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Rock Paper Shotgun

Rock Paper Shotgun

Primary focus: Gaming

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Latest coverage from Rock Paper Shotgun
Laid off Bethesda Montreal staff allegedly told they'd get "smallest severance legally possible" the same day as those Fallout announcements

Laid off Bethesda Montreal staff allegedly told they'd get "smallest severance legally possible" the same day as those Fallout announcements

Last week, in the wake of yet another round of mass layoffs across the company, Xbox announced that Fallout 5 is in preproduction, Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters are coming, and that Obsidian are working on a new Fallout project. If you were to ignore the 1600 staffers laid off and the ongoing call for a boycott due to Microsoft providing AI tech to the Israeli military as it continues to bombard Gaza and kill Palestinians, this would possibly be welcome news. But to make matters worse, OneBGS, the Bethesda Game Studios Union, have claimed that on the same day this was announced, laid off workers at Bethesda Montreal were informed that they would receive the smallest severance legally possible without bargaining with the union. Read more

1 hour ago
The Video Game History Foundation's latest collection is a deep dive into E3 "like you've never seen it before"

The Video Game History Foundation's latest collection is a deep dive into E3 "like you've never seen it before"

Ah, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known by many as Summer Game Fes-, wait, sorry, guess I've already moved on! Better known as E3, of course, the first of its kind showcase dedicated entirely to video games that died because it simply couldn't figure out how to live in the modern world (they probably should have asked Geoff). The whole thing ended with much more of a whimper than a bang, but once upon a time it was the place to have your game. And now, the Video Game History Foundation have revealed a new collection all about the event like you've never seen it before, covering many years worth of a range of materials. Read more

1 hour ago
Forgo visiting the real thing this summer and build the waterpark of your dreams in Aquapark Tycoon, now out in early access

Forgo visiting the real thing this summer and build the waterpark of your dreams in Aquapark Tycoon, now out in early access

Waterparks have always felt like quite a strange concept to me in that the UK is small enough that you can just take a quick train ride and be at a beach within an hour or so, give or take. We do have them here, I've just had no reason to go one, and also the idea of having to be rescued from the inside of a slide due to getting stuck for one reason or another is a (I think rational) fear I've had since discovering them. Therefore, I'll take a pass on actually visiting one, but I won't say no to building my own in Aquapark Tycoon, a waterpark sim game that's out in early access today. Read more

2 hours ago

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"The goal is to provide what we can": Elder Scrolls Online Crown Store undergoing changes due to "team bandwidth" in wake of Xbox layoffs

"The goal is to provide what we can": Elder Scrolls Online Crown Store undergoing changes due to "team bandwidth" in wake of Xbox layoffs

Following Microsoft's mass layoffs, The Elder Scrolls Online has ended up in a transitional period while remaining staff work to forge a path forwards. If you want evidence of effects the cuts are already starting to have on the MMO, look no further than its Crown Store. Read more

3 hours ago
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced modders make Blackbeard playable, but here's a syringe-shaped reason to avoid historically accurate pirate roleplay

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced modders make Blackbeard playable, but here's a syringe-shaped reason to avoid historically accurate pirate roleplay

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced's an idyllic pirate adventure, especially given it trains its eye firmly on Edward Kenway's quest for booty. Naturally, Kenway hangs out with a bunch of real pirates from history throughout his time on the high seas, including the most famous one, Blackbeard. There's now a mod that'll let you play as the bearded buccaneer in Black Flag Resynced. So, here I am to point out a grisly reason you might not fancy getting too into roleplaying as Mr Edward Teach (or Mr Edward Thatch, depending on which accounts you believe). Read more

4 hours ago
Dear Frosthaven boardgame players complaining the PC tactics RPG adaptation is bugged: the devs say it's likely you've "played it wrong"

Dear Frosthaven boardgame players complaining the PC tactics RPG adaptation is bugged: the devs say it's likely you've "played it wrong"

