Just had sex in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, no big deal. Got down to it in m'lady's chambers between a few buckskin blankets. I'm guessing it was very nice because I've been rewarded with this Alpha Male buff, a +2 to Charisma. All that barking paid off. It's only temporary though, so I'll have to re-up soon. It sure is nice having a medieval-era penis. 

OK, so I have a confession to make: I did not mean to have sex with the digital woman. This is actually the second time I didn't mean to have sex in this game but ended up having sex anyway. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, sex happens whether you want it to or not, a bizarre concession for a game steeped in player choice. But before I get too upset about all this sex I’ve been having, let's recount how it went down. Maybe I'm to blame. 

Spoiler alert: We're about to get down and dirty and discuss some early game quests in detail. 

In the opening hours of Kingdom Come, the player-protagonist Henry runs off to Talmberg in order to warn the local lord of an incoming Cuman army. They'd just laid waste to Ratzig, murdering Henry's parents and burning the place to the ground. Rough stuff. So when Lady Stephanie, the noblewoman married to Talmberg's Sir Davish, paid close attention and offered care to a grieving, injured Henry, I interpreted it as goodwill—and it was! She was kind to me in a time of need, stepping down from her highborn status to comfort a poor stinking peasant (still me). That's what all nobles should aspire to.

An early sidequest, 'At Your Service, My Lady', takes you to Talmberg to assist Lady Stephanie with preparations for a friend's wedding. Throughout the quest you learn about her husband's long imprisonment, who left a spritely middle-aged knight and returned years later as a weary, frail old man. Her elder by decades, Davish's return also marked the early departure of Lady Stephanie's youth.

So I brushed off her light flirtations. I assumed she was just happy to have a hot guy do her chores and talk to her. It must be a lonely life as a noble in a small village and Henry represented something unexpected and vital. I thought we were just friends. And friends buy each other gifts, right? For finishing friendship quests? Normal, yeah? But when she gifted me an expensive shirt, things started to get weird. She told me to put it on in front of her. Listen, I'm not a Christian man, but my Henry wouldn't risk it. He wants to keep his head attached to his body.

Even so, I was intrigued by the potential of a relationship questline based around hiding an affair from the neighboring lord that saved my ass. Given the option to change in her room (while she looked away, of course) I said OK, expecting nothing more than some bad flirting and a thank you or four. I figured it was one step in a series of clandestine quests in which we tested each other's boundaries and eventually did the deed (or I ended up dead). I didn't want to piss her off, so I figured listening was the best way to avoid a spell in the stocks. 

Lady Stephanie and Henry went from chatting about how nice the shirt was to suddenly crying and hugging and kissing and falling over onto the bed. This was unanticipated. Though not present for the sex itself, I'm pretty sure they didn't just leave things at some over-the-corset fumbling after the cutscene faded to black. 

My Henry had sex with a woman he didn’t mean to—a significant character choice made for me off the back of some mild  flirtation and poor signposting. Why even have an option and achievement for completing the game as a virgin if it's going to be wrestled away from us pure, chaste Henrys? It played out as a weird and stilted sequence that assumes a lot about the player behind the wheel. Maybe I'm not the horny boy Warhorse Studios envisioned at the receiving end of Lady Stephanie's steamy shirt gift. 'Sex-haver' is not an interesting character trait. I'm sure every highwayman and beggar got some back when—I'm just disappointed the quest wasn't used as an interesting storytelling opportunity. An affair with the wife of the lord that saved me? Dangerous. That's some pulpy romance novel shit.

Instead, the quest, and the relationship with Lady Stephanie, just fizzles out. There's no further insight into her character, like how she's dealt with being alone for so long, what it means to be a noblewoman in a chaste Christian society, or even what sexual foibles the elite dabbled in at the time. Butt stuff, armor fetishes—who knows?

For me, it harmed the process of curating my own Henry. Here’s a character defined by his doofy naivete and what you choose to imprint on him during his rapid transition from serf to knight. Now that I know Kingdom Come is going to make significant choices on behalf of character—and being a newly-made page in medieval Bohemia who just banged a blue blood feels like a big deal—then it feels like maybe my own choices won’t matter so much in the long run. I was willing to chalk it off as an oversight. 

Then I met Father Godwin, a traveling knight turned preacher who doesn't really practice according to the good book. You're given the opportunity to go drinking with the guy, a night that spins out of control through a series of cutscenes and short interactive vignettes. After getting kicked out of the bar and climbing the church bell tower, a scene plays out in a barn in which Godwin has sex with a local, unnamed woman. Another woman approaches Henry, saying, "The priest has mounted up. What do you say, Henry—shall we take a little ride of our own?" I expected a short dialogue interlude where I could say yes or no, but the scene carries on and Henry bumps uglies again.

