Tom Clancy is anime now. At least he will be, with the reported announcement of an animated series based on long-dormant sneak ’em up Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. While he’s been out of the videogame space a long time, it seems like Netflix and Ubisoft are bringing Sam Fisher back via the streaming service, greenlighting a two-season adaptation that probably promises plenty of awfully dark frames punctuated by green dots and neck-snapping noises.

(more…)

It’s a bit late to the battle royale party, but Hyper Scape is just about ready to leave open beta. Ditching the Twitch-drop invites to enter open beta earlier this month, Ubisoft’s take on the massive last-person-standing deathmatch genre launches properly next month, kicking off its first season with a new weapon, new hack, limited-time modes and the almost-mandatory 100-tier battle pass.

(more…)

If there’s one thing I respect in any creator, it’s commitment to a concept. I believe in going all-in on things, even when they’re ridiculous, on the principle that passion and dedication can elevate even the most outlandish nonsense to a state of beauty.

Fight Crab challenged this belief.

(more…)

Unfortunately, high stakes cybercrime in the real world isn’t quite as cool as it seems in Cyberpunk 2077. There’s no punked-up jacket plugging USB cables into his eyeballs to steal corporate secrets here – instead, it’s chumps trying their luck with email scams suggesting that you (yes, you!) have been given special access to the game’s supposedly-upcoming beta. It’s gotten bad enough that the devs have stepped in, warning fans that no, these aren’t legit, and there probably won’t even be a beta.

But you’re a smart kid, right? You probably knew that already.

(more…)

Spiritfarer

, the “cosy management game about dying”, is full of many little acts of kindness.

“You can hug anyone, by the way,” Nicolas Guérin tells me, during my recent hands-on preview. Guérin is creative director at Thunder Lotus Games, and Spiritfarer is a slight shift from their action games Sundered and Jotun. Death is a common theme, perhaps, but Spiritfarer is a much more gentle affair. I hug a little mushroom with arms and legs, who is the avatar of a seven- or eight-year-old boy. He leaps into my arms. It is very sweet.

(more…)

Eight years and a few hundreds of millions of dollars in crowdfunding into development, and Star Citizen‘s star-studded Squadron 42 campaign is still nowhere on our scanners. After plans for more regular updates seemed to fizzle out, Cloud Imperium today filed the paperwork to acquire planning permission to post an entirely new development roadmap for the revised roadmap they announced earlier this year.

(more…)

Now, I’m no JRPG connoisseur, but I hear that people quite like the bizarre, energetic world of Disgaea’s tactical RPGs. It’s probably a good thing, then, that Disgaea 4 Complete+ is heading to Steam and Xbox Game Pass for PC this autumn. I’m pretty sure the only one we’re missing on PC now is poor old Disgaea 3. Perhaps one day it, too, shall escape the shackles of its PlayStation prison.

(more…)

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!

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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.

(more…)