You might look at the RPS team and see a ragtag bunch of goofy, kindhearted fellows who want nothing more than to write about PC games and be intimidatingly handsome, but trust me: you’re making a grievous mistake. The games writing thing? Just a side business to support our worldwide network or incalculable evil. If it can be called a form of villainy, odds are, we’ve got our hands in it. Huh, why am I telling you this, you ask? Well, because you’re currently chained to a table with a laser about to bifurcate your skull, silly. But, in the event that you somehow survive, perhaps you’ll find that a life of irresponsible evil is right for you too. Fortunately, Ludum Dare 25 was all about various forms of villainy, so these games can help you become good quite good at being bad. You’ll find a number of standouts and the maniacal sage wisdom they impart after the break.>

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With only two days left until the end of the world, you really would be wise to finally get around to playing those games you’ve been putting off. Thankfully GOG.com have recognised this need, and are having an End Of The World sale. For the next 24 hours. But by their clock, they appear to think it’s Tokyo’s 21st December the Mayan’s meant. But surely it should be for Central America, affording us an extra 9 hours on Earth before we’re all consumed in Horace’s infinite belly? This stuff is important! Also, you can get a bunch of the collected editions on GOG at 75% off.

Topware send word that there are Mac and PC demos for their game of the silly movie Iron Sky, Iron Sky: Invasion. They say: ““Iron Sky: Invasion” is a space fighter simulator, calling to mind such classics as the legendary… You-Know-Which series – further enhanced with strategy and RPG elements.” I honestly don’t know which, but a new space combat game is always welcome at the Monitor-Lit Underdark Of Rossignol Lair. Sadly though, I’ve yet to play the demo, because I am not currently in my creepy data-nexus man-cave, but instead on a crap laptop in John’s cheery dining room. But: “The players can access a tactical map of outer space to spot the positions of Nazi forces or any ongoing battles, and thus instantly know where to fly. The ultimate goal is to destroy the secret Nazi base hidden on the Dark Side of the Moon and to keep the Earth safe from the invading spacecraft.” Which sounds okay. It’s made my Reality Pump, too, who made not-terrible things in the past, if I recall correctly.

There’s no question that Dishonored’s Heart deserves celebration. Fortunately RPS contributor Paul Walker has done that in fine style, digging in to what makes the object so significant to the game, and speaking to co-creative directors Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio about how it came to exist, and their feelings about its part in the game.>

Dishonored’s Heart is an object which lives up to its name in many ways. It breathes life into the game’s characters, imbues the city of Dunwall with soul, and helps the player to feel the melancholy tone which permeates all facets of its world. Characterised by the intersection of the mystical and the technological, it distills the very essence of the pseudo-Victorian steampunk landscape in which Dishonored’s tale unfolds. It is presented to the player as a navigation tool — a guide to lead players to the occult items littered throughout the fictional city of Dunwall. But, as co-creative directors Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio told me, “It also plays a part related to informing their decisions about when to apply violence or not, making it a really interesting, more subtle part of the power fantasy.” Here we start to get to grips with what it is the makes the Heart so compelling.

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First those ding dang dern Triads and now Hutts? Jeez, what won’t rise these days? I mean, at this rate, everyone and everything’s going to start rising, and then that’ll just be the new normal, non-risen plane of existence. Where’s the fun in that? Oh well, though. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel: The Subtitling is now officially a thing, and it’s coming soon to a galaxy near (read: far, far away from) you. But what will it entail? Am I finally about to get the Hutt crime empire management sim of my dreams? Cross your slimy slug fingers and head past the break for details.

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Do you want to see the first five minutes of BioShock: Infinite? I don’t. I want to play them at the time! However, should you be of a more curious mind, or simply incapable of waiting now you know it exists, desperately trying to, but horribly aware that like the beginnings of a sneeze it’s inevitable that you’re going to have to press play eventually, you can watch them in the video below.

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Having completed Far Cry 3 a while back, I found that so much of the game’s story just didn’t sit right with me. Not simply in the sense that it appeared to contain colonialist nonsense and clumsily handled rape plots, but that I felt I was missing something. That the game was trying to say something to me, perhaps partly through that which I found problematic, and I hadn’t been able to hear it. So I pursued the game’s author, Jeffrey Yohalem, to talk it through.

Yohalem proves to be a very animated, very passionate writer, who sees Far Cry 3 as a complex exploration of many ideas, mostly questioning the role of the player in a game, and what they’ll do in order to win. It was, he says, an attempt to break the loops of modern gaming, to ask the player to start to demand better. Fortunately, I’m animated and passionate too, so we get to discussing how successful this really was. What follows is a heated chat about what gaming could and should be. I return at the end with some thoughts on the conversation.>

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Oh good grief, it’s less than a week away. But we haven’t even bought the sacrificial turkey yet. Horace’s infinity doesn’t include infinite patience! Quickly, we must panic!> Meanwhile, please rip open the 19th door on the calendar to see the latest of our 24 favourite games of 2012.

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The ever-pondersome The War Z has managed yet another controversy, yesterday being forced to apologise to Steam users after advertising features the game simply doesn’t have. Or as Hammerpoint Interactive put it, what was “imagined” by those who “misread” the Steam page.

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“What is it with mechs and holidays?” I constantly ask myself and/or say to begin my cliched standup routine. It’s a question that evokes many nuanced and contentious viewpoints, but mainly, MechWarrior Online launched its last big update on “Mechsgiving,” and now a brand new point-capturing Conquest mode is debuting right around Christmechs (which is sadly not what Piranha’s calling it). That’s enough for me to call it a pattern, though, so clearly, mechs are creatures that run on oil, electricity, and festive spirit>. There’s more information and a video of the new update in action after the break.

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