nothing except for a few publisher people and QA guys looking at it, he said, and then it comes out, and it s polarizing but there s nothing you can really do about it. You just have to let it sit there and watch it rot.

You will fail

So when Digital Extremes decided to give the original Dark Sector concept another shot with a new name in early 2012, it was a project filled with passion. We had one month to make a prototype because James [Schmalz], the owner of the company, was going to GDC to show it [to publishers], said Sinclair, Holy shit, were we ever proud of it. They went all out on that first prototype, even getting the netcode and infrastructure working just to show they could pull it off. They set up meetings with companies he describes as the most powerful in the free-to-play world in 2012 and began to shop Warframe around.

Not a single publisher said yes. Most of them said outright that the game was doomed to fail. In many cases, the pitch meetings were over before they could even start. Sinclair told me about a meeting they had set up during GDC, saying it once again all came down to Warframe s theme. The executives walk in and say I can t wait to see what you have today, this is great, he recalled, and they turn, see the screen and see sci-fi, and it s riiiiiip goes the record needle and oh it s too bad it s sci-fi, and the meeting was over.

But they kept trying, next going to Korea. Sinclair wouldn t say exactly who, but he took a meeting with the creator of the largest free to play game in the world, and I m not talking about League [of Legends]. He showed a now expanded prototype of Warframe, and despite the publisher being impressed with its graphics, the answer was the same: You will fail.

Western game companies can t make free-to-play because they don t update them, they said, according to Sinclair. Because they spend way too much time making the graphics good, and they spend way too much time making a type of game that can t grow and evolve.

That was his opinion, that we were absolutely going to fail because we looked too good, and we wouldn t be able to sustain a game like that. And then he left. At this point, Warframe was out of suitors. We were just kicked in the ass repeatedly. This is gonna fail, this is gonna fail. It was an absolute crisis of faith. Sinclair even remembers at one point thinking, This was a mistake, we re doomed. But Digital Extremes didn t give up, and decided to continue developing Warframe without a publisher a move Sinclair said was definitely a Hail Mary.

[James] had a lot of faith in the people working on it, Carter said. He was willing to risk, and when you have someone who has enough foresight, or trusts the people who are working on it enough to let them spend his money pursuing something that a few people have said is going to fail because he believes in them or he believes in what s happening ...he believed in it, so he let it keep going. Without any outside funding, Digital Extremes had to lay off staff to make the game. It was all-in on Warframe, Sinclair said, and it was dark days.

We were laying people off who had worked here a long time who we loved, said Carter, describing the time as the worst days of the company. Digital Extremes found even more trouble after its Star Trek game released in early 2013 and was critically panned. "Star Trek almost ruined us," said VP of publishing Meridith Braun. Digital Extremes later told me it let 48 of their roughly 180 person staff go around the time Warframe entered open beta in March and Star Trek shipped in April.

It was a fight for survival, it really was, said Sinclair. I remember even dark places where I was, where we needed to buy servers and people wanted to get the better servers because concurrent counts were rising. And I was just screaming at people, Get the cheap shit, because we just laid people off and it s not like we re going to spend beyond our means here. Well-intentioned people on both sides, but it was very nerve-racking.

But there was good news: Warframe's Founder s Packages early buy-ins for dedicated fans were selling. A small but passionate community was forming, and once the ball started rolling, it never stopped. Despite being repeatedly told they were going to fail, Sinclair said they never felt like they had made the wrong choice once they committed, partly because of that founder support. That initial surge gave us the energy to say OK, we re going to do this, and that let us go all-in. Even with the supposedly doomed sci-fi theme, Warframe was finding its audience.

Learning from rejection

Some of the credit for its success might actually go to the publishers who rejected it. Because they were so blunt with their doomsaying, Warframe was able to avoid its prophetic failure. Digital Extremes had the largest free-to-play developers in the world telling them exactly what they shouldn t do, and Sinclair said they used that to their advantage. We broke it down, Why are we going to fail? he recalled, and that became part of the early foundation of the game, which is why you see a game with procedural levels, which is why you see a game with a lot of permutations and a lot systems that work together.

