Flashlights and grubby gas masks at the ready: there will be a sequel to Metro Exodus, the developers of the follow-up to Metro 2033 and Last Light have confirmed. Don’t expect it soon, though, as 4A Games say it’ll arrive “when it’s ready”.
]]>Modders have been getting busy with FSR 2.0, AMD’s latest, recently open source-ified, Nvidia DLSS-esque upscaling tech. First someone got FSR 2.0 working in Cyberpunk 2077, then someone modded the Cyberpunk mod to get FSR in Dying Light 2, and then someone discovered the mod of the mod could also mod Metro Exodus. Now, redditor Muddymind has figured out how to tweak the Metro mod so that it can act as an Nvidia DLAA clone, skipping the upscaling bit to solely provide better image quality and anti-aliasing.
]]>June is here and the smell of E3 is in the air. Social media managers are making vague, cheeky posts about their games that don't yet have release dates. Fans are wondering if the 23rd entry in their favorite series will be announced. In among all that excitement is always bound to be a reality check or so. Deep Silver have helpfully popped up to name four things that you don't need to get your hopes up for during any of the upcoming summer showcases. Saint's Row, TimeSplitters, Metro, and Dead Island are going to be keeping their collective heads down, they say.
]]>I've found that the dingy post-apocalyptic world of Metro Exodus always looked quite good, but today developers 4A Games made those visuals even better. They've released the Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, expanding the FPS's ray tracing capabilities, increasing framerates and display resolutions, among other technical upgrades. You can download the Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition right now if you'd like, but be warned: it requires a ray tracing-capable GPU at the very minimum.
]]>Hot on the heels of their decision to bring back their charitable donation sliders, Humble have announced their latest monthly Choice bundle - and this month's big headliner is none other than Metro Exodus, which upgrades into the brand new Enhanced Edition today for free. The May Bundle also includes 11 more games, too, and is available to new customers for a discounted price of £8.61 in the UK or $12 in the US.
]]>One of the benefits of Metro Exodus escaping the dark underground tunnels of its predecessors was getting a look at just how lovely freezing to death could look. 4A Games are planning to pretty up their apocalypse FPS even further this spring. The PC enhanced edition will trick out Exodus's visuals and lighting even further with expanded ray tracing capabilities and higher resolution textures and other goodies. All the better to see those approaching baddies and frigid, reflective puddles with.
]]>Last year, Metro Exodus proved that the series could crawl out of the subterranean tunnels of its past and successfully carve out a new home exploring above ground. What's next in this brave new world, then? A lot, apparently. Developers 4A Games have published an update to mark the tenth year since the series began and to say that they've got a whole lot on their plates. They're working on the next Metro series game, tinkering with concepts for multiplayer Metro, and staffing up for a totally new series.
]]>Ultrawide gaming monitors can seem excessive compared to regular 16:9 gaming screens, especially when their demanding resolutions often require powerful and expensive graphics cards to make the most of them. Once you try one, though, there's no going back. I've been a big fan of ultrawide gaming monitors for years now, as their extra screen space not only makes them great for juggling multiple desktop windows, but supported PC games also look uttery fantastic on them - and to prove it, I've put together this list of the best ultrawide games on PC.
]]>There's a new conductor on the Metro: Exodus train. Or driver, even. Captain? I might not know how trains work, but I can tell you that Metro developers 4A Games have just been picked up by Embracer Group for around $80 million (roughly £61 million), and are floating plans to put that partnership to work on a multiplayer take on the post-apocalyptic Muscovite.
]]>Wow. Look at that summer sun slapping the face of the planet, like a big 12-hour camera flash. So hot, so clear-skied. A blessed day of walks in the park, trips to the beach, picnics by the litter bins. What a glorious day for wasps it is out there. Let’s all go to the...
Oh right. Forget I said anything. Go back inside, lock the doors, and consider some of these perfect virtual holiday destinations. Please, trust us with your fake vacation. After all, what is a games journalist but a sort of really dodgy travel agent?
