The Ninth RPS Cracker Of Christmas

While we’re all curled up in our shared Christmas hibernation cocoon over the holidays, the site gets a little quieter. But fear not, for each day of the ho-ho-holidays there’s a Christmas cracker to pull! Oh, and of course, if you’re after more posts you might have missed, why not join our Supporter Program, and unlock dozens of new posts from the last year!

Meanwhile, you provide your own party hat, and we’ll provide the groaner of a gag.

Q: Do you know the name of the mountain climber in Getting Over it? (more…)

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EVE: Valkyrie studio joins Sumo Digital

Here’s a little good news to start the year: CCP Newcastle, the studio behind EVE Online’s spin-off shooter EVE: Valkyrie, have found a buyer. Their fate had seemed uncertain since October 2017, when CCP announced they would try to sell the Newcastle studio as part of stepping away from making VR games. But the news sounds good, as the Newcastle mob are being picked up by Sumo Digital, the UK-based studio behind games including Snake Pass and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. (more…)

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Wot we played on our holidays

Welcome back, gentle human bean, to another year of PC gaming thrills, spills and ambient anxiety about the correct deployment of the term ‘roguelite’ here on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. As our beleaguered forms struggle to cope with the sudden shift away from Chocolate Oranges for breakfast, now is the time for our time-lost minds to reflect upon how we occupied ourselves over the past ten days.

To wit: what videogames did we play, when time, relatives, bloating and demanding pets allowed?

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Exposition Demolition: Just let us start playing the game

A challenge to game developers: let the first thing the player sees on starting a new game be the game itself. Let the player be immediately in control. And let them keep that control at least until it has at least become familiar.

I love gaming stories. Stories have always been my primary interest in playing games, from the first text adventures in the early 1980s, through the glorious adventure years of the ’90s, to the dynamic and impactful environmental storytelling of the 2000s, to today’s glorious open worlds packed with freely explorable plot. And interwoven throughout all these eras, the RPGs that have delivered their epic plots across space and time. I love stories. I am not, and would not, argue against the narrative aspects of gaming. I just, more than ever before, want to experience those stories while I’m playing. (more…)

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The most exciting games of 2018

As we lay 2017 to rest, let us remember all of the wonderful games that flickered across our screens and occupied our hearts and minds. But now we must promise never to think of them again because times have changed. This is 2018 and if we’ve learned one thing from the few hours we’ve spent in it it’s that there are games everywhere. Every firework that exploded in the many midnights of New Year’s celebrations was stuffed with games and they were still raining down across the world this morning. We cannot stop them, we cannot contain them, but we can attempt to understand them.

Hundreds of them will be worth our time and attention, but we’ve selected a few of the ones that excite us most as we prepare for another year of splendid PC gaming. There’s something for everyone, from Aunt Maude, the military genius, to merry Ian Rogue, the man who hates permadeath and procedural generation with a passion.

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The Eighth RPS Cracker Of Christmas

While we’re all curled up in our shared Christmas hibernation cocoon over the holidays, the site gets a little quieter. But fear not, for each day of the ho-ho-holidays there’s a Christmas cracker to pull! Oh, and of course, if you’re after more posts you might have missed, why not join our Supporter Program, and unlock dozens of new posts from the last year!

Meanwhile, you provide your own party hat, and we’ll provide the groaner of a gag.

Q: What did puzzle game designer Jason Roberts say when he needed the toilet? (more…)

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All Walls Must Fall adds daily challenges & time-warping adversaries

It’s been a busy two months for German nightclub tactical time-travel/cyber-thriller All Walls Must Fall. Since we last reported on the promising Early Access tactics game, it has received two major updates, the first of which added daily challenge missions – a good fit, given the improvisational, quickfire nature of the game – but the most recent update brought a santa-sized sack of new features, equipment and enemies to contend with.

(more…)

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