Damn, my Henry literally can’t stop getting laid. And again, what if I wasn’t into it? These sequences muddy how much control you have over his characterization in service of what the designers assume the player wants. I'm not mad Henry can have sex, I'm just mad the decision was made for me when I said I'd have a beer with a priest. 

If I can play as a conniving thief or honorable knight or choose to save a friend in danger or leave them behind, then why can't I have a meaningful degree of control over roleplaying my character's principles? Without setting up clear expectations for how much we can steer our Henrys, the more often characterization is wrestled away for flourishes constructed to titillate the player, the more I'm going to dread every dialogue choice. A promise to deliver some apples might end with Henry waking up in a field with his ass in the air. A chat with a merchant could very well end with Henry renouncing his religion and sprinting into the woods to build a house. I'm having fun with Kingdom Come, but I don't trust it with my boy anymore. 

Astroneer got a big, free update today—its "biggest update to date," developer System Era Softworks reckons—that makes significant additions to its base building and power systems.

New base platforms are the high point of the update. These "freestanding, movable" platforms can be placed and rotated individually and then connected to power sources. New fabricators—think little portable printers—were also added. You can use a small fabricator to print medium platforms straight from your backpack, or print a medium fabricator and plop it down if you need larger objects. 

Base modules and platforms are also now modular. When you print them, they'll start as prepackaged crates, which you can easily place wherever you'd like before deploying them. System Era says existing bases will automatically be updated to fit these new systems, but advises that you "use old saves at your own risk." 

Further fleshing out these base changes are yet more additions to power grids, following up on last December's big power and research update. The gist is that you can now create shared power pools by joining generators together, and use new extenders to better allocate that power. 

The official patch notes are a laundry list of details, bug fixes and smaller changes, if you want to read them for yourself. 

System Era also outlined its development roadmap in the update. With research and base building in-progress, the studio hopes to release weather and terrain improvements, as well as dedicated servers, in early 2018.

If you're looking for games like XCOM on PC, you're in luck. XCOM is now its own genre, as creator Julian Gollop explained on this website late last year. This is a good thing. Turn-based strategy games have gotten surprisingly big, and it's not just happening on PC—it's evident in the XCOM-like Mario + Rabbids on the Switch, and in the Fire Emblem series.

On PC, we've got a lot of different games coming in the XCOM/X-Com vein, including one from Gollop himself. Below, we've rounded them up. 

Phoenix Point

Julian Gollop’s modern take on the original X-Com idea, Phoenix Point goes for a much more granular, simulation-heavy combat system than Firaxis’ XCOM reboots. Bullets are modelled individually, location damage can cripple enemies or remove combat abilities mid-fight, you can alter movement mid-run if you spot an enemy, and enemies include monsters the size of buildings.

There’s a much grittier tone, too, and the devs have talked about working Lovecraftian horror influences into the design of the enemy crab creatures menacing humanity. The creatures evolve to counter your tactics, growing gun arms to counter aggressive close combat squads, or chitinous shields to repel squads lacking in armour penetration. 

We played the first backer build a little while ago, and there's a second one available to backers now—you can get access with the game's luxury digital edition, but it's a steep $50, whereas a regular pre-order costs $30. It's got a long way to go, but its differences from XCOM are pretty exciting. 

Phantom Doctrine

It's exciting to see the XCOM formula applied to different themes. Phantom Doctrine is set during an alternate history Cold War, with both KGB and CIA storylines to choose from. You run a counterintelligence agency, and you can brainwash, interrogate and chemically enhance your operatives in order to battle a global conspiracy that's basically actioning the Cold War. 

You've got the option to play in a stealthy way with silenced weapons and quiet takedowns, or be noisy about how you operate. You also maintain a hideout where, among other things like pinning evidence to a conspiracy corkboard, you can change your agents' identities if they're at risk. There's a lot going on in Phantom Doctrine, then, and beating it will apparently take a massive 60 hours, but the mix here is compelling. 

Jody played Phantom Doctrine in June, and loved the aforementioned corkboard. During the initial infiltration stage, Phantom Doctrine is closer to something like Klei's Invisible Inc, but when the action kicks off, that's when it reminded him more of XCOM. You won't have to wait long to play it—it's out in August.

Xenonauts 2

We praised the original Xenonauts for hewing closely to the old X-Com formula but also building its own layers on top of that, including more flexibility for unit customisation. Years later, Xenonauts 2 is a nicer-looking sequel that has a pre-alpha combat demo on GOG Galaxy. It passed its Kickstarter goal of £50,000 within half a day.

