Before we get to the meat of this article, I need to establish something important: I love violent videogames. Ever since Nintendo enabled my very specific childhood fantasy of being a mustachioed Italian plumber happy slapping random reptiles, I’ve been hooked. I was one of the original pixel-addled kids The Mail warned you about. When Mortal Kombat came out, with its hyper-realistic gore and enticing BBFC age rating, I went to extreme measures to secure a copy (asking my mum really nicely). Videogame writers may be stereotyped as a bunch of soft, hippy peaceniks, but not me. I was raised on the mean streets of Peterborough and I’m hard. Like, Ross Kemp hard.

So please keep that in mind when I say that I really want videogame developers to stop making me kill guard dogs. I absolutely abhor it. They come bounding up to you, like they just want to give you a big, sloppy kiss, and they always make a sad little yelp when they die. Always. What kind of monster thinks that’s a good time?

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Annapurna really stretched the limits of notE3 by putting on their inaugural showcase so late in the day, but I’m glad they did. They showed off a lot of cool things, like Neon White and Stray. We even got the briefest of looks at the upcoming Outer Wilds DLC.

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A lunchtime Twitter scroll brought Selaco to my attention, a sci-fi FPS that’s heavily influenced by F.E.A.R. and built in the GZDoom engine. I clicked on the clip expecting to be underwhelmed, but I was delighted to be proven wrong. There’s better action in the 20 seconds below than any of F.E.A.R’s sequels.

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Today, J.Allen Brack stepped down from his role as president of Blizzard Entertainment and is leaving the Overwatch and World Of Warcraft developers "to pursue new opportunities". While the company don't make any explicit mention of it in the announcement, this move comes just two weeks after it was made public that Activision Blizzard were being sued for allegedly harbouring a company culture that creates "a breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women".

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I’ve been mentally categorising some games as “for my Steam Deck” recently, and I think skateboarding game The Ramp will be one of them. It’s been developed as more of a toybox than a game, with the developer Paul Schnepf focusing on the flow of the sport rather than earning points and upgrading your character. He’s very keen you should know that, so for today’s launch he's put together a trailer that explains it all in 90 seconds. It looks pretty Deck worthy to me.

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Leafing back through my life, I realise I've never held a hedgehog before. I've locked eyes with one, though, as it scurried across the garden. For a couple of seconds, we were just bros being bros, then it moved on to eat worms or kick dirt or whatever hedgehogs actually do. I hope wherever that hog is now, it's doing well.

Whenever I've watched a Springwatch presenter hoist on into their arms, I always imagined a hedgehog weighs as much as maybe two sun-dried tomato, feta, and salad pasta pots. So fairly light, then. But having played Sonic Colours: Ultimate for preview, my theory has been trashed. Sonic's a weighty> hog, which is something I hadn't expected.

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Want to learn how to master Seer and his abilities in Apex Legends? Seer is Season 10's addition to the Apex Legends roster, and his abilities are absolutely fascinating - not to mention extraordinarily powerful. He is a true recon character in that he can reveal enemies nearby to help pin them down, but his manner of doing so is completely unique.

Learn all about Seer's abilities below, along with his backstory and some useful tips and tricks to get the most out of this top-tier Legend.

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Yesterday, Take-Two Interactive published their quarterly earnings report, which is chock-full of info only a shareholder would care about. However, these reports often have little titbits that fans might find interesting, and this time around the company have revealed that Borderlands publishers 2K Games will be revealing a new game this month that will launch sometime between now and April 2022.

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Apex Legends' new season Emergence kicks off later today, and Respawn Entertainment have now officially revealed all the little changes, buffs and nerfs on the way. The biggest tweaks come to Fuse and Caustic to help make their kits more useful, plus it's time to say goodbye to the Spitfire LMG as it swaps places with the Prowler SMG in the game's supply drops. Finally, my favourite gun will be available on the floor again and… oh no, they've nerfed the Prowler and done away with the Select Fire hop up. Respawn, why?

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A fan-made Half-Life 2 remaster could be heading to Steam. The "Half-Life 2: Remastered Collection" was spotted by data mining site SteamDB last year, but at the time, it was flagged as “not Valve related”. However, according to another, more recent leak from Tyler McVicker, the mod and a half has now been sanctioned by Valve, and will be coming to Steam “soon”. But what is it?

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