Roguelike first-person shooter GUNHEAD launches November 8 for PS5, PC

The release date for the slimmer and lighter mid-gen refresh of the PS5 has seemingly leaked online, alongside details about its first bundle. As per reliable tipster Billbil-kun — notorious for accurately leaking monthly PS Plus games ahead of time — the new PlayStation consoles with smaller form factor will go on sale November 10 in the US before spreading out to other regions; both disc and digital versions. A bit before that, on November 8, Sony would be bundling it with the newly launched Marvel's Spider-Man 2 at $559.99, which is the same amount as the existing standard edition bundle. While not explicitly mentioned, the content should be the same, with a digital voucher for the game, alongside a themed controller.

As part of DreadXP’s Indie Horror Showcase, Philisophic Games has pulled back the curtain on Hellpunk, a horror game about hitting things with things.

Publisher DreadXP and developer Stroboskop have announced Sylvio: Black Waters, the third entry in the atmospheric first-person horror series. It will launch for unspecified consoles and PC in early 2024.

Publisher Nordcurrent Labs and developer Misfit Village have announced SCOP-inspired first-person horror investigation game Go Home Annie. It will launch for unspecified consoles and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG in 2024.

Italian studio Stone Shelter has announced CTRL-U, a science-fiction first-person parkour action adventure game for PC (Steam). A release date was not announced.

I’ll admit I entered my hands-on demo with Assassin’s Creed Nexus with a bit of pessimism – could Assassin’s Creed work as a first-person VR game? And then I found myself repeatedly answering that key question with “Yes!” for an entire hour. Not only does Assassin’s Creed Nexus seem to be a full-featured Assassin’s Creed game that incorporates stealth, combat, and parkour, but from what I played so far, each of those pieces works surprisingly well and comes together to capture the entire assassin fantasy with shocking efficacy. I brought a lot of skepticism onto that demo floor, but by the time I left it I was grinning ear-to-ear.

David Moralejo Sánchez's Outpath, a blend of island base-building game and idle clicker, is now out on Steam with a launch discount and a rapidly growing sackful of positive reader reviews. The gist, for those who missed out on the demo: you walk around small islands punching resources out of the landscape, building crafting stations and dwellings, and slowly amassing the means to access other islands. Or, you ignore all that, and treat the whole thing as an idle clicker, with no time limit and no real opportunity to fail.

I'll admit I passed on the original House Flipper craze because I'm not one for job sim games. But I really like to build and decorate houses, which, it turns out, House Flipper 2 is totally prepared to support. House Flipper dev Frozen District has already announced that the sequel would have a sandbox mode, but now it's been shown off in a new trailer. I'm all in this time.

I've had my eye on dwarven roguelike Below the Stone for several months, so I was eager to give its Steam Next Fest demo a play. Folks, I'm pleased to report that the Terraria and Deep Rock Galactic vibes I was picking up were dead-on. This is shaping up to be something really special, and handily one of the best Steam Next Fest demos to play this week. 

Cyberpunk 2077 - now redeemed and somewhat rebuilt after the car crash that was its initial launch - is looking ahead at the even further future. CD Projekt Red have expressed that they have “no regrets” about switching from a third-person camera to a first-person one in the transition from The Witcher to Cyberpunk, however, for future games in Night City, the studio are still undecided.

To be blunt here, there were many problems with Cyberpunk 2077 when it launched in 2020, and the gaming world knew it. You could argue that CD Projekt Red knew it, and they released the game anyway. The backlash over the launch is legendary even by gaming standards. After all, the game was getting refunded so much that stores refused to sell it until some of its problems were fixed. However, gamers still talk about some “lesser issues” today, and you have to wonder if the dev team saw the backlash coming. For example, the entire game is first-person.

CD Projekt Red doesn't regret making Cyberpunk 2077 first-person but hasn't decided if the sequel will be in first-person.