Sundays are for folding away your clothes horse carefully, so it doesn't snap shut on your fingers. Before you struggle, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things).
Steam offered discounts on builders last month, and is is due to offer cheap mysteries from February 20th-27th. They've already announced the next genre-specific sale, though: Steam Puzzle Fest is coming in the last week of April.
Tactical mech shooter Phantom Brigade has been held by the twin prisons of early access and the Epic Games Store for a couple of years now, but it'll soon be set free. Developers Brace Yourself say it'll hit 1.0 and arrive on Steam on the same date: February 28th.
Cannibal and arboreal survival 'em up Sons Of The Forest was due to to launch later this month, and it has not been delayed. It's developers have announced that they've decided to release into Steam Early Access, however, after initially intending to head straight to 1.0.
HBO's The Last Of Us television series has reportedly increased the player count for The Last Of Us on console, years after its original release. It stands to reason that there might be increased interest in the looming PC release, too, but you'll have to wait a few extra weeks. Naughty Dog announced yesterday that their shroomy shooter has been delayed.
The snowdrops are out! This is still a sign of winter, but it's a sign of winter progressing, and the progress of winter inevitably leads towards spring. Then we'll have the crocus, and iris, and bluebell, and oh spring! I'm overwhelmingly excited by the realisation that come Thursday, sunset in Edinburgh will no longer fall during working hours. Ah, light! Life! But until then, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
When Duke Nukem 3D burst onto the FPS scene in the Nineties, young CJ was a bit confused. This Duke wasn't the purple-shirted acrobat I'd known from Apogee Software's pair of platformers earlier that decade. He was brash, crude, and and didn't side-scroll anymore. It wasn't for me, so I moved on to other games. I still occasionally loaded up those earlier platformers though, wistfully remembering a time when Duke presumably used actual toilets when he needed to answer a call of nature.
Gather round, children, and I’ll tell you of something magical: the NZXT Source 340 compact mid-tower PC case with side window, product code CA-S340W-B1. Good gravy, did I love that case. Tightly proportioned without being too cramped for a full-size graphics card, maturely designed without looking dull, and hewn from some of most gorgeously textured matte steel I’ve seen on a piece of computing hardware. Don’t even get me started on the upgraded Source 340 Elite. It’s been years since these cases disappeared from sale and ascended to Component Heaven, and although it’s taken a few tries, there’s finally a new chassis that’s worthy of the legacy: the NZXT H5 Flow.
Hello folks. Earlier this week, we unveiled some of the cool things coming up for RPS this year - many of which revolve around you, our lovely readers and supporters. If you haven't had a chance to check that post out yet, I'd love to hear what you think of it. And yes, fixing our comments nesting is still very much on the agenda as well. Our tech team have a lot of websites to take care of these days, and they're working as fast as they can to sort things out. As soon as I have an update I can share, I'll let you know.
But enough about techy bits. I wanted to use this Letter From The Editor to talk about some of the more supporter-oriented things mentioned in that 'What's coming up' post. Specifically, I want to kick off the inaugural Ask RPS - your chance to ask us, the editorial team, questions about games, the site, the way we do things, and other things we like.
You might recognise developer Octavi Navorro’s pixel art in Thimbleweed Park, 2017’s detective point-and-clicker. But since then, Navorro has been releasing surreal 2D horror games on an almost annual basis. Navarro’s series Midnight Scenes has been the highlight, having disturbing premises and Twilight Zone creepiness. The newest episode, Midnight Scenes: From The Woods is due on February 9th and it looks as chilling as ever.
I really do not play enough visual novels these days. Raptor Boyfriend has been sat on my hard drive for at least a year, and it won't be the last. Historically, I have fallen hard for two kinds of VN: emotionally probing character dramas like Eliza and Watch Me Jump, or gentle and slightly silly comedies like Laura Silver and Camp W. The jokey dating-sim-but-everyone's-a-talking-table type vein never quite grabbed me. Unless Monster Prom counts? Hmm.
Raptor Boyfriend is more the lighthearted comedy kind, but with through lines on social anxiety and navigating confusing coming-of-age relationships. It is also not actually about having a raptor boyfriend.
This year, I decided to make a New Year’s Resolution for the first time in my life. I’m 21 and my knees click, which means I must be turning into stone faster than someone having a staring contest with Medusa. So, I vowed to exercise a few times a week. Then, during my first week back at work, vid bud Liam told me to try Age Of Empires II. Never before has a New Year’s Resolution been abandoned so fast. I really wanted to stick with it. Promise.
