Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

A new secret mission snuck into Destiny 2 with last night’s update, leading to the kind of reward those good-time Guardians prize above all: an Exotic-class weapon powered by things we know are forbidden for very good reasons but can’t resist because they make nice noises and lights. In the case of Outbreak Perfected, the new kinetic pulse rifle, it can shoot self-replicating nanites to bite baddies with their nanognashers. The mission to nab it is a fun one, exploring a new corner of a familiar place. The update also gave the Spectral Blades skill a well-deserved nerf and ended Destiny’s spring event.

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May 8, 2019
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Matt Cox)

I’m in love with Mordhau.

If I described it as Chivalry, but there’s a button to hold your sword wrong , I would be both accurate and unjustly reductive. I’d also be giving it a huge compliment, because before last Monday Chivalry was the best multiplayer sword em up in existence. Now Mordhau isn’t just that. It’s one of the best games in existence, full stop.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

Tremors, but a game. You are a big sand worm, like the slithering giant in Dune, and your goal is to eat the poor folk of Egypt and their camels (or another applicable country). Then you grow. You eat their jeeps. Their soldiers. Their helicopters. Death Worm is the straightforward game of ye olde Centipede made into something twice as vicious, but just as simple.

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ECHO - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

Ultra Ultra, the small Copenhagen-based studio behind sci-fi stealth-puzzler Echo, have officially closed their doors today. Announced quietly through Twitter, they state that “Ultra Ultra has ceased to exist”. I’d always been aware that Echo had never sold as well as it should have, but it’s still tragic to hear that such a talented team are going their separate ways just a year and a half from the release of their first game. There is one small bit of good news – the recently-optioned film (as reported by Deadline) is still in production, also confirmed by the studio via Twitter.

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Shakedown: Hawaii - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

Shakedown: Hawaii may be a bloodless 2D parody of Grand Theft Auto with nary a swear or drug reference in sight, but it’s still a deeply cynical game from the hour or so I’ve played so far. Out today, it’s the sequel to Retro City Rampage, developer Vblank Entertainment’s earlier joke-a-minute GTA parody. This time they’ve traded in the pseudo-NES sprites for SNES era colour and definition, although the game’s story of an ’80s corporate head trying to stay relevant in the day of gamer-branded soft drinks and VR arcades is as contemporary as it gets. See the launch trailer below.

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Kerbal Space Program - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

There’s more Kerbal Space Program DLC on the way, and the next expansion for Squad’s jokey-but-actually-serious scientific sandbox is bulking up all things planetary. Breaking Ground is due out on May 30th, and is set to add more research sites across the solar system, with strange crystal formations, frozen volcanoes and other stellar curiosities to poke with sticks. Very big metal sticks, at that, as there’s a whole range of new components designed for planetside operations, including advanced robotics, ideal for carrying around new deployable scientific equipment.

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Trials of Fire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Steve Hogarty)

Trials Of Fire, besides having such a generic sounding title that you forget it every time you re not looking directly at the words, is a turn-based, single-player, deck-building, choice-driven, procedurally-generated, top-down, role-playing strategy game, set in a post-cataclysmic, dark fantasy world. It s part The Road, part Tolkien offcuts, as you guide a miserable band of fighters through a blasted wasteland in search of a series of Emerald MacGuffins that will reignite a fallen civilisation and bring balance to the something something.

Familiar questing tropes aside, this is really good. The world is presented as a thick ledger, a beefy tome of a storybook that when cracked open reveals the landscapes and battlefields on which your little dudes do all of their adventuring and scrapping. Pencil sketches extrude themselves into stone arches and crumbling ruins, rising out from the page like a psychedelic pop-up book. Inventory and equipment screens are found by leafing back and forth through bookmarks and tabs. The unwavering dedication to this nested reality perspective is impressive, and from the title screen to the moment you quit back to the desktop, the game never pulls away from the vantage point of standing above a book about the time three people went on a big walk and got into a bunch of fights with rat people.

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Puyo Puyo Champions - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

Today’s launch of Puyo Puyo Champions makes more sense when you know its Japanese title – Puyo Puyo eSports. This is Sega’s attempt to push the cute puzzler into the competitive sphere. Initially similar to last year’s (on PC at least) Puyo Puyo Tetris, this game offers a smaller range of modes and features, but at a fittingly reduced price and a laser-focus on online multiplayer. There’s detailed blow-by-blow replay breakdowns, some subtle tweaks to the rules and new tournament options, but sadly no T-spins. Below, a noisy and slime-filled launch trailer.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dominic Tarason)

Fortnite Battle Royale‘s map has been re-drawn once more, this time by a volcanic eruption during a live event on Saturday. While the damage was widespread, the urban Tilted Towers & Retail Row areas caught the brunt of it, the former little more than a smoking crater now. The event also took players to an otherworldly vault filled with crystals containing weapons removed from the game. Players had to choose one to return to life, and voted on the wildly overpowered retro gangster standby, the Drum Gun. You can see the whole event below, captured by Polygon’s Simone De Rochefort.

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

When Corsair announced their new Harpoon RGB Wireless gaming mouse would cost just 49 / $50 back in January earlier this year, I thought there must be some kind of catch. A wireless gaming mouse for a mere $50? You must be having a laugh. Now, I know I haven’t reviewed that many wireless gaming mice so far, but the two I have> looked at, namely my best gaming mouse champ, the Logitech G Pro Wireless, and Razer’s Mamba + FireFly Hyperflux combo, will both set you back at least a hundred quid, if not significantly more. Is Corsair’s new cordless competitor really all it’s cracked up to be? Here’s wot I think.

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