The Banner Saga

Banners, then and now, are often a curious amalgamation of plain communication and naked aggression. They’re well-known as heraldic devices, displaying a coat of arms to identify one side to the other on the battlefield, usually just before they were about to attack each other. However, they’re also just a means of communicating who or what a place or thing belongs to. If you’re shipwrecked,…

Tagged with feature, Overthinking Games, Stoic, Versus Evil, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

From the outset, everything in The Banner Saga seems designed to encourage you to be careful. As you lead your caravan towards safety, you try to keep people alive by rationing food, managing the number of your followers and weighing the dangers of the unknown. Anyone who has ever given a soldier in XCOM a custom name knows that it takes very little to get…

Tagged with feature, Stoic, The Joy Of, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

The Vikings have long ago invaded the coasts of pop culture on their dragon-headed longships and carved out their own Danelaw in the realm of video games. In recent years, they’ve grown even bolder, taking over most genres from RTS to RPG, classic point and click adventure to action, with an utter disregard towards distinctions between AAA and indie. They’ve settled in Hellblade and Frostrune,…

Tagged with feature, Crusader Kings II, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

After waiting two long years for the final instalment of Stoic's fantastical strategy trilogy, The Banner Saga 3 begins in the best possible way. It picks up where the second The Banner Saga 2 left off, and one of the first things you get to do is punch your scheming arch nemesis - who probably made your last moments of that second game a right…

Tagged with feature, review, Stoic, wot i think, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC strategy games ever made, now freshened up to include our favourites from 2017 and 2018. From intricate, global-scale wargames to the tight thrills of guerrilla squads, the broad expanse of the genre contains something for everyone, and we've gathered the best of the best. The vast majority are available to buy digitally, a few are free…

Tagged with AI War: Fleet Command, best games, Best Of Strategy, Best Strategy Games, bestest games, Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension, Dune 2, Dune Legacy, feature, Galactic Civilizations II, Gary Grigsby's War In The East, Ground-Control, Heroes of Might & Magic III – HD Edition, Imperialism 2, Jagged Alliance 2: Reloaded, Myth, Rise-of-Nations, RPS Recommended, rps-ultromegafeature, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Colonization, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, Warlords II, Age Of Wonders III, Battle for Wesnoth, BattleTech, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Company of Heroes, Crusader Kings II, Darkest Dungeon, Defcon, Distant Worlds: Universe, Endless Space 2, Europa Universalis IV: Art of War, Frozen Synapse, Hearts of Iron IV, Homeworld Remastered Collection, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Into the Breach, Invisible Inc, King of Dragon Pass, Men Of War, Neptune's Pride, Northgard, Offworld Trading Company, Panzer Corps, Solium Infernum, StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, Stellaris, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, Total War: Warhammer, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Unity of Command, warcraft III, Wargame: AirLand Battle, XCOM 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

The bearded warrior looks exhausted. Part of a band of mercenaries, he blinks slowly at us. Even while the player chooses their next words, the crease-eyed humans and horned Varls of The Banner Saga 3 stand there, blinking slowly. Their hair fluttering, eyes searching you for intent. These are quiet moments of incidental detail. Twitching moustaches, billowing capes, tensing fists. They are looping animations, designed…

Tagged with feature, Stoic, Versus Evil, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

Despite its flaws, The Banner Saga [official site] is one of the most memorable indie releases of 2014, and now the second act is here to push the story to even more desperate frontiers. But does The Banner Saga 2 improve upon its predecessor's lackluster strategy combat while still expanding on its promising story? Here's wot I think. (Note: there are spoilers for the first…

Tagged with feature, review, Stoic, wot i think, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2.

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC RPGs ever released. Covering the entire history of computer role-playing games is a daunting task and attempting to place the best games in such a broad genre in any kind of order is even more daunting. Thankfully, we are equal to all tasks and below, you will find the best fifty PC RPGs of all time.

Tagged with Anachronox, Avernum: Escape From the Pit, Baldur's Gate II, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, best games, Best RPGs, Betrayal At Krondor, Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, Din's Curse, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, feature, FTL: Advanced Edition, Legend of Grimrock II, NEO Scavenger, Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Platinum, Pool of Radiance, risen, Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut, Space Rangers 2, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition, The RPS Bestest Best Games, Ultima Underworld, Wasteland 2 Digital Deluxe Edition, Wizardry VIII, ZangbandTK, ADOM, ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery), Brogue, Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, Darkest Dungeon, Darklands, Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Diablo II, Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Dragon Age: Origins, Dwarf Fortress, Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, FTL: Faster Than Light, hand of fate, Mass Effect 2, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, Sunless Sea, System Shock 2, The Banner Saga, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Titan Quest, torchlight, Ultima VII, UnReal World, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Wasteland 2.

What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 10 of the sale.

Tagged with Assetto Corsa, Darksiders, feature, gog, NEO Scavenger, Steam Summer Sale 2015, Telltale Games, Door Kickers, Garry's Mod, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Payday 2, The Banner Saga.

It's a pleasant fantasy to think that holidays mean long weeks of playing games, but in reality there's trains and planes to be boarded, family to be visited, lives to be unavoidably lived. Gaming during holidays is therefore similar to gaming at any other time, about stealing moments to sneak away to a quiet corner and catch up on backlogs or curl up with comforts.…

Tagged with being sick, creepy santa, eating too much, feature, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, swimming, visiting family we love really, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Elite Dangerous, Far Cry 4, Football Manager 2015, The Banner Saga, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, The Talos Principle, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

This afternoon King - owners of Candy Crush Saga and an ever-increasing percentage of the dictionary - issued a statement defending their actions regarding the news that they had filed an opposition to Stoic's attempts to trademark "The Banner Saga". A defence that seems odd in the face of what's actually happening. Especially as they're arguably attempting to assert a trademark they don't actually have.…

Tagged with Candy Crush Saga, king, legal goings on, saga saga, Stoic, The Banner Saga.

Yesterday the internet was alive with the news about King, owners of Candy Crush Saga, their trademarking of the word "Candy", and their ensuing threats to other developers who are using the word in their game titles. The response from King was to flap their eyelashes and protest innocence - they were only defending the Earth against evil, not liberally chasing anyone and everyone. About…

Tagged with Candy Crush Saga, feature, king, legal goings on, saga saga, Stoic, The Banner Saga.

Separated from all else by a great storm that ripped the land asunder, Alec and Adam huddle on a fragile, knife-shaped peninsula to watch the world freeze and die. They dream of old gods, they think of roads not taken, they mourn for the lost. And they have a right old natter about Stoic's recently released, uncommonly beautiful, Viking-inspired roleplaying/strategy/giants'n'conversation game The Banner Saga.

Tagged with feature, Stoic, verdict, The Banner Saga.