In Xenonauts 2, the Cold War never really ended, and you have to rebuild your organisation from scratch. It's not a story sequel to the original, rather "an updated portrayal of similar events", according to the Kickstarter. The Geoscape has been expanded from the original, and Goldhawk Interactive calls this a game "loosely inspired" by classic X-Com and not a direct remake like the first game was. Some backers will get access to a closed beta, estimated to arrive in September, and the game will launch in Early Access before a full release. 

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Based on decades-old pen-and-paper RPG Mutant, and from ex-Hitman developers, Mutant Year Zero is an unusual mix of stealth game and turn-based RPG. You explore environments in real-time, but when a fight kicks off, it enters a more familiar-looking XCOM combat framework. Wes described it as "really fucking cool", which is the sort of assessment italics were created for. 

Mutant Year Zero is set in a post-apocalypse where mutated humans and animals are vying for survival. This means one of your characters is Duck (called Dux), which is something none of the other turn-based games in this list can boast. Your party is limited to three, and around 30 mutations, granting different abilities, are spread out across the playable characters. These include moth wings, that let a character fly to get a better sniper spot. 

It looks beautiful, and it should be out later this year. 

Gears Tactics

Made by long-time Gears of War collaborators Splash Damage, this PC-exclusive spin-off was a big surprise from Microsoft's 2018 E3 conference. The Coalition's Rod Fegusson described it as their "take on the classic turn-based strategy genre, with a character-driven story, faster, more aggressive gameplay, a customizable squad and equipment". It'll also feature huge boss battles, in the style of Gears.

We're curious to see how well this universe translates to turn-based games, but that's pretty much all we know at this point. The screenshots suggest something familiarly XCOM-like, though. 

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Warhammer 40K plugs so easily into the XCOM format that it’s puzzling there aren’t more. We’ve had Space Hulk, and a version of Mordheim based on the Warhammer Fantasy Battle skirmish game, but Warhammer 40,000 Mechanicus will hopefully be the first game to do the licence justice. It's early days, but as you can see above, you'll get to fight Necrons, which is an interesting choice of foe.

The Adeptus Mechanicus are transhuman builders and worshippers of the machine god. They work with the Space Marines, building their armour and running their massive Titan walkers, but they are an interesting fighting force in their own right. Their tendency to upgrade their limbs with experimental weapons could be very entertaining in an XCOM-style campaign. “DIFFICULT DECISIONS” are promised, as well as alternative endings and a story penned by Warhammer Black Library author Ben Counter.

Arc System Works just had its biggest success ever with Dragon Ball FighterZ on PC, a collaboration with Namco Bandai that set the record for the most concurrent fighting game players on PC ever. The upcoming BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, landing in June, will be Arc's next attempt to pull in new players who've always been intimidated by the complexity of fighting games, with a simplified control scheme and crossover characters from Persona 4 and Rooster Teeth's RWBY.

I managed to win a match against BlazBlue director Toshimichi Mori, so it's definitely beginner friendly. After a few rounds, I talked with Mori and Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari about where the depth will come from in a tag fighter with simplified inputs and combos, what it's like for Arc System Works to develop games on PC, and, most importantly, why none of the shirtless, beefcake anime dudes in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle have nipples.

Wes: I was just starting playing Cross Tag Battle, but it's hard for me to know where the depth will be. I'm curious where the hardcore Arc System Works fans will find the competitive depth and longevity for this game, compared to previous BlazBlue games?

Mori: I think a lot of that will come down to the character combinations. There are a variety of toolkits the players will have access to, depending on which characters they combine with who. One thing we were very careful with is 'if I have this one character on my team I can win.' We didn't want any one character to stick out above the others.

A large concept for the game is to take people from the sidelines of fighting games who are interested in it but have always just spectated because they felt the barrier to entry was too high, or the execution barrier was too much for them, so that the moment you pick up the controller you're able to execute some pretty flashy moves. And the more you dig, the more you discover 'oh wow, this is cool, I can do this.' That's the feeling we wanted to entice in people.

Of course, we are aware that very cartoony, anime-looking visuals like this is considered a niche in the videogame world, but even then, if there's any point at which people might find interest in this game, the fighting, the characters, whatever it is, we want to make this a platform where they can come and play and enjoy it.

We're putting a lot of effort into the network and online modes as well, so we just want this to be, again, a platform where people can interact with each other and build a community around the idea of a fighting game.

That is, again, a large reason why we forced Arc System Works America, so we can start to communicate more directly with our fans and communities, help the communities grow, give them what they need, and listen to their feedback. From there it should trickle onward. Previously I think Japan and Asia had a huge advantage in competitiveness and just information. We want everyone to stand at the same starting line.

Wes: For making the game more approachable to new players, has that affected your training or tutorial modes at all?

Mori: There is of course a tutorial mode that will walk people through the basics of the systems in fighting games, but again going back to it, if you just mash some buttons you'll be able to do something. There's something for everyone here.

