S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 development has continued even during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where developers GSC Game World are based. Now there's a new trailer which shows combat against humans and mutants, scavenging in the Zone, comforting inventory management, and dialogue from several high-strung NPCs.
Katharine asked me to do a quick little round-up of my favourite features that we've run over the past year (to go with the other section round-ups, which you can read here) so I said "No problemo, Katharino!". Off I went to make a list, running down the published pieces and clicking whichever ones I thought were good. Then I looked at my list and said "Oh, no!", because it was extremely long. I cut it down by about half to get what we have here, a collection of interviews and thinky pieces and silly pieces and wonderful pieces from 2022.
It's a well-documented fact here at RPS that I love a good spreadsheet. Specifically, my spreadsheet that lists all the lovely games I manage to play each year. I've been looking at that spreadsheet a lot in recent weeks, and I'm pleased to report that most of my top game picks from this year have successfully made their way into the RPS Advent Calendar. There were plenty that didn't, of course (pouring one out for you, Dorfromantik, Flat Eye, Dome Keeper and Lost In Play), but such is the way of things when your current list of completed games for the year is teetering on the verge of 50.
No word of a lie, I would probably be here all day if I laid out my entire long list of honourable mentions for 2022 (additional shoutouts to Railbound, Cursed To Golf, God Of War, Weird West, Jack Move, Hard West 2 and The Kids We Were), but for the sake of all involved (and poor Alice Bee's editing pencil), I've narrowed it down to a shortlist of three. (Do still go and check out those other games, though. They're all absolutely rad).
Sequels are often contentious, but I feel like video games can get away with being a part of a long-running series – and, crucially, still be good while they’re at it, well past the point where a book or movie franchise would have outstayed its welcome.
The thing is, though, when it comes to GOTY lists like our Advent Calendar, it’s a much bigger task to convince your fellow voters of the merits of your new favourite game when it’s the third, fourth, or maybe even sixteenth in its series. I’m adamant that those games deserve their share of recognition at the end of the year, which is why my honourable mentions celebrate 2022’s new entries into some of my favourite ongoing series.
A little known fact is that all of the RPS staff are complex clockwork automata, designed and built by a little gnome with the kind of inch-thick glasses that make your eyes look comically large. We're each powered by a spell that lasts but 12 months, so every Christmas we fall over like sad marionettes. The gnome has to spend a couple of weeks trekking up a mountain to see the fairy who can recast the spells on us. You can help fund his sled dogs and provisions by becoming a member of the RPS supporter program.> While he's away, we've prepared some Christmas Crackers for you.
Time to enjoy your lovely joke!
Q: What's Gabe Newell's favourite carol?
SanDisk's capacious 512GB Ultra drive is down to £36.99 at their UK web store, offering nearly a 50% savings off its RRP. This is a great pickup for Steam Deck or Switch owners, but of course this memory card would also work in phones, tablets, action cams and so on too - there's even a full-size SD card adapter included.
Duronic do a good range of electricals, and today the only one I've actually bought is reduced on Amazon: a 12-gang power tower, basically a power extension lead with a supportive base that points the unit towards the sky. This particular model normally costs £18, but today has been reduced to £14.99.
I've been looking back over an entire year of RPS reviews and, well, we've written a lot. Over the past twelve months, the RPS treehouse and our merry band of freelancers have reviewed 168 games in total - and that includes early access reviews, PC-port reviews, group reviews, reviews-in-progresses, and your common or garden fully-fledged reviews. 168! Damn. Even though game releases are still suffering from pandemic pushbacks, 2022 has been a busy year for games. There wasn't a huge number of big name releases - although the ones that did come out were plenty big enough - but, as always, we've had a wealth of wonderful indies releasing all year round, and we scooped up as many of them as we could.
Out of all the games we’ve given any kind of review treatment throughout the year, only a handful of them recieved RPS’s coveted Bestest Best badge; just 23, to be exact. I've gathered them all in one big round-up bundle below (there are round-ups of our favourite bits from other sections of the site, too), and they make a great collection of games. Have a scroll and click on any that take your fancy for the full review. Enjoy!
It’s my first RPS Christmas Advent Calendar, whoooo! I feel so honored - and I’m pretty happy with how the GOTY 2022 Calendar turned out, as most of my top choices made it into the roster. However>, great games are sure to fall by the wayside in any year - which is why we have our Selection Boxes of honorable mentions this year, right? For my picks I've swept up three quite different games, but I think they come together to give a very Rachel vibe.
A little known fact is that all of the RPS staff are complex clockwork automata, designed and built by a little gnome with the kind of inch-thick glasses that make your eyes look comically large. We're each powered by a spell that lasts but 12 months, so every Christmas we fall over like sad marionettes. The gnome has to spend a couple of weeks trekking up a mountain to see the fairy who can recast the spells on us. You can help fund his sled dogs and provisions by becoming a member of the RPS supporter program.> While he's away, we've prepared some Christmas Crackers for you.
Time to enjoy your lovely joke!
Q: Why does Santa keep falling asleep while playing games?