News - Jank

20 Feb 2026 By Brendan Caldwell News

The best Zachlike is getting a big surprise expansion

And it's half as long as the original

Nine years after stoically engineering one of the finest puzzle games known to humanity, the creators of Opus Magnum have decided to release a chunky prequel expansion that is "around half the length of the original". God, I needed this. For anyone who fondly remembers posting GIF after GIF of their clicky-clacky solutions in the original alchemical braintickler, it is good news. Good enough to break our usual cynical binning of press releases here at Jank, and relay some of the details.

It's called Opus Magnum: De Re Metallica, and let me pause here to say it is a terrible idea to tempt fate by invoking the name of a famously litigious rock band, but never mind. We'll soon have more clonky puzzles with swivelly mechano arms.

It's going to have it's own prequel story, about a "maverick alchemical researcher" who is inventing reckless stuff which'll see him "clash with established orthodoxy, bicker with his assistant, and attract attention from the Great Houses." I enjoy the stories of these games but I imagine a lot of folks only care about cold hard facts. So know that there are three new "glyphs". Three fresh chapters of puzzles. And a difficulty level

09 Feb 2026 By Brendan Caldwell News

Samurai Gunn 2 got rebuilt from scratch and it's still ferocious

A nippy new engine to die in

It is Sunday night and I am kicking my own severed head around on the paving stones. My brother stands on a filthy platform high above me, hand on his katana, he is grinning precisely as a terrible killer might. He dashes left and turns invisible. Not this time. I focus. An entire second passes - a lifetime. I scan the air for signs of hopping feet.

There! I fire my gun, a flaming bullet strikes a wall, hitting nothing but stone. My two hands freeze with rigor mortis anticipation just as my body is severed into two large pieces. My brother reappears, cackling. I am dead, but at least Samurai Gunn 2 has been reborn.

If you peer back through the bamboo forest of yesteryear you might remember Samurai Gunn 2 coming out in 2021 as an early access couch brawler. It was a high-functioning sequel to one of the most brutally fun multiplayer party fighters this side of Nidhogg. You get three bullets and a sword: fight.

It saw a roster of special guest characters added over a couple of years, including the little guys from Minit, a crewmate from Among Us, and the cast of

27 Jan 2026 By Graham Smith News

Welcome to Jank

It's safer here.

I've been writing about PC games professionally since 2005, a time when popular opinion was that the platform was dying. The popular opinion was wrong, of course. Then and now, PC gaming is where the future is. It's where indie developers and modders are free to experiment, where experimental browser games can rub shoulders with mega-budget blockbusters, and where new genres are born.

Welcome to Jank, a new reader-supported website about PC games.

We're starting this site because we want to do the kind of work that's hard to maintain on a traditional ad-funded games website.

We should know. Jank is founded by Jon Hicks, Brendan Caldwell and me, Graham Smith. Between us, we have nearly 60 years experience writing about games, from running magazines like PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine to websites like Rock Paper Shotgun and Eurogamer. We know first-hand that even ad-funded websites with the best of intentions need to constantly chase traffic growth just to maintain stasis.

You know half of this story already. Browsing the modern web means wrasslin' with notification popups, adverts that cover the articles and follow you down the page, auto-playing videos, affiliate links, sponsored content, and more.

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