The original design still had procedural levels, but called for story or quest missions to occasionally have static, hand-crafted maps. That idea was thrown out after being told in Korea that they wouldn t be able to update their game fast enough. I m glad that happened, Sinclair said, because otherwise we would have done things differently. We would have moved slower. And he s right to be glad, because a massive part of the reason Warframe is still growing almost four years later is how frequently Digital Extremes updates the game.

Carter explained that the most recent update was actually broken into three pieces to allow players to get some of the new content quicker. We had this grand ambition for it, he said, and we realized that to realize the grand ambition of it was going to take two or three months. Two or three months for a large update would be blazing fast for some other games out there, but in Warframe s world of weekly patches and frequent changes, it s a lifetime. Digital Extremes has an in-house sound studio and its own motion capture room, and many of the voice actors are employees at the company, allowing the team to record VO as late as the day before it s being put into the game.

And it s not just about adding more content. That s another lesson we learned from those people we talked to that said you re going to fail , said Sinclair, they were saying you ll stagnate. You won t evolve, you won t innovate. Last year Digital Extremes did a complete rework of Warframe s movement system affectionately known as Parkour 2.0. Just last week it completely redesigned the star chart and mission select screen, giving it a clearer progression path. With even fundamental game mechanics in flux, I asked Sinclair if he was ever worried about alienating current players.

That is the every day conversation, Sinclair said. The status quo is so seductive. 'Just let it go. Just keep adding guns and don t change a thing.' But Carter expressed that it s important not to get too comfortable. Let s just redo the whole star chart and change how people flow through the entire game, he said, and that s going to alienate a lot of people, but then they re going to get mastery over it and they re going to love it. Sinclair continued by saying that deep in the core of Warframe is this idea that change is good, even though it s painful for some of our players.

While at TennoCon, Warframe s first dedicated convention, I spoke to many of the game s most passionate fans. I asked why they re still playing after so many years, and frequency of updates was one of most consistent answers I got.

Now Digital Extremes has grown back up to a 260-person company, even hiring back some of the people let go in 2013. Despite what the publishers said, Warframe is still on the rise. We hear from those [publishers] now," Sinclair said, "and they re saying can you help us figure out Western free-to-play? Because for some reason we figured it out on accident, and they want to know how.

But even while asking for advice, Carter said those same publishers treat Warframe like a bubble just waiting to burst. It was almost like they thought we were at the top of the graph, and now we re going to bottom," Carter explained, "and we always just keep going further up. Digital Extremes indicated that Warframe hits roughly 100,000 peak concurrent players across all platforms each day, and that those numbers aren't dwindling. Sinclair described the game s growth as sort of a staircase pattern, saying every major update breaks [a record] compared to their previous highs.

A rogue success story

Despite its large player base, Warframe's success remains low-key. A lot of people haven t even heard of the game nearly four years later, and Digital Extremes recognizes that. I think we are a little bit frustrated by how well known the game is here and there, Sinclair said, and Carter agreed, adding, We all think the game can break through and break out bigger, because we have the same feeling. We have this great game and we have tons of people playing it and loving it, yet it doesn t feel like it s registered yet to the greater community.

For one, Digital Extremes doesn t do much large-scale marketing for the game, possibly a symptom of the frugal origins of Warframe s development. For example, they held a panel at this year s PAX East but didn t actually have a booth on the floor like many of the game s competitors. If we had a big booth, would that make it seem like we re more real? Carter asked. But that flies in the face of what Steve was talking about before, which is we re not going to spend money there, we re going to put everything we can into the game. Carter pointed out that maybe that s changing, citing a Warframe cartoon they announced last weekend, but Sinclair says those trade-offs have been agonizing.

Another reason for Warframe s lack of widespread interest could be its high barrier to entry. A lot of criticism has been focused on the new player experience, which Sinclair admits they prioritize less than making content for current players. It s kind of why the new user experience of Warframe kinda sucks, he said, because every update it s like well, we have our players what can we do to engage them now? Do I worry about the marketing that s going to pull in the new users and that first hour that they have? Sinclair went on to say that they just want to make [Warframe] more interesting, but that the strategy does make the game harder to learn.

