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Space Marine 2's new Techmarine class, Helbrute mode and other update plans detailed in Year 2 video
Game Updates

Space Marine 2’s new Techmarine class, Helbrute mode and other update plans detailed in Year 2 video

by admin August 29, 2025


In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only more bloody downloadable content for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Developers Saber Interactive are supposed to be working on Space Marine 3, but you wouldn’t know that from all the Stuff they’ve jammed into the previous game’s year 2 content schedule. There’s a major Anniversary patch due on 4th September, just in time for Silksong. Five more patches are coming over 2025 and 2026, plus nine DLC packs via season pass. The manufactorums are overflowing! Here’s a video to lay it all out.

Watch on YouTube

The standout upcoming option is probably the new playable Techmarine class, who don’t get any screentime here. What is a Techmarine? A Space Marine with a lot of spanners where parts of their anatomy should be. They’re good at fixing stuff, though one suspects that, like most Sparse Maureens in Spice Margerine 2, they’ll spend the bulk of their time murdering things.

Techmarines aside, the free updates will add new enemies, bosses, weapons, progression mechanics, PvE stratagems, Eternal War arenas, and operations. Also, the chance to play a Chaos Helbrute, which looks like a berserking tractor with a comically small humanoid head. It’s like Bruce Banner got 90% of the way through Hulking out and ran out of rage. Still, let’s see if you’re still laughing when it stands on your toes in the forthcoming Helbrute Onslaught PvP mode.

Image credit: Focus Entertainment

As for those paid DLCs, there will be the usual shower of cosmetics. The new battle pass kicks off with the Black Templars Champion Pack, which includes a Champion skin for the Bulkwark class and a Power Sword skin. Then there’s the Imperial Fists Cosmetic Pack, which comprises 40 new cosmetics. Future packs will include cosmetics for the Raptors, Iron Hands and Carcharodons. I’m pretty sure they made some of those Space Marine chapters up. Iron Hands, lol, as if.

The only thing missing from Space Marine 2’s roadmap, to my mind, is a mutual crossover with the Helldivers 2 universe – a prospect once dangled by Arrowhead’s CEO, many moons ago. Let us make the commodified fascists fight! Let us see whose space-bigotry is burlier! Arrowhead have already partnered with the goose-stepping Helghast from Killzone. Add Warhammer 40,000’s Space Marines to the mix and you’re basically playing an unofficial PlanetSide 3. Seriously, there’s like, at least six battle passes worth of content here.



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August 29, 2025 0 comments
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Battlefield 6 PC Specs And Launch Features Revealed
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Battlefield 6 PC Specs And Launch Features Revealed

by admin August 29, 2025


Hot off the heels of a very successful open beta, EA has revealed the PC specs for Battlefield 6. These features promise to deliver “the most advanced PC experience in franchise history.”

When Battlefield 6 hits PC on October 10, it will boast 4K graphics with uncapped frame rate and ultrawide monitor support. Players can tinker with over 600 customization options such as HDR and HUD scaling, camera settings, controller schemes, and streamer/Incognito modes. The game also includes native Steam platform support.

 

In terms of hardware support, Nvidia confirms Battlefield 6 features support for DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, DLSS Frame Generation, DLSS Super Resolution, DLAA, and NVIDIA Reflex.

The game also utilizes Javelin anti-cheat software, built from the ground up to solely safeguard against cheats and hacks “within and outside of kernel mode.”

Here is the full list of the game’s Minimum, Recommended, and Ultra PC specs (click the image to enlarge):

Graphics Settings
Minimum:1080p/30FPS
Rec: 1440p/60fps (Balanced), 1080p/80fps+ (Performance)
Ultra: 2160 (4K)/60fps (Balanced), 1440p/144fps (Performance)

Upscaler
Minimum/Rec/Ultra: Native

GPU
Minimum: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 – AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT – Intel Arc A380 
Rec: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti – AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT – Intel Arc B580
Ultra: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080/AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

Video Memory
Minimum: 6GB
Rec: 8GB
Ultra: 16GB

CPU
Minimum: Intel Core i5-8400 – AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Rec: Intel Core i7-10700 – AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Ultra: Intel Core i9-12900k – AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

RAM
Minimum: 16GB (Dual channel 2133mhz)
Rec: 16GB (Dual channel 3200mhz)
Ultra: 32GB (Dual channel 4800mhz)

OS
Minimum: Windows 10
Rec: Windows 11 64-bit
Ultra: Windows 11 64-bit

Direct X
Minimum/Rec/Ultra: DirectX12

Storage
Minimum: 55GB HDD (at launch)
Rec: 90GB SSD (at launch)
Ultra: 90GB SSD (at launch)

TPM 2.0 Enabled/UEFI Secure Boot Enabled/HVCI Capable/VBS Capable
Minium/Rec/Ultra: Required

Battlefield 6 launches on October 10 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. You can read our hands-on impressions and conversation with the game’s designers here. 



