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Ask RPS returns for another installment today, this time focusing on some of our daily food and drink habits. Technically, I have mashed two supporter questions into one for this post, as to me they seemed inherently linked, because what is the point of tea/coffee if not to also have a nice biscuit and a sit down at the same time?

With that in mind, today's questions come courtesy of caff, who asked: What is your favourite biscuit? and PolygonClassicist, who asked: What are the caffeine habits of the RPS staff? (along with the extra sub-question clarifications of: when do we like to have our coffee, espresso, tea, soda and/or energy drinks? How do we like to consume them? And how much caffeine do we all consume on a daily basis?) Come and find out how we all get through the day (in a, err, not at all dark way) below!

OK, so there's plenty in Worldless that won't remind you of Silksong or its predecessor, Hollow Knight. Rather than a medieval bug exploring a labyrinth of bioluminescent rot and lore, you're a vaguely humanoid cloud of shards and points, roaming an abstract landscape of soft curves and shafts of light. You're Rayman but fancy, basically, and the world is no world but an uncreated expanse of elemental forces, though you'll find you can run and jump on it much as you can the ledges of Hallownest. The combat is a different beast, too. Rather than Souls-inflected 2D hack-and-slash, it's turn-based battling with a twist - each turn gives you a countdown in which to perform real-time combos, mixing melee and magical attacks.

So why does Worldless make me think of Team Cherry's work? Partly it's the underlying touch of metroidvania, a word the press materials seem oddly hesitant to use. The map extends in all directions and you'll need to acquire new abilities to reach certain areas. Partly, it's the shared enchanted grotto atmosphere, with all sorts of tiny animate details festering for attention as you explore. And partly, it's the dash move you unlock early on, and the process of chaining it with a platform-conjuring ability to unlock routes while traversing them, which puts me strongly in mind of those horizontal gauntlet runs from the Silksong trailer. All told, if you're beginning to crisp up for lack of Hollow Knight news, you might want to give the demo a whirl ahead of Worldless's release on (drum roll) 21st November 2023.

This isn't a Mega-Scoop for the Ages, but it's a fun little story. Tucked away in one dark corner of Remedy's latest horror extravaganza Alan Wake 2 you'll find an arcade cabinet machine dedicated to the very first game the Finnish developer ever made.

The Alan Wake 2 review embargo lifts today, but ours needs a bit more time in the oven. Review code only came in late Sunday night, and for a game so heavily reliant on the thrust and resolution of its story, it's imperative I get to the end of it before I deliver my final verdict. Alas, the business of running a website does not play nicely with tight review deadlines like this, but what I can tell you after 15-odd hours of play is that it's really sunk its claws into me good and proper.

Alan Wake 2 is a much creepier, more unnerving kind of horror game than its predecessor, doubling down on its fiction-meets-reality schtick while also piling on the scares and interlacing it with unsettling imagery of teeth-gnashing, inkblot-stained doppelgangers to ratchet up the tension. In many ways, this is a game that owes as much to Resident Evil 7 as it does its own lineage in the genre, and the dual narratives of its two protagonists, FBI agent Saga Anderson and Alan himself, arguably make this Remedy's most sophisticated tale yet.

What better way to follow up my interview with Just Stop Oil than by writing about a horror game set on a haunted oil rig? The game in question is, of course, Still Wakes The Deep from Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs developer The Chinese Room. Set off the coast of Scotland in the 1970s, it sees you navigating collapsing gantries and flooded rooms while avoiding an unearthly terror apparently extracted from the ocean floor. Mind you, the worst thing in the game could be the weather, which you can witness for yourself in the latest gameplay trailer below. Never mind the dreadful moaning on the other side of the pipes - how about that drizzle?

At EGX earlier this month, climate change protestors cosplaying as the Ghostbusters interrupted a Tekken 7 tournament, spraying player screens with orange paint and attempting to make a speech before being hauled off by security. The three protestors, who were later arrested, are members of Just Stop Oil, a British activist group officially founded in February 2022 who carry out acts of nonviolent obstruction and vandalism in the hope of rallying support against the UK government granting new fossil fuel licenses and production agreements. In the case of EGX, which is run by Rock Paper Shotgun's parent company Reedpop, Just Stop Oil were protesting against the sponsorship of one EGX stage by Barclays Bank, who have financed billions of dollars of fossil fuel investments (Barclays have provided some official comment down the page). They were also trying to call attention to oil giant Shell's sponsorship deal with Fortnite, which includes a special themed map "powered by Shell V-Power(r) NiTRO+ Premium Gasoline".

