STALKER 2 is a merciless trip down memory lane

The curtain is finally coming down on Netflix's once-iconic DVD-by-mail service, a quarter century after two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs came up with a concept that obliterated Blockbuster video stores while providing a springboard into video streaming that has transformed entertainment.

Cities Skylines 2 is almost upon us, and from what we’ve seen, it’s delivering every minute and specific little detail we could want in a city builder. At the same time, the late Soviet era aesthetic of Stalker – and the upcoming Stalker 2 – provides one of the best-looking environments in all of gaming. Those big factories. The chunky old cars. Metro 2033, Metro Last Light, and Metro Redux make the most of the Soviet style, which brings to vivid life a kind of decrepit old world waiting to be reborn. You put all this together, the mechanics of Cities Skylines, and the visual flair of Metro and Stalker, and you get Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic, a superlative city sim that’s just signed to a new publisher, and available to try with a free Steam download.

Dustborn appears to be many things. It’s a road tripping adventure across an alternate United States that involves maintaining relationships between the members of a rebel gang posing as a rock group, and staying off the radar of an oppressive police force called Justice. It’s a rhythm action game, requiring you to tap buttons in time with on screen prompts to sing along with the car radio or complete performances with your band. In some instances, it’s a Streets of Rage-inspired beat ‘em up that lets you take a baseball bat to hordes of robot soldiers. Yet all the while, Dustborn is also a comic book that your decisions are helping to shape on the fly.

It's been a pretty rough week for Unity and all of the developers who build their games on the engine. After introducing a new Runtime Fee based on the amount of times a game is installed, developers lashed out at the potential changes and their capability of driving smaller indie studios into the ground, specifically ones that offer up their games on subscription services like Game Pass. Many devs threatened to delay projects to switch to different engines, and it was an all-round disaster for Unity's image.

While Todd McFarlane waits out the writers and actors’ strikes so he can finally regain momentum on his Spawn film, his signature character is joining one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. Activision has just revealed Spawn will be appearing in Call of Duty's Season 6 battle pass as part of the game's annual The Haunting event.

Call of Duty’s next season will summon Todd McFarlane’s Spawn as part of its battle pass — the series’ first to be headlined by a licensed character — and publisher Activision is going all-in on the undead hellspawn for Halloween. Call of Duty’s season 6 battle pass will include two Spawn-inspired Operators and six Spawn-themed skins when the new season launches later this month.

The BIT.TRIP series was a WiiWare staple and one of the first franchises that went from the Wii to PC pretty seamlessly. In the case of Runner, it has been the most-enduring of the BIT.TRIP games – getting two follow-ups and now a remake. However, while the first game had an almost Atari 2600-esque art style alongside more color gradience than would be possible then for its backgrounds, it was a simple-looking game – but one that could run on pretty much anything. The sequels featured fully 3D character models and environments and that same art style is brought back now for the remake – offering a completely different visual experience.

Rhythm platformer BIT.TRIP RERUNNER will launch for PC via Steam on September 19, developer Choice Provisions announced. It will be regularly priced at $19.99, but can be purchased at a 20 percent-off launch discount price of $15.99 until September 26.

Fans of The Crew franchise were ecstatic when Ubisoft officially announced the latest game’s release date was just three months out. With developers Ubisoft Ivory Tower only announcing The Crew Motorfest title earlier in 2023, the turnaround has been swift, much to the delight of racing fans. To add to the latest excitement with its imminent release on 14 September, more good news has made waves, in that players will get to experience five hours of gameplay for free.

STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World seems cursed with bad luck. As you might remember, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most of the team relocated to Prague to work from a more secure location.

A fire has destroyed part of Stalker developer GSC Game World's offices in Prague.

The developer of Stalker 2, GSC Game World, has had a fire at in their offices.