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Why Snake Eater is a perfect example of the tension between the real and the unreal that's at the core of every Metal Gear Solid game
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Why Snake Eater is a perfect example of the tension between the real and the unreal that’s at the core of every Metal Gear Solid game

by admin August 29, 2025


The hallmark of the Metal Gear Solid games isn’t the presence of one of the Snakes. It isn’t nuclear dread or even hide-and-seek, often involving a cardboard box. And it’s not tactical espionage action. I think it’s a tone, or rather a carefully un-careful blend of conflicting tones. On one side there’s a movement towards steely realism. On the other, there are these bright lunges at absolute fantasy. It’s realism and its opposite. I just tried to google what realism’s opposite actually is, by the way. There is no one standard answer as far as I can see. How very Metal Gear.

None of this is a criticism, by the way. I love this stuff about these games. And it’s in there deep. I noticed this jarring combination the first time I saw Metal Gear Solid in action – or rather the first time I saw it in action again. Many years ago, my housemate at university had the game. I ducked into his room one evening and he was playing the early stages. Here was this game about avoiding enemy patrols and searchlights, a game where your character’s breath or cigarette smoke might give him away to a passing baddy. Cor, I thought. Games are getting – I was 19 at the time – games are getting really real!

And then I ducked in again a few days later. Same game. Same room-mate. Same protagonist, but now he was fighting with an intermittently invisible ninja who was talking about how much he enjoyed being killed. Or something.


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That was an ideal introduction to Kojima’s work. I’m not sure if I could have crafted a better one for myself. Even so, I think the greatest expression of these two impulses – realism and whatever its opposite is called – and the weird dance that unfolds as these two opposing things flow together, is in Metal Gear Solid 3. I’ve spent the last few weeks waiting for Delta, the latest version of this game, and watching various bits of footage old and new. I think if anything, the new version actually only heightens the thrilling collision between realism and whatever realism is not. More detailing: more gleeful confusion.

The thing that’s so exciting to me about this collision in Metal Gear Solid 3 is that you see it most clearly in the places where the game is possibly trying to play it straight. When it’s not playing it straight, Metal Gear Solid 3 is a riot of unrealism, of course. There’s a boss that controls hornets, if I remember correctly. You fight a boss that controls hornets!

But it’s when the game’s seemingly trying to be real that things get truly odd. The game has an injury system, for example – bones can be broken and you need to bandage scrapes and slam home antidotes to poisoned arrow wounds and all that jazz. Sounds like realism! But games are uniquely strange about these kinds of things, whether it’s the pliers-picking-out-bullets animation from Far Cry 2 to Metal Gear Solid 3’s stylish menu of bodily accidents. Including this stuff in the game, and then mediating it by slick UI and whatnot to make it into a playable mechanic, by making health something you can attend to while pausing, just renders the whole thing wonderfully warped from the start.

And this inherent oddness is everywhere in this, the most organic Metal Gear Solid game. The setting’s the jungle! Plants and rivers and all that nature jazz? Sounds a bit more real than the series’ futuristic military bases and deep sea platforms? Sure, it does in a way, but this jungle is carved up into neat little maps and filled with bespoke systems for you to meddle with in the name of stealth or aggression. It’s gloriously, openly hand-crafted in every detail. And did the Soviets even have a jungle? (I asked a friend: sort of, apparently. But also, apparently the game’s jungle is an artificial construction within the fiction of the game itself. This stuff goes dizzyingly deep.)

Snaked and alone.

To put it another way, On the PS2 version, the game’s jungle was a wonderful thing to look at, but it was no more real than the corridors and gantries of Metal Gear Solid 1’s Shadow Moses. It was game-space, all the stranger for being so close to the organic world. And naturally, this is only further confused by the new game’s Unreal 5 graphics.

Whatever version you play, everywhere you look in the game there’s this blend of realism and its opposite. Snake meets a real president, but this real president has to share the game’s green room with that guy who controls hornets. There’s that famous ladder climb, that expands the scope of the tactile in-game world into almost impossible dimensions, and there’s a boss who moves through a dauntingly huge stretch of terrain sniping at you in a battle that can last for genuine real-world hours. All the while the same game also encourages you to defeat that same boss by meddling with the internal clock in the PlayStation.

Ultimately, I’m not sure how much of this is authorial intent and how much is simply a symptom of what Kojima is trying to do elsewhere. It’s worth remembering that a lot of games exist in a sweet spot where questions of realism simply don’t come into it, whether that’s the candy-coated Disney world of Castle of Illusion, or the Indiana Jones-adjacent world of Uncharted. But games, being inherently non-real, generally get super weird the closer they get to any form of realism.

