Sea Salt - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nate Crowley)

A screenshot of a little pixel man in Sea Salt, who is unfortunately being pulled to all four corners of the screen by eight tentacles (two for each limb)

My mate Greg is one of those people who’s phenomenally gentle and kind-hearted, but has a surprisingly brutal taste in media. He introduced me to a big chunk of the metal bands I listen to, and loves films with plenty of fights. I remember as teenagers, we spent an impossibly hot summer’s day watching Gangs Of New York, then roaring Daniel Day Lewis quotes at each other through mouthfuls of doner kebab afterwards. Absolutely cracking bloke.

Anyway, he’s been prodding me for ages to play a game called Sea Salt, and his patience has paid off at last, because I had a go at the weekend. So, Greg, this is for you: Sea Salt is really fun.

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Spelunky 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Graham Smith)

An image of descending a metal chain in Spelunky 2.

Today’s episode of the Spelunky daily includes spoilers for the game’s first four worlds. Yes, this is my humble brag way of saying I got to world four on the daily challenge.

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

For all their supernatural shenanigans and high-tech military kit, there aren’t many sweaters in the Valorant cast, are there? Well, it looks like they’ll need ’em sooner rather than later. Riot are gifting their tactical shooter a new map sooner than expected, tossing their murderbuds into Icebox with the Act III update.

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

Another Resident Evil film is in the works – and this time, it might actually somewhat resemble the series it’s based on. That’s no shame on the W.S Anderson flicks, of course, that series very much growing into its own brand of action-horror pulp. But with more deets on the upcoming reboot arriving today, our next cinematic take on Capcom’s spook ’em up is bringing us all the way back to “a fateful night in Raccoon City in 1998.”

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A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - Digital Edition - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Natalie Clayton)

I’ve never really been into A Song Of Ice And Fire. Even before the internet collectively turned on the telly show in its final act, I couldn’t have told you what a Targaryen is. Even so, A Game Of Thrones: The Board Game is one of the best tabletop games I’ve ever played, its cardboard kingdoms a beloved backstabbing battleground during my uni days. Today, developers Dire Wolf Digital brought Fantasy Flight’s stellar tabletop tactics to PC – an adaptation of everything but the dagger held behind your best friend’s back.

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The Solitaire Conspiracy - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Natalie Clayton)

Let the cards fall as they may? Not if you have any say in the matter. Today sees the release of The Solitaire Conspiracy, the latest short from Thomas Was Alone and John Wick Hex devs Bithell Games, and you’re a tactical genius weilding the power of C.A.R.D.S to take down a megalomanic supervillain. Let’s hope all those hours spent on Windows Solitaire weren’t wasted, eh?

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

A photo of the Samsung 980 Pro NVMe SSD.

Samsung’s 980 Pro NVMe SSD

is the company’s first foray into the world of PCIe Gen 4, the new super fast storage standard that’s set to become the baseline for all modern gaming PCs going forward. It’s still relatively early days for PCIe 4.0 at the moment, though, and you do need a compatible motherboard to get the most from it. As a result, the 980 Pro’s appeal may be rather limited at this point, especially if you’re not planning on upgrading your PC any time soon.

However, as a sign of things to come, the Samsung 980 Pro sets a high bar, offering best in class random read and write speeds compared to its other PCIe 4.0 rivals, and best of all, it doesn’t require a chunky heatsink to get the most from it, either.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

CPU deals of the week

With AMD’s new 4th Gen Ryzen CPUs due to be announced on Thursday, now is quite a good time to pick up one of their existing 3rd Gen chips on the cheap. Indeed, Newegg have an excellent CPU deal on the Ryzen 5 3600XT at the moment, making it a better buy than the regular (not to mention more expensive) 3600X. There have been some good drops on Intel’s new 10th Gen CPUs, too, including the coveted Core i5-10600K. So, to help you get the best CPU deal around, I’ve rounded up all the lowest prices from around the web in both the UK and the US, covering all of our top gaming CPU picks. Whatever type of PC you’re looking to build, here are the best 9th and 10th Gen Intel CPU prices and best AMD Ryzen CPU deals going on this week.

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

Yes, Everything Is Garbage. But garbage can be used to make turnips. Turnips can be sold or fed to cows or sheep, whose sweaters can feed the people who were born from trees and books and yet more turnips. So goes this delightfully simple supply chain builder from the folks behind Genital Jousting, a game where a continent of trash can become an obelisk to start-up culture.

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Baldur's Gate 3 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Matthew Castle)

A screenshot of Laezel the githyanki from Baldur's Gate 3, a fierce looking warrior with pale green skin and a small, thin, high nose, not unlike a Who from Dr. Seuss's books. Except Laezel looks very cross.

Baldur’s Gate III

early access is a devil’s bargain: a cure for impatience, but at what cost? You can say that of any ‘pre-release’ release, but it feels apt here, given that act one of Larian’s epic RPG and Dungeons & Dragons revival is a trip through temptation country. There’s a Mind Flayer tadpole burrowing into your skull and an assorted cast of druids, healers, zealots and demons all promising to kiss and make it better. Many will make it worse – oh god, so> much worse – but what’s early access for if not discovering what works and what doesn’t? The aim is to un-bug your brain as Larian debugs the game.

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