2026-02-23T19:04:28.198Z BlogFlock Irreal, The Emacs Cat, Protesilaos Stavrou: News and Announcements, BuzzMachine, Justin Barclay, GamingOnLinux Latest Articles, manuel uberti, Philip KALUDERCIC, Bowmansarrow, Xah Lee, Karthinks, Arialdo Martini, MacAdie Web Blog, Jeff Kreeftmeijer, Emacs@ Dyerdwelling, Take on Rules, LWN.net, Bicycle For Your Mind, Wilfred Hughes::Blog, McSweeney’s, Rock Paper Shotgun Latest Articles Feed, Sacha Chua https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/come-chase-your-clone-through-an-exquisite-comicbook-inspired-world-of-seashells-and-ancient-machines 2026-02-23T17:47:00.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/helix-ascend-descend.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p> Helix: Descent N Ascent sounds like it should be a mascot platformer starring a jaunty DNA molecule with floating Rayman hands, whose special power is making stuff go up and down. Up and down the evolutionary ladder, even! A platform game in which you can evolve and devolve your character at will, to solve different puzzles? Good lord, we&rsquo;ll make one million dollars out of this! Somebody get me the CEO of Midway. </p> <p> Alas for my career prospects, Midway is no more. And Helix is not a mascot platformer, probably to its benefit. As revealed by the new Steam demo, it&rsquo;s a slow and atmospheric puzzler in which you investigate a fallen civilisation, while chasing your doppelganger. You being a lanky Area-51-looking lad, who acquires paranormal powers and must weave them into solutions for terrain puzzles of the Pressure Plate N Lever variety.</p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/come-chase-your-clone-through-an-exquisite-comicbook-inspired-world-of-seashells-and-ancient-machines">Read more</a></p> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ubisoft-announce-a-trio-of-assassins-creed-veterans-will-lead-the-series-next-era 2026-02-23T17:43:43.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/former-assassins-creed-lead-saus-leaving-ubisoft-not-his-choice-01.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p>A trio of long-time Assassin's Creed developers will lead the series into its "next era" now that it's under the umbrella of Vantage Studios, Ubisoft's new sub-company partly funded by Tencent. Martin Schelling, Jean Guesdon, and Fran&ccedil;ois de Billy are being handed the reins.</p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ubisoft-announce-a-trio-of-assassins-creed-veterans-will-lead-the-series-next-era">Read more</a></p> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/whats-100-of-zero-like-who-gives-a-shit-new-blood-boss-unimpressed-by-epic-sharing-more-revenue-with-devs-than-steam 2026-02-23T16:17:56.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/Dusk-HD-key-art--16-9.png?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p> Earlier this month, Epic Games Store shyly <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/epic-will-lean-harder-on-fortnite-to-drive-third-party-sales-on-epic-games-store-with-100-licensed-hats-a-year">announced</a> that their free game giveaways are having "a measurable halo effect across the broader PC ecosystem", increasing the sales of those games on Steam during the offer period. New Blood Interactive&rsquo;s Dave Oshry has made the same argument a bit less sympathetically: boosting the profile of games already on Steam is the <em>only</em> reason to release anything on the Epic Games Store, even given Epic&rsquo;s more generous developer revenue share, because EGS sucks. </p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/whats-100-of-zero-like-who-gives-a-shit-new-blood-boss-unimpressed-by-epic-sharing-more-revenue-with-devs-than-steam">Read more</a></p> https://lwn.net/Articles/1059864/ 2026-02-23T15:30:44.000Z

Security updates have been issued by <b>AlmaLinux</b> (kernel-rt and openssl), <b>Debian</b> (ca-certificates, chromium, gegl, glib2.0, libvpx, modsecurity-crs, nova, and pillow), <b>Fedora</b> (chromium, mingw-libpng, mupdf, python-pyasn1, python-PyMuPDF, python-uv-build, python3.13, qpdfview, rust-ambient-id, uv, and zathura-pdf-mupdf), <b>Mageia</b> (freerdp, gnutls, and libvpx), <b>Red Hat</b> (butane and grafana-pcp), <b>SUSE</b> (chromedriver, chromium, cockpit-repos, firefox, kernel, libpng16, postgresql16, postgresql17, postgresql18, python, python311-nltk, snpguest, ucode-intel-20260210, vexctl, and xen), and <b>Ubuntu</b> (djvulibre, evolution-data-server, linux-lowlatency, linux-xilinx, and u-boot). https://lwn.net/Articles/1059812/ 2026-02-23T15:20:59.000Z

