In a move that's about as shocking as finding out games need to actually work before release, Valve has decided to crack down on the wild west of season passes. Who could have guessed that promising infinite content for finite money might need some regulation?

Ever wanted to be a medieval ruler but thought Crusader Kings III had too few complaints about furniture distribution? Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown is here to remind you that even in the Dark Ages, people really cared about their work-life balance.

Ever wanted to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier while roleplaying as Belgium? Götterdämmerung is here to drain your wallet and possibly melt your CPU.

Ever wondered what it's like to work a soul-crushing job where every task might actually kill you? Threshold answers that question with a wheezing "yes" and throws in some existential workplace horror for good measure.

Finally, after enough development hell to make Duke Nukem Forever look punctual, STALKER 2 has emerged from the Zone. Like finding a valuable artifact in a whirling anomaly, it's simultaneously brilliant and potentially hazardous to your hardware's health.

In today's episode of "Honestly Kind of Adorable Game Dev Moments," we've got some spicy pasta from an Italian reviewer claiming Balatro's developer went full "notice me senpai" with The Game Awards jury.

According to reliable Fortnite leaker Shiina, backed by SamLeaks, everyone's favorite battle royale is preparing to wake the fuck up, samurai - we've got a crossover to burn.

Ever wanted to be an ant commander in a photorealistic garden? Well, Empire of the Ants delivers exactly that – but whether that's what ant enthusiasts actually wanted is another story entirely. Like finding out your dream ant farm is just a pretty picture of one, this game is simultaneously impressive and disappointing.

The game that launched a thousand lunch breaks has finally made its way to Steam, and like a well-aged pepperoni, it's only gotten better with time. Papa's Pizzeria Deluxe takes the Flash game classic we all pretended to play for "educational purposes" on school computers and cranks the sauce up to eleven.

Let's get the elephant in the nuclear bunker out of the way: No, this isn't Half-Life: Alyx. But comparing every VR game to Alyx is like comparing every burger joint to that one amazing place you had in Tokyo – it's just setting yourself up for disappointment. Metro Awakening is its own beast, and while it might not be a revolution, it's definitely more than just another VR shooting gallery.

Remember Gladius? That Warhammer 40K 4X game that was basically "what if Civilization, but everyone's permanently pissed off"? Well, Proxy Studios just dropped ZEPHON, and holy hell, it's like they took everything they learned from Gladius, gave it a shot of personality steroids, and created something that might just make Games Workshop jealous.

Let's get one thing straight: if H.P. Lovecraft made a card game, it probably wouldn't be this random – and this is coming from a guy who wrote about cosmic chaos for a living. Menace from the Deep looks like a slam dunk on paper: gorgeous Lovecraftian art, solid atmosphere, and deck-building mechanics that should work smoother than a cultist's sales pitch. Unfortunately, it plays like someone shuffled the rules with a tentacle.

Well folks, looks like we can officially file "December PlayStation Event" under "Things That Don't Exist" right next to affordable gaming chairs and reasonable gamers on Twitter. Industry insider Jeff Grubb has dropped another truth bomb, this time confirming he hasn't heard a peep about any PlayStation Showcase or State of Play happening in December.

Well folks, time to put those PlayStation showcase dreams back in the sock drawer - or at least adjust them from "HOLY SHIT" to "oh... neat." Industry insider Jeff Grubb just threw a bucket of lukewarm water on our collective excitement about the potential December State of Play, suggesting we shouldn't expect any major PS5 announcements.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a Nintendo "insider" posts cryptic images on social media, throws in some vague hints about future announcements, and the gaming community collectively loses its mind trying to decipher what shade of blue in Link's tunic means we're getting a new F-Zero game.

Ever wondered what would happen if you fed an AI a history textbook, some LSD, and told it to make a grand strategy game? Well, Realpolitiks 3 is here to answer that question with all the grace of a drunk diplomat at a peace conference.

Remember when your friend tried to convince everyone that kale would be the next big thing in 2005? That's basically what happened to these games, except instead of questionable salad ingredients, they were packing features that wouldn't become industry standards for years to come.

Remember when every video game looked like it was filmed through a glass of dehydrated urine? Reddit sure does, and they're getting surprisingly nostalgic about it. A recent viral post on r/gaming has sparked a heated debate about the infamous "piss filter" era of gaming, when developers apparently thought the height of realism was making everything look like it was soaked in Mountain Dew.

Ever wondered what would happen if a Russian folk tale had a baby with a video game while listening to haunting Slavic music? Well, Vasilisa and Baba Yaga is here to answer that question with more style than a witch's fashion show.

Ever wondered what would happen if Tim Burton decided to make a point-and-click adventure game about teenage rebellion in the underworld? Well, PRIM is here to answer that question with more style than a goth their Instagram feed.