A dune with a view If you love The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker but wish it had more blood, death and inclement weather in it, considerSands of Aura. Released out of early access today, this is a top-down fantasy action-RPGset in a swirling, post-apocalyptic world in which you build up a town and sail between island dungeons in a sandship. The sandship, or rather, “grainwake” sailing sees you bouncing merrily from dunes as vast, ominous structures loom out of the haze....

Word of mouth The psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl posited that humans are motivated, above almost all else, to search for meaning in their lives. He would probably be unsurprised, if more than slightly confused, to see that spirit manifest in a rumour that therubbish performanceofCities: Skylines 2is being caused by excessive teeth. A widely-sharedreddit postsuggests that rendering the highly detailed chompers of Skylines 2’s citizenry, who lack the LOD (level of detail) implementation that would reduce their model quality at a distance, is a major cause behind the game’s inability to pump out frames per second....

A great US-only deal from Monoprice. Yesterday we looked at a pretty solid deal - a 24-inch 1440p 165Hz monitor for just $200. Today we’re going one better, with a 27-inch model that costs just $160 with free shipping from Monoprice. TheDark Matter27-inch monitor is one we’ve recommended before, and though it lacks the Fast IPS panel we prefer it’s still a solid option at this incredibly competitive price point....

Red string theory After spending hours poring overAlan Wake 2this week, corkboards full of photos, red string and important little clue nuggets have definitely been on my brain. Alas, Remedy’s horror-fuelled detective ‘em upkeeps its problem-solving a little too much at arm’s lengthfor my tastes. Every piece of evidence you collect has its own set place on the board, for example, and heck, even the thrill of joining the dots with a set of pins and string is taken away from you, as its deduction work is all swept up in a wave of automation....

And Evil Within 2 is free right now Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasionis the good kind of distraction: a silly, finite, Zeldalike in which you rollick around a pixel art pasture and tick off todo list items by bish-boshing enemies and assisting vegetables. Alice B called it thefunniest game she’d ever played. This is an advanced heads-up that it’ll be free to keep from the Epic Games Store from November 2nd....

Stuck on today’s Wordle word for October 27? Read our hint or find the answer below! This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theWordle hint and answer for Thursday 12th December! Need a hint for today’s Wordle answer?Every day,Wordlepresents its legions of players with a deviously simple quandary: can you guess the right five-letter word within just six guesses? All you have to help you in finding the Wordle answer are the contextual clues you gain from each guess - but often, that’s not enough....

Our review is still cooking TheAlan Wake 2review 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....

“A central part of the nonviolence training are these kind of roleplaying games.” RPS: Can you tell me a little about yourself? How did you get involved with Just Stop Oil? And so my faith in the government to deal with the climate crisis just kind of evaporated. I mean, I’d been thinking, ‘Oh, it’s such a big crisis. It’s so significant. All the scientists are talking about it, they’re talking about in the UN - obviously, the government is taking this seriously, and doing things at a realistic pace....

Caff and PolygonClassicist Ask RPS Ask RPSreturns for another installment today, this time focusing on some of our daily food and drink habits. Technically, I have mashed twosupporter questionsinto 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?...

Getting traffic moving Every road network I ever constructed inCities: Skylineshad deep-rooted performance issues I’d then spend dozens more happy hours trying to unravel. I hope Colossal Order are having a similarly fun time trying to fix the performance issues present inCities: Skylines 2, which launched earlier this week. The first patch is out now and it includes optimisations for rendering, fog, depth-of-field and more designed to make the citybuilder’s framerates less gridlocked....

Among many other fixes Thefull patch notesare pretty extensive. The Phantom Liberty-specific fixes include several for rare, progress-blocking glitches, but the best of the bunch is up top: “Rebalanced the time limits for Vehicle Contracts.” Dogtown features several vehicles you can steal and drive to drop-off points around Night City, but even driving perfectly I struggled to do them within the time limit and had to live with reduced payment and a snide comment from the infinitely punchable Muamar....

Teamwork and death at sea Foxholeis a massively multiplayer battlefield in which players can be frontline soldiers or part of a rear detachment providing supplies and logistical support. A major free update is out today, Naval Warfare, which as the name suggets brings that persistent online war to the sea, with gunboats, destroyers and beach landings to contend with. Here’s a launch trailer: Players will be responsible for every part of running their ships, from maintaining its engines, sonar and navigation systems, to delivering ammunition, firing the guns, and outmanouvering enemies....

Need a hint for today’s Connections? Read our guide for help with Connections #137 This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theConnections hint and answers for Thursday 12th December! Want a hint for Connections today?Piggybacking off the monumental success of daily puzzle gameWordle, the New York Times has another fantastically popular word game out now. It’s calledConnections, and if you haven’t played it before, now’s the time to start....