A lot of tutorial modes will walk you through all the systems, the complex mechanics, and I don't want any fans to feel like 'oh, I can't enjoy this game unless I master all of these.' I expect some people to not even go into the tutorial, to just dive right into brawling with each other, which is the intent.

Wes: I have kind of a weird question. Where are the guys' nipples? Even Mario has nipples now.

Mori: I heard that overseas it wouldn't be too well received, so we intentionally abstracted that [laughs]. I think in the US and Europe it's more acceptable, but in Asia it's not really… so we kind of fudged it, a little bit. I thought it was totally acceptable to have some form of expression of that. I guess that's cultural.

Wes: It just stuck out to me because last year there were all these jokes about Mario in Mario Odyssey having nipples. Everyone thought it was funny.

Mori: For the record, I am of the school of thought that it's acceptable as a form of expression, but I noticed whenever they'd take some of the artwork that I do with the nipples, in Asia it gets erased. 

Ishiwatari: Capcom characters don't have it, either.

Mori: It's a very tedious process to either draw it or not draw it, depending on which region the assets are going to go to, so we just decided to keep it universal.

Wes: How much does Arc System Works share personnel between teams, and technology between BlazBlue and Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ, and all your different games?

Ishiwatari: In terms of Dragon Ball FighterZ, that was more of an exception where the lead artist from Guilty Gear was kind of placed at the helm of overseeing many elements of that project. For more games that are developed internally at Arc System Works, exclusively, the game designers talk to each other, so they work really close to each other. Usually at the first stage of any game development, for example, the game designer of Guilty Gear will say 'hey on the next version we're going to try this, add these features and network modes, we got this kind of feedback from the audience, maybe you guys can apply something.' A lot of times at the game designer level they try to communicate, and each project will help the other one grow.

Mori: To summarize and add on to what Daisuke said, we're not a huge company, so I think communication is very key. Because we're not that large, the barrier to reach out to someone across the office is not as big as it might be for a huge, huge studio.

Wes: Is there a lot of shared technology between the different games? The engines that you used, the network infrastructure?

Mori: As far as the network infrastructure is concerned, there is a lot of overlap, but in terms of the engines, anything that has a BlazBlue look, versus a Guilty Gear look, are fundamentally different. Guilty Gear Xrd uses Unreal, where BlazBlue is a self-developed engine we've been modifying and improving upon since the Guilty Gear XX era.

Ishiwatari: Among the games developed inside Arc System Works, there are some universal themes and systems very familiar to people playing any Arc System Works game. So you have your Guilty Gears and BlazBlues and if one tries something new and gets a really good response, generally the other will try to improve upon that, integrate it, and then the barrier to cross between any of our games is generally very low. Of course, there are some exceptions, where one team might disagree with some kind of mechanic or element the other team is really gung-ho about. Those are always up for discussion.

Wes: On the PC, what has it been like for Arc System Works to start bringing their games to Steam? What has the fanbase been like? Has it grown a lot since you started bringing your games to the PC?

Mori: In terms of our PC releases, I think it's still very very young in its development stages. Yes, we have begun to bring games to the PC, but having said that, we haven't noticed any large movement in terms of shift in fanbase or anything of that nature. I think we'll find out in the coming years how that's going to affect that our company structure.

Wes: Is developing for PC still a challenge for the team, or is it as easy now as developing for PS4, arcade?

Mori: In terms of the development on PC, creating a 1:1 clone of any game, it's been pretty standard inside of our team. It's no more or less difficult than developing for any other platform. The biggest challenge right now is making them talk to each other across platforms. That's been a big theme. 

Ishiwatari: Each platform has its own quirks and its own fanbase, and we have many micro communities, where if you add everyone together we should have a pretty big community, but it's hard to get everyone matched with everyone else. I think a big bottleneck of fighting games is when you want to play but can't get matched with someone of a similar level. We have five different populations across five different platforms. Of course there's the technological barrier and difficulties of that, as well as the politics.

Wes: How does it feel to have, is it three Arc System Works games that are going to be on the main stage at EVO this year?

Mori: Of course we're very, very thankful. One of the titles being Dragon Ball, it's hard to say how much we really played a role in that, but it's a very heartwarming feeling.

Wes: There's never been another Dragon Ball game on the main stage of EVO, I don't think.

Mori: Our president is saying 10 years from now, I want only Arc games on EVO's main stage [laughs].

On a very personal level, it's a shame Central Fiction wasn't selected to be a main stage title. Going back to my previous point, if we did have Central Fiction, I think the Japanese players would have an advantage, which is not what I'm trying to do for this next era.

Wes: Within Arc System Works, which of your games are most popular in Japan, vs. the West?

