Few names can terrify classic Doom fans more than Okuplok, an obscure mapper who's only surfaced a few times on the Doomworld forums, usually to release something painful before slinking off into the shadows. They're best known for unleashing one of the most nightmarish levels in the history of Doom upon the world: The humble-sounding 'untitled2', better known to the community as the 'Okuplok Slaughter Map', is one of the most gruelling combat challenges in Doom history—a colossal series of arena battles against an ungodly 23,211 demons where even the tiniest mistake spells instant death.

The map has always been beatable. With sufficient quicksaves, or the slow-motion inhuman precision of a tool-assisted speedrun, it was always theoretically possible to ascend this mountain of demon corpses. But to do it without dying? Without saves? And without leaving a single monster alive? That's the real challenge. And for thirteen years, players have thrown themselves into this meat-grinder, aiming to be the first to record themselves clearing it under the community's standard UV-Max challenge rules.

In a gruelling six hour struggle on Easter Sunday, pro Doomer 'Coincident' finally did it, and I watched it happen live. Check out the recording of the record-breaking run here, but before you dive into that, check out the video above for a brief introduction of the hell that is to come, and why even surviving the first few seconds of this map is a challenge that only a rare hero can handle.

Coincident has been fighting tooth and nail against Okuplok's creation for some time now. Two years ago, he managed a one-life run on Doom's lowest difficulty. This evens the odds somewhat, halving the damage done to the player and doubling the contents of every ammo pick-up but leaving enemy placements otherwise unchanged. Even with those advantages, it's a challenge very few could overcome, especially as the sheer volume of oncoming fire means that even with twice the health and ammo, you can still die in a blink of an eye.

Unsatisfied with that partial victory, Coincident set out to surgically dissect the level, developing new strategies to make a true Ultra Violence difficulty run possible. He even went so far as to publish a whole series of videos picking apart its individual encounters and devising the most survivable approaches to get through it. A useful aid, but without patience and precision, it still won't get you very far.

Due to the highly random and unpredictable nature of Doom's combat (including some enemies capable of doing absurd damage with a single hit if the game's under-the-hood damage dice decide you deserve to suffer), any successful run is going to be a mixture of endurance, precision and luck, and you can hear the stress and tension in Coincident's voice as he ventures deeper and deeper into the map. All that tension comes unraveled and replaced by adrenaline-drenched catharsis as he brings down the final artillery emplacement of Arch-vile snipers in the final arena. It was six hours of the highest-level Doom gameplay ever recorded, and a feat that will be remembered in the community for years.

So, Nightmare mode next, right?

Fans of Twister rejoice, there's finally a game that lets you take down tornadoes in the least realistic way possible—and it's free!

Kill the Twister, a free indie game that's exactly what it sounds like, launched on Steam this month and you don't even need to add it to your wishlist since it's a free game at the time of writing. In this "self-contained FPS boss fight against a massive tornado," you take on the role of "the Weatherman," who's job apparently includes physical confrontations with the weather.

While Kill the Twister is short at just 30 minutes, it has plenty of replay value since the gameplay is focused on mastering its snappy movement system. There are also different difficulty settings if you're looking for more (or less) of a challenge from your twister foe.

Combat requires deftly dodging flying debris while tossing explosives and trying to shoot down the tornado (but don't worry, you can take a break in the office between runs).

It's also worth noting that Kill the Twister won't kill your PC because it's super lightweight, requiring just 200MB of storage and only 2GB of RAM.

I went ahead and tried out Kill the Twister myself and it lives up to the advertising—you kill a tornado with barrels and a gun (or, more often, die trying). The graphics remind me of an old-school horror game, but that adds to the charm. As goofy as the premise is, the combat is satisfyingly challenging, especially figuring out how to navigate between flying chunks of debris to get to more crates and barrels.

If you want a quick, fun, and relatively mindless FPS game to jump into, Kill the Twister is worth trying out. I wish it had co-op so I could shoot at tornadoes with my friends, but you can't really complain when it's a free game.

PC gaming can be an expensive hobby, so it's understandable that many players want to give their big black graphics machine a surrounding setup it deserves. I get the appeal of having the neatest, smartest desk, or colour-coordinating your room with your peripherals' RGB settings. I totally see why you might want all your merch neatly arranged in glass display cases behind you, or have a perfectly aligned triptych of screens to envelop you in Elite Dangerous or Farming Simulator.

I, however, am not one of these people.

My setup is a memorial to my time-poor existence and inability to plan. It's cluttered with coins, notebooks, stationary, plug adapters, and random parts from toys my daughter has brought through to my office.

My webcam sits atop a box folder, height-adjusted with three paperback books (two Stephen Kings and a Bob Mortimer, thanks for asking). Somehow, my headphones actually have their own stand. But I did not buy the stand, have no memory of where it came from, and the headphones themselves are held together with electrician's tape. Oh yes, the rolls of electrician's tape are also on the desk, because I haven’t bothered to put them away.

