Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Matt Cox)

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Everyone in the world must know this by now, but Dwarf Fortress is utterly ridiculous. Bay 12 Games have been working on their simulation sorta-roguelike for the past 16 years and show no signs of stopping, and will no doubt one day create a level of granularity from which we’ll see the emergence of planet-conquering AI superintelligences. To wit: dwarves are about to be given memories.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

AMD CES 2018

AMD’s second generation Ryzen CPUs, also known as Ryzen+, are arriving this week and now we know exactly what type of processors we can expect to see when they release this Thursday on April 19. There will be four new Ryzen 2000-series CPUs to choose from, with the cheapest starting from $199, and pre-orders open at 2pm UK time.

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Into the Breach - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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The folks at Subset Games are responsible for the games FTL and its follow-up Into The Breach, which means that they are also responsible for some of the most frustrating yells I’ve done alone on an airplane. I’m sorry to those around me, but I thought I was going to finally complete a run and then everyone I loved exploded or died from lack of oxygen or fell into the ocean. I assume Subset Games has been responsible for similar micro-aggressions against many of you. Which is why Adam Smith from RPS held them to the fire (a pleasant conversation) at Rezzed yesterday.

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F.E.A.R. - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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Disco Elysium is my secret side infatuation in 2018. First the game was operating under the name “No Truce With The Furies” which the devs didn’t think stood out enough (!!) and then each new look I get at the game reveals a more complicated and exciting RPG about crime solving and I just want to be playing it now. Not even for first play-though; I want to be on my third play-through where I’m deliberately trying to break the game. Bonus: there’s an original score by the rock n roll band British Sea Power. What isn’t to like here? Well, depending on how upset you are by complicated moral choices, this new set of skills listed for player development might be your cut-off point — because it gets dark.

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Star of Providence - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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DOS Boot is just Brock digging into old DOS/Windows games and talking half-remembered cool and bizarre experiences that are only available on abandon-ware sites at this point. Weekends should be for having fun and by god, we’re going to have some wholesome gosh dang fun on RPS Weekends.>

Nearly a month back, I proposed that we all play No One Lives Forever — a game we all hear is one of those All Time PC Greats. Unfortunately, NOLF is one of those titles trapped in forever ownership hell-limbo, and despite big attempts from publishers to bring the IP back, no one seems to know who fully owns the title at this point. Which is why… as a site… we’ve come to agree that if a game has no ownership it cannot be stolen. So I invited the RPS community to join me in finally hunkering down to play No One Lives Forever. And now I am back… to compare notes… this doesn’t sound as threatening as it did in my head. We did a game and it is fun.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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Perhaps I did not appreciate The Witcher 3 enough at launch. I have a personal reason: I was on deadline to churn out an interview for a 100 hour game and I had less than 48 hours in which to do it. It’s as if games journalism has some broken cogs? I dunno, spitballin’ here. But I keep dipping back into the game, finding new reasons to love it, and finding a new level of appreciation for just how many games live within this one shell. I’m simply never had time for Gwent, so I’ve been waiting for the game to launch proper to give it my full attention.

I’ve got to wait a bit longer for Gwent to leave beta, but based on yesterday’s announcement it seems like CD Projekt Red knows that the wait will be worth it.

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BioShock™ - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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After Irrational Games was dismantled in 2014, the future of the Bioshock IP was left twisting in the wind. It certainly wasn’t going to fall on former studio head Ken Levine, as he departed to run a smaller studio called Ghost Story Games which would have nothing near the production scale required to take on a new time-period magic-potion exercise in the violence of political ideologies and/or golf. But as part of a much larger 2K expose written this week over at Kotaku, it appears news has leaked regarding a Bioshock title in development at a super secret 2K studio. Or at least, you know, previously super secret.

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American Truck Simulator - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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I, uh, I don’t want to get in trouble here again. I’ve written up a simulator game or two here and accidentally let slip my mask of positivity to reveal that I just do not get the appeal. I’m willing to learn, folks. I’m willing to try. But it is a huge business and there are so many fans, I can accept that I’m wrong. Which is why today’s interview with the team behind American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2, as performed by our very own Adam Smith, is a video worth watching. Even I have found some reasons to take this for a test drive.

No, really. Adam convinced me. And you’re in danger of being convinced too.

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Void - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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Underworld Ascendant is the first in a series of titles where Looking Glass studios alumni are moving to reclaim their former mantle. Under the OtherSide Entertainment banner, they’re working on a proper System Shock sequel, but the game we’ll see out of the gate next is the Ultima Underworld sequel we deserve. The Dungeons & Dragons flair is mixed into an immersive sim setup that lacks the Ultima name but keeps the spirit alive. Amidst deadly traps, evil glowing skeleton bois, and red hot liquid magma, there’s adventure to be had and hundreds of terrible deaths to meet! But not if you can outwit the game, which OtherSide is counting on.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brock Wilbur)

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In a move that feels long overdue, Shenmue and its sequel Shenmue 2 are getting their first official releases on PC. The action-adventure game series from Yu Suzuki was supposed to launch a franchise in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and has amassed a cult following in the intervening decades. The third game in the series took to Kickstarter in 2015 and became the one of the fastest fundings in crowdfunding history. This new repackaging of the first two games lays the groundwork for folks to get excited about the (hopefully) incoming new chapter. Either way, this marks the first opportunity for PC owners to finally enter Suzuki’s clockwork world of forklifts and crime.

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