Void Bastards, the strategic roguelike-ish shooter from Blue Manchu now has a release date, broadcast to us through the uncaring depths of the internet: May 29th. Inspired by System Shock 2 and Bioshock (and from the design director on both), it’s a darkly humoured stealthy FPS designed to force hard strategic decisions as you make your way across an FTL-esque star-map full of hazards. Resources of all kinds are limited, and every shot fired on a mission is one that you might need later. All of this wrapped up in a nifty comic-book aesthetic. See the announcement trailer below.

(more…)

Okay, this is the really important part of our Mordhau guide series – and how in the world could it not be? Combat is the beating heart of these sorts of games, and Mordhau’s system of attacks and parries and feints and drags and chambers and ripostes and morphs is so intricate and hard to master that you’ll need all the help you can get if you want to learn how to fight like a pro. This Mordhau combat and fighting guide focuses on simple and advanced melee combat techniques which you can use to build an ironclad defence around yourself and ensure all your strikes land true.

We’ll be getting quite in-depth here, so grab a drink and your weapon of choice, and prepare for a read that will hopefully open your eyes just as you’ll open up your enemies’ torsos.

(more…)

After a couple weeks as a Switch exclusive, card-battling RPG SteamWorld Quest: Hand Of Gilgamech is hopping over to PC on May 31st. The fourth in Image & Form’s consistently excellent SteamWorld series, the games have so far included two mining–heavy platformers and one turn-based squad combat game with a focus on trick-shooting. Naturally, the next step for the series is a Slay The Spire-styled JRPG with some Paper Mario flair. The Switch version is a real charmer, with compelling deck-building backed up by adorable art. Take a look at the new PC trailer below.

(more…)

After a few delays to tweak and tune the base game, Ubisoft are just about ready to roll out Operation Dark Hours, the first eight-player raid for The Division 2. Players will need to have climbed to the tippy top of the game’s progression ladder (Level 30, World Tier 5, Gear Score 490) to start the mission, which begins at the helipad at the White House. Players will be ferried eight at a time outside of the main city map to Washington National Airport, which is absolutely jam-packed with Black Tusk mercenaries. Unsurprisingly, they need to be shooted and looted. Below, a trailer.

(more…)

Riot Games have apologised after part of a new League Of Legends event proved a problem for some players with photosensitive epilepsy, more than most of the game usually is. Riot say they had considered an option to disable the flashy animations which risk triggering seizures in some photosensitive players but they were short on time so, with a choice between launching without the option or not launching the feature, they went ahead. Which is unfortunate for players who are suddenly finding LoL a risk when it wasn’t before. Riot say they’ll try to do better if they run this again.

(more…)

The far future will rummage in the distant past in the next Stellaris, named Ancient Relics, as spacemen develop a new fondness for archaeology and go wild digging up ancient cities and ships from long-dead civilisations. Sure, that sounds like it’ll go fine. We’ll uncover wee stories poking into two long-dead precursors–a plantoid hivemind and some superpsionics–as we conduct multi-stage digs and uncover old pots and bangles and supertech to fuel our growth. Yup, that’s a nice flavour I’ll be glad to see more of in Stellaris. It can’t go much worse than some of the artefacts I’ve dug up before.

(more…)

Watson Whoopinkoff and Flitwick Mcdimbledick are in an altercation. They’re wearing the same (mostly lack of) clothes, and have both taken affront to this. We’re in a particularly scummy part of a particularly scummy town, where nobody around pays them much mind. Except me. I stop and watch as insults escalate, until Mcdimble suggests Whoopy stick the robot hand he’s holding somewhere untoward. Whoopy knocks him out with it, then strolls away. Sheepishly.

Rage 2 is weird.

(more…)

Blizzard have finally announced a release date for World Of Warcraft Classic, the official back-to-basics version of the game. While the genre-defining MMORPG first launched in 2004, Classic will be based on version 1.12.0, aka “Drums Of War”, released in August of 2006, although polished up with a few modern conveniences. A series of invitational stress tests have been announced, starting next week on May 22nd, though only a few active WOW subscribers will be invited. You can see the test schedule here. When released, Classic will be free for active WOW subscribers.

(more…)

Pandemic Express is a game about a bunch of humans escaping a bunch of zombies. The humans, who all resemble French mimes in plague masks, are attempting to board and pilot a train to freedom. The zombies, who all resemble horrible goblins who ve crept out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, are out to stop them, using their fangs and claws to monch and clonch the humans to death. Zombies can respawn forever, and dead humans turn into zombies, so games last until either everybody is a zombie or at least one human has made it out of the map with their precious humanity intact.

(more…)

Welcome back to the wasteland, you raving bunch of lunatics, because today’s the day that Rage 2 finally blasts its way onto PC. Filled to the brim with tongue-waggling goons and mohawked, tattooed hoodlums with very itchy trigger fingers, the successor to id Software’s 2011 post-apocalyptic shooter is now bigger and boomier than ever, thanks in no small part to their collaboration with Just Cause devs Avalanche Studios and their mastery of very good-looking explosions.

But will Rage 2 make your PC explode in equally spectacular fashion? To help answer that question, I’ve been testing the game with a bunch of today’s best graphics cards in order to find out what kind of performance you can expect, and how to get the best settings and the best speeds no matter what GPU you’ve got whirring away inside your case. Let’s get cracking.

(more…)