Depending on who you ask, the apocalypse is not happening, extremely close, or already here. There’s already been at least one casualty in the form of usual premature evaluator Steve Hogarty, who has either been raptured or is away for two weeks. No other explanations are possible. I have filled the time this week with post-global flood city builder/Waterworld simulator Flotsam, a special favourite of vidbud Alice L.

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I’m not sure how I feel about the way Flotsam makes our impending ecological disaster look so inviting. It’s a floating city builder where you construct everything out of scavenged ocean junk, while making sure your seaborne survivors don’t run out of water that won’t kill them. I’ve leapt straight to chatting about death and disaster, though, when Flotsam bills its apocalypse as “feel-good”. This is why I don’t get invited to more parties.

It’s out now on early access, have a gander.

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With the one-two punch of Tropico 6 and then Anno 1800 launching over the last three weeks, plenty have noted that the city-building genre is currently enjoying a spate of urban renewal. Indeed, it s hard to keep up with current releases: as well as these giant games about colonising tropical islands, recent months have seen a string of small-studio hits – Foundation, Islanders, Factory Town and Soviet Republic, to name just a few. Then of course there was Dawn of Man. This neolithic gem from a two-man studio came out of nowhere – like Fred Flintstone climbing, shitfaced, through his window after nine hours at the Ape & Megalith – and ended up briefly conquering Steam.

We re entering an exciting time for games about deciding where to put things, and this is just the start of it: there are dozens of build em ups on the way, and for those of us who ve spent the last twenty years wistfully remembering Caesar III, the horizon is alight with promise.

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Wow 2019 is a thing, huh? How are we all doing? Relieved? Bowling a hangover and a nagging sense of trepidation? Maybe you work in retail and, surprise! You were supposed to be at work half an hour ago. Time loses all meaning post-New Year break, doesn’t it? You’re just sort of adrift in a sea of empty Quality Street wrappers. That’s okay. We’re all there too.

Pretty soon the grim news cycle is going to grind to life again. Only three months until — no! Don’t think about it. We still have a moment here, on the crinkly, brightly coloured waves. Listen to their quiet rustling and think, not about reality, but about games! Yes, lovely, shiny games. We can bury our face right in them. And from that point of view the next 12 months are looking pretty good. Here’s our selection of the games we’re most looking forward to next year.

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Matt: After four days of hosting panels, interviewing developers, streaming games on camera and poking at as many as we could on the show floor, Team RPS has returned from the hallowed halls of EGX. Now that we ve nestled back into our treehouse nooks, it s time to talk about the best things wot we saw.

So, Katharine, Dave and Alice 3.0. Which game won the show? (more…)