I've written a bit here and there about the overlap between games, video games and protest movements. I've also been on a JSO protest march myself - albeit, slightly by accident (no, I didn't glue myself to anything). I was curious to hear more about the EGX protest, and specifically, whether the group's tactical use of cosplay for both dramatic effect and subterfuge represents any broader understanding of games as a form of protest art. JSO put me in touch with Oliver Clegg, a 20-year-old student who joined the group early on and has participated in some of their better-known direct actions. The below is a transcript of that conversation which has been edited down for length and clarity.

Metal Gear Solid 3 arrived on PC for the first time yesterday thanks to the stealth-action series’ Master Collection. Unfortunately, it seems to be a fairly underwhelming PC debut for Hideo Kojima’s frog-munching masterpiece, with Snake Eater’s Steam page full of negative reviews about the barebones port’s restriction to 720p resolution, reported startup crashes and lack of Steam Deck support.

Ark: Survival Ascended, the remake of dinosaur survival game Ark: Survival Evolved, has resurfaced with its first gameplay trailer, showing off its flashy Unreal Engine 5 graphics, improved physics-based destruction and overhauled user interface. The biggest reveal, though, is that the Ark remake will apparently drop on Steam later today.

We first saw Manor Lords a couple of years ago, when its mix of Crusader Kings-like simulation, Ages of Empires-y city-building and sweeping battles a la Total War made it one to watch. We weren’t alone in that anticipation either, as the ambitious medieval strategy game - created by a solo dev, no less - rocketed up the Steam charts to become one of its most wishlisted games.

If it wasn’t already clear that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is going to be plenty zany in that good ol’ Yakuza way, RGG Studio has now revealed that Ichiban Kasuga’s next adventure will pack in its own Animal Crossing minigame - but done Yakuza-style, naturally.

It's hard to imagine blockblustery first-person shooting today without Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's online progression systems, which - inasmuch as you can assign this much clout to a single game or developer - transformed the genre back in 2007 by reinventing multiplayer as a kind of RPG. Shooters without COD-style gear levelling ladders do exist, not least Counter-Strike 2, but most of the juggernauts depend on such fixtures, especially now that free-to-play service models have become the norm. So it's jarring to hear from Mackey McCandlish, one of Modern Warfare's original developers, that the old Infinity Ward team were split over the act of using XP to unlock guns, with some worrying it would be "unfair".

Last time, you decided that present decisions deciding past events is better than that puzzle where switches turn on some things while turning off others. I can't say I am surprised by the result, and suspect it was heavily influenced by spite, but I am very grateful to the people who stood up and explained why they like that puzzle where etc. I do try to make a case for both things but won't pretend I understand (or appreciate) every thing in games, so I appreciate your help. This week, I ask you to pick between two ways of being there and then not. What's better: summoning spectral animals or blink teleports?

Returning with the much more SEO and annual-tradition appropriate name, The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival (formerly known as Mayor Bones Proudly Presents: Ghost Town's 1001st Annual Pumpkin Festival) is here! Every October it pops up to make your Halloween season orange and flickery with a host of digital carved pumpkins on display in a lovely gallery you can take a calming walk around. I hope this comes to be a seasonal tradition on RPS as unshakeable as Skeal at Christmas. And it's pay-what-you-can on Itch!

When two of a game's weapons are nailguns, you should probably expect players to be enthusiastic about construction. Following last year's excellent Brutalist Jam map pack, Quake mappers have reunited to release another free load of levels inspired by Brutalism and concrete. The 30 maps offer good honest fragging in everything from concrete cities to murderous mystical puzzle boxes. Honestly, I'd recommend downloading the pack even if only to see the hub level and marvel at quite how good Quake can look when made for modern PCs.

