Rock, Paper, Shotgun

There are lots of spill-resistant keyboards, including some in our best gaming keyboard rankings, but you hardly ever see mice with similar protection. Despite the fact that they’re always right next to the keyboard, and thus just at risk from low-flying beverages. There are at least two, though: The SteelSeries Aerox 3 and Aerox 3 Wireless. According to SteelSeries, these were the first gaming mice on the market to receive IP54 certification, effectively guaranteeing protection against dust ingress and water splashes.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Next week, reviled former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher will rise from her grave to bring Hell back to Earth, and only one space marine can stop her. Announced today, Thatcher's Techbase is an upcoming mod for classic Doom which ventures in the tenth circle of Hell (aka the United Kingdom) to battle the demonic forces of the Iron Lady. Modding politicians into games is a vintage jape but Thatcher's Techbase makes a real effort with custom art, its own campaign, music from Paradise Killer's composer, and apparently even the voice behind Demeter and Persephone in Hades. Watch this trailer.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Like a splash of cold water to the face, I Am Fish is a wonderfully refreshing physics platformer. This isn't a grim tale wrapped in layers of metaphor, or a walking simulator that guides you slowly through a field of feelings. Here, you are simply a fish. The bowl is your prison. The ocean is your freedom. Now imagine Ian Mckellen with the same gravitas as he had playing Gandalf in Lord Of The Rings, except with a farmer's cap on. He is peering into your googly, goldfish eyes. In a west country accent, he bellows, "Swim, you fool!"

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

How many weapons are there in Deathloop and how do you get the best ones? Deathloop is about two assassins locked in a time-looping duel to the death, so naturally, there are weapons aplenty in this game. Thanks to the titular loop, you aren't always going to be able to hang on to every weapon you pick up, so knowing where and how to get your favourite weapons back is going to be important.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

“What’s with all the meat everywhere, anyway?” my Death Trash alter ego Mildred asks. “It’s just there. Grows.” the meat merchant replies. “Maybe we’re living on a planet full of flesh and right now we’re standing on a crust of stone and dirt. So, do you want a piece of meat now?” I really don’t. But Mildred does. After all, this mystery meat is the main healing item in the game. It’s what keeps you and the world around you alive. It’s harvested from the ground like precious stones, the literal blood flowing in this grotesque world’s barebones economy, eaten raw and served in meat bars.

But where does the meat come from? Whence the amorphous flesh blobs and pools of blood? From another planet, another dimension? There are no animals in this strange ecosystem apart from Fleshworms. The strange meat seems to be linked to another mystery, the advent of the flesh titans (which are exactly what the name suggests). Soon we discover that we are able to commune with the meat and, through it, speak to a enigmatic being called The Oracle. The meat is a kind of universal consciousness, a flesh and blood information highway, into which those who are attuned to it can plug in. Whether the meat and the flesh titans are good or bad for humanity is up for debate, and there are factions that deify and others that hate them, vying for power. The clot thickens.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Kitfox’s recently released dating sim Boyfriend Dungeon has a novel premise. In Boyfriend Dungeon you date sword people: humans who transform into weapons that you can take dungeon crawling. And no, not sex dungeons. Classic video game dungeons with loot and monsters. On paper, Boyfriend Dungeon sounds like the best six-ish hours you could have in a game, combining the endorphin rush of monster-slaying with a cast of hotties that’ll make your heart flutter. Sounds like a great time… except one of these hotties slid a sword right through my heart.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The Steam Deck, Valve’s attempt at a fully portable handheld PC, has taken another step towards being an actual product. In a Steam blog post, Valve have shown off the Steam Deck dev kits that are leaving the roost to provide game developers with some hands-on time, ahead of the planned launch this December. They grow up so fast, eh?

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

After running an Age Of Empires 4 closed beta test for lucky ticketholders, the makers now want absolutely everyone to pile in and click men as hard as you can to see if the game explodes. The historical RTS is holding an open "technical stress test" this weekend, from Friday to Monday, to give the multiplayer backend a sound kicking and see if it stays stands. In short, hey, you can play AO4's multiplayer for free this weekend.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

If there's one thing I hate in this life, it's having to lift my hand onto the Esc key so I can press it to skip logos. Ideally I only lift my arms to deliver food to my maw, or to express my lack of care. So it's nice that someone has already identified which files to delete to remove the logos at the start of Arkane's new shooter Deathloop.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Scifi grand strategy Stellaris's free 3.1 update, titled "Lem", is out now. This is the first update created by "The Custodians", a new team formed within developers PDS Green focused on free, quarterly updates which tweak game balance, add new content to old DLC and fix bugs.

The "Lem" update does all three, changing how tradition trees work, adding new features to old species packs such as 2016's Planetoids, and rebalancing some Civics and Origins.

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