Times are strange and frightening. But one point of great solace for me has been hearing people celebrating things in their lives. It feels especially important right now to hold on to what makes us all proud about what we do and who we are. And what I really love is people showing off things they’re proud of making.

So I’ve been asking a bunch of developers to pick out something they’ve created that brings them pleasure to look back on. And here they are, including Harvey Smith remembering his input on Deus Ex and Dishonored, Derek Yu on one of his first-ever games. There’s pride in doing something for someone else’s game, in the power of details and in little inventions, and ah gosh, shut up, let’s just tuck into a big slice of escapist positivity. (more…)

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Hell is other people, wrote Jean-Paul Satre. But also my favourite level in Doom. He was a smart man, and he probably lives in hell now, on account of all the atheism. But listen, hell doesn t seem that bad. Bit hot. Bit demonic. You could do a lot worse than a trip to the underworld, is what I m saying, and as luck would have it, we have the perfect means for you to go there without singeing your eyebrows or being dunked in a toxic lake for eternity. That s right: videogames. It s always videogames. Here are the 10 best hells you can visit on PC.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.>

Do you know what awaits atop the mountain in Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy? Past all the nonsensical detritus, and after every snippet of Foddy’s philosophical musing? I do. Not because I climbed it, obviously. I’m a coward who relies on the internet for answers.

If you’re still convinced you’re going to get their under your own steam one day, read no further.

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I heard you don t like our podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. But have you listened to 76 hours of it yet? Honestly, mate, it opens up after that. The 76-hour mark, that s when it clicks . But I understand if you don t have the time. Just skip ahead to this week s episode, in which we re talking about games about which we changed our minds. Listen in for the platformers we prematurely pooh-poohed and the Souls games that sucked before they were super.

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Screenshot via “MathChief” on YouTube, whose video is below>

Grappling hooks make getting around easy. Hopping into a hard iron cauldron and navigating only with a two-handed pick? That’s true mastery. Sexy Hiking was the last game I expected to see referenced in Just Cause 4, today’s AAA explodathon du jour, but that’s exactly what we’ve got, give or take one degree of separation. Hidden up an innocuous mountainside in Just Cause 4 is a mini-game based on Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, the soul-shattering physics nightmare that speedrunners recently flocked to. Best thing? Avalanche even got Foddy to narrate it.

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Hurry, hurry. There are only 37 Steam sales each year – miss a bargain now and you’ll regret it for the rest of your days. (Until the next one).

As always, the latest Steam Autumn sale is a sensory overload of cut-price delights. We’re here to guide you through the white noise and make a few informed choices.

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Bennett Foddy, the fiendish fella behind QWOP and Getting Over It, has shared his own variant of iconic game Pong. It’s named FLOP, and you can probably guess what makes it different. Foddy actually made FLOP years ago, as a secret game hidden in the ace local multiplayer collection Sportsfriends, but now he’s released a standalone version so it’s simpler to play (with events in mind, really, but we benefit too). If you like a bit of jostling on a couch, it might give you some giggles. (more…)

The awards ceremony at this year s GDC was fun. At least, that s what John told me from his seat in the crowd, where he saw the winners mount a stage some would consider too colourful for this planet. The Independent Games Festival Awards and subsequent Game Developer s Choice Awards saw a range of trophy-grabbers, from indie students to adventure game veterans. Unfortunately for them, I was hiding backstage, skulking behind a black curtain and holding a voice recorder like a cudgel. I had one question to ask them all: If they had to give their award away, who would get it?

It s like re-gifting, except you worked really hard for the gift and now you have to hand it over three minutes after your acceptance speech. Life is pain.

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Rad trash mammal simulator Night In The Woods scooped this year’s Grand Prize during the 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards at the Game Developers Conference last night, also lifting the award for Excellence In Narrative. Baba Is You, an upcoming puzzle game about shifting words to change how parts of the levels and game work, also picked up two awards. Looking across all the winners, ah yes, there certainly are good video games going around. (more…)

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…)