Update: Testing for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' incoming 4x4km map—Codename: Savage—will kick off next week, PUBG Corp has announced.

In this Steam Community update, the developer refers to the screens featured in our original story below and says it's making good on its promise at GDC to get players in early. Here's the post in full:

Hello everyone!

If you’ve been keeping up with all things PUBG, you may have already seen some screenshots and even a short clip from our upcoming 4x4 map. We promised you that you would get a chance to try the new map very early on and we are delivering on that promise. We haven’t released content so early in its development since our alpha testing stage. We’re doing this because we want to start getting your feedback as soon as possible and drive the development in the right direction.

So, how is it going to work? 

At first, we are going to do a more limited test for Codename: Savage to make sure that nothing is too broken. Again, it’s a super early build, we hope you understand. The next test will be bigger! 

The first testing window will open from the 2nd of April, 7pm PDT until the 5th of April, 4am PDT.

We’ll update you on Monday about how you can participate. Keep an eye on our social channels to maximize your chances of getting a key.

See you next week!

In the video above, after a thank you message from Brendan Greene and CH Kim, CEO of PUBG Corp, you can see some footage of the new map in action.

In other PUBG news, its latest limited-time Event Mode is live and focused on flares. 

Original story: At a talk at GDC in San Francisco today, Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene showed off images of the upcoming 4x4km map coming to PUBG next month. The new map is one-quarter the size of the two existing PUBG maps, Erangel and Miramar, which are 8x8 km.

The 4x4km map was first shown in concept art a couple of weeks ago as part of PUBG's 2018 roadmap. "It’s a much smaller map and should give you all a much more intense and faster paced Battle Royale experience. It will offer a higher player density and shorter matches and we want to get it into your hands early this time around so we can use your input to make it a great experience for everyone," wrote Green at the time.

The Arma 3: Laws of War DLC that debuted last year promised "a different perspective on the battlefield," by kitting out players not as soldiers but as members of the International Development and Aid Projection. Instead of shooting guys, the job is deactivating mines left behind by the war, and uncovering what are presumably pretty horrific events that took place during the conflict in the town of Oreokastro. 

It doesn't sound like the most action-packed DLC of all time but even so it's become the highest-rated Arma 3 on Steam, and as promised by developer Bohemia Interactive when it was announced, it's also resulted in a donation of $176,667 to the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

"We knew this DLC's theme might seem a bit unusual, but we also felt that it has a rightful place in a game like Arma 3. At the same time, our community normally expects more traditional content you'd see in a military game, such as new weapons, tanks, and helicopters. That has made it even more amazing to see the immense level of player support for the Laws of War DLC, which really shows again how both games and the gaming audience have matured," Bohemia CEO Marek Spanel said.   

"If you also consider that some of our players are in the military or might pursue a military career in the future, then we're glad this DLC has been able to increase awareness for this important topic." 

The studio acknowledged that the DLC "only scratches the surface" of a very difficult subject. "On the one hand, we strongly believe that, even during conflict, we should all make great efforts to hold onto our humanity - while on the other hand we also acknowledge that armed forces sometimes face impossible dilemmas in life-or-death situations," the team said. "Whatever your viewpoint on all of this is, we hope the DLC offers a balanced introduction to the topic, gives you something to think about, and perhaps even stimulates you to discuss IHL [International Humanitarian Law] further."

The Arma 3: Laws of War DLC is available on Steam for $12/£9/€10. We've got a closer look at what it's all about here.

Zack Johnson, designer of open world comedy RPG West of Loathing, detailed the difference between a comedy game and a game with just some comedy in it during two talks he gave at GDC 2018 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Instead of a game with jokes in it, which happens all the time," Johnson said of West of Loathing, "this was sort of a game made out of jokes."

With humor being the primary focus of West of Loathing, and funny text appearing in everything from item descriptions to conversations to menu options, Johnson didn't want to throw roadblocks in the path of players who were bent on discovering every last bit of humor. Combat, therefore, which some reviewers criticized as being too easy, was easy by design.