And I sometimes think it’s not realism Kojima’s chasing so much as something that I almost want to term fidelity: an attempt to capture a kind of texture of intricacy. He wants the weird stuff to feel luxurious and richly made, and he wants the same feeling when you’re having a quiet moment in the galley at the start of Metal Gear Solid 2, shooting the ladles and watching them ping back and forth or watching the way rain splatters on your shoulders when you go outside. Is this realism, or is it just luxurious interaction, a mind that notices the little things and wants everything in a game to be memorable? Throw in the topsy-turvy world of espionage and what’s real and what’s fantasy gets even harder to unpick, of course. I remember a back issue of Arcade magazine – God, I miss Arcade magazine – in which a real special forces person was asked to weigh in on Metal Gear Solid. Their cardboard box verdict? I’ve hidden under worse.

Who said Bruce Springsteen had to be The Boss? | Image credit: Eurogamer

Regardless, this mixture of realism and its opposite is a Kojima fixation. It’s here for life. It’s there waiting for you the moment you step off your futuristic bike in Death Stranding and grasp the baby in a flask around your neck, and then stumble, with a gorgeously recognisable human awkwardness, over mossy rocks.

And most hauntingly of all, perhaps, it was there during the making of another Metal Gear, Phantom Pain, in which Kojima’s team created a perfect model of one of their real meeting rooms in order to test out lighting and character models and, yes, how real things felt. Here’s Snake, tall as a real man, clad in leather and realistically lit by migrainey overhead office lighting, and yet for the first time I realised just how stylised he is, how perfect the angles of his grim face come together. He’s standing right in front of me, on the other side of the computer monitor at least, and yet he looks like an old seadog from Tintin or a Dick Tracy villain. And somewhere, is that Kojima laughing at it all?



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One Of 2025's Best Shooters
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One Of 2025’s Best Shooters

by admin August 29, 2025


I love it when a game comes out of nowhere and surprises me. Earlier this month, that is exactly what happened when I saw the trailer for VoidBreaker during Gamescom Opening Night Live. I downloaded the fast-paced sci-fi roguelike FPS shortly after seeing it, and not only is it good, but it might be one of the best shooters I’ve played all year. And it was made almost entirely by one guy, Daniel Stubbington.

VoidBreaker is an incredibly fast and sleek first-person shooter available now in early access on Steam and Game Pass PC. The game is set inside a large, highly advanced AI program that is using human test subjects to gather data on combat and warfare. This involves you endlessly fighting and dying over and over again through “runs” of the program’s randomly generated gauntlets filled with various robotic enemies and other odd cyber-opponents. Luckily, very early on, a previous human who was trying to escape the program contacts you to help take the AI down and get out alive. Sadly, your ally is just the digital remains of a very dead person who has a skeleton hiding in your cyberjail’s basement. But while he’s dead, his mind is still in the program and helps you hack the system, slowly unlocking permanent bonuses and new weapons to help you get further during each action-filled run.

If some of that sounds silly, it is! And that’s the point. VoidBreaker leans into the absurd and strange situation you find yourself in, with plentiful jokes delivered by a dry robot announcer during runs. Messages include the program explaining how living forever in pain is better than dying, and how you aren’t alone because the AI is always watching you. It strikes that perfect balance between silly and dark that Portal nailed so many years ago.

Another run, another run, another run….

The gameplay loop of VoidBreaker will feel pretty familiar if you’ve played any roguelike game in the last few years. Each run feels different, as enemy encounters and other sections of the digital gauntlets are randomly generated. As you progress through these runs, you find mods of various rarity levels that give you new abilities, make you stronger or faster, or even change how your gun works. And of course, as in most roguelikes, there’s a currency you earn that can only be used at shops that randomly appear on your path during that run. There’s also a currency that lets you unlock permanent upgrades in the aforementioned secret dead guy basement.

So yeah, nothing groundbreaking in Voidbreaker. Instead, the reason to play this new FPS is for the gameplay and combat. Movement in VoidBreaker is incredibly smooth, snappy, and satisfying. This is the kind of game where it’s just fun to run around and jump, even outside of a fight. And gunplay is equally fantastic, with the assault rifle you unlock fairly early into the game being a loud and hectic death machine that sprays enemies with bullets in a way that always makes me happy. Buildings and other structures you spot in the levels can also be destroyed à la Battlefield and crumble upon enemies, stunning or even killing them. Oh, and you can pick up most items using a Half-Life-like Gravity Gun mechanic and fling them back at baddies, too.

As you upgrade your character during runs, adding ice bullets, improving your Gravity-Gun-thingy, unlocking fire attacks, and collecting super-powerful grenade mods, the action in VoidBreaker can become extremely chaotic. At times, it became nearly too much for my eyes to keep track of as my rifle spat out electrically charged bullets covered in energy fields, buildings collapsed around me, and enemies filled the arena with various red projectiles that can do a lot of damage if you aren’t careful. It can be a lot, and I think for some it might be too much. But I enjoyed every moment of it, even if there were definitely times when I was just spamming my abilities and grenades toward a massive cloud of destruction and death and hoping for the best.

But the chaos is part of the fun, and death isn’t that big of a deal in VoidBreaker. After all, it just gave me another excuse to load back up in my weird, sparse cyber apartment/prison and quickly say hi to the skeleton in the basement before hopping back out for one more run. I’m excited to see how the game expands in early access. Now, I need to go and play more VoidBreaker. Just one more run. I’ll go to bed eventually. It’s only 2 a.m….



