Wake up, mayflies! FatShark have detailed the closed alpha for Warhammer: Vermintide 2's long-awaited Versus mode, in which the doughty Ubersreik Five go up against four player-controlled Skaven Pactsworn (translation: ratty supervillains) in addition to the rank-and-file AI-controlled rodent hordes. The alpha will launch in the "near future", and sounds like just the dollop of rancid PvP shenanigans this lapsed Elven ranger needs to re-install one of the all-time great Warhammer adaptations, which unaccountably isn't on our list of the best co-op games or the best multiplayer games on PC. You got something against horrible giant rats, Ed Thorn?
]]>Devs Fatshark are making their co-op fantasy action game Warhamer: Vermintide 2 permanently free to keep if you grab it on Steam by November 7th. The freebie is part of a month-long 7 Years Of ‘Tide celebration marking the release of the original Vermintide, and finishing up with the launch of Fatshark’s Warhammer 40,000: Darktide on November 30th. There’s also a free update coming to Vermintide 2, Trail Of Treachery, on November 8th. You can watch the trailer for that below.
]]>The week-long Warhammer Skulls event has kicked off with an avalanche of announcements. Leading the pack are three new games: CRPG Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, digital card game Warhammer 40,000: Warpforge, and retro FPS Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef, the 2D action platformer, also got a release date. It’ll be out on the 20th of October.
]]>Poor Saltzpyre has been waiting so patiently while all the other characters in Fatshark's Warhammer: Vermintide 2 have received their snazzy new classes over the last year or so, but his wait is finally over. During The Game Awards, the developers announced Saltzpyre players will be able to become the Warrior Priest of Sigmar today, wielding a chunky, glowing hammer for some close-quarters action. He also has new armour that's covered in skulls, which looks very edgy indeed.
]]>The cooperative ratmasher Warhammer: Vermintide 2 already has some degree of change and surprise across runs, with different enemies in different places, but it's about to go squig-wild. Developers Fatshark have announced the free Chaos Wastes update will launch next week, introducing a new mode with roguelikelike runs. Squads will set out on expeditions, fighting through a random selection of levels, picking up gear and buffs along the way, and risking a return to base if they wipe.
]]>Listen. Thwacking rats with a giant rat all day is hard work, and sometimes you've just gotta give your pummelling arm a break. At least, that's the thinking behind Warhammer: Vermintide 2's resident Dwarf, who's ditching the melee weapons for a stonking great rotary minigun with today's new Outcast Engineer premium career DLC. Good on ya, Bardin - the Heavy would be proud.
]]>Look, it's been a tough year. You're stressed, you're tired, you've got a whole lotta pent-up anger - so why not take it out on a few hundred fantasy ratmen? Riotous rodent-smasher Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is currently free to player over on Steam 'til November 1st, with the return of a limited-time anniversary mission sending our hopeless heroes on a pub crawl from hell.
]]>They've gone and done it, team. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developers Fatshark went and put their rat-smasher in space, announcing Warhammer 40,000: Darktide at today's Xbox Games Showcase. Frankly, it's about damn time someone made a rock-solid FPS in the 41st Millenium - and who better than the folks who turned a stodgy old fantasy wargame into a stellar Left 4 Dead successor?
]]>There are a hell of a lot of Warhammer games out there. But while we've got grimdark trash and genre-defining classics, there have been very few games set in Games Workshop's newest setting. The Old World's been dead a long time - and with few exceptions, nobody's taken a real crack at Warhammer: Age Of Sigmar's multi-dimensional mythos. Until this week, when Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster devs Frontier revealed plans to release a Mortal Realms real-time strategy within the next few years.
]]>Roll up, roll up, Vermintide 2 has a spooky castle and more hats. The castle is a free remade version of the Drachenfels level from the first game. This is just the opening salvo of Season 2, and two more levels will be coming for free later down the line. You can earn some of the new hats through playing, and buy separate ones with real-world money. Developers Fatshark are hoping to finance the free stuff through the paid cosmetic stuff, which is great. Yes. Do that.
There's also been a whopping balance update, and the game's 75% off at the mo, too.
