“We do not want to put our players in a position of having to choose between these two games, so we have decided to step out of the way and delay the release of Path of Exile 3.13 until January,” Grinding Gear said in yesterday’s announcement. They go on to say that they’re really not using this as an excuse, they do still expect to have 3.13 finished by early/mid-December, but y’know, Cyberpunk....

It didn’t take very long for twitterers to start posting reasonably convincing side-by-sides of the profile pic with shots from Death Stranding. My favourite is this one of Sam Porter Bridges letting rip with a big wee against the massive lump of stone in the foreground: Others suggested the profile pic could be an image from the upcoming Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Some pointed to the equally murky planetary environs of Bethesda’s Starfield....

Embracer went Christmas shopping in December to buy Perfect World, along with Dark Horse Comics and some other companies. In August they grabbed 3D Realms. They’re still picking up companies too. Just last week Embracer acquired Lost Boys Interactive, which will act as a subsidiary of Gearbox Software. The week before, Embracer picked up Beamdog and their upcoming first original game, the roguelike Mythforce, through subsidiary Aspyr Media. It’s no understatement to say that Embracer have become one of the largest groups of companies in the industry even if that’s mostly down to owning smaller studios, although they do count Deep Silver, THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive and Gearbox among the group....

Get a Gainward RTX 3080 12GB - £724 w/ code AFF25 (was £1049) Note that you can also pick up Doom Eternal (with its DLC) and Ghostwire: Tokyo, which is a nice bonus - both are great games that use the RTX 3080’s DLSS and RTX features. This is offered as Nvidia’s ‘Face Your Demons’ bundle. As you may or may not know, the RTX 3080 12GB is actually a more fully-unlocked version of the Ampera GA102 die that also forms the basis of the RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti....

There’s a feel of the Ori series and older platformers such as Another World to Planet Of Lana. You’ll need to ask your extraterrestrial chum to interact with other aliens as you progress on your journey to rescue Lana’s kidnapped sister from sinister robots. Said robots rattle about on spindly spider-legs so I find them unsettling. They’re a bit like the guardians from Breath Of The Wild, with their glowing eyes that turn red when they’re about to do something particularly robotic and nasty....

Devs Rogue Planet Games have been fiddling about with Planetside 2’s underwater combat in some big ways. First up is a reduction to movement speed penalties when you’re dunked under the briny blue, which should make oceanic assaults feel less like swimming through treacle. You can now fire most infantry small arms that don’t deal explosive or anti-armour damage when you’re submerged too, and there’s the new diver propulsion device that lets you zip around by holding the spacebar....

First off, here’s Greene’s video with a bit of an introduction to the new studio and the project. Greene explains some of the issues that his team has been working to tackle with Prologue—things we often hear about with big open world sandboxes. How do you make the world even bigger—because I suppose we’ve decided they do always need to be bigger—while making sure they’re full of things that are actually interesting?...

Reader dear, what do you want for Christmas from RPS? We’ve opened a new survey all about that. While our annual reader survey asks questions about you, this one focuses on us: what do you like about RPS, how well do you think we’re doing, and what more do you want from us? I’m sure I won’t find this experience at all humbling. It also has questions to help us shape the perks of our RPS supporter program....

So then, less “here’s my cute pet monster”, and more, “here is my monster acquaintance, our deal is signed”. That’s not to say none of the creatures in Monster Crown are cute - there are definitely some cuddly-looking pals in the trailer. I reckon eyeball face up there has an endearing look about it, to be honest. Some real nice art in that trailer as well! Reminds me a lot of the older Pokémon games....

I’ve not played enough of the new Vikendi yet to get a sense of how much the changes have improved the map. Having less snow in places should make people less clearly visible. Ride the nine automated trains trundling between the 12 stations might seem a clear way to get yourself killed, but I’ve seen people largely ignore them so far so maybe they are a handy ‘covert’ way to travel - hiding in plain sight?...

