The tail-end of Steam’s Autumnal sale sees a few old favourites lingering with the usual suspects in the charts this week. The discounts that got them here are all gone now, but it’s only a couple of weeks now before everything goes completely bonkers for the Winter Sale, and you can expect to see all the same names deeply discounted once more. (more…)
Assassin s Creed clothes are some of the best clothes in all games. Those layers, all those flowing, flapping, swinging layers: cloth and leather and swords and knives and pouches and harnesses. I often idly wonder, as I watch an Assassin s Creed loading screen, how many people – how many studios! – produce Assassin s Creed s clothes? They re a wonder of code and art coming together, of layers of beautiful fabric flapping just right. And Ubisoft knocked Assassin s Creed Origins clothes out of the goddamn park.
Hey ho, chart fans, let’s go. Statman John is indisposed today, and was last seen meandering along the seafront muttering “Plunkbat! They give me Plunkbat! I’ve a grand idea for a grand theft five five fi-diddly-fi fi whoopsadaisy down we go,” so I’m taking over for this week’s Steam charts. Seeing as he’s always griping about the charts being identical, I’m sure John will be infuriated to miss seeing how much Steam’s autumn sale changed things. Won’t you join for me a stroll down the hit parade? (more…)
Imagine what would happen if Plunkbat weren’t to be at number 1? Could anyone even cope any more? Has all of gaming started operating on this as a foundation, forgetting that it could, one day, not sell more copies than everything else? What if I’m writing this as a bluff because it’s not at number 1 this week? What if I just wrote that to imply the bluff even though there isn’t a bluff?! OH MY GOODNESS EVERYONE QUICKLY READ THIS NOW!
If my second favourite thing to do in Assassin s Creed Origins is tomb raiding, my first favourite thing is travelling by eagle. Your character, Bayek, has a pet eagle called Senu which constantly follows in the sky above him, and you can possess it at pretty any time, sweeping your view up into its own. As Senu you can fly freely, ascending to extraordinary heights and roaming as far as the map allows, while Bayek waits far below.
Here s the thing. If Bayek is standing, he ll remain motionless, but if he s riding a mount and you ve set it to automatically follow the roads to a waypoint, he ll keep riding as you fly. And thus you get to experience Egypt from the best seat in the house. There are limits: you can t stray too far from Bayek, else he ll just stop. But it s remarkably free. (more…)
Weirdly, none of my favourite Assassin s Creed Origins moments so far relate to assassinating. Then again, they never really did in the previous games. Instead they re about buildings, specifically climbing them and going into them. So it s appropriate that my absolute second favourite thing to do in Assassin s Creed: Origins is tombs. (more…)
The continued clotting amalgamation of the Steam Charts, with CODWARs and AssCreed Oranges mysteriously occupying multiple spaces, is having frankly dangerous effects on the column. No The Witcher 3! No GTA V! And H1Z1 seems to have been entirely forgotten by the ages! What is a running joke to do? (more…)
My three year old rates games based on whether the character goes into water, and if they do, do they swim underneath. My personal rating systems are a little more nuanced, but it turns out that Assassin’s Creed Origins‘ swimming is so astoundingly atmospheric I’m willing to forgive it a dozen other foibles. In all of gaming, water has never felt wetter. (more…)
WAR. The men and women of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, are doing their part, but are you doing yours? We have shown bravery among the bullets and beaches of Call of Duty WWII, with John popping helmets in the “quite good” single player campaign, and Matt hiding in the bloodied crater of multiplayer. I’ve done sweet foxtrot alpha on the frontlines, so to make up for it I’ve invented another minigame for my fellow hosts. On top of that we’ve been horsing around (or unicorning around) in the Egypt of Assassin’s Creed Origins, appreciating our friend the eagle and taking nice photos of the ancient civilisation. Come listen. (more…)
Do you find solace through memetics? Which enormously popular game you like is also liked by lots of other people? What else might form the triangle of your desire? Cast aside your romantic delusions, and delve into the acquisitive mire that is the Steam Charts. (more…)