]]>Playing games with other people is one of the beloved traditions of liking video games at all, and if you're the friendly type like us at RPS, then you'll enjoy games where you work with others, rather than against them. That's why we've put together our list of the best co-op games on PC for you to find common ground with your besties. Whether you want to shoot monsters together, shoot robots together, or get a divorcing couple to work together as they run around their own home as tiny doll versions of themselves, then you can find something to enjoy on this list of co-op games.
]]>The first expansion for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 - Winds of Magic - is launching on August 13th, indie dev Fatshark revealed today.
Winds of Magic introduces a new enemy type known as the Beastmen, a faction of cloven-hooved bipedal jerks who, according to Warhammer lore, are intent on destroying civilization and being all around bovine-faced hooligans. After a meteor crashes in the Reikland, the Beastmen rush to its epicenter to claim their sacred Herdstone shrine. The result is a bloody mess of dark cow action, a first-person slash-and-prod in a deep fantasy woodland that is explorable by your collective of heroes. Watch the gameplay trailer after the jump.
]]>Matt: Brendy never made it home last night, after jeering his way through Bethesda's conference in person. The hotel room is lonely and I miss him very much, but the PC Gaming Show must go on. Welcome to the "I'm the only one that's here-ah", where I cheer and jeer at the cheery RPS fanzine's show by myself.
Brendan Wraithwell: Don't worry, I've got your back.
]]>I unexpectedly starting jonesing just the other day for a bout of delightfully grimdark rat-splatting in Warhammery Left 4 Deadlike Vermintide 2. It's coming up to a year since its release, but I never got around to the various DLC to date.
Perhaps now I'll wait until the summer, when the hairy crew known as the Beastmen are set to join the fray in what's being billed as the first actual 'expansion' for V2.
]]>The doors have been opened, the games inside have been devoured, and now it's time to recycle the cardboard. Below you'll find all of our favourite games from 2018, gathered together in a single post for easy reading.
]]>Warhammer: Vermintide 2's second chunk of DLC - Back To Ubersreik - is out now, bringing players back to the besieged and rat-infested city from the first game. The heroes were dramatically driven out of town in the first Vermintide's last bit of free DLC, so it should be interesting to see the old stone walls given a fresh lick of paint, and some new rats to blat. Back To Ubersreik contains three remastered missions from the original game, though Fatshark tease that "There might be more content..." - curious. A not-too-ratty launch trailer scurries around below.
]]>The next DLC for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 will call back to the first game, revisiting and reworking three of the cooperative FPS's most popular levels. Back To Ubersreik is its name, and making three old levels "Bigger, better, and crazier!" is its game, according to developers Fatshark. They've only confirmed one level so far, the game-opening Horn Of Magnus where our four ratsmashers have to blow a big ol' horn to warn everyone: rats, oh god rats.
]]>I've seen more inspired ideas for Halloween events than "let's do some night-time levels", but it's still a pretty good one. For the duration of Geheimnisnacht, every level in Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has been plunged into darkness. Geheimnisnacht is "the most ill-omened night of the year", and lasts until November 4th.
More importantly, there's also a community-run shitty cosplay competition.
]]>What if Left 4 Dead but rats? See for yourself this weekend, as Warhammer: Vermintide 2 tonight launches a free weekend trial of the full game. Round up three pals (or make awkward small talk with AI-controlled botmates) and go stab, smash, bash, and burn your way through hordes of heathens and ratmen in a slice of the Warhammer Fantasy world. This trial comes shortly after the launch of its first DLC pack, which added new maps, and accompanies a sale making the game half-price for a few days too.
]]>The bad rats are back again - no, not those ones. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 was a lot of grimdark, co-op hack n' slash fun, but some folks have already picked every last scrap of diseased meat from its bones already. Today, it got its first bit of paid DLC - Shadows Over Bögenhafen - adding another two missions to the mix, plus a massive patch for all. In this DLC, everyone's favourite plague god Nurgle is up to no good (again), so it's time to call our band of continually bickering heroes to come clean up, and maybe bop some rats while they're at it.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>First-person ratbasher Warhammer: Vermintide 2 today blasted its first content update, following a string of patches with fixes and tweaks. Along with officially launching mod support, the update adds new challenges and daily quests to complete for loot, and boshes in loads of hats, skin recolours, and other cosmetic bits. The mod SDK doesn't include a map editor, sadly, but it does let modders fiddle with game logic, graphics effects, the user interface, textures, and other bits of gameguts, so it'll be interesting to see what people make.