]]>Right out of the oven, here are the hottest new games on Steam from February and boy they are hot indeed. Put those games on the cooling rack and open a window, will you? Games with "sexual content," (in the parlance of professional business speak) do occasionally crack the list of top selling new games but four is quite a feat. There are other trends to note as well: nearly half of the list are newly in Early Access or have just graduated from EA to a complete release. It was a big month for small and sexy games!
]]>Ah, religion. I know this is a topic we all have trouble agreeing on. But fear not, humble practitioner of a good pray, I am not here to squint angrily at your favourite book of life advice. I’m only here for the videogame religions. The ones that are very, very, very, very bad. You know, the gun-loving cults and the xenophobic people-burners. The (mostly) fictional religions that involve an uncommon volume of murder. Step this way, sprinkle yourself with some of my 100% genuine oil of the almighty, and peruse the 9 most dodgy religions in games.
]]>Back in the day, you really had to work hard to pull pranks in Google search results by planting Google Bombs and such. These days, now that the Internet is run by deranged robots made of clouds, it seems Google will happily prank itself. Case in point: today, searching for Steam on Google could return a listing describing Valve's digital store with the words "FUCK EPIC GAMES STORE" and fragments of broken ASCII art. It doesn't seem to be the result of a hack, prank, or corporate warfare, just some robot seeing a Steam user's review of Metro Exodus and thinking "Yeah gwan that's probably important" in its vaporous little brain.
]]>All aboard! After braving the stormy tracks of Epic Games Store exclusivity for the past 12 months, Metro: Exodus has finally pulled into Steam central station. Trading claustrophobic tunnels for a grand post-apocalyptic Russian expanse, the rather-good third entry in 4A Games' Metro series arrives today, with two hefty expansion stories in tow.
]]>Sam's Story, the latest and last story expansion for Metro Exodus has launched, plonking you in the shoes of a former US Marine who's trying to find a way home through the Russian wastelands. It has arrived just a few days before Exodus's year of Epic Games Store exclusivity ends and the game launches on Steam too.
In the launch trailer, we hear gruff Sam talk us through his plans to escape back to the US, and also watch him shoot lots of dudes and get attacked by many gruesome creatures.
]]>After a year of being exclusive to the Epic Games Store, Metro Exodus is hitting Steam next week. The third game in the post-apocalyptic FPS series is pretty decent, and by the time it's out on Steam it'll have two expansions to play through too. So, it's a good time to get hold of it, and if you've been waiting for it to be free of its Epic chains, you best set your alarm for 5am GMT on Saturday 15th February.
]]>The Russian post-apocalypse game Metro Exodus has announced a date for its second DLC coming in February. Like the first DLC, Sam’s Story ditches the main game's protagonist in favor of a new set of eyes. It will follow the story of a US Marine trying to make his way back to the states from the Moscow embassy where he was stationed before the nukes started a'flying.
]]>2019 was a great year for PC games - aren't they all? - but you might not yet know what the very best PC games of 2019 were. Let us help you.
]]>It's been a tough weekend for a lot of people. And there's a tough season coming up, too. Despite Saint Nick's PRs working over time to make us all cheerful, Christmas can actually be a sad and stressful time, can't it?
Listen: it’s ok to be sad. It's fine. You feel what you feel. So, I asked the RPS hivemind what their gaming happy places were, so we could all share them together. They might turn out to be places you'd like to visit too.
]]>Gather round, descendants of unwelcome occupiers. It is time to celebrate turkeys again. Now, I don’t have any comically large birds to slaughter, but I do recognise the emotional benefit of reflection, which is what this questionable holiday is all about. Being thankful. There are many small things we videosgamers take for granted, the stuff you don’t even think about. But tiny “quality of life” things still deserve a grateful thumbs-up. Here are 17 things to be thankful for in games.