As Johnson put it during his talk: "A joke is better than a good thing that's harder to make than a joke." You may have to read that a few times before it makes sense, but Johnson cited two of the gambling minigames in West of Loathing as example. The first game, poker, was something he agonized over and kept putting off during Loathing's development.

"It was a bunch of work," he said, "it resulted in this thing that was not particularly interesting, nobody talks about it." The poker game wasn't bad, in other words, it just wasn't funny.

The other game, found in the town of Breadwood, was called Pharaoh, and it was a game in which players simply lie about how many Egyptian pharaohs they could name. "That works, right?" Johnson said. "That is actually kind of funny."

The poker game took 268 lines of scripting, and was "not funny at all," admits Johnson. "The Pharoah game was 89 lines of script." That brings us back to Johnson's statement, that a joke is better than something good that is harder to make than a joke.

Puzzles, too, were designed to not be so challenging that they'd slow a player down for long, and while there are a few pretty complex puzzles in the game, they're off the beaten path and not required to make progress.

"If there's a puzzle that requires a needle as its solution," Johnson said, "we don't want the player to live in a world where there is only one needle, and if you didn't find it you can't get past the puzzle. So we just decided to put the needle in every haystack."

Johnson also spoke about the value of the narrator of West of Loathing.

"The narrator as sort of an honest character and honest reflection as who we are as writers also lets us be a little self-deprecating about stuff," he said, "which is a fantastic way to cover up fundamental flaws with your game, act like they're on purpose. 'We meant to do that, because isn't that funny?'"

Breaking the fourth wall, as the narrator does from time to time, is also more than just a gag: it's a way to simply and plainly give important information to the player. When players reached the final cutscene in West of Loathing, said Johnson, "It just tells you, this is not gonna change anything about your character or the state of the world, you can just watch this cutscene and then you can leave and do something else and then you can come back and do it again.

"I wish [more] games sort of had the confidence to let you know stuff like that," he continued, "because there's nothing more annoying to me than getting 40 hours into some RPG and then not knowing that I'm about to do something that means I should have saved, or have to revert to an hour ago."

Johnson also revealed a spreadsheet used during development of the game to track the status of dialogue, interactions, items, and monsters in each of the game's locations. One column of the spreadsheet was labeled CPG.

"CPG was my metric for whether this was a Loathing game," Johnson explained. "Does this room have a Couple of Pointless Gags?"

He referred to an area of the game where the player could explain to another character how mining equipment worked, despite not knowing how mining equipment worked, thus earning a perk called 'Minesplaining.'

"That stuff," Johnson said, "I think that is where a lot of the kind of memorable soul of the game lives."

This weekend, KFC is teaming with Twitch and several PUBG streamers to give viewers a chance to win free chicken dinners by using a 'KFC bucket emote' in chat. I'll let the press release I received do the heavy work:

"On March 24 and 25, notable PUBG gaming influencers Sacriel, Sequisha, Anthony Kongphan and Dr. Lupo will compete for as many "Chicken Dinners" as possible, KFC style. Viewers of the livestream that blast the KFC bucket emote in the livestream chat when a 'Chicken Dinner' is won by the influencers will be entered to win their very own Chicken Dinner, a [$20] KFC gift card."

And that's not all: a 'few' lucky viewers will be randomly chosen to win a 'KFC-themed loot crate full of various KFC-themed items'. Judging from the image, these are not in-game items but actual, physical items that will presumably be mailed to the winners. They include:

• Colonel Sanders ghillie suit
• Survival spork
• Skillet
• Mask
• $50 KFC gift card + "med kit"

I've asked for some clarification, such as how many $20 gift cards they're planning to give away, how many loot buckets they'll award, and what exactly is in the "med kit." I will update this post if and when I hear back.

Update: We were originally told the KFC gift cards were for $5, but we've now been informed they are $20 gift cards (this change has been made in the story above).

We've also learned the "med kit" contained in the loot bucket "is fillec with KFC gift cards". There are a total of two loot buckets being given away to viewers (the four streamers also each get one). We weren't given information on how many $20 gift cards would be given away, however, as that may depend on how many streamer victories there are.