As more is added, the complexity of different systems interacting with each other increases. Warframe is in a constant state of renovation, Sinclair said. We always want to make it feel like you can play this game in 2012 or you can play it in 2016. It s still going to be relevant, it s still going to feel modern. It s going to still feel like we care about it every day. It s not abandoned. That comes with those downsides. Sinclair also explained that they do retire certain features as they go stale, but both he and Carter admitted even they can t remember all the stuff they ve added to Warframe at this point.

Digital Extremes focus on the very things people said couldn t be done is, for the most part, what s made Warframe so successful. It looks gorgeous, it kept the sci-fi theme ironically, a setting that's all the rage right now and when somebody said they would never be able to update it fast enough, they overcompensated by making the entire game about updates. In a way, Warframe has been designed as a frame for whatever new type of weapon or system designers such as Sinclair and Carter can think to throw into it.

I asked if there would ever be a Warframe 2, and they both smiled. That s our joke, man, Sinclair said. We always joke about that. This is our Warframe 2 and Warframe 3 and Warframe 4 and all those things. There s probably some marketing angle to be tempted to do what you re talking about, but I don t think so.

Summer is the absolute best time for esports, if you can keep that damned sun glare off your screen long enough to enjoy the games. If you re not out chasing balls in the park, or virtual animals on your mobile device, then you have made the correct choice as there s a plethora of competitive gaming at the highest level all weekend.Dota, StarCraft, Hearthstone and even Street Fighter V (especially Street Fighter V) have some huge tournaments, so you may want to adjust your curtains accordingly. Here s the best pro gaming to watch this weekend.

EVO Chamionship SeriesProbably the biggest event this weekend is a fighting game tournament. Well, more like nine fighting game tournaments at the Mecca of fighting game tournaments. EVO returns to Las Vegas this weekend for some truly monstrously sized pools of Street Fighter V and Mortal Kombat XL. More than 5,000 SFV entrants will be fighting their way to a top 8 showdown in the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Sunday, in the game s first EVO appearance. Catch that top 8 on the CapcomFighters Twitch from 7pm Sunday PDT / 3am Monday BST.DreamHack Valencia StarCraft IIMost of Europe s finest Terran, Protoss, and Zerg players are locked in an all out brawl until Saturday evening at DreamHack s Valencia Open. Those still in with a chance include France s surprise WCS contender David Lilbow Moschetto, and Norway s Jens Snute Asgaard. There s 1,000 WCS circuit points for top place which is nothing to sniff at in the new tournament format as well as $16,000, with a total of $29,000 on the podium. You can watch all the matches on the DreamHack SC2 Twitch and the Grand Finals begin Saturday from 7:30pm BST / 11:30am PDT.DreamHack Valencia Hearthstone Grand PrixAlso in Valencia this weekend are Europe s hottest Hearthstone players at the Grand Prix. Orange and Pavel obviously are in attendance, along with newer star BoarControl and cadre of other Brits including GreenSheep, Cipher, and Ness. Amazingly only one (Cipher) has survived through to the top 16, and there are a few new faces to spot among the others. You can see all of the remaining matches until Saturday s finals on the DreamHack Hearthstone stream, and the round-of-8, semis and grand finals begin at 12:15pm BST / 4:15am PDT.The Summit 5Dota s bi-annual LAN in a house tournament returns this week to put many of the best teams on the international circuit into one house with all the production values you could ask for. This year, defending champs of December s Summit Evil Geniuses are nowhere to be seen, though Manila Major winners OG will be fending off several others as the hot favourites. The real draw is the out-of-game activities, including special roaming camera reporter for The Summit 5, Barry the dog. Come for the high-class Dota, stay for the memes. All broadcast on BeyondTheSummit s Twitch channel, with Loser s Round 2 matches beginning Saturday form 10am PDT / 6pm BST, and the grand finals on Sunday 1:30pm PDT / 9:30pm BST (after the loser s final at 10am/6pm).

On Wednesday Valve announced it would begin sending requests to cease operations to gambling websites that use Steam s trading system. Using the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements, wrote Valve s Erik Johnson.

