In an interview with Gamespot, Spencer talks about working with studios in Japan and Elden Ring is brought up. He can’t say much about it, but he sounds quite impressed after playing “quite a bit” of it. “As somebody who’s played all of Miyazaki’s games, over at least the last decade, this is clearly the most ambitious game that he’s done,” he says. “I love his games, but seeing some of the gameplay mechanics stuff that he’s tackling, he and the team are tackling this time, of the setting, working with another creator in terms of story....

Elden Ring is a terrible platformer. It’s stiff and awkward and less gymnast, more Gimli on the Buckfast. But this is what makes its platforming sections good. They force you to embrace your limited toolset and channel your amateur longjumping, golfing, and climbing skills you definitely don’t have. Souls games have always had the odd platforming section. And by “platforming section”, I mean moving from A to B where A) is a ledge and B) is all the chuffing way down there....

Every Site of Grace location in Elden Ring Roundtable Hold Limgrave Site of Grace locations Stormhill Stranded Graveyard Weeping Peninsula Stormveil Castle Liurnia of the Lakes Bellum Highway Ruin-Strewn Precipice Moonlight Altar Academy of Raya Lucaria Altus Plateau Mt. Gelmir Volcano Manor Leyndell, Royal Capital Subterranean Shunning Grounds Leyndell, Ashen Capital Caelid Swamp of Aeonia Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow Forbidden Lands Mountaintops of the Giants Flame Peak Consecrated Snowfield Miquella’s Haligtree Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree Ainsel River Ainsel River Main Lake of Rot Nokron, Eternal City Siofra River Moghwyn Palace Deeproot Depths Crumbling Farum Azula That is every single Site of Grace in Elden Ring!...

I mean, obviously don’t watch it if you don’t want spoilers. I respect not wanting to know what’s coming in a game like this. That’s the latest record from Souls speedrunner “Distortion2”. It’s an Any% speedrun so they’re not killing everything, obvs, just doing the bare minimum to reach an ending. And yes, the timer is paused during load screens. But it’s ridiculous. And it’s ridiculous the pace at which runs are improving as players learn the game and discover new ways to cut times....

The trailer below shows a breezy and silly supervillain sim where you’ll scoop rooms out of mountains, train minions, and turn science on its head. The goal, as the title boldly claims, is world domination. As daft as it is, there does seem to be complex bases to create. Hollowed out islands thrumming with generators, crawling with henchmen and evil sushi chefs. Being an EG seems like a tough, all-consuming job from the look of it, and you have to deal with the do-gooders trying to make you pay for your crimes....

The trailer was released alongside details of the game’s photo mode and post-launch update plans. First, here’s the trailer: I hadn’t been paying Evil Genius 2 much notice, personally. I’ve no nostalgia for the original, because it seemed at the time like an off-brand Dungeon Keeper clone, but this video made me want to play this revival. Well done, video. After the game’s release on March 30th, developers Rebellion will turn towards paid and free post-launch updates....

But don’t go in expecting the sort of huge, arcing plotlines of BioWare’s recent games. While Nightingale will have an over-arching narrative, it’s being designed to offer up adventures that let you make your own stories. I spoke to Flynn at the end of last year to find out a little bit more about what that entails. “Our goal here is to put players in these magical spaces with lots of opportunity to interact with the world, let them build communities and let them discover things through the course of their gameplay, and their adventuring, together,” he tells me....

The powerful memetic qualities of bathtub Geralt, originating from the opening cutscene of The Witcher 3, meant that a single screenshot ended up being referenced in episode five of the Netflix adaptation. But which bath is best? One must be, right? There must be a fair way that we can pit the two against one another, resulting in an ultimate champion. Well, at RPS we take baths and needless competition very seriously, so have come up with an exclusive and definitive rating for both bathtub Geralts....

If this concept sounds as incredible to you as it does to many of us in the RPS treehouse, then you can sign up for an upcoming closed network test here. Entry is open until the 30th of June, and to avoid disappointment make sure you take note of the entry requirements. In fairness this does not seem to be an extinction event, just a company that designs combat exosuits getting a clearly malevolent AI to test them on a remote island....

Phantom Abyss is an asynchronous multiplayer game which throws players into generated temples, then challenges them to sprint past spikes, pits and guardians to claim priceless relics before other adventurers get there first. It also gives you a whip, so it’s the full Indiana Jones experience - but, like, Indiana Jones meets Trackmania or Fall Guys. Buying Phantom Abyss today would cost £15.59/$20/€18.29 via Steam, but it’s available at no extra cost to RPS premium supporters....

