Having lived a lengthy life in Early Access, Blood West from developer hyperstrange, is finally being released in full retail mode, with the developer announcing overnight that December would be the release window for the unique stealth horror FPS.

We're very much looking forward to Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew from Desperados 3 developer Mimimi Games. And overnight the developer, who is publishing the game itself, announced that it would be starring at Steam Next Fest and will come ready to play with an accessible demo for all the would-be pirate misfits out there.

Beyond Contact is a survival game now available on Steam made by Aussie studio PlayCorp. We had a chance recently to chat with studio boss and Australian game development veteran, Chris Mosely, on all facets of game-design and just how much the Aussie industry has changed.

We are great lovers of smart lighting here, and even greater lovers of the Nanoleaf brand who continue to push and innovate in the space; beyond even aesthetic lighting and now into essential setups. And today came word that it has released the first Matter over Thread smart lights, with three new products now available in Australia.

Sony has shared what games you'll be able to pick up for free as part of PlayStation Plus' monthly games initiative, headlined by NBA 2K23 which, given how the NBA season has played out, really should have had either Jimmy Butler or Nikola Jokić on the cover. Go Heat.

And it's looking like this one will go a bit open-worldroad, tapping into the Forza Horizon model, even if just a bit, and we couldn't be happier with that prospect. Based on the announce trailer, it also looks like the team at Milestone has upped the arcade factor, and then some.

Ubisoft Australia doesn't want you to miss out on any of the cool stuff happening over in LA for Summer Game Fest, which we'll actually be at, opting to offer Sydney-based peeps a chance to head to Fortress Sydney for Ubisoft Forward, the developer-publisher's premier reveal and deep-dive event on everything being worked on within its four walls.

Last year's Devolver Direct was a video presentation for the ages that shone through because of the publisher's unique tone and punk rock-style railing against the industry norm, and it's happening again this year, Devolver Digital has confirmed.

All part of Summer Game Fest, which we (I) are heading to from next week, Devolver's next Devolver Direct already promises to be an outlier where we an expect updates on games known to be in development and, of course, surprises and new announcements.

Supporting full cross-platform functionality, Razer's latest gaming earbuds, the Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeeds don't only sport one helluva cool name, they're also THX certified and feature adjustable noise-cancelling as well as a host of audio enhancements.

System Shock is now available for PC, developer Nightdive Studios has announced. Revisit the ground-breaking sandbox space of the sci-fi classic where players take on a rogue AI called SHODAN that has taken control of Citedal Station, home to yourself and other humans and aliens which has now become a death trap.

Pitched less evolved in the tech realm (given this series of headsets is already so good), and more from an ergonomic-slash-comfort level (with the slogan "comfort, evolved"), the HyperX Cloud III gaming headset was announced at this year's Computex 2023, alongside a new range of in-ear options from the gaming and PC peripheral giant.

It's a strange time we live in, where competing information and data and speculation now centres less around games overall, and more about which company is attempting to acquire which other company or dev or IP or... whatever.

The latest rumour suggests that Sony has eyes for an acquisition of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED, however, this has been steadfastly refuted by the studio itself.

New story-heavy DLC for the critically divisive Forspoken is now available, serving as a prequel to the events of the base game that sees the game's main character, witch-to-be, Frey, travelling back in time to attempt to locate the exact point of the "Break" to try and save Athia once again, only from a different angle.

There are epic competitions with elements of cheeky creativity, and then there's this celebration of Company of Heroes 3 coming to console, which is a diorama depicting a chaotic assault from the game, literally, wrapped around an Xbox Series X, and you can win it.

Some people are good at shooters, or MOBAs, or Rocket League or Fortnite. For mine, it's open-world games. I'm a soloist at heart and just love the pure essence of being lost in a game-world with numerous things to do. While people build torture chambers or rockets in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I played that game in an explortory way, taking in its design and embedded and layered world story.

Dragon's Dogma 2, an open-world game we've been keen on since it was announced, has finally been shown in action, and while not breaking too many visual ceilings, it still looks pretty damn engaging.

Our love for the gut-wrenching Frostpunk knows no bounds, which is why we said yes to being able to review its IRL board game incarnation by way of the successfully Kickstarted Frostpunk: The Board Game. And boy can we tell you, the translation of Frostpunk's immeasurably daunting world shine through here in spades.

Another standout from Sony's PlayStation Showcase was a trailer for Ghostrunner II, sequel to the cyber-ninja parkour visual show-pony that was the OG Ghostrunner (natch). More gravity-defying, death-defying, high-flying action was on display with that art style and game-world we fell in love with in the first place.

Another game that took part in today's PlayStation Showcase, Assassin's Creed Mirage, not only took centre stage with a brand new trailer, but we also got confirmation of its worldwide release date, which sees us hitting the streets of 9th-Century Baghdad this October.

This game continues to impress every time we see anything new around it, and today at the PlayStation Showcase, it was one of the more immediate standouts amidst a reel of games that failed, wholly, to ignite a heap of excitement (Spidey 2 not withstanding). But we definitely recommend seeing where this is going, because it's looking magic.

In the first true gameplay reveal for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, developer Insomniac showcased an ultra-polished sequel to its already amazing effort with Marvel's Spider-Man from 2018, and revealed one of the key big-bads this time around would be the terrifying Kraven the Hunter.

This is must-watch material.