Finding the best Steam Deck dock will be high on the priority list for any of us portable PC gaming enthusiasts. Even Amazon’s October Prime Day right around the corner, this deal is looking pretty unbeatable at the moment.

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When the trailer for steampunk RPG New Arc Line released in April, I was immediately taken in by its premise. To my shame, I’ve never gotten around to the social tensions and magic-meets-technology world of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. A newer, shinier journey to a similar setting sounded like just the ticket. After spending a few hours with the preview build, I do have at least one bit of very positive news to share: I’m definitely going to play Arcanum now, because despite some fetching environments and potentially interesting social systems, New Arc Line just isn’t doing it for me.

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Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I’m currently reading Brendan Keogh’s The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist. It’s interesting enough that I’m only mildly pissed off about the added academic book tax. Paying the academic price> is funny if you say it like paying the iron price>. Although, again, not quite funny enough to soothe my awful uni flashbacks of books that cost a week’s worth of groceries each. This week, it’s writer on Tomb Raider, Mirror's Edge, BioShock Infinite plus loads more, and host of BBC Radio’s Mythical Creatures - Rhianna Pratchett! Cheers Rhianna! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?

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Sundays are for squishing nids. I...was at least 35% wrong about Space Marine II. The new patch and a trick I learned to deal with Zoanthropes means I can play on Veteran now, and a lot of the issues I had with feeling overpowered have been sorted. I still think the guard are more interesting, but it's a very fun bit of smashy. Before I continue to never be wrong about a videogame ever again, let’s read some writing that I personally found interesting about games (and game related things!)

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Mojang want to release smaller updates more frequently for Minecraft, instead of one major update each summer. This evening's Minecraft Live stream detailed the Bravery And Bundles update, coming next, but also another update to follow in the next few months. A creepy update.

It doesn't have a name yet, but it'll add The Pale Garden, a new biome of eerie, grey trees and hanging moss that's quiet during the day, but which at night is inhabited by a new mob, the Creaking.

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The weekend has arrived, right on schedule. And I refuse to go outside, because as my Glaswegian partner would say, it's fookin BALTIC out there. Now is the winter of our discount tents, and all that. Here's what we'll all be clicking on this weekend!

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We’ve known for years that consoles have simply become preboxed PCs, and now look: we’re getting into their controllers as well. The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro (and its wired cousin, the Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition) has looked to desktop peripherals in search of superior button-bashing, cannibalising the rather good Razer Viper gaming mouse series for its switches. The result is a high-performing, satisfyingly clicky pad that, yes, works wonderfully on PC – albeit one that rinses you for four times(!) as much as a standard Xbox controller.

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Two monitor-themed Should You Bother Withs in a row? Normally my desire for editorial heterogeneity wouldn’t allow it, but while ultrawide screens have been around for donkeys' years, 2024 seems to be welcoming a genuinely new take on gaming displays: the dual-mode monitor.

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Experimental, feature-length simulation game Apartment Story is not especially brilliant, but it does feature a home invasion that’s stressful in several, systemically tangible ways I’ve never quite felt in such a specific combination from a videogame before. It’s partly a story about mental health, partly about the absolute horror of not just managing a Sim but actually being one, and partly about seeing how many wanks and cheese sandwiches you can fit into a single morning. Yes, I washed my hands afterward. Ah, but after which?

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Initially, Lorn’s Lure feels like an escape. A first-person spelunking sim, it takes place in a colossal, mournful extent of pipes and silos, ancient turbines and concrete cliffs, where emergency lighting and broken gantries form scrappy platforming routes into darkness.

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