]]>HDR on PC hasn't improved much in 2019. Despite there being more HDR gaming monitors than ever before, the very best gaming monitors for HDR continue to be quite expensive compared to non-HDR monitors, and the situation around Windows 10 support for it is still a bit of a mess. However, provided you're willing to fight through all that, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get an HDR compatible graphics card.
Below, you'll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that have built-in support for HDR, as well as everything you need to know about getting one that also supports Nvidia and AMD's own HDR standards, G-Sync Ultimate and FreeSync 2. I've also put together a list of all the PC games that support HDR as well, so you know exactly which PC games you can start playing in high dynamic range.
]]>The first of Metro Exodus' two DLC expansions arrives on PC today, so I thought it was high time to revisit my jumbo graphics performance test to tell you how to get the best settings on even more of today's best graphics cards. After all, there have been several new Nvidia RTX and AMD Navi cards released since Metro Exodus came out in February, so regardless of whether you're starting the game for the first time or jumping back in for a bit of Two Colonels action, here's how to get Metro Exodus running at a smooth 60fps.
]]>Google held another one of their Stadia Connect conferences today, and this one was meant to be all about what games you'll be playing in the "scary" cloud come November. Sure enough, there were new Stadia games aplenty announced this evening, with the biggest addition being Cyberpunk 2077.
To help keep track of them all, here's a list of every Google Stadia game confirmed so far, as well as which games are coming at launch, which ones will be arriving a little bit later, and which games you'll only be able to play by subscribing to one of the special Stadia publisher subscriptions.
]]>Summer. The heat age. Scorch season. Spring's hangover. It's the mid-point of the year and you know what that means. No, not "mojito time", Geoff, put those away. It's time we told you what the best games of the year are so far. There are quite a lot of them. Just look how many videogames have escaped from their developers in the past six months and are now running amok through the blistering streets, getting stuck in the melting tarmac, like ants in jam. It's unsanitary. So allow us to round up these unruly games and trap them in a handy list. Here are our favourite sword swingers and space 'splorers so far this year (and a couple of DLCs for good measure).
Okay, Geoff, now bring the mojitos.
]]>Lovely as Metro Exodus was, the extremely Russian post-apocalyptic FPS came (optionally) bundled with a sealed mystery vault of goodies in its season pass. Now, 4A games have finally revealed what's in the box, and it thankfully doesn't sound too painful. There are two expansions on the way, the first offering a more classic linear Metro story, and the second adding another open-world sandbox zone to explore, and both put you in the shoes of new characters. The first expansion - The Two Colonels - is out this summer, and the second - Sam's Story - launches in early 2020. Below, details and possible spoilers if you've not finished the main game.
]]>Last month, I put Nvidia's GTX ray tracing driver to the test, seeing what kind of speeds were possible on the GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 in Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The results, it's fair to say, were pretty mixed. Metro was completely unplayable on both cards, but Tomb Raider did, in fact, show promising signs of life as long as you kept its ray tracing setting on Medium - which ended being such a minuscule kind of effect that it was barely worth bothering with.
Now, I've got the GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti back in to see what they're capable of as well. Can our new best graphics card champs' new Turing GPUs make a better go of ray tracing than the GTX 10-series' old Pascal architecture? Let's find out.
]]>The Epic Games Store is no longer the only place to buy its exclusives, as the promised partnership with the Humble Store has begun. You can now buy Epic keys for Metro Exodus and Dangerous Driving from Humble, as well as pre-order Borderlands 3 (you know better than to pre-order, of course). These still run through the Epic Games Launcher on an Epic account, so it's not a huge change, but this does mean they benefit from the wee discount of Humble subscriptions and might be in sales more often.
]]>At the end of last week, Nvidia released a new Game Ready driver that unlocked their fancy pants real time ray tracing tech for GTX 10 and 16-series graphics cards, starting with the 6GB GTX 1060. Before that, you had to have a shiny new Nvidia RTX card to take advantage of all their realistic lighting effects in games such as Metro Exodus, Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the cheapest of which is the still quite pricey £330 / $350 RTX 2060.
