Into the Breach

I told myself I'd put the break to good use. That I'd dedicate my two, largely PC-less weeks to worthy, writerly projects. I thought I'd emerge with half a play under my belt, or the beginnings of a book. Instead, I have unlocked all of the Into The Breach squads on my Switch. That would be fine, except for the way splendid turn-based Kaiju murder…

Tagged with feature, Subset Games, Into the Breach.

Mech love, not war. That is the lesson we must learn from the futuristic prophecies of the MechWarrior games. Yes, it is very noble to slam your big steel shoes upon a separatist’s bedroom, and to laser him in the head. But would it not bring greater valour, greater unity, greater enlightenment, if those same 65-ton brogues were used … to dance! No. Here is…

Tagged with feature, One Off The List, BattleTech, Final Fantasy VI, Into the Breach, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, SOMA, Subnautica, The Surge 2, Titanfall 2, XCOM: Enemy Within.

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 greatest games released on PC across the past decade.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, 2:22AM, 80 Days, Ape Out, Apex Legends, Bernband, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, Cities: Skylines, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Crusader Kings II, Dark Souls: Remastered, Deadly Premonition, Devil Daggers, Dishonored 2, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Doom, Dota 2, Eliza, Factorio, Fallout: New Vegas, Football Manager Touch 2019, FTL: Faster Than Light, Grand Theft Auto V, Hitman 2, Hotline Miami, Into the Breach, Invisible Inc, Mass Effect 2, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Neo Scavenger, Nidhogg, Outer Wilds, Overwatch, Papers Please, PlanetSide 2, Portal 2, Return of the Obra Dinn, RimWorld, Secret Habitat, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Slay the Spire, Spelunky, Star Traders: Frontiers, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Norwood Suite, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Undertale, Untitled Goose Game, What Remains of Edith Finch, With Those We Love Alive, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Yakuza 0.

You'll ocassionally find someone on the internet sounding off about how the strategy genre is dead. If you see such a person in the future, send them this list of the best strategy games ever made.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, AI War: Fleet Command, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, BattleTech, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Crusader Kings II, Darkest Dungeon, Dawn of Man, Defcon, Distant Worlds: Universe, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis, Endless Legend, Endless Space 2, Europa Universalis IV: Art of War, Frozen Synapse, Hearts of Iron IV, Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, Imperator: Rome, Into the Breach, Invisible Inc, King of Dragon Pass, Master of Magic, Men Of War, Neptune's Pride, Northgard, Offworld Trading Company, Panzer Corps, Sacrifice, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Sid Meier's Colonization, StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, Stellaris, supreme commander 2, Surviving Mars, Surviving Mars: Green Planet, The Banner Saga, The Settlers, Total Annihilation, Total War: Shogun 2, Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Unity of Command, Warcraft III, Warhammer 40000: Mechanicus, XCOM 2.

Every game of Into the Breach tasks you with just about the biggest, most noble mission there is: save the world, this tiny watery globe we call home, from giant bug attacks, over and over again. But it also offers a smaller, more personal mission that’s a little easier to get your head round: save one specific person. At the end of a game -…

Tagged with feature, Subset Games, The Joy Of, Into the Breach.

The doors have been opened, the games inside have been devoured, and now it's time to recycle the cardboard. Below you'll find all of our favourite games from 2018, gathered together in a single post for easy reading.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, Freelancer's favourite games of 2018, The RPS Advent Calendar 2018, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, BattleTech, Celeste, Chuchel, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Far: Lone Sails, Forza Horizon 4, Hitman 2, Into the Breach, Jazztronauts, Monster Hunter: World, Paratopic, Q.U.B.E. 2, Return of the Obra Dinn, Slay the Spire, SpyParty, Subnautica, The Hex, The Red Strings Club, Unavowed, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, Yakuza 0, Yoku's Island Express, Zones.