The zombies spawn and run at you and your friends, and you kerblammo back at them. You progress by killing every zombie or, far more likely, simply by surviving the round. If someone makes it to the end of the round, any players who died will respawn. As you progress, you get points to spend on upgrades and ammo, and the zombies will get increasingly stronger and grow in number....

Rainbow Six Extraction only just showed up to reveal its new name and announce a release date last month. Previously announced for September 16, Extraction has now been moved to an unspecified date in January 2022. “Our ambition with Rainbow Six Extraction is to deliver a full-fledged AAA experience that changes the way you play and think about cooperative games,” Ubisoft say. “We are embracing the opportunity to take additional time to bring this vision to life the way it deserves in January 2022....

Below, we’ll cover the best guns in Rainbow Six Extraction so that you know which guns are accurate, powerful, and able to kill the Archaeans before you even take a scratch. We’ll also cover how you can unlock more guns in Extraction, so that you have more options for each character. Rainbow Six Extraction best guns There are lots of guns available in Extraction, but they’re only available to select characters....

Rather than sitting like lemon on his mounted turret, Tachanka is now a lot more mobile. He’s swapped out his old shotgun for a new primary weapon, the DP27 LMG, which can mow down walls like no one’s business. As well as that, his turret has been replaced by the Shumikha Launcher, which fires incendiary grenades in quick succession. It leaves flames on the ground that your enemies will have a very bad time trying to get through....

First up, the sensor. Whack up the sensitivity, either with the onboard switch or Razer’s Synapse software, and this is the nimblest Basilisk yet. It includes a new version of the Basilisk V2’s Focus+ Optical Sensor, which ups the maximum DPI from 20,000 to 26,000. That’s more than a little twitchy for my tastes, but after a few days using the Basilisk V3 it’s always felt crisp and accurate at lower DPIs as well....

The major new bits of wild westing in the Blood Money update are those Crimes and the even larger Opportunities. Crimes are doled out by fancy Saint Denis fella Guido Martelli who needs you to go chase down and retrieve his Capitale notes. That’ll be those robberies and kidnappings and the like, which Rockstar say you can solo or bring your posse along for. Bring home enough of the Capitale and Martelli will let you take on an Opportunity....

We Should Talk.—yes, properly styled with the intimidating full-stop—looks like my kind of puzzle. You scroll through separate pieces of a sentence for each dialogue choice, constructing an answer that fits the tone you want to take with the person you’re talking to, whether it’s your ex at the bar or your partner at home. Conversations will go differently depending on whether you choose to be accommodating or flirty or something else....

Resident Evil 3 remake got a demo The full game’s not out until April, so have a gander now. Valve really are planning a comeback for Artifact The Dota spin-off card game flopped hard, updates stopped as Valve rethought it, and after a long silence it seemed a gonner. Now Valve boss Gabe Newell says they’re having another go. “Based on the reaction to it, what was wrong with the product?...

Resident Evil Village Luiza’s Key: Where to use Luiza’s Key If you return to Luiza’s House once you’ve escaped Castle Dimitrescu, you’ll find Luiza’s Treasure awaiting you. But that’s not all, as if you inspect it, you’ll get Luiza’s Key. The difficulty now lies in finding what this key opens, and what you’ll get as a reward for doing so. Here’s everything you need to know: Where to find Luiza’s Treasure and get Luiza’s Key To get Luiza’s Treasure, you need to head back to Luiza’s House after you’ve escaped Castle Dimitrescu and the Altar becomes your new hub....

A full rundown of Episode 3 will likely arrive closer to release, but here’s a hot little story trailer to tide you over ’til then. Ubisoft haven’t yet launched their usual big official rundown post for Episode 3. They have, however, discussed plans in a State Of The Game stream, which has been viciously dissected by fans over on The Division subreddit. On top of new exotic guns, players will soon have access to a new “Firewall” class that lets hotheads pick up a flamethrower....