Who has “reprioritization” on their newspeak bingo card? Smite 2developers Hi-Rez Studios have laid off an unspecified number of workers, as part of what they call a “internal reorganization and reprioritization”. The layoffs would ultimately benefit Smite 2, claimed the company’s boss, who added that the cuts “disproportionally affect” those working on cosmetic skins and game “system features”, as well as people in marketing and publishing roles. “Today, we’re making difficult but necessary changes to ensure Hi-Rez’s long-term success, with a specific focus on positioning Smite 2 for a long and sustainable future,” said CEO Stewart Chisham ina Xitter postyesterday....

The Roads To Power are paved with good intentions We pitch our tents outside Constantinople and crack open the ale. In the light of the campfire I examine my travel companions as they party. There’s an Ashkenazi rabbi, a Saxon serf, some French knights, a Czech spy, a German dwarf, and a pair of inseparable Italian peasants. This rowdy band of roustabouts I’ve collected in theCrusader Kings 3’s Roads To Power expansion has the feeling of a found family, each fellow wanderer sporting their own ambitions and quirks....

Well that was a scary few hours, huh One blemish onThrone and Liberty’s barnstorming release – one day in and it’sso far up the Steam chartsit’s only visible by telescope – has been some unexpected Steam Deck trouble. Despite the fantasyMMORPGhaving worked fine on the Deck in previous betas, a celebrating Amazon employee must have drunkenly nudged the ‘Break game on Linux’ lever at the office launch party, as reports begantrickling inof handheld players being kicked from servers....

Stuck on today’s Wordle word for October 2? 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?We have you covered with a list of hints to help you maintain that precious streak. Every day,Wordlepresents its legions of players with a deviously simple quandary: can you guess the right five-letter word within just six guesses?...

Delegation of a nation I am puzzled byAra Colon History Untold’spriorities. At its heart are a couple of interesting ideas undermined by its own determination to put the wrong thing on centre stage. Make a rich and elaborate resourcemanagement gamewith an unorthodox research system, but then spend so much time on a simultaneous turn system and detailed animations that you’re left with a cumbersome interface and lifeless AI, and you too might wind up making Ara....

“It’s a complicated question without a single answer” “While the game is feature complete, the learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide additional time to further polish the title,” read last week’s statement. “This will enable the biggest entry in the franchise to fully deliver on its ambition, notably by fulfilling the promise of our dual protagonist adventure, with Naoe and Yasuke bringing two very different gameplay styles....

Loop activities For reasons that seemingly amount to japery, Google have unveiled a double-sided, endlessly looping keyboard design – but only in Japan, and they’re not actually making it. However, the blueprints for 3D-printing it are freely available onGitHub, which is enough to convince me that someone needs to develop some kind of chaotic party game that uses the Möbius strip-shaped Gboard (good spot,Tom’s Hardware) as a controller. While the keyboard itself is quite literally a joke – see its tee-hee ho-ho ‘trailer’ above – I am dead serious that it could be the centrepiece for an enjoyably competitive, 2-4 player button mash-off that would make the averageJackboxsession look like a model UN meeting....

Need some Connections hints? Read our guide for help with Connections #477. This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theConnections hint and answers for Thursday 12th December! Connectionsis a word puzzle game published every day by the New York Times (NYT), the hosts of the endlessly popularWordlepuzzle. Crafted each day by puzzle-maker Wyna Liu, Connections presents you with a selection of 16 seemingly disparate words, and you have to group them together in four sets of four, where each group of four words has a common theme....

Here’s everything we know about the new Pale Garden biome in Minecraft This biome comes with a new mob, wood block, moss variant and more. To see what The Pale Garden biome has to offer and when we can expect it to release, read below. Minecraft Pale Garden biome The Pale Garden biome is a new woodland with a spookier, greyish appearance. With hanging moss and a cluttered feel, the trees are plentiful and almost imposing....

You’re sun, I’m moon Throwback turn-based RPGSea Of Starswill get the free update that adds a local co-op mode next month, letting up to three players waddle through the game’s story side by side (by side). The update will also include commonly requested features,say developers Sabotage Studio, like tweaks to the combat and a “revamped prologue” that’ll see players able to get stuck into the action quicker. We’d previouslyheard about this update, but now we know the actual release date....

How long to bleat I do not wish to dwell overly long on the incredible stop motion sheep in the trailer for folkhorror gameDaemonologie, because it’s got so much else going for it - from the gorgeously haunting vocal and string melodies to the extremely dark character interactions that offer your witch finder the choice between ‘talk’ and ‘torture’. And yet, living in Wales for the last decade must have rubbed off....

“I always wanted to be Like A Dragon: Yakuza” There’s a new trailer out forthat there Like A Dragon: Yakuza TV showthat Amazon’s spinning up. And being one of RPS' foremostYakuzasickos, I can say that I remain cautious about it, with perhaps a hint of optimism. It doesn’t look like it’s going for goofy, but instead opting for largely gritty and serious and almost entirely unrelated to the Yakuza games. Still, though, I do know how the show ends....