Street Fighter 5 [official site] is sending mixed signals with its first content update of ‘Season 2’, adding returning fighter Akuma with his iconic ‘Raging Demon’ combo while also adding new punishments for rage quitting. So is rage good or bad? Perhaps the distinction is that it’s fine if you hang around to pose moodily at the end. The update launches today, also rebalancing a bit and adding official support for Direct Input controllers. Oh, and a sleighload of Christmassy paid costumes. … [visit site to read more]

Every Monday we abandon Brendan in a forest with a map and an early access game. This week, the hardcore orienteering of Virtual-O [official site].

These rocks are definitely the correct rocks, I think, as the sun glares down through the trees of a Czech wood. A flock of birds passes through the sky in the distance. Grass and twigs rustle under my feet as I look around for the control a small orange and white square that serves as a checkpoint for this countryside time trial. Ah, there it is. I run towards it, feeling relief that I am not as lost as I previously thought. The checkpoint buzzes with disdain. A message flashes up. Wrong control, it says. I frown and look helplessly at the forest. The rocks lied to me. … [visit site to read more]

Here we are, almost in 2017, with official new expansions still coming out for a game from 1999. Age of Empires 2 HD [official site] today launches Rise of the Rajas, the third new expansion since the real-time strategy game was revamped and rereleased in 2013. Rise of the Rajas is off to Southeast Asia for historical warfare with four new civilisations, each with their own campaigns and so very many battle elephants. … [visit site to read more]

If Frozen Synapse and Battlerite had a baby, it would bear an uncanny resemblance to Atlas Reactor. Think turn-based MOBA-style combat with an emphasis on predicting and responding to your opponent’s next move. If you re not sure what MOBA-style combat really means, have no fear: Atlas Reactor is a unique creature, and experience with its genre-spanning inspirations won t give you much of a competitive edge. It certainly hasn t for me.

… [visit site to read more]

The next door on the Advent Calendar might be dangerous…or, to be more precise, what’s behind it might be. We haven’t examined the contents yet and would advise that you do not approach it until it’s been fully scanned. Why not send in a drone to open the door while you hide in the bedroom. That way if anything terrible emerges, you’ll be safe, hiding under the duvet.

It’s the game with 2016’s best interface, Duskers! … [visit site to read more]

SureAI’s huge Skyrim total conversion Enderal: The Shards of Order [official site], which builds a whole new game upon Bethesda’s foundations, is getting an expansion of its own in 2017. Enderal’s launch this year was dang impressive – “play this excellent mod,” said Cobbo – but a few bits were cut from the initial release. Now the game’s lead writer has picked those up off the cutting room floor and is polishing them up for Forgotten Stories with 10-20 hours of new quests and new quest lines, along with a few other nice odds and ends. Have a peek in the announcement trailer below. … [visit site to read more]

They say ’tis the season for giving, and it looks like CD Projekt Red has been allowed to open one of their presents a few days before December 25: a cash bounty from the Polish government to the tune of 30 million zloty (that’s $7 million US dollars or 5.6 million Queen’s megapounds), according to a report from WCCFTech. … [visit site to read more]

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

I mourned for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. The multiplayer first-person shooter launched amid stories of low sales and low player counts, but it was so, so good. Thank goodness the audience found it eventually. … [visit site to read more]

Send your sofa to oblivion, leave your lamp to the void, cast your fridge to nothingness, and generally have a pleasant little time with Dustyroom’s puzzle game Empty [Itch page]. Each level presents a pretty diorama of a room filled items you must make vanish. This is done, cleverly, by making them look like they’re not there. Rotate the diorama so that yellow lamp turns invisible against the yellow ceiling and – poof! – it’s gone. Sounds easy, isn’t necessarily. … [visit site to read more]

As you’ll know if you’ve been reading RPS for a few years, it’s a tradition of ours to only remember to announce we’ve hired a new writer several months after everyone’s already noticed that they’re here. We’ve hired a new writer! It’s Brendan Caldwell, and he’s the latest full-time entrant to the RPS Hivemind. You must welcome him with cheers of encouragement below. … [visit site to read more]