I’ve spent far too many hours over the past week playing Frostpunk so needless to say, it’s about time to shake off the quiet despair and growing anxiety that a game like that can leave you with and check out a fresh batch of discounts for games and tech. There’s even a cheap copy of Cannon Fodder in this week’s entry, so you can safely assume I’ll have the theme song from that game in my head for a week straight.

As usual, we ve got deals that ll work in the UK, deals that ll work in the US and some deals that will work in both the UK and US, as well as presumably many other places. Let s get started.

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…and if you haven’t yet, then you probably should. We named Torment: Tides of Numenera as one of the best games of 2017 for a reason, you know. You can play Inxile Entertainment’s fascinating RPG until Sunday at 9PM BST through Steam, and pick it up for 60% off until Monday.

Oh go on, here’s a peek behind the curtain – I> basically named it one of the best games of 2017, by chucking loads of my voting points at it. And it turns out I wasn’t even playing it right.

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I do have a soft spot for pigeons, strutting around city squares and cooing like a flock of gossips fussing over a biscuit tin. Better dottering pigeons than murderous seagulls, that’s for sure. But real-life pigeons can be a bit manky and mangled, so thank goodness that modern technology has enabled the creation of simulated pudgy pigeons in the aptly-named Pigeon Game. It’s a free little doodad set inside a small virtual park, where we can throw sunflower seeds to orbic pigeons, chase them, and even pet their squidgy bodies if they come to like us. What a future we live in! (more…)

Ubisoft’s salty multiplayer shipfighter Skull & Bones will not launch this autumn, as had been the plan, because Ubisoft have delayed it for a fair while. They want extra time to make sure it’s proper good, yeah? Wouldn’t want to launch a ship then have the front fall off or, like Sea Of Thieves, realise the front was never even there. Ubi now expect to release Skull & Bones in the 2019-20 financial year, which runs from April 1st, 2019 through to March 31st, 2020. (more…)

Sorry, Combat Mission turn tales have put the mockers on this week’s Flare Path. The only Rock, Paper, Shotgun column happy to answer the door in a smoking jacket and fez will return next Friday with a bountiful competition and, possibly, a wargame review. All I can offer today is an invitation to participate in the defence of Caent, and a fiendish word puzzle inspired by the colour green. (more…)

Colourful space explore-o-survival sandbox No Man’s Sky will add multiplayer with the free ‘Next’ update in July, developers Hello Games announced today. Spacemen will get to explore together, wander together, pootle together, fly together, race together, battle together, build bases together, bump into each other around space, and even murder each other if they’re feeling monstrous. Ah, time to dust off the ol’ spaceship and round up some pals for an intergalactic nature hike. (more…)

The Crew 2 is getting an closed beta soon. Ubisoft s Red Bull open world Red Bull racer sponsored by Red Bull is once again set in the United States, as you can see in the trailer below, featuring Upbeat Sport Man telling us to “dream big, race hard!” And if you’re into that, the beta might be a good chance to see if the new swap-your-car-for-a-plane-and-then-for-a-boat button brings something exciting to a racing game where the best feature was its long mutiplayer road trips. I’ll tell you where to sign up down there. (more…)

The end of war should be a cause for celebration, but there was only frustration when Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds ended its latest War Mode event after less than a day due to the servers crashing all over. A fortnight later, it’s fixed and back, raining heavily-armed players over tiny slices of Miramar for 5v5v5v5v5v5v5v5v5v5 team deathmatch with respawning. The event will end on Sunday night, mind, so you’ve only got two-and-a-half days to lock and load.

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For the last 24 hours nothing has moved on the Overlordy battlefield. Bullets have refused to leave barrels. Flames have refused to writhe. Sweat and blood droplets have hung grimly to nose ends and fingertips. One dab of CMBO’s ‘GO’ button will restart the clockwork… sanction another sixty seconds of savage clamour. Are you ready to re-enter the maelstrom?

(Overlordy is an open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord in which German forces are orchestrated by commenters while British units are computer controlled. For a scenario outline and summaries of earlier turns, click here) (more…)

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (to drop its seldom-used full name) really has come from strength to strength. Once an also-ran, now a genuine esports phenomenon. For those fashionably late to the party and confused as to what’s going on, imagine Counter-Strike, but where all but the sturdiest of walls, floors and ceilings can be shot to ribbons, and where every single player has a bag full of fancy gadgets and traps to flummox their opposition.

It’s best played with friends on voice-comms, but hugely popular nonetheless. This weekend is a fine time to give it a try for yourself. From now until Sunday evening, the game is completely free to try on Steam, and discounted for those who decide they’ll be sticking around.

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