The announcement was a surprise. Although scrutiny of CS:GO gambling peaked as it was revealed that two of the world s most popular gaming YouTubers had created a CS:GO skin gambling website and quietly promoted it to their audiences, some of these services have existed for three years. Other than a match fixing scandal in 2015 this was the first time that Valve has addressed them.

Valve s announcement implied that Steam users should retrieve item skins from gambling websites, and some members of the community began to wonder: would Valve s action trigger a crash of CS:GO s skin market? Some Steam users own hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of CS:GO skins. How would their fortunes, and the inventory value of CS:GO s other 10 million active players, be affected by this announcement?

Not much. Although there isn t an index number that reflects the value of the CS:GO item market as a whole, sales data for individual weapons tend to show an initial reaction to the news, followed by normalization.

Valve s announcement went out via email just before 1 PM Pacific on June 13. I sampled a set of 20 arbitrary, higher-volume skins on the market, and found that they fell an average of 13.7% that evening. A Minimum Wear AWP BOOM skin, for example, dropped from $21.75 to $18.56 12 hours after the announcement.

The drop in price seems reactionary, a reflection of some sellers fear that the market would implode. Although the correction was very uniform across the items I sampled, most items have not continued to drop in value, and many have risen back to their pre-announcement price. More adjustments can probably be expected as gambling websites close or alter how they operate, but my belief is that these items will retain most of their value as long as CS:GO remains one of the most-played and most-spectated games in the world.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a game about teamplay, individual skill and economy management. If you know when to use pistols you ll be at a great advantage when it comes to economy and planning for future rounds. If you also know how to use them you can do some serious damage to your opponent s game plan. Win the pistol round and you set yourselves up for a great half. If on the other hand you lose the pistol round, there are ways to limit the damage done to your economy. Needless to say you should practice pistols and pay attention to their strengths and weaknesses.

 The pistol round

The Glock-18, USP-s and P2000 have one thing in common: they don t penetrate armor. However they do a lot of damage against enemies without armor, especially head armor. On the pistol round you only have $800, which isn t enough to get a helmet. Because of this fact the three pistols mentioned above work really well in pistol rounds. A lot of the time it s better to invest in armor than to upgrade to another pistol. There are exceptions, however, and I will get to them soon.

Another option is to buy a few grenades as long as you have a plan. It s also worth mentioning that one player on the CT-side could invest in a defuse kit. Nothing is more frustrating than killing the other team on an attempted retake only to find yourself in a situation where you don t have time enough to defuse the bomb.

 The Glock-18

The Glock-18 isn t as accurate as the USP-s or the P2000, but it holds 20 bullets and has very little spread.

This means it s a really good pistol to run and gun with. What you want to do when you play the Glock-18 on pistol rounds is to get as close to your opponents as possible and aim for their heads. They are likely to be wearing body armor and the Glock-18 has the worst armor penetration of all the pistols in the game. It s often wise to have one or two players buy flashbangs and a smoke just to make it easier for you to get closer to the defending players. Just don t use Glock-18 on eco rounds unless you really need to in order to afford a full buy later on.

 The USP-s and P2000

These two pistols are insanely accurate over great distances compared to the terrorist counterpart. As a result, you want to do the exact opposite of what the terrorists want. Your job is to make sure you can keep the fight at long distances. As long as you can do that, all you have to do is to tap slowly and aim for their heads.

 The P250

The P250 is a great pistol that s very accurate at medium range. It also has a lot better armor penetration than the Glock-18, USP-s and P2000, which makes it ideal for the second round if you lose the pistol round. The exception is if you re on the terrorist side and got the plant but lost the round. In this case you shouldn t buy anything at all, and go for a full buy on the third round instead.

In particular, buy the P250 if you re going to defend or attack an area where you think you can get close enough to steal an SMG with a fast headshot.

 The Tec-9 and CZ75-Auto

These can be some of the most powerful pistols in the game if used correctly. The Tec-9 is one of the exceptions for pistol rounds that I mentioned earlier. One player can buy armor and have a teammate drop him a Tec-9. That gives the terrorists an almost impossible force of nature to lead the charge.

