Abiotic Factor's first major update adds alien cheese and corpse bags, as the Half-Life inspired survival sim sells 250,000 copies

Do you ever think about how a game smells? I'm not talking about, say, the smell of the manual (back in the days when games had manuals). I mean what the game world might smell like if you could inhale its atmosphere. A few of the more putrid areas of FromSoft games, like Dark Souls' Blighttown, have got me wondering about how badly it might whiff. But it isn't something I consider especially often.

After reading through the patch notes of Abiotic Factor's first update, however, I can think of little else other than how much the GATE Cascade Research Facility must reek like Beelzebub's socks. This is mainly thanks to two additions the update makes to Deep Field Games' Half-Life inspired survival sim, namely alien cheese and corpse bags.

Fittingly titled the 'First Week' update, the headline feature is actually rather scentless, craftable walkie-talkies. As detailed in the patch's announcement, Abiotic Factor has a realistic proximity chat system, but no global chat. The walkie talkie fills this role, letting any player who makes one chat with any other player who makes one, regardless of how far away they are.

«We kept the recipe pretty light so you can communicate early and often,» Deep Field writes. «For now, Walkie-Talkies will allow players to hear you all over the Facility—and even beyond. The trade-off is of course, you have to be holding your Walkie to respond to others.» Deep Field Games also mentions that it has «more plans» for its walkie talkies, and may add some «more sensible restrictions». But for now, feel free to chat with your fellow boffins unimpeded.

The next feature listed is a minor tweak that lets tamed pets follow you around, which is shown off in a GIF of a hedgehog-like alien snuffling at the player's feet. Those alien Sonics probably smell weird, but it wasn't them that got my olfactory orifices twitching.

No, that would be the alien cheese Deep Field has added to Abiotic Factor. This lets you cook an array of freaky fromages for personal