Technically, Nvidia's GTX 10-series has always been able to do ray tracing - it's just it's never really been possible due to the sheer amount of graphical grunt involved to render it all in real time. And to some extent, it's still not really possible - at least not in games such as the super intensive Metro Exodus, for example, which employs practically every current ray tracing technique under the sun. But in other games where developers have employed slightly lighter ray tracing techniques, such as the shadows in (you guessed it) Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it's actually more feasible than you think - and I've been putting my 6GB GTX 1060 and GTX 1070 cards to the test to find out exactly what kind of speeds you can expect to see with ray tracing switched on.
]]>Deep Silver have cancelled a load of Metro Exodus Steam keys sold through key resellers after discovering, they say, the keys had been stolen from the factory making boxed copies. Metro Exodus switched to Epic Games Store exclusivity late enough in development that they produced physical PC copies set up for Steam, then swapped out the Steam keys for Epic keys and stuck Epic stickers over the Steam logo. Apparently some scoundrel scooped those abandoned Steam keys to sell on, Deep Silver found out, and they've now cancelled those keys, removing the game from the Steam libraries of players who bought them.
]]>Experienced riders of the post-apocalyptic Russian rails in Metro Exodus can now upgrade to first class with a New Game+ mode, starting their journey afresh with all their weapons and gear from the end of the game carried over to a new save. That arrived in today's update, along with a running commentary from the conductors (developer commentary tapes) explaining more about the train's journey (the game's development). Plus performance improvements, bug fixes... patch stuff.
]]>I like bad weather and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the raw, sublime beauty of it. More likely, it’s a form of meteorological Stockholm Syndrome. I’ve lived in Britain long enough to appreciate being constantly rained on (at least until Summer when my face melts off onto the pavement). But the bad weather I’m talking about lies in the Goldilocks zone. I want neither the tacky Clintons Christmas card nor the photoshopped Thomas Cook travel brochure. No, I want that grey zone, that drizzle into downpour. In Metro Exodus, I found the sogginess I long for.
]]>Contains spoilers.
Metro Exodus works poorly as a morality tale, a thriller, a horror, or an epic hero’s journey. Played as a lyrical ballad, however, a Soviet drinking song belted out around an oil drum camp fire, complete with bad jokes, questionable embellishments and drunken operatic flourishes, it starts to make sense. It is a profoundly odd game, I found, though not in the same ways as its predecessors. It relinquishes the series’ supernatural elements in favour of a campy uncanniness, a blasé chuckle in the face of desolation, and a childlike optimism at finding a slightly shinier variety of shithole at the outskirts of a doomed world.
]]>Nvidia have announced that another three monitors have joined their exclusive G-Sync Compatible monitors list today, taking the total number of adaptive sync / FreeSync monitors that can officially sort of take advantage of their swish variable refresh rate G-Sync tech to 15. And if that wasn't enough, Nvidia have also added Metro Exodus to their current RTX graphics card bundle, giving new RTX buyers another ray tracing and DLSS showcase game to make the most of their new graphics card purchase. Full details below.
]]>Alice is on holiday, so this week it's me, Alice, filling in for Alice. We're deep in the trenches now, the game trenches, the February onslaught of releases. Metro is only just in our rear view mirror, and Brendan is almost a broken man. Anthem is in its bizarre week of early release for people who'll pay for EA's special version of Origins. Apelegs is taking the Battles Royales by storm. There is too much to do, so I might not remind people to send me what they're playing, just so I don't have to put it in this document, because I am busy playing some of the games that we have to play. I know, what a ridiculous thing to moan about, hey?
What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
]]>Bang bang, listeners. This week we are talking about the greatest guns, the wackiest weapons, the most fabulous firearms, all in a serious and knowing fashion on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. The pod squad are stocking a chest full of videogame firearms, like three frightening quartermasters. Matthew is sequestering a laser pointer from Gears of War, Alice wants the exploding teddy gun from Sunset Overdrive, and Brendan is taking Symmetra's energy gun from Overwatch. What are you taking?
