Paradox Interactive appear from the outside to be a company run by dice roll. That was the case earlier this year when they cancelled Sims competitor Life By You and closed its developers, weeks after it had missed a project release date. "It is clear that we have made the wrong calls in several projects, especially outside of our core, and this must change," writes CEO Fredrik Wester in an interim financial report, released today. Read more ..read more

Demos were once a cornerstone of PC gaming and they arguably will be again thanks to events like Steam Next Fest. The latest update to Steam seeks to make those free slices of potential delight easier to find for players, and easier to promote for developers. Read more ..read more

Double Fine's PsychOdyssey is a 32-part documentary series which charts the creation of 2021 platformer Psychonauts 2, from initial brainstorming sessions to its final release. Or it was - now it's 33 parts, as a new 94-minute episode was just released which looks back at the game, its reception, and the release of the documentary itself. Read more ..read more

In a recent interview, the director of The Elder Scrolls Online said that if you made Morrowind today, it would struggle to find an audience. "If you play that right now," he said, "there is no compass, no map, literally the quests are like 'go to the third tree on the right and walk 50 paces west'... And if you did that now, no one would play it. Very few people would play it." Well sir, have you heard of a little open world RPG called Dread Delusion? It's pretty good. And what's more, it has just added a whole new area with - let me see - a giant floating squid creature with an entire town ..read more

I don't know what the longest-running early access game in history has been (perhaps Project Zomboid?) but I know that zombie survival game 7 Days To Die is definitely up there. We first reported its appearance back in the dark ages of 2013. For context, that was the year Grand Theft Auto V came out. Whoa! Okay, calm down, sorry, I didn't mean to panic you. Yes, the arrow of time is inviolable. We are all marching steadily towards our graves, I know. But at least now 7 Days To Die has finally released its fully baked version 1.0. Read more ..read more

Chaotic poker-themed roguelike deckbuilder Balatro quickly captured hearts and frazzled minds when it released earlier this year. However, nowhere in Katharine’s (RPS in peace) review does it address the one eternal issue: can it run Doom? Read more ..read more

I keep seeing those adverts for that Ray-Ban and Meta collaboration, where like, they're smart glasses that let you browse the web with your eyes? Anyway, yeah, they don't appeal to me at all. Not as much as "Dateviator" glasses, which come courtesy of Sassy Chap Games and their upcoming dating sim Date Everything! As the title suggests: you date everything, from kitchen sponges to lampshades, as they morph into absolute fitties once you've donned the special specs. It looks incredibly dumb but in the best possible way. Read more ..read more

As of today, the The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has called a strike of the Interactive Media Agreement - effectively, video game voice acting, motion capture work, and other roles, the full list of which can be found here. The strike comes after over 18 months of negotiations with some of gaming’s largest companies - including Activision, EA, Insomniac, Take-Two, and WB Games - over AI protections. Read more ..read more

Earth Defense Force 6 players on Steam aren’t happy about having to sign into the Epic Games Store, it seems. The latest entry in the co-op ant-control shooter launched yesterday, and critics reckon it's a decent time. Still, it’s currently sitting at an angry red 'mostly negative' on Steam. In response, D3PUBLISHER have put out an apology statement, reassuring players that this third-party log in will only be required once. Read more ..read more

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the beautifully grotty sci-fi shooter sequel from Ukrainian studio GSC Game World, has been delayed once again. It’s a relatively good-spirited delay, though: first off, it’s not that long, with the previously planned September 5th launch pushed back just a few weeks to November 20th. There’s also clever little in-universe announcement video (one which gives the fourth wall a study kick on its way out), and an accompanying promise of a meaty "developer deep dive video", set to reveal much more of the game’s radioactive hellscape on August 12th. Read more ..read more