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Dune Imperium is a fabulous strategy game about becoming the biggest spice boy on a sandy planet I presume is called Dune. I love it despite never having read the Dune books or watched the Dune movies, because the digital version taught me everything I needed to know about Barry Harkonnen, Oscar Isaac, the tall guy from Guardians Of The Galaxy, and their insatiable pursuit of space nutmeg. Now the board game's first expansion is headed to the digital version of the game, and it's called Rise Of Ix for reasons I definitely understand. Read more View the full article

With Fallout back on everyone's minds after the success of the new show, the original game's lead developer Tim Cain has been weighing in on different aspects of the series over on his YouTube channel. While Fallout clearly still means a lot to him, Cain didn't seem keen to return to the series when responding to his viewers' frequent queries... Read more.View the full article

Ahead of Zenless Zone Zero's global launch, the developers at Hoyoverse have revealed some brand-new playable agent characters, a new area, story chapters, and other content that will be available in the game. Zenless Zone Zero is the latest action RPG release from Hoyoverse, the developers of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail. Unlike the latter two games, Zenless Zone Zero tackles the urban fantasy sci-fi genre, though it has the same stylish combat as Hoyoverse's other titles and other hack-and-slash action games like ****** May Cry, along with appealing character designs and weapons. View the full article

In the last days before Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree came out, I was preparing myself for disappointment. I loved the base game. Id invested over 200 hours in it, perfecting my Elden Ring sorcery build, and finding as many secrets, dungeons, and optional bosses as I could. I knew absolutely nothing could match the thrill of beating Margit for the first time, or finishing my first catacomb, or discovering my first illusory wall. I knew concessions would be made to Shadow of the Erdtrees map - I knew it'd be smaller and shorter. I knew it'd never live up to the original. View the full article

In all my hours of Skyrim I'm not sure I've ever really sat down at a table for a meal. I usually eat on the go—while running around, riding a horse, or in the middle of the battle with a dragon. What better time to scarf down an entire wheel of cheese then when you're about to be turned to cinders by an ancient flying lizard, right?.. Read more.View the full article