]]>Like everyone else and their irradiated mutant grandmother, I'll be playing Metro Exodus this weekend. I gave 4A's Stalkers-on-a-train opus a quick trial run this morning, but was immediately dismayed by a surfeit of malodorous fromage in its cod-Russian-accented English dialogue. It's not the worst I've heard by a long shot, but it's broad, broad, broad - enough so that it gently undermines the moody, murderous atmosphere.
For all I know, the Russian voice acting is even sillier, but to my heathen ears playing it with voices matching its Moscow setting, translated by English subtitles, makes for a vastly more atmospheric ride on the deathtrain. I wouldn't play Metro Exodus any other way.
]]>Danger: mild spoilers ahead.
There’s a pile of bodies twitching under our flashlights. My god, what is it now? Mutant wolves? Crab freaks? Spiders? Please, not more spiders. In post-apocalyptic shooter Metro Exodus, when you walk through a web, there is a terrifying animation of a hand-sized muto-spider as it crawls across your arm, your gun, and your face. I’ve been enjoying the small touches like this in 4A’s not-exactly-open-world shooter, this admirable attention to detail. The button to wipe your gas mask is still there. The gizmo that charges your torch is still there.
I point my torch at the heap of bodies, and it twitches again. A creature bursts out - a giant mole. I’m going to shoot it now, because, sorry mole, this world is not so open that it will accept your freakery. This is still a heavily scripted adventure. I’m just sticking to my lines.
]]>It's been a long time coming, but the list of games with proper, honest-to-goodness RTX support you can actually take advantage of in-game is finally getting a teensy bit longer today, as Nvidia have announced their performance-boosting DLSS tech is coming to both Battlefield V and Metro Exodus as part of their next graphics driver update - just in time for budding RTX card-owning Metro fans to get ray tracing and DLSS support when the game launches this Friday on February 15.
]]>It worked! Everyone, it worked! The sacrifices we all made, they were all worth it. Some said we were fools to ritually slaughter those Fortnite players and smear our naked bodies with their blood and entrails, but look! No GTA V in the Steam Charts! And no Monster Hunter World! Sure, there's still flipping Clancy Siege, and obviously nothing short of sacrificing a god could take out Plunkbat, but it's a chart filled with fresh, new and even lovely games!
]]>The Metro series will continue and will continue on PC, publishers Deep Silver have insisted. Last week, a frustrated member of developers 4A Games had suggested on a forum that if PC peeps boycotted Metro Exodus over it becoming an Epic Games Store exclusive, then future games would skip PC. Naw, Deep Silver say, don't sweat it. They also stress that they made the decision to switch to Epic exclusivity, not 4A Games, so don't rag on 4A for it.
]]>While the past week has seen no end of handbags about the last-minute shape-shifting of Metro Exodus into an Epic Store exclusive, and what this means for Steam and whether it's fair to players, perhaps we have forgotten to think of the children. That is to say, the game at the heart of this controversy.
I'd long had 4A's nuclear winter shooter mentally filed under "sure, I'll play that at some point when I get the chance", but watching this latest round of footage, I've just recategorised it under "Oh man I need to play this RIGHT NOW."
]]>There were shocked faces all round when Metro Exodus was suddenly declared to be exclusive to Epic's increasingly pugnacious new store yesterday. The Fortnite bunch have been making a play to turn their store into a serious Steam rival for a few weeks now, but the much-anticipated third Metro game was a hell of a scalp to take from Valve.
More startling was that it happened while Metro was just a fortnight (ohhhhh) from release, as opposed to Epic making eyes at a mid-development game. It's for that reason that Valve are now claiming that the Metro Exodus about-face is "unfair to customers."
There's a lot to unpack there.
