Baldur's Gate 3 Path to Menzoberranzan custom campaign modders offer glimpse of their long-awaited demo level's "dark, ruined dungeon" as environments near completion

Late last year, the modders behind an ambitious Baldur's Gate 3 custom campaign mod called Path to Menzoberranzan pencilled in plans to release a Nautiold-sized demo level during the first half of 2026. That timeline was settled on following a re-think of the project's scope last summer, and with this summer now in full swing, the group have put out a teaser of the level alongside announcing its environments are nearly finished.

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I might have hit that hospital with a high explosive shell, but Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator hit me right in the feels

When you first start Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator, you're standing in a small office annex of the walking artillery unit you call home. A board in front of you lays out the process of firing the turret's cannon. First you measure the distance and bearing to the target, calculate the necessary turret elevation, load the gun, angle and rotate the cannon, and then fire the shell. It all looks simple enough.

However, seeing as the inside of the Iron Nest is the size of a small warehouse, this artillery unit surely dwarfs the 'Gustav', the train-mounted cannon Germany built to blast the French forts of the Maginot Line. And, seeing as this machine looks to be of a similar vintage, getting that gun to fire is going to be a muscularly manual process.

On the office desk is a vinyl. I drop it onto the record player, crank up the volume, and head to the map table, pencil and compass in hand, military marching loudly blaring out of the Iron Nest's tannoy.

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Valve roll out a more detailed timeline for Steam Controller orders, giving you a clearer picture of when you'll hear about your reservation

If you've put in an order for a Steam Controller and are still awaiting its arrival, a new system Valve have rolled out can offer you an estimate of when you should hear from them about your order. While you'll only be given one of three very rough windows, it's at least something to go on if you're wondering where you're at in the queue.

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Epic's plans for their big store revamp over the next year sound like they'll at long last meet the bare minimum

The Epic Games Store is not very good. This is not a controversial thing to say, I'm fairly certain, as the lack of features available within it feels a bit odd also eight years into the thing existing. Sure, there's some free games every now and then (like Citizen Sleeper, right now), but there's a lot of basic things missing. But it seems much of that, including simple things like patch notes, will be coming within the next 12 months.

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God judged me for killing someone in Meaningless Random Numbers but I owe the devil some money so what else could I do?

In front of me is a single die. It costs me a bit of money to roll it, but I get a four, so I get four dollars, so I'm making a profit all the same. It costs me a bit more to roll this time. I do it anyway, and I get a bit more money, and more importantly experience points. After a while, I'm able to add in another die. You know what that means: more money. And I need the money, because I owe the devil a good few hundo. This is Meaningless Random Numbers, an incremental horror game where god is watching you.

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"Hell or high water": the System Shock remake's co-director on the sneaky step taken to get the game made

That there System Shock remake sure seems to have had one of the weirdest developments on any game around. There's the fact it took so long (almost eight whole years) having been delayed numerous times, but also the fact that at one point the FBI was called in on developer Nightdive. And now, it turns out that a group of devs within the studio banded together to form a sort of secret group to actually get it made.

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The interstellar dice-driven RPG Citizen Sleeper is free for the next week, so now you've got no excuse to not play it

Hurrah! Today is a very fine Thursday, as one of the most tightly written sci-fi RPGs around is available to pick up for free for around a week. That'll be Citizen Sleeper, by the way, a dice-driven RPG that I'm sure all of you must already know and love, but for the selection of you that don't technically exist, I'm sure you'll be happy to be able to pick it up for the cost of a couple of clicks.

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Latest official SteamOS update paves the way for Steam Machine with a bunch of new display features and faster patches

Following the customary beta tests, Valve have released a new SteamOS update that adds "initial" support for the forthcoming Steam Machine, that unconscionable hybrid of desktop computer and videogame console, feared by man and god alike. It's one, small step along the road to the new hardware's (delayed) release this summer, at which point we will probably discover that it costs eleventy thousand pounds per unit.

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Reach the roof before your toe fungus reaches your brain in Moldrise, my favourite horror demo in ages

As I write these words, Julian has just published a feature about Signet City, the new "fungalpunk" RPG from Citizen Sleeper and In Other Waters developer Gareth Damian Martin, in which you are a soulful parasite moving between the minds and bodies of an entire urban population. Doubtless, it is a splendid account of what is very likely a masterpiece of post-anthropocentric poetics, assuming I'm clocking Gareth's current theoretical preoccupations correctly. Unfortunately, I don't have time to read the article because there is a horrible mushroom in my foot that's trying to eat my brain.

The infestation literally squelches beneath me, as I haul myself between the floors of an apartment block decked with mouldy pizza and rusty chains. The more it spreads, the more… textured the squelching, and the louder the groans of my avatar as I shamble from door to door on a desperate quest for lotion.

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After Epic outline a genAI focused Unreal Engine 6, Vampire Survivors studio Poncle say they're "reviewing" their Fortnite collab

If you heard the sound of a wet fart reverberating throughout the world yesterday, it'll likely be thanks to the most recent State of Unreal, where Epic offered some more concrete details regarding its plans for Unreal Engine 6. Namely, that it wants to infuse it with generative AI, and there's also some bollocks about using your Fortnite skins in other games and vice versa. But speaking of Fortnite, the same showcase announced a Vampire Survivors collab was on the cards, only for developer poncle to learn about the generative AI stuff the same time as the rest of us and express some concern over it.

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Warren Spector-helmed Thick as Thieves developers OtherSide lay off 17 staff as they cancel multiplayer immersive sim Argos: Riders on the Storm

Thick As Thieves developers OtherSide Entertainment have laid off 17 employees following the cancellation of a multiplayer immersive sim dubbed Argos: Riders on the Storm. The studio's helmed by Looking Glass Studios veterans Warren Spector and Paul Neurath - key figures in shaping the likes of Deus Ex and System Shock 2 - said via a spokesperson that they believe Argos "could have been a huge success in normal times".