Ishiwatari: As far as overseas is concerned, Double Dragon and the Kunio franchise really seem to have a lot of traction and popularity.

Mori: Of course, traditionally this has been a very niche kind of game, and the sort of branding that's been pushed, but with Anime Expo, Comic-Con, you see a lot more Japanese content, and even in US pop culture, what used to be subculture, comics, was always a more nerdy thing, is starting to take the main stage more and more. So I think if we can get people to see, hey, there's a really fun platform to engage upon, then that'll be really good.

Wes: If either of you could make an anime fighter from any series or property, what would you like to adapt?

Ishiwatari: The Simpsons [laughs].

Mori: Family Guy!

Ishiwatari: And Teen Titans is one of my personal favorites.

Mori: Oh, and Powerpuff Girls!

Final Fantasy 15 stormed the PC Gamer Weekender 2018 with a trio of trailers detailing its base game, Comrades multiplayer expansion, and scope for adorable civilian Cactuar mods. If you fancied any of that, the JRPG's incoming Windows Edition is getting a complimentary demo next week.     

Bringing with it the entirety of chapter one, it's available to download on Monday, February 26. Here's game director Hajime Tabata with a message from prospective players, who appears to be wearing a pair of dark trousers, a stripy jumper, a Half-Life headcrab hat, and—hang on a second, what's going on here? 

Ah, I see, we've been hoodwinked. Tabata's choice of headgear isn't random, but speaks to a Square Enix/Valve collaboration that plants silent scientist Gordon Freeman (his likeness, at least) into Final Fantasy 15 for those who pick up the game before May 1, 2018 on Steam. 

"If you pre-purchase or purchase FF15 Windows Edition on Steam before 1st May 2018, you can claim the Half-Life pack via Steam Workshop," reads this Steam Community post. "This pack features an in-game costume for Noctis based on Gordon Freeman, star of the legendary Half-Life video game series and the pack will also be available for FFXV Multiplayer Expansion: Comrades as well. This means your in-game avatar will also be able to wear Gordon Freeman’s suit."

Alongside Half-Life's HEV suit, Square Enix notes Freeman's glasses and crowbar will be made available too, and look a little something like this: 

Final Fantasy 15's Windows Edition is due March 8, 2018. More information on all of the above can be found here. 

VIDEO: Our senior reporter, Steven, takes a quick 10-minute look at Into the Breach, the new strategy game from the makers of FTL.

Into the Breach might look like a 16-bit turn-based strategy game from the Game Boy Advance era, but beneath that cute exterior is one of the most innovative strategy games I've played. Unlike FTL, the first game from developers Subset Games, Into the Breach is all about deterministic strategy. Not only will attacks always hit their intended target, but you can even see and respond to enemy attacks before they happen.

That doesn't sound like the formula for a rich strategy game, but Into the Breach uses that conceit to do some brilliant things. Each battle is a tense stand-off to survive a certain number of turns while swarms of insectoid Vek storm the field. Outnumbered and outgunned, your best approach is to mitigate incoming enemy attacks rather than fight fire with fire.

But describing Into the Breach isn't easy, which is why I've recorded 10 minutes of a new campaign to show off how the turn-based battles work and how each mission plays into the overarching campaign. The video above will give you a basic insight into Into the Breach and how it separates itself in a competitive genre.

The good news is that, if you like what you see, Into the Breach is out February 27 on GOG and Steam and is only $15. Check back next week for our full review.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance hasn't only been out for a month, but already modders are digging into the medieval RPG's files and making some welcome changes. These mods range from minor tweaks to the UI to completely new perks to hefty overhauls of the game's combat and economy. We've been keeping an eye on what modders are working on, and we've come up with a list of the best mods for Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

And for those looking for console commands to enhance your experience in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, we've got a handy list of those console codes, too.

Unlimited Saving

KCD has some restrictions on when you can save your game, limiting it to when you sleep in a bed or drink 'Savior Schnapps' (in addition to autosaves and saving upon exiting the game). The idea is that with limited saves players will be more careful with their decision-making and perhaps have to live with the choices they've made, good or bad. 

The idea of the Unlimited Saving mod, created by EddieShoe, is this: it's your game, so save whenever the heck you want. It allows you to save the game from the main menu at will, even if you don't have Schnapps in your inventory. There's still a hard limit of 30 saved games before it begins prompting you to overwrite one of them. This mod has been updated to work with patch 1.3.1.

Sectorial Lockpicing

Sectorial Lockpicking, created by Tyddy, adds visual spokes to the 'wheel' of the locks you pick. This gives you a visual aid as to where to keep your cursor while turning the lock, instead of only being able to rely on the yellow hover zone (I wrote a bit more about it here). It makes lock-picking a shade easier without making it completely easy.

