Look at the nice fellow in the featured image of this article. Look into his eyes. Look at the slightly awkward grin plastered across his face at the moment in a YouTube video on his channel that I've chosen to pause and take a screenshot. This is a man who wants you to feel "a sense of agony". To be frustrated and perplexed as to which outcome to choose. This is a man who knows you can't feed the world with a set of laser eyeballs. This is Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer, who recently made some points about RPG building that are worth dissecting in light of his reported new gig as head of Obsidian's upcoming Fallout game.
Like an Oblivion gate terrorizing Tamriel, AI slop has come to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Since the advent of LLM-generated "vibe coding," Skyrim players have found themselves deluged with new mods promising exciting features and cutting-edge graphics. The thumbnails for these new mods are slick, and the descriptions always confidently assert that they'll turn Skyrim into a new game. Once the mod is downloaded, though, fans quickly discover that it's too good to be true — if they can get it working at all.
Disney laid off hundreds of employees across its divisions on Tuesday, including National Geographic and ESPN. Animation giant Pixar was hit hard as the animation studio is estimated to have let go of a "high single percentile of its 1,100 staff," or around 100 employees, according to Deadline. TheWrap reports the number of laid-off employees is closer to 150.
Today, Bungie launched Marathon's 1.1.5 update, featuring its awaited Vault Breaker experimental PvE mode which offers a two-week window for players to contend with the typically-endgame Cryo Archive map and its many hazards and puzzles without any twitchy, murderous squads of competing players hanging around.
Shortly after the Vault Breaker update went live, SteamDB charts showed that Marathon's concurrent player count had jumped to over 14,800 players. That's not a massive number compared to its peers on Steam's Most Played ranking, but it's roughly triple the activity that Marathon pulled at similar times of day throughout the last week—and the most concurrent player activity since player numbers started bleeding after the June free weekend.
Vault Breaker trades Marathon's typical extraction loop for an alternative progression scheme. Unlike in normal excursions, runners in Vault Breaker won't keep any gear they pick up and extract with during a run. Instead, the goal is to loot Vault Data that can be used for persistent upgrades to your initial Vault Breaker kit or spent on gear that can be carried into standard runs, offering a more roguelite framework for Bungie's gunplay.
The 1.1.5 update also brings some changes for the Cradle upgrade system, like an option to "evolve" (read: prestige) a fully-levelled Cradle to reset its progress in exchange for a higher energy limit, allowing careerist runners to equip more Cradle upgrades. Bungie has also implemented new voice moderation and reporting systems in an effort to crack down on in-game chat toxicity.
Vault Breaker is a welcome offering for players who've been eager for a chance to savor Marathon's setting, aesthetic, and shooter sandbox without extraction-induced anxiety—particularly in the wake of Destiny 2's abrupt entry into un-live service purgatory. Bungie's clearly willing to tinker with the Marathon formula; whether a long-term audience will materialize for that post-launch experimentation—and how much patience Sony's vague live service strategy is willing to extend—remains to be seen.
Why: The level of heart and detail in the character dialogue is unmatched.
Fields of Mistria
❤️ Romance: Yes ⚔️ Combat: Yes 🤝 Co-op: No
After two years of early access and an imminent 1.0 launch, Fields of Mistria has become my absolute favorite in the post-Stardew farm sim scene. It solves so many of my little farm simming gripes with little quality-of-life touches and just feels like it was made with a deep love of the genre.
Mistria commits so hard to the '90s anime and Game Boy Advance aesthetic with pastel colors and a bunch of loveable cuties wearing capes and shoulder pads. I can't stress enough that it's got so much substance underneath that anime trope crust, though. Yes March is a textbook tsundere and Juniper is a witch who says "OH HO HO" with that arrogant hand pose when she laughs, but it leaves room for characters who defy stereotypes too. Mistria has so much detailed, character-building dialogue that I truly love getting to know its characters and their quirks.
(Image credit: Soda Den, composite by PC Gamer)
Roots of Pacha
Why: It's the best exactly-like-Stardew thing out there. Roots of Pacha review (88%): "It delights in genre staples while tuning the formula just enough to create something engaging and fresh."
Roots of Pacha
❤️ Romance: Yes ⚔️ Combat: No 🤝 Co-op: Yes (4-player)
Roots of Pacha is by far the closest thing to just playing more Stardew Valley, only set in the stone age. It's got a very similar pixel art style, character types, and soundtrack, but unlike so many things chasing Stardew's coattails, Pacha doesn't suffer for the comparison. It's just downright solidly good with lots of little extras like a fun musical minigame to tame animals and a tech tree for unlocking farm inventions that your community members come up with. This is the one that I managed to get my group of friends to play together for several weeks despite never doing co-op Stardew together.
(Image credit: Stairway Games, composite by PC Gamer)
Coral Island has 30 dateable characters. That's wild, when the standard in this genre is more like a dozen. Plus there's all the other characters on Coral Island who are equally personable and unique. After a year of early access and several post-launch updates with massive feature lists, Coral Island become one of the biggest farm sims around. It's now got multiplayer, a (toggleable) jealousy system if you're neglecting your spouse for other datable characters, and even more big updates on the way. I came to this one later than most, but honestly I'm glad I'm seeing it after it's been jam-packed with goodies.
(Image credit: Studio Supersoft, composite by PC Gamer)
Moonstone Island
Why: Creature-catching will always be catnip to me.
Moonstone Island
❤️ Romance: Yes ⚔️ Combat: Yes (turn-based) 🤝 Co-op: No
Moonstone Island leans closer to a crafting sim than a life sim, so some of the community and social elements like dating are shallower than other Stardew-like games. I cannot deny that adding creature-catching to a genre I already like is pretty much always a winner, though. Moonstone brings my favorite bits of base-building and procedural generated world exploring into a cute farming and crafting experience the way that almost no other post-Stardew life sims do. It flips the usual farm sim priorities on its head by making my creatures the focus instead of my rows of crops.
(Image credit: PixelCount Studios, composite by PC Gamer)
Kynseed
Why: The world feels so enticingly creepy and interesting. Kynseed review (89%): "A hearty stew made from elements of Fable, Stardew Valley and Crusader Kings."
Kynseed
❤️ Romance: Yes ⚔️ Combat: Yes 🤝 Co-op: No
Kynseed is an odd one, in general and also, admittedly, as a pick for this list. It's built on creepy fairytales with an almost overwhelmingly dense pixel art style. Having roots in the older Fable games means that its characters are more like simulated little pawns in your world and don't really have that Stardew-style depth of character. It has gotten more Stardew-like with all of its years of updates though, adding in more house customization and other personal bits. Playing through family generations means you can sink a lot of hours into this one. I'm always fascinated by the crusty old RPG feeling of exploring its world and chasing down quest hints between coming home to farm. I just think it's very niche and neat and I'll never shut up about how its super tactile cooking minigame is amazing.
Staff Picks
I may be the tender of this list, but I'm just one of many farm sim lovers at PC Gamer, so here are the latest favorites from my fellows.
Palworld has exploded in popularity, selling 30.5 million copies and raking in $700 million since its 1.0 update. Seems like it's found its own groove!
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