Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Rock Paper Shotgun Feature Ho, Ho, Horace

Merry Christmas: Here, Have A Free RPS Christmas Game!

By RPS on December 25th, 2012 at 10:00 am.

Cursed ignorance fairies.

As RPS winds down for the Christmas break, you need not fear. We’ll still be posting some splendid things throughout the holidays. But today – the gift-givingest day of the year – we have a special surprise treat for you! A Rock, Paper, Shotgun game! Horace’s Endless Christmas explores the blasphemous horror of what would happen were Horace The Endless Bear to lose his infiniteness. You can get it for PC, Mac and Linux below!

Horace’s Endless Christmas is the work of Big Robot’s James Carey, with design from Jim Rossignol, and art from John Walker. See how we put the last names in to make them look like proper people? In tragic circumstances, Horace’s endlessness has ended, his infinity has become finite, and it’s up to you to help him restore his impossibly full length. Any similarities to any other famous games are entirely coincidental.

If you want to get hold of the free game (and let’s be honest – of course you do) then pick the appropriate operating system from below:

Get it on PC
Or on Mac
And indeed on Linux

Download it, extract it, and run it. As simple as that.

(If any problems come about with these links, please email John and he’ll throw turkey over his shoulder and leap to the rescue.)

So we wish you the very best wishes over the holiday. Thank you for what’s been RPS’s best year ever. As we say, posts will still appear over the break, but we’re all on our holidays so clearly things will be slower than normal. And on Weds 3rd January, we’ll be back with our mega-preview of 2013 – what is already looking like one of the best years for PC gaming we’ve seen.

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98 Comments »

  1. 25/12/2012 at 10:02 godofdefeat says:

    Thanks RPS.
    But i have over 20 games to play… nah screw it.

    • 25/12/2012 at 10:17 Fringe says:

      But you’ll never play a game that’s anything like this! Bravo Horace and friends

      Merry Christmas all

    • 25/12/2012 at 10:19 CaspianRoach says:

      Only over 20? That’s cute…

    • 25/12/2012 at 17:05 Gorf says:

      I wish I had only 20………….I could handle 20 : /

      • 26/12/2012 at 06:42 FullMetalMonkey says:

        Sodding Steam and GOG sales have left me with an increasingly rediculous number of games I’m most likely never going to play.

        Poxy discounted games.

        It’s terrible.

        *Sigh*

        • 26/12/2012 at 07:03 Shuck says:

          It appears I’m finally going to get through a Steam sale without actually buying a thing, as the reality of my huge backlog (of cheaply bought games) has now caught up with me.
          The reality is that I’ve bought a substantial number of games that I’ll never even install. I know I’m not alone in this. This worries me.

          • 26/12/2012 at 07:09 MrLebanon says:

            same here… i bought maybe 2 games… compared to the usual 10+ … backlog is catching up

          • 26/12/2012 at 08:21 Gorf says:

            This Xmas Ive actually bought the majority of my sale games from other places like Gamefly (which surprised me as Ive not really used them much before), Gamersgate, GOG and (1or2) Origin, rather then mostly from Steam, which is a good sign I suppose.

  2. 25/12/2012 at 10:07 Mitchk says:

    Thank you RPS for a tip-top year of journalism, fun and puns!

    May next year be just as good!

  3. 25/12/2012 at 10:08 hayuto says:

    Thank you very much, ill dl it immidietly when i get back from work, i hope its good.

  4. 25/12/2012 at 10:09 Charlie Brown says:

    Wooohoooo
    Thanks

  5. 25/12/2012 at 10:12 Redd says:

    Merry Christmas to all RPS’ers, past and present. \o/

  6. 25/12/2012 at 10:18 Cytrom says:

    Someone just play it for me and upload it to youtube… yeah I’m that lazy.

    Merry Christmas!

