March means Springtime has begun and it’s finally time to say goodbye to Winter - and a fresh batch of Game Pass leavers. This month’s leaving soon list is bulkier than usual, with games such as Guardians Of The Galaxy, Goat Simulator, and Undertale all waving goodbye on March 15/16th.

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Looking back, I reckon Kentucky Route Zero‘s third act might’ve been the best of the lot. That it was the act to introduce wandering musicians Johnny and Junebug playing no small part in that impression. This week, the fictional duo took their music out of the supernatural road trip with an EP full of sad robot love songs – a perfect soundtrack for getting lonely with on these rainy October afternoons.

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I adore Kentucky Route Zero. Likewise, I adore the pieces on this site that discuss it. Alec’s review in particular is incredibly articulate, goes into a lot of depth, and comes from a place of passion for the game. The discussion of Kentucky Route Zero generally, however, can be somewhat overwhelming to trawl through as a newcomer, and in order to fully take in much of what Alec Meer and others have written about Cardboard Computer s point-and-click interactive fiction, you d have to pour yourself a cup of relaxing peppermint tea and set aside a whole day of reading, like I did.

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This is the story of a journey s end. But no homecoming can have meaning in isolation from the voyage that preceded it. This is why offering some critical judgement upon the fifth and (as far as we know) final Act of the interstate dream odyssey that is Kentucky Route Zero is an exercise in absurdity. It cannot be separated from what came before, nor from how the long years of waiting altered its place and power in memory. It also, perhaps, cannot be separated from how the world has changed during those long years.

So the following must be about all of those things, and not just the final moments of a landmark in videogame storytelling. To call Act V a climax, or a finale, or a denouement, is incorrect. Unexpectedly short and sharp, yet still wide of focus, it s more of an epilogue to a decade-long journey which reached its final destination three and a half years ago.

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Act V of Kentucky Route Zero has finally launched, ending a journey that many in the RPS treehouse have come to love. If you haven’t played the adventure game before, now is the perfect time to jump into Cardboard Computer’s mysterious trip through a secret highway below Kentucky – but don’t take my word for it, because almost everyone at RPS has had great things to say about this weird and wonderful game.

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The strange and wonderful adventure along the underground Kentucky Route Zero will conclude with Act V on January 28th, developers Cardboard Computer announced today. Seven years after the journey started, the end is almost in sight and oh it is glorious.

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This is Brendan, broadcasting live from rumour world, where everything is made of a nebulous candy floss-like substance. The locals call it hope. Amid this sticky cloud, a figure has formed. It s Geralt of Rivia, hero of popular Gwent spin-off, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The monster-hunting swordsman will make an appearance in another game later this year, according to CD Projekt Red community lead Marcin Momot. Some have asserted that he’ll be a guest character in upcoming fighting game Soul Calibur VI. Which makes sense given the close business ties between the Polish studio and Japanese publisher Namco Bandai.

It isn’t confirmed. But it does raise the question: who else deserves a place on the stage of history? I asked the RPS treehouse who they d like to see. Here s the list we all settled on. (more…)

Hopefully this is a sign that the long-awaited fifth and final episode of the incomparable, theatrical road trip adventure Kentucky Route Zero is not far away. Devs Cardboard Computer last week snuck out another of their brief, experimental ‘interludes’, free game-ettes which also act as as previews and alternate perspectives on scenes and themes in forthcoming episodes. Previously they’ve done VR theatre, mystery phone calls and installation art, and now ‘Un Pueblo De Nada‘ adds live-action TV into the beautifully unpredictable mix.

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My nerves have been sufficiently jangled and my trigger-finger sufficiently itched by the glut of action games which landed in the closing months of last year. I crave an altogether more sedate beginning to 2018, and so my mind turns to games in which violence, reflex or any other kind of unblinking attentiveness takes a back seat.

Primarily we’re talking violence-free games here, but I wanted to drill a little deeper than that – so nothing that generally requires a competitive streak. I’m chasing a certain feel rather than a certain category. Flying, walking, puzzling, driving, building, dreaming, climbing, stretching, swinging (not like that), swimming, wondering: these are just a few of the ways in which flashing pixels can make you feel a very different sort of accomplishment.

And, of course, these are not even slightly the be-all and end-all of non-violent games on PC – please do nominate more in comments below. (more…)

BAM. A sound captures your headphones and holds you hostage. It’s the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. We’ve been lying in wait for the past three weeks, consolidating our strength and preparing to kidnap you by the ear canals. “Listen up, 2018!” we shout out from atop this metaphor. “We have a list of demands and we’re not releasing this poor listener until you’ve delivered! Or until the one hour playtime is up, whichever comes first!”

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