I know you're ready to put the Electronic Entertainment Expo to bed for a year. I am too. I'm looking forward to playing a video game this weekend, instead of watching trailers for things I can't download yet. I still haven't played Chicory yet, and all I've wanted to do over the last week is colour in pictures of cartoon dogs. But we can't move on just yet.
Last night I hopped into Call Of Duty: Warzone Season 4 and had a brilliant time rattling off bullets in the back of an armoured truck. Pure bliss, it was. But alas, all good things come to an abrupt end, as they've been removed only a day into the new season. Apparently players found an exploit which let them use these trucks to turn invisible. Here we go again.
Just when I thought I was out, Steam Next Fest pulls me back in. To loving video games>, that is! Yes, once again Valve has seen fit to flood their digi-store with literally hundreds of free demos, all available for your perusal until the 22nd. That's a whole long weekend of free stuff to play, baby. But, as any Netflix browser knows, too much choice can be paralysing. I've gone through and played as many demos as possible and picked the best here, to give you somewhere to start.
Another 'World Update' has landed in Microsoft Flight Simulator, this time focused on improving the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Along with updating the landscape with more detail, the update brings detailed models for landmarks ranging from bridges and wind farms to stadiums and... Lego House? Is this a real thing? This is a real thing! Check out that blocky building and more in the trailer below.
I've been interested in the grappling hooks and swords of Chinese fantasy battle royale Naraka: Bladepoint, and apparently I'm not the only one. The final open beta test has started ahead of August's launch, and it's presently the sixth-most played game on Steam, squeezing ahead of GTA 5 and Rust. Goodness me. Quite a few people up for parkouring around, flinging arrows and spells, and transforming into monsters, then. You could join 'em.
Ah yes, Roguebook! That game about venturing across the pages of a book and-- No, wait, that was Trials Of Fire. Roguebook is instead the new game from the developers of Faeria, and it's a deckbuilder constructed with help from Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. It's out now.
There's a lot in Valorant that feels like Counter-Strike, but Counter-Strike could never do trailers where they introduce new robot killing machines. That's what Valorant's latest character is. Called KAY/O, his main ability is to suppress his enemy's abilities. He'll join the game alongside the beginning of Episode 3 on June 22nd, and the trailer is below.
The SteelSeries Rival 3, a well-reviewed budget gaming mouse, is even more budget than usual with a £9 price drop on Amazon over the past two months. The Rival 3 now costs just £21, a great price for a mouse with a modern optical sensor, 60 million click switches and three-zone RGB lighting.
Overcooked 2 seemed to make less of a splash than its predecessor, maybe because both chaotic co-op cook 'em ups are fundamentally similar. It's still a great game though, and it's currently free to keep via the Epic Games Store.
Cyberpunk 2077 has received yet another round of fixes, in the RPG's grim march from a mess everyone was excited about to a functional game everyone has forgotten about. This one addresses bugs across several quests, and a handful of PC-specific bugs.