A Sorted Inventory

Poor Henry, his pockets are stuffed with weapons, food, and loot, and it's a bit hard for the lad to stay organized. While you can sort in categories, the A Sorted Inventory mod by Haslami (inspired by another inventory sorting mod by Papirnehezek) tags every item in the game with a prefix that gathers them into lovely alphabetical lists by item type. At a glance, you'll be able to quickly find what you're looking for.

More Functions for Right Mouse Button

This mod is handy, literally: it allows you to do more with the hand resting on your mouse by adding extra functionality for your right mouse button. You can skip the intro movie, back out of cutscenes, close the map and inventory screens, skip through conversations, cancel haggling sessions, and much more. Very useful if you don't feel like tapping keys since you've already got a finger resting on that mouse button anyway. No need to memorize all its uses: it also adds a prompt onscreen.

First-person Herb Picking

Your interest in this mod is probably proportional to the level of your herbalism skill. If you're an avid weed-picker, you may be annoyed by the fact that every time you harvest a plant, the game takes you out of first-person perspective and into third. The first-person herb-picking mod keeps you in first-person view while picking plants.

No GPS and Remove Compass

If you're looking for a bit more of a challenge and added immersion, this No GPS mod will remove you from the map each time you use it. The basic version of the mod will still center the map on your location, but the full version will center on the spot you last added a map marker. Finding your way around will require a bit more work, since you won't simply see your precise spot on the map. For an even bigger challenge and more realism, there's also a mod that removes your compass.

Perkaholic

You'll have to start a new game to fully enjoy this mod, but Perkaholic by Xylozi adds perks to Agility, Unarmed, and your Bow skill. New perks for Agility will let you take even less damage from falling, while perks for Unarmed will give you faster sprinting speeds, more damage during combat, lessen the rate of bleeding from wounds, and more. Bow perks include greater accuracy, better odds for poisoning, and more frequent knockouts for striking an enemy in the head.

Very Unintrusive Reticle

The UI in KCD isn't exactly sleek, and the reticle onscreen at all times (except when using your bow—more on that in a moment) is a heavy yellow dot that isn't exactly attractive to stare at all day. Very Unintrusive Reticle by Lobuno de-colors the reticle and makes it mostly transparent, so you will barely see it unless you're really looking.

If that's a little too unintrusive for your tastes, there's also a mod called Unintrusive Reticle by PcFreaky99 that you can try, which isn't as unintrusive at the Very Unintrusive one, but it still less intrusive than the vanilla one. I think that all made sense.

Restore Halberds

Restore Halberds, a mod by Tahknall, turns polearms into primary weapons and displays the experience bar for your (normally hidden) polearms weapons proficiency. That means you can now equip, repair, and use polearms as either two-handed weapons or one-handed with a shield, on horseback or on foot.

Roads Are Dangerous

Roads Are Dangerous, created by Zaatch, is a mod for players looking for a bit more conflict while fast-traveling. It ups the chances of running into trouble while moving across the map, and includes an optional module that adds different types of enemy encounters, like the Merry Lads, who are bandits dressed as noblemen, and bigger, tough warriors called Berserkers. 

No Stamina Visual Effects

Let's face it: Henry is no superman, and that's by design. While it's natural he can't run or swing a heavy sword for very long without getting winded, you may not be a fan of how the game informs you that Henry is almost out of gas. The color drains from the screen and your vision blurs, and there are audio cues to tell you that you're low on stamina—but it's all pretty heavy-handed. The No Stamina Visual Effects mod by TheCorex comes in three versions: no visual cues, no sound cues, or both visual and sound cues removed (meaning you'll have to keep your eye on your stamina meter to tell when you're out of juice).

Bow Dot Reticle

Remember that yellow reticle that (perhaps) annoys you because it's always present? Well, it may also annoy you that it vanishes when you use your bow. Some folks like it that way, making aiming more challenging, but others wouldn't mind a little aid when loosing arrows. The Bow Dot Reticle mod, by FoX_D3ff3nd3R, keeps the aiming dot in place when you ready your bow. Good hunting.

No Helmet Vision

I feel like everyone has a limit when it comes to how much realism we want in games. How much do we really want? Like, really? While it makes perfect sense that when you wear a helmet in a first-person game it would obstruct your vision, you may not really want that. No Helmet Vision, by JustAnOrdinaryGuy, removes the obstruction so you can have a clean view of the world. Perhaps it's not realistic, but it may be more enjoyable.

Volumetric Fog Enabler

Apparently, volumetric fog exists for Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but it was left dormant by the developers. Volumetric Fog Enabler, by Moosan82, lets you turn it on if you'd like to add a little more atmosphere to your surroundings.