]]>Steam, unquestionably, needs a sizeable competitor. With a significant monopoly on the PC games market, such that present rivals like GOG and Humble barely take a dent out of its audience, Valve is able to take an infuriatingly lackadaisical approach to many aspects of Steam. Something to scare them into action would be marvellous. And while not optimistic, I'd hoped that maybe Epic, with their lorries full of money, might be able to try. Except, with yet another exclusivity announcement today regarding Metro: Exodus, they're going about it entirely the wrong way.
]]>Grungy post-apocalyptic shooter Metro Exodus will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store, at least in the case of the digital release. Given that 4A's grand rail journey across a decayed, mutated Russia was due out on February 15th - just over two weeks away - it's a bit of a surprise for anyone who had already pre-ordered on Steam. Those with outstanding pre-orders will receive Metro Exodus as expected on their store of choice, but publisher Deep Silver are sweetening the deal for Epic Store customers a little by cutting the US dollar price of the game a bit. Annoyingly, Euro and UK prices remain the same.
]]>Metro Exodus, the latest FPS mutant-'em-up from 4A Games, has been steadily chugging along like a steam train across the Russian landscape, and now its release is fast approaching. To prep you for its imminent arrival, we've thrown together the below Metro Exodus guide containing everything we know so far about the game, including the Metro Exodus release date and pre-order information; details on the combat, crafting, setting, and story of Metro Exodus; and all the latest trailers and footage to whet your appetite before the mutant hordes arrive.
]]>A new (and relatively lengthy) Metro Exodus trailer showcases the many weapons and customisations that will be available when the game launches, next month.
The trailer (which you can watch below) details the many gun classes that will be available as well as some of the customisation options that will tailor each weapon to your specific needs.
]]>New year, old friends. The boys and girls of the RPS podcast have not been reborn, they have no resolutions, no ambitious goal to learn German or eat more spinach. They just want to play more videogames. Unbelievable. So let’s listen to them chat about the shooters and RPGs that have them most excited. That’s what they do on these podcasts, you know, they just talk nonsense. And they get PAID for it. It’s outrageous, if you ask me, a nameless publication byline.
]]>I was told before playing Metro Exodus that, as with the previous Metro games, it is important to think before you act. Seize every quiet opportunity to craft another med kit, a molotov, another filter for your mask. Continually take stock of your, er, stock. And it’s true, there is grim satisfaction in sneaking up behind a weird anti-electricity pseudo-Christian cultist and knocking him out without making a sound. In disarming the noisemaker traps before you run into them. In taking out a ghoul-like Humanimal with a throwing knife to the head, and pulling the knife out to use on something else. Reduce, reuse, recycle, as they say.
But it’s also good to pull out a sawn-off shotgun and blast a Humanimal in the face with it, alerting all the other Humanimals in the area so you can faceblast them as well.
]]>Artyom and pals may escape the sealed, haunted world of Moscow's subway tunnels in Metro Exodus, but the latest story trailer shows there's plenty of problems on the surface too. 4A Games may have switched up the environments to include some deep, dank swamps and harsh looking deserts, but the threats are familiar. There's still a range of weird mutant monsters, and it seems that no matter where you go there's still going to be Nazis. Ah well, at least they provide a subset of the post-apocalyptic human population you can shoot without guilt. Take a peek at the new video below.
]]>Wow 2019 is a thing, huh? How are we all doing? Relieved? Bowling a hangover and a nagging sense of trepidation? Maybe you work in retail and, surprise! You were supposed to be at work half an hour ago. Time loses all meaning post-New Year break, doesn't it? You're just sort of adrift in a sea of empty Quality Street wrappers. That's okay. We're all there too.
Pretty soon the grim news cycle is going to grind to life again. Only three months until -- no! Don't think about it. We still have a moment here, on the crinkly, brightly coloured waves. Listen to their quiet rustling and think, not about reality, but about games! Yes, lovely, shiny games. We can bury our face right in them. And from that point of view the next 12 months are looking pretty good. Here's our selection of the games we're most looking forward to next year.