We've rounded up all the major ways to make money in GTA Online in our comprehensive guide below. Since Grand Theft Auto 5's release, the cost and amount of vehicles, weapons, clothes, and other fun items for sale in GTA Online, the game's multiplayer component, has increased substantially. But so too has the amount of money that can be made. Whether these two things have increased at the same rate is a discussion for another time, but in this article I've collected all the best ways of making money (legitimately) in GTA Online to help players make sense of what can sometimes be a complicated and clumsily-discussed topic.

There are loads of methods to make money in the game that are not listed below, such as racing, deathmatches, missions, and various other game modes. But the amount you get for the time invested has not scaled up since 2013, so comparatively they are very inefficient. New players may find them useful to get started and ultimately, as long as you're enjoying what you're playing, the acquisition of money will come naturally. This guide, though, will focus on a variety of the most efficient ways to make as much money as possible. We've recently updated it to include details on making money through nightclubs in the game. 

It's worth noting that all of the below is focused exclusively on money making. Feel free to mix things up and do what you like the most. Even though the most money per hour will be gained by having a Gunrunning bunker and/or cocaine business working in the background while you grind Vehicle Cargo and VIP Work (if you're playing solo) or the Pacific Standard Heist (if you have a competent group), doing the same thing over and over again can get boring. The absolute maximum you'll ever be able to earn with full on grinding is only around $500k per hour anyway, and while that may sound a lot, it would still take you over 600 hours of pure grinding at that level to be able to buy all the vehicles available in the game (as I explore on my YouTube channel here).

As soon as it becomes a chore to acquire cash, where it feels closer to a job than a game, or you're not enjoying the fruits of your labour as much, it may be time to give moneymaking a rest or look to other games for enjoyment. That issue aside, though, below you'll find the best ways to make money in GTA Online as it currently stands. We don't include the Arena War series here because it's not one of the better ways of making cash in the game. 

We'll update this article as soon as the casino opens in GTA Online.

If you're looking for GTA 5 cheats, we've got you covered too.  

Double money events

Keep an eye on double money events. Rockstar will change what you can do to earn double money pretty much every week. Sometimes it will be on races or adversary modes that, even with double money, won't be as efficient as the other methods I've listed here. However, sometimes the below methods may have a double money week, such as Gunrunning bunker or Vehicle Cargo sales. The more options you have open to you, the more you can take advantage of these double money events if they happen to be for something lucrative. And if there's ever double money on Heists (which is very rare), you should absolutely do some grinding during that week.

Heists

Potential profits: $400k per hourPrerequisites: High-end apartment (min cost: $200k) and 3 friendsMethod: Walk to the heist planning room in your high-end apartment and select your chosen heist to start. You will need to pay an upfront cost to start the heist as host. Invite your three friends and work through the setup missions and finale. It is recommended to have a good group of four people to do this as communication and skill is required to reduce the time taken, and there are numerous guides online for each mission.Tip: The Pacific Standard Heist on Hard mode will yield the most profit per hour than any other money making method in the game when done effectively with a competent group of players. The host of any heist doesn’t make any money during setup missions and has to spend money to start each, so it’s a good idea for the host to take 40% of the final heist earnings with other players taking 20% each so that all four players will earn approximately the same overall.

Doomsday Heist

Potential profits: $300k per hourPrerequisites: Facility (minimum Cost: $1.25 mil) and 1-3 friendsMethod: Walk to the heist planning room in your facility and select your chosen heist act to start. You will need to pay an upfront cost to start the heist as host. Invite one, two, or three friends and work through the prep missions, setup missions and finale. As with the old heists, round up a group of decent players because communication and skill is needed to reduce the time taken to beat it.Tip: Completing these heists with two players rather than four will naturally mean more money per player, as the overall payout remains the same, but the missions will be slightly more difficult and potentially more time consuming with fewer players. The host of any heist doesn’t make any money during setup missions and has to spend money to start each, so it's a good idea for the host to take 40% (4 players)/50% (3 players)/60% (2 players) of the final heist earnings with other players taking an equal share of what remains, so that all players will earn approximately the same overall. Paying to skip prep missions is almost always never worth it from a monetary or time perspective.

