I'm not sure how I, a committed Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy fan, managed to miss A Difficult Game About Climbing. It is, like its obvious inspiration, a difficult game about climbing, but here you're using your arms independently to grip and hoist yourself rather than hooking and swinging a pickaxe. It is, also like its obvious inspiration, frustrating and moreish, like a scab you keep picking at.

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Square Enix have announced 22.1 billion yen (around £112m) in "content abandonment losses" for the fiscal year ending March 2024. The loss is the result of the publisher being "more selective and focused in the allocation of development resources," suggesting they have cut funding to or cancelled undisclosed projects.

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The developers of sci-fi action-adventure Deliver Us Mars have laid off all their staff. The news was announced by KeokeN Interactive's leadership in a statement in which they state they have "exhausted all our possible options" of finding funding for a new project. They also say they plan to rebuild the company.

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A new batch of games have been announced for Game Pass in May, including five that are playable on PC. There are siblings, felines, reapers, and a Croft. I'm struggling to identify a theme.

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Recently, I spent around two hours with Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, the Persona 5: Royal-fied version of the original SMT V. Vengeance promises many new things: a revised battle system, a new story branch, new areas, and more. What I found when I played, was several punches to my metaphorical ribs. A few to my gut. Sure, I spent some time with the new stuff, but really, I spent most of my time being absolutely demolished in turn-based battles against various demons of a phallic and non-phallic nature. I will now attempt to summarise my time against these creatures, wish me luck.

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Recently, I spent around two hours with Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, the Persona 5: Royal-fied version of the original SMT V. Vengeance promises many new things: a revised battle system, a new story branch, new areas, and more. What I found when I played, was several punches to my metaphorical ribs. A few to my gut. Sure, I spent some time with the new stuff, but really, I spent most of my time being absolutely demolished in turn-based battles against various demons of a phallic and non-phallic nature. I will now attempt to summarise my time against these creatures, wish me luck.

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Dread Delusion is a creepo-tastic open world RPG that positively reeks of King's Field and the Elder Scrolls of yore. Created by Lovely Hellplace and published by horror anthology specialists DreadXP, it's so far up my alley it's probably been mugged by some kind of hideous clockwork cutthroat - and yet somehow, I've never played the thing. I'll be rectifying that on 14th May, when Dread Delusion leaves early access.

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Razer, makers of various pretty good gaming peripherals and one deeply questionable face mask, have been slapped with a $1.1 million fine by US regulators after said mask was determined to have misled buyers over the amount of protection it afforded. Kotaku reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took issue with Razer’s claim that the Zephyr, an RGB monstrosity released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, could act as a medical-grade N95 respirator – it could not – and will allocate $1 million of that fine towards refunds for fooled, if colourfully illuminated, buyers.

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I once went back to a gathering after a friend-of-a-friend’s metal gig that I distinctly remember not because of either the party or the show, but because we drunkenly went to a big Tesco afterwards to get snacks. I also distinctly remember making a not-completely serious but also somewhat true statement at the party about how that Tesco trip was the most fun I’d had in months, after which one of the metal men sneered at me. I felt self conscious at the time, but I’ve since grown comfortable enough with myself to realise that the metal man was a joyless fool, and going to big supermarkets is at least as fun as going to average metal gigs. There is nothing a drop D power chord can evoke in me that compares to the feeling of blurrily espying a chocolate trifle in the reduced to clear section. So I wish to bring your attention to Supermarket Times.

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I once went back to a gathering after a friend-of-a-friend’s metal gig that I distinctly remember not because of either the party or the show, but because we drunkenly went to a big Tesco afterwards to get snacks. I also distinctly remember making a not-completely serious but also somewhat true statement at the party about how that Tesco trip was the most fun I’d had in months, after which one of the metal men sneered at me. I felt self conscious at the time, but I’ve since grown comfortable enough with myself to realise that the metal man was a joyless fool, and going to big supermarkets is at least as fun as going to average metal gigs. There is nothing a drop D power chord can evoke in me that compares to the feeling of blurrily espying a chocolate trifle in the reduced to clear section. So I wish to bring your attention to Supermarket Times.

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