But! After my first match, the following 30 hours vanished quicker than the Galaxy Caramels in a box of Celebrations. I became obsessed. I mastered AOE II's low AI difficulties and quickly used the Advanced Techniques tutorial to learn build orders. Before I knew it, I had a Google Doc filled with step-by-step plans for various playstyles, the perfect strategies for any scenario. But that Google Doc ended up ruining everything for me. If that recent Xbox release with the good gamepad controls has you tempted to revisit Age Of Empires II on PC, do not make a Google Doc. You’ve been warned.
Overwatch 2’s third season is right around the corner and, as always, that means we’re getting a new map. Blizzard have treated us to our first look at the Antarctic Peninsula, an icy-themed control map launching alongside Season 3 on February 7th. The Antarctic Peninsula is a big deal since it’ll delve into Mei’s backstory, it’s the first natural environment in an OW map, and it lets you fish. As in catching fish. At an ice hole. As in, you can catch fish at an ice hole in Overwatch 2.
The last few weeks have been messy for The Day Before, the survival MMO that was Steam’s most wishlisted game for much of 2022. Last month, The Day Before’s Steam page was quietly removed from the storefront following a trademark dispute. Developer Fntastic also delayed the game from March 1st to November 10th at the same time, just days before they promised to show some raw gameplay footage of it in action. The whole debacle led to accusations on Reddit and Discord that the game didn’t even exist, but at long last, that promised gameplay video has arrived. And... it’s merely fine.
The makers of Command & Conquered Remastered have announced their new WW1 RTS The Great War: Western Front will be releasing on March 30th 2023. It's also getting a Steam Next Fest demo next week on February 6th, which gives you access to its chunky tutorial and the early portion of its campaign, plus the Historic Battle of The Battle Of Passchendaele, which is the mission I got a chance to play at the end of last year. As it turns out, I've also had a sneak peek at the Next Fest build, too, and there's a heck of a lot to sink your teeth into. Here's a small glimpse of what to expect.
Fishing mini-games make just about any game better. There’s something meditative about being close to the water, waiting in silence for a catch, and mashing buttons to reel them in - plus I don’t need to deal with the horrendous smell from behind the safety of my desk. The indie game Dredge subverts what I like about fishing games, with an eerie eldritch horror waiting beneath the ocean’s surface. We won’t need to wait long before we see what's under there as Dredge releases on March 30th.
Developer Velan Studios have announced that their team-based dodgeballer is being, well, knocked out. Season 9 of Knockout City will be its last and online services will be shut down on June 6th at 12PM GMT/6AM CST/7AM ET. Dodgeballers won’t be able to play Knockout after this date, but Velan have promised that a standalone, private-server version of the game will be coming to PC sometime after.
While the patch notes for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s 4.01 update claim it "improves the overall stability and performance of the game", if you’re not using the recently added ray tracing settings, it might well do the opposite. I gave the patch a whirl to try out its PC-specific changes – namely a new 'Performance' setting for RT global illumination and a fix for the broken screen space reflections setting – only to find that non-ray-traced, DirectX 12 performance has been utterly knackered. Again.
.jpg/BROK/resize/1920x1920%3E/format/jpg/quality/80/Rhythm-Sprout-(7).jpg)
I tend to find that a lot of rhythm games hold back from going completely beast mode. It definitely comes from a place of accessibility, where an onslaught of timed bars and coloured symbols can be intimidating for casual players. But what about the rest of us who want to be pummelled to death in time with a catchy beat?
Good news! TinyBuild's new action-adventure game Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats & Bad Sweets does not hold back. I'm not even halfway through the game and I’ve had my butt completely kicked by its barrage of oncoming beats, and all in perfect time to its soda-pop EDM.
AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors offer incredible gaming and content creation performance, though high prices have stifled their adoption. Now, these CPUs - and their accompanying motherboards and RAM - are starting to become more affordable, with the high-end Ryzen 7 7700X dropping from a launch price of £440 to just £312 at Amazon UK as of today.
Dell's S2721DGFA is one of the best 1440p gaming monitors on the market thanks to its use of an LG Fast IPS panel, blending the plus points of both TN and IPS displays. Normally this monitor costs north of £300, but today it's down to £279 at Dell UK, a great price that can be dropped further to £251 if you have a student or Dell Advantage employee account.
Co-op zombie smasher Back 4 Blood won't be getting any new content. Developers Turtle Rock say that River Of Blood, the expansion which launched in December 2022, was it's last as they're now working on a new game.