Dark Times Overhaul

The first really ambitious-sounding mod for KCD, now in beta, is Dark Times - A Difficulty and Balance Overhaul, by sidewayz24. It's making changes to lots of aspects of the game, tweaking carry weight, stamina regeneration, XP gain, jail time and punishments for crimes, random encounter chances, and more. 

The mod tunes the economy, making changes to vendor pricing and replenishment times, as well as tweaks to combat, making enemies more difficult in battle. It's even overhauling perks and visuals. The end goal is to make progression slower, the economy harsher, and combat more challenging. It incorporates a number of existing mods: check the mod page to see exactly which ones, and to read a more thorough description of Dark Times (or to submit feedback if you've tried it).

Skip Intro Movies

It's perhaps a minor annoyance, but still: having to press E every time you launch the game because the narrator wants to tell you the same thing he's told you every time you've launched the game... it grows tiresome. (Though it's a bit like a minigame: can I cut him off before he finishes saying "Charles"? Yes!)

Anyway. The Skip Intro Movies mod by PcFreaky99 cuts the narrator off automatically. For good.

We'll continue adding to and refining our list as more mods appear, and if you've been using a great Kingdom Come: Deliverance mod that you don't see on this page, please tip us off in the comments below.

Food in games usually just gives you a buff or maybe health regeneration, but designers still work hard to make it look appetizing. Stardew Valley might not be Final Fantasy XV in terms of hyper-realistic meals, but its pixel treats are nonetheless tempting. If you’ve ever wanted to tuck into a Farmer’s Lunch or a Miner’s Treat then Everett and Helena, of Stardew Valley Recipes and Stardew Kitchen respectively, have got you covered.

Stardew Valley’s food is abstract: you transform a few disparate ingredients into fully fledged meals as if by alchemy. Everett and Helena use these in-game recipes as a foundation, take the spirit of each dish and then turn it into something you can actually eat. Helena’s recent Cheese Cauliflower is a good example: in-game, Pam provides a "recipe" that only asks you to combine a single cauliflower and a block of cheese. Helena created a full dish including pasta, breadcrumb topping, and a beer-based sauce (in tribute to Pam, who loves Pale Ale.)

Everett’s been working on creating these recipes for almost two years, and has covered almost all the game’s food, including a few bonuses that are referenced but that you can’t actually make. "I was working on the Sous Chef achievement [to cook 25 food items], and I realized that all the recipes in-game seemed doable in real life," he tells me. "I’ve never had any professional experience with cooking at all; everything I know is from my parents, grandparents, and YouTube videos, but I wanted to give it a shot."

Helena’s blog began several weeks ago, and she too describes herself as "a dedicated but decidedly amateur cook." The two take different approaches in their descriptions—Helena’s instructions are more narrative, often conversational and jokey, but both are entertaining and easy to follow.

Cooking blogs inspired by games aren’t new—Helena cites the now-defunct Gourmet Gaming as one of her inspirations—but Stardew Valley is a particularly good fit for the genre. Its focus on wholesome living, locally sourced ingredients, and food as a community project (through characters who share recipes with you and events like the pot luck) all translate well into the blog projects.

For Everett, the community that’s sprung up around the blog has become a large part of his enjoyment. He invites people who have tried his recipes to submit pictures and tells me that he loves to "hear tips and suggestions from a whole crowd of people."

Helena is particularly looking forward to foraging for her food: "I think it's much easier to get excited about eating something fairly unglamourous like chard or a swede if you've actually come into contact with the earth it was growing in and worked to have it be something you can enjoy," she explains, enthusing about the potential of finding fiddlehead ferns in the wild. Then she adds, as something of an afterthought, "I've heard fiddleheads contain carcinogens if you don't cook them properly, but the adrenaline of avoiding getting poisoned is part of the appeal of foraging, I think." (Sourcing wild food is indeed much more complex and potentially dangerous in real life than in Stardew Valley—it’s probably best to leave this to those with experience, like Helena, who used to work on a farm.)

Potential poisoning aside, Stardew’s ingredients have caused other hurdles. "Some of the recipes have vague or weird ingredients in the game, like Pale Broth [made with just two White Algae] and Strange Bun [Wheat Flour, a Periwinkle, and Void Mayonnaise]," Everett explains. For those recipes, he’s stuck with the spirit rather than the game’s instructions, creating a Turkish-style yoghurt soup and a snail-stuffed bread.  

Helena hasn’t quite decided how she’s going to approach those yet: "I think I’m going to try to keep each dish as true as I can to either the ingredients or the appearance and it’ll probably have to be the latter on those two… I'm pretty sure I could get away with treating the Void Mayonnaise in the Strange Bun as a kind of custard and coloring it with that activated charcoal that seems to be a super trendy ingredient at the moment, though God knows what I'd do with the rest of the charcoal and there's still the periwinkle to think about."