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Signet City is an RPG where you play a brain fungus feeding off the emotions of your host, like a mushroom-themed Monsters, Inc

The broil of ideas that make up Signet City have been growing in Gareth Damian Martin's head for years and they're about fit to burst. The creator of In Other Waters and Citizen Sleeper describes their new game as a first-person fungalpunk RPG, a game that draws inspiration from the history and culture of the northern England, the whalepunk tech of Dishonored's world, and lifts systems from cyberpunk tabletop game The Veil. But it's as much a manifestation of projects they're reacting against, as those they're reverently lifting from.

We'll get into all that, but put the highbrow, high concept references to the side for a moment. It's maybe easier to think of Signet City as a bit like Monsters, Inc, but with more mushrooms.

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Fortnite boss hopes to take on Roblox's massive everythingverse with a "very different" massive everythingverse, as Epic unveil genAI-infused Unreal Engine 6

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, overseer of a company which fired over 1000 staff just a few months ago, has laid out his vision for the games industry's future during a "time of both crisis and opportunity". As Epic revealed an Unreal Engine 6 packed with generative AI model support designed to "reduce the tedious work" that goes into making games, Sweeney painted a picture of a future in which the threat of Roblox eating the world is combatted by a bunch of game makers working with Epic to create a massive integrated everythingverse that's somehow totally different to Roblox's massive integrated everythingverse.

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Dark Souls 2 seamless co-op mod is "close" to being playtest-ready, having morphed into one of its creator's "most complicated and ambitious projects to date"

Prolific FromSoft game multiplayer modder Yui is "close" to being ready to open up alpha testing of their latest seamless co-op mod, this time for Dark Souls 2. Despite it following the the footsteps of their seamless co-op mods for the likes of Elden Ring, Nightreign, and the original Dark Souls, Yui said this DS2 mod's turned out to be a very different kettle of fish and one of their "most complicated and ambitious projects to date".

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Fired Rockstar developers can bring blacklisting claims against the GTA 6 developer, UK tribunal rules as final trial looms

An employment tribunal in the UK has ruled against striking blacklisting claims levied against Rockstar Games by staff the GTA 6 studio abruptly fired last year from ongoing legal proceedings between the two sides. The staff were let go in autumn last year, with Rockstar subsequently claiming that they were fired due to the leaking of "confidential information" via a public forum. The IWGB Game Workers Union, representing the ousted workers, have accused Rockstar of union busting over the firings.

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Abe Lincoln dodged the bullet in goblinAmerica, a brain-mottling shooter set in a putrefying alternative USA

Towards the end of goblinAmerica's tutorial level, you mercilessly gun down a huge cherry tree. Like much else in the game's world, the tree is an abomination – beige and rubbery as a stunted hatchling, with hard, tacky fruit hanging from it like dumbbells torturously sewn into the skin. Its death throes are pathetic, and somehow erotic. It sags and sprawls, breasting across the arena boobily with an undefinable cry. I am happy that this creature is slain, and hope never to encounter its like again. I know in my heart that I will.

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From its electric melee fights to its surprise Firewatch nods, Control Resonant's radical sequelcraft looks like it might just pay off

It seems appropriate that Control Resonant drags the Remedyverse back away from Alan Wake II’s screeching horror, as it’s spent the past few weeks – and as of yesterday, about three hours of playable preview build – assuaging my fears. Control the First, in my defence, took its kinetically supernatural shooting, put it in the hands of a likeable hero, and wrapped everything in a delightfully weird megastructure of brutalist concrete. Could Resonant get away with changing all three?

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"The world is built": Skyblivion devs call for extra quest-making hands to help overcome the massive mod's "final roadblocks" to release

A couple of months on from pushing to make some vital veteran additions to their team in order to get their massive Oblivion remake mod over the line, Skyblivion's developers are once again appealing for volunteers to aid in overcoming some "final roadblocks" standing the way of its release. Meanwhile, it sounds like the chances of another statistical breakdown from the modders running down exactly what's left to be done are low, with Skyblivion's implementation lead asserting that the mod's so close to the finish line such data's no longer "a super relevant way of displaying our remaining work".

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Many live service games are just an MMO subscription "hidden inside of a neat 'optional' package", argue Guild Wars 3 devs in a post about the new game's monetisation

Guild Wars 3 developers ArenaNet have published a Hot Take of sorts about the MMORPG genre, while explaining in broad strokes how their forthcoming "modern evolution" will differ from Guild Wars 1, released in 2005, and Guild Wars 2, released in 2012.

As they note, MMOs and gaming at large have changed enormously over the course of the series. Entire business models, storage formats, and subsets of bikini armour have come and gone. In particular, the developers offer some thoughts about how the MMO genre at large has bled into the concept of live service, making the case that a lot of notionally "optional" live service game monetisation consists of talking around the fact that you're effectively demanding a subscription.

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Crusader Kings 3 devs Paradox will make the roaming mercenary lifestyle of playing as a landless adventurer free for everyone later this year

While Crusader Kings 3 typically deals in the fantasy of sitting on a big chair in one place and shouting at underlings, roaming its world as a the unlanded leader of a band of travelling adventurers is just as fun and arguably the best way to kick off a custom dynasty. Up to now, the freedom to pursue the life of a ruthless mercenary, valiant knight, or stuffy bureaucrat surviving off of favours for rulers while searching for the ideal title or throne to claim as their own once they're ready has been locked behind 2024's Roads to Power expansion. Thankfully, Paradox plan to whisk it out from behind that curtain and make it a free part of the base game later this year.

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