Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games.> But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol’ breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.

Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.>

I’ve long possessed a fondness for Bohemia Interactive’s military simulators, ever since Operation Flashpoint invaded my hard-drive back in 2001. But ArmA 3 is the first Bohemia game since OpFlash to successfully modernise that that initial concept, striking a pleasing balance between ambition, accessibility, and stability of play. (more…)

Arma 3 s new single-player mission pack, Tac-Ops, popped into existence last week, introducing three presumably very serious missions to the straight-faced military sandbox. They re tricky, says developer Bohemia Interactive, and you ll need brush up on your shooting, tactical positioning and adaptability. You should also learn some army phrases, but mostly because they re fun to shout. Take a look at the trailer.

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Cowardice is a virtue. So says the team on this week’s RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. That’s because our theme is “running away” – games that encourage you to flee from danger, or that give you a choice between fight and> flight. Adam will run from the soldiers of Arma or the post-apocalyptic antagonists of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Brendan will scarper from poor odds in For Honor or Overwatch, while Alice only pretends> to run away in Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, tricking her foes into giving chase before ambushing them like some kind of velociraptor. (more…)

Don’t come any closer. Brendan has some sort of illness. Because of this, there’s no Electronic Wireless Show this week. However, we didn’t want to leave your earphones completely unsullied, so went down to the audio archives and requisitioned an older recording. It involved talking to Hollow Janice, our beastial archivist with dense wiry hair who lacks both eyes and a soul. She told us to fill out some forms.

Today’s episode is an old Ridealong by Brendan, in which he boarded a helicopter and flew through Arma 3’s Altis Life mod with an outlaw called Hank. (more…)

Sometimes you need a hand to hold, so we ve updated our list of the 25 best co-op games to play on PC with a headset-wearing friend or a muted stranger.

Whether solving puzzles, sneaking, shooting zombies or stabbing mythical creatures in the face, the existence of another player adds an element of unpredictability. You might synchronise your stealth takedowns and execute the perfect plan, but it’s just as likely that your co-op partner will constantly alert the guards and throw your situation into chaos. Luckily both success and failure are more compelling when you can take credit for the former and blame someone else for the latter.

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Come one, come all, but not all at once or you’ll break our caching, and see the Steam Charts in all their glory! Which game will have reached the coveted #2 position this week?! (more…)

Arma 3‘s [official site] Laws of War DLC, which puts you in the role of a humanitarian aid worker, is out now. At the heart of the package is a mini-campaign that fills the boots of explosive specialist Nathan MacDade, who has to identify and deactivate mines following the war in the Republic of Altis & Stratis.

The new humanitarian faction, called International Development & Aid Project (IDAP), bring with them new gear, including a van, a drone that can transport supply or deal with mine disposal and a mine dispenser, an “effective but controversial” weapon that does damage over a defined area. There’s also various branded vests, bags, headgear and facewear, and a time trial challenge for the new drone and van.

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Simulated soldiers will get to join a humanitarian aid organisation ‘Laws of War’ DLC for Arma 3 [official site] next month, developers Bohemia Interactive have announced. This expansion, which Bohemia previously referred to by the codename ‘Orange DLC’, will bring a new mini-campaign starring someone from the new International Development & Aid Project faction. Naturally, this also means loads of new IDAP equipment that can be used elsewhere in Arma 3, including a cargo drone, new vans, and clobber. A new mine dispenser is in too, though it’s probably not IDAP using that. Here, have a peek in this trailer: (more…)

Because one launch isn’t difficult enough, Arma devs Bohemia Interactive are going for one-and-a-half today. The big one is Argo [official site], their free multiplayer FPS spun off from Arma 3 [official site]. The half is an update for Arma 3 adding a new island to play on, the remake of Operation Flashpoint’s Malden which Bohemia made for Argo. All this is to celebrate the 16th birthday of Flashpoint (or Arma: Cold War Assault, as Bohemia later renamed it) today. … [visit site to read more]