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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Cataclismo is not about protecting your towns, it’s about protecting your beautiful staircases
Cataclismo is not about protecting your towns, it’s about protecting your beautiful staircases
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comBetween Against The Storms’ critters, Manor Lords’s perfect oxen, and now Cataclismo, Hooded Horse’s roster of strategy games share a common thread that many guard-the-village-em-ups can fatally overlook: they present a civilisation that’s worth protecting. Even if the fallen culture you’ll defend against waves of gribblies offers fascinatingly few concrete details on its origins, there’s a lithe and impressionistic...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: deluxe redux reflux remastered edition
What's on your bookshelf?: deluxe redux reflux remastered edition
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Something extra magical has happened! And by magical, I mean that I’ve bollocksed it up, yet again! I foresaw this coming, honestly, and should have addressed it last week. Alas, I dared to dream that I’d have sorted things out by now. Well, this is what I get for...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comThe skies roil. The forests burn. The oceans drink themselves, then throw themselves back up, then drink themselves again. That’s gross, oceans. Don’t do that. Wait. Wait. Sorry. I misread the memo. It’s not the end times, it is simply the end of the week. That’s much nicer. Weekends bring with them solid videogame hours, and perhaps even video game hours? We shall have to see. Here’s what we’re clicking on. Read...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed There is an amazing Finnish fairytale at the heart of Alan Wake 2's forests
There is an amazing Finnish fairytale at the heart of Alan Wake 2's forests
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comHo, wayfarer! Beware slight spoilers for Alan Wake 2 in the passages ahead. Deep in the Dark Place of Alan Wake 2 there is a forest that is not a forest - a zig-zag tunnel adorned with murals of a grisly woodland scene. Entering that tunnel, you find yourself sealed in at either end. But the mural suggests a way out: it changes when you turn around, following an unspoken narrative. It's a device as delicate as the...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed I set a bishop on fire in Norland and the sicko loved every second of it
I set a bishop on fire in Norland and the sicko loved every second of it
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comI am burning the Bishop while he sleeps. I'd say it's nothing personal, but quite a lot in medieval management sim Norland is personal. He shouldn't have slept with the Queen's sister, for example. He shouldn't have insisted his lover subsequently pay him for a confession to absolve herself of the guilt accrued from sleeping with him. He shouldn't have felt safe in a room next to the Queen, a woman described as...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Until Then is the only visual novel game I've truly enjoyed
Until Then is the only visual novel game I've truly enjoyed
Ed Thorn rockpapershotgun.comI've tried visual novel games in the past, like A Space For The Unbound and Hatoful Boyfriend. And what's frustrating is that I just don't get on with them, despite knowing that they can convey brilliant stories through all sorts of interesting cuts and shots and whatnot. I'm sorry to report that certain stories won't grab me if they're not ticking along at just the right pace or if they don't pull me in straight...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: Special super secret bonus edition
What's on your bookshelf?: Special super secret bonus edition
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Something magical has happened! And by magical, I mean that I’ve bollocksed it up. Through a web of devious plots and shocking coincidences too labyrinthine to list here, I’ve gone and messed up my schedule. As such, we don’t have a guest this week. Read more
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comOllie has fallen foul of Big Ill once more, so I’ve emerged from my cave, brushed the stalactites from my hair, picked the luminescent beetles from my beard, and put together this week’s column. Would you like a beard beetle, reader? I have many of them. Oh, how they glow! That was a trick question. The beetles are mine and mine alone. You will have to make do with videogames. Here’s what we’re clicking on. Read...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Neva already makes me want to protect its magic wolf baby with my life
Neva already makes me want to protect its magic wolf baby with my life
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comIn hindsight, I feel like I wronged Neva – the upcoming action-platformer from Gris devs Nomada Studio – by allowing my first thoughts on its reveal trailer to be "I bet the dog dies at the end." A new, obviously gorgeous adventure with serious platforming pedigree and that’s your response? Grow up, me. Read more
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Manor Lords publisher thinks we should all reject the "opportunistic and predatory" quest for a viral hit
The Manor Lords publisher thinks we should all reject the "opportunistic and predatory" quest for a viral hit
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comIf you're a strategy game aficionado who has yet to cast a monocled eye over Hooded Horse's catalogue, 1) which map hexagon have you been skulking under? And 2) you're in for a treat. Founded in 2019 with the signing of Terra Invicta, and led by Dallas, Texas-based chief executive officer Tim Bender and chief financial officer Snow Rui, Hooded Horse have spent the past five years grabbing up original strategy games...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed A Skate Story demo has me yearning for its knee-shattering flow state
A Skate Story demo has me yearning for its knee-shattering flow state
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comI too desire to eat the moon. In Skate Story, you are made of glass and you will burst into a thousand miniscule shards if you bail. You have signed a four-page contract with the Devil, cursing you with this fragile body yet blessing you with a fearsome skateboard with which to fulfill your quest to digest Earth's only natural satellite. I've only now got hands on a demo shared earlier this year at Tribeca games...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The best low-profile TKL keyboard now has a mercifully more affordable cousin
The best low-profile TKL keyboard now has a mercifully more affordable cousin
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comRead enough of our hardware articles and you’ll eventually come across someone, probably me or Katharine (RPS in peace), banging on about the Logitech G915 Lightspeed Wireless. After half a decade on shelves, it’s still the best low-profile mechanical gaming keyboard going, and quite possibly the best wireless keyboard to boot – while the tenkeyless version, the G915 TKL Lightspeed, is just as lovely to use. Between...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: QWOP, Getting Over It, and Ape Out's Bennet Foddy
