Descenders Next is a sequel of sorts to Descenders, but it's pretty different. It's still about going down hills really fast, but it's no longer about doing so on pushbikes: instead we have snowboards and mountainboards. I played a little bit last year and loved it, so I'm pretty happy to see it's just shadowdropped on Steam after a delay from its initial April release date.Like its predecessor, Descenders Next...

EA has done what I was starting to worry was impossible: Make a rational, popular design decision around Battlefield 6 classes.Earlier this year, the studio caught heat for a series of dev blogs detailing how Battlefield 6's class system would carry over an unpopular Battlefield 2042 change that allowed all classes to use all weapons."We envision the future of Battlefield classes to be a series of interconnected systems and fundamentals...

I wouldn't blame you for feeling like the games industry is in a dire state. Microsoft's recent layoffs and studio closures are just the latest in a years-long, industry-wide bloodletting where successful game releases don't provide any protection against corporate downsizing.Things aren't great at the moment, but legendary shooter designer John Romero says that whatever the industry's future is, it'll be one that indie developers are shaping.In an episode of...

As reported by Game Developer, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 developer The Chinese Room has bought its own independence from former owner Sumo Digital, but laid off an undisclosed number of employees in the process, bringing its total headcount to 55⁠.The management buyout was done with the help of venture capital funding, and comes after Sumo Digital announced a shift away from developing its own games to co-development, or...

The co-founder of Valve Corporation, Gabe Newell, recently gave an interview to YouTuber Zalkar Saliev. The ocean-going billionaire shares his thoughts on everything from his daily routine to startup culture, but one of the largest themes is AI: and the "funny situation" Newell foresees whereby people who can't code become "more effective developers of value" than those who've been coding for a decade.In a new short, Newell returns to AI...

The Abiotic Factor 1.0 update is almost here, finally bringing the Half-Life-inspired survival crafting adventure to its first version complete milestone. As far as early access games go, it's been a brief and fairly consistent journey—the rare, smooth roadmap rollout since Abiotic Factor's early release in May 2024.Over the last year, developer Deep Field Games has launched a steady feed of updates to tide its ethically questionable scientists over in...

Some people want to watch the world burn. Others, however, will take the simplest of instructions and deliberately subvert them in the most creative manner possible in order to cause maximum irritation—and I love those people.Case in point, IT manager Mike Coats, who has submitted his entry for Hackaday's One Hertz Challenge, the Metronalmost. The competition requires creators to design devices that beat at a rate of exactly once per...

I've never really been the biggest case guy. With upkeep around PCs (both upgrades and general cleaning), I've always found myself in favour of something tidy and easy to hide away, rather than something to show off. That's until I had the realisation it's not quite an either-or situation back in May. Now, months later, the Thermaltake S100 TG Snow Edition takes its rightful spot as the best budget compact...

While it might seem like AI models are rapidly overtaking the endeavours of squishy human beings, it appears some hope of staying ahead of our AI overlords may remain. And in this case, that hope is personified by Przemysław Dębiak, a former OpenAI employee who has narrowly beaten one of the company's models in a coding world championship.Dębiak was competing in the AtCoder World Tour Finals 2025 Heuristic contest in...

I've always said that the worst part of any multiplayer game is the people you play with. Yes, there are some absolute gem moments of camaraderie and teamwork, but most of the time, you have to deal with the worst sides of people, as some players in Dune: Awakening have sadly found out for themselves.Apparently, there's been a group of hackers in Dune: Awakening that not only manipulate the speed...