If you're weary of Baldur's Gate 3's whimsy, or you've finished gnawing the bones of Diablo 4 and are hungry for more of that sweet, sweet grimdark, you might like to check out Beast from Polish developer False Prophet, which goes into Steam early access today. It's a turn-based tactics RPG with a Gothic historical setting, an extremely late-noughties insanity mechanic, a heavy metal soundtrack, plagues, heresy, dynastic feuding, and a protagonist with a dramatic eye scar and possibly non-metaphorical "inner demons". Amongst other things, it looks like you can run people over with a horse-drawn carriage. M-Rated enough for you, edgelords? Here's the trailer.

Cities: Skylines 2 developers Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive have penned a letter to their community about the game's launch performance problems and other technical troubles, sharing details of forthcoming updates and smaller bug patches while also assuring players that "the issues are not deeply rooted in the game's foundation". The developers include a few thoughts about what performance means for a management sim like Skylines 2, revealing that they considered delaying release to improve and stabilise the game, but felt that postponing launch would be "unfair" to those who are less bothered by such things.

“Not everyone is Nintendo,” Hilmar Veigar Pétursson says. “Corporate entities, historically, are not very long-living. By being 30 years old, CCP is old by company standards.” As we talk, his fixation on persistence and artefact becomes clear. Though, he’s never hidden it. In 2014, Pétursson’s company, CCP, unveiled a five-metre-tall sculpture with the names of every active player in their MMO, EVE Online, etched into its surface; this year, they expanded the monument to add the names of players who have subscribed in the decade since. “I've been obsessed about doing things like printed books, magazines, models of EVE Online...,” Pétursson tells me, “like there's this need to leave a footprint.”

Pétursson has discovered a company that uses cow stem cells to 3D print calfskin. For the studio’s 30th anniversary, he plans to commission a poetry chapter inspired by Iceland’s epic history book, the Prose Edda, write it on the artificial skin, and put it in a Reykjavik museum. It would sit alongside an ancient calfskin copy of the Icelandic sagas. “It was written 1000 years ago, but as an Icelandic person, I can still read and understand what it says,” Pétursson explains. He tells me that it’s an effective way of storing data because if you sent a USB stick 1,000 years into the future, where would you even find a computer with a drive to read it? This appreciation for artefacts and need for legacy has led to his current project, a new game from CCP using blockchain technology, currently known as Project Awakening.

American McGee has spent the past several years trying to make Alice: Asylum, a third entry in his series of action-horror games inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That fight produced a crowdfunded 414-page design bible but came to an end earlier this year when rights-holders EA rejected the pitch, and McGee declared that he had "no other ideas or energy left to apply toward getting a new Alice game made."

McGee reiterated similar sentiments in a new video discussing the project's end, but he did suggest one "ray of hope" to the community. "The design bible as produced is the perfect thing to feed into an AI system to have it completely build the game that is outlined in that design bible."

There have been a lot of junky Aliens games in recent years, but 2021's co-op shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite is among the better bughunts. A new update released today fixes matchmaking errors, improves companion AI, and comes with news that its developers are working on a new game.

Nightdive Studios have made a name for themselves by remastering numerous '90s classics, mostly first-person shooters. Next in line is their Star Wars: Dark Forces remaster, which was announced in August. Now it has a release date: February 28th, 2024.

Rocksmith is Ubisoft's take on Guitar Hero, with the key difference being that you can play it with a real guitar. That makes it a good teaching tool as much as it is a game. Or made it a good teaching tool, anyway - Rocksmith 2014 has been removed from sale almost ten years to the day after it launched.

Massive SATA SSDs are getting ever more affordable, and this is the best 4TB deal we've ever seen here at RPS. You can get a TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 4TB drive for just $138 at Newegg, down from a previous price of $180.

In fact, this is half the price of a deal we were eagerly posting about just one year ago, which really speaks to the speed at which SSD storage has collapsed in price in 2023.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Grand Theft Auto players describing the movement of planes in random GTA promotional art as evidence of a forthcoming GTA 6 reveal, timed to intersect with the waning gibbous moon. I thought that the furore might die down after GTA 6 failed to materialise in accordance with the lunar cycle, but it turns out this rabbit hole has no bottom.

Come now, gaze upon the above, just-posted Rockstar promotional image for a new Red Dead Online outfit. To my eye, that picture looks like a weird dude in a mask, gazing at you through piles of skulls. Standard Halloween gamer fare. But it turns out that when you draw lines on it using MS Paint, you end up with the below.

