Here at RPS, we’re not often in the business of reporting rumors, but this one’s too much of a doozy to leave inside the colossal organic womb ship from which all rumors are born. Prey 2‘s been MIA since time immemorial, with various rumblings of strikes, stall outs, and near-cancellation the only things even vaguely resembling a warm trail for us to follow. Now, however, according to Kotaku and Prey 2 fansite Alien Noire, Dishonored developer Arkane has – allegedly somewhat reluctantly – taken the reigns. THE PLOT THICKENS. Watch it ooze and burble after the break.

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A few weeks ago, Paradox invited a group of journalists to Stockholm in order to see how much violence we could do to one another in a massive two-day multiplayer session of Europa Universalis IV. I packed my bags, steeled my nerves and prepared to present Rock, Paper, Shotgun the only way I know how – with fruitless acts of violence and a burning desire to reduce France to ashes. Inevitably, it transpired that I would be playing as France but I wasn’t going to let that petty detail shake my resolve. Europe was about to meet its maker.>

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Like I headlined: Expeditions: Conquistador came out yesterday, colonising new continents of strategic building and management as it did so. Did it bring with it diseases we were not immune to? I am not sure that makes any sense, but nevertheless I will plunge onwards into the uncharted jungle of this paragraph. Where am I going? Can we truly be expected to conquer this bold new territory of exotic pre-amble? Will I be treated as a hero on my return to the old country? Or will I be strung up as a traitor for that thing I did with ships and the gold and the muskets and the analogies? Ah, history. Full of so much that is basically pretty awful. You make great blather.

Well, at least I will be remembered for the potato. There’s always that>. (more…)

Sandbox building game Folk Tale is looking rather promising. This promise comes from it being a rather pleasing-looking cartoon fantasy game of peasant-management in an early stage of development. That won’t stop you from getting your hands on it, of course, because it’s over on Early Access, where you can get the game’s in-development version in exchange for precious gold of varied currencies. There’s a dynamic story system which apparently accommodates your decisions about how to rule your peasants as you knock them into an empire.

Just as a river flows, so a couple of videos explain this stuff below.

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The latest Borderlands 2 video reveals the sad plight of Krieg, the playable psycho character whose troubled mind you can enter for $9.99. Disconcertingly, Krieg’s inner monologue reveals him to be a thoughtful and frustrated individual. The words that come out of his mouth – words like ‘poop train’ and ‘meat bicycle’ – do not reflect his thoughts, suggesting there has been a breakdown between brain and mouth. Or between brain and other parts of brain. It’s a bit like the time I approached a bar and inadvertently ordered a pint of Carling even though I wanted a beer. You’ll undoubtedly recognise some parallel to your own life when you press play, below.

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Sooooo, Crysis 3 sure was a videogame. Its single-player had all the guns and all the graphics and all the armored land squids, but it still managed to fall well short of its predecessors’ remarkably intelligent brand of sci-fi hyperdumb. Oh, and there was multiplayer too  - because again, videogame. Unfortunately, glimmers of asymmetrical, suits-vs-skins potential were mostly paved over by a heaping gray load of blah. But hey, there’s still some hope, because Crytek’s injecting MP with a new dose of life via a DLC pack called The Lost Island. The mini-expansion leaves behind New York’s mostly concrete jungle in favor of the regular kind while also adding multiple new modes and maps. And thus, the series comes full circle in a really bizarre, potentially upsetting way. Details after the break.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m in no hurry to be abducted by aliens. I mean, I’m fascinated by the concept of meeting extraterrestrial life, but great scientific discoveries rarely come through moderately detailed surveys and a tray of complimentary sugar cookies. Things have to get poked, prodded, and taken apart. As someone who likes all his things right where they are (thank you very much), I’d rather not have that frightening fate befall me. It’s a dread-soaked sentiment that’s slithered through the vents of other media’s pulpier corners, but not so much games. Yeah, abduction happens in stuff like Prey and (sorta) Quake IV, but it’s usually just a glowing green excuse to shoot aliens – not an up-close-and-waaay-too-personal study of fear, confusion, and helplessness. I’m happy, then, that it sounds like Abducted will at least try to explore those otherworldly mainstays, though I’ll probably avoid having any large meals before playing it.

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Why wait until the increasingly plausible cyberfuture for life-extending augments, nano enhancements, and modifications? Our PC games are getting them right now, as they have been pretty much since the inception of our humble hobby. Case in point: Deus Ex. It still sees the occasional hugely ambitious mod now and then, and it’s more than a decade old. Deus Ex: Nihilum, especially, fits the bill quite nicely, lining its worn but hardly ragged trench coat with more than ten hours of content, 2200 lines of new dialogue, an entire, completely new soundtrack, and tons of nooks and crannies to explore and hack. It’s a labor of love that’s been several years in the making, and you can finally download it now.

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And you didn’t even notice. That’s how cold, calculating, and quiet it is. It rushed your home and left no witnesses>. Your coat rack? Lying in a pool of its own fabrics. Your pet goldfish? Sleeping with the fishes. Other fishes. Dead ones. And you? Next. Hah, just kidding. I have no idea why someone’s stalking through your home, but it’s not Payday 2‘s fault. The heist-’em-up’s new trailer is disarmingly quiet, though. Admittedly, it’s all pre-scripted, but the big takeaway seems to be that this one’s going for methodical stealth over the first’s Left 4 Dead with cops approach.  Also, clown masks. They’re reeeeeally unsettling, pretty much no matter what. It’s all after the break.

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Meet Unimog, the Flare Path mouser. He owes his name to his love of clambering and off-piste adventure. Why, this very morning I spotted the little scamp nosing around inside the turret of a Steel Beasts Pro Personal Edition story, sharpening his claws on a free chunk of Combat Mission Fortress Italy: Gustav Line, and enjoying a nap atop the warm fuselage of an obscure chopper sim demo. (more…)