Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks enters 1.0 next week with a catch for those that didn't play in early access

It's been a little under a year since the vehicular combat racing game Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks launched into early access, and yesterday developer Caged Element Inc. announced that it'll be receiving its 1.0 launch next week, May 22nd. There are a couple notable changes that come with this launch though. For starters, Wired Productions are taking over from Plaion on publishing duties. As the devs explained in a Steam post, the reason this matters to you is the second change, which is that you'll have to pay for it when it arrives next week. Some of you, anyway.

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Formless Star is a charming creature cataloguing game set on an ever-changing planet

These days, when there's so many games coming out that I feel like an overwhelmed dog with free reign in a butcher's, there's no sweeter sentence to me than "this game will take you no longer than two hours." I know for some people length is everything (don't), but personally I love a short, good time (seriously, leave it out). So the second I saw Formless Star, an eclectic little creature cataloguing game, and read that it was one to two hours long, I was immediately in.

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Even 23 years on, Final Fantasy 11 is still getting updates, with one coming that'll let you change how your character looks

At a time where there is constantly word of this or that game shutting down, even successful ones, it will never fail to surprise me that Final Fantasy 11 is still going. You can't play it on PS2 anymore, but there's still an active community on PC even now. The MMO just celebrated its 23rd anniversary yesterday in fact, with a new update video and letter from the producer Yoji Fujito released to highlight some of the new and upcoming features.

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After a rough reception and evidence of art theft in Marathon, morale is reportedly in "free-fall" at Bungie

Bungie aren't having a very good week are they? First there were those accusations of Marathon using assets without permission from the artist 4ant1r34l (Antireal), which Bungie admitted to taking place. Then yesterday there was a livestream featuring game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joseph Cross which was filled with chat messages about said asset usage for practically the entire stream. Ziegler and Cross did at least address those messages, but with the response to the shooter already being quite mixed thus far, it doesn't amount to much right now.

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Stellar Blade's devs would like you to know you don't need a PSN account on PC as they work on the region lock problem

Earlier this week, it was leaked and then later confirmed that Stellar Blade, that Nier and Bayonetta-esque one with the jiggle physics cranked up to the max, would be coming to PC next month on June 11th. This was obviously welcome news to the kind of people who enjoy that sort of thing (more or less no judgement here). But it quickly became apparent that there was a bit of a caveat: the action game isn't available to pre-order in all regions on Steam.

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What are we all playing this weekend?

I write to you from the heart of an on-going emergency. Somebody or something keeps digging holes in the notionally shared lawn outside my block, and the neighbours who actually own their flats are mounting a witchhunt. It's brilliant! They’ve been taking photos from multiple angles and accusing the local kids. As far as I’m concerned, all this is divine vengeance on the building owner for having somebody mow the grass twice a month. It looks like the Bay Of Tranquility out there. The holes are an improvement. Anyway, here’s what we’re all playing this weekend.

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Here's a demo for Blades Of Fire, the new action-RPG from the Lords Of Shadow team

Blades Of Fire is the latest dark fantasy smackeroo from Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow developers MercurySteam. It takes place in a world where steel is a divine substance passed down to humanity by the mysterious Forgers. Some sinister young queen has, however, cast a spell that turns everybody else’s steel into stone, granting her followers a near-monopoly on all the butt-kicking.

Playing as bleak and burly beardyman Aran “We Have Kratos At Home” de Lira, your job is to chase down that queen, murder her minions, and craft a whole bunch of Darksiders-esque weaponry. Aran is accompanied by Adso, a juvenile sidekick in the vein of Atreus, who catalogues the game’s “over 50” enemy types and can also translate lore written in the ancient Forger language.

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The spirit of Far Cry 2 still burns in Rescue Ops, a sandbox firefighting sim with huge wilderness maps

I have a minor but unwholesome obsession with fire that extends from Far Cry 2's self-propagating blazes through the pyropoetics of Andrea Brady to, most recently, Rescue Ops: Wildfire. In the latter, single and multiplayer firefighting sim, you must save people and battle dynamic blazes on large, countryside maps. Inspired by the increase in wildfires thanks to climate change, it was developed with input from real-life French firefighters, and seems both frantic and strategic. Here's a trailer.

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The Precinct review

I've arrested someone who did not deserve it. The chump was carrying counterfeit jewellry and I lazily slapped on the cuffs without reading my police handbook. I'm about to get that book thrown at me. When I sit at my desk at the end of a shift in cop sim The Precinct, I will get a chunk of XP deducted from my earnings for detaining this dude for a minor infraction. When The Precinct's action ramps up and it transforms into a top-down blaster, it becomes ponderous and clunky, but its quieter moments of police pretending encourage a strict dedication to the role of petty rules enforcer. It's a game of quibbles and quirks, imperfect in many ways, but there's a sense of commitment underneath it all that I can respect. Even if I don't respect the badge itself.

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Labyrinth Of The Demon King might be the perfect PS1-style horror RPG

Labyrinth Of The Demon King is the concentrated awfulness of Silent Hill and Amnesia: The Dark Descent thrown into a toilet bowl with the stamina-based combat of From Software's old King's Field RPGs. Released this week, it is squalid, lumbering, vicious, desperate and untrustworthy.