Some of my favourite games involve visiting a fantastical town, befriending the residents, discovering their stories, and trading with them. Too often those same games also have too-difficult turn-based murderfests in-between, though. Here comes Townseek to fix that. It's an adorable and "relaxing" exploration-trading game in which you pilot an airship, customise your balloon, and visit eg. some sort of bee kingdom, as per the screenshot above.
.jpg/BROK/resize/1920x1920%3E/format/jpg/quality/80/dwarf-fortress-(2).jpg)
Dwarf Fortress selling half a million copies on Steam in just a few weeks already indicated that its creators, the Adams brothers, were due a windfall. Now the latest earnings report from Bay 12 Games is here to put an exact dollar figure on that success. Here's a tease: revenue in January was up over 462x since December.
It's great that games are now regularly updated post-release, but it's also common for me to long for those halcyon days when I first fell in love with a game. It's good news then that Deep Rock Galactic is celebrating its fifth anniversary by making it possible to play it exactly as it was at release in early 2018.
Of course, that's just one way they're celebrating the milestone, alongside an anniversary event and new DLC.
It's a new month, which means there's a new wave of games to join and leave Game Pass. As of today, we know of a new set of leavers, and it includes head-turning action platformer Skul: The Hero Slayer and the wonderfully destructive Besiege.
I've never actually finished a game of Stellaris. I doubt I'm the only ardent fan of the game that hasn't done so. The best thing about it, as is so often the case with 4X and grand strategy games, is the very beginning. That opening half-hour of limitless potential and giddy curiosity is utterly spellbinding. I don't know if any strategy game does it better.
Now that The Sims 4 has babies and toddlers, the family unit is complete. Perfect timing too, as the game’s next expansion is all about growing up with family. The Sim 4’s Growing Together Expansion Pack is out March 16th and it’s planning to expand the way your Sims change over time and relate to other Sims
Can I tell you a secret? I'm terrible at Battle Brothers. I'm still terrible at Battle Brothers, even after playing it on and off for a few years. It's a bit like Blood Bowl, oddly, in that it's all about mitigating risks. And like Blood Bowl, despite having a decent head for tactics and planning on the fly, I am hopeless at sticking to them when I see a new idea, thus: terrible. At it.
But since an update last March looks likely to be its last big one, it's about time to get over myself and gave it a proper look as a complete package. It's long overdue, in fact. Although I still struggle to fully enjoy it, Battle Brothers is an unusually good tactical game, and the one to beat for the burgeoning subgenre of mercenary management sims. That's partly because it sticks so resolutely to its guns. Where Bannerlord faltered by throwing extraneous stuff unrelated to the core combat that should have defined it, and other open world games typically take a varied but shallow "do and be everything" approach, Battle Brothers resists dilution of that core concept.
Capcom’s monstrously big Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is receiving its fourth free title update on February 7th. Sunbreak’s latest update adds new Event Quests, Anomaly Research content, paid DLC, and two new Elder Dragons to hunt. I don’t think any of these additions are as exciting as the giant Sweetcorn weapon introduced last year, but I digress.
The Electronic Wireless Show podcast returns in 2023 with a new friend and a new format. We ran out of themes, so we're going to flip to a magazine-ish show, where we discuss some current events as well as the games we've been playing. This week we talk about games on film, with everyone bloody loving The Last Of Us TV show and reports that Lara Croft will be hitting the small screen too. We also discuss the reasons a developer might have to come out and clarify that their game is, in fact, real. Plus: "try cutting off their limbs"; what is Forspoken, and why so graphics?
Little fluffy stuffed friends exert a strange and unknowable power over me. These days we only occasionally get offered free stuff as part of our jobs, because we are not YouTubers or Twitch streamers. When I first started websites would get sent a lot of stuff - you know, statuettes and toys and doodads. I don't like these things, and I always wished PRs sent me cake instead. Neither thing would make me like the game more, but at least I can eat cake, and the same cannot be said for a figurine of some kind of big-titted space samurai holding a sword.
I have, however, discovered that plushies of game characters I like are an exception to this.
With the world continuing to disintegrate around us in real-time, it can be tempting to cast our eyes skyward in the hope of finding a better future. If KeokeN's Deliver Us games are anything to go by, though, life in outer space isn't all that peachy either. In Deliver Us The Moon, you may remember the scientists in charge of the moon's Earth-saving energy beam tech ended up having a bit of a Rapture moment, sabotaging all their good work (and the future of Earth in the process) and buggering off to goodness knows where to start life afresh in their newly birthed utopia. In its sequel, Deliver Us Mars, you find out those rogue astronauts didn't actually go that far at all. Yep, they hopped on over to the red planet and set up shop there, and when a strange transmission comes through revealing their location, it serves as the catalyst to send yet another crew into space to go and investigate.
