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Folk Emerging describes itself as a turn-based 4X strategy game, but in practice, it's possibly more of a 2.5X strategy game, in that it puts you in charge of a nomadic hunter-gatherer community from before the rise of agriculture and the founding of towns and cities.

As this developer update suggests, it's like the turn or two at the very start of Civilization when you just have one Settler unit, but stretched out across thousands of years, with a social element and rustic spreadsheet aesthetics that remind me of King Of Dragon Pass. It's got somewhat doofy cartoon Stone Age muzak, but is otherwise the most intriguing Civlike strategy game I've laid eyes on since the one that looks like an octopus murder scene - and whadayaknow, by happy coincidence there's a public playtest running from right now till August 18th.

Oh, hello there, Is This Seat Taken? The logic puzzler with a name that's real awkward to stick midway through a sentence has surprise-released today, August 7th, right off the back of an appearance in a Nintendo Indie World showcase.

When we woke up this morning, all we knew was that this game about telling people where to stick their bottoms would be coming out in August - a vague window previously announced during June's Whole Direct. Now, it be here.

Apex Legends launched its Season 26 update this week with the new Wildcard mode, what must be its fourth or fifth attempt at a 'battle royale but faster' sideshow. If anything, Wildcard – with its tightened safe zones, generous respawn allowances and automatic loot pickups – is the most ferocious, cage fightin'est variant yet, its matches routinely playing out as breathless slaughters as crammed-in squads fight, die, and resurrect over a condensed selection of strongholds.

Still, while I’ve enjoyed ApeLegs' previous action-favouring tweaks, something about Wildcard underwhelms. It’s not the shooting, which is as crisp and dynamic as in any other Respawn FPS. And it’s not the simplified gear gobbling, which is fine for a supplementary mode. It’s that at the end of a Wildcard round, even the ones I’ve won, I’ve never felt that I’ve really gone anywhere or done anything except aim down my sights and left-click. In chasing nonstop drama it denies you something that good battle royales, and their progenitors, can so effectively deliver: a journey.

Promise Mascot Agency, Kaizen Game Works' thing about running a business that revolves around costumed weirdos, fairly intense menu shuffling and a lot of driving around, has gotten a free update that adds in a host of new features. The ability to grind along rails like Michi's truck's a skateboard, for instance.

Sure, you can already unlock the ability to fly said truck around the spooky Japanese countryside, but come on, if there's something every management game needs, it's tricks from the X Games.

I am neither a wrestler nor a wrestling fan. I have never attended a cage fight or hit somebody with a folding chair. I have never had a blowoff or no-sold somebody's attempt to lay the smackdown on my randy ass. I cannot smell what the Rock is cooking. I cannot. Nonetheless, I think a Hades-style roguelite built around grappling sounds like a fun time, especially when it's set in a cursed Byzantine citadel. This is Realm Of Fame from Black Cube Games. Can you smell what the trailer is cooking?

Sony remain confident that Bungie's live service shooter reboot Marathon will launch within their current fiscal year - that is, before March 31st 2026 - and are fairly sure they'll be able to share an exact release date this autumn. They've factored it into their financial forecasts, see.

They're also pretty upbeat about their live service business at large, which accounted for around 40% of first-party software revenue in their last financial quarter, though they acknowledge that they screwed the pooch with Concord, which got to exist in public for a whole couple of weeks before Sony kicked it into the sun.

I'm sure Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6 won't be exactly the same game, despite their obvious bullet casing-littered common ground. However, they are opting to mirror each other in one manner - both will require you to enable secure booting on your PC.

As if summoned to do so by EA letting everyone know that this week's BF6 open beta would necessitate a delve in your BIOS to click yes on a thing in the name of eliminating cheating, Activision have revealed Blops is doing the same thing.

A new joint investigation between the Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has claimed that Microsoft have worked with the Israeli military to store surveillance data on Palestinian civilians in Azure servers overseas, with some of that data allegedly being used to research and identify bombing targets. The report has led to renewed calls for game developers and players to join the recently launched Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign against Microsoft and Xbox gaming products and services - in particular, Minecraft, Call Of Duty, Candy Crush, and Game Pass.

If you've tried to hop into the Battlefield 6's open beta's early access period this morning and have ended up sitting a queue behind thousands of other folks in camo gear, then don't panic. Or at least that's what EA say, as their wrenches slam against the game's servers in an attempt to let more people in.

With players stuck twiddling their thumbs in lines that can stick you as far away as 240-something thousandth from the front, the developers have been jolted into action. After all, you don't want to anger the sorts of folks who're up for shooting some blokes on an otherwise chill Thursday morning.

Some dataminers digging into Elden Ring Nightreign's files following the arrival of its Duos update claim to have uncovered some details about an endless mode.

As reported by PC Gamer, said new mode is allegedly called 'Deep of Night', and will see you grouped with similarly skiller nighfarers to fight your way up through the ranks of a new rating system that players reckon could work similarly to Armored Core 6's rankings.

