A couple of weeks ago I watched EEK3, a digital showcase for indie games with that Haunted PS1 aesthetic, complete with its own virtual showfloor. Among the games that caught my eye was Cellular Harvest, which is about an auditor sent to an alien planet to document its lifeforms. It's out now, I've played it, and it's good.

First-person engineering sandbox Satisfactory launched in early access on Epic last March. A month ago it became available on Steam as well. In the interests of transparency, Jace Varlet, community manager at Coffee Stain Studios (who are also responsible, lest we forget, for first-person tower defense series Sanctum, and Goat Simulator, as well as publisher of Deep Rock Galactic and Huntdown) has shared the numbers.

Citing "overwhelming demand," the development team of upcoming action-RPG Mortal Shell has decided to turn its previously closed beta into an open one. The beta is now freely available on the Epic Games store. Previously available only to a select few, the beta includes "the outskirts of Fallgrim and the Abandoned Chamber," whatever those are.

Ambitious and much-wanted mod Team Fortress 2 Classic released today. It's a delicious serving of retro TF2 to those who hanker for such things, or a heady throwback to times long-lost for those who never experienced it. Per its developers, Team Fortress 2  Classic is "a re-imagining of the 2008-2009 era of the original Team Fortress 2, of which is what we consider the 'Classic Era', featuring old features that were scrapped and worked upon, or new content such as new weapons and gamemodes."

Risk of Rain 2 exploded into Early Access last year, selling more than one million copies in its first month. The game has been going strong ever since, despite a slight delay on the full release, with new areas to blast through and new characters to blast as. Recent updates also brought back artifacts, the game-rules-tweaking bits and bobs from the first game. 

Good news if you, like me, love muskets and cannons and a well-drilled firing line in impeccable uniforms. Holdfast: Nations at War has just added new marching animations in the biggest update since the game's release in March. Alongside the new animations there's an elaborate system for managing your in-game groups or clans, called regiments. There are also new respawn systems for officers to reinforce forward positions. 

One of the early images from Star Wars: Squadrons that immediately caught my eye was an interior shot of an X-Wing cockpit, and more specifically the Ewok wobbly riding along the left panel like some kind of dashboard hula girl from space. Not that I have anything against good luck charms, but... really?

Prepare for sand to get rough and absolutely everywhere, because strategy and tactics RPG Battle Brothers has a gritty new expansion coming August 13 called Blazing Deserts. Where last year's expansion added a sprawling, frozen North, this year's adds a southland of city-states, advanced scientific learning, and a sun god who sounds kind of mean. Alongside these new locations to visit will be new non-combat followers to recruit, late game crises to weather, and era-appropriate medieval firearms.

Fortnite has played host to some pretty big media events, including the international debut of a teaser for a new Star Wars flick, a Travis Scott concert that attracted more than ten million people, and a recent airing of a full Christopher Nolan film. Tomorrow, July 4, it will showcase something far more serious and important: We the People, "a series of conversations that advance the dialogue around race in America with prominent BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) voices in business, sports, media, music, and entertainment."

The loss of E3 and other major gaming events as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a flurry of online showcases in their place, some quite large, elaborate, and equipped with adorable robots, and others on the smaller side. The upcoming Nacon Connect may not be the biggest show the summer will give us, but even so it's going to be worth watching.