  7. 25/12/2012 at 10:18 SuperNashwanPower says:

    Yule all love this game, unless your senses are mulled. That said it could be a bit of a turkey

    Merry punmas one and all

  8. 25/12/2012 at 10:19 BlitzThose says:

    will this download be available after christmas, I wont be home from work till at least the 27th so I wont be able to try it for a while :(

    Despite being at work over the holidays I have found a number of amusing ways to entertain myself :) http://t.co/puN2NPkB

  9. 25/12/2012 at 10:20 grundus says:

    I’ll wait for the WIT.

    (Thanks RPS!)

  10. 25/12/2012 at 10:22 Deston says:

    A fitting end to a fine year gents, thanks for all the excellent wordthoughts.

    Before I get exceedingly drunk and can’t type any more, merry Christmas everyone – see you on the other side!

  11. 25/12/2012 at 10:25 Kaira- says:

    Linux-link seems to be broken, others seem to work okay.

    Happy Holidays!

  12. 25/12/2012 at 10:30 ShatteredAwe says:

    Thank you RPS! Merry Christmas!

  13. 25/12/2012 at 10:34 nopol10 says:

    For a game about an infinite bear it has, surprisingly, an ending…

    • 25/12/2012 at 13:09 Ernesto says:

      I always wondered: Is Horace’s infiniteness of the spatial or the temporal kind?
      Now I know. Horace seems to be not only infinite in SPACE, but also in TIME! You masterfully presented the horrors of not only losing Horace’s spatial, but also his temporal infiniteness by allowing the game to end!
      A very enlightening game. Thanks!

  14. 25/12/2012 at 10:36 captain nemo says:

    Merry Christmas all

  15. 25/12/2012 at 10:48 SpakAttack says:

    Amazing game! It’s even got better support than most Ubisoft titles.

  16. 25/12/2012 at 10:50 Sander Bos says:

    It’s a terrible PC port, you can’t even rebind the keys!

    Merry Christmas everybody!

    • 25/12/2012 at 12:53 theleif says:

      And no graphics settings at all. The textures are sub-par, it has no support for my G940 HOTAS, an unskippable intro, and no quicksave. They refuse to put it up on any competing online store, and it uses a non open source compressed format.
      Typically lazy, dumbed down console port. Exactly what I was expecting from RPS. A shameful milking of an otherwise excellent IP.
      Shame on you.

      And Merry Christmas!

      • 25/12/2012 at 15:58 Milos says:

        You can use Esc to skip the intro you scrub! gg l2p

        I, for one, will be buying this just like I bought every other game in the franchise.

    • 26/12/2012 at 13:45 Joshua says:

      I am horribly disappointed by this. RPS, have you sold your souls to the EG devil?

      (Merry Christmass!)

  17. 25/12/2012 at 10:56 Shantara says:

    Very cute, thank you! Merry Christmas!

  18. 25/12/2012 at 11:06 Inglourious Badger says:

    Merry Christmas Bitches! May Horace spare us all

  19. 25/12/2012 at 11:08 Ravenholme says:

    Merry Christmas everyone!

  20. 25/12/2012 at 11:20 NathanH says:

    Shocking that the only female character in the game is called an “ignorance fairy”. Ban this sick filth.

  21. 25/12/2012 at 11:21 Godwhacker says:

    7/10

  22. 25/12/2012 at 11:28 Cardinal says:

    Showing my appreciation with a subscription.

    This is only site I check every time I’m online.

    Everyone should click on “Support RPS” at the top of page.

    Merry Christmas!

  23. 25/12/2012 at 11:33 Drake Sigar says:

    My Christmas is ruined.

  24. 25/12/2012 at 11:33 Armante says:

    gonna post here again, was buried at end of FC3 GotY..

    Just want to say thanks, as always, to the team at RockPaperShotgun. The one and only website I will check every day of the year. I spend more time reading here, than I do playing games.

    Thanks guys – you’re awesome.

    To Jim, Alec, John, Adam and Nathan – Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, and may 2013 be a fantastic year for you all.

  25. 25/12/2012 at 11:38 int says:

    Merry Xmas. Stuck on level 4.