]]>This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they’ve taken to make their games. This time, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 [official site].
In designing Vermintide II’s melee combat, Mats Andersson ran through the same preset level 50 times a day for two years. This hodgepodge of the game’s most distinctive areas, enemies and swarms makes no sense and it looks terrible, but playing it about 100,000 times was what it took to ensure face-to-face brawling would be rich in heft and detail.
Andersson knew how fast he could clear that level, how much damage he should take, how many kills he should be getting; yardsticks by which he could measure each run, and it’s how clicking to swing your hammer feels like it’s caving a skull in, and why your sword feels like it can split a rat’s stringy carcass in two. “It’s very much home to me,” he says.
]]>I haven't slain nearly enough rats. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has been rotting away in my Steam library recently, but the weeks I spent rat-whacking with some chums a couple of months back were the most fun I've had in co-op in yonks. If you want some objective proof of that, look no further than our recently updated list of the best co-op games.
The update fun doesn't stop there: Vermintide 2 received its biggest patch yet yesterday, including "literally hundreds of changes to the game's levels" and "major optimizations to the game engine". Fatshark wrote that last quote in bold, so you know they mean business.
]]>Join us for our weekly skip through the bountiful fields of fresh gaming joy! Hold our hand as we guide you down the top ten selling games on Steam, to discover which heart-lifting original content has caught the attention of the enthused gaming public! Someone please help me!
]]>As the Steam Charts slowly attempt to reassemble themselves after last week's complete collapse under the weight of Far Cry 5, think of this week's compilation as the moment the thought-destroyed terrifying monster is halfway through its grotesque reforming. Witness as its undulating viscera twists through recongealing flesh, a bleak but ghoulish moan emanating from deep within its darkest soul.
]]>Warhammer: Vermintide 2 was perhaps too hard a game at launch. While certainly thrilling to behold, the number of new parties crushed mercilessly by Bile Trolls was nigh-incomprehensible, and I've seen far too many missions go south in just a few seconds. Several patches to Fatshark's co-op hack n' slasher have improved player survivability, but today's Patch 1.0.5 might be the biggest collection of buffs yet.
]]>I’d wager most folk around these parts devoured Left 4 Dead back in the day, just as I did. Valve’s “28 Days Later with your friends” infected my life for a good year, and a bigger, better sequel one year later only strengthened the disease. But as Valve haven’t really been in the business of making games for a good few years - hopefully, that’s about to change - and while it felt like Left 4 Dead was going to change the world back in (oh no) 2008, for a long time nothing filled the rotten hole where my heart used to be.
That is, until Fatshark’s rowdy rat-smash, Vermintide. The four vs the world setup and the UI were highly reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, and what are Gutter Runners and Pack Masters if not reskinned Hunters and Smokers? But there was much more to that game than swapping out zombies for skaven. With both series now/still on their second games, let’s look at how Vermintide ran with the legacy of Left 4 Dead, while managing to forge its own identity.
]]>John is missing. He flew out to GDC last week stowed inside Brendan's suitcase to save money, I'm sure you'll remember, but on the return journey Brendan's bag has gone missing. Vanished. Didn't flop onto the luggage carousel. The airport have no idea. John took a few cans of pop and bags of gross American chocolate in with him so I'm sure he'll be fine, but where is he? Amsterdam? Boise? Hong Kong? Honolulu? I'm sure he'll turn up. For now, here I am, I am taking over the Steam Charts for another week.
If there's one lesson to learn from last week's 10 top-selling games on Steam, it's that fancy open-world games are quite popular.
]]>John is elsewhere this week, squeezed into Brendan's luggage for a flight to San Francisco and the Game Developers Conference, so I'm here for the regular rundown of last week's top-selling games on Steam. This week, the letters R, A, and S are well-represented with strong showings from both Mars and rats.
]]>I've barely scratched Warhammer: Vermintide 2 yet myself but if you're hacking through fiendish hordes at an alarming pace and are starting to wonder when the planned mod support might arrive: late April is the current plan. That's what developers Fatshark told cheery RPS fan zine PC Gamer, in a chat which also touched on intent to smooth out some of the game's difficulty spikes, especially on lower difficulty settings.