What's on your bookshelf?: QWOP, Getting Over It, and Ape Out's Bennet Foddy
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! “What’s with the politics? Stick to games!” is a common refrain you might hear from the sort of winning individual who thinks books are a communist plot to lower their sperm count. Luckily, those people are elsewhere, so I hope you’ll allow me a brief moment of...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Ollie Toms rockpapershotgun.comI played badminton yesterday. I am now incredibly sore all over. It made me realise that, perhaps more than anything else you could say about them, weekends are for being sore. Sleeping in, waking up covered in aches, making a noise like someone three times your age when you get out of bed, and then pretending you're a third of your current age by doing nothing except play games for the next 48 hours. Here's how...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Consider Isles of Sea and Sky, the only sokoban game I've ever enjoyed
Consider Isles of Sea and Sky, the only sokoban game I've ever enjoyed
Sin Vega rockpapershotgun.comIt's Sokoban! A game whose name I recognise as shorthand for this type of puzzle, and yet have never seen. It's also a genre I'm not overly fond of, preferring puzzles I can sometimes get through by intuition (Spring Falls), brute force (every switch-the-lights puzzle ever), or entering chaos mode (real life). But I like Isles of Sea and Sky. From starting it almost on a whim, I was playing and figuring things out...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Rally Point: Spice Wars, Imperium, and the trouble with a Dune strategy game
The Rally Point: Spice Wars, Imperium, and the trouble with a Dune strategy game
Sin Vega rockpapershotgun.com"Dune is unadaptable! It could never work as a film," I cry, placing defiant fists upon my hips. "But what," says Denis Villeneuve, "about two?", shattering my physical form into one trillion shards. I have a difficult life. But wait! What about as a strategy game? Denis glances nervously at the inexplicable open pools of molten steel all around us. I've got him now. He hasn't even played Spice Wars. Except... I...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The 11 best JRPGs on PC in 2024
The 11 best JRPGs on PC in 2024
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comCan you believe we didn't have a best JRPG list until now? Baffling. To be fair we did once tackle this topic with a preliminary blast of recommendations for those completely new to the genre. We also have a few familiar fantasys in our list of the 50 best RPGs on PC. But until now we haven't addressed the genre in its own right. In an act of contrition, we offer you this: our list of the best JRPGs you can play on...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed How the checklist conquered the open world, from Morrowind to Skyrim
How the checklist conquered the open world, from Morrowind to Skyrim
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comThere's no genre like the open world for inducing choice paralysis, so it's fitting that I've been agonising over how to begin this irregular article series on open world games for months. I have a lot of material, oodles of interviews with developers of all shapes and sizes - big shops like Remedy and CD Projekt, smaller studios like Ace Team and Awaceb, all holding forth on such topics as whether Elden Ring or...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed I turned my PC off during the "don't switch off" symbol in five different games to see what would happen and boy was this an annoying experiment
I turned my PC off during the "don't switch off" symbol in five different games to see what would happen and boy was this an annoying experiment
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comWe've all seen it. The little spinning symbol cautioning players against impatient acts of powering down. "Don't turn off your system when this symbol is displayed," goes the message seen often while booting up a game (or some other version of these words). The implication is clear. The saving process is delicate and if you interrupt this invisible ritual the data that's being written to some folder deep in your...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Black Myth: Wukong is a pleasantly surprising Soulslike, even if it's given me an enemy for life
Black Myth: Wukong is a pleasantly surprising Soulslike, even if it's given me an enemy for life
Ed Thorn rockpapershotgun.comYou may or may not have seen Black Myth: Wukong impressions floating around as of late. Some claim it's not a Soulslike, or is merely Soulslike-adjacent. Some say it's a "boss rush" with a world that lets it down. Having spent 90 minutes with it myself, I'd like to add my ferocious take to the pile: you play monke = is good. But no seriously, I think no matter if it's a bit Soulsy or not, my key takeaway is one of...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: Dread Delusion and The Night is Darkening's James Wragg
What's on your bookshelf?: Dread Delusion and The Night is Darkening's James Wragg
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Words are amazing, aren’t they? I once put in a cover letter to a creative writing university course that I’d “even invented several of my own words” before my mate talked me down from it. Spoilsport. This week, it’s the creative director of Dread Delusion, maker...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
The Sunday Papers
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comSundays are for... oh, god, there’s more of it, isn’t there? I thought it was just a regular cave, not a cave to literally a million new things. Before I go left and spend the next three hours stressed about the stuff I missed by not going right, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things!) Read more
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Ollie Toms rockpapershotgun.comFinally, some decent weather round these parts. And I don't mean good weather, you perverse sun-lovers. I mean some real wind and rain to clear the air. Sitting at my desk next to the window, my eye keeps being caught by the hypnotic swaying of the treetops. It's quite magical, really. I might go for a walk later. Just kidding. I'm superglued to my desk chair (thankfully it's a very comfy chair), and I'm ready for a...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Here's how we’re all spending our last tenner on the best deals in the Steam Summer Sale
Here's how we’re all spending our last tenner on the best deals in the Steam Summer Sale
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comIt’s that time of the year again. You know the one. Numbers you’d previously shunned for being too high have suddenly gotten smaller, and purchases have shifted categories from impractical to impulsively justifiable. It’s the Steam Summer Sale 2024! There’s no rush, of course. It runs until the 11th of July. Still, to help you navigate the meatily chummed waters of Sales Lagoon, Horace has decided to reward our...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The First Descendant is playable on Steam Deck, despite some temporary compatibility confusion
The First Descendant is playable on Steam Deck, despite some temporary compatibility confusion
