This year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco has been postponed, the organisers announced tonight. GDC 2020 was was due to run March 16-20 in San Francisco with hundreds of sessions and tens of thousands attending. The organisers say it is postponed, not cancelled, and they “fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer.” This is not a big surprise. Companies including Blizzard, Microsoft, Epic Games, Sony, Unity, Amazon, and Facebook/Oculus had already pulled out of GDC as a precautionary measure against the new coronavirus going round. The mayor of San Francisco has (unrelated to GDC) declared a local emergency too. GDC pass refunds are on offer, and a grassroots effort is forming to help marginalised developers who’ve blown precious money on attending.

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At last we’ve gotten our first look at Baldur’s Gate 3 and I liker of both Baldur’s Gate and Divinity: Original Sin 2 am feeling quite swell about what we’ve seen, but RPS have even more interview goodies yet. In the gameplay reveal this week, Larian CEO Swen Vincke takes off his character’s boots and throws them at an enemy as a last-ditch escape manoeuvre. During an interview with RPS folk Matthew and Alice Bee, Vincke let on that, in Larian’s signature permissive dungeon master style, that’s far from the only thing you can chuck across the battlefield.

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Big ol’ kingdom manager Crusader Kings 3 has put out another development update and it’s a chunky one. This month, Paradox Interactive developers take a really deep dive on all of the Lifestyles like classes, but for your management self, not combat self. There are five different Lifestyles that your ruler can specialize in, all with different perk trees and focuses that let you decide how you’ll keep an iron grip on your land and lords and all.

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Eve Online‘s big fan event in Iceland is now the latest to be cancelled over public health concerns surrounding spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). CCP announced today that in order to prioritise the safety of attendees, staff, and the local community, Eve Fanfest 2020 is being cancelled. The event was scheduled for April 2-4 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

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This Saturday, hundreds of classic EverQuest players plan on flooding one of the game’s servers in protest of the lack of a vintage PvP server. The 21-year-old MMO still has a pretty thriving community, including several servers running older versions, but the game currently has just one official PvP server and it’s on modern EverQuest. This means anyone who wants a classic PvP experience needs to use private community-run servers. But these players have had enough, they want their old PvP back, and they’re rising up as ogres to get the developers’ attention. I spoke to one of the ringleaders ahead of the protest.

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“Where is it?!” I holler, rooting through game tags searching for any mention of Garden Story on RPS. “It must be here somewhere!” Alas, it is not. So I shall break the ice. Garden Story, currently in development, will be one of the current crop of very sweet town-sim type games following in the wake that Stardew Valley has cleared on PC. It’s being shown off at PAX East but you can load up a free demo from home all weekend.

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There’s no denying that Luna: The Shadow Dust is exceptionally easy on the eyes. It’s a sumptuous point and click puzzler that sees you move from one lovingly hand-drawn room to the next, as you work your way up a strange and mysterious tower. You’re never explicitly sure why you’re heading skyward, since the game prides itself on its wordless storytelling. Instead of bombarding you with dozens of text boxes, it conveys its narrative through ancient-looking murals adorning the tower walls, and occasionally through the puzzles themselves. It works to an extent, but I’d say that most of the game’s pull comes from simply wanting to know what gorgeous-looking delight awaits through the next door. And without the ability to retrace your steps at any point, the only way, as they say, is up.

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If you’ve not heard, those folks who done underwater horror game Soma and haunted house horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent are working on another thing that is almost certainly a horror game. And look, it’s a scary desert game this time around. Probably. We don’t know for sure yet because so far they’ve led players on an ARG that’s alternate reality game looking for clues about what their next proper video game might be. Today them super sleuths have uncovered another hidden video and this one looks like an actual game (teaser) trailer.

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Salutations, deals hunters. It’s another beautiful day in the land of the best PC gaming deals, with loads of big savings to be had as far as the eye can see. Seriously, I actually can’t move for deals this week. In our immediate vicinity, you’ll find huge discounts in both the leafy suburbs of The Sims 4 and the rainy streets of Conglomerate 451, before encountering yet more deals out on the plains and field of Total War. Then, in the next city over (but don’t get too close), there’s 29% off to be found on the likes of Resident Evil 3, and there are even deals to be found all the way down in hell, with Bethesda’s big, web-wide Doom sale. So let’s go forth into this week’s finest deals country, because boy howdy, there’s a lot to get through.

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Stardew Valley may be a wonderful game, but there’s no denying it imposes excessive limits upon the player. Every item has prerequisites, and the productivity of each day is dictated by your energy and the inevitable march of time. But our Stardew Valley cheats guide will walk you through how to break down all these limitations, from pausing time to spawning items, from insta-completing quests to giving yourself unlimited money – and much, much more.

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