Villain monologues: forever a trope to make the eyes roll. I tend to skip through them as quickly as I can, waiting my inevitable escape. I don t enjoy self-aware villain monologues either; they re even worse because the villains know that they re clich d yet they do it anyway. I’d prefer it if they just immediately murdered me instead.

Danganronpa, a visual novel/detective adventure in which a sadistic cyber-bear drives teenagers to murder each other, takes this trope and spins it on its head. Ursine villain Monokuma s monologue doesn t occur during the climactic scene of the game; instead, it occurs throughout, in segments known as Monokuma Theater . Ever wanted to know what chatting with a psychopath over drinks would be like? Monokuma Theater is for you. (more…)

I’ll be honest – I’m not totally sure what Paradox are going for with their Humanoid Species Pack for Stellaris, which is released today. The motivation seems to be that humanoids are ‘the most-played phenotype’ in the 4X sci-fi game, and as such they’ve stuck in a whole bunch of human-like species, include cyclopes, orcish types, demonic sorts and bionic-eyed dwarves. I guess this makes playing as something other than straight-up boring humans a little more appealing to straight-up boring humans who always choose to play as straight-up boring humans.

However, what’s confusing me more is references to humanoids finally getting their own unique ship class, ‘inspired by the classics of Western science fiction.’ Is… is that a very careful way of trying to be a bit more Star Warsy or Battlestarry without making any lawyers cross?

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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.>

B.U.T.T.O.N (Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally Okay Now) is a stupid and dangerous idea for a local multiplayer game. 2-8 players start off seven paces away from the computer, then race to perform some inane activity before being the first to press their button. Mild violence is actively encouraged, and it s an absolute blast. (more…)

Imagine a skaven so powerful it can punch a dragon hard enough to knock it off its feet. Then imagine that the pull of gravity has been weakened so much that the dragon is sent cartwheeling into the sky. If you have a copy of Total War: Warhammer 2, you won’t need to imagine such scenes for much longer because you’ll be able to make them happen on your computer.

Today, Sega announced a new, free DLC called The Laboratory. It’s coming on Thursday the 14th of December and it looks very> silly indeed.

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In the grim darkness of the near future, there is only Battle Royale. And things vaguely similar to Battle Royale.

Dying Light is the latest game to announce news of such a mode. This one will be arriving in the form of a standalone expansion called Bad Blood and it actually sounds far more suited to the game than I initially suspected. That’s mostly because it doesn’t sound like it has that much in common with the battle royale sub-genre, whatever this here press release might say.

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Let me tell you a clubhouse secret. We have a mantra at RPS for deciding what to write about, and it s as simple as it is helpful: ‘a good time should be shared online’.

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy released on Steam yesterday, and whatever kind of time it is, the only way I can properly share it is if you re with me. In the moment. Here are four agonising minutes of me flailing around as a man stuck in a cauldron trying to ascend a mountain with a hammer.

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Here’s something to brighten/darken your Thursday. Librood is a free, ten minute game where you play as a little girl with a strange illness that makes everything she reads manifest in the real world… if you can be sure that’s where you are. It’s like a darker, short-form take on the Inkheart books – or the mediocre Inkheart movie, if you insist. It’s a game about surprises, so maybe you should just go and play it before you read on.

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Wadjet Eye s Unavowed ticks a lot of my boxes right off the bat. It s a new urban fantasy adventure game from Dave Gilbert, set in the same world as the Blackwell series — though it doubles down on the fantasy half — but inspired by BioWare s party-based and banter-rich RPGs. It s due out next year, but in the meantime there s the game s first trailer to watch.

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Truth be told, I really wasn’t sure what Seven: The Days Long Gone, a stealth-centric roleplaying game from a studio lead by ex-Witcher folk, was until I played it. Was it a traditional isometric RPG starring a sole rogue? Was it isometric Assassin’s Creed? Hell, was it sci-fi or was it fantasy? The answer turns out to be ‘all of the above’ – to the point that the new tools Seven adds to the cRPG lexicon are ones I’m not sure I could go without from hereon in. (more…)

Creative Assembly is still working on Total War: Warhammer 2 and the Mortal Empires post-launch updates, but things are going slower than anticipated. In a blog post published yesterday, the team explains, candidly, what the issues are and when we can expect new campaign packs, like the Tomb Kings, as well as the addition of Norsca to Mortal Empires.

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