How Goblin Bet was born from a casino in hell

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory is a CRPG set in an Orwellian nightmare, a sci-fi society overrun by bureaucracy. At one point while playing it I tried to get a broken door fixed so I could get through, and after bouncing back and forth between various repair departments I eventually learned there was a final form I needed to fill out, and that form happened to be on the other side of the broken door. When Paranoia was mysteriously removed from sale weeks after its release with no explanation I tried to find out why, a quest that was just as frustrating as my attempt to get past that broken door.

In a groundbreaking achievement, NASA's Asteroid Psyche mission has set a new milestone in space communication by successfully beaming an ultra-high definition video of a playful cat named Taters from an astounding distance of 31 million kilometers. Executed on December 11, this unprecedented broadcast demonstrates the potential for streaming high-bandwidth data from far off space, signifying a major technological advancement that could reshape future interplanetary missions.

Back when I was running the game for my local Dungeons & Dragons group, I would always pride myself on bringing something handmade each time we got together around the table. Maybe it was a leather-bound book filled with vintage David Sutherland illustrations of the Tomb of Horrors, or a 3D map of a few rooms from Castle Ravenloft with just the right assortment of miniatures from my collection. As a lifelong fan of D&D, Rick Perry knows that impulse well. But as production designer and creative producer on Dropout’s Dimension 20, he’s operating at a scale that’s on another level entirely.

Wordle was a lockdown phenomenon: one of those games that, merits aside, simply landed at the right time. I've kicked the habit now but like pretty much everyone else I had a Wordle phase with the family WhatsApp group and, yes, when I'm nearly out of chances I have gone running to my six-letter friend Google. Wordle's enormous popularity was such that, in January 2022, the New York Times purchased the game from creator Josh Wardle for a sum «in the low seven figures.»

We often discuss the impressive turnaround of games like No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk, but Fallout 76 should probably be included in that discussion. While the game launched as an empty wasteland back in 2018, Bethesda has since added a ton of new features to make it feel more like, well, a Fallout game. NPCs, new locations, more fulfilling quests, iconic Fallout factions like the Brotherhood of Steel, and downright weird stuff like alien invasions. It may have suffered a torrid development, but the general consensus is that it's now a Good Videogame.

Alan Wake 2 certainly isn't afraid to be weird, whether it's letting you change the layout of a level at the press of a button, or suddenly turning into a full-blown musical. Making a game so wilfully out there must be a nerve-wracking experience, however, as you've got no idea whether your kooky ideas are going to land with the audience. Yet according to Alan Wake 2's creative director Sam Lake, Remedy's belief in the game was boosted during development by a film that is equally weird and brilliant.

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The end of 2023 is upon us, and as we look back on all the amazing gaming moments we’ve shared, the PlayStation.Blog team wants to thank you for making the past year a special one. 

The next film from the director of Annihilation, Ex Machina, and Men looks like a bad time at the movies. Civil War is writer-director Alex Garland pivoting from the intimate, provocative horror of Men to explosive, politically charged dread. The first trailer of Civil War, released Wednesday by A24, hints at what the studio is calling “an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razors edge.”

The Day Before went from one of the most anticipated games on Steam to an unqualified disaster. After spending months at the top of the platform’s most wishlisted list, the game’s release on Dec. 7 quickly led to a wave of immense blowback, tens of thousands of players seeking refunds, and the closure of the studio behind it.

I'm not normally in a rush to post marketing videos in which developers talk about how great their new game is, but I need all the help I can get in understanding Metaphor: ReFantazio. The new RPG from the makers of Persona looks stylish, dense, exciting, and almost entirely baffling in its trailers, so 14 minutes of the folks from Atlus just describing it is welcome.

After our analysis of the new Legendary Axe, Fyr'alath the Dreamrender was hotfixed late last week to allow Mark of Fyr'alath to benefit from haste and critical strike. Our guide writer, Mandl, details the impact of the latest hotfix and the effect it's had on the Legendary's active, Rage of Fyr'alath as well as other remaining issues. Fyr'alath, the Dreamrender Legendary Axe Overview Last week, we covered Fyr'alath the Dreamrender and highlighted a number of shortfalls, potential bugs and unwanted interactions hampering its potential as a worthwhile legendary. Mark of Fyr'alath was subsequently hotfixed to be hasted, and for its damage to be able to critically strike. While this is nice, the biggest hurdle on this legendary remains, and as we will explain, this causes a likely unwanted interaction between Mark of Fyr'alath and the active on-use channel, Rage of Fyr'alath. But first, let's cover the differences.