Does the state of my desk bother me? Well, it's a little embarrassing to write about, though clearly not enough to stop me from doing so. And like a raccoon, I am generally content amid my filth. Indeed, there are only two occasions when it starts to get on my nerves: when I'm trying to find something and can't, and when I see another gaming setup that's far nicer than mine.

Because of the way the modern internet works, the latter happens quite a lot. My social media feeds are often bombarded by Twitch streamers, game developers, and just regular gamers who have setups more elaborate than the bridge from the starship Enterprise. Expertly matched furniture, carefully selected wall art, maybe a few (well looked after) plants, and of course, all their Kirby plushies and Tifa figurines perfectly arranged behind them.

When I witness setups like these, I worry that I'm the grubbiest gamer on the planet. But in such moments of existential crisis, I turn to the comforting swamp that is r/ShittyBattleStations. Created in 2011, this subreddit is dedicated to freaks like me, all proudly posting images of their mucky, messy, or outright bizarre gaming setups. You won't see any magenta backlights or IKEA Kallax units here. Often you’re lucky if the person posting owns a chair.

There are three things I love about r/ShittyBattleStations. The first I've already mentioned: the simple reassurance that I'm not alone. The second is the sheer diversity of dire gaming setups on show. At the least remarkable level are extreme versions of my own scenario, gamers who play surrounded by a dragon’s hoard of detritus. Some have desks so jam-packed with stuff it’s impressive they can play games at all, as a rogue twitch of the mouse would surely trigger a domino effect of cascading clutter.

My lived in crap station I come home to every 12 hour shift. from r/shittybattlestations

Many of these above setups fall into categories that are acknowledged by the community. There's even an automoderator that asks the community to define why a particular setup qualifies as "shitty", suggesting things like "Incomplete", "Trash all around" and perhaps my favourite "Not a computer". However, I've seen numerous themes through the subreddit yet to be formalised by the community, so I thought I'd suggest a few below:

The Sir Terry Pratchett award for monitor mania

The Late Author Terry Pratchetts desk. (setup as a display in a exhibition of his work and life) from r/pics

The late Sir Terry Pratchett's workspace was built around this incredible six-monitor setup. Once, he was asked why he used six screens, to which he famously replied "because I can't have eight". This award goes to those gamers for whom no number of screens seems sufficient, and any screen, no matter how old it is or where it has come from, is ripe for incorporation.

The fire hazard

My server setup. I feel like there is a lot to take in here from r/cablegore

This could, admittedly, include setups from various other categories. But there are some setups where your immediate reaction is to reach for the phone to dial the fire brigade. You can definitely go overboard on fire safety, like my dad who used to insist on switching off every plug in the house before he went to bed. But some of the subreddit's gamers seem downright determined to burn themselves to death.

The 'wait until you see it'

Found this old photo of my setup from 8 years ago with the stupidest headset holder from r/shittybattlestations

Among the more immediately bizarre battlestations are setups that initially seem fairly unremarkable, but then you spot that one detail that elevates it to the highest tier of shittery. Like this rig that follows the shot of the preposterous headset holder, with the chaser that the PC has two mice. Or this setup where the poster presumably has a rubber spine.

Yet out of all the differently horrible setups on the subreddit, my favourite type of shitty battle station is probably the most common. The PC gamers for whom the lack of furniture is no obstacle. The subreddit is filled with pictures of deskless PC gamers playing on shelving units, chests of drawers, piles of cardboard boxes, storage tubs, or just an amalgamation of stuff. Some players forego not just a desk, but also a chair, setting up their rigs straight on the floor.

shittybattlestations from r/shittybattlestations/comments/1h1iybr/hopefully_will_only_need_it_until_i_get_my_desk

It'd be easy to laugh at these floor-gamers and improvised tabletops, and indeed, some of the posts are pretty darn funny. Mainly though, with the exception of setups that are gross or outright dangerous, I find them strangely endearing. Many of these players are in temporary living situations, or forced into an unusual gaming setup by life events like injuries. Some of these arrangements are kinda ingenious, while others seem borderline torturous, making you wince for the poster's knees or spine.

But it seems no amount of inconvenience or discomfort will stop some people from PC gaming, and that makes me weirdly proud. While I wouldn't encourage anyone to adopt any of these setups—PC gaming should, ideally, not come with a risk of sciatica or burning your house down—ultimately, where you play your games doesn't matter. It's what you play that counts. If you're willing to forgo something as basic as a desk to get your game on, going to extraordinary, even painful lengths to conjure an alternative, that probably shows more dedication to your hobby than the shiniest rig on the planet.

