Rights holder retakes control of a 27-year-old MMO from devs keeping it updated, says don't worry, you can still play a version from 2008

When did tutorials start to feel like an untraversable gulf? When did I begin having to bargain with myself every time a new game comes out, pointing at myself in the mirror and promising that I'd thank future me for dedicating at least an hour or two of my sparse evening to slowly suffering through an information dump?

Despite its age, The Realm Online has had its heart kept beating by fans in a way similar to City of Heroes—though in this case with the official backing of the IP holders Norseman Games. In 2018, Norseman entered into an agreement with the private server Mistwalkers, allowing the fanmade developer Rat Labs—now Realm World LLC—to update The Realm Online in an official capacity on a free-to-play server that would receive new content and quality of life updates.

Has someone ever had the misfortune of walking in on you when two "choombas" are bumping uglies in Cyberpunk 2077, or, god forbid, you're Naked Raiden getting choked by his stepfather who was also the president in Metal Gear Solid 2?

In a year that has repeatedly shown us the dark side of the free-to-play ecosystem, I can't think of a better time for BattleBit Remastered to appear on Steam and instantly steal the spotlight. The $15, 254-player FPS made by four people has been a top seller on the platform since it released, managing to outperform the most popular games on Steam and even Starfield preorders.

A theme park sim in the style of classics like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Park Beyond isn't a very subtle game, both in the sense that it's loud and bombastic, and that it's not exactly hiding which other games it's been influenced by.

Not long after I launch the demo of Eternights, I'm slipped some advice by doltish sideman Chani. "To get girls online you have to be more than a smartass," he says. "You have to be serious." It's not the kind of topic I expect to give much thought to when feral mutants are running amok and humankind's spiritual fate hangs in the balance.

Imagine taking a reliable ability like Corpse Explosion and transforming it into pure anarchy. Instead of exploding a body, these gothic gloves make it so that the corpse spawns a sprinting skeleton who beelines in a random direction and finds an unwitting enemy to detonate.