This week the podcast talks bad, meaning good, and if we say a villain is bad then we mean they are not good, but bad. Make sense? Of course it does! Yes, we’re talking about some of our favourite villains in PC gaming. Some interesting topics come up, including the utility of different kinds of villain, what kinds of villain are good, and whether Dr Eggman is a sad, sad boy.

We also discuss the etymology of the word “villain” itself, which means your pre-railment topic derailment this week is about Norman peasants and oats instead of wildlife. Be sure to listen through that to see if any of your favourite villains come up. Plus: the return of the Five Nights At Freddy’s book club!

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Grim alternative 1920s-but-with-mechs wargame Iron Harvest will kick off its open beta today. Developers KING Art also released a new cinematic trailer, showing off a woodland clash and a terrified child. You probably can’t play as the child.

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Gamesplanet’s Summer Sale continues apace this week, and they’ve just turned up the heat with some new, freshly baked 24 hour flash deals. Chief among them is Resident Evil 3 for a sizzling 50% off, taking Capcom’s recent Resi remaster down to its lowest ever price in the UK and US, and 40% off Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – perfect if yesterday’s news about its upcoming free update has finally tempted you to give it a go.

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It’s been quite a while since the Razer Blackshark last surfaced on shop shelves, but today marks the return of this wired gaming headset in the form of the delightfully low-key Blackshark V2. Gamers of a certain age may remember the first Razer Blackshark had a rather natty aviator look with its wiggly green mic cable and hardback ear cups, but this new V2 model is a complete revamp of that original headset thanks to a new pair of 50mm audio drivers not seen on any other Razer headset before, a cardioid mic with USB sound card, and super soft memory foam ear cushions to name just a few of its new features. It is, in short, a very different headset to its helicopter-inspired predecessor, but judging by my time with the Blackshark V2, it’s all the better for it.

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If you don’t fancy going for the 10-disc physical version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, it turns out there’ll be more than one storefront to download the chonky game digitally. The game will be making a cheeky landing on Steam when it releases next month, so now you’ll be able to choose whether to grab it on there, or go with the version that’s coming the Microsoft store.

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Have you visited the RPS Teespring Store yet? If not, and you fancy availing yourself of one of our fine t-shirts or PC Goliath hoodies to declare your allegiance in the ongoing website wars, then you’ll be pleased to know that you can get 10% off all of our lovely RPS merch until midnight on Saturday August 1st.

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Ants are a strong contender for the most fascinating creature on the planet. Arguably the most successful animal (discounting micro-organisms, those smug jerks), even. I was fascinated by them as a kid. There’s an ant with only one pair of chromosomes. There are ants that transform themselves into food storage units. There are kamikaze ants that defend their nest by exploding. Blind ants. Ants that form nests, bridges and even boats out of their own bodies. Ants that go to war, ants that farm, herd animals, spy on other colonies, take slaves.

In Grounded, Obsidian’s new mini-sized survival game, it doesn’t even take any of that to secure my undying love. When an ant sees you for the first time, it chirrups curiously, and tilts its head like a dog.

I love them. I will never harm them. If I ever play with another person and they attack an ant, I will fight them to the death. (more…)

Konami may be best known for making games here in the west, but over in Japan they also have a long history of making arcade hardware and pachinko machines for the amusement sector. Now, they’re branching out into gaming PCs as well thanks to their new line of Arespear rigs, which were unveiled earlier this week. The name is meant to be a portmanteau of Ares, the god of war, and the word spear, but personally I think they’ve got more of a cheese grater or electric razer vibe going on rather than something sharp and pointy. Just look at those rounded corners!

Alas, Konami’s Arespear PCs haven’t been going down well in Japan, as people have not only been making fun of the name, but also their very overpriced set of specs. Over £2400 / $3200 for an RTX 2070 Super and 9th Gen Core i7 PC, anyone?

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Valve have made the way you change your store country on Steam a lot more strict. Now, if you switch your country setting to somewhere else, Steam requires you to make a purchase with a payment method from that country. But what does that mean for you? Well, if you’re one of the people who uses a VPN to try and get games a bit cheaper… it’s gonna be a whole lot more difficult for you to do that.

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The Epic Games Store has started testing out achievements, which is nice. I like it when I do something ridiculous in Slay The Spire and a little picture comes up acknowledging how awesome I am (and ideally just how small a percentage of people are awesome in the same way). I would like this for Epic-only games too.

They’ve shown off some for Ark: Survival Evolved, but beyond that it’s not clear which games currently have them.

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