Darkest Dungeon 2 has made some quite profound changes, and I wasn't sure about them at first. I think they annoyed me. But in going back to the original to refamiliarise myself, it made me see them differently - isn't it funny how our minds can idolise things to the point of infallibility? I thought very highly of Darkest Dungeon. But by seeing it laid bare, I see the sequel better, and now, I'm a fan.

It's all about the carriage - that's the big change. It's a wooden thing pulled by a horse, very much like the carriage in Darkest Dungeon's opening sequence. And this time it's your home. You no longer have a static base. That hamlet on the hill that you rebuilt in DD, that's gone. Now you live life on the road.

Immediately, you'll notice this gives the game a more cinematic look. The carriage sections are 3D - a first for the series - and you steer it through areas that change depending on your mission. There are cursed farm landscapes where bulging flesh grows like parasites on crops, there are cities aflame like hellish infernos, and there are towns turned to graveyards, where flayed corpses hang like dirty washing on lines. It's impressively atmospheric, and as grotesquely horrible as Darkest Dungeon ever was.

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As one of Bethesda's biggest and most beloved series, it's not much of a revelation to hear the company is already mulling over a new Fallout instalment, but studio director Todd Howard has now talked a little about a potential new series entry, confirming that while an idea exists, Fallout 5 is still a long way off.

Speaking to IGN as part of a Skyrim 10th anniversary retrospective, Howard explained that currently the studio has a "one-pager" for Fallout 5, outlining what it wants to do with the series. However, sci-fi adventure Starfield, due to release next year, and The Elder Scrolls 6 - which was still in its design phase as of June this year - remain the studio's priority, meaning it could be years before work on the next Fallout begins in earnest.

When asked about the possibility of shifting responsibility for a new Fallout over to another studio - after all, Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian is now also within the Xbox Game Studios family - Howard only offered that "Fallout's really part of our DNA here".

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Speedrun fans, grab your diaries; following last week's line-up reveal, Games Done Quick organisers have shared dates and timings for all 170+ charity speedruns taking place as part of next January's Awesome Games Done Quick event.

Awesome Games Done Quick - which will once again return as an online-only event in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic - runs from 9th-16th January next year and will be raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation throughout its duration.

Last week's announcement revealed every game appearing in Awesome Games Done Quick's sizeable 2022 line-up - covering the usual mix of triple-A titles, smaller-scale indie offerings, retro classics, and other assorted oddities - but that list has now been properly organised into a complete event schedule, meaning interested parties can now check times and set reminders for any speedruns they don't want to miss.

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Riot has announced Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story.

It's a new rhythm runner developed by Choice Provisions, creators of the Bit.Trip series, and launches on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam, GOG.com and the Epic Games Store on 16th November. It's due out on Netflix soon, Riot said.

The announcement trailer is below:

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Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, the fan-favourite DLC for Borderlands 2, launches today as a standalone game.

The 2013 add-on now costs £7.99/$9.99 on PC via Steam, PlayStation and Xbox - or can be quickly nabbed for free until 16th November via the Epic Games Store.

In a press release, Borderlands boss Randy Pitchford praised the role-playing game-styled side-story as "one of the most important pieces of content Gearbox has ever imagined".

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The Assassin's Creed Chronicles trilogy of 2.5D side-scrolling platformers is currently to free to claim on PC this week.

If you're interested in trying the three games within the collection, you have until 12th November to nab a copy via Ubisoft Connect.

The giveaway offer is timed for Ubisoft's 35th anniversary - at a time employees at the company are still seeking concrete promises for change in a public push for things to improve.

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Dead by Daylight goes back to its roots for its newly announced original chapter Portrait of a Murder.

The chapter is "an artistic ode to fear and darkness set in a surreal interpretation of an abandoned graveyard in the Chilean desert" and features a new killer and survivor.

The announcement trailer gives a sense of the ink blotted artistic vibe, as well as a look at the new characters.

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Lies of P looks like Bloodborne with Pinocchio as the playable character.

Published by Neowiz and developed by Round8 Studio, Lies of P has a brutal and dark world and the kind of action role-playing gameplay established by From Software's Souls series.

It's inspired by the classic Italian novel Pinocchio from Carlo Collodi, and is set in the once beautiful city of Krat. You fight "hideous and twisted" automatons as P searches for Mr. Geppetto and works to "reverse the calamity that has befallen Krat".

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We've already established that Forza Horizon 5 scales exceptionally well over Xbox hardware old and new, but has Playground Games managed to achieve the same quality on PC? Additionally, does the PC release scale beyond the bar set by Xbox Series X, offering even better graphics? And finally, what settings should you be aiming for to replicate and then build upon the console experience - and what kind of GPU will you require?

First up, a word of explanation on Forza Horizon 5's initial set-up times and its general accessibility in tweaking settings. On first loading the game, you're met with a pause as the game compiles its shaders for your specific graphics hardware. It's a little on the time-consuming side - even on a high-end PC - but it's worth the wait and it's necessary to ensure smooth performance with little stutter. Stutter seems to be a common issue on many PC titles right now, especially those using Unreal Engine 4, and it occurs as shaders are compiled on the fly as they are needed. FH5's technique of a single compilation period on first loading really is the best way to address this.

Where I do find Forza Horizon 5 somewhat onerous is the requirement to restart the game after adjusting certain settings. The problem here is that it effectively kills the tuning process as you have no instant way of knowing what the impact of the settings change is and what the performance gain - or loss - may be. Shader re-compilation also kicks in, and although shorter than the initial pause, it adds to the wait.

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October was Black History Month in the UK. But looking at Twitch, you may not have realised that.

The streaming platform is pushing for more diversity and inclusion, and is making a conscious effort to support minority celebrations - be that Pride, women's history, or Black History Month. But as a US corporation, too often UK streamers are left behind.

Thankfully there's Black Twitch UK, a team of streamers who aren't just visible for one month of the year, but support their community year-round.

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