Wake up, it's the 90s again. Ok, so maybe I've lied to you there, but two classic shooters from the decade that I as a child of 1999 definitely remember fondly have been re-released as one handy bundle with some extra features. Heretic + Hexen is out now.

The surprise re-release of these virtual spell boxes came as part of QuakeCon, with Nightdive Studios and id Software collborating to revamp more old school shooty things after doing the same with Doom and Doom 2 last year.

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The heatwave has won this time, readers. The plan this year... oh god, let's not talk about The Plan, it's too upsetting. For several years now, we've fought back the heatwave with a low-intensity strategy game, defying the evil fire orb with games that are manageable even for a brain composed partially of plasma. I'd hoped, this year, to move beyond, and fight back the sky with three such games. But. It warm.

Still, you're getting two. This year's Low-Intensity Games For To Do Strategy Despite Grotesque Hot are Hyper Empire and High Strategy: Oradros.

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Microsoft have brought development work on Contraband, the co-op smuggling game that Just Cause developers Avalanche Studios announced back in 2021, to a standstill. That's the official line, while a report from Bloomberg claims the game's been cancelled outright.

Nothing had been been seen or heard of Contraband since its reveal to the world at E3 four years ago, and this sudden status update comes just weeks after Microsoft cancelled Perfect Dark, Everwild, and an unannounced MMO from ZeniMax as part of mass layoffs that saw around 9,000 staff lose their livelihoods.

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As an old man yelling about deals at the clouds, I’ve often felt a bit jealous of these back-to-school sales. By my recollection, unless you wanted a new writing pad, some stationery, or a backpack, these deals didn’t really exist.

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Oh, hello there, Is This Seat Taken? The logic puzzler with a name that's real awkward to stick midway through a sentence has surprise-released today, August 7th, right off the back of an appearance in a Nintendo Indie World showcase.

When we woke up this morning, all we knew was that this game about telling people where to stick their bottoms would be coming out in August - a vague window previously announced during June's Whole Direct. Now, it be here.

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Apex Legends launched its Season 26 update this week with the new Wildcard mode, what must be its fourth or fifth attempt at a 'battle royale but faster' sideshow. If anything, Wildcard – with its tightened safe zones, generous respawn allowances and automatic loot pickups – is the most ferocious, cage fightin'est variant yet, its matches routinely playing out as breathless slaughters as crammed-in squads fight, die, and resurrect over a condensed selection of strongholds.

Still, while I’ve enjoyed ApeLegs' previous action-favouring tweaks, something about Wildcard underwhelms. It’s not the shooting, which is as crisp and dynamic as in any other Respawn FPS. And it’s not the simplified gear gobbling, which is fine for a supplementary mode. It’s that at the end of a Wildcard round, even the ones I’ve won, I’ve never felt that I’ve really gone anywhere or done anything except aim down my sights and left-click. In chasing nonstop drama it denies you something that good battle royales, and their progenitors, can so effectively deliver: a journey.

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I am neither a wrestler nor a wrestling fan. I have never attended a cage fight or hit somebody with a folding chair. I have never had a blowoff or no-sold somebody's attempt to lay the smackdown on my randy ass. I cannot> smell what the Rock is cooking. I cannot. Nonetheless, I think a Hades-style roguelite built around grappling sounds like a fun time, especially when it's set in a cursed Byzantine citadel. This is Realm Of Fame from Black Cube Games. Can you smell what the trailer is cooking?

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Sony remain confident that Bungie's live service shooter reboot Marathon will launch within their current fiscal year - that is, before March 31st 2026 - and are fairly sure they'll be able to share an exact release date this autumn. They've factored it into their financial forecasts, see.

They're also pretty upbeat about their live service business at large, which accounted for around 40% of first-party software revenue in their last financial quarter, though they acknowledge that they screwed the pooch with Concord, which got to exist in public for a whole couple of weeks before Sony kicked it into the sun.

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