I’ve spent this lovely sunny morning scavenging around, deep down in the cheap video game mines, trying to find some gaming gems that sparkle and shine enough to be worth the attention of you, the erudite and beautiful RPS readers. And believe it or not, I’ve only gone and pulled it off. Read on to see the games that you should consider buying this weekend, and you can always hit up SavyGamer.co.uk for more. Here they are: (more…)

After spending some time with The Illuminati, I escaped from The Secret World to speak to lead designer Ragnar Tørnquist about overcoming the challenges inherent in building a story-based MMO. We talked about creating coherence in a vast and varied world, the confused and confusing role of the hero in an MMO, and how it’s possible to reinvent and deconstruct a genre. >

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A spaceship nips back and forth across the bottom of the screen while aliens line up like the damned at the top, void-plodding from side to side, their ranks regimented, their only purpose to painstakingly work their way left, down, right, down, left, down. It’s one of the first things that ever happened anywhere and shortly after the aliens moved to a burb called Galaxian and learned how to break formation and dive. A dark day for tiny ships that do not understand how to move vertically themselves. Debug Formulation is an indie game that harks back to those early days but complicates things just a little, while looking and sounding rather spiffy.

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Okay, so literal titles sometimes work. Especially portmanteaus, and doubly especially for Crashtastic, because it’s like the two words that have gone into making the game name have crashed, but instead of blood and screaming, the noise of twisted metal grinding up people, the inevitable insurance claims and the flashbacks, the crash has resulted in a word that means we realise just how Crashy and Fantastic this indie game could be. Well, that’s my reading of it, anyway. Crashtastic is a game about the fantastic world of crashes. You build up a vehicle for your robot to crash. Fantastic video is here. (more…)

Alientrap’s new platform game, Apotheon, is pretty>. A 2D platform action-RPG set in Greek mythology, where you’ll fight your way to the top of Mount Olympus. It’s the age old tale of a champion fighting for humanity against the wife and usurper of Zeus, Hera. We’ve all been there, battling Greek gods, stealing their powers, controlling the elements. I was doing just so last night, cleverly disguised as eating pork dumplings and prawn crackers while slumped in bed rewatching Doctor Who. If you squinted, you’d have seen the truth. (more…)

Alright, I’ve spent today investigating Syndicate’s four-player co-operative online mode, and while I’m obviously several decades away from reaching all the unlocks and whatnot, I’ve got a firm handle on how it all works and if I think it’s any cop. Is it as forgettable as the singleplayer? Is it anything like Syndicate? What would the world be like if Mr Mark Question of Shoreham-on-Sea hadn’t invented the question mark in 1913? Read on for answers to at least two of those questions. (more…)

I’ve been playing EA and Starbreeze’s contentious FPS reboot of the legendary Syndicate. I’ve only done a little dabbling in co-op, a report on which I will present very soon (so far: better than singleplayer, but very much in the unlock/ranking modern multiplayer idiom). You can find my rather more positive thoughts on the co-op mode here, but below is my take on the campaign mode, and the tale of the hysterically-named Eurocorp Agent MILES KILO. >

CHOOSE YOUR REVIEW

1) Whether Syndicate is a decent first-person shooter or not.

2) Whether Syndicate 2012 is anything like Syndicate 1993.

3) The coffee I’m currently drinking. (more…)

Or at least against the odds> skirmishes. This is an afternoon ode to that time when you set up a skirmish mode in an RTS and pitch yourself against extraordinary odds (perhaps with a chum to help you). It’s one of those little pleasures that I think most RTS players understand, but is probably unknown by, well, the rest of humanity>. (more…)

Gosh, did we really miss this? New missions and stuff for the superbly horrible Saints Row The Third were freaking the site from orbit on the 21st. The new Gangstas In Space DLC apparently features “a big budget Hollywood blockbuster in which you must battle sexy alien invaders using new sci-fi weaponry”. Sexy alien invanders, eh? Hm. You can see that stuff happening in a new trailer, below, and the thing itself is on the Steams. (more…)

I’ll bet there’s a fair few of you who now think I have aphasia. I do not, although sometimes when I read back what I’ve written here I realise it would be a good excuse. Nope, Drunken Robot Pornography is merely an experimental game from those mother troublers at Dejobaan Games. Which would make Titans… let me check, ah yes: bosses for what appears to be a first-person shooter that I totally missed that they were making. It’s looking typically untypical: a strobing, orbital battle against giant destructible bosses, using weapons with stackable power-ups. The final part of the puzzle, the building of these giant, gentle creatures, is something you can play around with: Dejobaan have released an editor online to let you build and destroy your own Titan. The best will win a prize. I have video of how to do it below. (more…)