    • 25/12/2012 at 16:01 Milos says:

      Don’t worry I’ll upload a video walk through soon. I admit level 4 puzzle is a bit contrived, but the emotional payoff you get from reaching the end of the story is well worth the effort.

  26. 25/12/2012 at 11:47 sirgoit says:

    Merry Christmas everyone and a special thanks to RPS, you’re fabulous people!

  27. 25/12/2012 at 11:49 rapier17 says:

    Thank you chaps, thoroughly enjoyed it – haven’t played one of those ‘snake’ type games in years!

    Have a good Christmas all.

  28. 25/12/2012 at 11:52 phenom_x8 says:

    Oh, happy holiday to you all, guys !

  29. 25/12/2012 at 11:57 Tusque D'Ivoire says:

    My, this is indeed a wonderful surprise. (this is how I talk during the holidays)

    Merry Christmas to all the RPS staff and the wonderful community of this site.

  30. 25/12/2012 at 12:17 kregg says:

    If you are running Ubuntu Linux 64bit and are having trouble getting this to work, try running it in a terminal. If you get this message:

    ./HoraceTheEndlessBear: error while loading shared libraries: libGLU.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

    Then just run in the terminal:
    sudo apt-get install libglu1-mesa:i386

    E: Completely forgot, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! Whichever you prefer.

  31. 25/12/2012 at 12:26 frenz0rz says:

    Merry Christmas all!

    I am, however, slightly disturbed to find that someone has even concieved of the notion that Horace could end.

  32. 25/12/2012 at 12:37 tungstenHead says:

    I keep getting defeated by the non-contiguous bugbear.

    Merry Christmas, RPS Hivemind!

    • 25/12/2012 at 12:59 theleif says:

      How many beers did Horace give you to post that obvious paid-for review? You Sir, have no journalistic integrity at all.

      • 25/12/2012 at 19:10 Aquarion says:

        It’s fine, I would have bought the beers anyway, and people buy me beers for games reviews all the time, and that makes it fine, so it’s fine and STOP PESTERING ME.

  35. 25/12/2012 at 12:53 caddyB says:

    CONSOLE PORT!!!!

    haha, have a nice one, RPS

  36. 25/12/2012 at 13:46 MadMatty says:

    Thx for trusted service, best reviews on the net in general- cheers guys, live even let your smelly ads thru ad-block, as im sure you´ll need plenty of beer, crack, whatever to survive 2013 :)

    Merry xmassy and so on

    Fired up Evochron Mercenary 2.1 version two days ago, shut it off because of the incredibly ugly flora and silly looking water effect- thought about it “am i really such a graphics-whore? i did enjoy dorf fortress…hmm” fired it up, ignored the ugliness, enjoy the really pretty planetary and terrain stuff, and the multiplayer gameplay- tutorials can take you like 2 hours, but once you get going, its nearly That David Brabens Elite feeling- zooming in from space, to groundhug a planetary surface is an incredible feel to say the least….. newtonian physics are in, but has some extra safety measures applied to the controls… theres a fairly low cap to max speed, but you dont really NEED excessive speed, as youll use the jump drive for longer distances….. but i do miss the Elite 2 spectacle, of seeing a planet dissapear at ridiculous speeds in your rear view….. wow …. anyway, think Evochron keep me warm until Elite Dangerous is out in 2014 …..

  37. 25/12/2012 at 13:57 tobecooper says:

    What everyone said – Merry Christmas, RPSers!

  38. 25/12/2012 at 14:09 Puppy says:

    I’ve never gotten a gift from a Blog before, thanks guys! And happy holidays!

  39. 25/12/2012 at 14:33 LordEvilAlien says:

    thanks for this one. GOTY for sure. The perfect antidote to 24 hours plus of trying unsuccessfully to get LA Noire to run on my pc. Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

  40. 25/12/2012 at 14:58 FhnuZoag says:

    If only you can talk to the presents.

  41. 25/12/2012 at 15:36 Slinkyboy says:

    RIP RPS

  42. 25/12/2012 at 15:53 Ham Solo says:

    I… i have failed horace. Oh the humidity.