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comBesides giving The First Descendant the ol’ benchy marks on desktop, I was curious to see how this gleaming looter shooter would run on the less flexing hardware of the Steam Deck. The answer: it didn’t, at first. Luckily, a semi-quick fix was enough to get me in, where I found a game that for all its ray tracing inclinations, is comfortable with life on the Deck. Reasonably. Most of the time.With any luck, my issue...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Metaphor: ReFantazio plays like a high-fantasy Persona RPG with a curious hybrid combat system
Metaphor: ReFantazio plays like a high-fantasy Persona RPG with a curious hybrid combat system
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comTo start a modern Atlus game is to dive headfirst into an ice-cold bath of unbearably swish UI design, a brimming tub of Cool Fonts and Flash Segues. Metaphor: ReFantazio, the first (going by the colon usage) in a new series of RPGs helmed by Persona series director Katsura Hashino, is no exception. It might be set in a medieval fantasy realm, a relatively straight-laced world of square masonry and parchment maps,...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Going Torrent-less in Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree reminded my why it won't beat old Souls
Going Torrent-less in Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree reminded my why it won't beat old Souls
Ed Thorn rockpapershotgun.comI mentioned it briefly in my Shadow Of The Erdtree review, but there's one area of the DLC where your steed Torrent is so scared they refuse to be summoned. That's because said area is a woodland that's been steeped in shadow and chaos for so long, large goats don't dare clop their hooves. What I hadn't expected was that relying on my own two trotters would be so... revelatory. It's made me reconsider exploration in...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The First Descendant is stacked with glitzy graphics tech, but performance could still use a polish
The First Descendant is stacked with glitzy graphics tech, but performance could still use a polish
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comI don’t dislike The First Descendant. It has a good grasp of the numbers-go-up-yay appeal behind looter shooters. Sometimes you get to grapple onto a vast robot crab. The first evil alien overlord you fight is named Greg. Not bad, not bad. It’s also, wholeheartedly and unapologetically, a big graphical show-off, complete with multiple ray tracing modes and shinier power armour than if you fed the entire cast of...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Remembering the forgotten "Aliens MMO" created by the devs behind Dark Age Of Camelot and Elder Scrolls Online
Remembering the forgotten "Aliens MMO" created by the devs behind Dark Age Of Camelot and Elder Scrolls Online
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comThe internet doesn't exist in the world depicted by the film Aliens, though variations of it crop up in the expanded universe. Nor does the idea of a digital society. There's networked communications tech, but it consists of signals between bodies in deepest space, light years apart, of lonely video terminals in cramped dockloader apartments, and of maniacally collaged CCTV feeds of Marines getting their asses...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Fallen Aces has just enough immersive sim substance to match up to its eye-popping pulp comic style
Fallen Aces has just enough immersive sim substance to match up to its eye-popping pulp comic style
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comFallen Aces is a stylish FPS lead pipe ‘em up with immersive sim elements, published by good gun-knowers New Blood Interactive. Your gumshoe ‘tagonist wakes up, hungover of brain, skint of wallet, and unshaven of face, to discover your apartment - undoubtedly reeking of smokerettes and dehydration wee - is being broken into by foes goonly and mookish. They take a while to boot the door down, which gives you a moment...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed We tried to escape hell in Chained Together and one of us kept running ahead with no warning
We tried to escape hell in Chained Together and one of us kept running ahead with no warning
RPS rockpapershotgun.comThe co-operative clambering of Chained Together is easy to understand. It's like Fall Guys in the fiery pits of hell, with a tower of fiendish platforming challenges. It brings to mind the mind-shattering failures of Getting Over It and a previous short-lived clamber sim called Only Up. Also, you are chained to your teammates. Every time you fall in this fiery multiplayer de-motivator, you are taking your pals with...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: Sluggish Morrs and Dujanah developer Jack King-Spooner
What's on your bookshelf?: Sluggish Morrs and Dujanah developer Jack King-Spooner
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I do not have a completely true fact to share about books with you this week, because I just read a book telling me that sharing facts about books is actually destroying the online book facts industry. Check back next week, by which time I may have finished another...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comOllie is beset by maladies unknown today, so this is my domain now. I was tempted to recreate a hellish mockery of his fun hidden face game by trapping a crumbling mirror image of his visage, Dorian Gray style, somewhere in the above image. Alas, my version of Photoshop appears to be lacking that function. I suppose I will have to turn to other avenues of entertainment, such as a video game, should any exist. So I...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Steam Deck is one of the best ways to play Elden Ring, and now Shadow of the Erdtree too
The Steam Deck is one of the best ways to play Elden Ring, and now Shadow of the Erdtree too
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comUpdate: Whelp, spoke too soon. Apparently some Steam Deck players are seeing an "Innapropriate activity detected" message upon launching Elden Ring, blocking them from playing online. I haven't had this myself, and some have reported the issue fixing itself after they installed the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, but hopefully there's a proper patch in the works. Elden Ring on the Steam Deck has long enjoyed a smoothness...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed How Embracer's cuts killed a potential Red Faction sequel and gutted a promising studio
How Embracer's cuts killed a potential Red Faction sequel and gutted a promising studio
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comA phoenix is a mythological firebird that is periodically reborn from its own ashes, a symbol of cyclical renewal. It's also, according to several former employees of Chorus developers Fishlabs in Hamburg, an internal title for the massive cost-cutting project begun by Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group in June 2023. The current incarnation of a bewildering series of mergers, renamings and acquisitions that date...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Should you bother with... ultrawide gaming monitors?