At this point, I’ve now played The First Descendant in three or four different beta iterations, and each time I’ve felt no more or less certain whether this would be something my friends and I would want to play, or just another sci-fi shooter in a sea of similar games vying for our attention. After more than 45 hours sunk into a pre-launch preview build over the past week, I’m only slightly closer to answering that question – but I’m certainly not having a bad time. I’ve got a whole lot left to play, including the all-important endgame, for instance, so as of now I’m still not sure if The First Descendant will be my next looter-shooter fixation, or yet another one that misses the mark. Nexon’s free-to-play third-person multiplayer game plays in the same space as Genshin Impact, complete with cool-looking characters to unlock and countless currencies and materials to grind, all of which can be bypassed by those simply willing to cough up their hard-earned cash. And, like some of its polished contemporaries, there’s a pretty decent game here in spite of a UI that requires a PhD in RPG hogwash to decipher and an irritating monetization model that does crazy things like make you pay real money to increase your inventory capacity or get RNG consumable dye packets just to change the ****** of your gear. Running around with friends while ********* enemies and unleashing interesting supernatural abilities upon alien armies is an undeniably good time (as it is in Destiny, Warframe, and Outriders, to name a few) and the deep RPG mechanics and loot systems are a spreadsheet-loving nerd’s dream. It’s also a fairly pretty game that feels a lot more premium than one might expect from the free-to-play space, despite the occasional framerate dip or ****** (at least in its pre-release state). That said, the free-to-play model is every bit as eyebrow raising as it might sound, the story and dialogue is laughably bad, and much of the campaign is packed with filler that can be a real snooze. I’ve split my dozens of hours dashing around small hub areas completing repetitive chores in between much more substantial missions and boss battles against robotic kaiju called colossuses. Those self-contained missions and boss fights are exactly the kind of thing I hope for in an action-packed cooperative game: Some seriously awesome combat that rivals its peers, interesting enemies to take down, and a loot system that had me regularly trying out the latest shiny ******* I pulled from some shmuck’s corpse. If The First Descendant would just let me mainline that part, we’d be onto something and my mind would be made up. The impressive self-contained missions are kept locked behind dull errands. Unfortunately, so much of it is kept locked behind sections where you complete a series of really dull errands, like defending a piece of tech from waves of ****** assaults, gathering items from fallen baddies to ******** into a collection ******, or just ******** stuff until a miniboss spawns for you to take out. Not even ***** combat can stave off boredom when it has you hanging around for a few minutes while you wait for small groups of enemies to spawn until you’re told that you succeeded, then being directed to the next spot on the map to do it again. These sections account for a pretty big chunk of what you do during the main story, too, seemingly to pad out the adventure so you don’t ***** through the more interesting activities too quickly. Worst of all, there are only a few flavors of these kinds of quests, so you’ll find yourself being asked to repeat them multiple times in between every boss battle or more meaty story mission. While I’ve only played through half of the campaign, so far it’s really not looking great, fam. Absolutely brimming with nonsensical sci-fi babble like “dimensional walls,” “inverted data codes,” and “unleashing Arche,” it’s one of the sillier stories I’ve seen in a while. Most of the dialogue is absolutely atrocious: At one point I burst out laughing when a bad guy menacingly declared, “Qliphoth will engulf Ingris. The roars of the Vulgus will fill this land with *****!” In another section I shook my head as an antagonistic character named Jeremy (a grown man with the voice of a whiney, spoiled teenage brat), showed up to be the most annoying person in the world and was mean to me for no reason while I ran quests for him. It’s truly heinous stuff, but some of it is so bad it’s pretty amusing – I eventually found myself looking forward to cutscenes, eager for the next hit of sci-fi gibberish and butchered voice performances. (On top of the absurdity, the English voices rarely come close to matching the lips of the characters speaking. That’s fine if you enjoy watching anime dubs, but I find it pretty distracting.) Thankfully, the most interesting characters are those you can unlock and play as, like the unflappable electric speedster Bunny (my personal favorite), or the sarcastic and smarmy grenade-chucking soldier Lepic. Some of the cast do still seem a bit shallow, largely because you get only a little backstory and character development for most of them, but hearing them cheer as you blast monsters to bits and seeing their charming animations – which clearly had much more effort put into them than those of the NPCs – is quite nice. Only one of these playable characters has an actual questline associated with them (with more planned for the future), but the bits of that story I played were some of the better content available in The First Descendant at launch, so here’s hoping they at least deliver on that front. Actually learning to play as them is great too, although I still have plenty more characters to unlock before I’m able to take them all for a spin. One character might control the battlefield with explosive AoE attacks, while another covers enemies in devastating ice-based debuffs. Bunny does insane DPS by running around as much as possible to generate electrical energy, then unleashes it in powerful blasts. Since each of the characters has their own style of play, switching between them offers a markedly different experience, like how Ajax, a heavy tank with protective abilities is all about standing your ground instead. Most games with playable characters as its main chase live or **** by how compelling those unlockable avatars are, and so far The First Descendent seems like it’s loaded with distinctive options that are absolutely worth going through the trouble to obtain. Similarly, the weapons, equipment, and upgrades you earn while shotgunning your way through levels are awesome. Loot drops constantly, most weapons feel distinct and satisfying to play with, and watching the numbers go up as you modify and upgrade every new toy in your arsenal makes The First Descendant hard to put down… until it forces you into about 15 separate menus to juggle dozens of materials and so many different systems that you might want to keep your inhaler at the ready. This kind of thing is pretty typical for looter-shooters, granted, but even by the already gag-inducing standards of the genre, this one’s especially obnoxious to learn – especially since the tutorial ****** who shows you the ropes in the social area explains things to you in a series of texts that pass by quickly enough to challenge your speed-reading skills. Even after spending dozens of hours with this pre-launch preview build, I’ve got plenty more to play and an endgame to ***** into once it launches properly next week. Check back in the coming weeks for my final, scored review. View the full article

