2017 has already been an extraordinary year for PC games, from both big-name AAA successes to no-name surprise indie smashes. Keeping up with so much that’s worth playing is a tough job, but we’ve got your back. Here is a collection of the games that have rocked the RPS Treehouse so far this year.

We’ve all picked our favourites, and present them here in alphabetical order so as not to start any fights. You’re bound to have a game you’d have wanted to see on the list, so please do add it to the comments below. … [visit site to read more]

This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Little Nightmares [official site].

The figures you encounter in Little Nightmares are grotesque. Disproportioned and baggy in places they shouldn t be, the way they look is one thing, but it s the way they move that really clinches the deal. Their staggering, shuffling and lumbering captures the flavour of the Czech stop-motion cartoons I spent a great deal of my childhood feeling unnerved by. They re great.

It wasn t easy to reach that special state of uncanniness, especially for a small team working on its first original game, but developer Tarsier Studios started in just the right place:

THE MECHANIC: Avoiding Pixar

Spoilers lie ahead, obv! No story secrets as such, though, just showing several scenes from throughout the game.>

… [visit site to read more]

“I’ve loved almost every minute of it,” our Adam said about Little Nightmares [official site] last week. Only you had no way to play it then, as it wasn’t out, so all you could do was stare at it through the shop window, face pressed up against the glass. Oh, how you longed to puzzle-o-sneak-a-platform past Tarsier Studios’ horrors! Good news: Little Nightmares is now out, launched last night. Here’s a launch trailer to prove it: … [visit site to read more]

Little Nightmares [official site] is the story of a little girl in a horrible place. It’s a horror game but it’s mostly bloodless and doesn’t rely on jumpscares or sudden shocks. I’ve loved almost every minute of it.

… [visit site to read more]

Little Nightmares [official site] stars a fairy tale terror tot, cloaked in a yellow hood and traipsing through a world that is a couple of sizes too big for her. She’s being held captive in a horrible floating dollhouse full of long-armed, stubby-legged man-things and sad, grasping cooks. We know all this because we ve been told before. But there s a new trailer out which shows some of what you ll actually be doing among this grim vessel’s household. Mostly it s about throwing your toys about. … [visit site to read more]

What I dig so much about Little Nightmares [official site] is that the nightmares aren’t little – you are. Vast hands emerge from the shadows on snaking arms. Clammy chefs bloated like drowned corpses reach for you cowering under tables. A sea of shoes. The world of Tarsier Studios’ puzzle-platformer looks dreadful in the most wonderful way. Adam will tell you it’s pleasing to play too, or at least the preview version he played was. The rest of us will finally get to venture into its undersea dollhouse soon-ish, as Little Nightmares now has a release date: April 28th. … [visit site to read more]

It’s always an odd experience, playing a horror game in a crowded convention centre. At EGX, I sat down with Little Nightmares [official site] and that it managed to work its way under my skin despite the surroundings is as glowing as any praise I can direct toward this gorgeous, uncanny creation.

The graphics and setting, somewhere between the Grimmest of fairy tales, Dark Water and City of Lost Children, have received a lot of attention, but looks aren’t everything. It’s the sound design that made me shudder.

… [visit site to read more]