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Republishing this feature from last month as it’s now updated with part 2 – utility mods for a more efficient, easier, less chaotic city with more comprehensible traffic. … [visit site to read more]

From 2014-2015, RPS’s Senior Scottish Correspondent Cara Ellison wrote S.EXE, 29 columns about games about sex, games about love, games about the space in between those two things, games about sexuality, and games about schlongs. Unfortunately the series is on indefinite hiatus as Cara takes a break from writing about games after her spectacular but surely exhausting Embed With… project, but whether you missed it the first time, didn’t catch all of them or are simply missing it already, you should absolutely revisit S.EXE yourself now. It’s a by turns insightful and funny (and very often both) document of the wilder side of games, the darker side of games, the sillier side of games and a hugely important but often little-seen side of games. Here’s the complete archive. … [visit site to read more]

Stealth Bastard, Curve Digital called it, and then it became Stealth Bastard Deluxe: Tactical Espionage Arsehole. Ian Nintendo and Ian Sony were less than fond of that name, I suppose, so now we’re looking at the sequel being called boring old Stealth Inc. 2 [official site]. Ugh.> If you can overcome your palpable disgust at a game not having swears in its name, choke down that bile and swallow that vomit, ooooh! Stealth Inc. 2 is out!

Our Adam really enjoyed the first sneaky puzzler, so more of that is probably a good thing.

… [visit site to read more]

Professional wrestling is a ridiculous cultural phenomenon and I love it dearly. I also happen to think it’s blend of theatre, physical performance and interactive storytelling is ideally suited to gaming. It’s a weird and wonderful world that offers all manner of opportunities for interactive storytelling, from heroic fights against the odds to villainous victories and roster management.

WWE 2K15 [official site] seizes many of those opportunities, but do they wriggle out of its meaty grasp? Here’s wot I think.>

… [visit site to read more]

What if The Year of the Bow never ended? Maybe this is simply the modern state of video games: they have cool bows to pling arrows at faces. E3 2012 sparked YotB declarations between games like Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3, Assassin’s Creed III, and Crysis 3 but then the bows kept coming, through Shadow of Mordor, Eidolon, and more. Bows are a thing video games just do now.

Having now received the memo, Payday 2 [official site] has added a bow. Its latest DLC weapon pack included the ole arrow-plonger, along with other Wild West weapons and masks and gubbins.

… [visit site to read more]

Environmental Station Alpha [official site] is a Metroid-alike pixel platformer that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, right up until I didn’t any more. And yet, I find myself recommending it. Here’s wot I think:>

… [visit site to read more]

Siblings aren’t all that useful, I’ve found, but younger ones do give an excuse to watch television shows you feel a pressure to be far too mature and sophisticated to enjoy. Say, Power Rangers.

I’m excited to see the launch of Chroma Squad [official site], a tactical fightin’, business managin’, sim-o-RPG about running a mighty morphin’ super sentai show and fighting through its episodes. Excited for my sibling’s sake, that is. Maybe they might like a copy for their birthday, you know. Not me. I’m big now. I can buy alcohol and go on all the rollercoasters.

… [visit site to read more]

Grand Theft Auto V [official site] modding hasn’t been given any support by Rockstar, but this is PC-land and PC players will not be restrained. If you’re interested in learning how you install mods for the game, I’ll briefly lay out some basic instructions below. It’s extremely simple, but it requires a couple of pre-installed files before most mods will work, and it can be intimidating if you’re new to modding and the instructions are never all in one place.

… [visit site to read more]

I’m extremely intrigued bySubaltern’s magic school management game No Pineapple Left Behind [official site]. The more I look, the more it seems like its superficially wwwwwacky and zzzzzany concept of ‘what if you could turn kids into pineapples to make them easier students?’ is there to guide people into what might be both a biting and deep management game about the education system. There is fantasy, there are spells and there is the tyrannical oppression of a rebellious population, but it all relates to the minds and identities of children – are we looking at Dungeon Keeper with actual satire? … [visit site to read more]