But even standard ingredients can be tricky. Everett described his issues sourcing seafood: "I live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and far from the ocean," he says, and Helena has her own reservations. "I do try to keep loosely kosher so all the shellfish recipes are going to be a challenge… Although the only kosher rule I really stick to is avoiding pork."

Nonetheless, she’s looking forward to experimenting. "I'm optimistic that [recipes I’m nervous about] will turn out better than I expected and raise my confidence with that kind of thing in future," she says. She also laid out her goals for the blog, including her desire to keep her food "unpolished" so that "people can see what I'm doing and think 'hey, I could do that!'… I want to make it clear you don't need any real training or special facilities or equipment to derive joy and pride from making food and trying new things in the kitchen."

With that in mind I, something of a kitchen disaster, decided to get stuck in. Everett suggested a handful of his recipes, all of which sounded very healthy and wholesome except for cookies. Which I chose.

In-game, cookies are made from just three ingredients—Wheat Flour, Sugar, and an Egg. Everett’s recipe is, thankfully, not much more complex. He categorizes his recipes by difficulty (cookies are 'easy') as well as other factors like whether or not they’re vegetarian so that people can find food that suits them.

My hour or so of baking was lovely, though definitely closer to Helena’s self-described "busy person cooking to unwind after work or when they have time at the weekend" style rather than Everett’s beautiful presentation. In other words, the cookies I made tasted extremely good, but they weren’t especially pretty. I severely underestimated the amount they would spread during cooking, and came away with a slab rather than individual bites, but that was on me rather than Everett. Besides, it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed by taking a knife to it, tray-bake style.

"Since Stardew Valley is my favorite game, being able to create content from it has been extra enjoyable," Everett says, and having baked his cookies, I can see why. There’s an appeal to taking something from a game and making it physical. We do it with merch, hobby crafts, and cosplay. 

But everything’s better with food involved, and the fact that Stardew Valley makes food an important part of its warm and welcoming environment means bringing that food into our own lives—no matter how clumsily—can bring that same feeling with it. In sharing their expertise, Helena and Everett have made that possible for even the most inexperienced cooks. 

This article was originally published February 2018.

Knights of Pen and Paper is a cute adaptation of tabletop RPGs where you are both the game master and the players, and control everything from the quests you embark on to the monsters you encounter. It's a fun little formula, and now everyone can give it a try thanks to Knights of Pen and Paper 2's newly released free edition. 

"You heard right! Enter and experience the horror of another beloved game franchise joining the dark side of free to play," developer Kyy Games writes on Steam. "Not tough enough? Turn on easy mode and pay your way to victory!" 

Notably, Knights of Pen and Paper 2 went free-to-play on mobile a few years ago. At the time, players' save files were wiped to make way for the new version. Luckily, the free Steam version didn't bring such a cutthroat transition. If you already own the $8 paid version, you can keep playing it without worry, you just can't transfer save files or content. 

Elsewhere, Kyy Games and publisher Paradox Interactive have been vague on how the free edition compares to the premium edition. Going by the free-to-play mobile version, there are liable to be substantial changes to the in-game economy, but take that with a grain of salt. I've reached out to Paradox Interactive for clarification and will update this story if I receive a reply. 

For the next few days, Psyonix is testing Rocket League's upcoming Tournaments mode—which is releasing in full in the Spring Update—and you can join the brackets now to test it out.

To join in, right click on Rocket League in your Steam library, navigate to the Betas tab, and opt into 'tounramentsbeta.' An update will automatically download, and the next time you launch the game the Tournaments menu will be there for you. Note that you'll have to opt back out of the beta if you want to keep playing ranked games.

I gave it a go, placing second in a 1v1 Snow Day tournament, and it certainly upped the pressure on me—at least until I was embarrassingly down 11-2 in the final match, at which point it didn't really matter what I did. But hey, second!

The interface works as promised, though it took quite a while to join the first matchup after the start of the tournament, so don't quit out even if it seems to have stalled. You can also create your own tournaments, including private tourneys, with any mutators you like.

What's missing? The two main things on my wish list are the ability to chat with participants while waiting for a tourney to begin, and the option to spectate the rest of a tournament if you lose before the final round. The latter is crucial (and if the option does exist, I haven't found it) because private tourneys with friends aren't going to be much fun if we can't all watch the final (streaming can be a stopgap for now). 

All in all, the interface is nice and I haven't had any major problems—except for that it's already in style to call your tournament 'Soccar standard' while actually putting the most absurd mutators you can think of in place. I ended up playing one game with a giant basketball in low-g with hyper-fast boost, which isn't as fun as it sounds. 

Check out Psyonix's blog post for the full details and known issues.