The Outer Worlds - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Ollie Toms)

The Outer Worlds weapons are pretty darn complex. They may give you a tonne of scope for choice and customisation, but each weapon has many more associated stats than we’re used to seeing in games such as this – and that’s not even taking into account weapon type buffs, damage types, special effects, mods, and each of the many other elements that may affect your time with a particular gun.

Our The Outer Worlds weapons guide will walk you through all of these things, along with useful tips for getting your hands on the very best weapons the game has to offer.

(more…)

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Ollie Toms)

If you’ve played the original Red Dead Redemption (or, indeed, any of the GTA games), it should come as no surprise whatsoever to you that Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats exist. Rockstar have hidden away clues to their cheat codes inside various newspapers scattered about RDR2’s vast wild world – but seeing as you’re here, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that you don’t really want to go to all that trouble tracking down each and every code. Well, good news! Our Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats guide lists all 37 cheats in the game so you can get right down to augmenting your singleplayer experience however you please!

(more…)

FINAL FANTASY XIV Online - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (N Farrow)

Final Fantasy XIV offers a lot to potential players. It’s a polished MMO with great writing, combat, and a seemingly infinite number of crossover events. But you can also ignore all of that and spend your time designing and decorating a home. The Housing System allows you to buy an estate and play a private game of interior design using items earned, bought or crafted to decorate the space.

It can feel more like you re playing The Sims than an MMO, but for many players inhabiting a home through their character gives them the satisfaction of a job well done. Plus the houses exist in actual neighbourhoods, with other players houses visible and accessible from your front yard. My next door neighbour has built a nightmarish labyrinth in his cellar, for example.

(more…)

Alter Ego - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Sin Vega)

“Life sims” have become a bit of a thing in the million years since Alter Ego was first released in 1986. I first played it about six years ago, and mostly I remember how incredibly judgemental and preachy it was.

(more…)

Wattam - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Natalie Clayton)

Winter’s hit like a brick this year, and it’s about time we were owed a little sunshine. It warms the heart, then, to discover that joyous friend ’em up Wattam was given a release date earlier today. Arriving in the grim heart of December, mere days after the country plunges into a miserable election, I think we’ll all need some time to go morris dancing with an ice cream cone.

(more…)

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Natalie Clayton)

Slowly, but surely, Blizzard have opened up about penalising Hearthstone pro player Ng Wai “Blitzchung” Chung for a pro-Hong Kong protest during October’s Grand Championship finals. But after a delivering yet another wholly underwhelming public statement, it’s hard to say they’ve handled the situation well.

As it happens, that opinion isn’t limited to aggrieved fans. Last Friday, Blizzard vice president Jeff “from the Overwatch team” Kaplan criticised the company’s rushed response, calling for Chung’s suspension to be “reduced more or eliminated”.

(more…)

Pillars of Eternity - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Sales of Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire were disappointing enough that Obsidian Entertainment would need to “re-examine the entire format of the game” before making a hypothetical third, game director Josh Sawyer has suggested. Writing in response to a fan asking after a third game, Sawyer explained that the sequel sold worse than the original, and he’d need to understand why before they were to do another in the same style. He makes clear that whether Pillars 3 happens is not a decision he himself has control over, but this does sound like the series is at least taking a break.

(more…)

Grand Theft Auto V Legacy - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Ben Griffin)

The next phase of Grand Theft Auto V s PC glow-up is coming, like a beautiful high schooler in a teen movie taking their glasses off to reveal they were even more beautiful all along. Scheduled to launch in December via GTAV-mods.com, a massive update to the astounding (and free) NaturalVision mod will overhaul the game s already age-defying looks. We re talking a remodelled sky, reworked shadows, enhanced textures, transformed lighting (both interior and exterior), and realistic window reflections, amongst plenty of other juicy additions.

So who makes this mod, and where do they get off releasing it for free? To find out, I spoke with NaturalVision creator Razed, real name Jamal Rashid. The 28-year-old Miami native has been working on NaturalVision s latest update in his spare time for the past 12 months, having spent over three years on the project in total. He and his three-person team do it purely out of passion.

(more…)

Grand Theft Auto V Legacy - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (John Walker)

The results are in! The links between the longevity of Steam Charts and the decreases in violent crime, the improvement of sanitary water supplies, and sudden global drops in serious health issues, are no coincidence at all!

To quote from the paper recently published in Nature, “Causal links have been shown connecting Rock Paper Shotgun’s Steam Charts articles to a remarkably number of positive worldwide trends, with strong suggestion that a global dependence on the column has been established, such that its weekly appearance is vital to humanity.”

(more…)

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Ollie Toms)

One of the many team-based PvP modes available to players of Red Dead Online is Up In Smoke – a fast-paced race to destroy your opponent’s base before they destroy yours by transporting explosives to the enemy camp. There’s room for both offence and defence in this action-packed PvP mode, and our Red Dead Online Up In Smoke guide will walk you through how to give your team the best chance of success in both regards.

(more…)

...