]]>It’s deathly quiet in the forest. Then the silence gives way to a man shouting for help. He's tied to a post and trying to fend off a ravenous wolf. A single crossbow bolt takes the feral creature out. The shirtless man pleads for my help to free him, cussing as he explains his predicament. I choose to cut him loose. “I owe you my life,” he says. “I’ll never forget this, I swear.”
Inconsequential though it may seem, I begin to ponder his words. Could this have implications? Maybe his captors will return to find he’s escaped and attempt to track me down. It may have been better to leave him tied up. But perhaps he’ll help me the next time our paths cross. It’s this kind of small-scale player choice that runs through the heart of Metro Exodus.
]]>There's just one week left until a borderline-biblical plague of developers descend upon Birmingham to showcase their up-and-coming games to all. This great gathering shall be known as EGX 2018 and starts on September 20th, running until the 23rd.
There's going to be hundreds of games on show there across all platforms, featuring developers of all shapes and sizes - both physically and business-wise. While I'll be sadly missing out on the fun (someone's got to man the news desk), here's a few choice PC games that'll be at the show, and everyone should be checking out.
]]>The new RTX graphics cards have been the talk of this year's Gamescom for hardware nuts, and with good reason. While their jump in raw performance is still a little vague, at least in terms of RTX 2080 vs GTX 1080 speeds, the new techie bits they're ushering in such as Nvidia's fancy ray tracing light gubbins (which makes shadows and reflections look extra pretty and realistic) and their clever, speed-boosting deep learning super sampling (which uses AI to produce equally sharp, smooth edges as traditional anti-aliasing tech) are really quite impressive.
There's a lot more I can't tell you about just yet, but one man who can is 4A Games' rendering programmer Ben Archard, who I sat down with earlier this week to chat about all things RTX in upcoming post-apocalyptic, train adventure Metro Exodus. We talked about everything from 4A's RTX performance targets to how it could potentially change the course of game development as we know it.
]]>It’s time for Gamescom, the yearly show in Germany. There are lots of games here. Too many for a lone operator. We’re going to have to send a whole unit. That’s where you come in, members of the elite RPS podcast. Four of you are going to Cologne. We’ve heard reports of Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus, Biomutant, Dying Light 2, Ape Out, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot and many more colourful adversaries. You’re going to have to bring your hottest takes. Your objective: a special Gamescom episode of the Electronic Wireless Show. Gear up.
]]>Ever since the official unveiling of their RTX 2080 cards on Monday, we've heard nothing but 'ray tracing this' and 'Giga Rays that' - so much so that I can probably now recite 3573 things about their fancy pants lighting equations off by heart. What I can't say 3753 things about is their frame rate performance, mostly because Nvidia have only revealed a small handful of very specific figures so far regarding RTX 2080 vs GTX 1080 benchmarks and I haven't been able to do any independent testing on them, making it nigh-on impossible to tell how they really compare to the rest of today's best graphics cards.
After speaking with Metro Exodus developers 4A Games, however, we might finally have some idea of what to expect when Nvidia's pretty RTX settings are all switched on.
]]>“Get lost or pay wit ur life,” says the note. Normally, I would not be threatened by such a poorly spelled message from – let me see – ah yes, the “Brezeren of the Coast”. After all, the note is written with the tone of a brat in a treehouse. That said, it was also delivered by a scarily accurate crossbow bolt, piercing the wooden post right next to my head. So maybe I should take the Brezeren a little more seriously. I mean, they have nailed an awful lot of corpses to the walls of that house back there. The open-ish world of Metro Exodus looks grim and muddy, but it's woods and riverlands are wilder than I expected.