Should you bother with... ultrawide gaming monitors?
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comI realised recently that a juicy subject for another Should You Bother With has been staring me in the face – or rather, I’ve been staring at it. Ultrawide gaming monitors have clearly avoided non-starter status, given they’ve been around for years, seemingly being exchanged for currency – and yet they’re nowhere near what you might consider the 'default' option when making a display upgrade. Regular widescreen...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The 19 best roguelike games on PC in 2024
The 19 best roguelike games on PC in 2024
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comChaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Hobbit life sim Tales Of The Shire is so jolly and joyful it creeps the hell out of me
Hobbit life sim Tales Of The Shire is so jolly and joyful it creeps the hell out of me
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comTales Of The Shire unfolds in a world without shadow. There are shadows, technically, but they’re so mellow and fuzzy they might as well be stray pools of sunlight that have forgotten to glow. In this latest chunk of Lord Of The Rings memorabilia from developers Wētā Workshop and publisher Private Division, you are a custom-created hobbit who has just taken up residence in the charming Tellytubby town of Bywater,...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Battle Aces is a fast and furious mechabug RTS from Blizzard talent that turns Starcraft into a game of cards
Battle Aces is a fast and furious mechabug RTS from Blizzard talent that turns Starcraft into a game of cards
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comBattle Aces is billed as “a vision of the future for real-time strategy” but if you glance at a screen, you might think you’re staring into the past: another toonified science fiction world of scuffed, shiny nodules, lanes and arenas, an overly functional colour scheme, and hotkeyed hordes of little and large units that appear devoid of personality, even by top-down generalissimo standards. Let’s start by addressing...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Minecraft’s Tricky Trials chambers are just the right amount of tricky
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: art game maker and level design expert Robert Yang
What's on your bookshelf?: art game maker and level design expert Robert Yang
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Books obviously come in many different sizes, but did you know that there’s an obscure law that dictates the legal limit for how long a novel can be? It’s measured in ‘George Martins’. If your story is more than three ‘Georges’ wide, you’re swiftly escorted to a...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
The Sunday Papers
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comSundays are for hoping the plumber has ordered that new sink part in. My sink is ‘non-standard’ apparently. "Why can't I just be normal?!" I scream in silent longing. Armitage Shanks would never. Before I look forward to no longer having to wash up my pasta bowl in the same place I brush my teeth, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things!) Read more
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Ollie Toms rockpapershotgun.comYou may notice there's a stowaway this week. He crept in during all the recent kerfuffle, and secreted himself in a cosy little nook of the treehouse. He was quickly discovered, but despite patient attempts to explain that it's been several years since he was last here, and as per tradition he's now dead to us, we've so far been unable to dislodge him. Like the smiley face hidden in the above image, he's just......
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Our Adventurer Guild is a super approachable merc management dark horse
Our Adventurer Guild is a super approachable merc management dark horse
Sin Vega rockpapershotgun.comWhat little rejuvenation reaches my ancient, haggard soul comes most often from pleasant little surprises like a game creeping up on me. Our Adventurer Guild is cheerfully simple in appearance, and its turn-based fights and griddy missions establish its parts at once as familiar, potentially even by-the-numbers. But those parts are arranged into an original and deceptively detailed mercenary management game that got...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Reviewing the unsolicited pictures of artificial houseplants that arrived in the RPS inbox without context
Reviewing the unsolicited pictures of artificial houseplants that arrived in the RPS inbox without context
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comThe RPS inbox is a wondrous treasure-trove of distraction doubloons, some delightful, some shite-ful, and not even Outlook’s lichen-like interface can dull the luster of its offerings. In amongst the press releases, indie nuggets, and the occasional pitch for sponsored AI content (no, never), something truly exquisite occasionally peeks through the chest lid. This week, it was a completely context-free message...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess was the best game I played at Summer Game Fest
Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess was the best game I played at Summer Game Fest
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comEvery so often in the ignoble craft of james gournalism you stumble on a game that reminds you why you got into this weird and silly trade, a game that slices through the phantasmagorical mulch of a million Summer Game Fest announcements and clears the portals of the brain. It seems mad to think of Kanitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess this way, given that on some level, it is a tower defence game. Tower defence! The...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed In the hands, Phantom Blade Zero owes more to Ninja Gaiden than Soulslikes
In the hands, Phantom Blade Zero owes more to Ninja Gaiden than Soulslikes
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comIn the past I've described Phantom Blade Zero, the foetid and frantic new action-RPG from Chinese studio S-Game, as a Soulslike, and more specifically a Sekirolike. I must now hang my head and await the executioner's ludicrously oversized hammer, for while Phantom Blade Zero's ambience and layouts owe something to From's work, the moment-to-moment has just as much in common with older hack-and-slash games such as...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed RIP Alpha Doshaguma, the doomed dragonfighting guinea pig of my Monster Hunter Wilds demo
RIP Alpha Doshaguma, the doomed dragonfighting guinea pig of my Monster Hunter Wilds demo
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comThis piece is written in memory of the Alpha Doshaguma, a huge furry quadruped with the belly, gait and mournful disposition of an orphaned St Bernard, which - no, who was sleeping blamelessly in a canyon when Capcom's demo presenter strolled up and bopped it with a bayonet howitzer. The demo in question was for Monster Hunter Wilds, which they probably should rename Monster Hadron Collider in that a major selling...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Our 9 favourite demos from the summer Steam Next Fest
Our 9 favourite demos from the summer Steam Next Fest
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comExcuse me, sorry, pardon me, can I just, thank you, ah, sorry, thanks... Phew, made it. Steam Next Fest is pretty crowded, eh? As if the unholy swarm of trailers and game announcements from Summer Game Fest was not enough, this week the fearful megalords at Valve decided to drop their regular cavalcade of coming-soons onto their megastore. The beautiful (and terrifying) thing about Next Fest, of course, is the...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Can you guess which Australian TV sci-fi of the early 2000s inspired Citizen Sleeper 2?
