Epic Games, developers of that little game that you might have heard of called Fortnite, are suing a UX tester for leaking details about their big shift into Chapter 2. They say that Ronald Sykes caused them harm by Tweeting things he shouldn t have about season 11, which eventually arrived after their big black hole event a couple of weeks ago.
I know that Southern California is straight out of a horror movie because right now, this sliver of The Golden State is on fire. It’s not the first time, and it probably won’t be the last. I’ve seen ash rain from the sky, I’ve seen the sky turn ruddy browns in the middle of the day, and sometimes I think the very air is squeezing every last drop of moisture out of my skin until I turn into dust. It’s a true hellscape, and yet everyone seems to just carry on. Folks call it fire season, for crying out loud.
The banality of SoCal horror is 35 and wildfires at the end of October, and I long for the cool, crisp Halloween autumns of my childhood. To get into the spirit of things, I have tried to conjure the very essence of Halloween with some of the scariest games available on itch. Brought to you via those games which the algorithms deemed “most popular,” here there be demons, ghosts, jumpscares, claustrophobic hallways, and taxes. You’ve been warned.
Stellaris s newest alieopals, the Lithoids, have arrived, crunching their way through space in extremely cool crystalline ships. The lore claims that this new rock-based species lives for ages and can hang out on even the harshest of planets, but their blingy transport suggests a different kind of je ne sais quoi if you ask me. You can see them in the trailer below.
This is not Halloween weekend. The weekend closest to Halloween before going over, sure. Not Halloween weekend. But it is a viable Halloween weekend. Next Saturday will be November 2nd, by which point all fake blood will be swept from store shelves and replaced by Advent calendars. If you need to hastily assemble a Halloween costume next weekend, the shops will not help you unless you’re going as the Grinch. But why quibble over which weekend is Halloween weekend? Why not celebrate two Goth Christmases? Solved.
What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!
Pack your thermals: Monster Hunter: World‘s Iceborne expansion now has a PC release date of January 9th, 2020. While console Monster Hunters got Iceborne at the tail end of summer in September, when the frozen land of Hoarfrost Reach might have offered welcome respite from the searing sun, it’ll be proper cold all-round for us. Ice in the outside world, ice in your recreation. I’m sure some of the fights against honking great new monsters will warm your blood up, mind. You can see more of those beasts in the new PC trailer below.
The time to take a trip to The Outer Worlds has finally arrived. Not to be confused with the Outer Wilds, you understand. Oh no, that’s a different space shuttle bus altogether. The Outer Worlds> is Obsidian’s new intergalactic RPG, the folks wot made Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, and I’ve been taking a look at how well it runs on PC. The answer, you’ll be pleased to hear, is pretty darn smooth. As with most big games these days, though, there are always ways to help improve performance if your PC’s struggling a bit. So read on, fellow space travellers, to see what top tips you can employ to boost the game’s frame rate right up into the next galaxy.
My dad s favourite game series returned today. Call Of Duty 100% puts him back in his army days, and though I m not sure I should be encouraging that sort of thing, it s nice that we have a shared interest. And it makes me wonder if he did cool things with drones.
Despite being a resomethinging of the series, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare looks very much the bombastic FPS button-masher that has clogged up the internet s arteries for the past decade and a bit. Go all over the world, shoot people there, then pretend to be thoughtful about it. Infinity Ward’s latest was released in the wee hours.
There’s a coat in a window on my way home and I want it. Or possibly a blazer, I was in a hurry. It is purple and the shop had put a sign saying “VAMPIRE” over it, but I don’t need to use the cover of the worst holiday as an excuse. Which reminds me: when did we agree that Halloween was an entire bloody month and not a single day?
The Pleasuredome does not recognise this false season (also I coincidentally booked half of next week off anyway). It is time, then, for a resolutely pumpkin-free Unknown Pleasures, our regular selection of the very best games on Steam that aren’t getting their due.
Styling it out this week: Bickering nobles, micro planets, and robotic angels.
Starbreeze s financial woes have thrown up some interesting twists in recent times. The Swedish publisher and developer nearly collapsed this year following a financially difficult 2018. A company restructuring managed to keep things afloat and they are in the process of building their future around Payday 3, which is coming out in 2022 or 2023. That s something of a gap, one that they’re hoping to plug by restarting development of Payday 2 a year after the gang waved goodbye. They are asking players to pay for more DLC going forward.
That last line is quite a thing to write because Starbreeze are essentially breaking a promise made to the people who bought Payday 2: Ultimate Edition, a package that promised any future addition for free. They’re owning up to that and asking for help.
At the stroke of midnight, Obsidian Entertainment blasted off into The Outer Worlds. It’s a new first-person sci-fi RPG from the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol, exploring strange space colonies in quite a NuFallout-y way. It’s not one to break bold new ground (and even with the name, I’ve accidentally called it”Outer Wilds” thrice so far today) but it does those Obsidian things and it does them solidly, and that sounds comforting in these uncertain times.