Almost five and a half years ago, I made my RPS debut looking at what creative modders for Tabletop Simulator were doing. While frequently of grey legality (the majority of items on the Steam Workshop are still unofficial digital reproductions of expensive physical games), the platform is still thriving. Official adaptations of games for Berserk’s virtual play-space are now sold more readily, but few take quite as much advantage of Tabletop Simulator’s increasingly advanced scripting system like these showcase productions. Here’s a few stand-outs pushing the boundaries of what ‘tabletop’ even means.

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After a difficult financial year which saw them face a very real threat of shutting down, Starbreeze have survived a reconstruction process (roughly the Swedish equivalent of administration) and agreed a plan to pay off their debts. They’re still not in great shape, what with those debts and all, but the court have approved their proposal to complete the reconstruction process so there is hope. For now, they’re focusing on what they say is their “core business”: the cooperative heisting Payday games, including the upcoming Payday 3.

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Phoenix Point has arrived at last! From Julian Gollop, creator of the original X-COM, comes a new turn-based tactics game which tasks players with reviving the defunct Phoenix Project to save humanity after the emergence of a deadly alien virus that mutates human and animal alike to wipe out all of humankind.

Gripping stuff, and also very challenging – which should come as no surprise to veterans of the XCOM series. But never fear! I’ve been playing the game for a grand old while now, and I’ve put together the below Phoenix Point guide, filled with my 20 top tips covering every aspect of this ambitious strategy title, from combat to diplomacy and much, much more!

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The three Phoenix Point Factions dominate the remains of human civilization after the emergence of the deadly mutant-birthing Pandoravirus; and how you govern your interactions with each of them is entirely up to you. Our Phoenix Point Factions & Diplomacy guide will give you an idea of how diplomacy works in Phoenix Point, along with useful details on the three main factions in the game: New Jericho, Synedrion, and the Disciples of Anu.

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Phoenix Point classes soldiers into seven distinct groups, giving players a surprising amount of scope for customising your armies and your overall playstyle during tactical missions. From the initial three soldier classes to the unique specialists acquired through the three different factions, our Phoenix Point Classes guide will walk you through the abilities, skills, strengths, and weaknesses of each one – along with some useful tips and tricks on equipment, multi-classing, and more.

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We’re racing down the river rapids of the RPS Advent Calendar now, aren’t we? Door number nine is marked with some kind of unknown language. Can you figure it out?

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The Phoenix Point enemies are a colourful bunch of mutants. Each one is a patchwork of arthropod, annelid, human, and alien DNA all rolled into one by the Pandoravirus; and each enemy has different strengths and presents different threats – some far more than others.

In this Phoenix Point enemies guide we’ll walk you through each Pandoran enemy in turn, along with detailed sections on how to counter the Siren, Terror Sentinel, Chiron, and Scylla – four enemies that seem to be giving players a great deal of trouble.

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Pretty pop-philosophy FPS series BioShock is to return, 2K announced today, with a new game coming from a new studio. 2K don’t reveal even the name of the new game, let alone in which sort of strange city it’ll (surely?) be set, but it’s official: BioShock is back, baby. 2K have muttered about resurrecting it several times in the years since the release of BioShock Infinite and demise of creators Irrational Games, and this time it seems to be real. The new BioShock is being made by Cloud Chamber, a new studio who’ll be working on the game “for the next several years.” Don’t hold your breath. Unless you’re underwater. In which case, do.

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I return to Amnesia: The Dark Descent with one question alone: will it still scare me?

Amnesia scared the bejesus out of me in 2010 when it first came out. But we all know how games age, and the magic can wear off. At the time the graphics and physics on offer were really astonishing work for a tiny indie team, but what about almost a decade later? Can it still make me do that bum-clenched mad panic thing where I lean in forward in my chair in an effort to get away from the monsters faster? Or will it seem a little quaint now?

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Over the weekend I successfully got a wizard to invent the internet, thanks to spotting Robert Yang’s attempts to make an AI gay. We’ve both been mucking about with AI Dungeon 2, a text adventure game that will take a crack at responding to anything you type. It’s built using OpenAI’s GPT-2, a text generator they trained by reading the internet – the one they’ve refused to share their full research on, they claim in case people abuse it to create fake news.

Nonsense like this is allowed, though. It’s about telling a story alongside a robot, rather than attempting to win.

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