According to a report on VGC, System Shock 3’s writer and director, lead programmer, and design director are amongst those who’ve departed OtherSide Entertainment. It’s unclear whether they’ve all been laid off or some left willing but signs point to trouble. We’ve contacted OtherSide to find out more and not yet heard back. Since December, an anonymous poster on the RPG Codex forums who claims to have previously worked on Shock 3 has been posting supposed insider information....

Our Dominic Tarason first posted about Phantom Brigade back in 2018. But the game itself goes back a little further, with a revealed two years prior to developers Tetragon merging with dance-pad dungeoneers Brace Yourself Games. On a high level, Phantom Brigade isn’t too different from Battletech. You’ve got mechs, they’ve got mechs, so why not smash ’em all together until the map is smoking with rubble? In practice, however, the game is closer to the careful planning of something like Frozen Synapse....

There have been 16 Tales games released over the past 26 years, with many of them yearly iterations. The series didn’t miss more than two years without a new entry until now, with Arise the first since 2016’s Tales Of Berseria. The result is seemingly a more polished and accessible game. In her Tales Of Arise review, Nadia Oxford praised the frenetic JRPG for its gravity-defying combat, strong character moments and joyfully repeated anime tropes, although all only emerge after an awkward and sometimes wearying opening few hours....

Tuxedo Labs’ voxel-bashing heist sandbox has been on my radar for some time now, following months of captivating Twitter gifs and clips with a formal announcement last October. With its late-2020 release date presumably approaching, the devs have aired a new trailer flaunting more of its crunchy criminal capers. Teardown is wonderfully breakable, more so than even Red Faction: Guerrilla. Brick walls crumble, glass shatters, metal pipes bend and wood snaps under pressure....

“Three young attendees of the local Academy of Order and one renegade angel from the Divine Order are heading off on a road trip to take the fight to the Machine Devil and his cultists,” say Love Conquers All Games. “Will you succeed in your mission to save the world for another thousand years and hit every diner along the road on the way, or will you just be a useless gay disaster?...

As such, everything this week is also playable on Mac OS. And blimey, loads of good games are on Mac these days, aren’t they? It’s a really great distraction from all the spiders in this house, and the fact that the shower osscilates between being freezing cold and boiling, bum-burning hot. The actual realities of cottagecore would shock you people. Spellcaster University Who’s it by? Sneaky Yak Studio, Whisper Games Where can I get it?...

TFT comps guide This TFT comps guide for the third season, known as Galaxies, will have a list of the best TFT comps in the current meta for the game, as of the latest patch. To have the most success in TFT, you’ll need teams that have a great amount of synergy, the optimal items equipped, and decent skills that support the rest of your champions. It seems that certainly, for the time being, there are certain combinations of Origins and Classes that work very well together....

Released for free over on Itch last weekend, Jan Malitschek’s procgen’d gallery is an exhibition pulled together from whatever search term you fancy. The “game” opens on a pedestal with two doors - enter a word or phrase, and those doors will open to reveal a sprawling collection based on your input, rendered in all-too-familiar PS1-inspired retro visuals. Want an art gallery devoted entirely to Britain’s favourite sausage roll™? That’s you sorted in the header....

It’s generally agreed he was worth the wait, though: not many Electro characters make for an effective main DPS, but Cyno handily bucks that trend with a set of powerful normal and elemental attacks. So read on for details of the best build we’ve seen for Cyno, including his best weapons, artifacts, party members, and more. How to build Cyno as your main DPS in Genshin Impact Best weapon: Staff of the Scarlet Sands 4-star alternative: Deathmatch Staff of the Scarlet Sands is a new polearm introduced in Version 3....

Below you’ll find eight contenders for the best loadout in Modern Warfare 2 right now. We’ll explain the ins and outs of each gun we’re suggesting you pick up, and which other primary weapons they work best with. What is the best loadout in Modern Warfare 2? The best loadout in Modern Warfare 2 depends entirely on the situation you’re in and your preferred playstyle. Take two of the best weapons in the game; if one’s close-range and the other is mid-range, then you can still be outgunned at marksman or Sniper Rifle ranges....