Albion Online is a game that has a huge following across the world but largely manages to stay off the radar. The free-to-play MMO continues to grow and evolve, with several years of updates behind it and a promised long future ahead. The next big update has just been unveiled via a developer diary video, and it's chock-full of quality of life tweaks and more. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Massive free Steam MMO finally goes global after seven years Huge Steam MMO is finally playable, beta coming soon Albion Online trailer features new "classless combat system" for beta next week View the full article

Westerns have always been my least favorite genre of film, that is until I watched a few of the real classics and found my opinion beginning to change. Similarly, I didn't care for farming games, until I played Stardew Valley and once again I was proved wrong. So the upcoming Cattle Country, a Western themed farming sim where you play as a cowboy, brings me a surprising amount of glee. Read the rest of the story... View the full article

There will be moments in Phasmophobia when you’ll need help from teammates. Though you should be able to talk to them through the game’s voice chat in most cases, there have been instances where Phasmophobia’s chat feature wouldn’t work for players. You may think this error might have something to do with your microphone not working properly. While that was also my first thought, I quickly found out that my microphone would work on any other game or application other than Phasmophobia. View the full article

A Stardew Valley player recently lost some of their most valuable items in the game, including the Infinity Blade, the Galaxy Hammer, and the Iridium Needle. The player took to social media to vent their frustration, and the Stardew Valley community quickly rallied to offer support and potential solutions. View the full article

Final Fantasy XIV gives you various options for modifying your character’s appearance. For those on the hunt for new haircuts, the It Takes Two hairstyle has become available for those who own the Dawntrail expansion. The real trick is tracking it down to try and find it. Regarding finding content, the FFXIV team are experts at giving you things to do. As you might imagine, the It Takes Two hairstyle is not a standard drop; you must go out of your way to find it. For those who want a new look for their character, it’s a must-have item. It might even be the perfect choice for a future glamour and appearance you want to mash together. View the full article

The ***** Knight's Greatsword in Elden Ring is a flaming Colossal ******* that is not only quite fun to use but can also be lethal. It is a ******* that can be fairly easy to get your hands on compared to others in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and can easily be your main ******* if you choose. Players who want to wave a flaming sword ******* than they are should definitely consider this as a prime option for their build if they can. View the full article

Shadow of the Erdtree has introduced us to several different ****** types. Some of them are familiar, others are new, but there’s no doubt they’re all challenging. One of the strongest enemies you’ll face in the DLC holds a useful item, the Furnace Visage. How to obtain the Furnace Visage in Elden Ring Approach these bad boys with care. Screenshot by Dot Esports The Furnace Visage is a unique item dropped only by a certain ****** in Shadow of the Erdtree upon their defeat. As you wander the Land of Shadows, you’ll notice these hulking flaming golems that roam the land. These beasts are called Furnace Golems and defeating them is no easy task. They have some of the highest health pools in the game. View the full article

It's said that every time Deus Ex is mentioned, someone reinstalls it. If that's true and you read RPS, it's possible you've reinstalled Deus Ex around six hundred times by now. That's where the comprehensive Randomizer mod comes in, which remixes the immersive sim's levels to make the experience fresh every time. It's also just received a major update which, among several other additions, lets you **** the game's dogs and cats. Read more View the full article

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth makes a number of tweaks to the original story and characters, and Tifa in particular receives some new attention that could set up a fresh approach to her character arc in FF7 Remake Part 3. As a powerful fighter, a key member of the Avalanche splinter cell, and a principal love interest for Cloud, Tifa has always had a major slice of the spotlight. The story of FF7 has a lot of ground to cover, however, and the original game didn't necessarily have time to dwell on all of her nuances or relationships with other characters. View the full article