It s also a great weapon to buy on force buys if you re planning on running a fast strategy. It s super powerful and fires rounds really fast. It isn t that accurate, however, which means you need to get close. Much like the Glock-18 it doesn t have that much spread, so it s ideal to run and gun with.

The CZ75-Auto can one-shot people at close range even if they have head armor. It s one of the most powerful weapons in the game, but it s incredibly hard to control. It holds 12 bullets per magazine and it shoots really fast. This means that you have to lurk around corners and catch people off guard. You ll most likely only get one chance, so make the most of it. If you manage to kill an enemy with either an AWP or an assault rifle you ve done significant damage to the other team s economy and it was a good investment to buy the CZ75-Auto.

 Five-Seven

The Five-Seven can be equipped instead of the CZ75-Auto in the loadout menu for the counter-terrorist side. It holds 20 bullets and can kill armored players with a single shot to the head. It s low spread and high armor penetration makes it great to spam bullets with at close range. If you re a bit farther away from your target you should go for slower taps instead. At only $500 the Five-Seven is a great alternative to the P250 in the second round if you are feeling confident that you can take out at least one enemy.

 The Desert Eagle

One of the game s most iconic weapons. Over the years the Desert Eagle has given us a lot of highlight videos to enjoy and envy. I m looking at you, Happy.

The Desert Eagle costs $700, making it the most expensive pistol in the game. It s really accurate at medium range and fairly accurate at long range as well and famous for its incredible one-shot potential. You can buy the Desert Eagle if you re a great aimer and you know you can afford a full buy on the following round or if your team decides to force buy. It is a real hand cannon, so don t underestimate its power. Master it and your opponents will have reasons to fear you even if you can t afford the bigger toys.

Find all of our other Counter-Strike: Global Offensive guides here:

Inferno Counter-Terrorist guideInferno Terrorist guideCache Counter-Terrorist guideCache Terrorist guideOverpass Counter-Terrorist guideOverpass Terrorist guideCobblestone Counter-Terrorist guideCobblestone Terrorist guideTrain Counter-Terrorist guideTrain Terrorist guideMirage Counter-Terrorist guideMirage Terrorist guideDust2 Counter-Terrorist guideDust2 Terrorist guideSupport role guideEntry fragger role guideLurker role guideAWPer role guideTeam leader guideSMGs guideSniper rifles guideAssault rifles guide

Bethesda has done some great things with the Fallout franchise, but no matter how much you may like modern Fallout, there's no denying that it is not the Fallout of old. For those of you who miss that old isometric experience, Fallout 1.5: Resurrection, a Fallout 2 mod set between the events of Fallout 1 and 2 hence the name might be just the thing.

Resurrection takes place in New Mexico, east of the future NCR territory, with all new locations, characters, and organizations. Geographically, it's roughly the same size as the original Fallout, but features a much greater number of quests to complete. It also promises a darker experience than the relatively light-hearted Fallout 2.

As big fans of Fallout, we've tried to take the best from all of the classic Fallout games. Easter eggs and jokes, with which Fallout 2 was literally overfilled, have been folded into the background, the developers say. Instead, the great atmosphere of decadence and hopelessness enjoyed by so many in the first Fallout game returns. The world is still chaotic, with only a few, small, independent communities connected by tenuous trade relations. The wasteland is an unfriendly place where law is on the side of whoever has the biggest gun.

The setup is trite you wake up in a cave with amnesia and, beginning with only the most basic of supplies, must discover who you are and how you ended up in such a state but it can't be any worse than that ridiculous Temple of Trials that kicked off Fallout 2. It's also free, which is a big plus, although you will need a full install of Fallout 2 to use it.

The Czech version of Fallout 1.5: Resurrection was actually released in October 2013, but the English translation only became available today. I haven't tried it yet (I am working here, you know) but you better believe I'm going to. More information and download links are available at resurrection.cz.

