Apologies to Geoffey K and his GTA 6-loving stage invader, but for me, the torquiest head-turner of Gamescom 2023 was not a game but AMD FSR 3. The Radeon gang’s long awaited answer to DLSS 3 finally got a proper reveal, showcasing how its frame generation feature – called Fluid Motion Frames – could triple performance in supported games. And, while it was revealed alongside two new GPUs – the Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT – AMD general manager Scott Herkelman suggested that FSR 3 will work "on any> graphics card" once it launches.

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"What's better than gazing at the Milky Way?", asks Bethesda. The answer? "Savouring it as well." That's right folks, I may not have laid my hands on big Todd's mega RPG Starfield, but I've actually tasted> its universe, in the form of a promotional drink handed out at Gamescom. It’s composed of cinnamon and stardust, with the boundless expanse of space taking on the form of a grey liquid goop. I’ve got to admit, I think it makes for an excellent beverage, and could perhaps have elicited more excitement from me than the game itself will on release.

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How do you condense the vast, far-reaching tendrils of Paradox's open world Sims-killer Life By You into 20 minutes? The short answer is you can't, really, but while most of my brief, guided Gamescom demo covered very similar ground to what I saw back in March when it was first announced, there was one little detail that really grabbed my attention - and that's how everyone has eyes like a hawk in this game. They're almost constantly aware of everything that you're doing. So much so, that they can even get a little bit creepy about it, as was made plain in my hands-off demo session.

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Granblue Fantasy: Relink has been on my most anticipated games list for two-years, with all of my anticipation based purely off bitty trailers that haven't revealed anything other than its flashy action RPG combat and deeply anime towns. So, I was rather excited when I had a chance to play it for all of ten minutes in one demo, then around 40 minutes at this year's Gamescom.

Blazing fast mental arithmetic puts my total time with the game at around 50 minutes... with a catch. The two demos were identical, though, so all of my time was dedicated to smashing the same large skeleton and large rock man. I got to know them and it's battle system intimately, I suppose, so while I can't speak for the quests, but the fights? Gloriously chaotic.

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Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday (well, unless it's a holiday), I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by decorating tapes, a wide range of wet worlds, a spread of cool violence, a murderous squirrel, and yes, immersive sims. Come admire these attractive and interesting indie games!

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Vampires might be the themed threat for Diablo 4's second season, but it was arguably its own player base who drew first blood when season one started at the end of July. As you may have heard by now, Diablo's Season Of The Malignant didn't exactly go down all that well, with much of the hissing and fang-bearing directed toward its nerf-heavy balance patch that arrived a couple of days before the season started in earnest - a series of events that Blizzard's franchise general manager Rod Fergusson describes as "a perfect storm of a couple of situations" when I sit down to talk with him at Gamescom.

"Season one was exceptional, because we did something we'd never do again," says Fergusson. "As part of listening to players wanting to carry over their renown, we had to put the patch out a couple of days before the season. The intention is that a season and a patch would go [live] the same day, so at the time we make a balance change and you start a level one character, it feels differently to go through the progression with the new balance."

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But you know. In a good way. My waking hours are, currently, beset by stress and anxiety from a number of different directions, and I've only had time to play about about an hour of Mediterranea Inferno so far. It's quite a short game, though, and I'm sort of transfixed. It's about three men in their early 20s who, pre-pandemic, were the toast of their party scene in Milan, and after a couple of years apart enforced by a lockdown they're reuniting for a summer mini-break. Having blazed through my early 20s I no longer really remember that unique, potent mix of feeling simultaneously fragile and invincible, but it's captured in this almost occult, yet hyper-real visual novel.

I may be playing on a Steam Deck on a rainy day, but the bold colour contrasts and the desperate enthusiasm of the dialogue really get over the feeling of a too-hot summer, of trying to force fun and recapture a friendship when you all want different things. The most intense segments of Mediterranea Inferno are the Mirages, visions that merge past and present and metaphor, giving explicit form to each character's wants and anxieties. It's unreal and yet a distillation of reality. It's quite an intense ride so far, but it's a good one.

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It's a three-day weekend for most of us here, so we'll be a bit quieter until Tuesday. Possibly a helpful time to play one of those giant games coming out amongst all those other giant games. Or to curl up on the floor with a kitten who can't decide if she wants to groom you or eat you. What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

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Want one of the finest HDMI 2.1 monitors on the market for PC and console gaming? This 28-inch 4K 144Hz model from Gigabyte, the M28U, is down from $599.99 to $429.99 at Newegg following a price drop and a $20 rebate. Here's the link for ya:

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This is too much space. No one needs this much space. I apologise for wasting your time with this one. But. Well. If you actually can use 22 of your finest Earth terabytes, then you can pick up WD's My Book external hard drive for $329.99, the same price as the 18TB version and 45% off this titanic drive's MSRP.

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