Iratus: Lord of the Dead is a roguelike inspired by Darkest Dungeon, the party-based dungeon crawler from 2016, and I can think of worse games to emulate. Darkest Dungeon's blend of party management and turn-based combat was majestic, and Iratus aims to do the same, except that instead of looking after a group of adventurers you're cobbling together an army of undead from the body parts of vanquished foes. 

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is just over two weeks away, and I can't wait. The first game was an homage to classic RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment, and that was part of why players loved it so much. But the man in charge of directing it, Obsidian's Josh Sawyer, says that the genre needs to be more "radical", and that both Pillars 1 and 2 are "contributing to the problem" of a lack of innovation. 

"Arcade is dead," Housemarque said in January following poor sales of its latest arcade shooter Nex Machina (which was a very, very good game). After years of focusing on shoot 'em ups like Resogun and Dead Nation, the Finnish developer was on the hunt for a new genre—and it appears to have settled on battle royale.

Impish dungeon manager War for the Overworld—think a modern-day version of Dungeon Keeper and you're not far off—has just released its final expansion, which adds a seven-level, skirmish-style campaign, two game modes and three new dungeon Underlords, each with their own powers and signature minions.

Wintry Early Access battle royale game Darwin Project went free to play yesterday in an effort to boost player numbers and cut down the time it takes to queue for a round. 

When it comes to the forthcoming Netflix adaptation of The Witcher (the books, not the games, but close enough), our tubs remain very much half full in terms of excitement. This week, show creator Lauren S. Hissrich shared some details about the series from a showcase event in Rome. The big news is that it now has a possible 2020 release date, and the plan is for an eight episode season. 

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Ashland University of Ohio, the home of the Eagles, has announced that it will include Fortnite Battle Royale in its collegiate esports program, set to begin competition in the fall of 2018. The school said that its esports team "will be the first known collegiate esports program in the country" to add Fortnite to its roster. 

Shaun played a bit of Aura of Worlds at PAX Australia last year and found it rather promising, calling it a neat randomly generated side-scroller with a focus on improvised weapons. After a stay in early access on Itch, Aura of Worlds will enter Steam Early Access on Tuesday, April 24, developer Cognitive Forge announced today. 

Hollow Knight's long-awaited Lifeblood update is now available, developer Team Cherry announced today. If you purchased the game through Steam or GOG Galaxy, it will automatically update. DRM-free GOG and Humble buyers will need to download an updated version from their respective storefronts.