I realise, at the end of 2018, that I’ve spent much of the year digging back over games released in 2017 and earlier. That’s in part because I’ve been subject to the demands of evil overlord Graham, but also because I’ve been trapped in the gravity well of monster timesinks like Destiny 2 and Divinity 2. When I did reach escape velocity, I cherished my…

Tagged with Activision, Bulwark Studios, Bungie, feature, Freelancer's favourite games of 2018, Kasedo Games, Larian Studios, Lucas Pope, Subset Games, Destiny 2: Forsaken, Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition, Into the Breach, Return of the Obra Dinn, Warhammer 40000: Mechanicus.

My 2018 in games had me dealing with failure in multiple ways. Designed to move further and further away from the fantasy of the all-powerful player ever looking for an appropriate challenge, these games teach to forgive and accept – forgiving someone a past hurt, accepting the lack of a perfect solution to a problem. From the satisfyingly familiar to a type of game I…

Tagged with Bandai Namco, Devolver Digital, feature, Freelancer's favourite games of 2018, Level-5, Nomada Studio, Stoic, Subset Games, Supergiant Games, Versus Evil, Gris, Hades, Into the Breach, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, The Banner Saga 3.

I’ve spent 2018 particularly distracted, flitting between games and feeling guilty that I haven’t quite finished them or spent the time they deserved. Maybe it’s because there have been so many good games? Or maybe I’m just awful. Either way, I resolve to take better care next year. Now I look back, I realise that I’ve particularly enjoyed a series of games which gave me…

Tagged with Arkane Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Capcom, feature, Freelancer's favourite games of 2018, Lucas Pope, Sega, Subset Games, Into the Breach, Monster Hunter: World, Prey: Mooncrash, Return of the Obra Dinn, Yakuza 0.

It’s well known that games are an awful mistake that should have never been unleashed on an unsuspecting humanity. That said, here’s five that hushed the howling primates that reside in my skull just long enough for me to consider them a worthwhile investment. Honorable mentions go to Cultist Simulator (For it’s alchemical harmony of theme and mechanics), Vermintide 2 (for being the second best…

Tagged with Arbitrary Metric, Capcom, feature, Freelancer's favourite games of 2018, IO Interactive, Square Enix, Subset Games, ThroughLine Games, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Forgotton Anne, Hitman 2, Into the Breach, Monster Hunter: World, Paratopic.

We're just about halfway through 2018 (which has somehow taken both too long and no time at all). As is tradition, we've shaken our our brains around to see which games from the last six months still make our neurons fizzle with delight. Then we wrote about them here, in this big list feature that you're reading right now this second. And what games they…

Tagged with 11 Bit Studios, Amanita Design, Arc System Works, Big Bad Wolf, Deconstructeam, Demimonde, Evan Rogers, feature, Haemimont Games, Harebrained Schemes, Level-5, Matt Makes Games, Mega Crit Games, Subset Games, Unknown Worlds Entertainment, BattleTech, Celeste, Chuchel, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, Frostpunk, Into the Breach, Legendary Gary, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, Octahedron, Paratopic, Slay the Spire, Subnautica, Surviving Mars, The Council, The Red Strings Club, Yoku's Island Express.

Progression is so often an illusion. Many games use the idea of permanent progression as a way of tickling our lizard brains with a growing pile of loot or numbers which constantly tick up, so that we feel like we’re achieving something while we sit in front of a computer and repeat the same set of tasks over and over again. The beauty of permadeath…

Tagged with Cellar Door, Derek Yu, feature, Mossmouth, Subset Games, Dead Cells, Into the Breach, Rogue Legacy, Spelunky.

If there's one thing that grips me more about Into The Breach than the razor-sharp tactics of its death-chess scenarios, it's trying to wrap my flabby brain about the dark possibilities and implications of its terse but tantalising plot. I've already espoused one possible and particularly fatalistic reading of what's going on - the idea that every time your team of time-travelling Mechs wins, loses…

Tagged with Chris Avellone, feature, interview, Subset Games, Into the Breach.