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August 29, 2025 0 comments
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Arcade1Up Launches New Ms. Pac-Man Head-to-Head Arcade Machine
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Arcade1Up Launches New Ms. Pac-Man Head-to-Head Arcade Machine

by admin August 29, 2025



Arcade cabinets were the original competitive esports of their time, and if you’re looking for an even more intense approach to setting a new high score benchmark, you can check out this deal on Arcade1Up’s new Ms. Pac-Man Head-to-Head Arcade Table. This model moves the screen from a vertical to a horizontal position for two-player head-to-head action, and it’s loaded with 12 games. You can order it now for $600.

$600

Ms.Pac-Man headlines this arcade cabinet with its vintage-inspired design and controls, but you can also play other arcade games like Dig Dug, Galaxian, Mappy, Rolling Thunder, and Rompers on it. On a technical level, the table features glowing controls to recreate a retro aesthetic, durable joysticks and buttons, and a 17-inch LCD screen.

  • Dig Dug
  • Dig Dug 2
  • Galaxian
  • Galaga
  • Galaga ‘88
  • Mappy
  • Ms.Pac-Man
  • New Rally X
  • Pacmania
  • Rolling Thunder
  • Rompers
  • Tower of Druaga

Like other Arcade1Up cabinets, this new Ms. Pac-Man machine is built to be both stylish and durable. To help protect the screen, there’s a clear acrylic top installed on top of it, and it’s designed to be a space-saving collectible. The selection of games listed above is also a compilation of all-time classics, as in addition to the timeless appeal of Ms. Pac-Man and Pacmania, Dig Dug offers a charming descent into the depths of the planet, Tower of Druaga is still a beloved action-RPG focused on escaping mazes, and Galaga set a new standard for shoot-’em-ups when it was first released in 1981.

If you’d like to fill out your own home arcade, several Arcade1Up cabinets are also on sale right now. These are billed as “Classic Special Edition” cabinets that don’t include a riser. This drops their size down to four feet–but you can purchase a riser for just $59 to get it back to standing height–and helps to save space. Currently, Walmart is offering the Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Mortal Kombat 2 arcade cabinets for $334 each. All models come pre-loaded with extra games in addition to their marquee titles.

Each cabinet shares the same technical specs, as they’re equipped with a 15.6-inch IPS color monitor, dual speaker setups, and online connectivity for leaderboards and multiplayer in supported games. What also makes them attention-getters is that each cabinet is wrapped in artwork that’s designed to make them look like they were yanked straight out of an ’80s or ’90s arcade, and they have a durable selection of controls. You’ll also get an anti-tip-over strap and side panels to cover up screw holes. As a reminder, these cabinets do require some assembly, but the process is relatively easy to understand. Here’s a closer look at the games that each one comes with:

$334

Included games:

  • Dig Dug
  • Dig Dug 2
  • Galaga
  • Galaxian
  • Galaga ’88
  • King & Balloon
  • Mappy
  • Pac-Man
  • Pac-Man Plus
  • Pac-Mania
  • Pac & Pal
  • Super Pac-Man
  • Rompers

$334

Included games:

  • Dig Dug
  • Dig Dug 2
  • Galaxian
  • Galaga
  • Galaga ‘88
  • Mappy
  • Ms.Pac-Man
  • New Rally X
  • Pacmania
  • Rolling Thunder
  • Rompers
  • Tower of Druaga

$334

Included games:

  • Mortal Kombat
  • Mortal Kombat 2
  • Mortal Kombat 3
  • Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
  • Rampage
  • Joust
  • Wizard of Wor
  • Gauntlet
  • Rootbeer Tapper
  • Defender
  • Bubbles
  • Paperboy
  • Klax

You can also score a great deal on a sought-after Arcade1Up Countercade that has been discontinued. The Arcade1Up Class of ’81 Countercade is back in stock at Amazon, and this model is equipped with a 7-inch, vertically oriented LCD screen, full-size controls, and features artwork of Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. Designed to be played on a flat surface like a desk or countertop, it’s a lightweight arcade machine that comes with Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug installed on it. It’s powered via an included Micro-USB cable or four AA batteries (not included), so you won’t need to plug it into a nearby outlet if you don’t want to clutter your space with cables.



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Coffee convos, demonic detectives, and cow life simming are part of a pro-Palestine charity bundle coming to Itch.io
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Coffee convos, demonic detectives, and cow life simming are part of a pro-Palestine charity bundle coming to Itch.io

by admin August 28, 2025


A bundle of games aiming to raise money to aid the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in their efforts to help Palestinian refugees is set to go on sale via Itch.io next week. Just over 380 games are part of it, including the likes of Coffee Talk, Lucifer Within Us, and a cow life simulator that features an alligator who’s really into arson.

