Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.
Well, this is cool. You can now download Unreal Tournament 2004 for free and with a patch that ensures it'll run smoothly on modern hardware. This is all thanks to a fan community called OldUnreal, who've made it their mission to keep Epic's classic shooters alive, even going as far as getting the Fortnite publishers' permission to do so.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.
The former developers of Little Nightmares are now working on a game that merges twin stick Shooters with Metroidvanias.
The post Former Little Nightmares Devs Talk Upcoming Twin-Stick Metroidvania Game appeared first on Insider Gaming.
After several rounds of initial testing, Epic has opened the door to "in-island transactions" in Fortnite, giving developers a way to sell items in their maps and experiences for V-Bucks. You'll want to be careful what you buy, however, because anything you get is limited to the island where you purchase it, and you typically won't be able to get a refund if the game in question goes away.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Fortnite now lets you buy in-island items directly from creators, but be careful if you do
It was only a matter of time before Fortnite and South Park came together. Epic's free-to-play battle royale game has already teamed up with The Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, and plenty more, and now it's finally the turn of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, and friends. What's got me most hyped for the new Fortnite update, however, is the introduction of the long-rumored Quints playlist, which will finally allow us to team up in five-player squads.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: You'll need more friends than ever for the new South Park Fortnite event, and it's going to be chaos
You know what South Park feels like to me? It feels like randomly waking up in the middle of the night, looking around your bedroom as you think "cripes, it's still not morning yet?" A feeling of waiting for the inevitable, the end, or the beginning. Not so much the contents of the show, none of that needs all that much thought, more so its very existence, which is now apparently transplanting itself into Fortnite.
Fortnite's latest skin-shedding has seen the battle royale take on a more Hollywood-ish guise, with the new Pacific Break map parodying the American west coast. Epic have also taken the chance to add in self-revive items you can use to bring yourself back from the brink and an option which makes building simpler.
Meanwhile, the update's rollout has seen one of the artists who created some graffiti of Back to the Future protagonist Marty McFly have to produce video evidence that their art wasn't generated by flinging a prompt at AI amid allegations from fans, which follow Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calling for game storefronts to do away with AI disclosures.
Fortnite Chapter 7 launched with a bang this weekend, following a strong Simpsons-themed season with a surprising Tarantino crossover and sci-fi legend Marty McFly. However, the news isn't all good. As you wander Classified Canyon and Battlewood Boulevard in search of one of the new driveable Reboot Vans, you may see in-game adverts that have a whiff of generative AI about them. While Epic hasn't confirmed it used the contentious technology when creating these ads, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney's recent comments about AI disclosures might suggest the company isn't averse to its use.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Fortnite Chapter 7 launches with apparent "AI slop," days after Epic CEO Tim Sweeney suggested Steam should bin AI disclosures
"It's been 3,000 years..." is an iconic gif I hope has been posted in response to the official announcement that a stack of fan-favorite Fortnite skins have returned after years on the bench. Having missed the chance to make their mark in the brightly-colored recreation of Springfield in one of the best battle royale games of the lot, you can, at the very least, have Jinx and Vi, the problematic Piltover personas from Arcane, bring their chaotic energy back to Fortnite around Hawkins, Indiana, where there are stranger things afoot than Homer Simpson drunkenly pottering around in his underwear.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: After four years, two of the most requested Fortnite skins are finally back on the menu, but fans are screaming for more
Santa Ragione's horror game, Horses, getting banned on Steam with only vague reasons to back up its ban was an additional tally on the year for Valve getting mixed up in controversy regarding what it allows and what it doesn't allow on Steam. Epic Games Store, seemingly, felt out of the loop, so it decided to join the fray by also disallowing Horses to release on its digital storefront, even though it was previously slated to arrive alongside launches at GOG, Humble, and Itch.io today, December 2, 2025. The difference, however, is typical of the difference between Epic Games Store […]
Read full article at https://wccftech.com/santa-ragione-horses-banned-from-epic-games-store-at-last-minute-steam-ban/
Earlier today, Humble followed in the hoofprints of Steam and Epic by yanking bafflingly controversial art game Horses from its digital shelves – in this case after the storefront had already made it available for purchase. Now, mere hours later, Humble has relisted Horses.
IGN’s Rebekah Valentine broke the news, which was immediately met with a collective “Huh.” Aftermath reached out to Humble for more information but did not receive a reply as of this publishing.
Speaking to Aftermath, Santa Ragione co-founder and director Pietro Righi Riva said that Humble temporarily pulled Horses to reevaluate it, but found no reason to set that decision in stone.
"In short, their team saw the press coverage and temporarily delisted Horses to reevaluate it," Riva said. "After a full review they determined that while the content is heavy, nothing in the game warrants removal from their store."
"We are grateful to Humble for having reconsidered and for taking the time to check out the game, although I wish they had informed us that this process was ongoing!" he added. "We are happy that it has been resolved with the game being back on the store, and we wish Steam and Epic would also reconsider their stance based on the actual game contents."
Horses, which contains censored nudity and adult themes like sexual assault and slavery, remains banned on Steam and Epic. This despite the fact that it is far tamer than many widely distributed films and on level even with some popular games. Santa Ragione, the award-winning indie studio behind Horses, has categorized this sudden lack of access to PC gaming’s largest consumer bases as an existential threat and railed against what it describes as “preemptive censorship.”
Meanwhile, let’s have a quick look at what else Steam is stocking these days (warning: NSFW). Phew, no double standards here.