]]>Leave no rodent behind – that’s the motto of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. With the release of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, we decided to celebrate the lovable dirtbag of videogames. The lowly, filthy, wonderful rat. Whether you are murdering five of them in cold blood for an RPG hotel owner, or pledging your sword to a disgusting subterranean monarch, there’s room in your heart for the humble rat.
And your intestine. And lung. Basically, shove over, organs. Make room for the rats.
]]>I don't tend to think about how many things I murder in a murder-related videogame. I just remove whatever obstacles are in the way and move on, in the time-honoured tradition of solving problems in action games. In co-op online stabber-shooter Warhammer: Vermintide 2, I'm unusually conscious of the body count. It is, if you'll forgive a little early-90s melodrama, extreme. That's just one reason why Vermintide 2 successfully escapes the shadow of 'it's just Left 4 Dead but with Games Workshop' faint-praise damning that its predecessor stood within.
]]>Greetings, readers. John, your regular guide to this hollow summary of ceaseless material consumption, is missing. We presume he has angered the company overlords with some sort of ill-judged diatribe against corporate consolidation, and has subsequently been reassigned to another media outlet, possibly The Re-education Supplement, or Gulag's Weekly. Well, you won't find any such insubordination from me. I have only the purest intentions of telling you the top ten best sellers on Steam this week, with a secondary goal of reinforcing the cold emptiness of our predominant mercantile culture. Let's buy some games!
]]>We're planning on a full review next week, but seeing as the weekend, and with it the tortured paralysis of what to play, looms so close, I thought I'd share some initial thoughts on the newly-released, Warhammer vs Left 4 Dead rat-splatting sequel Vermintide 2. In short: it's the same co-op survival formula, but now writ very, very large and very, very bloody.
]]>When visiting a fantasy world, it's important to remember subtle but important cultural differences. To us, "Oh rats!" is an innocent folksy curse. In the world of Warhammer, shout that and you'll rightly be punched in the teeth by a line of people for: 1) causing a panic; 2) reminding them of when the verminous horde of the Horned Rat butchered their ma. Bear this in mind for today's launch of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, the sequel to 2015's 'Left 4 Dead but with ratmen' cooperative first-person smash-o-shooter.
]]>Some Monday mornings, as I plonk myself down at my desk at 6.50am and load the RSS feed for the Steam Charts, I think to myself: you know what? There are so many other things I'd like to write about today. Anyway, here are the top ten games on Steam from the last week.
]]>Rat season has officially begun. Following directly on from Vermintide 1's bombastic finale-as-free-DLC earlier this week, the sequel - due for launch early next month - is letting players in for their first taste of next-gen first-person Skaven-squishing starting today and continuing over the course of the weekend.
Closed beta access is primarily for those who pre-ordered Warhammer: Vermintide 2, but those who picked up the Humble Jingle Jam charity bundle are being granted access as well, plus folks who snag beta keys at PAX South recently.
]]>We may be just two weeks from the release of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, but studio Fatshark are supporting the original game right up until the bitter end. In fact, the latest update for the game adds that bitter end for you to experience first-hand.
Released as part of a free update, yesterday's Patch 1.11 adds one final mission to the game, entitled Waylaid, which sets things up for the sequel in surprisingly dramatic fashion. Lohnar has a job for you, so it's back to the Red Moon Inn for one last round.
]]>The Vermintide will be coming in on March 8th, developers Fatshark have announced, giving us less than a month with which to sharpen our axes, re-string our longbows, and generally mentally prepare to carve up hordes of 'orrible ratmen in Warhammer: Vermintide 2. We've not covered the co-op FPS since its announcement last year, but since then it's been made clear that the ratty Skaven have teamed up with those jerks from the Chaos army, meaning we'll be fighting humans as well as rodents this time.
]]>The 'Left 4 Dead but with ratmen' cooperative first-person action of Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide will return with a sequel, developers Fatshark formally announced today. Bearing the shorter, simpler name of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 [official site], it will... do about the same? Fatshark don't have much to say or show right now, holding their secrets back until October. But screenshots show more outdoors-y areas than the first, and beyond that I'd broadly guess you and your mates kill giant humanoid rats in the face unto death?
]]>
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