Happy Halloween, citizens! When midnight comes and October ends, I, Ghoastus, will be banished once more into the spirit realm – at least until something sufficiently Roman happens to summon me back. I will miss you all. But before that dread hour arrives, there is time yet for one more terribly> frightening story.

It concerns my friend and colleague Nate, who started an unofficial RPS minecraft server back at the end of July, thinking it would be a bit of fun for friends and colleagues. Indeed, it was (although Sin might disagree!). But as summer withered and the nights grew darker, it was to become a truly harrowing place, riven by religious conflict, and plagued by the spectre of a dreadful ogre. Read on, if you dare, for the story as told to me by Nate

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Things move fast in the games industry, eh? Rockstar told us only four weeks ago that their hugely anticipated Western game Red Dead Redemption 2 was galloping to the PC. Now here we are looking down the long barrel of a launch trailer like a lame horse that bucked when it should have rooed. We re mere days away from the launch date of November 5th.

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Though they never once use the word “raid”, I am deploying it to talk about Borderlands 3’s upcoming Takedown at Maliwan’s Blacksite. It’s a new chunk of looter-shootering coming in November, and a free and permanent mission for those who have completed the main game. It’s a high-level area with tough enemies and bosses, and bespoke loot to grab. It sounds awfully like a raid to me.

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Razer have brought their original FireFly RGB mouse mat back from the dead today, making it brighter and thinner than ever before. Indeed, Razer say the FireFly V2 is now the brightest RGB mouse mat in their entire line-up of rainbow-trimmed surfaces, thanks in no small part to its 19 lighting zones. The 50 / $50 hard mat also has a built-in cable catch to help reduce mouse drag, plus an anti-slip rubber base to keep it in place.

But wait, what are these ghostly fingers rising up from my keyboard? Oh no, i-it’s the deals herald, come to haunt this post with some Halloween Razer deals! Quick, let me hit publish before they take ov-

“Hello deals friends.”>

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Valve have decided that Halloween is the perfect time to kill off the old Steam library, replacing it with a more customisable screen for your games collection. I hope that doesn t come back to haunt us, because I can t handle being chased down a dark alleyway by the angry spirit of the old UI. The old library screen is dead and replaced by a new screen with a number of ways to search and sort your games, a main screen that gathers all the latest updates, and more.

They’ve also released Steam’s new Remote Play Together beta to everyone as an extra treat.

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Having weapons is cool and all and most of them deal more damage than the science weapons, but The Outer Worlds has some unique gadgets and gismos that are worth seeking out. They’re the most bizarre items, capable of shrinking foes, or making them fight each other.

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Now that we know Death Stranding will come to PC next year, following its PlayStation 4 launch next week, hey look I guess we can post about it more. Such as, here’s the eight-minute PS4 launch trailer for Hideo Kojima’s first post-Metal Gear game. I know some console pals have regretted watching the trailer, fearing it spoils too much, but: 1) I’ll have forgotten all this by summer 2020; 2) any revelations from a marketing trailer will pale in comparison to how much people will talk about what the game actually is by then anyway.

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Do you struggle with horror games? Me too. I could list exceptions. System Shock 2, or the good Aliens Vs Predator (even after months of playing it, getting caught by a facehugger always> sccared the bejesus out of me). Even Resident Evil 2, cheesy and sometimes predictable as it was. But those are the obvious ones. You’ve already played those.

So I’ve been looking back at the last few years, and you know what? There have been some bloody great horror games that aren’t, you know, the bad kind of horror, and I think it’s about time they got their due. Here then, are my Halloween recommendations for people who aren’t really into most horror games.

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Phantasmagoria is a point and click adventure from the mind of Roberta Williams — famed creator of the Kings Quest series. Phantasmagoria, though, is a massive departure from the family-friendly adventures of King Graham. It’s a cheesy FMV horror adventure game that was a technical marvel in its time.

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We re living in a Zachlike world. It’s a world where games can be about the internal rhythm of things, and where you can create works of art from rulesets. It s why Zachtronic’s game Opus Magnum let people share gifs of what they ve made, explained here by game developer and ex-desk sharer of mine, Tom Francis. And yet this post isn t about a Zach Barth game. This is about Neon Noodles, a game about optimising the work of robot chefs as they prepare meals. It’s the perfect format because food is both a science and art. The open beta is free on Steam right now.

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