Horses can be purchased on Itch, GOG, and now, once again, Humble.
AftermathNicole CarpenterSanta Ragione's Horses, the unsettling horror game in which horses are naked human slaves wearing horse masks, won't be released on the Epic Games Store after all. Horses was previously banned from release on Valve Software's Steam platform, too. Publisher Santa Ragione, which released survival horror game Saturnalia in 2022, announced on Monday that Epic Games alerted the company just 24 hours ahead of its release that the game wouldn't be published on Tuesday.
Epic Games told Santa Ragione that Horses violates its content guidelines—"specifically the ‘Inappropriate Content’ and ‘Hateful or Abusive Content’ policies," according to a reprint of the message published on the Horses website. Epic Games communications director Jake Jones confirmed that the platform "found violations of those guidelines during our extensive review," and pointed Aftermath towards the correspondence published on the Horses website. Santa Ragione "immediately" appealed the decision, it said, but that appeal was rejected.
Epic Games specifically said it prohibits content that “contains explicit or frequent depictions of sexual behavior or not appropriately labeled, rated, or age-gated" and "promotes abuse and animal abuse." Santa Ragione denies that Horses includes these things.
Horses is described on its GOG storefront as a "first-person game with live-action sequences." It takes place over the span of fourteen days in-game and will test a player's "obedience, complicity, and restraint" as they play as a college student working on a weird-as-fuck farm. Horses is currently listed on GOG's recent best-selling games page, after only S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Prypiat's enhanced edition.
Horses has a pretty lengthy content warning, which certainly provides a better understanding of the sort of imagery in the game:
"This game contains scenes of physical violence, psychological abuse, gory imagery (mutilation, blood), depictions of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny. The inclusion of these elements is intended to depict and characterize a fictional world and its fictional inhabitants. The presence of these elements is not an endorsement of them, nor do they reflect the beliefs or values of the creators. Some scenes also feature unsettling sounds, such as chewing and swallowing, which may be disturbing for players with sound sensitivities or related phobias. Character dialogue also includes references to psychological trauma that may be upsetting, especially for those who may have had similar experiences in their pasts. Player discretion is advised. If you feel uncomfortable or upset while playing, please consider stepping away and reaching out to someone you trust."
The game does still have an Epic Game Store page; several critics reportedly reviewed the game ahead of launch on the platform, including IGN.
Epic Games claimed in its email to Santa Ragione that the game received an Adult's Only (AO) rating from the International Age Rating Coalition. Santa Ragione said that when it filled out the IARC questionnaire, it received a PEGI 18 or ESRB M rating. AO rated games aren't allowed on the Epic Games Store—except games that received that rating for the inclusion of NFTs or blockchain—but mature or 18+ games are. Aftermath has reached out to IARC for clarification on Horses' rating. Santa Ragione said it submitted its certification of its rating to the Epic Games Store ahead of its release.
Epic Games wasn't specific about what caused the ban, and neither was Valve when it originally rejected the game from being published on its platform in 2023. Santa Ragione said in late November that the game was banned in 2023 after the company had to upload an early build of the game—a requirement to getting a Steam storefront page up and running. Valve rejected the build without comment, and Santa Ragione said on its website it was likely due to a scene in which a "young girl" rides on the shoulders of a naked adult woman with a horse head. Santa Ragione said it has since changed all characters in the game to be in their 20s or older.
"Regardless of a developer’s intentions with their product, we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor," Valve wrote in an automated review sent to the studio, according to the FAQ on the Horses website.
Santa Ragione said in its FAQ that the Steam ban isn't related to the recent restrictions on adult content that caused a major "deindexing" of NSFW games on Itch.io and the outright removal of others there and on Steam. That's because Valve's rejection of the game happened in 2023, before conservative activist group Collective Shout's campaign to harass game platforms into removing anything it deemed objectionable. The group went after game platforms by harnessing the power of payment processors—with payment processors determining what's acceptable sexual content and what's not, platforms like itch.io and Steam complied or risked having access to the processors removed.
This sort of censorship-by-payment-processor can have a chilling impact on the industry; in an effort to protect children, these restrictions can end up restricting free expression of even mildly-uncomfortable ideas. Horses certainly seems to push up against these restrictions, but its developers said it doesn't cross them: the game is supposed to be "challenging, adult storytelling," the publisher said on its website.
Guidelines for platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store are often written in such a way that leaves some grey area for certain content—platforms then can apply these restrictions however they'd like, and in ways that often feel confusing to players. Both Epic Games Store and Steam sell sex games and games with graphic violence. For instance, there are a lot of "anime boob games," as Nathan put it in 2016, but not many gay sex games. He spoke to game developer Robert Yang about getting his games on the platform: Dicks can be used for "exploitation or titillation," but not in the context of sex.
"We respect players enough to present the game as intended and to let adults choose what to play; lawful works should not be made unreachable by a monopolistic storefront’s opaque decisions," Santa Ragione said. "Steam publicly downplays human curation in favor of algorithmic sales optimization, yet intervenes with censorship when a game’s artistic vision does not align with what the platform owners considers acceptable art. Steam’s behavior passively shapes which titles developers feel safe creating, pushing preemptive censorship."
Update, Dec. 3 at 11:44 a.m.: Humble Bundle has delisted Horses, too, according to IGN. Codes for Horses, distributed through Humble Bundle, originally required players to have an Epic Games Store account. Aftermath has reached out to Humble Bundle for comment.