Funnily enough, I went back to Arx Fatalis for a few hours in early 2023. It's still one of those tragic near dead ends, doomed by a lacklustre sales and the later success of Dishonored guaranteeing Arkane would never get a chance to bring it back.

So here's Monomyth. It's unfair to call it Arx Fatalis again, but the influence is undeniable. Here's your Easily Escapable Dungeon cell, complete with friendly neighbour helpfully suggesting you press the conspicuous brick, you dolt. Here are gloomy but not unpleasant caverns with ferns and mushrooms and boring rats. Here's the worry that archery and stealth are poor choices in a series of tunnels. Here's cooking fish by placing them next to an open fire and waiting and yes, yes, yes, here we go!

If you failed to swipe an early access key for this week's Battlefield 6 beta, because you neither signed up via the Battlefield Labs programme before 31st July nor watched Your Favourite Creators play the game during the recent multiplayer reveal, then Don't Sweat It, Soldier, because Drill Sergeant EA Have Your Back in the shape of a last-gasp code giveaway.

Former Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah has posted a sprawling video about the development of Anthem, EA and BioWare's ill-fated mech RPG shoot-me-do. We've heard about this remarkably torrid period in the RPG developer's existence from other ex-BioWare honchos and anonymous sources, but perhaps never quite this extensively: the video tops out at an hour long, and this is just part one.

Look, I know there's an anime fan in a top hat at the top of this tower. I know he'll chuck ninja stars at me if I go up there and disturb him, but that's why I've downed fifteen cups of coffee. I'll just show him this chainsaw and these mail bombs, then we'll get on famously. Oh, come on. I'm the reason this building has water coolers, you know. Fine, I'll wait in the lobby.

Right, is anyone sitting here? Good. You here to see the giant purple mecha-execs that loom over the building too? Ah, you're in for a treat. I've had the pleasure a few times now, after first opting to enter their corporate servitude the other day. They'd already lightninged me off the roof the first time, because I told them to stick their offer up their stick-bottoms. Let's just say it was a persuasive recruitment tactic.

It’s a good month to be subscribed to Humble Choice, and not just because you get eight Steam keys for the price of one lukewarm Deliveroo. August’s headliner is Persona 5 Royal, and honestly, that’s enough on its own.

Valve, perhaps newly wary of financial transactions after being put over a barrel by Steam’s payment processors, have elected to give away a bunch of Dota 2 cosmetics for free – and are employing the kindliest, definitely non-murderiest of fellas to handle the goods. Sharply dressed satyr Quartero was added to Dotes yesterday alongside the 7.39d balance update, and now that he’s stuffed a Witch Doctor bauble into my hands for nothing, I can safely say that the chances of my burgled body being found behind the remains of his hastily abandoned shop are almost zero.

Stardock and Oxide Games have announced Ashes Of The Singularity II - or Ashes Of The Singularity 2, as people who hate unnecessary extra keyboard presses may prefer - sequel to the sci-fi real-time strategy game Brendy called "gorgeous, but plain", adding "there's nothing here that hasn't been done before and done better". The new RTS aims to improve that verdict by introducing: humans. It's a bold strategy, Cotton, but perhaps it'll work out for them.

League of Legends: Wild Rift executive producer David Xu has said Riot "can and will do better," after sharing an anniversary video to the game's account on Chinese social media site Weibo that very much looks to be AI slop.

However, Xu hasn't confirmed that the video did use AI in this sort-of-apology, instead claiming this was a "creator-made" video that'd found its way onto the League of Legends' spin-off's official channels.

I'm not the first journalist to accuse Battlefield 6 of failing to read the room. The new Battlefield's single player story explores a near-future in which NATO has collapsed, a dastardly private military corporation has filled the power vacuum, and the USA's somehow-outgunned military must fight to reunite old allies under the Stars and Stripes. The campaign includes an invasion of New York, with street battles waged against the balaclava-huffing scoundrels of "Pax Armata" in the shadow of Brooklyn Bridge. Many valiant helicopters lay down their lives in the process, and the soul of Bob Dylan is flown from every flagpole.

Update: A Valve spokesperson responded that "Steam has never allowed games with sexual depictions/images of real people". They pointed to item two in the rules and guidelines regarding what should be published on the platform outlined in its onboarding document as the reason Vile: Exhumed was taken down, specifying that this isn't a "new rule".

A spokesperson for DreadXP has reached out with the following response to Valve's statement: "Everything in the game is censored and implied, which is the opposite of ‘explicit’ as pointed out in the guidelines. The content of Vile: Exhumed falls within compliance of this rule referred to by Valve in their statement to RPS, which is why we called the ban as ‘unjust’."

Original story continues below:

Horror game Vile: Exhumed, which sees you delving into a 90s computer to uncover a man's obsession with an adult film actress, has launched as a free download after being "wrongly banned" from Steam over sexual content, according to developer Cara Cadaver of Final Girl Games.

