As many reservations as I had going into ZA/UM's Zero Parades: For Dead Spies earlier this year, what with all of the drama and upset that's surrounded the studio since Disco Elysium's release, it pleasantly surprised me. I don't think I rate it more highly than its brilliant predecessor, but it offered a throughly fun time that felt like it was riding the coattails of Disco, but not in a way that left it any way unable to create its own magic.

Now, it's getting a free Director's Cut update to coincide with its console release, with a bunch of new additions and tweaks coming to the PC version.

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Despite Rockstar Games' silence on the matter, the cat rather seems to be out of the bag about GTA 6 getting its own online component that'll doubtless serve as GTA Online has for GTA 5. Court docs the studio themselves filed as part of the ongoing final hearing in a legal battle over the firings of 34 developers last year are partly to thank, but now so is the boss of streaming platform Twitch just blurting out when he expects GTA 6 to get a big multiplayer bump.

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If you've given The Blood of Dawnwalker a go, odds are you've got thoughts about the 30-day and 3-night timer it applies to Coen's quest to save his family from fate most vampy. Devs Rebel Wolves are very much aware of how divisive the feature's proven, and now the game's director's made clear that it's not guaranteed to return in future entries unless it can be made to mesh with the story being told.

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Helldivers 2 and Horizon Forbidden West have disappeared from the Steam store in the UK, something that's happened rather out of nowhere and looks like it might've even taken publishers PlayStation by surprise. Said publishers have issued a statement noting that they've already reached out to Valve to get the games back up.

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Update: The IWGB Games Worker Union have issued the following statement to RPS from vice-chair Ben Newbon:

We cannot add any further insight into the heartbreaking job losses at BARB, a company that we think has been slowly spiralling for a long time.

We came together to fight tooth and nail to prevent the hardworking people working there from such a fate after pouring their heart and soul into Minds Eye. We are proud of what we built there but still hearing of redundancies is always an injustice.

We offer nothing but solidarity and support to everyone impacted by any job losses and remain committed to getting justice for BARB management’s treatment of workers and organising to root these practices out of the video games industry. Only by joining and becoming active in a trade union can we achieve these goals.

Original story follows:

Build a Rocket Boy (BARB), makers of panned futuristic action game/massive minigame platform MindsEye, appear to be making more staff redundant or able to seek other work. As part of a LinkedIn post indicating he's seeking opportunities elsewhere, a principal talent acquisition partner at the studio has written that he "will be seeing BARB through till the very end, helping wrap things up here in the HR department", which doesn't exactly paint a rosy picture of the company's future.

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Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer has revealed that the studio behind recent FPS hit Wardogs check the social media accounts of prospective hires for public criticism of crunch practices, and deliberately prefer to avoid bringing such folks on board. In the exec's view, devs working extra or long hours to get a game or update out of the door - otherwise known as crunch - "is going to happen at some point", even if the studio "always try and avoid it".

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Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty sequel Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember will release in March next year, devs Koei Tecmo have revealed as they've whipped out an alpha demo that you can give a go right away. Expect plenty of samurai sword slashing and rolling around the mythological or historical Chinese big man, plus some open battlefields to roam.

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Skyblivion, that massive Oblivion remake mod which was originally set to release last year, finally seems to be on the verge of arrival. While they've still yet to put a full release date on it, the mod's creators have announced that they're looking for voluteers to join their comms team and contribute to a final push to get the word out about their creation.

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Bungie have announced that the Marathon update originally slated to arrive on September 22nd will not be doing so. Instead, it'll rock up in December as part of a major update dubbed Symbiosis, which'll introduce a new permanent PvE mode. Bungie are pegging it as "the first major step in Marathon’s next chapter" and have decided to ditch their established seasonal cadence for additions as part of this raft of changed plans.

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The European Commission are reportedly set to propose new rules around how under 15s access the likes of social media, AI chatbots, and online video games. Dubbed the EU Kids Act, the proposed legislation in its current form demands the setting up of a tiered system governing the types of accounts children under 15 can create to access such services. As with the UK's Online Safety Act, that'd result in the rolling out of age verification hoops everyone has to jump through to access these allegedly risky platforms.

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The September update for Civ 7 arrives today, September 15th. It's got a handful of new maps, including a fresh version of the real life-mimicking True Start Earth playing field, and updates to diplomacy that'll stop you being automatically dragged into your allies' wars.

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No siree. We are not trying to fight those big bosses. It's arguably a bit of a weird thing for a publisher with Diablo and World of Warcraft in their arsenal to say, but that's the stance Blizzard are sticking to with their storefront Battle.net, even though it now boasts two big CD Projekt Red RPGs. Instead of an unknowably girthy hoard of games, the publishers say Battle.net's still designed to feel like a handpicked basket of things to play.

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Update: Wadjet Eye's Dave Gilbert has confirmed on Bluesky that Nighthawks' "Adults Only" Steam label has been removed, meaning it's no longer locked in horny jail. "Everything is set for launch on the 22nd," he added. "Phew. What a roller coaster. Thank you everyone for your amazing support while we got this sorted."

Original story follows:

Disclosure: Nighthawks writer Richard Cobbett has contributed articles to RPS, with his most recent as of writing being a Fable-themed feature from 2018.

Vampire RPG Nighthawks has been slapped with a mature content label just as its release beckons, in the latest high-profile instance of Valve's determination of what constitutes an adult game proving controversial. Developers Richard Cobbett and Wadjet Eye Games say they're working on convincing Valve to reverse the decision, which would allow the game to once again show up in Steam searches and no longer be banished to horny jail in some countries.

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A multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part 2 which was originally set to release this month no longer will, with its creator citing a letter from publishers Sony as the reason it won't see the light of day.

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Well, that report earlier this year was bang on the banana. A new StarCraft shooter, creatively dubbed StarCraft, has been announced for a 2030 release at this year's BlizzCon. Joining it among the headliners were Diablo 5 - which is due out in 2029 - and a new World of Warcraft branch dubbed WOW: Forever. Brave of them to name a Warcraft fork after the inevitable response which follows a WOW player revealing how long they've been playing the MMO.

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Sundays are for realising that after playing The Blood of Dawnwalker, you've developed a craving for blackcurrant juice. There's none in the cupboard, so you venture out to get some, floating across the rooftops as a trail of mist as you go. You arrive at the supermarket, fangs bared and claws out. You parry and dodge attackers armed with trollies as you fight your way up the aisles. There it is. The sweet crimson nectar. You reach out to grab a bottle. A hand reaches out through the display and grips your wrist.

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Earlier this week, Hideo Kojima-helmed action espionage game Physint switched publishers from PlayStation to Xbox, a leap across the console divide which might make it more likely to get a PC port. At the time, Kojima claimed PlayStation had tried to can the game, while the console makers tried to paint the divorce as an amicable split. Now, a report's shed more light on why Sony decided to ditch Physint.

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Up until now, Rockstar Games have kept mum about what plans they have for the future of Grand Theft Auto multiplayer once GTA 6 releases on consoles in November. Thanks to filings submitted by the studio as part of the final hearing in a legal battle over the firings of 34 developers last year, that silence appears to have been broken.

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Just over a month on from a consortium led by the Saudi Arabian government's Public Investment Fund taking over EA, in a buyout worth $55 billion, said new owners are reportedly considering merging the publishers with their existing gaming firm Savvy Games Group. The result would be an ubermegacorp to serve as a vehicle for all of the Saudi wealth fund's future video game-related biz.

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