From Embargoed Parry-Fests to Roblox Wrist: The LagPing Team's August Gaming Confessions

It's the first weekend of August 2026, and the team over at Rock Paper Shotgun has done what they do every week — laid bare their gaming plans in gloriously candid, often self-deprecating fashion. Deputy Editor James Archer kicked things off with a meditation on the publication's dwindling supply of public-domain illustrations, musing that woodblock printing might be the next frontier for their header images. The real meat, however, was in the staff roundup itself, which painted a vivid picture of what working in games media actually looks like when the cameras aren't rolling.

Senior staff writer Edwin is navigating a family medical emergency but refuses to step entirely away from his backlog. He plans to continue with Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children, a sprawling tactics RPG, and has found himself pulled back into Darkwood, the atmospheric top-down horror that clearly still has a grip on him. Meanwhile, Mark is fresh off a deep dive into Assassin's Creed Rogue and is eyeing a low-key weekend, which by his own historical admission will almost certainly end in yet another Skyrim session — his estimate puts it at number 500.

Two staff members are playing embargoed titles they can't name, with Jeremy hinting at a game featuring parry mechanics and a grab-bag of currently trendy design elements. Callum's weekend is similarly shrouded in secrecy, though parental visits and pension advice from his father may end up dominating proceedings. Both responses highlight how much of games journalism operates in a perpetual holding pattern of NDAs, review embargoes, and carefully worded non-answers.

On the multiplayer front, Ollie is scrambling to find alternatives after Overwatch's stuttering and memory leaks have apparently pushed his friend group to the brink. Helldivers 2 and Hunt: Showdown are currently filling the void — two very different co-op experiences pressed into service as emergency substitutes. It's a relatable situation for anyone who's watched a long-running gaming ritual collapse under the weight of a game's technical deterioration.

Finally, James himself has been steered by Edwin toward Song of Morus: Limbo Express, described as an anime Returnal-style bullet hell shooter set entirely on a moving train. The recommendation came with the message 'I found another batshit train game for you, James,' which apparently served as sufficient endorsement for an immediate download. Dion, meanwhile, is out of action entirely, felled by what the team has diagnosed as Roblox Wrist — an ailment that requires no further elaboration.