CD Projekt Red confirmed last week that it will be releasing a Game of the Year edition of The Witcher 3 in the coming months, a re-release which will likely include all the game s patches, free DLC, and paid expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine. As we ve learned, though, CD Projekt Red has a tendency to go above and beyond, and the prospect of a final, definitive edition of The Witcher 3 got our imaginations going.With The Witcher and The Witcher 2, CD Projekt released Enhanced Editions that fixed bugs, reworked animations and character models, added cinematics they were huge updates. The Witcher 3 has been getting that kind of treatment with patches and DLC since day one, so we don't expect any major surprises. But our biggest Witcher fans still have some outstanding wishes for The Witcher 3 s last ride.

Rework the skill system

Witcher 3 s skill trees are full of interesting abilities that augment melee combat, potions, and signs...but by the end of the game, you probably haven t gotten to use that many of them. It simply requires too much investment in a skill path to get to the high-level skills if you want to diversify at all. I appreciate when games don t give you every single ability, requiring some choice in how you specialize, but I felt like The Witcher 3 went too far in that regard, and I never felt like I was making interesting choices in how I leveled up Geralt. Another problem: the limited number of slots you have to use at any one time discourages experimentation, since it can feel wasteful to put points into abilities you won t use constantly. I would ve enjoyed trying out bombs more often in specific combat encounters when they felt especially useful, but I didn t want to invest points in them when my signs and melee skills were always there and always reliable.I m not a game designer, so I can t suggest the perfect solution, but more flexibility here would be welcome. A bigger change would be adding more actual abilities into the skill system: things that significantly change Geralt s skillset. For an Enhanced Edition, this would probably be relegated to combat giving him new abilities that affected conversation and Witcher sense, while awesome, would probably require too much work. But even in combat, a new skill system could be so much fun. Imagine Geralt unlocking sword combos based on skills, or gaining new ways to combine signs and swords similar to the way Batman gears up in the Arkham games. The Blood & Wine expansion plays a bit with this idea with its high-level mutations, but I'd welcome that creativity spread across the entire base game.At the minimum, just letting Geralt equip a wider set of skills at once would make for a more satisfying sense of progression through the skill tree. There are a few paths CD Projekt Red could go down to make The Witcher 3 s combat and experience curve more satisfying, and that would be enough to send me on another 60 hour playthrough. Wes Fenlon

Fix Roach

I love Roach. She doesn t seem to have much personality, but the trusty steed can be relied upon to materialise out of thin air whenever a quest marker sits too far away. Roach isn t perfect though: she makes sightseeing in the Northern Realms a little harder than it should be. Her inbuilt GPS has a habit of taking the wrong fork in the road, sometimes veering off on unwanted detours through drowner infested land. Whenever you want her to take the left road, she ll usually take the right, and while it s probably really hard to fix that, I want it fixed anyway! Somehow. I want a horse that can read my mind, or at least favour major roads over less traveled ones. Shaun Prescott

Add a first-person mode

Look, I can accept that this is a huge ask, but if Rockstar can make GTA 5 s third-person shooting work in a first-person setting, I have faith that CD Projekt Red could make its third-person combat work in The Witcher 3. Even if that proves impossible and the more I think about it, the more Geralt s dance-like, barrel rolling combat style seems completely unsuited to first-person it s be great to just explore in first-person. As much as I love seeing the back of Geralt s head while I explore the Northern Realms, I d very much like to see one of those perfect Oxenfurt sunsets without the Butcher of Blaviken s silhouette in the way. Perhaps the game could switch between third- and first-person view (optional, of course) depending on the setting? In any case, I d love to get a little bit closer to Velen and Skellige, and this feels like the best way to do it. Shaun Prescott