Can you guess which Australian TV sci-fi of the early 2000s inspired Citizen Sleeper 2?
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comNo, it's not Silversun. Sit down, Brian. Let somebody else have a go at answering. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a sci-fi RPG with plenty of dice and a heavy nod towards tabletop role-playing. The first Citizen Sleeper saw your bio-robotic protagonist landing on a donut-shaped space station where they learned to make a new life for themselves among interstellar farmers and ramen-serving rapscallions. In the...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The first 45 minutes of Dragon Age: The Veilguard feel as much like Mass Effect 2 as Inquisition
The first 45 minutes of Dragon Age: The Veilguard feel as much like Mass Effect 2 as Inquisition
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comGood news, everybody! Dragon Age: The Veilguard - previously Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, strictly speaking Dragon Age 4 - is not the bantzy heist romp suggested by its debut trailer. Less Good News for returning players: going by the 45 minute segment I was shown at Summer Game Fest, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is more of a single-character action-RPG plus entourage, than a proper party-based affair in the vein of 2014's...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Star Wars Outlaws feels about as Han Solo-ish as, well, an Ubisoft open world game
Star Wars Outlaws feels about as Han Solo-ish as, well, an Ubisoft open world game
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comI've been trying to figure out what "scoundrelly" means in a videogame context. Whatever it means, Han Solo homage Star Wars Outlaws ain't it. Here are some basically non-scoundrelly, very Ubisofty things I did during my 60 minutes with Massive Entertainment's open world adaptation at Summer Game Fest this week: climbed around rectangular arrangements of yellow handholds. Shot at baddies over rectangular cover...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Assassin’s Creed Shadows is actually two games competing for your affections
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is actually two games competing for your affections
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comAssassin’s Creed has been threatening to go to Japan for so long that I think the idea has lost its thunder, but I’ll admit to a squee of enthusiasm, during our first look at Assassin’s Creed Shadows, when deuteragonist Naoe grappled onto the ceiling to allow a castle guard to pass innocently beneath. I was similarly tickled by the sight of her breathing through a bamboo pipe while swimming underwater, and I emitted...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The combat in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn feels a bit floaty, but at least its café staff have ten hands
The combat in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn feels a bit floaty, but at least its café staff have ten hands
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comHow do you like your coffee? For those who answer: "served by a barista with ten arms wearing a mask adorned with intense scarlet lipstick", you are in luck. The multi-limbed coffee shop owner of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is, indeed, a reassuring sight, since they are the ones who sell the player fashionable jackets and trousers to wear while you axe enemy heads to bloody fragments. In this soon-to-sally-forth...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed It won’t fit the Asus ROG Ally X, but Dbrand’s Project Killswitch is a lovely upgrade for the original Ally
It won’t fit the Asus ROG Ally X, but Dbrand’s Project Killswitch is a lovely upgrade for the original Ally
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comOne of my absolute most favouritest Steam Deck cases, besides the one you get for free with the Steam Deck OLED, is the Dbrand Project Killswitch. It’s not so much a carrying vessel as a hardened second skin, providing protection without all the bag-hogging bulk of a traditional case – while throwing in handy bonuses like a clip-on kickstand and grippy thumbstick covers. For owners of the Asus ROG Ally, the recent...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: author and games writer-abouter Alice Bell
What's on your bookshelf?: author and games writer-abouter Alice Bell
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! You likely already know that books are made from trees, but did you know that Kindles are made from discarded tree asset packs? My uncle, who is a tree, told me that. This week, it's the one and only author and games-worder-abouter, Alice Bell! Cheers Alice! Mind...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
The Sunday Papers
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comSundays are for finishing up Godzilla Minus One now its on Netflix. I’m not shilling Netflix here, but I am happy to shill Godzilla. Before I shout “It’s Godzilla! That’s Godzilla! It’s him!” every time Godzilla is on screen, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things!) Read more
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Ollie Toms rockpapershotgun.comBusy week, this one. We've had a whole load of games announced over the past few days, and there'll doubtless be a whole lot more this weekend. Most of them we can't play yet. But as a general rule, talking about games makes us want to play games, even if they're completely unrelated. Everyone has those moments where they see the trailer for a new multiplayer hero shooter or some such thing, and for reasons only...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Everything announced and featured at Day Of The Devs 2024 in one place
Everything announced and featured at Day Of The Devs 2024 in one place
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comThis year’s Day Of The Devs boasted an entire seven exclusives, plus a load of other nifty features and previews for exciting indies we already knew about, but are no less excited to be reminded of. It’s been over ten years now since Tim Schafer and the folks at Double Fine kicked off the non-profit initiative to help shine a spotlight on games what they thought were nice. No way! I love games what I think are nice!...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Petal Runner is a slice-of-life Gameboy Advance style RPG about being a digital pet courier
Petal Runner is a slice-of-life Gameboy Advance style RPG about being a digital pet courier
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comAre Tamagotchis a thing now again? I’m getting a sense they might be, but I’ll always associate them with the nineties. Ah, to return to a simpler time, where kids tripped each other up in the school hallways to steal toys , before Pokémon cards came along and everyone leveled up to stabbings. Sorry, Petal Runner devs, for opening a news article about your lovely wholesome game talking about stabbings. This...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Sonar Shock turns retro interface friction into a design strength
