Despite having to drop its exciting-sounding solo campaign, upcoming competitive FPS Insurgency: Sandstorm remains firmly on our radar for its uncompromising, brutal and tactile depiction of modern urban combat. Today, developers New World Interactive outlined their launch plans in an extensive development blog post, although the part you’re all wondering is the release date, right? Despite not having a specific day picked out, the game should be Steam this September.

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The Indie Stone’s Project Zomboid has been in early access since before early access was a thing. This ambitious zombie survival sandbox has been steadily growing for seven years now, and today it got one of its largest and most game-changing updates yet. Build 39 adds vehicles to the zombopocalypse for the first time, and while that may not sound too amazing on paper the entire game has been effectively rebuilt to support them.

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Ever since Flash fell out of vogue, vector art has become an increasingly rare sight in games, so when mythical puzzle-adventure Atone popped up, it’s hard not to sit up straight and pay attention. The debut game from New Zealand-based Wildboy Studios, it’s hard to do it justice in a 620-pixel wide thumbnail, so come and check out the trailer within, and do be sure to watch it full-screen at maximum resolution.

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Warad, a child from the southern lands of Middle-Earth, is taken from his family and sent north as a hostage of peace. Adopted by one of the principal families of the country, he takes on a new name Baranor and rises through the ranks of the Gondorian army to become second-in-command of one of its principal fortresses. One of the few men capable of keeping the forces of darkness at bay. With that background, you d be forgiven for believing that Baranor is the main character of Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. He isn t, initially. He s a prominent NPC in the campaign (even fighting alongside you in some missions), a player skin, and finally, in DLC campaign Desolation of Mordor, he’s the starring character.

This growth is impressive, not just because he s a cool character, but because Baranor is a playable black man. Someone who, in many other fantasy games, wouldn t exist. (more…)

It’s not often worth talking about old console emulation packages here, but Sega have pulled out all the stops with this one. Once just a loose collection of old ROMs wrapped in a crunchy emulator shell, the Mega Drive & Genesis Classics collection is now a high-budget VR-era production, all thanks to a free update. It now boasts online multiplayer, leaderboards, challenge modes, new graphics options and – most impressively – full VR support, allowing you to play around with virtual cartridges in a digitally recreated messy ’90s bedroom.

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Update: And it’s official. Ubisoft have tweeted a short teaser with a fella doing that kick from the meme.>

As E3 approaches, rumours and teasers are flying off all over. Here’s a new rumour for you: Ubisoft are following up on the Egyptian Assassin’s Creed Origins with a visit to ancient Greece in a game named Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. That’s the buzz from French site JeuxVideo-Live, who have a photo they say is a keyring promoting the game from a source they trust. The supposed promo tat is in the shape of a Spartan helmet, like that movie with the radge from Paisley in the leather pants, so: rumour is, the stabmen are off to Greece. Ubisoft, of course, have announced no such game. (more…)

As much as I enjoy a lonely life on the road with my big rig in American Truck Simulator, I’m also well up for a spot of larking up with my pals in a different transport sim. Bus Simulator 18 is coming next month with four-player online cooperative bus-driving, and it sounds promising. Here, come watch this new trailer with a four-bus convoy taking up the whole road and trundling through town like the world’s slowest hoons. You’ll also see the greatest treat of video game trailers: people squirming and waving controllers as they pretend to play. (more…)

1994’s Descent was a game before its time. While other FPS’s of the era were only beginning to ask people to aim with the mouse, Descent demanded full 360-degree rotation and strafing on every axis. Perhaps now the time is right, as the original developers have reassembled as Revival Productions to deliver Overload, a true return to form for the free-flying shooter. It’s out today, and having played a preview build to death this past week, I can confirm that this one is very good indeed.

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After years of championing the membrane keyboard, Roccat look as though they’re finally preparing to jump headfirst into the world of proper, honest-to-goodness mechanical keyboards thanks to their newly-announced partnership with leading switch manufacturer TTC.

Officially know as the Titan Switch (or the Titan Switch Tactile to give its full mouthful of a name), these will be the first mechanical switches Roccat have designed in-house, and we’ll see them inside a new mystery product very soon at next week’s big Taiwanese tech fest, Computex. I wonder what it could possibly be? (more…)

First-person ratbasher Warhammer: Vermintide 2 today blasted its first content update, following a string of patches with fixes and tweaks. Along with officially launching mod support, the update adds new challenges and daily quests to complete for loot, and boshes in loads of hats, skin recolours, and other cosmetic bits. The mod SDK doesn’t include a map editor, sadly, but it does let modders fiddle with game logic, graphics effects, the user interface, textures, and other bits of gameguts, so it’ll be interesting to see what people make. (more…)