Here are the rules, in case you’re in need of a reminder. As always, these lists aren’t intended to be a definitive ‘best’ list of the year in question. Rather, they’re all games we’d recommend people still play today, and have something that makes them worth saving. That might be they’re the best example of their genre, or they contain a valuable lesson that future game designers would do well to take heed of....
AlphaSync RTX 3060 desktop PC - £1000 from Ebuyer (down from £1150) AlphaSync RTX 3080 desktop PC - £2000 from Ebuyer (down from £2150) I imagine the RTX 3060 PC will be of most interest to potential upgraders, as it’s not only a vaguely affordable price, but the rest of its spec is pretty appealing, too. Admittedly, it hasn’t got the freshest components on the planet, but its AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, 16GB of RAM, 240GB SSD and 1TB HDD provide a well-rounded gaming PC that should be more than up to the task of smooth 1080p gaming on max settings....
Hoverboarding and grapple-hooking and big monsters continue to look wild in Withersworn (coming to Steam): This is all very cute! I don’t understand how this is producing honey in Streamwalker Tribes, an “anime hero collection game designed for streamers to play together with their audiences”, but it is pretty: Bold poses before the violence starts in mecha shoot ’em up sequel Valfaris: Mecha Therion (coming to Steam): I’m game for devs planning for sequence-breaking, like this in NES-style platformer Prison City (coming to Steam): A neat work-in-progress animation for “boss rush platformer” Gurei (coming to Steam): A colourful fishing friend in the metroidvania Faerie Afterlight (coming to Steam): Those are big swords in Mortal Sin (coming to Steam): While I appreciate the freedom to go fast in all places at all times, this feels like nuisance behaviour in “platform-adventure game” Monospaced Lovers (coming to Steam)....
We’re starting this week’s trip with a spell down in Logan Forman’s cauldron. Did you check the recipe? I don’t think it called for an entire human skeleton… To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings — log an form an (@dev_dwarf) June 20, 2020 I’ve wandered into Forman’s (as-yet-untitled) forests a few times over the course of running this column. There’s a lovely simplicity to the stacked 2D style, a calming hike that suddenly flashes into a blood-tinted elsewhere....
The references tend to be things like notes, paintings, carvings and the like, hidden in plain sight on islands throughout the ocean. You can earn new tattoos and commendations as rewards for finding them. Umbra is the name of the new adventurer searching for these famous shrines to pirates past, rewarding you for each one you find with tattoos and commendations that have some sort of reference to the pirate or the feat they performed....
The Stray first-person mod lets you play almost the entire game through the cat’s eyes, which means the camera is much lower to the ground than you’re used to. The immediate sensation I had upon watching the video below wasn’t “hey, I’m a cat” but “hey, noclip is turned on”: You can download the Stray first-person mod created by Jessica Natália from Nexus Mods. There’s an included readme file which explains how to set it up....
This is weird, right? But then I’ve never seen or read The Walking Dead, so who knows - maybe I missed the arc where the gang gets real into physics puzzles. Bridge Constructor, shockingly, is a series about creating physics-based bridges with planks and supports of various materials, taking care not to (or willfully encouraging) push too much weight on any one component lest the whole thing come crashing down....
“Battle Rally offers fresh gaming activities in a race unlike any other, as contestants engage in head-to-head battles whilst racing their way through the course,” they tweeted. “In addition to playing the hero of our story Ryo Hazuki, players can also choose the treasure-seeking ‘Wuying Ren’ and making her first appearance in this game, Ryo’s sparring partner, ‘Wei Zhen’.” In Matthew’s Shenmue 3 review, he praised the game’s uniqueness, writing: “There’s magic in Shenmue III; not as potent as when this oddball adventure first burst onto the scene, but kept alive by the sheer lack of anything else like it....
Today I am excited for two reasons: Shim Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster is heading to PC, and it will come with a new “Merciful” difficulty mode. Shin Megami Tensei 3 first released on PlayStation 2 in 2003, and the HD remaster released in parts of Asia last October. It features higher resolution 3D models and backgrounds, the ability to save anywhere, new voice acting and some other new content, but is otherwise a faithful recreation of the original game....