Organised by Junch and the South East Asian Games for Good initiative, the bundle’s dubbed Play for Peace – Games for Palestine. It’s taken over 10 months to come together. The result’s a 382-game strong bundle that includes a huge variety of creations that contain not a whiff of AI or NFTs.

“The people of Palestine continue to be subjected to hostility, destruction of homes, critical infrastructure, and devastasting loss of lives,” reads the Play for Peace bundle’s freshly-published Itch listing. “We, as a games community, will bring together our incredible games from across the world, for a charity bundle with proceeds that go directly to Palestine aid and relief.

“We are partnering with UNRWA USA, who will receive the funds and grant them to UNRWA (UN agency) in support of direct humanitarian aid in Palestine. Together, the game dev community and UNRWA USA will raise awareness on the situation in Gaza, spotlight our communities, and the devs participating in this charity drive.”

In addition to the games I mentioned in the intro – the cow life sim’s definitely worth checking out – the bundle includes everything from lesbian devil-hunting action, courtesy of fittingly-named boss rusher Bossgame, to tabletop adventures like Stirring the Hornet’s Nest at Het Thamsya. A couple of others that’ve caught me eye are Street Cleaning Day: Rat’s Revenge, a wave-shooter about a rodent fending off soapy bubbles, and I Get This Call Every Day.

The latter’s a point-and-click simulation of its creator’s experience working in a call centre, featuring “terrible art [which] conveys a terrible work environment” and the choice of whether to “lose politely or lose spectacularly”.

We’re excited to announce the Games for Palestine charity page is now LIVE on Itch.

Over 300+ games with proceeds going to UNRWA USA in support of Gaza relief. Thank you to everyone for your support. The bundle launches on Sept 2nd 9am PST.

Link: https://t.co/QfK0ekUjAd pic.twitter.com/KIaZNj2f1P

— SE Asian Games for Good (@seagamesforgood) August 27, 2025

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If that brutal reality isn’t for you, there’s also Fit For a King, a Henry VIII simulator that offers the chance to marry everything, execute everything, and/or spend it all. “While Fit For A King could have been full of lazy, bargain bin Blackadder jokes, it’s got a wonderfully dadaist edge to its humour instead, and an indefinable atmosphere I could only call early 2000s web game energy,” former RPSer Nate Crowley wrote of that one. Or, there’s Virtua Blinds, which looks like it could be the greatest thing I’ve never played.

As the bundle’s curators wrote: “All of it represents the creative expression of artists and developers who want to help raise money through their art for one of the most important causes of our time – freedom and the ending of genocide in Palestine.” The Play for Peace – Games for Palestine bundle will be on sale from 5PM BST/12PM ET/9AMPT/6PM CEST on September 2nd, and will cost $8.





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August 28, 2025 0 comments
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Arcadian Days, A Relaxing Non-Linear Adventure, Hits Early Access Next Month
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Arcadian Days, A Relaxing Non-Linear Adventure, Hits Early Access Next Month

by admin August 28, 2025


Solo developer Immersiv Games reached out to me back in June to check out its non-linear adventure game, Arcadian Days, during Steam Next Fest, and it ended up being one of my favorite demos from the event. Now, Immersiv Games has revealed Arcadian Days hits Steam Early Access on September 16, and if you’re looking for something relaxing and unique to check out, I’d recommend giving it a shot. 

 

During the Steam Next Fest demo, I was impressed by its minimalist, free-flowing exploration and sun-kissed visuals – throughout the demo, a gorgeous sunset created a painterly backdrop to my leisurely tasks, which included collecting plants for a crop or wood in a shed. The tasks I experienced weren’t too challenging, and completing them took little effort, but Immersiv Games’ self-proclaimed “non-linear” and “relaxing” makes me think this is by design. Though I love me some fast-paced, high-intensity action games, Arcadian Days’ demo reminded me that it’s equally as rewarding to check out a game that asks you to slow down and breathe. 

I look forward to seeing how the Arcadian Days evolves during its Early Access period. Arcadian Days launches on PC via Steam Early Access on September 16. 

For more, check out my Arcadian Days demo thoughts in this round-up here. 



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A love letter to that one time James Bond battled the villain in a crappy arcade game instead of at cards
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A love letter to that one time James Bond battled the villain in a crappy arcade game instead of at cards

by admin August 28, 2025


Is there anything more British than turning on the telly at 11pm and finding an old Bond film on ITV? There’s an opening that I probably couldn’t get away with on any other major games site, hey. But, really: that moment of channel-hopping and catching the smirking visage of Sean Connery, Roger Moore, or Pierce Brosnan as a bit of late-night terrestrial TV filler is as British as fish and chips, smashing up your shiny new alloy on a pothole, and needing to do a blood sacrifice for his majesty’s government in order to send a DM on social media.

Anyway, the other night I had that classic experience. I was meant to be getting ready for bed but channel-hopped, as if that’s something anyone under fifty still does – and there he was. Sean Connery. Greying, undoubtedly phoning it in, but still brilliant. A mega ropey theme song played out over footage of his Bond on a training exercise without a psychedelic title sequence in sight. It’s Never Say Never Again, then – the redheaded stepchild of the Bond franchise.

