I hope you’re not full up on early access announcements yet because I’ve got another one for you: Rustler, which has nicknamed itself Grand Theft Horse. This irreverent action sandbox styles itself as an homage to old GTA games with the historical accuracy of Monty Python. If equine heists are your thing, you can find it riding off into early access in February.
Machine learning is absolutely fascinating and yet I mostly just enjoy when people use impressive tech to create weird skits and memes. That’s exactly what everyone appears to be doing with an extremely impressive machine-learning tool that lets you type in text for various characters to say out loud. Want GLaDOS to read you bedtime stories? You can do it. Should Team Fortress 2’s Scout recite classic internet copypastas? Yup, you can do all that plus all the many more creative things I know you lot will concoct.
In this jumbled-up bag of endless remixes we call the cybernet, the most remarkable and awful and great thing I have seen today is Cyberpunk 2077‘s E3 2018 trailer remade with footage from the live-action Super Mario movie. It’s the original Cyberpunk trailer’s voiceover combined with footage from the 1993 adaptation which bafflingly put Mario and Green Mario in a dystopian futurecity run by a Billy Idol cosplayer. It… kinda works? I kinda like it?
Oh yes, there’s another early access crafting survival game on the horizon but hey, this one has vikings. In this Rust ’em up called Valheim you’ll be carving out a home for yourself in a “procedurally-generated purgatory” full of supernatural baddies inspired by norse legend. Iron Gate’s multiplayer viking romp is storming into early access early next month on February 2nd.
Spaceship looter shooter Everspace 2 is taking off today for its scheduled mission through early access territory. For the sequel to their roguelike spaceflight game, Rockfish Games are cracking Everspace 2 into an open-world RPG. The full game is expected sometime in 2022, but you can hop in the cockpit right now if you’re keen to see how it’s coming along.