When Bit Reactor's game director Greg Foertsch confirms to me that Star Wars Zero Company has permadeath, I can't help but grin. In retrospect, it might be a bit odd for me to get so psyched about the shadow of mortality, but this one choice says so much about what kind of game—and what kind of Star Wars—Zero Company is going to be.

We've been calling this game "Star Wars XCOM" for a long time now, thanks to the studio's deep bench of former Firaxis developers. But at this point we've been bitten by an awful lot of supposed spiritual successors that really are just turn-based tactics games. XCOM is that, but it's more as well.

XCOM isn't just about directing your soldiers around a battlefield, but being invested in their emergent little stories. Caring who succeeds and who fails, and risking something when you send them out into the firing line.

If anything, Zero Company seems ready to take that idea even further. Soldiers you create can be customised to the class and appearance you want, but appropriately for Star Wars you can also choose their species. Then the game also has authored characters—the crew seen in the trailer and art—who turn up already armed with personalities, backstories, and roles in the story. But not only will they have a degree of customisation too, they're not exempt from permadeath, and if they are lost in some Outer Rim skirmish, that will actually affect how elements of the story play out.

I should say, there's optional permadeath—the difficulty settings will allow you to turn it off if the idea of watching your favourite Jedi fall to blaster fire doesn't float your boat. A key goal of Zero Company is to bring new players to the genre. One part of that equation is accessibility—providing those difficulty options and not overwhelming players with abilities and unlocks early on, so that "if you want to play it just for the story, great… but if you want to play it for the pain, then you're welcome to play it for that too," as Foertsch puts it.

The thing he's keen to hammer home—as he was when I spoke to him last year—is that appealing to new players doesn't mean sacrificing depth for the hardcore strategy fans. "I don't think it's a choice in that sense," says Foertsch. "You can absolutely do both."

That's backed up this time by Orion Kellogg, executive producer at LucasFilm Games—one of the people linking Bit Reactor to the wider Star Wars ecosystem.

"For Lucasfilm Games, this is our strategy game," says Kellogg. "So we're not saying, like, 'Oh, can you make it less strategy-y?' We want this to be a strategy game first and foremost, and it is, and that's why we're working with Bit Reactor."

The other part of the equation is the story. Foertsch promises something more "immersive" and "cinematic" than we're used to for the genre, and the inclusion of a fully customisable main protagonist—called Hawks—suggests an RPG-like sheen to the adventure.

Set during the Clone Wars, Zero Company follows essentially the Star Wars equivalent of a black ops team, making surgical strikes into enemy territory. It's definitely a darker, more serious tone than you might expect from a Star Wars game—more Rogue One than A New Hope, and certainly not a million miles away from XCOM's grim sci-fi narrative.

For Star Wars fans, there are deep cuts right out of the gate. The crew of premade characters includes a Tognath Jedi (remember that guy with the tubes from Rogue One? One of them), and there's an Umbaran in full battle armour, as last seen in one of The Clone Wars' most beloved story arcs. You can even recruit astromechs to your team.

The trailer's brief combat footage shows off battle droid enemies, including B1s and B2s—that part's certainly not surprising, though I continue to think that those are the perfect choice of bad guy for any Star Wars videogame.

It's a strong hook to tempt everyone who played Jedi Survivor or Outlaws to try a genre they might not be used to. But the goal is also that if you are here for the strategy first and foremost you'll feel just as welcomed in.

"It could be your first Star Wars," says Kelsey Sharpe, creative executive at Lucasfilm. "I would love to find out that there is some hardcore strategy player out there who's like 'a Star Wars game? All right, fine, I simply must play this turn-based tactics game' and then Star Wars: Zero Company is their introduction to the Star Wars universe. Because if we've done our jobs, it should be a great introduction to Star Wars."

Much like last year, when Bit Reactor was sharing its ambitious goals with me before it had even announced a title, I am a little skeptical. Completely accessible to newcomers yet rich and deep for genre veterans, and both a treat for Star Wars fans and those who've barely touched the franchise alike… setting out to please everyone is ambitious, and it's a lot easier to promise you can do it all than it is to deliver.

But I'm also optimistic, because I've come out of this chat and this brief look at the game feeling like Bit Reactor is making all the right choices. The XCOM-lover in me hears about permadeath and customisation, and sees that clean combat UI and polished action, and feels like a proper successor could be looming. And the Star Wars nerd in me sees a genuinely fresh take on an iconic point in the timeline, with the kind of pulls that point to an interest in the wider texture of the setting, not just snagging people's attention with obvious and overused touchstones.

After years of build up to this reveal, I do wish they'd showed and discussed more of the substance of what we'll be playing—and with a release date currently set for 2026, we've still got a while to go before we can actually sit down and try it. But this is an exciting first step into the spotlight for Star Wars: Zero Company, and while my hope may not be very new at this point, I'm still pinning it on this being one of the most promising XCOM successors we've seen in years.