Fifteen years ago to the day, with some variance depending on where in the world you lived at the time, Thief: The Dark Project, went on sale. It is one of the games that continues to define the possibilities of first-person architecture and also an example of interactive storytelling that has endured over a decade and a half without being fully tapped. Some of the lessons that the team at Looking Glass laid out in their masterpiece has influenced a great deal of gaming. Other parts, like the Thief himself, appear to have gone unnoticed. Here, we remember and celebrate the brilliance of The Dark Project.>

(more…)

The Moderately Great S’peedy, cousin to much greater Great A’tuin, may lack the toned physique necessary for carrying worlds but he does come bearing Bargain Bucket discounts. It’s the day after Black Friday and — look, level with me here. Why are you still eyeballing discounts? Black Friday just happened. The world just went into a veritable orgy of slashed prices. Why are you still buying more things? Where are you getting all that money? And is there any way I can convince you to donate some of that cash to the “feed a hungry games journalist today” fund? Jokes aside, here’s this week’s conglomeration of rock-bottom deals. It’s a little sparse but the Moderately Great S’peedy and I hope you find what you were looking for.

(more…)

Today, gentlefolk of RPS, I intend to make a case for a new PC. Case for a new PC, geddit? Sigh. Anyway, the other day I was aboard the good ship PC Format Magazine, still steering a firm and true course through the marketing-infested waters of PC hardware and gaming and like all worthy vessels, er, unapologetically made of wood. Or maybe it’s pressed peanut sweepings these days. Whatever, I happened upon none other than the latest revision of BitFenix Prodigy, the Prodigy M, a PC case I’ve always liked the look of but never had the chance to poke around. Turns out it’s a very nice little item indeed. There’s been plenty of talk about Steam Boxes and ultra small-form-factor rigs round these parts, but less on the arguably more practical topic of cases in general and what makes for the best compromise in terms of form factors. So, let’s talk. (more…)

I know people often feel fatigued by the resurgence of 8-bit and 16-bit art styles, but there’s still not enough games aiming to revive the vibrant colours and sharp edges of old Spectrum games. The Speccy Jam aims to change that. As reported by IndieGames.com, a week of toiling has created more than twenty games almost all of which are playable in your browser. (more…)

My proudest Minecraft creation was a shack on top of a mountain. It had a single room, a bed, a chest and one glass wall that looked out across the world as far as the draw distance could see. It was a terrible little box but it was my> terrible little box. I look at some of the architectural wonders and recreations that people make and I think to myself, ‘that is incredibly impressive and it is also something that I will never ever have the patience to do’. The same is true of the EverQuest Next Landmark video below. A piece of concept art is recreated in the game, the whole thing shown in time lapse. I want to walk around a world and see things like this but I’ll be in my shack, with a telescope, watching the ants at work.

(more…)

Prison Architect is an ever expanding incarceration management game, currently in alpha and on a monthly update schedule. If it’s not growing fast enough for you, the most recent update adds something that will help: proper modding support.

Also, staff rooms, for when your little guards get sleepy. Come watch the update video. (more…)

With a few notable exceptions, games haven’t broken into the world of television. There’s Videogaiden, of course, and I rewatch that at least once a year, but games are more likely to be mentioned in a news report about the commerce value of consoles or a violent occurrence than for their artistic or cultural merit. Arch-satirist and clever clogs Charlie Brooker has previously enjoyed some success with Gameswipe, but a trailer for his new programme, with writing from RPS chum Cara Ellison, Jon Blyth and Matt Lees, suggests that it might be a very important piece of television. A shame then that Brooker’s segment with journalist/presenter Jon Snow about the Playstation 4′s launch showed the latter displaying the unimaginative approach of an old man in an old medium.

(more…)

More and more people are using videogames as a medium through which to support charities. As reported by Wired, Give8-Bit is a YouTube channel designed to act as a hub for highlighting videogame-powered charitable campaigns and documenting their impact.

Come watch the launch video of game developers who are doing nice things, and of Ian Livingstone in a choir.

(more…)

Do you remember (I Fell In Love With) The Majesty Of Colours? Along with Passage, it’s one of the first browser games I remember playing that made me think, ‘well that’s certainly an artgame’. I don’t like that term, ‘artgame’, even though I’ll gladly talk about an arthouse movie. There’s the sniff of a sort of cultural segregation in both designations, I suppose. The reason I’m reminded of The Majesty of Colours is the release of Ossuary, the first commercial game from Future Proof games. It costs $5 and there’s a trailer below.

(more…)

If you were hoping that the endless generosity of RPS would stretch to a batch of Mr Kipling’s exceedingly mediocre cakes, I am very sorry to disappoint you. Instead we bring you art, culture, poetry…and exclusive trailers for upcoming games. The video below shows a boarding operation taking place in The Mandate, the recently Kickstarted and hugely promising Tsaris space game. There’s plenty of information about the game in our interview and the trailer shows in-engine (Unity) footage of hackers and assault units raiding a ship, backed by David Bradley reading of Rudyard Kipling’s The Destroyers. Bradley recently joined the game’s voice cast and you probably know him as Walder Frey from television’s laugh-a-minute fairytale adventure Game of Thrones.

(more…)