Never Say Never Again is honestly rather rubbish, but it’s also fascinating. Even a crap Bond film has something about it – that Bondian stickiness – to draw you in. And with IO Interactive’s 007: First Light weighing heavily on my mind, I ended up rewatching the whole thing. Right through ‘til nearly 1am. Doh.

Here’s the trailer for Never Say Never Again, a blast from the past.Watch on YouTube

As noted, this film is bewitching in its mix of vague crapness and true directorial flair from Irvin Kershner (at this time fresh off directing a little independent film called The Empire Strikes Back). Also compelling is its status in legal purgatory, and how it thereby has to differentiate itself from the ‘main’ franchise. That last point is how this all tenuously connects to video games, which I’ll come to in a moment.

First, it’s important to understand why this film exists. If you’re not a Bond aficionado, an extremely truncated summary is this: there were several years where Bond’s literary adventures were a hot ticket. It wasn’t a question of if a movie would be made, but when. In the late fifties and early sixties but before Dr. No entered production, Bond creator Ian Fleming worked with a Hollywood writer and producer on a screenplay, and then later adapted that story into a novel, Thunderball. That screenplay struggled to gain traction, and in the end Fleming started making Bond movies with a different company. Cue legal limbo.

The co-writing producer in question, Kevin McClory, claimed partial rights to Thunderball. He was involved with the film of the same name, but then fell out with Bond’s producers. Lawsuits flew back and forth, and in the eighties McClory was able to mount an assault on the Bond franchise by making his own rival movie. Thus Never Say Never Again, the unlicensed Bond film that went head-to-head with Roger Moore’s Octopussy. In many ways it is Bond from Temu, except it stars the original Bond, with Connery returning to the role out of what appears to be an equally balanced thirst for a paycheck and a healthy dose of spite, as Connery too had fallen out with those behind the ‘official’ franchise.

Truly a game that would leave you shaken and stirred. | Image credit: Warner / Amazon MGM

Even if you’re not a Bond fan, it’s a truly gripping and amusing tale of Hollywood nonsense – there’ve been books written about these legal wranglings, and McClory’s exploits were directly responsible for many twists in the Bond film franchise. Why did the shadowy Spectre organization and Bond arch-enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld disappear from the narrative? Being present in Thunderball, they were characters McClory could lay a legal claim to. Why did Timothy Dalton’s tenure as the agent sputter out after just two films? Legal battles with McClory forced the franchise to take a then-unprecedented six-year break. And why did Spectre and Blofeld return in 2015? Well, McClory died – and once he was no longer around, his family was quite happy to secure the bag to bury the fifty-year hatchet and hand over the rights.

All’s well that ends well, but back in 1983 it was still war. The unofficial Bond group had a problem, though: they had rights to one story, and they also couldn’t hem too close to what the other producers were doing, as any ‘innovations’ of the Bond franchise displayed in their films technically belonged to that group. That leads to a film that desperately wants to be part of the Bond franchise but can’t copy key elements. It’s also based on Thunderball but doesn’t want to be identical to Thunderball as everyone had already seen that movie almost twenty years prior.

There’s no Aston Martin – instead Bond is back in a Bentley, as that’s what he drives in the related book. There’s no fancy animated title sequence, as that was something the other guys did. The film goes to great lengths to differentiate itself; Q is a jokey type eager to hear about Bond’s violent exploits, and Felix Leiter is black, a bit of casting later mirrored in Daniel Craig’s films. Then there’s the casino sequence.

This in spirit is essentially every UKIE event. | Image credit: Warner / Amazon MGM

Anyone who has seen or read Bond media knows the casino scene. The hero and villain face off at the table over cards. They needle each other with bets and quips. Animosity is sewn that will be paid off in violence later. In Thunderball, this scene exists where Bond and villain Emilio Largo face off in baccarat chemin de fer. This scene is in Never Say Never Again also – except it’s differentiated in the most fabulously eighties way imaginable.

Largo is given a decade-appropriate makeover as an annoying nerd with a bad haircut. He’s eighties Elon. The eyepatch and menacing snarl is gone. And instead of hanging out in a high-stakes casino, he hosts guests in a casino side room, inviting folk clad in tailored tuxedos and elegant dresses to… an arcade. A suited and booted Sean Connery leans against a beautiful then-new arcade cabinet for Atari’s Gravitar that was almost certainly product-placed and flirts with the female lead as she plays the machine. Rather than the quiet ambience of cards against felt and roulette balls rattling on the frets, these classic Bond scenes are awash with the bleeps and bloops of an eighties arcade. It’s bizarre. I love it.

