Not long before joining Rock Paper Shotgun, I wrote a feature for Edge magazine about the origins of the very silly term "AAA game". The overall conclusion I came to is that "AAA game" is possibly a boardroom-level borrowing from the credit rating industry and Hollywood, and that it has little meaning beyond "most expensive/biggest".
The first bit of DLC for mud-splattered infrastructure setup sim RoadCraft has rumbled out of the garage, bringing with it a couple of new maps, several extra vehicles, and some extra-tough options for those craving a hard time.
One of those fresh rides is a bridge layer, and you best believe it'll end up wedged somewhere improbable with its wheels spinning helplessly once I get my hands on it. How can you mess up motoring towards a gap, and pressing the 'commence bridgening' button? It'll be possible.
My first memory is of ants. Just ants. It's one of those very early ones that are nothing but a momentary snapshot now, long since worn with use and subconsciously filled in with probably inaccurate details and context. They were moving around on a white doorframe, and I don't remember the surroundings, or what I was doing, what I did with this observation, or whether anyone even told me what ants are or whether I already knew. But I remember a fascination that never left me. I will, as ever, die for them. To be fair, I'd die for basically anyone who is a cool animal and/or passably feigns friendship, but whatever. The point is: ants.
You'd think I would have played Empires Of The Undergrowth sooner.
I meant to! For years! Being Ants is one of those dream game concepts, and an incredibly difficult one to translate to a workable, satisfying design that isn't hyper simplified or a glorified reskin. And Slug Disco have kind of gone ahead and done it.
Not gonna lie, readers, Hollow Knight: Silksong is kicking my teeth in, with gracious yet far more powerful legswings than Hollow Knight’s early stages ever managed. There’s a jumping-puzzly bit two hours in that took me about the same amount of time to clear, and the bosses seem generally sweatier too. I’m fairly sure one of them used an impossibly rapid flurry of sword slashes to spell out "Do one, James Archer of Rock Paper Shotgun dot com" in my flesh.
In other words, the review’s coming on Monday at the earliest. But I do think I’ve endured enough to determine that Silksong is a very, very good match for the Steam Deck, making small but welcome compatibility improvements over the original (in addition to its new, desktop-minded ultrawide support).
In case you missed it, a plucky little game no one had heard anything about whatsoever arrived yesterday. Hollow Knight: Silksong. Yeah, I know, it's news to me too. Anyway, what's also news is that Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone has a voice acting cameo in Skong. Though, he's being all coy about revealing when and where you can hear his dulcet tones.
This came to light because of some valiant folks who've already made it to Silksong's end credits, presumably having pulled mammoth sessions last night, as our own Ollie did to provide you lot with some helpful early game walkthroughs. Or, you know, they've gone to the extras bit of the main menu and pressed the button that rolls the credits.
Fear not, fans of spirit candy! The recent announcement of Stardew Valley 1.7 update is not evidence that Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone's next game Haunted Chocolatier has been banished to the realm of vapourware - or so sayeth Barone himself, at least. In a brief and caveat-strewn Q&A, the life sim creator has gone into more depth about development on Stardew, revealing that he's not as heavily involved with it as with previous updates. As such, he's still focussing "the vast majority" of his attention on Haunted Chocolatier.
It's even possible that the latter will release before Stardew Valley's next update, but let's not count our Cocoa Loco Little Choc Chicks (£6.99 minus delivery costs) before they've hatched.
"Horror" and "automation" are concepts I'm used to seeing together in fiery/weepy essays about late capitalism. I'm less used to seeing them together in videogame marketing blurbs. Horror, in an automation-based game? Why, games with automation are supposed to deliver the finest and most methodical of chemical highs. They are supposed to feel like building yourself a better brain out of candy-coloured conveyor belts and smelters. They are not supposed to make you afraid.
Civilization 7 developers Firaxis have undergone a "staff reduction" affecting an unspecified number of workers today, publishers 2K have confirmed to RPS.
News of the cuts broke via a series of posts from now former Firaxis writer Emma Kidwell. "I was affected by the layoffs at Firaxis, and am open to full time writing work at your studio," she wrote on LinkedIn. "I'm an incredibly adaptable writer who wrote on Civilization VII and Marvel's Midnight Suns during my (nearly) 5 years at the studio, and I encourage you to keep an eye out for my former colleagues who were also laid off."
Star Trucker, Raw Fury's answer to what Euro Truck Simulator might look like in the year 3000, is now a year old, and has celebrated that fact with an update that finally lets you whip out your wheel and pedals.
Ever since I gave it a go with a controller prior to letting my Game Pass subscription crumble into dust, this is a day I've yearned for. After all, what good are truck sims, be they Euro, American or something more Snowrunnery, if you're not operating the controls of your great metal haulage beast by flicking flappy gearbox paddles, or sawing away at a circle clearly designed for something a bit sportier?
Well, who could have seen this coming: Hollow Knight: Silksong has taken Steam offline, or at least, laid waste to large swathes of it. Within seconds of its release this afternoon, Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight sequel brought Valve's servers to a halt, cue endlessly loading pages when trying to access the checkout, browse the store or do much of anything.