Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Impeded by the hurdle of starting to work from home, Ubisoft have announced a delay for Trackmania, their arcade racing game with a big focus on letting players build their own tracks. Previously due on May 5th, it’s now expected July 1st. Ubisoft say this new Trackmania is a remake of 2006’s Trackmania Nations, the one which focused on the stadium races – none of those squillions of other cars types and that. For now, you can see a bit in the first trailer.

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Pistol Whip - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Graham Smith)

Pistol Whip - Best VR games 2020

Like the better known Beat Saber, Pistol Whip is a virtual reality rhythm game, but here you’re firing bullets at silhouetted figures in time to the music. It’s Hotline Miami via Guitar Hero.

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Wildfire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

If you need some more period piece stealth to tide you over until Desperados 3, stealth platformer Wildfire might just do it. As one of few magic users left in the world, you’ll use your abilities to burn, freeze, and grow the environment as you protect villagers and outwit the enemies hunting you down. It’ll be burning down the house on May 26th.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

Steam Labs is back with another experiment and this time Valve are attempting to solve discrepancies in human communication with computers. You know how Steam do. Humans can’t ever seem to agree on how to classify games. What exactly is a “soulslike”? How about a roguelike or a roguelike-like? Is Stardew Valley a simulation? Not really, but we call it one. Steam is teaching its computers some logic so that it can give you better results when you search by tags.

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Counter-Strike 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

Looks like there’s a drip somewhere in Valve’s spigot. Source code for both Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has apparently been made public. The files appear to be from years ago, though that may not prevent present troublemakers from doing their thing. Some fan servers are worried enough that they’ve gone offline until they can assure that these leaks won’t compromise the security of players. So far it’s unclear where the leak originated, though of course that hasn’t stopped anyone from guessing or pointing fingers.

Update: Valve have now responded to RPS to say they are still investigating but currently “have not found any reason for players to be alarmed or avoid the current builds” of either game. >

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

The loveliest thing I’ve seen today: the farm and farmhouse of Stardew Valley drawn as a Polly Pocket toy by artist Brittnie Marcil. Polly Pocket, if you don’t know, was a line of teeny doll houses, dioramas, and playsets hidden inside mock makeup cases. Pleasing little treasures. While we could never afford such fancy toys when I was a nipper, I remain wholly delighted by Marcil’s picture today. Come admire!

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ITTA - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

If you’ve not heard of Itta, that’s alright. It’s got plenty of familiar touchstones to help you along your way. It’s a stew with chunks of big bass boss rushing, action-y bullet dodging, and grim indie game sadness. It’s out today, so you can skip off to try it if any of those hooks entice you.

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Untitled Goose Game - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alex Wiltshire)

Untitled Goose Game is a game about being a horrible goose, about making a mess and watching hapless Brits try to clear it up again. But under all that, it’s a game about things. Apples, hair brushes, keys, mallets, toy planes, tulips, teapots. After all, it takes things to mess things up.

“Items are the language of the game,” co-designer Nico Disseldorp tells me. “They’re both the tools and the reward. They play a really central role in so much of what we do, and how people play.”

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PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

The small snowy map of Vikendi returned to Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds with the start of Season 7 today, having been pulled from rotation in January for improvements. They’ve removed a few villages, added more cover in places, reduced the amount of snow across a lot of the island, and, most importantly, rebuilt the scrappy old Dino Park (which I did already adore) as the larger and flashier Dinoland. While you can’t ride its rusty ferris wheel or the broken rollercoaster winding around a volcano, the overhaul has added something you can ride: new trains now trundling around the map. Pleasing.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

Don’t worry, Warzone, it’s totally natural for free-to-play battle royales of your size to have these growing pains. As with just about any competitive game, Call Of Duty: Warzone cheaters have been diligently looking for ways to game the game to victory. In order to preserve some semblance of fair competition for the rest of us, Infinity Ward say they’ll be throwing suspected cheaters into their own lobbies away from the rest of us.

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