Sonar Shock turns retro interface friction into a design strength
Sin Vega rockpapershotgun.comSonar Shock is a reminder that some of the best game concepts or settings seem so obvious as soon as you play them. System Shock on an unreasonably huge submarine on an equally ludicrous trip around the Northeast Passage via Cape Agulhas? With a satirical Soviet setting that isn't just "lol russia" or "I think Stalker was about machismo and gun attachments"? And a third thing that I'll get to in a minute because...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Doom Eternal’s Mars Core still represents the perfect use of unwelcome cutscenes
Doom Eternal’s Mars Core still represents the perfect use of unwelcome cutscenes
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comWhether or not they actually amount to anything, rumours of a new Doom have had me diving back into Doom Eternal recently. There’s at least one level in it that feels like essay-bait, so I’m obliging. The centerpiece of Mars Core - the FPS’ best level - is a comically massive superweapon called the BFG-10000. Oh, Chekov. If only you could see what we’ve done with your wisdom. The literary subtlety to...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed All the Computex 2024 PC hardware announcements that are actually interesting
All the Computex 2024 PC hardware announcements that are actually interesting
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comTaipei’s annual Computex event is always a big, circled, triple-underlined mark in the PC gaming hardware calendar. Whereas CES splits its focus across tech, cars, and the occasional overdesigned white good, Computex is all computing, all the time, making it a prime source of reveals and showcases for the hardware bits that make games happen. Sadly, Computex 2024 is unlikely to go down as a classic, largely because...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is looking summer ready as we explore the new land of Tural
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is looking summer ready as we explore the new land of Tural
Danielle Lucas rockpapershotgun.comAfter the climatic end to a decade-long saga in Endwalker, anticipation is high for Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion, Dawntrail. I got to try out the game and talk to Director Naoki Yoshida (aka Yoshi-P) about new Jobs and the difficulty of incorporating fan feedback (not to mention the reasons the Warrior of Light has such great skin - you'll see). But how can the Square Enix possibly hope to follow the highs of...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Jacking in to Stellaris as a fanatical cyberpunk corporate cult in The Machine Age
Jacking in to Stellaris as a fanatical cyberpunk corporate cult in The Machine Age
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comFrom the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, I thought: no bother, like. Everyone has different skills. Then, I realised that some other people might be less enlightened than me about the whole ‘having limits’ things, and that there was a lot of money to be made hawking implants. Enter space strategy story-spewer Stellaris, specifically, it’s spost specent spee-LC The Machine Age. It adds many options for...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree hollows out everything you loved about Elden Ring, and it's brilliant
Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree hollows out everything you loved about Elden Ring, and it's brilliant
Ed Thorn rockpapershotgun.comIf you're SPOILER sensitive, please do not read this article. Just don't do it. I'll be talking about a bunch of stuff that's SPOILERY. But I'll obviously try and not be too spoilery for those who've decided to keep reading this, and hence, probably aren't as SPOILER sensitive. Right, onwards. Life In Jars is this YouTuber I've followed for a while. He makes videos that might involve, say, scooping up some puddle...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed How Deep Rock Galactic Season 5 drills back down to basics
How Deep Rock Galactic Season 5 drills back down to basics
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comDwarven co-op caper Deep Rock Galactic has spent years raising the stakes. Where its offworld mining concern once dealt merely with steep drops and irate bugs, it’s since had to face down the robotic army of a rival mineral corp and an omnicidal alien plague. If the subsequent question is "It used to be about the rocks, y'know?" then DRG’s imminent Season 5 update, Drilling Deeper, is the answer. Read more
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed I made the witchy cottage of my dreams in Tiny Glade
I made the witchy cottage of my dreams in Tiny Glade
Kiera Mills rockpapershotgun.comIf you love cosy games where the biggest challenge is choosing between which farm utensil to place next to your barn doors, then Tiny Glade may be just the game for you. It's a creative building game like The Sims 4 but with none of the fuss of actually controlling lives - and no quests, combat or arbitrary challenges of any kind. Instead, Tiny Glade simply offers a meadow and tools with which to build. The vibe of...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: Obsidian vet and Pentiment creator Josh Sawyer
What's on your bookshelf?: Obsidian vet and Pentiment creator Josh Sawyer
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Did you know that the word 'book' was originally spelled with several extra 'o's in it? This was changed when it was collectively decided that telling someone to "please, just read a book" was resulting in several more murders a year than anyone could be bothered...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
The Sunday Papers
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comSundays are for counting down the days to the new Doom reveal, unless it's happened already? In which case, wow, bold of Hugo Martin to cast himself as the Doom Slayer, but I like the moxy. Before I barge into the comments uninvited and argue with no-one in particular that Doom Eternal’s lateral expansion of its gameplay loop was ultimately a fantastic choice for the long-term health of the series, you swine, let’s...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Ollie Toms rockpapershotgun.comMerry weekends, everyone! It's time for a chill couple of days, I think. A bunch of us have recently returned from trips down to the Brighton office to meet some new faces. Weird to think I'm now the most far-flung of the lot, living way up here in Glasgow. Maybe that's why I elected to take over these Playing This Weekend posts, to help fill the friendless void growing inside my heart. So just know that if you...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Severance’s second season has wrapped up filming, so I'm telling you to go watch the first if you haven’t yet