This time, though, you're right at the heart of its central conflict. By casting players as Kathy, the daughter of one of those rogue astronauts, Deliver Us Mars tells a much more fraught and personal tale of what kind of future humanity should be pursuing: should we, in fact, be turning our efforts toward a life in outer space, or should we be doing everything in our power to try and save the dire, pretty much almost dead husk of a planet we call home?
While I rob dark dungeons and luxurious castles, in my free time, I often think about how easy it would be with a friendly ghost to help me out. Spirited Thief allows you to play out that fantasy in a series of top-down, turn-based, stealthy heists. Better yet, it’s sneaking onto PC this summer and has a demo available now.
If you spent a portion of the 90s going cross-eyed to look at Magic Eye 3D pictures of dolphins, elephants, and sailboats emerging from fields of noise, you might enjoy the new platformer from indie developer Daniel Linssen. It's called Stereogram, because it's made of moving stereograms. Let your eyes go slack and gaze into the distance of an optical illusion as you jump around pretty little Magic Eye levels in this platformer which reminds me of VVVVVV.
Delete After Reading is a delightful looking text-based puzzler that will be familiar to anyone who’s played Simogo’s excellent (albeit sadly iOS-only game) Device 6, only with fewer spooks this time. Like Simogo's surreal thriller, most of Delete After Reading plays out like you're reading a novel, where scrolling through paragraphs of text will reveal images, clues and puzzles you can interact with. As the devs put it, Delete After Reading is a “game you can read, and a book you can play,” and looks and sounds really quite rad. Even better, it’s releasing on March 14th.
Okay, we all agree that the ocean is kind screwed up right? Like, we’ve all seen that YouTube video showing how deep the sea is and unanimously agree that it’s, like, terrifying? As much as I love relaxing subaquatic city builders and exploring underwater alien worlds, I want games about stuff in the sea that makes my skin crawl to think about. Enter Full Fathom.
So, Full Fathom isn’t out yet, or even has an official release date, but I just love the idea and look of this game. Being developed by Daemon House, this is an oceanic survival horror where you’re trapped in a derelict submarine that has sunken to the depths of an abyssal sea. You need to navigate your surroundings and keep the sub up and running to make your way back to civilisation, aka a rusty tin can is your last lifeline.
Last night was a restless one for the Steam Deck. In addition to a huge client update for the handheld PC, Valve pushed out a Proton Experimental update to fix a crashing problem with games that use the Ubisoft Connect launcher on Steam.
Ubi’s launcher had received an update of its own, sadly one that interfered with the ability of Proton – the layer of software that helps made-for-Windows games run on the Linux-based SteamOS – to keep it compatible with the Deck. Indeed, just like the 2K Launcher last year, with the added irony that the affected games (which include The Division 2, Watch Dogs Legion and Ghost Recon Breakpoint) only arrived on Steam in the past few weeks.
Fans have been clamouring for a sequel to Titanfall 2 since its release in 2016, but it looks like we might need to put those hopes on hold for a little longer. According to a report from Bloomberg, EA have cancelled an unannounced project codenamed Titanfall Legends, a single-player mash-up between Titanfall and Apex Legends - Respawn’s battle royale, set in the same universe. Around 50 devs were working on the game before its cancellation earlier this week. EA are reportedly trying to find other positions for the devs, but those that aren't rehired are being laid off with severance.
Sometimes I want to describe games in the most high-brow way possible. I might smugly write something like “it elevates the genre” while sipping wine and eating cheese, musing on how a game pushes the media forward as an art form. Other times I just want to write that a game is really bloody good, actually, and I like it lots.
Hi-Fi Rush falls into the latter category. Developer Tango Gameworks shadow-dropped the rhythm-action game out of nowhere shortly after an Xbox presentation, jettisoning The Evil Within’s murky mental hospitals and Ghostwire: Tokyo's supernatural shinanigans for something markedly different: bright pulsating neon colours and a gang of loveable anime ruffians, where every whack and dodge is underscored by a beat.
Hi-Fi Rush is an action-adventure game with a mechanical core fuelled by musical beats. Protagonist Chai has undergone a risky medical procedure and emerged from the other side with a robot arm and an iPod accidentally implanted in his chest meaning his every waking moment is punctuated by a catchy beat. We too see these rhythmic motions, as Hi-Fi Rush's soda pop-infused world moves to this steady pulse - platforms move in time with the music, lights flash in pleasing rhythmic patterns, and enemies attack to the beat of the drum.