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3 months ago
Feature: Listen to us say the same lines over and over
Ah, the non-player character. Stoic endurer of all our sadistic whims. It’s time the monsters on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, made tribute to these humble little robots, whether they’re annoying companions, side characters, or disembodied human heads. Let’s talk about some of our favourites.
7 months ago
Feature: Free games with good writing
Asexuality is one of the most misunderstood identities under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. Among other issues, it’s extremely rare to see asexual characters in games or wider media, and when they do appear, they often fall into harmful stereotypes. January’s Ace Jam invited developers to go some way to change this by creating games that feature characters on the asexual spectrum, and treat them respectfully.
1 year ago
Feature: Words read: 2 / 1921
Previously in this column, somehow not taken up by the industry as of yet, I suggested that the word 'quest' was being somewhat damaged of late by the fact that it can be anything from 'Kill the Great Red Dragon' to 'bring me some orange juice.' I advocated a system where instead, tasks were split between two basic categories - what used to justifiably be…
Feature: Doing what developers aren't
Hannah just wanted to be a farmer. Not a male farmer. Not a female farmer. Just a farmer that didn't have to suffer NPC after NPC lumping them into one gender or the other. Hannah's hopes rose with the release of Stardew Valley, but after jumping into the farming sim they discovered it offered only male and female gender identities, with he/she pronouns to match.…
Feature: It's the best one!
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. I know you're supposed to say the first one's best, but Mass Effect 2 is definitely my favourite in the series.
2 years ago
Feature: Before Andromeda
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. Back in the spotlight recently, due to Bioware's latest game, Mass Effect Andromeda, to some extent aping its MMO/Ubimap-like structure. I have mixed feelings about Dragon Age: Inquisition. On the one hand, I thought it had a great cast of companion characters, boasting…
3 years ago
Feature: Rock And Paper
Swinging A Stick: How Landscape And Childhood Are Key To The Continued Popularity Of Fantasy Fiction
Once at primary school I tried to convince my teacher that we needed a new word - or at least that we needed one that might exist already, but that we’d somehow forgotten. This is going to be a piece partly about words, and “fantasy” was one that I was never totally happy with. It lacked, as I saw it, the generic precision of “science-fiction,”…
Feature: Your weekly dose of quests and questing
Please welcome Richard Cobbett to our roster of weekly columnists. Every Monday at 1pm, Richard will be donning his +8 cap of writing to present a ragbag of news and reflections on role-playing games. It's been a great year for epic, old-school RPGs. A good tax-year anyway, since that conveniently scopes in everything from Divinity: Original Sin to Wasteland 2 to the other week's Pillars…
Video game forests: yes, more please, thank you. Big trees, dappled sunlight, ferns, moss, lichen, wild flowers, and hidden ponds: ooh twist my arm. BioWare released the first singleplayer DLC story hunk for Dragon Age: Inquisition [official site] today and while I understand there's something about Inquisitors and dragons in it, the real take-away is that it has a big forest. With ferns, tree houses,…
4 years ago
Feature: Bearing Heavy Load
In this quietest time of the year, as people take their spare holiday days to fill the gap between Horacemas and the destruction of the Old Year, there will be many who are using the time to catch up on games they've missed. Top of that list for many will be BioWare's epic RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition. But what to do with the 95-99% of…
Feature: Hark The Herald
In Dragon Age: Inquisition, you are the most important person in the entire world. People will follow you into battle, go along with your decisions and occasionally kiss you on the lips. There's an enormous world to discover and it's all there for you. Go and have an adventure. You deserve it. Adam: Inquisition is like comfort food. A month-long banquet of comfort food, with…
Feature: Keepsakes
Continuing a Dragon Age: Inquisition diary. I spent a bit too long harvesting vegetables in the wilderness. Now I'm conquering castles and fending off zombie apocalypses. Life has meaning again.
This weekend I am scratching my BioWare itch by playing copious amounts of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Who needs a real social life when you have BioWare making so many virtual people for me to make friends with? Truth be told I was not going to bother with Dragon Age: Inquisition. Don't get me wrong I love the Mass Effect trilogy for all of it's obvious…
Feature: Everything must go into them
Continuing a Dragon Age: Inquisition diary. Spoilers once again. The kleptomania's out of control. In any new location, my first activity is to raid the place. Sure, sure, I'm the Herald of Andraste, I'm here to rescue you, blah blah, but first - what's in your cupboards? There's also a special spell I can cast to tell me whether there's anything of value in the…
Feature: Sympathy for the devil-summoner
Continuing a Dragon Age: Inquisition diary. Pretty heavy spoilers in this one, probably. It's not easy, being a member of a magical class that most of the world is convinced will destroy it. It's also not easy being a member of a race who like demons and have, in the eyes of some, a culture of religious oppression. This place doesn't trust mages and it…
Feature: Mickey Moose
Continuing my Dragon Age: Inquisition diary. Earlier chapters here, and once again there are mild spoilers of a sort. I've spent most of my time so far rambling (and in the game, etc). Off to find a campsite over there; off to close a rift on top of these cliffs here; off to recruit a Grey Warden who's hiding out in some fishing huts; off…
Feature: And Elfnonymous too
Continuing my Dragon Age: Inquisition diary. Earlier chapters here, and once again there are spoilers of a sort. I haven't been super-impressed by my battlechums to date. Whenever I talk to Cassandra I feel as though she's forever on the cusp of admonishing me for being late with my homework. Disco-chested sex dwarf Varric walks the walk (and you can tell by the way he…
Feature: No more movie stars
I had to take out a stack of dice when I was playing Dragon Age: Inquisition over the weekend. Not to re-roll the complexities of combat - the numbers thrown around are too big for my collection of bones - but to generate a face for my character. Above you can see my knobbly-nosed dwarf. His name is Pootle and he has a Radioface.
Feature: The Sex-Dwarf and Richard Elf-Brian
Continuing a Dragon Age: Inquisition diary. I seem to have found friends by default. They were just there when I performed my Act Of Ultimate Heroism (i.e. wavey green hand shtick) and now they won't seem to go away. I already introduced you to the relentlessly serious Cassandra, a very, very solemn ex-Templar who first wanted to kill me and is now telling the world…
Feature: A girl named Blight
Beginning a new diary series for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Yes, I'm mostly doing this so I have an excuse to play Dragon Age: Inquisition during work hours. There will be spoilers and there will be presumed knowledge, but there probably won't be much taking anything seriously.
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