Do you ever feel like you're sitting down with a game like a worried parent, saying "I just don't know what to do with you?" Because that's how I feel about Phoenix Point after the last few months of playing it on and off. I’ve definitely enjoyed it more than on its release in 2019, and its DLC adds more to think about and manage during what were once long lull periods. There's a lot to like about its final form. There's also a lot to... I don't quite want to say hate>, but I'm also not quite sure why. It's one of the most evenly mixed bags I've ever rummaged around in.

Read more

We enter the new pod-century on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast a man down, as Matthew won't be here for a few weeks. Not to worry, though, as myself and Nate are ever ready to hold down the fort. This week we're talking about our favourite cinematics in video games, a fitting subject because last weekend I saw the greatest piece of cinema yet conceived by man: Michael Flatley's Blackbird.

I do spend quite a lot of time explaining Blackbird to Nate, but after that we do talk about some cutscenes and cinematics in games (as well as litigating the difference between the two, and Nate tries to remember the first time he saw a cutscene in a game that was in-engine rather than being pre-rendered). And today the Cavern Of Lies is a Cavern Of Justice>, after we received a troubling missive from one [squints] Brond Coatwear?

Read more

I saw a panel of thriller authors a couple of months back and one of them made reference to "the fat chapter", and the others all went "Ohhhh, yes, the fat chapter!". Thriller writers deal in short, snappy chapters, and the fat chapter is the one that ends up getting a load of events or exposition shoved into it, somewhere in the second half, because they wouldn't fit anywhere else. Every year in games there's a fat month, where loads of games come out and loads of them look really good and there is never enough time godammit.

This year that month is September. There are so many games out this month that look so much my jam that I want to spread 'em on my morning toast, but September is also the month that a lot of RPS staff have holiday booked - including me, for two weeks, which means that if these games do get reviewed it probably won't be by me. But know that I have my beady little eyes on 'em.

Read more

Indie team Alblune, which consists of developers Lucie Lessuyer and Alexandre Stroukoff, have a release date for their cute new game The Spirit And The Mouse, a narrative-focussed adventure game with some platforming thrown in. In order to save the cosy town of Sainte-et-Claire, a charming mouse called Lila and a soft spirit called Lumion join forces to restore the town and its people. They'll be teaming up on Steam later this month on September 26th. Check out the trailer below.

Read more

When we last saw Amicia and Hugo de Rune at the end of A Plague Tale: Innocence back in 2019, things were looking up for the orphaned rat wranglers. They'd escaped the clutches of the French Inquisition and the hordes of plague rats following in their wake, and the pair were hopeful about finding a cure for the cursed macula flowing through Hugo's veins.

Alas, when I pick up their journey in chapter six of Asobo's upcoming sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Amicia is having a particularly terrible time of it. Not only is she suffering from an open head wound, leaving her unsteady on her feet, but rumours are flying in the nearby pilgrim camp about something bad having gone down in the last city they passed through. Exactly what is hard to say with five chapters' worth of context missing from my preview build, but the pack of guards who are hot on the siblings' trail quickly make it plain: several men died back in that city, and they're pointing the finger squarely at Amicia's knife, slingshot and crossbow.

Read more

Razer's Viper Ultimate is one of my all-time favourite gaming mice - and now it's a massive 72% off at Amazon UK. That brings it to £48, an incredible deal for an ultralight mouse with optical switches, an ambidextrous design and HyperSpeed wireless. You even get a free wireless charging dock with it - what's not to like?

Read more

Humble Bundle remains an excellent place to pick up video game collections at rock-bottom prices, and today's 2K Megahits bundle is a doozy. It contains $660 worth of games from the publisher, including series like Borderlands, XCOM, Civilization and Bioshock, for $16 (or the equivalent in your local currency, this is a local sale). That's a reasonable price for even one of these games, let alone the 18 games included in this bundle.

Read more

Last time, you decided that a really big unreal place is better than going undercover. Good. Very good. Great deciding, reader dear. I'm wholly impartial, of course, but I am glad you haven't forced me to come up with some contrived reason to jam a really big unreal place back into the running. We can continue. This week, it's a question of jarring vs. juicy. What's better: physics freakouts or beautiful food?

Read more

The Hitman games are often good and usually fun, it’s fair to say, particularly the recent World Of Assassination trilogy. Ian Hitman’s turn in the two films released about his adventures has been rougher to recommend, though. That’s why it’s simultaneously disappointing and awesome to learn that Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Suicide Squad and – shudder – Slither director James Gunn narrowly missed his target when he pitched a Hitman movie.

Read more

Third person skater shooter Rollerdrome has some really cool weapons, but what is it that makes them so special? I mean, there’s only four of them, and you’re forced to constantly perform tricks to regain ammo, which doesn't make them easy to use. I think it’s because of their more literal significance in the game. Rollerdrome threatens you with multiple enemy types called Houseplayers, all formidable, especially in the heat of battle when they combine their efforts. Luckily, the four distinct weapons you’re equipped with act as an equaliser; each weapon is a solution for a particular enemy. Developers Roll7 could have easily added a bunch of copied and pasted guns from every generic shooter, but instead they were more intentional about the weapons they included, with each weapon complimenting the gunplay and the game as a whole.

Read more