We’re almost there at the end! Festivity really is in the air, the scent of gingerbread and the sound of caroling drifting past. Ahhh! It’s time to crack open door number 20 on the RPS Advent Calendar and… wait, why do I smell ozone? And what’s that hissing static?
It’s Christmas Frostivus in Dota-land, but Rubick doesn’t care. “Swept up in the zeal of unraveling and reshaping arcane energies” – we’ve all been there – “Grand Magus Rubick marches a mob into Frosthaven, intent on uprooting the original Frostivus tree to explore the mysterious font of power beneath it.” Which means, of course, that five heroes have to defend a Christmas tree in co-op wave survival.
I’ve had a go! It’s better than usual. Mostly because of the bonus round where you get to ride penguins.
Good news, Football Manager fans: the series’s former mascot, Manager Man, has landed on his feet following his firing after FM2018. It seems the beloved man, known for his appearances between the nose and knee on years of Football Manger box art, has gone over to the American leagues. That art up there, see, is from Soccer Manager 2019, a free-to-play manage ’em up which launched on Steam yesterday. Yes, the game is named Soccer Manager. No, it’s nothing to do with Football Manager or its developers, Sports Interactive. Don’t you get all cynical: Soccer Manager has given our dear old friend a job after Sega callously binned him – and he looks to be having a great time.
First-person walking simulators can be pretty low-budget. That isn t to say that they can t look beautiful, as the Hebrides does in Dear Esther, which pioneered the ‘walking here for a bit of story there’ sub-genre. Making super detailed character models and animations? That s complicated and resource-heavy. It s no surprise that an indie developer doing a walking sim might eschew giving their characters actual walk-on parts.
You often find yourself exploring a world where the story has already finished and you re putting the pieces together, or following what feels like a very elaborate walking audio tour of a museum. It s not that these elements are badly designed, but they can feel a bit disjointed or archaic, especially if you accidentally experience them in the wrong order. Firewatch was different. Instead of triggering monologues or mini radio plays, what we got actually emulated a straight-up, naturalistic conversation between fire lookouts Henry and Delilah. Two lonely strangers bonding over the summer of 89, with nothing more than a walkie-talkie.
Uh oh, here she goes again. Does anyone want to tell Alice that The Sims 4 is the worst iteration in the Sims series? No, you don t need to tell me, I know it s not the best. The Sims 3 will forever be dear to my heart, what with its cars and lack of loading screens, but The Sims 4 does its best by having more tools and options. A lot can be said for its overpriced expansions, that are severely lacking in stuff for their price, but we should really be thankful for those ‘Create A Sim’ options and the intricate houses that are now possible.
The ferocious battle royale that is the genre itself claims yet another – futuristic last-man-standing shooter Islands Of Nyne is ending production after just a few months in early access. In a sad statement on Steam, developers Define Human Studios say they just can’t afford to continue and are pulling the plug on production, but keeping the servers online for the immediate future. The game is now free, and the developers are looking into allowing players to host their own servers once the official servers shut down. Grab the game free here, and take a look at some highlights from its early access peak below.
Stompybot alt-history RTS Iron Harvest is available to play now, if you don’t mind getting in on a slightly wobbly ground floor. A major Kickstarter success earlier this year for developers King Art, it looks a lot like Company Of Heroes but with ungainly dieselpunk robots instead of tanks and set in the ‘1920+’ universe of artist Jakub R alski. While a full story campaign is planned, King Art are shooting to make this one a competitive strategy game from the start, so have opened up their multiplayer alpha builds to players who buy in early. Take a peek at some combat below.
Hellfront: Honeymoon isn’t exactly what I was expecting from The Journey Down developers SkyGoblin, but looks like a fun bit of arcade twin-stick shootery for up to four (local) players. Launched today, it’s a single-screen party shooter/strategy hybrid where players are simultaneously trying to bump off each other while placing turrets and automated troop factories to harass their neighbours. There’s a single player/co-op campaign as well with leaderboards for each level, and I’ve seen some fun speedruns being shared on the Twittosphere. The launch trailer is below.
Splendid DRM-free ‘indie’ games store Itch.io has kicked off its winter sale, bringing discounts on some games you’ll likely know and many you won’t. Itch is my favourite store to browse around, thanks to its wide and often weird variety of games, but if you need some direction? My festive friend, we are here for you. Read on for our recommendations, and do share your own too.
Prison Architect has a little present for everyone before Introversion Software go into holiday lockdown. First debuted in September as a special opt-in build, the carceral management sim’s online multiplayer mode is now polished enough to be included in the game proper. Online mode is still considered ‘alpha’ and has some limitations, but they’ve otherwise got the core of the tiny-person punishment game working online. Probably best not to run an entirely public server – this one’s best with friends, for obvious reasons. Check out the developer announcement video below.