The grand finale of the RPS Summer Games is the Fan Art-stravaganza! This is also the part where you get to weigh in and cast a vote for your favourite RPS artist. In an ideal world you’d be voting for the best artwork inspired by a videogame so try not to fall victim to any emotional blackmail or lobbying for the pity vote!

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I’d really like to show you some of the ridiculous/awesome/weird animals I’ve found during my initial travels with No Man s Sky [official site]. I’ve been recording the strangest/coolest as I go and they include things like the Thrillersaurus Rex, the Weird Hand Squid and the Chubby-Cheeked Push-up Monster!

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If you’ve been pootling around the galaxy in No Man’s Sky [official site] – and Steam’s numbers say that, at its peak today, 47,500 of y’all were playing at the same time – you’ll likely have noticed two patches download over the past day or so. Hello Games haven’t yet got around to releasing notes detailing exactly what the patches change (probably busy, that lot, yeah?) but they have given a broad overview. Basically, the space exploration game should now run faster on slower PCs.

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

I know that sounds like asking “have you eaten bread?” or “ever had a crush?”, but Have You Played’s purpose is far more to inspire discussion after the fact, or prompt a replay, than it is as a buyer’s guide for someone with an empty gaming plate.

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Adam Jensen has blades sheathed inside his wrists, skin that lets him turn invisible, and robotic thigh muscles that enable him to walk in an almost permanent crouch. It’s surprising that his real superpower then is the ability to turn on a visual overlay which reveals the locations of vents in the environment.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided is the sequel to Human Revolution, set two years after the events of that game caused the world’s augs – humans who have had machines implanted in their bodies and brains – to momentarily lapse into a violent mania. Now distrust of augs has caused mass panic and various secretive groups are working to either heal society’s divisions, incite further panic, or oppress the augmented further. It’s your job as Jensen to pick your way through those secretive groups – via a lot of crouching through vents.

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Listen up, youse grots! Fings are gonna get orky round ‘ere and if you fink dat- ‘scuse me. HRRRK. HNNGGRRK. Ahem. Sorry. Little bit snotty in the throat. What I was trying to say is that Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon – Da Orks [official site] is now out. It’s a standalone follow-up to 40k: Armageddon, a seriously hexy turn-based strategy game recreating a great war from our grimdark future. While that focused on Spoice Murines and their steadfast defence of the planet Armageddon, Da Orks shows the other side – a load of orks larking about and having a nice big WAAAGH!

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Thimbleweed Park [official site] – a sinister and quirky point and click from Maniac Mansion’s Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick – has a trailer out to coincide with Gamescom. Adam went to see a demo of the game back in March and that focused around the playable character of celebrity clown, Ransome. This trailer takes a look at aspiring game developer and heiress Delores Edmund – another playable character – and gives a bit of background on the game’s namesake:

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Recent research at the Flare Path Institute of Ludology has identified the chemical that prevents some wargames and sims from depreciating over time. High levels of myopium sillycate means certain martial and vehicular entertainments can go ten or more years without a tariff drop. In today’s FP I highlight some particularly distressing examples of price paralysis and urge the publishers and designers responsible to think again about the business strategies that are ensuring thousands of potential customers never encounter or purchase their wares. … [visit site to read more]

The last of the high-score events on the RPS Summer Games schedule is Devil Daggers [official site]. A glorious first person arena shooter with a graphical style determined to catapult us back into the nineties. I admired it from afar when it came out, but around half the staff got really competitive, sneaking off for “email” breaks which coincided with a “so-and-so is playing Devil Daggers Steam notification. Now it’s time to see if those snatched minutes of training have paid dividends…

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