Casually fulfilling its destiny to become the videogame that consumes the rest of my life, ultro-superb CCG/roguelike combo Slay The Spire just introduced its third mode, the Daily Climb. It’s about the most logical move Spire could have made, adding a daily challenge mode of the type popularised by Spelunky and The Binding Of Isaac (even big ol’XCOM 2 was inspired to do it, though the sadly the take-up hasn’t been great).

Just as my Spire obsession was starting to waver – I’ve unlocked everything, and the difficulty gonkery for the sake of difficulty gonkery of Ascension mode isn’t quite for me – this solid gold reason to play every day turns up.

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This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they underwent to make the best bits of their games. This time, Slay the Spire [official site].

Slay the Spire is a deck-building card game about careful attack and defence. And poisoning. And letting your own blood to amplify your damage, and hitting each enemy every time you lose a card, and gaining energy by hovering close to death. It s a bit like Hearthstone, but it s also a Rogue-like in which you ascend floors and find new cards and relics which power up your character in transformational ways.

It s really good! And the secret behind it is a detail that seems minor, but without it your card-playing strategising would be for nothing. It s the fact you get to see what your enemies will do on their next turn. (more…)

As the charting games on Steam once more congeal into a single amorphous lump, quickly dive in to catch the last appearance of Subnautica, and probably Slay The Spire too. Next week it’ll just be GTA: Counter-Strike – Witcher Battlegrounds. (more…)

Some websites will fob you off with scant details about your favourite best-selling games, but not RPS. Here you will find gaming’s most insightful commentary on the leading games of the modern age. (more…)