The Sims 4 is continuing its efforts to represent all the worst parts of modern living. The last expansion added predatory landlords and mould-soaked apartments. The next expansion will add the ability to create dating app profiles for your sims. It's called Lovestruck and it'll launch on July 25th. Read more View the full article

With the recent Jinhsi banner coming to Wuthering Waves, several four-star Resonators also have enhanced odds to appear on your pulls, giving you a healthy chance to obtain other characters and embrace new playstyles. Danjin is a robust four-star Havoc Element Resonator in Wuthering Waves, who has one of the most underrated kits in the game. Even though players often go for five-star Resonators, Danjin cements her place distinctly in the meta as one of the most potent four-star DPS options. Her unique high-risk, high-reward playstyle allows players with a high skill ceiling to thrive against dangerous foes. View the full article

The latest addition to Hitman's roster of Elusive Targets is a notorious figure indeed: He's called The Disruptor, but you might know him better as multi-time MMA champion Conor McGregor... Read more.View the full article

There are numerous quests in Shadow of the Erdtree, most of which are cryptic and difficult to follow. Locking yourself out of their progress is also an issue for many players, so here are all quests in the Elden Ring DLC and how to avoid missing them. Quests in Shadow of the Erdtree, listed Many of the quests in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree are intertwined and tied to a single event in the game that cannot be done before said quests are progressed far enough. Performing this deed will lock you out of them, and you’ll have to go to NG+ to give them another try. View the full article

Team Fortress 2's received its first major update in yonks last year, and then the nearly 17-year-old game promptly broke its concurrent player record. Still, talk to one of those players and you'll find all is not well with Valve's shooter, which is apparently regularly overrun by bots and cheaters. Some players are now reporting "a large ban wave" targeting users of aimbots, however. Read more View the full article

Fans of the heart events in Stardew Valley have a few different options to see them without having to fully romance the characters. Each Bachelor and Bachelorette have special events that happen only after a certain heart level is reached, and these are locked behind giving that character a bouquet and then the Mermaid's Pendant. Some players have no issues marrying and divorcing each of the characters, or even giving them all bouquets to cause drama in Pelican Town, but other plays just want to farm without commitment, and this is where mods come in. View the full article

Aether Currents are an exceptionally useful resource while playing Final Fantasy XIV. These allow you to unlock flying mounts for any you ride on your character, and there are several for you to find while exploring the Kozama’uka region for the Dawntrail expansion. The Kozama’uka area is not the first region you visit. But it’s one of the first locations you can fully explore shortly after you complete the Ihuykatumu dungeon. From here, the other Aether Current locations for the starting areas of the FFXIV Dawntrail expansion begin to appear, giving you access to flying mounts for the rest of the game. View the full article

Speculations have arisen that Valve has silently issued a massive ban wave against bots in its popular shooter, Team Fortress 2. While not confirmed by the company, one notable creator claims the Seattle-based developer culled nearly 20,000 bots in a single night, effectively wiping clean their presence in Casual matches. A well-known Team Fortress 2 YouTuber shounic posted a video on June 27 claiming “all the bots got banned.” He said that on the evening of June 25, at least 16,000 bots were silently plucked from the game by Valve. The company hasn’t said a word regarding any ban waves or **** targeting, leaving the situation completely ambiguous, which is in line with the developer’s MO. Shounic further added that he explored the Casual game mode, where bots were mostly present, saying he found only a single **** after dozens of matches. View the full article

Deus Ex's Randomizer Mod has always been more than just a randomizer: its QoL features, mod compatibility, and customization options make it a one-stop shop for keeping Ion Storm's classic fresh. The Randomizer's 3.0 update, released just ahead of Deus Ex's 24th birthday, has even more features that will appeal to anyone, not just challenge runners... Read more.View the full article

Game of the Year winner Baldur's Gate 3 is now available on Steam at its lowest price ever, $47.99. As part of the Steam Summer *****, Baldur's Gate 3 is offered at a 20% discount, available until July 11. View the full article