Of all the chat clients and apps and sites I use across my professional and personal lives, Steam is the only one that hasn’t been on my pocket telephone because, well, the Steam mobile app is pretty bleh. Reader dear, fret no more about missing Dota invitations or confusing late-night messages from people you used to play a game with but can’t remember which one: Steam Chat has a shiny new dedicated mobile app. Available now on Android and Apple technoslabs, it’s, like, the new Steam client chat but in your pocket.

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Dota Auto Chess, the most popular mod in Dota 2 these days (and which has nothing to do with chess), is becoming a standalone game made by Valve themselves. I had not predicted that this would be Valve’s next game. Valve say they talked with mod creators Drodo Studio about working together and, while dreams of collaboration fell flat, they did agree to each work on their own versions of it. Presumably some money is changing hands too? So Valve are now making a standalone Dota Auto Chess while Drodo are continuing to work on the mod as well as their own mobile game that basically just replaces the characters. So that’s a game based on a mod for a game based on a Warcraft 3 mod based on a StarCraft mod.

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THQ Nordic continue to hoover up studios and games that make many go “Oh huh, yeah, they could be neat,” today announcing they’ve bought Piranha Bytes. They’re the German studio who created Gothic, Risen, and Elex, three open-world RPG series with varying degrees of promise and wonk that make many go “Oh huh, yeah, they could be neat.” Along with the team, THQ Nordic have bought the rights to those three and do hint that a sequel to 2017’s Elex is coming. Perhaps THQ Nordic can give Piranha Bytes the cash they need to exorcise some of their jank.

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Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown features a veteran fighter pilot whose full name is Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage. That’s fabulous. It s also got plenty of smashing dogfight action. But you know what it doesn t have? Support for most flight sticks. That s disappointing. However, there are now at least a few more twisty toys functional with the game, the developers have said in a Steam update. The bad news: only joysticks made by Thrustmaster have been added. They are the hardware folks who make admittedly good flight sticks and HOTAS, and who cause untold spluttering as its customers try to explain to their significant others why there is a transaction for something called the Thrustmaster hot ass on the bank statement this month. Well, Gareth? WELL?

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Many years ago, when I traipsed the streets of Belfast city with the menacing incisors of a 15-year-old who did not get braces when he should have done so, I often met with a pal and mentor in sub-criminal activities. Let s call him “Firebastard”. Firebastard was a good friend, and a knower of various clandestine arts. We all have that mate who downloaded The Anarchist s Cookbook. That glorious walking disorder who taught us the value of smashing bottles under the flyover in an idle fugue. Firebastard was that friend. One day, he gave my brother and I another book, a real book. Steal This Computer Book Vol 3. It can teach you to be a hacker, he said. It s full of viruses.

Hacknet is a game that lets me pretend I understood that book.

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Beat Saber‘s $100 Bills is an obnoxious song that I cannot remove from my brain. It’s the musical equivalent of a bloke sidling up to you in a pub and asking if you want to see his armpits. Fortunately, Beat Saber has other songs, and makes slicing beats so satisfying that sometimes I don’t even care that armpit man won’t stop grunting about how wealthy he is.

If you own either a Vive or an Oculus and like either music, lightsabers or a good time, this is one of the best games to throw your VR moolah at. Especially now that it’s slashed its way out of early access with a level editor.

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Overwatch has now been kicking around the multiplayer shooter scene for three years, although it feels like longer, thanks to the game’s constant barrage of seasonal updates and events. Blizzard are kicking off their anniversary celebrations with a trial week, so anyone still on the fence can try the game free here, and newcomers will get to try all of the notable event modes of the past few years, one a day. Players that log in during the anniversary event (running until June 10th) will get a free commemorative loot box, and hopefully come away with at least one of the new outfits. Below, an anniversary trailer.

Update: Along with the anniversary events, Blizzard have also rolled their modding-lite Overwatch Workshop mode onto the live servers.>

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Since its launch in 2014, The Sims 4 has received a steady diet of add-ons and updates, making it one of EA’s longest-lasting games. Now there’s no excuse not to check out what all the fuss is about because you can get the base game for free on Origin for the next week.

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The Domain Of Timeless Conflict, centrepiece of Path Of Exile‘s upcoming free Legion update, isn’t quite> the mead-swilling viking afterlife, but it’s close enough to be worth invading and looting. It’ll hit Grinding Gear Games’s free-to-play action RPG on June 7th and replaces the current (and controversial) Synthesis league. Legion adds a new quarterly source of loot and experience to the world, and permanently overhauls the game’s melee combat. This is on top of the usual pile of new skill gems, unique items and a re-balance to make early-game monsters scary once more. See the trailer below.

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Even two decades after its release, The Longest Journey hasn’t lost its hold on players’ imaginations. Except now, satisfying that nostalgia fix doesn’t have to mean stomaching those 1999 graphics thanks to a high-res makeover mod released last week.

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