Add a hardcore survival mode

Having played The Witcher 3 in its entirety, completing every expansion, and nearly every quest, I can t help but feel like the open world setting is a tad underutilized. The dynamic weather, day and night cycles, and realistic portrayal of its varied geography are all harmless set pieces. Through playing the witcher quests, you get the sense that the world is harsh and unrelenting it must be, there s an upturned cart peppered with caracasses every other mile. But the environment itself is rarely a threat. It s just a massive space with the occasional mob roadblock.A hardcore survival mode where Geralt can t fast travel and has to hunt, make camp, and dress for the weather may not be ideal for first timers, but for those looking to squeeze more fun out of the open world, it could make for a more dramatic, impromptu experience. So often, the open world is just a means to an end. It s beautiful, detailed set-dressing that works as a massive stage, but it s also the perfect test bed for experimental emergent systems. I like the idea of having to prepare for a trek up one of Skillege s mountains, packing warm dress and a tent, slowly making my way while fending off the occasional pack of wolves or troll, hunting for rabbits to keep my stamina up, and (hopefully) making good enough time to beat an incoming blizzard. Make Geralt earn those scars.

It wouldn t be a mode for everyone. The danger of The Witcher s environment is baked into the writing already, but some players also want to live it and roleplay for real. James Davenport

Bulk up the ModKit tools

Shortly after the release of The Witcher 3, CD Projekt released mod tools for the game. That's more than most developers offer if a game is even moddable, it's usually up to the community to break it apart and figure out how it works with little or no support. But compared to CD Projekt's offering for The Witcher 2, Witcher 3's modding tools were limited.

Witcher 2's REDKit toolset allowed modders to dig into the engine and create their own new environments. It was powerful. Witcher 3's ModKit is unfortunately not so comprehensive, and we haven't seen any big mods for The Witcher 3 come out of it over the past year. If modders are dedicated enough, they'll carry on anyway. Maybe we'll even see whole community-made expansions someday. But expanded tools would be a great way for CD Projekt to say goodbye to The Witcher 3 and hand its legacy over to the fans.

Give modders the proper tools, and they'll keep the game alive for a decade to come. Wes Fenlon

Hitman s latest Elusive Target befalls sunny Sapienza and, as always, you ve got 72 hours to get the job done. As you ve no doubt come to expect by now, you ve got just one shot to hit the mark or it s game over (well, contract over), however there s a twist in the tale this time round: the target has an identical twin and under no circumstances are you to take out the wrong one.

The immaculately (and identically) dressed duo are known as Dylan and Gonzales Narvaez two tobacco billionaires operating from mainland China. You re after the former, and you ve got until 1pm BST/5am PT Monday to make it happen.

Over to you, contract handler Diana:

Elusive Targets were designed to be difficult, reads the announcement post on the official Hitman site. And The Twin is the toughest one yet. Happy hunting.

Bastion grabbed my heart exactly one minute and 30 seconds after it started, reads the first line of PC Gamer s 2011 Bastion review, which is a feeling that never left me until the game s end. The action-RPG is now (somehow) five years old but still stands as one of my all time favourites which is why I think you should check it out this weekend via Steam s Supergiant Games Anniversary Sale.

Although hard at work on its next venture Pyre which Tom described as like The Oregon Trail mixed with Rocket League Supergiant will spend this weekend celebrating Bastion s fifth birthday. Both it and and its genre-similar sibling Transistor are subject to an 80 percent discount. Transistor didn t quite hit the same highs as its forerunner, but wowed with its vivid hand-drawn cyberpunk world and cool time-freeze combat mechanic.

The price reduction means you can grab Bastion for 2.19/$2.99/2,99 , and Transistor for 2.99/$3.99/3,79 . Should you wish to pick up the Supergiant Collection which includes both games and their official soundtracks that ll set you back 6.98/$9.86/9,68 . All offers run from now until Monday 6pm BST/10am PT.

Dead Space, Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition, and SimCity 3000 Unlimited are the latest games EA has let slip from the grips of its digital distribution platform Origin. Now featured on the DRM-free GOG.com, the trio of classics has also been discounted to mark the occasion.

As a result you can snap up one of the best RPGs of all time Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition for 5.99/$7.89. Or the abandoned space station scare em up Dead Space for the same. Or SimCity3000 Unlimited which dates all the back to 1999, but is decidedly better than the most recent series entry for 3.99/$5.20.

Each of today's three classic releases from Electronic Arts represents a pillar of game design: exceptional world building, mastery in storytelling, an admirable understanding of the balance between scope and focus, reads a statement from GOG. Head on over there to check them out.