Severance’s second season has wrapped up filming, so I'm telling you to go watch the first if you haven’t yet
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comIn Mike Judge’s 1999 cult comedy Office Space, there’s a scene where Ron Livingston’s Peter - a programmer working a tedious corporate job - visits a hypnotist. “Is there any way that you could, sorta, just zonk me out so I don’t know that I’m at work, in here,” Peter asks of the hypnotist, pointing to his head. “Could I come home and think that I’ve been fishing all day, or something?”. That’s basically the...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed It’s a good day for an RPS Game Club live chat, and we’re talking Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands
It’s a good day for an RPS Game Club live chat, and we’re talking Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comSo ends another month of the RPS Game Club, which means another chance to gather together and swap video game opinions like scary stories ‘round the campfire. The topic, comedy rock RPG/door-kicking sim Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands, was picked by a sadly absent Alice B, but you know what they say when beloved colleagues become ensnared in the kind of Kafkaesque employment limbo that only a corporate acquisition...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Rally Point: Bellwright is secretly a lesson in good management
The Rally Point: Bellwright is secretly a lesson in good management
Sin Vega rockpapershotgun.comI should be further in than this. My supposed rebellion has thus far eked out a territory that could be described as "where?". My personal reputation is great only among people who love mushrooms and hate deer. It's been long enough that I should probably be a fierce warlord running a large chunk of the kingdom in opposition by now, but instead, I have the skillset of fifty peasants, and the outstanding work of...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed It's hard to like the heroes of Wuthering Waves when they keep soiling you with dictionary vomit
It's hard to like the heroes of Wuthering Waves when they keep soiling you with dictionary vomit
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comUnderstanding any given sentence in Wuthering Waves is like trying to discern sensible meaning from the back of a rain-bleached Doritos packet you found while cleaning your gutters. Last week, players of the character action gacha asked for more freedom to skip story scenes and dialogue. Having sunk a bunch of hours into the game, I can see why. The combat may be swish and the traversal across its rolling landscape...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Harvest Hunt gets decent mileage out of its hide and seek premise
Harvest Hunt gets decent mileage out of its hide and seek premise
Sin Vega rockpapershotgun.comWe have been cursed with a terrible devouring monster. Each harvest, one villager must don the ceremonial, mildly magical mask, and enter the fields alone, to gather the precious life-giving ambrosia before the beast can befoul it. For five nights you must do battle, or evade its ravenous clutches. Those of you who have known your own Devourer are surely thinking: Only five nights per year? Luxury. Harvest Hunt is...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Frostpunk 2 will live or die by its faction voting mechanic, and the biggest faction of all is Twitch
Frostpunk 2 will live or die by its faction voting mechanic, and the biggest faction of all is Twitch
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comTo kick off with some extremely half-arsed mytho-geometry, the original Frostpunk was a testament to both the design utility and the inexhaustible political symbolism of circles. When people wish to found a community of equals they commonly form a circle, with each participant visible and audible to the rest. A circle is also the best shape for defending against an engulfing ambient threat such as a global ice age,...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Deathbulge: Battle Of The Bands is roughly 1000% more fun than being in an actual band
Deathbulge: Battle Of The Bands is roughly 1000% more fun than being in an actual band
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comThe first scene in RPS Game Club pick Deathbulge: Battle Of The Bands - a genuinely funny and innovative riff on turn-based RPGs - sees candyfloss n’ superglue-haired guitarist Faye frantically search for her missing guitar as the crowd for the titular battle grow impatient. You’ll quickly realise this a school-with-no-trousers-esque dream sequence, but the matted mess of thick black cables that carpet this dingy...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: Syphilisation and The Quiet Sleep's Nikhil Murthy
What's on your bookshelf?: Syphilisation and The Quiet Sleep's Nikhil Murthy
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Of course, regular readers will know that 'book' was actually the name of the doctor, but that's beside the point. This week, it's Syphilisation and The Quiet Sleep developer and RPS contributor, Nikhil Murthy! Cheers Nikhil! Mind if we have a nose at your...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The opening hour of The Alters feels like 11 bit's first third-person narrative action game
The opening hour of The Alters feels like 11 bit's first third-person narrative action game
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell rockpapershotgun.comCalling it now: this is the least intriguing article you will read about 11 bit's The Alters, a blend of Danny Boyle's Sunshine and Duncan Jones's Moon in which (deep breath) you are a marooned space engineer who must spawn different versions of himself by means of backstory-branching gadgetry in order to operate an enormous, rolling base and escape the apocalyptic rays of the local sun. We're not going to talk...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed If you happen to be a touch miffed at faceless corps, Mullet Mad Jack has the antidote
If you happen to be a touch miffed at faceless corps, Mullet Mad Jack has the antidote
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comIn one of the better gaming trends of the last few years, we appear to have entered a golden age for booting the crud out of doors. There’s Deathbulge of course, but also the upcoming Anger Foot, Abiotic Factor, and a load more I’m sure. There was also literally Door Kickers, but that was ages ago. Anyway, the latest game to put a hinge-disrespecting protagonist front and center is also my current obsession: the...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is less of a PC hardware-killer than it looks
Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is less of a PC hardware-killer than it looks