As a result, Fae Tactics taps into a very specific brand of tactical role-playing, and it does loads of interesting things that I’m very much on board with. Sadly, it’s also one that I don’t have a lot patience for. It’s not just that its fights are a little too long and maybe a touch too repetitive for my tastes. It’s also because I’ve tripped over so many rules during my time with it that I feel like I’m being asked to perform ballet in the toy-strewn debris of a toddler’s bedroom....

“In season 2 you’ll be dressing your Fall Guy as a medieval hero and competing across brand new rounds inspired by epic quests from the middle ages,” lead designer Joe Walsh explains. “Traverse giant drawbridges, dodge swinging axes, and scale moveable siege ramps in the quest for ultimate game show glory.” The levels with bits of scenery you can shove around do look like they could be great/infuriating. With developers Mediatonic working on blocking cheaters, all Fall Guys really needs beyond that is a steady stream of new levels....

Summer kicks off with a system based around acquiring “S.C.O.R.E.” points by joining public events, levelling up, and doing certain in-game activities - essentially mini-achievements. These will unlock goodies for your player camp, or unique outfits, cosmetics, in-game cash, or a handful of other trinkets. Here’s my suggestion: have a “season” about fixing the controls. Later seasons promise to overhaul combat and rewards, with a focus on cooperative play and scaling to player levels, although the details of that aren’t yet out....

Today: time-twisting action RPG Fates Of Ort, which is available from Itch, GOG and Steam for £11.39/€12.49/$15. Everything is frozen in time until you move, swing a sword, or cast a spell, replacing the usual reflex-based clickfest with a measured pace. Combined with its intriguing magic system, it lets you combine conditions and spell effects without becoming a test of how many button sequences you’ve memorised. There’s even a hint of bullet hell, an experience I evidently enjoy more (ie: at all) when I can pause, and a tiny pinch of Dark Souls in its respawning/healing system....

You can watch the trailer in full below if you haven’t seen it already, but I think you’ll probably agree that it’s got big Final Fantasy 15 energy. The pieces of FF15’s royal road trip/stag do/saving the world adventure might not fit together in exactly the same way in this four minute slice of FF16 goodness, but there’s clearly a lot of shared DNA here, and that’s very exciting to me....

Apart from its 20th anniversary making me feel intensely old and decrepit, though, it also means that it’s been two whole decades since the birth of that laughing scene. You know the one. Tidus’ forced and slightly crazed “HA, HA, HA, HA, HAAAAAAA” has been engraved into my subconscious ever since I first clapped ears on it, and it’s probably one of the most (in)famous moments of the entire game....

(And yes I know that Sister Location and FNAF VR don’t lock you into the camera thing, but they still didn’t let you just run around all willy-nilly.) Security Breach is a first-person survival horror where you play as a kid named Gregory. He’s stuck inside a Pizzaplex (lol) and needs to survive until morning while uncovering the truth about the freaky animatronics who’re programmed to hunt down intruders. Interestingly, he’ll be helped by Freddy himself, who’s been a main deathbot in most of the other games....

Another year, another sequel: the same basic game with a few changes and new features. This year, these include gestures for when you talk, AI improvements, more stats to scrutinise, and an end-of-season presentation to revel in your successes. The devs got a fan to explain more in a video: As for the Covid-19 pandemic, Sports Interactive are a little more hesitant than when they added Brexit a few years back....

Fortnite has added loads of weird and wonderful skins over the last few years, yet I still find this one a bit stranger than the rest. Like, they’ve added football kits, loads of Disney crossovers, and even a peeled banana that has bones and not delicious banana fruit underneath. By comparison, adding an explorer-looking person like this is pretty tame. But, I think it’s odd partially because this Windwalker comes from a tech demo that I’d all but forgotten about....

So, there’s loads of Marvel stuff littered around the island now, like the Helicarrier, and even Doctor Doom’s house. If you go there and beat up Doctor Doom himself you’ll be able to use his special Arcane Gauntlets to zap buildings and other players. Other powers you’ll be able to use include Groot’s Bramble Shield and the Silver Surfer’s Board, with more arriving later in the season, too. These don’t come with the skins for the characters, mind you, they’re separate powerups that can be found in games....