Ted Litchfield

Wild and weird action roguelike Picayune Dreams released from Early Access recently, meaning it's definitely time to enjoy this thing if you're a fan of horde survival roguelikes, bullet hells, or games that get all meta and screwy. Populated by a cast of surrealist 3D renders that look like rejected 1990s clipart and backed up with a very serious drum and bass breakcore soundtrack, this is an indie that's decidedly, committedly into a specific aesthetic.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 was supposed to be out by the end of 2023, but in November publisher Focus Home Interactive mashed the brakes hard, pushing it into the second half of 2024. We noted at the time that the vague launch window could mean a full year of extra waiting, but as it turns out, it's not quite that bad.

The latest patch of Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot of quality-of-life updates. It has a lovely little epilogue, a gnarly new honour mode that's been giving Ted Litchfield spikes in his blood pressure, among many other tune-ups and fixes. And uh, schlong physics. Did we mention the schlong physics? Because Larian sure didn't.

One of our favorite early access games is getting a big update soon. As teased during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, Gloomwood is heading down into the Underport. You can watch the first look at the Underport in the teaser above. From what I can tell, we're in for a dank sewer network hosting slimy pustules and what seems to be a four-legged monster with claws.

Phantom Liberty, the Cyberpunk 2077 DLC that adds Idris Elba and some kind of rocket ship (I think? I haven't actually gotten to it yet), has done quite well for itself. That's according to a recent CD Projekt Red earnings call as well as the company's Twitter account, which was out yesterday boasting about 4.3 million copies of the DLC sold since launch. 

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has been delayed, and I'm sorry to say it's a big one. Instead of coming out near the end of this year as planned, Focus Entertainment said in an update that it's now slated for the second half of 2024. As usual, a reason for the delay wasn't provided, except that it will «provide the time needed to properly polish the game and to ensure the best possible experience.»

As a longtime Larian fan, it pleases me to no end to see the studio finally getting major, worldwide recognition for its RPG work. Baldur's Gate 3 is a success beyond what anyone could reasonably have imagined: Along with being a huge critical and commercial hit, it cleaned up at the Golden Joystick Awards last week and leads the pack (along with Alan Wake 2) in nominations for the upcoming Game Awards.

Revenant Hill made a big impression on us when it was revealed back in May: Associate editor Ted Litchfield said it «looks to press the gas on both autumnal vibes and the themes of early industrial labor organizing,» which actually sounds pretty spot-on when you consider that developer The Glory Society was founded by Night in the Woods co-creators Bethany Hockenberry and Scott Benson.

Readers, our long national nightmare is over. An injustice has been rectified, light shines where once there was only darkness, your children can sleep soundly in their beds. I speak, of course, of Baldur's Gate 3's latest hotfix, which has restored His Majesty—everyone's favourite overweening feline—to his original, superior, and hairless form.

Bright, bloody and blaring boomer shooter Prodeus is getting an expansion. Announced at this year's Realms Deep event, Prodeus: Elder Veil adds some new wrinkles to the base game's bombastic gameplay, by which I mean a grappling hook and a spear. All shooters need a grappling hook and a spear.

When V started coughing up blood during a conversation with Johnny Silverhand, I thought Cyberpunk 2077 was really trying to drive home the urgency of my ticking time bomb of a brain. Throughout the next quest, and the one after that, my entire field of vision kept pulsing with the glitchy blue effect that highlighted Johnny popping into a conversation. It felt like a bit much, but I was really getting into the roleplaying, so I figured heading home to V's apartment for a night's rest would set me right. When it didn't, I asked my colleagues how they got rid of «Johnny vision» because clearly I'd missed something.

Cyberpunk 2077 may be the most successful flop of all time. Within weeks of launch, the RPG had sold 13 million copies, even accounting for dissatisfied players refunding the game. It made its eight year budget back in a single day. But those accomplishments couldn't stop Cyberpunk from widely being seen as a disappointment.

It's time to call it: the era of hard disks is over. While you might've been able to get away with storing games on an HDD in 2020, graphically-demanding games have become even more reliant on the faster load speeds of SSDs over the past few years. Starfield and Baldur's Gate 3 both demanded SSDs in their minimum specs, and now Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 patch and Phantom Liberty say that an SSD is the lowest bar to ride.

With Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 slowly stomping toward release later this year, publisher Focus Entertainment has dropped a new extended gameplay trailer showcasing our Ultramarine hero, Lieutenant Titus, strolling through some mega-gothic ruins and doing battle with a genuinely impressive number of Tyranid enemies.

March 13, 2023, was a very good day for PC Gamer associate editor Ted Litchfield. Because on that day, CD Projekt finally fixed the grass shadows in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, meaning he could finally enjoy the game the way it was meant to be. At the time, he no doubt believed that peak videogame grass quality had been achieved—and yet somehow, CD Projekt has made it even better.