Saturdays are for lying in bed and resting your sore typing fingers, muttering curses at Geoff Keighley under your breath. They're not particularly mean curses, I quite enjoy covering events like SGF. It's nice having a few hours where game announcements pour forth like bubbling water. Yes, those bubbles can be the ineffable gassing up of marketing hype, but I won't dismiss everything we see as pure cynicism.
And besides, as tired as I may be this morning, it's not as bad as the time I worked a week of night shifts covering E3 at PCGamesN. At the end of the week, on the last train home, I fell asleep, thouroughly missed my station and got kicked off at the terminus. With no phone battery and no taxis in the small village, I had to sleep in a park until the next morning when the trains started up again and I could get back to my bed in Bath.
This weekend, I’m going to a not particularly good football stadium to watch assorted famous people play not particularly good football. No, not the average [team you don’t like] match, but Soccer Aid. Why isn’t there a Games Aid, huh? Oh, there is. And they do great work, from the looks of it. Maybe one day we’ll use our own games-playing powers for good, but for now, it's just the following:
And just like that, it’s Summer Game Fest. We’re right in the thick of it now, with last night’s bonanza of announcements from SGF proper followed by the curated selection of games in Day of the Devs, but with plenty more still to come. There’s Wholesome Direct at 5PM today leading into Fellow Traveller’s Story-Rich Showcase and the Future Games Show, and then tomorrow night has Xbox and PC Gaming. Catch the full schedule here.
This morning, though, is all about admin. There’s plenty of trailer posts that need new thumbnails and more blurb and details to be fed into them, so I’ll be getting to those as soon as I’ve cooked up this round-up. Let’s get to it!
Dom returned to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for the Switch 2 release, calling in “an unmissable portable RPG”, which certainly bodes well for the simultaneous release of the trilogy’s conclusion. He also got to go hands on with Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve and had an incredible time living out his Top Gun daydreams. See it in action here:
And I then went hands on with the rather moreish real-time tactical action roguelite Chivalware, and enjoyed returning to Rayman Legends Retold, even if I find the decision to remake this particular game a touch confusing when the 2013 original release still looks and plays so well.
Finishing up for the week’s features, What We Played featured 007 First Light, Mina the Hollower and Gothic Remake
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.
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.
Trailer Park
Slay the Spire 2 is dropping into Early Access in March
Battle Robo-Betty in the latest Mouse PI for Hire trailer
Join us for our weekly open thread! We're discussing what MMOs we're playing this weekend and answering a bonus question about movies you've somehow never seen...
before we go any further, let’s establish some ground rules: the word I shouted was “fjord” I will not explain why I shouted “fjord” the questions about my t-shirt that says “fjord is a mating ritual for me” are all answered by the presence of my t-shirt and I will not answer further questions about […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