Special Cargo

Potential profits: $200k per hourPrerequisites: Office (minimum cost: $1 mil), warehouse (minimum cost: $250k) & organisation member (CEO)Method: Start an organisation as a CEO from the SecuroServ option in the interaction menu. Walk to the computer in your office and select "Special Cargo", then "Buy" on the amount of crates you desire. You will need to complete a mission to deliver the crates to your warehouse. You can only carry one crate at a time but you can go back and forth to collect them. You can then use the laptop in the warehouse to sell your collected crates via a delivery mission to turn a profit.Tip: Buying more crates at once is more time effective, especially if you have friends to help you collect them and deliver to your warehouse. The more crates you sell at once, the more money you'll make per crate, hence a large, full warehouse is the best to build up and sell. Large warehouses cost more to purchase, though, and selling 111 crates at once is a larger risk as you'll either gain 2.2 million or lose everything.

Vehicle Cargo

Potential Profit: $300k per hourPrerequisites: Office (minimum cost: $1 mil), vehicle warehouse (Minimum Cost: $1.5 mil) & organisation member (CEO)Method: Start an organisation as a CEO from the SecuroServ option in the interaction menu. Walk to the computer in your office and select "Vehicle Cargo", then "Source Vehicle". You will need to complete a mission to steal a vehicle and drive it back to your vehicle warehouse. Be careful when driving it back as damage will result in repair costs, impacting on profit. You can then use the laptop in the vehicle warehouse to export the vehicle you sourced via a delivery mission to turn a profit.Tip: Repeat sourcing missions until you fill up your vehicle warehouse with 10 standard range and 10 mid range vehicles with no duplicates. At that point, every source mission will give you a top range vehicle until you get all 12 of those. Only export top range vehicles and sell as many vehicles at once as you can if you have friends to help—this will help maximise profits per hour.

Air Freight Cargo

Potential Profit: $150k per hourPrerequisites: Hangar (minimum cost: $1.2 mil) and organisation member (VIP/CEO)Method: Start an organisation as a VIP or CEO from the SecuroServ option in the interaction menu. Walk to the computer in your hangar and select "Source", then the type of cargo you want to source. You will need to complete a mission to deliver the cargo to your hangar. You can then use the laptop in the hangar to sell your collected cargo via a delivery mission to turn a profit.Tip: Stick to sourcing only one type of cargo, and make it either narcotics, chemicals, or medical supplies. You get a 35% bonus for selling 25 crates of these types, and a 75% bonus for selling all 50 crates. Selling a full hangar will require friends to help you, and in general sourcing cargo with friends is much more time effective.

Gunrunning

Potential Profit: $80k per hour passively (while doing other things)Prerequisites: Bunker (minimum cost: $1.2 mil) and organisation member (VIP/CEO)Method: Start an organisation as a VIP or CEO from the SecuroServ option in the interaction menu. Walk to the laptop in your bunker and select "Resupply", then "Steal Supplies" or "Buy Supplies". You will need to complete a mission to deliver the supplies to your bunker if you choose that option, or they can be delivered without any effort if you buy them. Once you have supplies your staff will begin manufacturing, turning them into stock when you're doing most other things in the game. You can then use the laptop in the bunker to sell your stock via a delivery mission to turn a profit.Tip: Buying supplies is more time effective, as is setting your staff to only manufacturing and buying the equipment/staff upgrades. This is passive income so you should have this running in the background while you make active income from other methods listed. There is no monetary bonus for selling a full bunker, and doing so will require friends if there are multiple vehicles to be used for the sell mission.