The setting is "mythical feudal Japan" - a time of devilry, manual savepoints, and dither filters. The story objective is to track down and slay the yokai boss who led your lord into an ambush. I do not greatly rate my chances. Currently, I am exploring a house full of bloated, whispering fungus and screechy little filthbastards with abbreviated limbs. The filthbastards all want to butcher me but they are no less keen to murder each other. As far as they're concerned, I am just another filthbastard among many.

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Bungie used an artist's work without permission in Marathon

An artist has accused Bungie of plagiarising her designs and using them in upcoming first-person shooter Marathon. The artist, who creates futuristic posters under the name Antireal (or "4nt1r34l"), posted images of her own work alongside screenshots from Marathon's recent alpha playtest, showing that some designs have been copied. Bungie have confirmed this is the case, but lay the blame on one former artist at the studio.

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GTA 6 release won't be delayed again now that it has a "specific date", assures Take-Two boss

Take-Two Interactive's CEO Strauss Zelnick has served up some dutiful, investor-pleasing sentiments about GTA 6's delay from 2025 release to a 26th May 2026 launch date. Rockstar, he says, are "seeking perfection", and "consumer anticipation is unprecedented". As such, "affording Rockstar additional time for such a groundbreaking project is a worthy investment".

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Legacy Of Kain with parkour? Sure, go on then

Not actually a stealth FPS hybrid of Blood and Thief - although I'd pay good money for that - Bloodthief is closer to something like Ghostrunner but also, I think, much better. The Steam demo's opening levels are roughly as tricky and demanding as the cyberpunk parkour series but, perhaps to due to less concern with being stylish, the movement here feels a lot more caffeinated. You only have to look at the visuals to clock that Bloodthief isn't that sort of game that's precious about letting you do silly things with momentum.

Also you're a vampire, with a sword, exsanguinating armoured knights in a vaguely Germanic medieval town. Well, Vae my Victus. I do get very excited when anything reminds me, even a little, of Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain. Here's a nice little video of the game in action. Warning: this trailer for the game Bloodthief has blood in it.

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"PlayStation are great" says Arrowhead's CEO, but whatever the Helldivers 2 devs are making next, it's fully self-funded

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios are cooking. I'm not exactly sure what just yet, but there's a faint aroma of a new game in the air, and it doesn't seem like they're ready to share anything about the game right now either. Still, after the runaway success of Helldivers 2, something new from the studio is still an exciting prospect. Interestingly enough though, whatever they're making, it won't have anything to do with PlayStation when it comes to funding.

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Here's a morbid one: Kojima has a USB stick full of ideas for Kojima Productions to use after he dies

That Hideo Kojima is a bit of an odd chap, 'ey? It was only recently he said that he wants to make a game where the protagonist forgets their own abilities if you, the player, take a long break between play sessions. As a reminder this comes from the guy who made a whole game about delivering packages, another game where a character can die of old age if you wait long enough, and another game that knows if you've played Castlevania or not. The guy likes doing things differently!

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The original Stalker trilogy is getting a free upgrade that brings in reworked lighting, full controller support, and more

Fancy a jaunt back into The Zone? GSC Game World released the long awaited Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl last November, steadling improving it after an (understandably) rocky launch. There's been several hefty updates for the sequel released along the way, and it turns out the developer has been even busier than expected. GSC Game World announced Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition today, a revamp of the original three games, Shadow of Chornobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Prypiat, that mostly brings in some visual upgrades.

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Yet another Persona 5 spinoff is launching next month, this time a gacha game with a new group of Phantom Thieves

There's a newish Persona game on the way next month, and it is, of course, yet another Persona 5 spinoff. I'm not sure if another cow in existence has been so thoroughly milked before, but here we are. I call Persona 5: The Phantom X (that's its name, by the way) newish because it's actually been available in China through an ongoing open beta for the last year. Earlier today, Atlus held a pre-recorded livestream confirming that the mobile game is finally coming westward, and that it'll be getting a PC release as well.

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The first look at Kingdom Hearts 4 in three years isn't a trailer, but a JPEG of Mickey Mouse is better than nothing

You know what got announced a little over three years ago now? Kingdom Hearts 4. You know what hasn't had a single new trailer in that time? Ding ding ding! If you said Kingdom Hearts 4, you don't win anything because the direction of this bit was pretty obvious. The game still doesn't have a new trailer, by the way, but the series' official Blue Sky account did oh so generously offer up a handful of screenshots today which do show off some new bits (mostly).

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This roguelite has a brilliant twist on Warhammer Quest's dungeon crawling, and it's out today

Into To The Restless Ruins is a roguelite dungeon crawler where you build the dungeon as you go. I really enjoyed the demo, and the full game is out today. In a show of confidence I always appreciate, the demo is also still available. Launch trailer below. It's got a quote from one of my articles in it, although they opted not to use the phrase "like hailstones battering the word 'bum' into soft cement" for some reason. Perplexing times we live in.

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The medieval dice game you play in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is now a retro Arthurian roguelite

Many are the minigames that threaten to be more entertaining than the games that host them, stealing the player’s attention like those flatworms that absorb snails from the inside. Tetra Master. Gwent. Fishing in any number of RPGs. The flushable sinks in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Or how about Space Harrier, which has only ever existed as an arcade cabinet offering inside Yakuza 0.

Sometimes, these minigames escape the host's body and achieve a standalone eistence. It’s not entirely true to say this of Dicealot, which is based on Farkle, a dice game you may have played inside Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

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