Feature: The poisonous chalice
Everything you thought you knew to be true has been undermined by the Great Revelation. Please read on to learn about your new role in society, and how this affects the games you will be allowed to play.
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm
6 months ago
8 months ago
We’re summoning a ghost to interview the top strategy devs at PAX West
On the night of Friday 30th August, at PAX West in Seattle, RPS will raise the dead. Using techniques too dreadful to comprehend, we shall puncture the mortal veil like a sheet of wet tissue paper, and drag something back from the other side. That spirit will be Ghoastus, the Roman Ghost: our first fully spectral staff writer, and the site’s occasional historical strategy correspondent.…
9 months ago
Feature: Is it getting hot in here?
How ‘climate crisis games’ could better model our problems and our future
In Vectorpark’s Sandcastles, you build fantastic towers and watch the waves erase your work every 10 seconds. It’s a very direct metaphor for the global climate crisis that threatens to flood coastal cities and exacerbate natural disasters. Sandcastles confronts us with our totally predictable watery doom, but we also find fun and expression in our totally foreseeable destruction. When the planet dies, at least we’ll…
1 year ago
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm makes climate change slower but meaner today
It's a little harder to kill the planet in Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm today, but it'll kill you back twice as hard after today's major update. In today's Antarctic Late Summer update, Firaxis have heavily revised how fast climate change sets in, but greatly increased the damage it can do to the planet if you let it escalate too far. For those who…
Feature: I'm very tired
John had the presence of mind to take today off, after flying back from San Francisco on Sunday. Young Matt and I got a red eye that took off on Friday night and landed on Saturday afternoon. I didn’t sleep for 30 hours, then slept for 12, was wired for the next 16, and then slept for another four. Which brings us to today, when…
Feature: While John's away, an Alice will play
Oh hello! John is away in San Francisco gobbling up gum left on the underside of chairs at the Game Developers Conference, so I'm filling in for our regular rundown of last week's top-selling games on Steam. As is customary for weeks where I need to take over, the charts are full of the surprises he grumbles they never have. What can I say, John…
Feature: Hot Fresh Content
Hahaha, I can't believe you think the game you like is good! The game you like ISN'T good! Your liking the game you like makes you look just SO silly. Find out which games everyone else likes, and then start liking those games instead, with our handy Steam Charts guide.
Feature: It's coming apart at the seams
I'm nothing if not a hypocrite. Week after week I lament you utterly awful people buying the exact same five games again and again and again and again and again and again and again. This week I shall lament people buying games that barely even exist. Hold my hand, let me walk you through this most peculiar of weeks, and into oncoming traffic.
Feature: 100% True
Of course the original editions of the Steam Charts focused on those maps used by the early pioneers of steam-based exploration, so this week we take a historical look back at the origins of your favourite game series. For just one week, put aside your modern electricity-based computing, and come on a journey through time.
Feature: Uncivilised
The game you like isn't as good as the game I like. When you like the game you like, you are made to look a fool! Find out why in this week's Steam Charts.
Feature: Armageddon ain't no biggie
Ghengis Khan keeps sending me charity donations. The Aztecs are increasingly angrily demanding that I give them an Edgar Allen Poe novel. A volcano just erupted over Dutch Disneyland. The World Congress is trying to stop climate change by running a gameshow. I used to fret that Civilization VI wasn't memorable. With the Gathering Storm expansion, for better or worse, it's unforgettable.
Conquer ‘em up turn-based strategy game Civilization VI adds a flood of new content today with the Gathering Storm expansion – including literal floods. Climate change is here, it's bringing natural disasters, and it’s probably your fault for getting too greedy with the factories while trying to outpace Pericles. Luckily, new diplomatic solutions are also arriving, so everyone will agree to work together and save…
Feature: A lament for new memories not forged
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Feature: Stale Of The Century
I took it for granted. I knew I shouldn't, I think I even knew I was doing it at the time. But last week, when the charts were filled with new and interesting games, pushing out the tired and bloated titles, I didn't take the time to recognise what we had. And now, as can only be the direct responsibility of my careless credulity, everything…
Feature: Oh no there are too many games
The RPS hivemind presents: The most anticipated games of 2019
Wow 2019 is a thing, huh? How are we all doing? Relieved? Bowling a hangover and a nagging sense of trepidation? Maybe you work in retail and, surprise! You were supposed to be at work half an hour ago. Time loses all meaning post-New Year break, doesn't it? You're just sort of adrift in a sea of empty Quality Street wrappers. That's okay. We're all…
Wrestle with climate change in Civilization VI’s next expansion, Gathering Storm
It's easy to forget that human civilisation has only been around for a tiny fraction of Earth's history, and that mother nature is a stone cold killer. Our planet and how we affect it is the focus of Gathering Storm, the second major expansion for Sid Meier's Civilization 6. There are natural disasters capable of levelling entire kingdoms, and the constant, looming threat of man-made…