The Ladybird browser project has <a href="https://ladybird.org/posts/adopting-rust/">announced</a> a move to the Rust programming language: <p> <blockquote class="bq"> When we originally evaluated Rust back in 2024, we rejected it because it's not great at C++ style OOP. The web platform object model inherits a lot of 1990s OOP flavor, with garbage collection, deep inheritance hierarchies, and so on. Rust's ownership model is not a natural fit for that. <p> But after another year of treading water, it's time to make the pragmatic choice. Rust has the ecosystem and the safety guarantees we need. Both Firefox and Chromium have already begun introducing Rust into their codebases, and we think it's the right choice for Ladybird too. </blockquote> <p> Large language models are being used to translate existing code. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/play-nazi-fugitive-guess-who-in-detective-note-shuffler-the-ratlines-steam-next-fest-demo 2026-02-23T15:14:44.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/the-ratline-steam-next-fest-demo-01.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p>Sometimes you get a note through the door, nestled among the bills and flyers for local takeaways. Oi, it says, some priest's been murdered, and we need you to track down the folks on a list of Nazis he smuggled out of Germany after the war. Ok, you reply, it's the 1970s and I've got nothing better to do.</p> <p>That's the setup for Owlskip Games' The Ratline, the Steam Next Fest demo of which has just put my beleaguered Monday brain to the test.</p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/play-nazi-fugitive-guess-who-in-detective-note-shuffler-the-ratlines-steam-next-fest-demo">Read more</a></p> https://irreal.org/blog/?p=13632 2026-02-23T15:12:26.000Z

<p> Ihor Radchenko writes to tell us <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2026-02/msg00262.html">about the release of Org Mode 9.8</a>. It&rsquo;s a pretty big release as you can see from the <a href="https://orgmode.org/Changes.html">Changes file</a>. It&rsquo;s much too long to list the changes here and, of course, not everyone will be interested in all the changes so be sure to take a look to see what&rsquo;s of interest to you. </p> <p> As always, we should pause and give thanks to Ihor, Bastien, and the others—see the announcement for a list of those contributing to this release—who work so hard on our behalf without any recompense but that thanks. These guys are heroes and, as I always say, we owe them a beer whenever he find ourselves in the same bar as any of them. </p> <p> The announcement has a short list of significant updates so if you don&rsquo;t want to read the whole changes file, that&rsquo;s a good place to start.</p> https://lwn.net/Articles/1058831/ 2026-02-23T15:00:04.000Z

<p>The <a href="https://www.postgresql.org/">PostgreSQL</a> project has been chugging along for decades; in that time, it has become a thriving open-source project, and its participants have learned a thing or two about what works in attracting new contributors. At FOSDEM&#160;2026, PostgreSQL contributor Claire Giordano shared some of the lessons learned and where the project is still struggling. The lessons might be of interest to others who are thinking about how their own projects can evolve.</p> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/get-a-plague-tale-innocence-requiem-evil-west-and-more-in-the-focus-entertainment-humble-bundle/ 2026-02-23T14:57:35.000Z

Get some quality games from Focus Entertainment in the new Humble Bundle, all of them should work well on Linux / SteamOS too thanks to Proton.<p><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/2107217417id28547gol.jpg" alt /></p><p>Read the full article on <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/get-a-plague-tale-innocence-requiem-evil-west-and-more-in-the-focus-entertainment-humble-bundle/">GamingOnLinux</a>.</p> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/nier-automatas-yoko-taro-is-writing-an-evangelion-anime-tv-show 2026-02-23T14:35:17.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/asuka.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p>Thanks to various life difficulties, I&rsquo;ve spent this month in a state of immense spiritual turbulence, oscillating between euphoria and despair. As such, I&rsquo;m in either the worst or the perfect frame of mind to digest news that Yoko Taro, director and scenario writer for <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/games/nier-automata">NieR: Automata</a>, is writing a new series of Neon Genesis Evangelion.</p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/nier-automatas-yoko-taro-is-writing-an-evangelion-anime-tv-show">Read more</a></p> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/resident-evil-requiem-is-this-weeks-headline-pc-game-but-dont-forget-the-witchers-pirates-and-pinballs 2026-02-23T12:28:30.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/resident-evil-requiem-man.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p>Happy this week all! It&rsquo;s time for another Steam Next Fest. A time to stock up on unfinished business. A time to litter your desktop with dead-ends. A time to install 30 game demos and play exactly three of them - unless you are RPS supporter Mr_B, who I think accounts for the majority of Valve&rsquo;s downloads traffic these days.</p> <p>We&rsquo;re not doing the whole Wishlisted thing this year due to a chronic shortage of wishfulness brought on by our collective advancing age, but we&rsquo;ll be writing up the hottest demos as they arrive, in a dramatic departure from our regular news coverage of&hellip; writing up the hottest demos as they arrive. It&rsquo;s not all demos, mind: a few developers have scandalous plans to unleash <em>complete</em> games into the storm of prototypes and playtests. Here are the ones we&rsquo;re thinking about feeding to the Maw.</p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/resident-evil-requiem-is-this-weeks-headline-pc-game-but-dont-forget-the-witchers-pirates-and-pinballs">Read more</a></p> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/theyve-ghosted-me-saints-row-design-director-says-he-believes-the-series-is-dead-after-pitching-prequel 2026-02-23T12:16:59.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/saints-row-design-director-says-prequel-pitch-ghosted-01.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p>Make sure the dildos are flying at half mast. <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/games/saints-row">Saints Row</a> 1 design director Chris Stockman has said he believes the series is "dead", following conversations with Embracer Group about <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/saints-rows-original-design-director-is-pitching-a-grounded-70s-open-world-prequel-with-absolutely-no-dildobats">his pitch for a prequel</a>. According to the developer, who currently heads VR studio Bit Planet Games, that chatter about a potential Saints Rowssurection post <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/embracer-close-volition-developer-of-red-faction-and-saints-row">Embracer's closing of Volition</a> has ended in the publishers ghosting Stockman.</p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/theyve-ghosted-me-saints-row-design-director-says-he-believes-the-series-is-dead-after-pitching-prequel">Read more</a></p> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/heroic-games-launcher-2-20-0-brings-numerous-important-bug-fixes/ 2026-02-23T11:49:50.000Z

