We made our list for Games of the Year or Bestest Bests or Advent Calendars or whatever it was but some of my candidates were missed off the list for NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER. I mean, fine, some of them were console games and some of them are from the wrong year but they’re still games that were good this year and I still want to highlight them. Read on for gory janitorial duties, party crypts and the end of Dinklebot. I’ve also included a link or two in case you wanted to read a bit more about those games :)

… [visit site to read more]

What is the best game of 2015? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games from throughout the year, and behind today’s door is…

Rocket League!

… [visit site to read more]

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

Okay, now we’re nearly 300 deep into these recommendations we’re clearly getting a little obscure, a little desperate, but it’s still possible that a few people will have played this oddity. Half-Life 2 came out in 2004, but as there’s been no Half-Life 3 in the eleven years since one can only assume it didn’t sell well.

… [visit site to read more]

I confess to an ever-so-slightly heavy heart when I began writing a diary series about Fallout 4. I’d only just finished the review, which had involved over 50 hours of play, and on top of generally wanting a change felt that I’d exhausted the game’s possibilities. As I wrote in said review, my key gripe with the game is that almost every problem is now solved by banal violence, which closes the door on its potential as a source of anecdotes.

I was wrong to be wary about going back. My complaints about Fallout 4 stand, but I’m enjoying it much more playing second time around, entirely avoiding story, entirely avoiding safety and instead imposing my own set of rules.

… [visit site to read more]

***** The RPS team are currently in their winter hibernation state and will return on 4th January. In the meantime we didn’t want you to think we’d forgotten about you or the supporter program so we have hand-crafted a selection of the Bestest Best RPS Cracker Jokes. It’s also our way of giving you the “reveal” moment that we had to take out of this year’s advent calendar. We’ve made these posts open to all. Whether you celebrate or not we hope they raise a smile. Love, RPS xxx *****>

Q: Why do Adam Jensen s family always keep the receipt for his Christmas present?

… [visit site to read more]

Hello youse, and Merry Christmas! At dinner, just the other night, the TOMY action game Screwball Scramble was brought out as a post-coffee treat. And a treat is exactly what it was. This wasn’t a board gamer’s house, and everyone in attendance was an adult. I played it while beautiful people watched, and it felt like something very real.

… [visit site to read more]

Adam: Helldiving is hard. I think I am the worst Helldiver.

Alec: Helldiving is AWESOME.

Adam: Helldiving is the act of diving into hell. Where hell is understood to be one of several planets occupied by hostile forces. Mostly, in our experience, bugs. Bugs that tore our starship troopers into pieces.

To be clear about this, Helldivers [official site] is a cooperative game, from the creators of the original Magicka. It involves friendly fire, d-pad combos, mechs dropping from alien skies, ammunition shortages, panic, awesome motorbikes and death. Lots of death. I think I like it rather a lot.

… [visit site to read more]

Here’s a thing – I’ve never played a Turok game before. Despite living in a late 90s university hovel with the requisite N64, for some reason it was a cartridge I never put in. And I haven’t caught up since. So seeing Night Dive’s remastering of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter [official site] was out, it made sense to fill that rather large gap in my knowledge. Gosh, Turok’s rather good, isn’t it?>

… [visit site to read more]

I have inadvertently stumbled upon the worst gaming story ever written. I’m not exaggerating. Almost no one will notice, because it’s hidden within an obscure indie puzzle game released in Steam’s endless churn, amidst a holiday sale, but it will remain such. Perfect Angle [Steam page] looks like a neat little puzzle about rotating obscure 3D shapes until they align to form objects, but somehow sports the most astonishingly dreadful narrative of all time.

… [visit site to read more]

There are thousands and thousands and thousands and oh God help thousands of games discounted in the current Steam Winter sale. Honestly, it’s ridiculous.> Where do you start? Where do you end? How many will you ever really play? How many do you have to buy in order to discover the secret Half-Life 3 release date? Well, we can’t help with the more existential aspects of that, but if you’re entirely stuck on what to get, what we can do is tell you which single game each member of the RPS staff would pick from the vast and endless digital discount shelves.

These, as far as we’re concerned, are the games you must must must pick up in the sale if you don’t have ‘em already.

… [visit site to read more]