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comWhile I’ve always thought the race towards graphical hyperrealism isn’t as pervasive as it's often perceived, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is definitely one of those games. The kind that probably has twelve artists dedicated to the recreation of visible pores, that sort of thing. It’s so focused on looking pretty that it hasn’t even noticed the title and subtitle got mixed up. Sure enough, Hellblade 2 is a harsh test...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Destiny 2 is mighty lucky it has good shooting because it's impenetrable otherwise
Destiny 2 is mighty lucky it has good shooting because it's impenetrable otherwise
Ed Thorn rockpapershotgun.comIn a twist of fate I've mentioned in some recent Destiny 2 news posts, I am fully back into Destiny. Former vidbud Liam and I used it, initially, as something we could do while catching up on life. But now? Now we're all in. Liam has created a spreadsheet of things we're ticking off to prepare for the upcoming expansion, and I think it's the perfect summation of what the game is to us: something that makes no sense...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Screw it, I'm building a house of graphics cards
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Why do game cutscenes always fade to white?: a sincere plea on behalf of the mole people
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The best Alices in PC games
The best Alices in PC games
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comAt RPS we like Alices. When somebody comes along with the name "Alice" you don't just say "oh hi" like some insolent rube. You nod with solemn respect and you say, "Alice". An Alice is someone you should not take lightly, nor take for granted, nor leave unmonitored. For they will destroy worlds and build better ones while you are not looking. This is dangerous and exciting. Alices are a force to be reckoned with. To...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands' greatest trick is making me enjoy turn-based combat
Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands' greatest trick is making me enjoy turn-based combat
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comI may have winced a bit, initially, at Alice Bee’s choice of RPS Game Club game for this month. Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands looked funny and all, but it’s a turn-based RPG, a subgenre that usually elicits the same amount of enthusiasm from me as the phrase "by Ernest Cline" does from Alice. Deathbulge, however, is a clever little sod of a game, managing to devise not only a turn-based combat system that avoids...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Prison Architect 2 is coming up for release, but it's hard to rehabilitate from years of 2D
Prison Architect 2 is coming up for release, but it's hard to rehabilitate from years of 2D
Brendan Caldwell rockpapershotgun.comThere are management games and there are micro-management games. Prison Architect 2 is the latter. I don't mean this as an annoying thing, like when Harold from corporate starts commenting all over your document at 4.30pm on a Friday. I mean it as a distinction between those games that let you plop down a house, and others that need you to stack the bricks, install the plumbing, fit the lights, and select the...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What's on your bookshelf?: Inscryption and Pony Island's Daniel Mullins
What's on your bookshelf?: Inscryption and Pony Island's Daniel Mullins
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comHello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Did you know that the word ‘book’ is actually an ancient Sumerian greeting, short for: ‘can I have that book back I lent you eight months ago you said you’d have finished in like, two? This is going to be another one of those, isn’t it?.’ Truly, language’s many...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed The Sunday Papers
The Sunday Papers
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.comSundays are for wheeling my old gamer chair to the curb, before flopping back in my new ergonomic office chair with the same awful posture and whining, "Why doesn't it work?! Who knew that furniture named things like Titan, Pro and Conquer aren't the most conducive to lumbar support?" Before I go, "Aaaaaaahhhhhhh" so loudly I give the local cats tiny heart attacks, let's read this week’s best writing about games...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed What are we all playing this weekend?
What are we all playing this weekend?
Ollie Toms rockpapershotgun.comThis weekend is a big one for me. My brand new fancy shmancy ottoman bed is arriving in my new flat, after two weeks of curling up on the sofa with a weighted blanket. I'll also be topping it with my brand new ultra-thick memory foam mattress topper, raising me off the floor another crucial few inches. Think of the view I'll get from up there! To imagine there'll be any time for games! Pah! I kid. Plenty of time for...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Warm, relaxing town builder Of Life and Land has some impressive sim chops
Warm, relaxing town builder Of Life and Land has some impressive sim chops
Sin Vega rockpapershotgun.comI love building games, but it's not that often that put one down and feel particularly tempted to get straight back into it again. Of Life And Land is one of those, but thankfully not so much so that it threatens to consume my every waking moment. It quietly does several things in a modest little way, that are all the more impressive for its lack of fanfare. The core one though, is that it takes the kind of...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Ghost of Tsushima runs well on Steam Deck, making its PSN nonsense all the more annoying
Ghost of Tsushima runs well on Steam Deck, making its PSN nonsense all the more annoying
James Archer rockpapershotgun.comGhost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut is now out and about on PC, sadly with the requirement of signing into a PlayStation Network (PSN) account in order to play the samurai action-adventure’s Legends co-op mode. The same requirement, you might recall, that Helldivers 2 players recently lobbied Sony into abandoning. No such luck here, and as previously warned, the need for said PSN sign-in to happen over Windows means...
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Rock Paper Shotgun Features Feed Lorelei And The Laser Eyes doesn’t let its surreal creativity strip its puzzles of logic
Lorelei And The Laser Eyes doesn’t let its surreal creativity strip its puzzles of logic
Nic Reuben rockpapershotgun.com“In one of Nero’s many manifests,” reads a books in surreal puzzle-box Lorelei And The Laser Eyes, referring to its eccentric (read: tastefully deranged) antag-artist, “there is a satirical proposal claiming that only dictators should be allowed to direct films.” Developers Simogo - of well-deserved Sayonara Wild Hearts and Device 6 acclaim - seem to agree that’s a position worth satirising. Lorelei, despite its...