Hypnospace Outlaw used to be a very different type of game than the one we know today. The authentic replica of the world wide web circa 1999 was originally designed to be little more than ornate level select screens in a stylish endless runner-style game, for example, providing extra context for your adventures pursuing "outlaws on the Hypnospace Highway".

Games change during development, of course, and it’s not unusual for once substantial ideas to be left on the cutting room floor. But seeing as Hypnospace Outlaw is our pick for the RPS Game Club this month, I wanted to reach out to the game’s creator Jay Tholen to ask some questions about these unlikely origins, its influences and its lasting legacy. What happened to the Hypnospace Highway? And what comes next for the world of Hypnospace?

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Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, enjoy being stalked through the streets by a murderous ice cream van, being killed by a walking shark, flushing yourself down a toilet as fast travel, and many more attractive and interesting sights. Come look at these indie games!

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Sundays are for getting over some powerful Maltese flu. Before you cough, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things).

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Want an RX 6800 XT graphics card? And a Solidigm P41 Plus 512GB SSD? And Starfield? For $486? Thanks to a Newegg bundle, that offer is open for you right now when you use code EEGCWA827 with these two items in the checkout.

Here are the links you'll need:

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The Fractal Design North is one of the most popular recent PC case releases, combining a beautiful wood front panel, leather accents and excellent ventilation with a modern, easy-to-build mid-tower design. The North normally retails for £125 or more, but today you can pick it up for a more reasonable £110 when you buy from Box via Ebay, using code SAVINGS20 before September 28th. That's the cheapest this case has ever been in the UK!

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Dragon's Dogma was the action-RPG for people who wanted to play alone, but didn't want to feel> alone. By far its most charming feature was the Pawn system, whereby you'd create an AI-controlled sidekick and hire two others, shared online by other players, to accompany you on your journey through a fantasy wilderness of tumbledown castles and goblin campfires. Pawns make dependable companions in many respects - pinning enemies for you to tag-team kill, healing or resurrecting you, opening chests you've missed, and enchanting your weapons at the outset of each skirmish. But what makes them fun to be around is that they're a bunch of massive buffoons.

Pawns talk without cease as you explore: a steady patter of idle observations about well-wrought staircases and the local fish trade, advice about the bestiary and, in the case of Pawns recruited from other players, quest tips based on time in their own worlds - all of it couched in the game's quirky faux-medieval dialect. Pawn dialogue is highly context-sensitive, and very often, nonsensical. They'll climb into fountains and complain that they're wet, and launch into pithy descriptions of monsters even as they're set on fire. It ought to be maddening, but somehow, it never is - probably because the Pawns never actually attempt to be witty like ally characters in, say, Xenoblade Chronicles. They're resolutely straight foils in a realm of lions with snakes for tails, chaotic boulder traps, unpleasantly lusty ogres, and players who push the wrong buttons and make random decisions on the fly. Well, pawns are back in Dragon's Dogma 2, which I recently played an hour of, and they're chattier than ever.

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As if you were short on giant RPGs to play, here comes Cyberpunk 2077 with its excellent new expansion and a patch which basically sounds like a miniature relaunch. You're done with Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield, right? So what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

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Want to get a powerful Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor for $50 off with a free copy of Starfield Premium Edition? B&H Photo in the US have you covered with their latest discount on AMD's fastest gaming CPU*, which sees the processor drop to $389 after debuting earlier this year at $439.

That's still a hefty chunk of change, but it's worth it for a gaming CPU that outfights the Core i9 13900K and trades blows with the much more expensive Ryzen 9 7950X3D, coming well ahead in some games and a tiny bit behind in others.

*Fight me>

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Xbox's Elite Series 2 controllers are a great pick for PC and Xbox consoles alike, but they're also pretty darn expensive. Thankfully, you can pick up the cheaper Core version for significantly less money, especially if it's on sale - which is the situation right now! Amazon US are selling the Elite Series 2 Core in white for $99, a solid reduction from its usual price of $130.

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My goodness, what a close thing. Fading Afternoon is a game of excellent vibes as you stroll around the city living your faintly sad life. It's also an incredibly cool 2D beat 'em up that is, at its best, comfortably the best I can think of. But the boundaries between the two are too frustrating to make it the legend it ought to be.

It's a sequel to The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa, a game I didn't really vibe with. FA is much improved, a sort of pared down Yakuza game about beating rival gangsters up in between story bits about an ageing Maruyama trying to get the band back together after leaving prison and apparently not caring that he's dying. I do recommend it, but be prepared for some friction.

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