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2 weeks ago
Feature: Talk radio
If your friend asked you a question – innocuous or not – they wouldn't just sit there, quietly, waiting for you to answer. They'd continue the conversation with a follow-up query or statement, or they'd change the topic. The point is: they wouldn't just... wait. But that's what video game characters regularly do when players are given dialogue options. NPCs shut their traps, eagerly awaiting…
11 months ago
Feature: Drowning is also a metaphor
Night School Studio's new game, Afterparty, just came out, and since it involves you drinking your way around literal hell, it would seem every bit the fitting Halloweeny treat. But taking a look back at Oxenfree, the point and click mystery that was the studio's first outing, it's impressive how much it stands up as its own spooky experience. It's not just spooky either, but…
Night School Studio’s follow-up to the fabulous Oxenfree is finally out. Afterparty sends two friends to Hell, which is not somewhere you’d expect to find the drinks flowing, not unless they’re filled with maggots and an off-brand coke. But flow the drinks do, because the only way to get out of there is to out-drink Satan and his relatives. No need for a wristband, no…
1 year ago
Feature: Music to your ears
The best game soundtracks you can listen to for free right now
Another month, another big video game publisher puts a great big dollop of video game music online for zero pennies. This time, it's Bandai Namco, who have just uploaded every single Tekken soundtrack onto Spotify because, well, apparently everyone loves Tekken. I've never partaken in a Tekken, but with track names like "Massive Stunner" and "Lonesome City Jazz Party 1st", I'm already 100% convinced the…
Feature: Hardly kiss me
It has happened. The day spoken of in legend. After two years, I am finally to be set free of the Curse Of Steam Charts. All its taken is entirely leaving my job in four days time to end this purgatory. The only decision left is to whom I shall pass this vexation. That, and how to avoid mentioning the actual games for one more…
2 years ago
Not every problem in games needs to be solved by shooting, stabbing or going very fast. Sometimes you just need to stop, listen and talk things over, like in Oxenfree and Tacoma, two lovely story-driven games that you can snag free right now and keep forever. Contemporary teen ghost story Oxenfree by Night School is the current fortnightly giveaway over on the Epic store, full…
The Humble Unity Bundle contains some great stories, and the tools to tell your own
While it still bears some reputation as a scrappy little browser-game toolset (and that's no bad thing - it enabled much of the GMTK 2018 jam recently), ubiquitous game development platform Unity has spread to all corners. While I don't have a single creative bone in my body, the Humble Unity Bundle contains a pile of Unity tools and assets to build your dream game. Even…
3 years ago
Like it or not, subscription services are becoming a greater part of the gaming sphere with each passing month. Humble Monthly, Origin Access, the XBox game pass (which now includes PC games) among others. Many of us already have a subscription to Amazon Prime, which brings with it a slew of perks and giveaways on streaming mega-hub Twitch.tv, and now you can get a monthly bundle…
Feature: Interrupt your friends
Few games nail the ebb and flow of conversations like Oxenfree, the supernatural drama about a group of teenagers on a deserted island. The cast speak over one another, cut their friends off mid-sentence and leave realistic gaps of silence that stretch on awkwardly until somebody says “so...”, and moves on.
Feature: Listen now, chum
Hello chum! Sit down and have a nice glass of water and a pack of Bombay mix. That's how we greet our closest friends on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. This week, best pals John and Brendan discuss how friendship is handled in videogames, and what characters felt most like close buddies. John felt a kinship with Alistair from Dragon Age: Origins, and…
Oxenfree, unarguably the best game of 2016, is free on GOG right now!
Oxenfree is my favourite game of 2016. Unfortunately I didn't play it until the very end of 2016, so didn't know to bellow about it when the time was ripe. The time, people, is ripe once more. Oxenfree, the best game of last year, is free right now on GOG! Oxenfree, you might say, if you were a twerp.
The makers of creepy/lovely adventure game Oxenfree have announced their next game, Afterparty. It will send us on a pub crawl across hell with the ultimate goal of out-drinking Satan to save our souls. I'm in. That's all I need to know. But wait, there's more: every dialogue choice will offer the option to drink, and different drinks give different moods/social powers. If I'm focused…
Feature: The Loose Canon
There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it's important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we're here to help. What follows are our picks for the greatest PC games ever made.
Humble Very Positive Bundle 2 available now, featuring Oxenfree, Shadow of War, and more
Have you heard the one about Humble making a new Bundle? It's a good one. Rather, it's a Very Positive one.Following on from the original 'Very Positive' Bundle back in May this year, Humble has brought the idea back for another go - in the Humble Very Positive Bundle 2, funnily enough. The collection of games brought together here all feature Steam ratings of 'Very…
4 years ago
Feature: Best of the best of
One of my favourite things about end of year lists on RPS is they never match the personal list of any individual writer. They're a compromise between us all, an erratic, uncoordinated vote where consensus sees games of real worth rising to the top and filling our annual advent calendar. It makes for a list that's far more broad and useful to the largest number…
Feature: A bonus bestest best!
We usually do our enormous GAMES OF THE YEAR posting fest at the end of the year (as would seem logical) but because it seems silly to reserve praise for special occasions we're doing a Games Of The Half Year collection to tell you about everything we've loved playing so far. It can double as a summer holiday recommendations list too! We've listed ours in…
If you're someone who loved the atmospheric point and click adventure Oxenfree [official site], then I have some good news. Last week Oxenfree received a free update that added a new game plus mode full of new story bits and locations to explore. The new content isn't substantial, but if you've been staring at Oxenfree in your Steam library, wondering if you should give it…
5 years ago
Feature: Dialogue delight.
I came to play Oxenfree [official site] just after finishing a podcast series called The Message. The Message is essentially an eight-part radio play. Its central mystery involves a strange broadcast, possibly from outer space which seems to carry with it a curse. If you haven't listened to it I'd recommend it. The reason I'm bringing it up ahead of telling you anything about the…
6 years ago
A group of ex-Telltale and Disney developers have come together to form Night School Studio. Their first title, OXENFREE [official site], is an adventure game about a group of teenagers who accidentally get into some spooky goings on while spending the night on a deserted island. The main character is Alex, who has brought her new stepbrother Jonas along for the ride. Announced at GDC…