When it’s time for the showdown with the villain, Largo reveals he has programmed his own video game called ‘Domination’. It’s hard to understand how this game is supposed to work, but it involves simulating nuclear war between two great powers. The controls give each player electric shocks if they perform poorly. “Eternal battle for the domination of the world begins,” raps the robotic voice of the wood-panelled arcade machine. The whole thing is a clunky metaphor for the conflict at the centre of the film, obviously. It’s got all the classic scenery-chewing dialogue from this sort of scene, the villain snarling about the need to “share the pain of our soldiers” and all that. It’s a staple franchise scene… just over an arcade game.

Here’s Domination in all its glory. | Image credit: Warner / Amazon MGM

It’s an incredible time capsule. I think it represents a few different moments in time. Never Say Never Again released in the wake of Star Wars and just a year after Tron. Gaming was enormous, even though the great industry crash was imminent. At the time this was made science fiction and video games were in vogue. It also obviously serves a purpose in transforming Thunderball too, as these scenes take on a completely different vibe despite serving an identical story purpose.

Nevertheless, this is a distinctly Bondian viewpoint of our fabulous hobby. It envisions a world in which arcade games are to become the sort of thing that the sophisticated upper echelon of society might gather and experience just as they might roulette.You can imagine how this conclusion genuinely didn’t seem so far fetched in 1982/3, before the great crash. Bond doesn’t belittle or raise an eyebrow at playing a video game – he sits down as eagerly to participate as he would for hold ‘em.

In the modern context, there’s something wonderfully mad about these people in diamonds and pearls huddled around Centipede and Dig Dug cabinets, and then gathering around to watch Bond and Largo play some digital nonsense for a quarter of a million dollars cash. This might make James Bond one of the first ever esports athletes, I suppose. Almost certainly the first on film? I can hear whoever is going to be editing this article groaning, so it’s time to stop. But, IO – I want to know. Is your new Gen-Z Bond a gamer? Could he beat Blofeld in Fortnite? I’m asking the important questions here.



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Kamrui Mini Pc 512
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This Kamrui Mini PC (16GB RAM, 512GB) Is Going Like Hotcakes, Amazon Slashes It to a Record Low

by admin August 28, 2025


Amazon is going big for Labor Day and Back to School season, slashing prices on computers just as they are most in demand. This is the time of year when students purchase new items for school and professionals upgrade their rigs, so if there’s ever a time to shell out for a new system at a discount, it’s now.

And today, one of the hottest mini PCs on Amazon just hit a new record low: the Kamrui GK3Plus mini PC (16GB RAM 512GB M.2 SSD Mini Computers,12th Alder Lake N95), usually listed at $210, has dropped to $152. That’s one of the steepest cuts we’ve seen on this compact powerhouse, and this is the kind of deal that won’t hang around long.

See at Amazon

Improved GPU and CPU

The GK3Plus is a small but serious desktop replacement based on Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake N95 chip. Clocking up to 3.4GHz on 4 cores and 6MB of cache, it’s a clear performance step up from the N100 and other previous-gen chips. Benchmarks show that it’s about 35% faster on CPU workloads and nearly 80% better on GPU, so more responsive multitasking and better graphics for your everyday needs.

Filled with 16GB of DDR4 RAM, it can run a number of programs at once without slowing down. That’s especially handy if you live in dozens of browser windows or switch between Office, Zoom, and Photoshop. As for storage, it has a 512GB M.2 SSD which translates to speedy boot times and plenty of space for documents, apps, and media. And if down the line you realize that you’re in need of more storage space, you can expand up to 2TB using a second 2.5-inch drive.

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It is a mere 5.1 by 5.1 by 1.9 inches in diameter (small enough to fit in one hand) and can sit quietly on a desk without appropriating valuable real estate. You can even mount it on the back of a VESA-supported monitor and create your own all-in-one solution for an efficient workspace. For home use, you can place it under your TV and turn an ordinary display into a 4K streaming device that handles much more than most smart TVs can handle.

Graphics performance is provided by embedded UHD Graphics at 1.20GHz with 4K at 60Hz and three displays at once through dual HDMI and VGA support. That means sharp text, vibrant colors, and silky smooth play back whether you’re watching movies, working on multiple documents side by side, or gaming at a casual level. Having the ability to work with three screens at once is a huge productivity gain because it enables you to arrange tasks without window juggling.

At this bargain, Amazon’s stock could easily run out before the holiday rush is over.

See at Amazon



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Lego Spider-Verse Minifigure 6-Packs Sold Out Everywhere Except Walmart Ahead Of Monday's Launch
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Lego Spider-Verse Minifigure 6-Packs Sold Out Everywhere Except Walmart Ahead Of Monday’s Launch

by admin August 28, 2025



Lego’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse minifigure collection releases September 1. If you haven’t preordered a mystery box or two, you may want to secure your minifigures ahead of Monday’s launch. As expected, the Spider-Verse Lego minifigure collection has proven to be quite popular. Walmart is the only retailer still taking preorders for the $30 Spider-Verse minifigure 6-packs as of August 28. Amazon briefly reopened preorders earlier today, but those units were claimed in less than 10 minutes. Preorders are also sold out at Target and the Lego Store.

