It’s been a weird, weird year for games. My perspective has been particularly odd and hard to square, as I’ve now been full time staff here at RPS for nearly six months. Six months! That’s … oh my god, I still haven’t extended my rent.

It’s quite strange suddenly being able to talk about games in real life without having to apologise, but other than that it’s nice. In that time I’ve played somewhere around 1,200 to 1,300 games (an exact count is impossible for boring reasons), almost all of them little known.

There have been many, many excellent games. There’s a refrain you see around the internet sometimes that “this was a bad year for games”, and I’ve honestly never understood it. I lived through the 2000s, people, I remember that wasteland. But this year, even after a solid 2018, has been so replete with interesting things to play that I cannot fathom how to be disappointed with the games. Sure, the industry, the culture, these are often garbage things for garbage people. But the games, man. The gaaames. Don’t hold it against them.

So here it is then. It’s time for the very best of Unknown Pleasures 2019. The finest of all that we’ve got through since last year, in a mostly random order.

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Summer. The heat age. Scorch season. Spring’s hangover. It’s the mid-point of the year and you know what that means. No, not “mojito time”, Geoff, put those away. It’s time we told you what the best games of the year are so far. There are quite a lot of them. Just look how many videogames have escaped from their developers in the past six months and are now running amok through the blistering streets, getting stuck in the melting tarmac, like ants in jam. It’s unsanitary. So allow us to round up these unruly games and trap them in a handy list. Here are our favourite sword swingers and space ‘splorers so far this year (and a couple of DLCs for good measure).

Okay, Geoff, now> bring the mojitos.

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Strange things are afoot in steamgamesland. A powerful new force has begun to show its face on Western shores. Hailing from the tiny island nation of China, a wave of intrepid indie developers are shaking off a variety of undeserved reputations and delivering a solid fifth* of the shortlist of games we consider for Unknown Pleasures, the roundup of the best new games too few people are playing.

But did any of them make the final cut? Is this the beginning of a bright new era following Steam’s recent controversies? And are any of them bloody roguelikes?

Adhering to the rule of three this week: non-dwarven fortresses, kindhearted fireflies, and China, China, CHINA. (more…)

Welcome back to Unknown Pleasures, our weekly compendium of the 8-10 best new games released on Steam over the past week that haven’t already been covered to death here and elsewhere.

This week: match-3 XCOM, Nuclear Throne homage, Homeworld-styled shmup, barista simulation and books not judged by programmer art covers. … [visit site to read more]