  43. 25/12/2012 at 16:59 Shinwaka says:

    Happy holidays to RPS and their guest writers!

  44. 25/12/2012 at 19:03 Bluerps says:

    Yay, a Horace game! Thanks for that, and thanks for all the aweome writing, dear RPS writers. I come here every day, and it is always worth it.

    Merry Christmas!

  45. 25/12/2012 at 19:21 sinister agent says:

    What is this SACRILEGE

  46. 25/12/2012 at 21:40 The Random One says:

    I didn’t like it very much at first, but then I realized it was satire.

  47. 25/12/2012 at 22:10 MajorManiac says:

    I love you guys. Drunken hugs for everyone.

  48. 25/12/2012 at 23:39 Lone Gunman says:

    Happy Christmas everyone :D

  49. 25/12/2012 at 23:43 Prolar Bear says:

    Goddammit I love you, RPS. A merry xmas (or whatever) to everybody around here!

    PS: I demand new RPS shirts, possibly including Horace designs

  50. 26/12/2012 at 00:41 Pace says:

    Excellent job all, the perfect Horace game. Happy Horace related festivities RPS.

  51. 26/12/2012 at 08:08 manotaur says:

    Marry Christmas everyone, msg me in steam (http://steamcommunity.com/id/beelzeh) if you want a free dota 2 copy, got like 6 of them left

  52. 26/12/2012 at 10:37 Eclipse says:

    Wot I Think: Horace’s Endless Christmas
    (please bear with my terrible english :( )

    In a move that surprised and blew their readers every single mind, Rock Paper Shotgun announced to turn from the best gaming related blog to a full fledged AAA software-power-house.
    While after earing the news few readers committed suicide impaling themselves with Christmas trees, the others were able to play the first title in what is going to be the most successful franchise of all times (yes, including timelines in parallel universes).

    Even if it’s easy to get emotional talking about Horace and his endless Christmas, I’ll start lauding it’s technical side: while we know in nature there are endless snakes and endless cats, this is the first time ever a game features a real endless bear. The technology RPS implemented to bring Horace to life is indeed astonishing: did they took a normal bear and stretched it re-encoding his entire DNA? Or they built him just out of sheer magic? We’ll never know, the thing we knows is that H’sEC sports the best videogaming character ever, because he’s a bear, and he’s also endless, so it’s more bear than every bear on Earth.

    A perfectly tuned gameplay is then surpassed only by the deep and emotional storyline this title offers to our winter cooled hearts.
    H’sEC is to Snake games what Braid is to Mario, but just a whole lot better than that.
    Horace is turned finite by an evil spell, and if this is not already tearing up your soul with sadness you are a cruel monster or an ignorant fairy, or both.
    He then embarks to his quest to retrieve his former glory, every knowledge present making him a bit less infinite and a whole lot more bear. This is a clear metaphor about how knowledge makes you fatter and hairier, and being a fairly fat and hairy person I really appreciated that.
    Present after present, Horace becomes faster: the burdens of an ignorant life slowly left him free to run and his hunger for knowledge quickly turns him into a brown train of coat. This is the point when the title winks and then makes sweet love with real gamers. Super Meat Boy runs scared, VVVVVV flips gravity to evade eye contact: Horace’s Endless Christmas is the new king of hardcore games, featuring a before-unseen-in-snake-games mechanic where if you press two directions too fast Horace just goes over himself and you fail him.
    Last but not least, the sound department, and with sound department I really mean the single sound the game uses, is made of pure genius. The softly crunchy rumor of a gentle creature opening a Christmas present full of knowledge will gently caress your eardrums, over and over again, and then it will continue after a while even when you stop playing. Another metaphor about the fact that we never stop learning, and we never should, because knowledge is what makes us less like humans and more like endless bears.

  53. 27/12/2012 at 11:27 spirit says:

    Exclusive: The Avengers 2 to feature Horace the Blasphemer.

  54. 27/12/2012 at 13:03 Charles de Goal says:

    I want to use ZQSD, not AWSD, on my French keyboard.

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