Gaming News

Ron Gilbert talks the untraditional way he got Thimbleweed Park 2 funded, and his frustrations with modern publishing deals

I think it would be a tad fair if you heard that Thimbleweed Park 2 is in the works and thought, "who funded that?" Not because it doesn't deserve funding, but because adventure games aren't exactly in vogue (even though it's not as dead a genre as many think), and also there's that whole video game industry crumbling around us day by day thing. When it was announced last month, creator Ron Gilbert said that it was t

Community

O EMPIRE! WARD OFF THY ROT puts you in an abandoned, dithered world with a cursed object and asks you to do one thing: survive the journey

Do you remember, or do you even know, about the Game Boy Camera? It's exactly as it sounds, a little camera attached to an original Game Boy cartridge that you could plug in and take photos with. You could even get a printer! The aesthetic therewithin is a particular one, utilising a tiny 128x128 pixel sensor, the end result being an incredibly dithered and pixelated yet charming look. There are few games that captur

Sand: Raiders of Sophie adds a new ping system while fixing trampler issues

A ping system is important for any sort of video game in which you want to give your fellow players directions. “We need to get the wreck over there. No, not there, there. Over there. Wait, we’re still walking, it’s sort of… it’s there but the there we were at a couple minutes ago, not there there?” Yeah, a map […]

PC gaming Industry

"For a few weeks, women were just dropping their babies": The Witcher 3 lead on designing NPCs that react appropriately

Gone are the days where a developer could give an NPC maybe two lines of dialogue and call it a day. The steady shift to realism essentially enforces the idea that characters must behave realistically, which is why whenever some kind of glitch or bug makes an NPC move about in an impossible manner it does numbers on Your Favourite Social Media App. And according to CD Projekt Red quest designer Philipp Weber, getting

The Stream Team: Making a Subnautica 2 moonpool and tadpole

Travel in Subnautica 2 is pretty slow and not-so-safe, but once Massively OP’s MJ makes a moonpool for her base, she can build a tadpole! And once she has that tadpole, she can zip around the sea at a much faster clip. She’ll also have a bit of metal between her and the ferocious fishies […]

Live service Console Indie

Slay the Spire 2 updates are slowing down again, but don't fear, it's all in the name of more modes, an alternate Act 2, and a character with a bandaged foot

Slay the Spire 2 has been moving at a solid pace since it launched into early access back in March, but back in May developer Mega Crit shared that updates would be switching to once every two weeks as opposed to the previously promised weekly updates. Now, as outlined in the game's August Neowsletter, Mega Crit say they'll be slowing down once again, though not necessarily forever. Read more

Simpsons creator Matt Groening seemingly lets slip that Hit & Run is coming back

Meta description: Simpsons creator Matt Groening seemed to let slip that Hit & Run is coming back at D23, before showrunner Matt Selman tried to walk it back.

Killing PlayStation discs could make PS Store games cheaper, according to a former Square Enix exec

A former Square Enix exec believes that PS Store prices could actually come down as a result of Sony's decision to end all physical media on PlayStation. Read more

Console

Live service Industry

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl's meaty 2.0 update brings functional fog, a suite of A-Life improvements, and more when it arrives next week

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl's big 2.0 update is right around the corner, and developer GSC Game World have shared a plethora of details of what you can expect from it. For starters, the shooter is getting a visual upgrade, with a particular emphasis on lighting adjustments. Indoor lighting should look more realistic, the general landscape and foliage should look more natural, and hundreds of items that were previou

LOTRO Legendarium: How do you navigate the first 50 levels in LOTRO?

This column is inspired by a conversation that I saw play out in world chat the other night. A brand-new player to Lord of the Rings Online was asking for advice where to level, especially as the epic book was pulling him in one direction and the zone design another. Suffice it to say, there […]

EverQuest Legends preps cursor resizing, group XP benefits, and a cash shop mount August 18

The coming week is going to be bringing a patch to EverQuest Legends, and if you’ve dreamed of having a bristly boar as a mount, some more XP while in a group, or the ability to change the size of your mouse cursor in the game, then Game Jawn has you covered when its next patch arrives […]

MMO Live service

Kingdom Hearts 4's first new world is inspired by Pixar's Coco

Alongside its Kingdom Hearts 4 release window and its Kingdom Hearts anime series announcement, Disney used Friday's D23 Entertainment Showcase to confirm the first new world for Kingdom Hearts 4: one inspired by Pixar's Coco. Read more

Kingdom Hearts is getting its own anime series on Disney+ and Disney Channel

A Kingdom Hearts animated show is on the way from Disney

Kingdom Hearts 4 finally has a release window, if not quite a firm release date

A new trailer at Disney's D23 2026 showcase confirmed the news along with several other Kingdom Hearts-flavoured announcements, including an animated series.

Rusty Lake is back with another belter, so I get to shout about the overlooked puzzle series all over again

I wiggle a cloud and the lake goes dark, revealing patterns among the stars. I poke a cat and pick up its sick so I can glue back together a chair. I place fly eggs on grilled fish to sate my master's guests, and I snip open a sutured wound to release the writhing thing inside. I hunt sport with my shotgun from the brow of a hill, some of them on their morning stroll. I neatly pack away severed fingers, then pluck sh