The game presents you with four categories of perks: Signature Perks ,which can only be applied to the character they’re designed for; and Minor Perks, which can be applied to anyone in the roster and fall into three distinct purposes (Offense, Defense, and Utility). Once a character has levelled up enough to unlock all their perk slots, you can apply up to four perks to them: one of their Signature Perks, and any three Minor Perks you want....

First up is a close-up of a very Gearsy-looking man that demands you know it’s a “Test Asset that doesn’t represent a game product” before showing off a T-posed dude with a beard in highly detailed and futuristic tactical gear. It couldn’t be more Gears if it took out a chainsaw and roady-ran you into the ground. There’s a ridiculous excess of detail in it, partly the result of UE5’s fancy Metahuman tech....

I’ll be dipping my toes into this fantastical real-time tactics game to deliver some more in-depth impressions very soon, but in the mean time, let’s take a closer look at what you’ll be playing in the demo. Square Enix say it’s intended to ‘set the stage’ for this epic tale of war and honour, and will let you play up until the end of the game’s first chapter. In addition to commanding small squads of various different unit types, you’ll also be introduced to its Blue Fox Mercenaries, who look as though they’ll act as commander-type characters with big, flashy special abilities....

Come for the municipal waste discussion and stay for the extended chat about sharks, the embarrassing email mishap I had this week, and a very special Cavern Of Waste Management. Read on for the show notes, as I struggle with the realisation that whatever picture I use under this title, it’s going to look like I’m dunking on that game. You can listen above, or on on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or Pocket Casts....

A limited playable beta may arrive before 2021. RPS: Was I wrong to describe Task Force Admiral as a “naval Combat Mission” when I first mentioned it in Flare Path? Amiral Crapaud: Well, I wouldn’t say you were wrong – being compared to a landmark like Combat Mission is flattering enough for me not to dare contradicting you! Yet, in terms of basic mechanics, Task Force Admiral is only remotely related....

Turns out these 700 year old drawings lend themselves very nicely to a 2D duel. The combat is easy to grasp (“but hard to master”, he mutters under his breath) and there’s a snappy flow to battles as turns flip between you and the enemy with an uncomplicated ease. I like this about Inkulinati a lot - it doesn’t overdo things. It’s clutter free. Each unit you command has only a handful of options and movement is limited, but this makes each decision matter....

A moment of appreciation for how bloody good a game name The Gunk is. Short, sweet, powerful. Love it. Our pair of spacefaring trucker ladies have found themselves a nice big hunk of rock packed with valuable resources, rare bugs and ancient nonsense to sell down the interstellar market. Trouble is, they’ve also happened upon a mass of corrosive ooze that’s out to gobble up the planet. Fortunately, your leading lass has a glove that can suck up the stuff, sucking great big holes out of walls and clearing out paths....

I seek out the nearest tree to unleash my wrath upon. It takes a while to bring my opponent low, but eventually I am victorious, and the great trunk teeters and falls! The tree comes down on top of me, and I die immediately. At least there’s no announcement of “You Died!” to mock me as everything fades to black. Back in the stone circle where I’ve respawned, Hugin the raven is there with some words of wisdom....

A mocking loop of voices and mental paralysis? It’s a videogame manifestation of a meltdown, basically. And if we’re being honest, it’s not the only ungainly element of Divinity: Original Sin. There are those male character models with their revolting tumescent arms, for a start. With the beloved 2017 sequel having a standalone (superior, I hear) story, deeper combat mechanics and more polish across the board, I can understand why so many people skipped straight to it....

Looks very different to Paratopic, right? There’s a strong vibe of Kaizen Game Works’ murder mystery to Roman Sands, and maybe just a hint of the island exploration of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. That automatically put it on my radar for things to keep an eye on in 2023, thanks to its mix of horror, puzzling, and survival in a visual novel format. I’m not sure why everyone’s arms are so floppy though, that’s a bit concerning....