Not everyone in Yakuza games is actually a stack of typewriters wearing a trenchcoat - although I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the next game, the patriarch of the Tojo Clan’s retainers fall out mid-smirk, only to reveal a row of keys that spell out “MUSCLE”. Anything, I repeat, anything is possible in these games. By and large, many important cutscenes, where patriarchs rip their suits off in one fluid motion, or when tigers are socked straight in the whiskers, or as Kiryu belts “baka mitai” down the karaoke parlour, are voiced....
Sorry. Sizeable has, admittedly, a pretty simple premise: scroll up or down on any item, and it’ll grow or shrink in kind. In the indie puzzler world, that’s pretty standard stuff. But Ambroos uses this simple concept to create elaborate puzzle-boxes. Let’s take one puzzle from the first real stage as an example - a small grove of trees, pumpkins and a small crow just chilling out. Grow the tree, and you’ve given that wee bird room to build a nest....
It’s resurfaced now with a new trailer, and the news that it’s being published by Annapurna. The original impression of Skin Deep was that it was ‘Die Hard in space’. You’d spend time crawling around in vents, dust might make you sneeze and set off systemic chain reactions, you could cut your feet on broken glass - all good stuff. Three years of development can change a lot and I get less of that vibe from the trailer above....
The current state of play for Skull And Bones was revealed with a livestream tonight, featuring an explainer video walking you through some of the game features, a chonk of the game in piratical action, and a surprisingly close release date confirmation for the 8th of November 2022 (there’s still time for it to be delayed again!). All those extra months in the oven have produced a decidedly Sea Of Thieves-shaped bun....
Here’s the announcement trailer: At its core is an idea so simple that it’s almost a puzzle game. Each planet wants a resource and produces a resource. By linking planets together via warp gates, you transport goods around, and must link up your planets in such a way that their populations remain happy. The trick is to lay out your network efficiently, since routes between planets can’t overlap initially, and unhappy populations will eventually end your reign as galactic leader....
I say with great affection: I would believe you if you told me Chorus was an adaptation of a Canadian sci-fi television show I’d never heard of. It’s a bit silly, really, but takes itself seriously with a galaxy-conquering religious cult, a talking spaceship, and a moody tattooed female lead. This vibe continues with the game’s opening, a cinematic recap of the dramatic and explosive events which led our girl Nara to where we find her now....
Spiritfarer’s protagonist Stella ferries animal spirits to the afterlife and apparently does quite a lot of chores and projects on the ferry in between. In the new trailer below you can see Stella and her white cat companion (who can be played by a second player) mining for metals, chopping trees, shearing sheep, and then processing raw materials as you’re wont to do in just about any crafting game. The neat thing about Spiritfarer that I learned when playing it at PAX West last year is that a bit like a Minecraft and Stardew Valley’s crafting systems, things take actual game time to complete and sailing between locations takes time as well....
See what I mean for yourself: I am well up for a game in which I have to make tough decisions about resources, shimmy around ship innards to keep survivors alive and happy, and command fleets to pew-pew alien bads. The trailer shows bits of that, but… the menu buttons look like placeholders. And you see very little of the ships actually moving, and no transition animations between ‘flying forward a bit’ and ‘fire lasers for a bit....
Developer: Motive Studios Publisher: Electronic Arts Release: Out now On: Windows From: Steam, Epic, EA Origin Price: £34/€40/$40 But since then, it has become obvious that this game is very good indeed. The central experience - of being a pilot in a Star Wars - is masterfully crafted, and I can’t find much to fault with it. Squadrons is probably the most fun I’ve had with any piece of Star Wars media since my teens, in fact, and it frequently invokes a joy I haven’t felt since playing TIE Fighter in 1995....
Hit Steam and that’s it, those are the games, they’re all there. So. What now? Honestly, hit our recommendations from the autumn and winter sales. The numbers might have changed a little but the games are still good. And our words are still good! You could also scroll through the RPS Steam Curator page to easily see which games we’ve reviewed are on sale. Valve are also giving away Lunar New Year-themed animated stickers to use in Steam Chat....
From today through Monday 27th, logging onto Steam will net you a red envelope containing Year Of The Rat tokens. Of course, waiting for freebies will only get you so far. Valve want you to spend money in their big money-spending event, and will hand over 131 tokens for every £1 (100 tokens to the dollar) spent during the sale. These can be spent at the Lunar New Year Night Market which - rather than a melting pot of Steam’s sauciest delights - is full seasonal goods to spruce up your Steam profile....