Heroic Games Launcher is one of the best ways to run games from Epic Games Store, GOG and more on Linux / SteamOS - with a new v2.20.0 bug-fix release out now.<p><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/1675538037id28544gol.jpg" alt /></p><p>Read the full article on <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/heroic-games-launcher-2-20-0-brings-numerous-important-bug-fixes/">GamingOnLinux</a>.</p> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/kerbal-space-program-spiritual-successor-kitten-space-agency-now-providing-linux-builds/ 2026-02-23T11:35:00.000Z

Kitten Space Agency is a promising upcoming space simulation game that's pretty much a spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program and now for Linux too.<p><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/1822200469id28543gol.jpg" alt /></p><p>Read the full article on <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/kerbal-space-program-spiritual-successor-kitten-space-agency-now-providing-linux-builds/">GamingOnLinux</a>.</p> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ubisoft-ceo-touts-disciplined-workforce-management-while-defending-giving-his-son-the-keys-to-assassins-creed 2026-02-23T11:08:00.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/assassins-creed-shadows-peacock.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p> Ubisoft&rsquo;s CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed that they are making a bunch of new Assassin&rsquo;s Creed and <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/games/far-cry">Far Cry</a> games, together with some unannounced original projects, in a wide-ranging albeit very rehearsed-sounding chinwag with Variety. </p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ubisoft-ceo-touts-disciplined-workforce-management-while-defending-giving-his-son-the-keys-to-assassins-creed">Read more</a></p> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/intel-hiring-gpu-driver-engineers-for-linux/ 2026-02-23T11:02:48.000Z

It's not just NVIDIA hiring to improve their Linux graphics drivers, as Intel are also looking for multiple new driver engineers.<p><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/tagline_gallery/intel.png" alt /></p><p>Read the full article on <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/intel-hiring-gpu-driver-engineers-for-linux/">GamingOnLinux</a>.</p> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tencent-reportedly-shutter-open-world-game-studio-which-had-drafted-in-former-assassins-creed-director 2026-02-23T11:01:17.000Z

<img src="https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/tencent-timi-montreal-reportedly-shut-down-01.jpg?width=690&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp" /> <p>Tencent have reportedly shut down their TiMi Montreal studio, set up back in 2021 with the goal of creating multi-platform open world games. In those five years, the studio haven't shipped any games, but had <a href="https://www.gamesindustry.biz/fired-ubisoft-director-ashraf-ismail-now-working-for-tencent">brought on</a> former Assassin&rsquo;s Creed creative director Ashraf Ismail. Ismail was reportedly <a href="https://kotaku.com/assassin-s-creed-creative-director-fired-from-ubisoft-f-1844724819">fired by Ubisoft</a> following an investigation into misconduct, with the developer having been accused of taking advantage of his status to engage in extramarital relationships.</p> <p><a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tencent-reportedly-shutter-open-world-game-studio-which-had-drafted-in-former-assassins-creed-director">Read more</a></p> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/nvidia-hiring-linux-driver-engineers-to-help-with-vulkan-proton-and-more/ 2026-02-23T10:54:16.000Z

NVIDIA have multiple job listings available for Linux developers - this could be your chance to improve Linux gaming if you have the skills.<p><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/tagline_gallery/nvidia-logo.jpg" alt /></p><p>Read the full article on <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/nvidia-hiring-linux-driver-engineers-to-help-with-vulkan-proton-and-more/">GamingOnLinux</a>.</p> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/mesa-25-3-6-released-as-the-last-bug-fix-for-this-driver-series/ 2026-02-23T10:41:00.000Z

Mesa 25.3.6 has released and is the last planned bug fix for this driver series, with the developers now moving on to focus on Mesa 26 and beyond.<p><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/602463235id28540gol.jpg" alt /></p><p>Read the full article on <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/mesa-25-3-6-released-as-the-last-bug-fix-for-this-driver-series/">GamingOnLinux</a>.</p> https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/wine-11-3-released-with-vkd3d-and-mono-upgrades/ 2026-02-23T10:34:54.000Z

Wine 11.3 is here bringing more compatibility fixes for running Windows apps and games on Linux systems.<p><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/tagline_gallery/wine-generic.jpg" alt /></p><p>Read the full article on <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/wine-11-3-released-with-vkd3d-and-mono-upgrades/">GamingOnLinux</a>.</p>