One of the most unnerving things about Geometric Interactive's lush insect puzzler Cocoon is how intuitive it feels. For my money, anyway. The premise is perfectly brain-bending: each world contains or is contained by another world, and you're a beetle who can not only leap between them, but pick one world up and use it as a puzzle prop inside another.

The game doesn't really verbalise any of this: there's no equivalent for Atreus in God Of War: Ragnarok, ostentatiously nudging you towards each solution. And yet somehow, I find myself flowing through Cocoon like I'm being poured out of a bottle, switching scales and putting together the pieces in a way that feels effortful yet graceful, earned yet... eerily frictionless. This is no reflection on my knack for solving puzzles. It's a show of how elegantly the game is made so that while there's difficulty, there's rarely frustration.

Puzzle game Suika, or 'That Watermelon Game', is currently having a bit of a moment online. It's been available on Switch for a couple of years now in Japan, but this week it received an English eShop version, and it's taken off a bit with streamers and Twitch folk. It's also spawned dozens of clones, including an unofficial free web browser version that I've been giving a go over the last couple of lunch times to see what all the fuss is about. It's a neat little time waster. It's a teensy bit different to the proper Switch version, but the basic concept is the same: it's a essentially physics-based fruit Tetris meets Threes, where you're dropping similar-looking fruits on top of one another to combine them into even larger fruits.

The goal is to combine them enough times to get the big watermelon for mega points, but honestly, I'm not sure how much longer I can keep playing this free version of Suika, because so many of the fruits you meet along the way to the watermelon just look so gosh darn sad that it's breaking my heart a little. Then again, if I was a pear, I'd probably have a pretty sour-looking face, too, if I'm honest.

I like to-do list games. Take Wytchwood, where your to-do list is stuff like 'craft trap to catch lizard to use lizard eyes to craft weapon to defeat ghost to...' and so on. My Little Universe, which is clearly best played in co-op, and would be good to play with kids if you have sourced any of those from somewhere, is like a to-do list game that reduces crafting to the barest minimum. You are basically collecting raw resources and pouring them into a bottomless maw. Despite that description, it's quite charming.

Stretch and compress rooms to make your escape in Stretchmancer, a nice little puzzle-platformer you can play for free. Your heroic gecko is a Stretchmancer, see, able to bend the dimensions of spaces to push walls far away and draw distant objects near. This is handy when trying to defeat an evil space empire. Stretchmancer is in a similar vein to Portal: a first-person puzzle-platformer which uses one neat trick to change how you see the world, and builds on that while a baddie taunts you. It's short, it's free, it's fun, and you might enjoy it slightly breaking your eyes.

Cities: Skylines 2 is, much like the wonkily roaded, pollution-choked helltown I’ve built within it, a work in progress. Developers Colossal Order upped the citybuilding sequel’s system requirements well in advance of launch, and more recently admitted to have "not achieved the benchmark we targeted" for PC performance. Instead, future improvements are promised, to patch Skylines 2 into better shape.

I wish I could say that this is all just pessimism, born from an overabundance of caution and expectation management. But no, it is just a bit of a mess, one capable of putting freshly mixed concrete shoes on even the fastest graphics cards. I’ve worked out a best settings guide that, compared to the available graphics presets, can better balance performance and visuals – though be warned that this will feel more like urgent repair work than a dream remodel.

Excellent news today, folks. The RPS guides team is once again back at full strength as we welcome two fresh faces to the Treehouse. Please give a big warm hello and welcome to Kiera Mills and Jeremy Blum.

Snake? Snake?! SNAAAAAAAAA - Oh, there you are, Snake. This is just a quick Codec to let you know that Konami's stealth blockbuster bundle Metal Gear Solid - Master Collection Volume 1 is now available to buy. Did you ever play Metal Gear Solid, Snake? It's this sprawling philosophical epic about war, surveillance, AI, nationalism and anti-heroism, a baroque metafictional saga spanning generations that is also a complex series of videogame design experiments. I know - it's a lot to take in, Snake, but you can sort of boil the series down to the difference between two varieties of wall. There are the ones you hide behind, so as to get the drop on your foes, and there are the ones you break, because they're fourth walls, Snake. Do you see?