A bizarre mod that adds human poop to Skyrim led me on an enlightening journey into Viking sanitation: ‘Your world will certainly be more immersive, but it will also certainly smell worse’

I’ve played a few Skyrim mods that stank in my time, but none quite like this. Everyone Poops­—Mihail’s Shards of Immersion adds actual piles of excrement into Bethesda’s perennial fantasy RPG. “You can now find human feces near and inside some houses, forts and caves,” writes Mihail Mods, the creator of Everyone Poops, which according…

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This upcoming Korean tactical shooter features ‘situational awareness AI’ that reminds me of the uber-smart clones from Monolith’s FEAR

It doesn’t take much to get me thinking about Monolith’s classic FPS FEAR, but it’s barely left my thoughts since Warner Bros’ baffling decision to shut down the veteran studio, which also created games like No One Lives Forever and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Yet it’s Monolith’s 2005 shooter that is my favourite of its…

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Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, March 22

Have yourself a relaxing Wordle weekend. Brush up on your letter-finding technique with our general tips. Use our March 22 (1372) hint whenever you feel you need it, whether that’s right at the start or at any point further down the board. Or click through to today’s answer if you like: we’re just happy to…

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The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: ‘Some companies are going to tank’ if they guess wrong, says analyst

The near future plans of many game studios depend on whether or not Grand Theft Auto 6 actually releases this year, and making the wrong guess could be disastrous for some of them, says Ben Porter, director of consulting at games industry intelligence firm Newzoo. “If you’re a game company who’s holding its breath waiting…

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Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike

If somebody asked me how to make Counter-Strike 2 more casual while still keeping its signature trappings—bomb sites, economy, silent walking, low time-to-kill—I’d first ask why they’re trying to force a square peg into a round hole. There is no such thing as kicking back and “relaxing” with a round of CS2. It’s extremely difficult,…

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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor

Fatshark has done a fair bit of fooling around with Darktide’s format offerings lately, with the recent Havoc mode expanding the game’s difficulty options and variance. But while Havoc caters to endgame players looking for a challenge, Mortis Trials—laid out in the latest blog post from community manager StrawHat—are described as “chaotic, with easy access…

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Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio’s UI designer is open to accessibility options for players who find the stylish menus overstimulating: ‘That is something we understand we’ll need to work on and provide in the future’

What defines Atlus’s modern RPGs more: the characters you spend dozens of hours befriending and romancing, or the menus that pack more rizz into a single font than most entire games? If you’re judging by presentations at this year’s Game Developers Conference, Atlus knows what the people want: there wasn’t a talk on the former,…

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Outer space inspired DayZ’s Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he’s making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency

Dean Hall sees Kerbal Space Program as one of the most inspiring games ever, and that’s not just a personal opinion: It’s the inspiration for his latest game, and he says that literal rocket scientists are among those flocking to the project to help. The DayZ creator and CEO of Icarus developer RocketWerkz is now…

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