Motorcycle Club

Potential Profit: $80k per hour passively (while doing other things)Prerequisites: Clubhouse (Min Cost: $200k), business (Min Cost: $650k) and Motorcycle Club presidentMethod: Start a Motorcycle Club as president from the corresponding option in the interaction menu. Walk to the laptop in your business building and select "Resupply", then "Steal Supplies" or "Buy Supplies". You will need to complete a mission to deliver the supplies to your business if you choose that option, or they can be delivered without any effort if you buy them. Once you have supplies your staff will begin production, turning them into stock when you're doing most other things in the game. You can then use the laptop in the business building to sell your stock via a delivery mission to turn a profit.Tip: Cocaine production is the most profitable (on par with the gunrunning bunker), with the cheapest cocaine business costing $975k to buy, although sell missions often take longer to complete. Buying supplies is more time effective. This is passive income so you should have this running in the background while you make active income from other methods listed. There is no monetary bonus for selling full stock and doing so will require friends if there are multiple vehicles to be used for the sell mission.

Nightclubs

Potential Profit: $40k per hour passively (whilst doing other things)Prerequisites: Nightclub (Min Cost: $1.1 mil) & Other Businesses (Min Cost: $850k)Method: Walk to the computer in your nightclub building VIP area and select "Warehouse Management", then assign a Warehouse Technician to one of the goods you have available. The goods you have available will depend on the other businesses you own, such as motorcycle club businesses, gunrunning bunker, or cargo warehouses, and you can assign up to 5 technicians to accrue goods. Once assigned, your technicians will begin acquiring goods on their own when you're doing most other things in the game. You can then use the computer in your nightclub building VIP area to sell your goods via a delivery mission to turn a profit.Tip: The business aspect of the nightclub is really only for those who have many other businesses already, and it will not make you much money on its own in comparison to everything else listed here. It is merely an extra bump to your hourly income in the same vein as Gunrunning and Motorcycle club businesses, albeit half as profitable. This is passive income so you can have this running in the background whilst you make active income from other methods listed. There is no monetary bonus for selling full stock and it is actually more efficient to sell earlier. To reach the maximum profits of $40k per hour ignore Organic Produce & Printing and Copying, and assign technicians to the other five areas. Then sell goods every time Cash Creation, Pharmaceuticals & South American Imports are full (every 20 hours).

VIP Work

Potential Profit: $150k per hourPrerequisites: Organisation Member (VIP/CEO)Method: Start an organisation as a VIP or CEO from the SecuroServ option in the interaction menu. Open up the interaction menu and select "VIP Work", then the mission you want to do. You will need to complete a mission in free roam and will be rewarded with money upon successful completion.Tip: These missions are a great way to earn some money while waiting for cooldown timers to expire, such as if you're waiting to source another vehicle for your warehouse, as they are completed fairly quickly and pay relatively well. They aren't a replacement for other money making methods, though, as their payout isn't as high, but they're solid filler jobs. Headhunter, Hostile Takeover and Sightseer are notably decent missions to take on.

Premium Races

Potential Profit: $80k per racePrerequisites: A fast car/bike, good racing abilityMethod: Either drive to the location of the premium race, which is a golden stunt wheel on the map, or hover over it and start the job from the map. When the lobby has filled with eight other players, you'll have $20k taken from your bank account. You must finish third or above to make a return on that investment, with the winner of the race receiving $100k, second place taking home $30k, and third place getting their entry fee of $20k back.Tip: Premium races change every week and are a gamble, as it can take time to fill up a lobby and there is no guarantee you'll make money. If you're proficient at racing, however, are familiar with the stunt race on offer that week and have a good car (if you don't already know beforehand which car to use then you're not ready for the premium race), this can be quite lucrative.

Time Trials

Potential Profit: $50k per time trialPrerequisites: A fast car/bikeMethod: Drive to the location of the time trial, which is a purple stopwatch icon on the map. Start the time trial when you feel ready and attempt to get to the end point in a quicker time than the listed par time. There are no checkpoints in between, so you can take whatever route you like. You'll be rewarded with around $50k for successful completion.Tip: Time trials change every week and you can only gain the reward for completing them once per week. You do have an unlimited number of tries to beat the par time and can respawn back at the start, but the longer it takes, the less money you effectively make per hour from this method. In general, pulling wheelies on a fast bike will get you to your destination in the quickest way possible.

