Among the first terrain fixtures you discover on Dune: Awakening's Arrakis are moisture seals: puffy wads of fabric that fill cave entrances to create makeshift microclimates, where travellers can escape the constant threat of dehydration. Awakening's moisture seal are, in practice, the paper lid on a tube of wilderness Pringles: poke through with your dagger to find resources and the occasional hostile NPC. But what if you could place your own moisture seals, rather than just tearing open the ones left by NPCs? I'd love to play a game in which you are constantly reading the barren landscape for the shallowest of shady depressions that can be plugged and converted into shelters. Think of the attentiveness it might teach, the sensitivity to the geometry of a world that can drain your O2 bar dry in moments.

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Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I'm currently reading Dorothy Parker, who did more for the language than I'd previously though. I'm having quite regular moments of "oh, she> said that". More proof, if any were needed, that the soul of wit is as much depression and alcoholism as it is brevity.

This week it's game city design expert and author of Virtual Cities, Konstantinos Dimopoulos! Cheers Konstantinos! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?

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Sundays are for enjoying the second heatwave of the year, but what are you going to do outside if not read? Exactly, so read these.

Aftermath interviewed video game trailer maker Derek Lieu for his take on the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer and why it's not very good.

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Bit miffed this week. I bought a new electric toothbrush and it oscillates so fast it does that thing where my whole mouth feels unbearably itchy. Blech. Balancing this experience against the existence of hundreds of thousands of videogames to play, and I reckon the universe comes out of it with a roughly neutral standing.

Anyway. As much as I know you all love hearing about my current oral situation; here's what we're all playing this weekend!

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Dbrand has launched a new "Big Short" sale that includes sizable discounts on its Killswitch cases and more for the Steam Deck and other devices.

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I’m liking Doom: The Dark Ages more than local reviewist Nic does, possibly because spending most of 2024 remoulding my brain to learn Elden Ring has unduly engorged the part that appreciates a good parry-and-riposte. C'est la vie demons, and colleague. There is one issue that bothers me, though: why, of all the games on Bethesda’s production lines, was this chosen to be the next game that follows Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in making ray tracing effects compulsory?

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I am rewriting the history of Korea, and there are blotty ink stains everywhere. Europa Universalis 5 was announced yesterday, the official unveiling of a grand strategy game that has been an open secret since April last year, thanks to a long-running dev diary. As reveals go, it was less a cloak and dagger ambush and more an elephant charge that everyone in Europe could see coming from fifteen countries away. Still, elephants are always nice. I got some hands-on time with an early build of the map-happy historical simulation, and I'm delighted to report that the kingdom of Korea is struggling. After instituting many new laws, the leader of the nation has passed away. He was steely, noble, robust, and will be remembered as much for his kindness as his strength. He died of the common cold.

It's okay, the computer will clean all this up.

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Humble's Doom and Wolfenstein Mayhem Bundle is an easy win if you're even remotely interested in first-person shooters. For $28 / £21.16, you get fifteen titles spanning decades of FPS history.

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The horizon glows red. Europa Universalis 5 is posturing itself as the next grandaddy of grand strategy. It follows 12 years of updates and expansions to Europa Universalis 4, so it has some catching up to do. But much of the historical simulation is in place, along with new features and a fresh focus on the rowdy populations you'll be lording it over. Like its predecessors, Europa Universalis 5 will be a deeply complex game. I'm going to do my best to explain it.

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Humble Choice has unveiled its May 2025 bundle, offering subscribers a collection of eight notable PC titles along with a complimentary month of IGN Plus. For $11.99 / £8.99 per month, the service continues its value-driven approach, touting a total value of over $280.

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