Initially released via Itch.io (where that version remains live), the game was set to to debut on Steam on July 22, but had its page on Valve's platform pulled down. Cadaver and publisher DreadXP say "sexual content with depictions of real people" was the reasoning given for this by Valve, despit the game featuring "no uncensored nudity, no depictions of sex acts, and no pornography".

If you're planning to hop into Battlefield 6's open beta later this week, you might have to do some digging around in your PC's settings in order to get in. EA have elected to make enabling secure boot on your hardware mandatory, as part of an effort to limit cheating.

It's not that surprising a move, given the publishers opted to make it a hard requirement for Battlefield 2042 earlier this year. EA's not alone either, with the likes of Riot having already done the same with fellow online shooter Valorant. You see, the real war isn't about nations, resources, or petty rulers' personal grievances - it's to ensure you don't get sniped by a Terminator with permanent x-ray vision or auto-aim.

Peak developers Aggro Crab have taken issue with an imitation of their game created in 100% non-problematic kiddy funhouse sim Roblox, saying that they'd prefer people pirate their creation than play its predatory WonkoVision double.

Helldivers 2's warp pack sounded like great fun as soon as it was announced as part of last month's Control Group warbond, and it's warped its way into many players' hearts. This is thanks in part to some cool tricks and glitches you can use it to pull off, with the game's latest patch having seen Arrowhead opt to outlaw the cheekiest of these.

You see, for the uninitiated, each mission in the shooter kicks off with you descending onto a planet and therefore ends with you being extracted via shuttle back up to your ship. It's the circle of Helldiver life and it moves us all. Well aside from folks who'd taken to using a well-timed warp to escape their ride home as it took off.

A brace of Silent Hill f reporting has treated us to the first details of the game's combat system. Here are the headlines: counter attacks, weapon degradation and an energy bar that lets you perform power moves and dodge in slow motion. It's apparently reminiscent of Dark Souls in that you have a stamina system and the dodge and counter timing can be tricky - a summary I would say also describes Punch-Out! from 1984, if I wanted to be a snarky little shitlord. There are no guns, just melee weapons that range from scavenged baseball bats to naginata polearms, looted from a spirit world of shrines and masked figures.

A stickfellow in a top hat's just burst through a twentieth story window, taking a fatal tumble down the corporate ladder, and all because I lobbed a parcel at him. This kind of thing happens all the time in Stick It to the Stickman, the roguelite beat ’em up that Anger Foot devs Free Lives are set to release in early access form later this month.

It's glorious enough to forgive any frustration you might have been left with when publishers Devolver Digital announced late last year that the corporate slapfest had been delayed into 2025.

I'd love to say that Bloodgrounds plunged me into a crimson mist, but in practice, this arena tactics RPG with town-building feels as cosy as a pair of soft leather socci on a frosty Saturnalia. The setup: you are a gladiator from a Roman-themed fantasy world, who has recently won his freedom in the arena. How is he celebrating his freedom? By becoming a gladiator manager himself, as he continues his quest for vengeance upon the Emperor who slaughtered his father.

The Stop Destroying Videogames citizens' initiative, the petition asking EU lawmakers to look into the issue of publishers rendering online games unplayable when official support runs its course, hit its deadline at the end of last month looking like it'd amassed more than enough signatures. With that phase over, the Stop Killing Games campaign that's vocally supported efforts like this is left to await the outcomes, whatever they might be.

That's given YouTuber Ross Scott, who's become the loudest voice publicising this worldwide push for action on consumer rights when it comes to these sorts of server shutdowns, a chance to take stock of how things have gone to this point. He's keen to take a break, but will first have to see how things pan out with the multiple irons Stop Killing Games and their adjacent groups have in the fire.

Battlefield 6's open beta kicks off later this week, and EA have now painted a picture of what you can expect maps/modes-wise, as well as in terms of the changes the devs have made based on Battlefield Labs playtest feedback.

Plus, there's a new trailer that features yet more folks in camo running about amid booms. I'm glad to report that no helicopters, at least at a glance, look to have been harmed in the run up to this one.

Imagine Tetris but played in a bottomless ocean shaft, with linked tetronimoes serving to continue your journey down that shaft, providing you keep earning enough points to play them. This is Podvodsk, a free game jam experiment from Loop Hero developers Four Quarters.

Not played Tetris? 1) you bloody liar, and 2) let me frame this differently, then. The idea here is that you're trying to construct a tapering underwater city out of random clumps of building blocks, dangled from the bottom of a miraculously unsinkable surface platform. Each building both costs points and also, earns points based on different scoring criteria, and every time you play a piece, the screen scrolls irreversibly downward.

A group of QA workers at Call Of Duty studio Raven Software have officially signed off on their first union contract with parent company Microsoft and COD publisher Activision-Blizzard, in the run-up to the launch of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7. The contract is the result of years of negotiations, and offers some protection against the treatment of QA workers as disposable staff - hired to quash bugs shortly before release and laid off soon afterwards, with minimal odds of personal development or progression to other roles.