Daily Objectives

Potential Profit: $1.6 mil per 28 daysPrerequisites: Rank 15Method: Open up the interaction menu and select "Daily Objectives". This will display the three objectives you'll need to complete on that day. Simply complete each task and you'll be rewarded with $25k upon successful completion. Some tasks may be more difficult to complete than others and require the use of friends to complete easily.Tip: This is one of the easiest ways to earn money but only if you keep at it every day, as there are significant bonuses for seven and 28 consecutive days of objectives completed. Completing daily objectives for seven days in a row will earn a bonus of $100k, with 28 days in a row netting an extra $500k. The total amount of money you would make by completing all daily objectives for 28 days in a row would be $1.6 million (28x25k + 4x100k + 500k).

Other resources

GTA Online Reddit Mega Guide A great resource for those who want to make the absolute most out of their moneymaking and time with the game. A lot of extra information.GTA Series Videos Time Trials Guides This shows the way to beat each time trial in GTA Online for easy money each week. Also has guides for premium races.Broughy1322 Car Testing The best vehicles to use for racing to help get those premium race wins.Making $500K per hour solo Add the Gunrunning bunker working in the background to this method for the best way to earn money as a solo player.

This weekend George Stobart, Geralt of Rivia and Edith Finch join forces in (unfortunately not the best night out ever conceived) GOG's Greatest Stories sale. 

Running now through March 26 at 1pm PST/9pm BST, those interested can save up to 85 percent on story-heavy games—not least Broken Sword (£0.99/$1.19), The Witcher 3 (£12.49/$16.44) and What Remains of Edith Finch (£8.99/$11.82). 

Said to highlight the "shining example of mastery, innovation and timelessness", the sale lops up to 85 percent off select games. 

From Oxenfree (£3.79/$4.92) to Darkest Dungeon (£7.59/$10.01), Ultima 1-3 (£1.19/$1.49) to Dragon Age: Origins (£3.79/$4.92), Zork Anthology (£3.69/$4.79) to Gorogoa (£8.49/$11.24), there's loads on offer at a handy price—some of which are less than a quid/$1.50. 

Check out the sale in full in this direction, and share your own favourites in the comments south of here.

Twitch has spent the last several months incentivising its premium Prime service by offering its members free stuff. Monthly games, Fortnite cosmetics and now Final Fantasy 15 goodies can be claimed—the latter of which includes a new ride and some in-game cash.

The Kooky Bundle comes with a bright purple-coloured bird of the same name, and 10,000 gil. In this blog post, Twitch marketing person Joveth Gonzalez says the streaming platform is "just getting started" and that we should "be on the lookout for more rewards in the coming months." I assume this is in reference to Final Fantasy 15 itself, and not the games Twitch supports in general. 

Here's a brief look at Kooky in motion: 

Which reminds me of Final Fantasy 7's breeding system—whereby players breed yellow, blue, green, black, and golden variants, each with its own specific skills. It doesn't look like Kooky breeds bring anything to the table beyond a striking shade of purple, but if anyone's taken one for a spin do let me know in the comments south of here. 

And since we're talking FF7, let me link to Samuel's words on why the superboss remains one of Final Fantasy's most exciting traditions. I unearthed some deep-seated, long-forgotten stressors when recounting the shit-tonne of times I died at the hands of Emerald and Ruby Weapon. Be warned if that applies to you.

During a panel at GDC all about the interesting metrics SteamSpy spits out, creator and owner Sergey Galyonkin (also Head of Publishing for Eastern Europe at Epic Games) shared all sorts of data scraped from the public-facing user profiles of Steam. 

One of the most interesting tidbits was that Chinese players spend over twice as many hours a week playing PUBG than US players. That’s China’s average of 16 hours to the USA’s measly, pathetic, embarrassing 7 hours.

