Nauticrawl - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Ghoastus)

Ave, Citizens! As October sweeps onto the calendar, like a crowd of yokels breaking into a condemned theme park, the barrier between the human world and that of the Romans grows thin. With a rustle of laurel the veil is parted, and I, Ghoastus, manifest among you! Be not afraid, however, for Ghoastus is a friendly spirit. And this month, I aim to be more friendly than ever. My human friend Nate, you see, has been quite unwell, and while he recovers, he has ended up with a backlog of games which he quite liked, but has had no time to write about. Luckily, a Ghost Writer haunts his desk – and I intend to clear it for him!

First on my list of games, we have Nauticrawl. And it s a hard one to describe. Let us imagine, citizen, that David Lynch, fresh from making Dune> in 1984, decided to make a game. And that his premise for said game was a sort of escape room, controlled by a cantankerous virtual reimagining of the Steel Battalion controller. Intrigued, friend? You should be! Nauticrawl is utterly fascinating> – and it needs to be, to motivate the player through some of the most gruelling trial-and-error play I ve seen since Pluto held an athletics contest in Tartarus.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Dave Irwin)

After a few rather big patches, it’s about time that we had one of the smaller sets of changes in Teamfight Tactics. Changes include balance changes mostly, with the new champion Kai’Sa getting a buff to her skill and a few others getting minor updates to their stats. XP and Drop rates have also seen a minor change.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)

As we roll deeper and deeper into the month of October, it can sometimes feel like the deals gods are being right turds sometimes, what with Black Friday being just around the corner and all – a bit like those three ugly mugs up the top there, in fact. There they are, leering down at us with their stinking fire breath and tripping us up with their malformed talons when all we’re trying to do is to save a few pennies on a new game and a graphics card. Is that so much to ask? The good news is that your trusted deals herald has been hurdling over and doing her best to dodge those aforementioned claws and ashen burp clouds to find you the very best PC gaming deals around this week – including some tasty discounts on Trine 4 and Devil May Cry 5. After all, if Dante can’t help your deals herald beat the deal demons, no one can.

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Tesla vs Lovecraft - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Shmup shpecialists 10tons have announced a new top-down shoot ’em up, Tesla Force: United Scientists Army. It’s a follow-up to 2018’s Tesla Vs Lovecraft, pitting Tesla, Lovecraft, Curie, and Shelley against yet more spooky hordes in a “rogue-lite” way with procedurally-generated levels. I know, I know, it’s not 2012 anymore, but 10tons know their shmup shtuff. They’re also behind Crimsonland, Jydge, and other zappers that are quite zim-zam. Here, have a peek at Tesla Force in the announcement trailer.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Tim Stone)

A combination of a bugged mission and a campaign as straight as a bamboo cane has put paid to my plan to review convention-flouting Vietnam War wargame Radio Commander this week (Expect analysis in next Friday’s Flare Path assuming Serious Sim patch promptly). The closest thing I have to a ‘Plan B’ is a tad self-indulgent but will, I hope, prove moderately entertaining. I’d like to show you what I found when, yesterday afternoon, I blew the dust off one of my old PCs prior to taking it to the dump for recycling. (more…)

Oct 11, 2019
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Tim Stone)

Roman and Joyce always have a jigsaw puzzle on the go. Their current undertaking is an animal montage sliced into 10k pieces by one of Rooksburger s slightly blunt punching machines. Below are 36 pieces from that puzzle. Identify all the animals (Species required. “Some sort of antelope” won’t wash.) to complete the defox. (more…)

Dota 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

After eight years, Valve have finally updated Dota 2‘s matchmaking system to end those frustrating situations where five randos are thrown together against an organised party of five. You know, where your team starts bickering over buying wards and you end up muting at least one teamie, while they’re laughing with their natural rapport and practised teamwork. Awful. No more! Thanks to last night’s update, five-stacks should now only ever be matched against other five-stacks. And solo players will now only ever go against teams who have, at most, one party of two. Glory be!

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Team Fortress 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Matt Cox)

Spooky season is upon us. I know this, in part, because someone has already covered the treehouse windows in cheap cobwebs and I can’t gaze broodingly at the completely normal, not at all unsettling events of the outside world in 2019. But the real clue is Team Fortress 2‘s Halloween event, back once more with two new maps, a buncha hats and a temporary re-opening of every Halloween event from the past eleven years.

It’s nothing special, really, beyond an excuse to dip back into backstabbing as the Spy. This is good enough for me.

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The Bradwell Conspiracy - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice Bell)

Why, just last week I was complaining about my home town, and now we find ourselves with a new game set in Wiltshire, the county containing said home town. Although you don’t actually get to see very much of Wiltshire in it. The Bradwell Conspiracy is a first person puzzle adventure set around and under Stonehenge — or, as I exclusively choose to pronounce it, Stun’enj. Growing up near Stun’enj (and the long barrows, and Silbury Hill, and Avebury stone circle) is actually alright, because Summer Solstice is a hell of a party. Also your local newspaper will routinely feature stories with comments from druids and/or Terry, the Keeper of the Stones.

Terry is disappointingly absent from this game, though. Set in the distant future of 2020, The Bradwell Conspiracy takes place after the government has apparently privatised the World Heritage Site, selling it to a big old company called The Bradwell Foundation. And while I am unable to comment much on the game’s depiction of Wiltshire, I am in awe of how well it does “soulless global corporation pretending to be a family.”

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Brendan Caldwell)

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Poor Interactive Buddy. Victim of childlike sadism, innocent digital person of unknown address, rotund receiver of grenades and fireballs. I’m sorry for everything I did to you, and sorry for what I am about to do.

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