Hawken‘s evolution from jaw-dropping, I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-triple-A indie to investor-powered multimedia behemoth has been utterly fascinating. At the end of the day, though, it’s a game about robots rocking, socking, and shooting other robots. The glitz and glamour just won’t stick if the core’s a prime candidate for the scrap heap. So then, how does Hawken’s surprisingly high-speed mech warring fare? I fired up RPS’ patented Judge-O-Tron (it is maybe a washing machine with a very mean face drawn on it) and took aim at Hawken’s open beta.>

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At RPS our knickers are almost permanently in a twist. And that’s because we operate in an industry that’s worryingly busy with pantie-bunching nonsense. We’re also not the sort of site that likes to stay quiet about such things, and whole-heartedly believes that by making a fuss you can make a difference. Sometimes we have, sometimes we haven’t, but we’ve tended to have an opinion either way.

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GAME OF THE YEAR BEST OF EDITION TOP 10 APOCALYPSE GAME OF THE YEAR 2012 BEST OF GOTY EDITION EDITION>

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Diaries are our most requested feature, and by far the hardest to write. Not because the words are a struggle to find, but because it has to be the right game and the right person clicking at the right time. You can’t force them, they have to just happen. A game has to provide the longevity to let such accounts be relevant, and the writer has to feel the need to tell the story. But when all these stars align, the results are some of the most popular and entertaining content RPS produces. The best of 2012′s diaries are below.

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Good morning, readers of RPS. Did you have a fun Christmas time? Did you get any new games? If you don’t celebrate Christmas, or didn’t get any of the presents you wanted from Santa because you were naughty instead of nice, why not just buy yourself something instead. Here’s my roundup of the best deals on downloadable PC games this weekend, and for more gaming cheapness you can hit up SavyGamer.co.uk, there’s bound to be lots of great deals in the January sales over the next few weeks. (more…)

The walls of the FP office are plastered with pictures of iconic war machines. When I yaw left I see the elegant elliptical wings of a Supermarine Spitball, the slab prow of a Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiepin, the yawning bomb-bay of an Avro Lankystreakofpiss. When I yaw right I see swarms of side-slipping Sopwith Camelots, HMS Hoodie steaming at full speed towards the Denholmelliot Strait, a sharkmouthed McDonnell Dougal F-4 Phantompregnancy splashing napalm onto a bunker-riddled Vietnamese hellside. (more…)

The walls of the FP office are plastered with pictures of iconic war machines. When I yaw left I see the elegant elliptical wings of a Supermarine Spitball, the slab prow of a Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiepin, the yawning bomb-bay of an Avro Lankystreakofpiss. When I yaw right I see swarms of side-slipping Sopwith Camelots, HMS Hoodie steaming at full speed towards the Denholmelliot Strait, a sharkmouthed McDonnell Dougal F-4 Phantompregnancy splashing napalm onto a bunker-riddled Vietnamese hellside. (more…)

As Space Year 2012 fades into the unreachable yesterday of history, we at RPS have developed preservation technologies that allow us to transmit past articles toward the future. So it is that we’re able to capture some of the highlights of the site from the last twelve months, and as with every year, among the highest of those heights are the Gaming Made Me entries. These reflections on games aren’t nostalgia, but rather personal accounts of defining moments, and that’s what makes them special. 2012′s are every bit as splendid as ever.

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Everyone? We need to talk>.

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While clearly the RPS hivemind’s preference is to stay locked in our dungeons, never speaking to Others, occasionally we must break from comfort. And so it is we speak to those responsible for the games we play. 125 times this year, in fact. Of that large selection, below you’ll find some of the highlights.

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