The disparity can partially be attributed to SteamSpy’s assertion that around 78% of Steam users in China own PUBG, meaning it’s their main jam (at least on Steam). US Steam users own six times more games than the average Chinese user too, which could mean US players are splitting their time between more games while the Chinese players are dedicated to PUBG on Steam. 

The popularity of internet cafes in China is also important to take into account. With profiles tied to each computer, a stream of customers playing on the same profiles could be buffing the weekly average. But the only fact is that we can’t, and never will, determine exactly why there’s such a split. Theory is all we have, and my theory is that the US players need to quit their day jobs and pick up the damn pace already! Mars can wait. 

Keep in mind that SteamSpy’s data is not completely accurate. It collects data once a day from public Steam profiles based on the Web API provided by Valve. Because a small percentage of profiles are private (99.9% are public according to Galyonkin) and the Valve Web API servers don’t work as they should, be sure to approach all of SteamSpy’s data with a grain of salt. 

The margins of error are explained in detail by Galyonkin on SteamSpy, but the basic idea is that the the more a game sells, the more reliable the data. The less a game sells, the less reliable.  

The mission was a disaster. I'd accidentally killed everyone on the space station and bludgeoned my own head in. But, you know, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I'd explored a great deal of the planet, brought back some sweet alien booty, and hadn't died of radiation sickness. If it weren't for the fact I killed everyone, my score for the mission would've been in the hundreds of thousands! 

I feel that's something to be proud of.

Scavenger SV-4 is a kind of first-person roguelike (roguelike-like?) about exploring an alien planet, and it's unlike any game I've played before. Every run begins with me alone in a small research ship in orbit above a new planet, facing the terminal screen above my bunk. One of its many cool features is that, like Doom 3, you directly interact with screens. The view smoothly zooms in so I can press the button that shows my log and read about how I came here. The story's always different, but in this one an old friend got in touch from out of the blue with coordinates for a distant planet. Go there, the friend told me, there's riches beyond my dreams. Evidently, I did.

The ship's bridge is next to the bunk. Since the ship is in zero-G, I move by flying, clicking on a panel to open the doors, and drift over to the bridge's single seat, which sits before a terminal that controls my probe. The actual probe is in a room behind me, and I can send it down to the surface to map it and find alien artifacts to bring back and research. When I hit the 'Launch' button, its grainy video feed shows the interior of my ship as the probe rotates to align with the airlock and thrusts out. 

I watch my ship recede as the probe automatically navigates into planetfall. Getting up to look out of the window, I see it as a speck in the distance. 

The video feed snows up, the probe's mics picking up the roar of entry, and then the noise fades. The view shows the probe is descending over a landscape of mountains. If I click the 'Turret' button I can look around. The planet's natural interference has caused the feed to go monochrome and it's much grainier than when the probe was on the ship, but I can make out weird structures in the distance. And, with a thunk, it hits the ground.

The probe has a number of components which I can assign to the terminal's six screens. I have the video feed on the main one, while the power controller shows that the weak generator is providing just enough energy to have my map, compass, microphone and video running while also slowly charging its battery when it's stationary. But as soon as I start trundling around with WASD, the battery starts to drain. That's OK, I have an auxiliary generator. 

I drive the probe towards one of the odd structures. Without all the interference the planet would probably look laughably crude, but, barely able to make out distant shapes and knowing that if my probe falls into a ravine it'll be destroyed, I'm feeling tense. Sometimes the structures are alive and my probe has no weapon. But this one, a bizarre crooked thing that towers over my probe, seems inert, and as the probe nears it the screen indicates there's an object. Maneuvering closer, a 'Pick up' button appears and manipulator arms deploy to stow an alien artifact in one of the probe's three free slots.

Steering carefully around the structure, I head to the next, and then another, hearing only the buzz of my manipulator arms, the hum of motors, and static. With all slots full, it's time to recall the probe, and it immediately launches into the air, heading automatically up to the ship. As it rises, I spy a massive structure in the distance. I'll go there next.