]]>I didn't realise how much I'd missed Metro's ball bearing rifle till I spent two hours with Metro Exodus, the third in 4A Games' cult series of post-Soviet, post-apocalyptic shooters. Goodness, that rifle. The sheer delight of cranking its Super Soaker handle. The vicious snap of escaping air when you pull the trigger. The rush to make the most of those few seconds of maximum pressure, and the panic when you empty the cylinder and all your shots start to bounce off. There's no better advertisement for Metro's raw-knuckled survivalist ethic and love of analog technology. It's something I've held onto, as 4A's flight from Moscow's tunnels has exposed it to the slings, arrows, repetitions and inelegances of an open world.
]]>Microsoft had a lot of games to announce at E3 2018, but it's a little murkier this year to find out what was relevant for PC users. Some games were coming to both, others only to their Xbox One consoles. You could of course watch the entire conference right here, but for some there just isn't enough time to wade through the entire show.
Not to worry though, here are all the trailers and news for you in one place. There's a surprising amount of variety in the announced titles: from an old favourite making a return, much celebrated developers showing off their new series, to even a completely free game launching very soon. The games below aren't in any particular order but you're in for a long ride.
]]>If you want to see nuclear winter again, you'll need to survive regular winter, as Metro Exodus has confirmed a release day of February 22nd, 2019. The FPS series based on the post-apocalyptic novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky is venturing even further away from the Moscow subways where all this started, this time roaming across big sandbox overground levels. And apparently fighting boat-chomping giant mutant pondlife at some point. Here, watch Metro Exodus's new E3 trailer, which shows Artyom sneaking, skidding, canoeing, shooting, and stabbing.
]]>Good news for fans of uncompromisingly bleak and incomparably atmospheric Eastern European sandbox shooters: an official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sequel is on the way, original devs GSC Game World have confirmed.
The less-good news is that we’re all going to have to continue playing mods for the original games for a while yet. According to the announcement, the game isn’t due until 2021. And for those itching to pass the time with the similarly-themed Metro Exodus, that's slipped to next year.
]]>THQ Nordic, publishers of the Darksiders games and recent jankfest Elex, have bought Koch Media, the companies have announced. Koch are the father-company of Deep Silver, who publish games like Saints Row, Metro, Dead Island, and Homefront: The Revolution. That means THQ Nordic now own alllll of those bad boys, among others. Due to all the combined plates this company now spins, they could now make a game where the hero of Mighty No. 9 fights jazzy paint-monster De Blob in a doomed bid for supremacy on Mars, aka, Red Faction 3. Although, they probably shouldn’t do that.
]]>As we lay 2017 to rest, let us remember all of the wonderful games that flickered across our screens and occupied our hearts and minds. But now we must promise never to think of them again because times have changed. This is 2018 and if we've learned one thing from the few hours we've spent in it it's that there are games everywhere. Every firework that exploded in the many midnights of New Year's celebrations was stuffed with games and they were still raining down across the world this morning. We cannot stop them, we cannot contain them, but we can attempt to understand them.
Hundreds of them will be worth our time and attention, but we've selected a few of the ones that excite us most as we prepare for another year of splendid PC gaming. There's something for everyone, from Aunt Maude, the military genius, to merry Ian Rogue, the man who hates permadeath and procedural generation with a passion.
]]>For a Metro trailer, the latest Metro Exodus video sure spends a lot of time out of the Metro. A lovely old Soviet locomotive gets top billing over the gloomy, dark underground tunnels. It’s Artyom’s new home and his way to escape dilapidated Moscow. Sadly no gameplay footage made it in, though. Take a gander below.
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>4A Games will continue their fun/grim post-apocalyptic adventures with Metro Exodus [official site] in 2018, publishers Deep Silver have announced during E3. It'll continue from Metro 2033 and Last Light and apparently get out into some lovely sunshine. Here, check out the announcement trailer, which has a good chunk of demo gameplay:
]]>Books! They're like films without pictures, or games that are all cutscene. Old people and hipsters really like them, teenagers think they're like totally lame, and quite frankly we should all read more of them. There are countless games inspired by books - most especially Tolkien, Lovecraft and early Dungeons & Dragon fiction - but surprisingly few games based directly on books. Even fewer good ones.
]]>
