Bethesda have indefinitely halted development on The Elder Scrolls: Legends, the free-to-play card game set in their RPG world of swords and shouts. The game is still up, you can still play it, and Bethesda will still run events in it, but no new content substantial updates are being worked on or planned.
Year after year, there are many hallmarks which signal the nearing holidays (aside from the shortening daylight hours and the date on the calendar). Snowy romantic comedies on TV. Office cookie swaps. Mulled wine, Christmas markets, my friends’ annual Hannukah donut party, and an increasing sense of obligation to return to my parents’ house to see family. There aren’t many games I’d be quick to call “Christmassy,” and perhaps I’m an eensy bit cynical about the mainstream market rhythms which bring out the gangbuster games in Q4. There are, however, plenty of little games which do a bang-up job of spreading those ubiquitous holiday vibes, like snow and love and good cheer.
Here are some games which might help to get you in the spirit.
We’ve started opening the doors of the RPS Advent Calendar, revealing our favourite games of the year. We also declared our fifty favourite PC games of the decade. Each is missing things I’d like to see (and I already voted tactically to jam in some niche favourites) but ah, that’s a lot of good video games there. And I am glad to be getting back to writing news rather than ‘assessments’ or ‘analysis’ or ‘critique’ or whatever this feature business is. Doesn’t feel right.
What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!
Digital adaptations of tabletop RPGs are still having a heyday, much to my personal delight. Owlcat Games are continuing on in that righteous work with a sequel to their 2018 RPG, Pathfinder: Kingmaker. There’s little to know about Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous at this stage, least of all any hint at a release window, but Owlcat divulges a couple tidbits worth knowing with the announcement.
My only personal memories of Rust are from its earliest days in 2013. I remember being bashed in the head with a rock by another player and then promptly ditching the weird survival sandbox that I found unfathomable. Rust has changed a lot since then and today it’s changing a bit more with its first paid DLC: Instruments.
Game subscription services are everywhere these days but Humble Bundle have been doing this for a while. Their former service Humble Monthly is being replaced with the fresh-faced Humble Choice which comes with the ability to choose the games you get, but a higher price tag as well. The service launches today under its new name.
The XCOM and X-Com like Phoenix Point is out now and players seem to be having a good time tactically defending the world from monsters. You can find it on the Epic Store as planned but Xbox Game Pass subscribers are still waiting despite plans for the game to launch on both simultaneously. Snapshot Games say they “dropped the ball.”
Oh, I see how it is. I see you, Walker. You’re just… you’re lucky you’re always wrong about everything, mate, or this would get messy very fast.
We like competition here in the Pleasuredome, although the thousands of games whose digital innards coat the walls might not. It is time, of course, for the last fight in the Unknown Pleasures schedule before the big one. The last chance for one of the countless little-known games on Steam to sneak in and seize a spot in the hallowed best of 2019 list. It’s already close, my friends. It is very close.
Automatically disagreeing with John on principle this week: electoral events, cowboy cutters, and robot roads.
Get ready for more gear and more guns. The shoot ’em up and loot ’em up Borderlands 3 has its first actual campaign DLC coming on December 19th, called Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot. You’ll apparently be giving up vault hunting for Ocean’s-style casino heists by wrecking Handsome Dead Jack’s gaudy gambling den. Gearbox have released gameplay footage of the first 13 minutes of the affair.
It’s been an eventful decade for PC games, and it would be hard for you to summarise everything that’s happened in the medium across the past ten years. Hard for you>, but a day’s work for us. Below you’ll find our picks for the 50 best games released on PC across the past decade.