Islands change everything. What would be just a map option to split the landmass into sea-divided blobs in so many other city-builders or strategy games is, in cod-Caribbean management sequel Tropico 6, transformative. For this most conservative of management series – you’re a better man than me if you can easily tell the previous three games apart – even the smallest change can make a profound difference.

Tropico’s long been a game played as much for mood, a dream of eternal sun and a zen state of building calm, as anything else. Making the new archipelago format, an empire built across scattered shores, melt neatly into that sensory pleasure, rather than disrupt it, is not as straightforward as it sounds.

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Look lively soldier, the country is at war. There are grey-uniformed murderer-men spilling over our barbed wire. Enemy motorcycles zooming around our roads, uncontested. They re killing your comrades soldier, are you just going to stand there and take it? Good! Glad to see that iron resolve flaring up, glad to see y JESUS CHRIST put that rifle down. No, no. That s not what I meant. No. We need truck drivers. You re a truck driver, Brian. That s how you help the war effort. What, you think these giant steel bars are going to deliver themselves?

Foxhole is a game about being a bullet delivery boy.

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If my translation from Press Release-ese is correct, I believe that sci-fi archaeological adventure Heaven’s Vault will launch on April 16th. Probably a little easier than translating alien hieroglyphs, which seems to be the core of Inkle’s next story-driven puzzler. Unlike the studio’s earlier 80 Days, which was easy-going interactive fiction, this one poses more direct challenges, but will apparently bend its narrative around your choices and even failures. They boldly claim that it’s “a story that will be different for every person who plays it”, and after 80 Days, I’m eager to see them make good on that next month.

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Borderlands 3 wasn’t the only looty shooty announcement Gearbox and publisher 2K had lined up today. They also announced yet another> re-release of the original trilogy (including Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel), this time with a few technical improvements, some optional 4k textures and some quality-of-life improvements for the first game. The good news for us PC folks is that if you already own the original Borderlands or either of the sequels, these upgrades will be entirely free. Below, a pair of predictably bombastic trailers for the polished-up loot n’ shooters.

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Horrible plague-ridden fever-dream simulator Pathologic 2 will be stumbling into stores on May 23rd, presumably before letting out a gurgling cough and keeling over. Despite the ‘2’ in the title, this new game is less of a sequel and more of an expanded re-imagining of Ice-Pick Lodge’s cult 2005 horror-survival game. Set in a surreal industrial town inspired by turn-of-the-century Russia, you’ve got to survive for twelve days as a seemingly supernatural plague tears through the population. Below, an unsettling trailer featuring the children living in this bizarre, impossible place.

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Gearbox Software are, as expected, headed back to a beat-up alien planet for more looting and shooting in Borderlands 3. They announced their third game in the FPS action-RPG series, which has also seen a prequel and spin-off from other developers, at PAX East today with a flashy trailer. A trailer which looked like heck during the big announcement presentation due to technical difficulties. Though the technical difficulties were more exciting than the slow card magic trick. Oh dear. But the handy-dandy YouTube version of the announcement trailer works just fine so hey look come and see.

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The original Risk Of Rain was a game about big numbers – a platform roguelike with a thing for screen-filling, damage-number-generating projectile spam. Three-dimensional sequel Risk Of Rain 2 has just launched into early access, and is already doubling down on the multipliers, as players who pick it up by midnight PST on March 30th will get a second copy to share with a friend. While it expands into larger polygonal spaces, the sequel looks to be just as messy, but developers Hopoo reckon online co-op for up to four is easier to set up now, connecting directly through Steam.

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Time flies when you’re having fun, and six years have just whizzed past playing space-ninja loot n’ shooter Warframe. I can’t think of many other games that have changed as drastically since launch, either. What was once a scrappy last-ditch attempt to keep the lights on at Digital Extremes is now a sprawling free-to-play monster with its own annual convention. To celebrate this endurance, for the next two weeks players will get a few cosmetic goodies just for logging in, and a complete matching set of gear for hacking and slashing through some low-level bonus missions.

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I heard you don t like our podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. But have you listened to 76 hours of it yet? Honestly, mate, it opens up after that. The 76-hour mark, that s when it clicks . But I understand if you don t have the time. Just skip ahead to this week s episode, in which we re talking about games about which we changed our minds. Listen in for the platformers we prematurely pooh-poohed and the Souls games that sucked before they were super.

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The Division 1 was a very popular game with some very glaring issues, one of which was Endgame territory. With The Division 2, Ubisoft and Massive have paid special attention to providing players with an expansive variety of missions and objectives for you to spend your time with once you hit Level 30 and complete the final Main Mission. Our The Division 2 Endgame and World Tiers guide will walk you through how the game changes once you complete the main campaign, and how to deal with the new Black Tusk faction and unlock the four (soon to be five!) different World Tiers.

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