Saturday mornings are hopefully for not feeling hungover or beaten-up or assassinated. You see, it's Friday as I write these words, and I've just been invited out for drinks in the park with one Graham Smith, former RPS EIC and nowadays, co-founder of disgraceful champagne socialist operation Jank.cool, an indie joint the rabble-rousers among you are already calling "RPS when it was good". What's the matter, aren't we feeding you enough Deals posts?
I thought I would make it all the way through winter without getting ill. We're practically touching March. Yet, despite being within spitting distance of the clocks changing and bright evenings returning, I have the lurgy. This weekend, I will practice the art of the double duvet sausage roll.
After a few weeks of major showcases, this week brought with it some big industry changes. What will the future hold for Xbox with Phil Spencer departing and a new CEO coming in who has little to no experience of the gaming market? It’s been a downward trend for Xbox through this generation as a platform, and we’ll have to see if Microsoft is intent to accelerate this for their broader gaming approach, or if they’ll turn things around.
With the current landscape of the games media, we’re exploring more direct reader-funding so we can continue to invest in the site, and support our writers, allowing them to continue to pen the news, features, and reviews that you visit us for. To that end, we have launched a Ko-fi page earlier this month.
Another pretty heavy reviews week is behind us, but there was little that managed to stand out, unfortunately.
We also had some scored hardware reviews for the Corsair Vanguard Pro 96 keyboard and the enhanced Gamesir G7 Pro Wuchang Edition gamepad, before I delved back into the highs, lows and weirdness of 90s VR with the Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch.
For upcoming games, I had the chance to checkout Milestone’s anime racer revival, Screamer, as well as the latest tycoon sim, Transport Fever 3, and Dom opined that Battle Vision Network will be the culmination of Capybara’s puzzle game craft, and called Arkheron the battle royale lovechild of Diablo and Hades. Intriguing!
We also had an interview with the developers of Abide, to talk about its new style of horror experience
Rounding out the week, What We Played featured Sons of Sparta, Planet of Lana 2 & Overwatch.
Slay the Spire 2 is dropping into Early Access in March
Battle Robo-Betty in the latest Mouse PI for Hire trailer
Surprise! Xenoblade Chronicles X just got a Switch 2 upgrade with up to 4K 60fps performance
Checking in with your gaming, Andrewww has got a few more runs into Blue Prince, but is yet to have it really “click”.
That’s all for the round up this week. Enjoy the weekend and we’ll carry on carrying on on Monday.
The first full week of the year is in the books, and if this is means to carry on… well let’s just say that video games will continue to provide a good bit of escapism. So let’s continue escaping with a quick look at how this week in the games industry has gone.
In the News This Week
We’ve blazed a trail through our Most Wanted Games of 2026 lists. Here’s everything from #50 down to #6:
It’s still pretty lean right now for the start of the year, but alongside Most Wanted we did have a handful of features.
Dom also strapped a big rumbly Woojer Strap 4 to his chest. Again. He quite likes these things.
Beyond that, I previewed Code Vein 2, and its time-hopping soulslike adventure, and I had an early look at how The Elder Scrolls Online is changing with a new seasonal roadmap.
Rounding out the week, What We Played featured the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined demo, Warhammer 40K Darktide and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Orks get the perfect cinematic trailer for Dawn of War 4
Nintendo serves up a Mario Tennis Fever gameplay deep dive and Baby Waluigi
Sneakily watch this 9 minute gameplay video for Styx: Blades of Greed
That’s all for the round up this week. Enjoy the weekend, check in on Most Wanted, and we’ll carry on carrying on on Monday.
Saturdays are for putting your hand in a bucket of ice, swallowing a mouthful of honey and lemon, and breathing a sigh of relief. All that practice you put into your welcome handshake and 'Here comes trouble!' paid off. Almost every member of the treehouse has been successfully greeted home.
All bar one. But I'll get him. I'll get him good.
Saturdays are for eagerly sitting beside the front door to the Treehouse ready to jump up and greet writers as they return home. Sure, most of the team aren't due back until Monday, but this way I can get really good at saying 'Here comes trouble' in just the right intonation. 'Here comes trouble.' No, that's not it. 'Here comes trouble.' Better, but it still needs work.
After forgetting to change my alarm for the weekend, my Saturday has started far too early. I clearly don't respond well to surprise free time, as I spent the morning writing my will. Disappointingly, Co-op don't let you set challenges and riddles for bequestees. This oversight has dashed the mental image of my brother and sister duelling over my gaming PC, armed with those Gladiators-style padded polearms that look like oversized cotton wool buds.
It’s felt like a pretty subdued week, with the US focussing on its holiday, and Black Friday sales not being terribly interesting or exciting this time around, to my mind at least. Some good indie game sales, but when the price for a game is only coming down to £35+, it’s harder to get worked up about that. But did you manage to grab any bargains?
Outside of that, I guess we have to give in and accept that it’s Christmas. You could be strict and hold out until Monday, but I’ll be putting up a tree and decorations this weekend.
Here’s our news from this week
It was mainly all about the reviews this week, as we caught up on some of the biggest game launches from November, so let’s dive in:
Beyond that, Dom delivered reviews for the SIVGA Robin SV021 headphones and the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 earbuds – they’re getting a bit too creative with the English language, if you ask me – and I shared a preview of the Hive Scum character DLC for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
Rounding out the week, What We Played featured Terrifier, Ghost of Yotei & Assetto Corsa Rally.
Subnautica 2 Voices from Beyond first episode released
Core Keeper: Void & Voltage update and Switch 2 Edition are coming in January
Bandai Namco share a Prologue trailer for Code Vein 2
That’s the round up for this week’s round up. Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll catch you for more gaming shenanigans next week!
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced plans to host a free online multiplayer weekend for PS5 & PS4 users, allowing those of you who have yet to fork out for one of the three PlayStation Plus tiers to take your favourite games online without dropping any cash.
The free multiplayer weekend will kick off at 0.01am local time on December 6, 2025 and will wrap up on 23.59pm local time on December 7. During this time, PS Plus membership won’t be required at all for whatever online gaming activities you get up to, and there’s plenty of titles to take advantage of.
Related Content – Upcoming PS5 Games 2025: The Best PS5 Games Coming Soon
While we’re on the subject of PS Plus, Sony recently launched the PS Plus Essential December 2025 free games lineup, which features five games for you to nab. The format holder announced earlier this year that PS4 games will only be offered occasionally for PS Plus’ monthly games, as the company looks to put its focus on PS5 from January 2026 onwards.
PS Plus recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, having originally launched in June 2010 during the PS3 era. Prior to that, it wasn’t necessary to pay for online gaming on a Sony console, although the freebies awarded with PS Plus more than make up for that.
[Source – PushSquare]
The post Sony Is Hosting A Free Online Multiplayer Weekend For PS5 & PS4 Users Beginning Dec. 6 appeared first on PlayStation Universe.
Now that Halloween has passed us by, I'm looking forward to a more restful weekend. One where I don't need to turn off all the lights and hiss loudly in the dark at any young ruffians that come along to part me with my hard-earned Haribo. I'll need that Haribo for energy soon, as this is the last weekend before I move house. Time to fill it with games!