I watch my ship appear on the probe's video feed, and then watch it out the window. It's a relief to have it back. The probe bay doors open and I head to its terminal to unload the artifacts, sending them to the research station. At the research terminal I start the computer analyzing them. One is 'encased remains', the computer theorizing they're ceremonial. I can install the others in my probe to give it new capabilities. One is an arc projector weapon which uses loads of energy, but I fit it anyway. Now I have only two slots to stow artifacts, so I uninstall the compass and microphone to make more space.

The second drop takes the probe back to where we left off. I switch the arc projector on, but the video feed keeps blacking out because my probe isn't generating enough energy. Uh oh. I switch the arc projector off and head to the massive structure, seeing a collection of what look like trees to one side. Trees! But as I draw closer, black lightning—silent because I've removed the microphone—starts hitting the ground around the probe. Reverse! Several components are damaged and the map display starts breaking up with static. 

I head the other way to find less dangerous places to grab artifacts and jet the probe back to the ship, and while it's en route I remember about the whole radiation thing. The ship is unshielded and I'll die, tumor-riddled, if it gets too high, so I go to the medical station to heal up a portion of it. You can't stop the irradiation, but you can slow it.

I start to establish a rhythm of work. While the probe is traveling between planet and ship I visit medical and manage the ship's storage. I research artifacts and read logs. I find a more efficient gun and a better battery. I explore the planet widely, encounter aliens and defeat them. I'm always careful. Ship systems crash, I reboot them. I anxiously monitor the life support system. And before long I realize that my storage is full. It's time to go home, once the computer completes my final piece of research.

Then I see it. The engineering bay is full of floating chains. With hooks on the end. Lots of them. I back out, seal the doors. What the...? By now I'm pretty irradiated. I check the research. I want to go. I gingerly return to engineering and the chains are gone. I go back to medical to heal. And as I float through the storage room, I see bloodstains leading out to the main airlock. Oh, man. 

I seal the doors. Back to research. Nearly done. I walk into the bridge and there's a laugh. I spin around. I know I'm alone. Forget the research. I go to the bridge terminal, disconnect from the probe and hit the button that sends me home. 

BRACE FOR THRUST, the readout says, and then I see a figure in my EVA suit outside the ship. It's banging on the windows and it headbutts the glass and both the window and the EVA helmet's visor cracks and the figure drifts motionlessly backwards as the nose of my ship rises and we accelerate away.

Heading home was my last action. The epilogue text tells me that my ship was found drifting with me dead inside it. It's a shame that one of the artifacts I found then caused all the inhabitants of the space station to kill themselves. But it wasn't my fault. We do what we must because we can. There's no sense crying over every mistake, am I right? And this was just one scenario that can play out in Scavenger SV-4. I can always start another run.

Scavenger SV-4 is available now on Steam.

The Humble Store has kicked off weekend sales on Bethesda and Codemasters games, and to attract your interest (and hopefully your attention) it's giving away the Codies racing sim F1 2015 for the next two days. 

You might say that F1 2015 is "weird," and in fact we did say that in our review. We called it "the best representation of F1 racing to date," but hit it with a middling 61/100 score because of a "lack of content, unstable multiplayer suite, and unchanged foundations." It's been patched and updated a number of times since then, which has presumably improved the experience, and also it's free. Hard to go wrong at that price. 

If racing is your thing, here are some other Codies deals you might find interesting: 

• Dirt Rally - $10 (80 percent off)
• Grid 2 Reloaded Edition - $12.50 (75 percent off)
• F1 2017 - $18 (70 percent off)
• Overlord - $1 (75 percent off—okay, this one isn't racing, but it's a dollar)

The Bethesda sale is a little less sim-specialized, but the cuts don't go quite so deep either. Still, there are some good deals to be had:

• Fallout 4 - $15 (50 percent off)
• Doom - $15 (50 percent off)
• Prey - $20 (50 percent off)
• Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - $30 (50 percent off)

The Codemasters and Bethesda sales are live now and will run until March 26. The F1 2015 freebie, on the other hand, goes away at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on March 24.