Frosthaven, and Gloomhaven before it, are complex turn-based tactical boardgames. Filled with cards, plastic figurines, a dense rulebook, and a denser tome filled with scenario descriptions and special conditions, Frosthaven's box comes to a weighty 36Ibs, or, in old money, 5Ibs heavier than the Lego Titanic. One of the perks of the digital adaptations is that you don't need to lug around the equivalent of a four-year-old child to go play at being an RPG adventurer in a frozen wasteland with your mates, you can just boot it up and all hop into a multiplayer server together. Turns, too, play out faster, as you don't need to calculate all the enemy actions and slide their little plastic figurines to their new spots on the board. The digital adaptations reduce this down to a few neatly animated seconds of action. Though, that doesn't mean the rules themselves are any less simple. Nic (RPS in peace) spent a good chunk of his glowing Gloomhaven review just breaking down everything you need to do in a turn. So, understandably, Frosthaven can be difficult for new players to pick up. However, it's actually the boardgame players trying out Snapshot Games' digital adaptation that are causing more of an issue. Read more

5 hours ago
"It started to feel like there wasn't any stealth": 007 First Light had to pull Bond's punches to protect IO Interactive's specialty sneaking

"It started to feel like there wasn't any stealth": 007 First Light had to pull Bond's punches to protect IO Interactive's specialty sneaking

While it’s not a series of truly Hitman-scale murder sandboxes, 007 First Light does make good on its promise of enabling multiple Bond, James Bonding disciplines: shooting, sneaking, punching, and my personal favourite, getting immediately discovered then bullshitting something about being a door technician for supervillain lairs. But, were it not for some rejigging work on IO Interactive’s part, First Light might well have ended up with an undue preference for the brawling, bloody, Daniel-Craig-in-a-bathroom approach. That’s according to senior combat designer Tom Marcham, whom I briefly interrogated at a taping of the UKIE’s For One Night Only showcase. Marcham says that although there “was always the idea that [First Light] was going to be this kind of flexible blend” of secret agent styles, in the crucible of active development, the strength of straight up henchman-punching repeatedly threatened to wallop the stealth and social aspects into irrelevance. Read more

7 hours ago•
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Playing the riff from Smoke on the Water on a cat piano may be possible in composer sim Offbeat, if you've got more musical talent than me

Playing the riff from Smoke on the Water on a cat piano may be possible in composer sim Offbeat, if you've got more musical talent than me

Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh, de-duh. Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh. That's how the riff to Deep Purple's tune about a fire burning down a Swiss casino goes. As with any riff, it's just a sequence of inputs you make on your instrument of choice. Usually, this would be a guitar. I've been trying to use the cat piano and singing gnome of jobbing composer sim Offbeat, which is out in early access today, July 22nd. Sadly, I don't think I've cracked it, but I have been having plenty of fun making funky jingles and wedding tunes. Read more

7 hours ago
Baldur's Gate series overlords Hasbro take $56 million hit after cancelling several games due out in "2028 and beyond", with Exodus and Warlock unaffected

Baldur's Gate series overlords Hasbro take $56 million hit after cancelling several games due out in "2028 and beyond", with Exodus and Warlock unaffected

Hasbro, parent company of Baldur's Gate IP holders Wizards of the Coast and backer of Exodus developers Archetype Entertainment, have announced a 56 million impairment as part of their latest financial results. This recording of assets decreasing in value compared to their theoretical worth is tied to the company having cancelled several games scheduled for release in 2028 and beyond. That leaves Hasbro's games lineup thinner going forwards, but with releases targeting 2027, like Exodus and Warlock: Dungeons Dragons, still on the way. Read more

9 hours ago•
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Scarlet Deer Inn, out today, is a Slavic folk tale platformer with a dark underbelly where every sprite is physically embroidered

Scarlet Deer Inn, out today, is a Slavic folk tale platformer with a dark underbelly where every sprite is physically embroidered

Occasionally I will see a game that opts for an artstyle so complex and involved that will clearly take years to make, leaving me with an unbridled fear of the gamey part being not very good. I'm talking about games like Harold Halibut, where the entire thing is stop-motion. Do you know how long stop-motion takes! A while, I've heard. I feel similarly about Scarlet Deer Inn, a Slavic-folklore inspired platformer where every single sprite is made from embroidery that's out today. Read more

21 hours ago
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