Lego Minifigures: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse features 12 different characters from the beloved animated film. In addition to the $30 mystery boxes with six minifigures, select retailers will have singles for five bucks each. Store pages for the mystery minifigure bags are up at Walmart and the Lego Store, but neither retailer is taking orders before launch day.

  • Preorder Lego Minifigures: Spider-Verse 6-Pack — $30
  • Lego Minifigures: Spider-Verse — $5 each

$30 | Releases September 1

Since we’re talking about Spider-Verse here, the set has a few of the zanier Spider-Men from the multiverse, including Werewolf Spider-Man., Spider-Punk, and Sun-Spider.

Many of the Spider-Verse minifigures come with accessories. For instance, Spider-Punk has an electric guitar; Web-slinger, otherwise known as Patrick O’Hara, actually comes with a horse figure; and Pavitr Prabhakar’s minifigure is accompanied by a cat figure that is reminiscent of Bodega Cat from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Perhaps most notably, Peter B. Parker has a baby carrier that holds a mini-minifigure of his daughter Mayday.

All 12 minifigures come with a display stand for the character and any included accessories.

Here’s the full list of minifigures in the Spider-Verse collection:

  • Miles Morales (Spider-Man)
  • Prowler (Miles G. Morales)
  • Peter B. Parker (Old Spider-Man)
  • Gwen Stacy (Ghost Spider)
  • Spider-Punk (Hobart Brown)
  • Sun-Spider (Charlotte Webber)
  • Werewolf Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
  • Spider-Byte (Margo Kess)
  • Web-Slinger (Miguel O’Hara)
  • Patrick O’Hara (Web-slinger)
  • Cyborg Spider-Woman (Petra Parker)
  • Pavitr Prabhakar (Spider-Man)

It’s not impossible to receive a duplicate in these minifigure mystery boxes, but it is unlikely. What is likely, however, is that you’ll need to purchase more than two boxes to get all 12 characters in the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse collection. Unless you’re quite lucky.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Lego Minifigures

More Lego Minifigure Collections

Lego has released some pretty cool minifigure collections over the past year, including a Dungeon & Dragons set. Unfortunately, that set has been discontinued–minifigure collections are retired much faster than regular sets–but you can buy a Dungeons & Dragons 6-pack for $45 (with shipping) from a third-party reseller on Amazon. Earlier this year, Lego launched a collection of 12 miniature F1 race cars; this series is still available, and you can get a 6-pack for $26 (was $30).

Lego Minifigure Mystery 6-Packs

Single Lego Minifigures

We’ve included a brief list of Marvel and Spider-Man mystery minifigures and polybags you can still find on Amazon for reasonable prices. All of the products in the list below are no longer manufactured.

$40 (was $50) | 375 Pieces

Multiple Across the Spider-Verse characters were previously featured as minifigures in the Miles Morales vs. the Spot Lego playset. Based on the scene from Across the Spider-Verse, this 325-piece set comes with four characters: Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, The Spot, and Officer Jefferson. You also get to build Officer Jefferson’s police cruiser and the corner deli. You can get this Lego Spider-Verse playset for $40 (was $50) at Amazon.

A cheap way to get two Spider-Man minifigures is with the Spider-Man’s Car and Doc Ock playset. Technically this 48-piece set is for preschoolers, but it comes with Spidey and Doc Ock minifigures and is only $7 (was $10). Another popular, budget-friendly playset is Lego’s Spider-Man vs. Venom Muscle Car. This 254-piece set is only $24 (was $30) and includes Spider-Man, Venom, and Spider-Woman minifigures.

Spider-Man minifigure collectors may also be interested in Lego’s larger, articulated action figures, such as this Spider-Man Mech that’s on sale for only $9.49 (was $15). The Spider-Man Mech set includes an Anti-Venom minifigure and multiple accessories. Speaking of Venom, he also has his own buildable Lego mech that comes with a Miles Morales minifigure. The Lego Venom Mech is available for $14 (was $15).

Two of Lego’s Spider-Man Construction Figures are available for discounts at Amazon. The 303-piece Iron Spider-Man Construction Figure is only $24 (was $30). If you want Iron Spider-Man to have a villain to fight, check out the 471-piece Green Goblin Construction Figure for $28 (was $35). Heads up: the Green Goblin is retiring soon, so this might be your last chance to buy it for less than MSRP.

Lego Spider-Man Buildable Action Figures + Mechs

Iron Spider-Man and Green Goblin Construction Figures

While you’re checking out the Spider-Verse minifigures, take a look at the recently released Lego Minecraft and Star Wars gift set bundles. Exclusive to Walmart, the Lego Minecraft 5-in-1 World Explorer Gift Set comes with 15 minifigures and mob figures–plus a bunch of other buildable components–for only $45. The Lego Star Wars 3-in-1 Adventure Gift Set has nine minifigures, five droid figures, multiple vehicles, and more. This Walmart-exclusive Star Wars Lego bundle also costs $45.



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