Borderlands 4, Space Pigeons, and Morally Conflicted Trams: A Week Wild as a Polymorphed Dragon!
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
This week's gaming news brought a delightful mix of the bizarre and the highly anticipated, from indie gems like 'Star Birds' (pigeons building spacebases!) and 'Trainatic' (trains made of gun parts) to major releases like the 'Dune: Awakening' DLC and the much-debated arrival of 'Borderlands 4.'
Right, so I've been tinkering with this week's gaming news, and bloody hell, it’s wilder than a wizard’s apprentice trying to juggle flaming cats. We've got everything from long-awaited sequels making their grand (and slightly suspicious) entrance, to indie darlings that sound like they were cooked up in a mad scientist's dream lab. Grab a cuppa, mate, because this is going to be a ride.
First up, let's talk about the absolute bonkers brilliance of *Trainatic*, which rolled onto the scene on Monday. Imagine building a 'teeny train out of candy-coloured gun parts' – yeah, you read that right. I'm not entirely sure if it’s a physics puzzler, a rail-shooter, or just a beautifully chaotic art project, but the idea of chugging along on a train made of, well, *gun bits*, is just peak 'what happens if…' territory for me. It’s the kind of game that probably teaches you more about the structural integrity of a sweet-wrapper chassis than any engineering degree ever could. Sign me up!
Tuesday brought us a bit of a mixed bag, starting with *Road To Empress*. It's an FMV adventure set in Tang Dynasty China, and honestly, the sheer audacity of a full-motion video game in this day and age is almost charming. It’s like finding a relic from a forgotten digital age, polished up and ready for another go. Will it be a glorious narrative journey, or a collection of wonderfully wooden acting? Only time will tell, but you've gotta admire the commitment to the format.
Then, for those of us who prefer our historical escapades a little less… filmed, we got the *Legacy of the Forge* expansion for *Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2*. Now, I reckon many of you have been waiting for this one, probably meticulously dusting your anvils, practicing your blacksmithing lore, and generally living your best medieval life. KCD2 has always been about that gritty, realistic historical RPG experience, and a forge-focused expansion sounds like exactly the kind of deep-dive content its fans crave. Here's hoping it adds even more layers to an already rich, mud-and-blood-soaked world, rather than just more fetch quests from a grumpy Duke.
Wednesday felt like the universe decided to throw a whole handful of glittering, weird ideas at us. First, there’s *Katanaut*, described as a 'metriovainglorious, eerily roguelit endeavour' where you're a dude with swords on a space station full of muties. See? Told you it was chaotic! Metroidvanias and roguelites are like digital comfort food for a lot of us, but chuck in a space station, some swords, and 'muties,' and you've got a recipe for something potentially unique. My curiosity is definitely piqued – especially by the 'eerily' bit. What kind of horrors await in that space station, beyond the usual space-bugs?
But wait, it gets better. *Star Birds*. Yes, you heard that right. It’s about pigeons building spacebases on asteroids, linking them up into production networks. No muties here, apparently, but 'entrepreneurial space pigeons' building supply chains might just be more terrifying. I mean, do they wear tiny space helmets? Do they peck at the controls? The sheer mental image is enough to make me want to fund their intergalactic capitalist empire. This is the kind of genuinely innovative, quirky indie that makes me believe in the magic of gaming.
For those who were still craving more ancient China after *Road To Empress*, we also got the prologue for the city-builder *Celestial Empire*. Building grand dynasties and managing ancient economies sounds like a wonderfully intricate way to spend your evenings. And speaking of chunky DLC, if you're one of those brave souls still binging *X4* – and I know you're out there, you magnificent space-sim commanders – there's a hefty new expansion for you to sink your teeth into. More systems, more ships, more space-capitalism, I reckon.
And then, we come to a big one: *Dune: Awakening*'s first major DLC, *Lost Harvest*. I'm pretty sure a non-zero quantity of you are still desperately trying to survive Arrakis, avoiding those colossal sandworms and managing spice production. This DLC promises a new vehicle and 'much underground peril,' which, let's be fair, is exactly what you want from a Dune game. More ways to navigate the hostile landscape, and more reasons to be terrified of what lurks beneath the sand. It’s a good sign when a big live-service game drops substantial content that genuinely adds to the core experience, rather than just selling you cosmetic hats for your Fremen.
Thursday, however, brought the news that sent a ripple of both excitement and gentle skepticism through the gaming world: *Borderlands 4* has officially 'crossed the border into our lands, for better or worse.' The 'for better or worse' part really hits home, doesn't it? Randy Pitchford’s piano ties aren’t going to pay for themselves, and neither are those endless waves of psychos. *Borderlands* is a series with a beloved legacy – that unique blend of looter-shooter mayhem, irreverent humour, and bazillions of guns. But every new entry carries the weight of expectation, and the shadow of past missteps. Will it recapture the magic of *Borderlands 2*? Will the humour land? Or will it feel like just another step in the corporate-mandated content churn? My wizard's tea leaves are a bit cloudy on this one, but I'm cautiously optimistic they can still deliver a bloody good time. Just try not to get *too* greedy, eh?
And in a bizarre little tangent on Thursday, we also got a *tandem simulator*. Sweet merciful crap, a tandem simulator! The mind boggles. Are you racing against other tandems? Are you just trying to maintain marital harmony while cycling? The possibilities for comedic physics failures alone are enough to justify its existence, I reckon.
Finally, Friday rounded out the week with a flurry of quirky indies. *Coal LLC* doesn't look much like your great grand-daddy’s coal mining operation, unless he also had wings and carried out excavations with a Gatling gun. Another brilliant example of taking a mundane concept and turning it into something fantastically absurd. Then there's *The Trolley Solution*, a compilation of minigames dedicated to perhaps the most-memed moral quandary of our time. It's a bold move, and one I can't wait to see played out. Will it make us ponder the ethics of rail transport, or just giggle maniacally as we choose who gets run over?
I'm also a medium-to-large fan of the temporal platforming shenanigans on show in *Chrono Gear: Warden of Time*. Time manipulation in platformers is always a winner for me, letting you bend reality to your will. Though, its connection to the Hololive universe genuinely confuses me – are we going to see Vtuber cameos in our time-bending puzzles? What a crossover! And last but not least, *Gloomy Eyes* offers a Burtonesque chiller where one playable character can't stand light, while the other needs it to survive. That's a clever co-op or puzzle mechanic just waiting to be explored, a lovely bit of atmospheric design.
So there you have it, mate. A week packed with the predictable, the wonderfully weird, and the downright intriguing. From pigeons building space empires to the return of a legendary looter-shooter, it's clear the gaming world never quite settles down. And that's exactly how I like it – a constant cascade of digital wonders, each one begging us to ask, 'what happens if…' Now, if you'll excuse me, I think my candy-coloured gun-train needs some more... propulsion.
Tags: PC Gaming, Indie Games, DLC, RPG, Shooters
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun