Our favourite RPS features from 2022
You're all bestest bests in my heart
Katharine asked me to do a quick little round-up of my favourite features that we've run over the past year (to go with the other section round-ups, which you can read here) so I said "No problemo, Katharino!". Off I went to make a list, running down the published pieces and clicking whichever ones I thought were good. Then I looked at my list and said "Oh, no!", because it was extremely long. I cut it down by about half to get what we have here, a collection of interviews and thinky pieces and silly pieces and wonderful pieces from 2022.
They're by both the RPS treehousers and freelancers who climbed up the ropeladder to help out. If you feel the call to adventure yourself, why not drop me a line next year? Engaging with the extended treehouse metaphor is not a requirement. Here's to more profound strangeness in 2023.
Project Zomboid shows The Walking Dead is not helpful in a zombocalypse
Much to enjoy in Hayden's piece about how his zombie-apocalypse survivalist dreams hit the wall of Project Zomboid. Both funny and well considered. CORALLL! (That's the only Walking Dead joke I know).
Video game characters recreated in OlliOlli World
Apparently Brendy got a job or something, so isn't contributing as much at the moment, but this is my favourite thing he did for us this year because it made me laugh a lot.
A LIS fan has hella mixed feelings about the Remastered Collection
Rebecca has done a buncha good stuff for us (I point you to the Stephen King piece last Halloween, but this year I especially enjoyed her heartfelt article about Life Is Strange and the Remastered Collection.
An interview about the Steam Deck with Gaben himself
Gaben doesn't make terrestrial contact very often, but I think hardware ed. James smashed it out of the park with this interview, touching on a lot of different topics around talking about the Steam Deck.
Dear Esther's 10th anniversary
Belter interview with Dan Pinchbeck, by Jay Castello, looking at the 10th birthday of one of the original and most famous walking simulators. It's weird to think Dear Esther is both that old and that young.
What kind of pot is Elden Ring's Pot Boy?
I like seeing I have an email from Nic Rueben, because he's always pitching me something as silly as it is interesting. This one has the benefit of applying actual expert analysis to Pot Boy, a walking meme. Good stuff.
The Paradise Killer devs on the benefits of being really weird
Paradise Killer is a singular game, both in style and substance. It was interesting talking to the bods at Kaizen, not least because they are all in on being weird (and, as noted, I have never heard someone say "normie" in an interview before).
How Eastshade can teach you mindfulness without you even realising
Rymarr's discussion of his experience with Eastshade, a quiet game about life and self and art, is honestly kind of zen in how ruminative it is. A real tonic after a tough couple of years.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker as the video game union movement's final frontier
It was hard to pick from the work Edwin Evans-Thirlwell has done for us, but this article about workers rights and unionisation as depicted in Hardspace: Shipbreaker is both fascinating and timely.
Cyberpunk 2077 becomes real cyberpunk at its vertical limits
Siobhán Casey wrote us a fabulous, dreamy, unreal piece about going as high as you can go in Cyberpunk 2077 - and then even higher than that.
A deep dive into PAX's Pinny Arcade community
This is cheating because it's a video, and Liam has done a video round-up separately, but I found this look at the Pinny Arcade collectors absolutely bloody fascinating.
The making of Chivalry 2
Rick Lane has done a few deep dive articles for us this year, but for my money this look at the development PC gaming's most favourite weird medieval war simulator, after the failure of Mirage, is the best.
The trials and terrors of benchmarking The Cycle: Frontier
James's job is often an invisible one, but he spends a lot of time benchmarking. This will give you a glimpse into his life as a hardware ed (and also it is funny).
An extremely thorough grading of the best rain in video games
Guides editor Ollie is sometimes given to message me saying "could you please check this article for me" and omitting "it is five thousand words long". In this case I don't mind. It's typically Ollie, by which I mean thorough and worthwhile.
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Dead Pets Unleashed is a chaotic punk rock drama that’s giving me quarter-life crisis flashbacks
Rachel hadn't been with us long at this point, but her piece on the feels that she got from Dead Pets Unleashed was funny and fresh, so I was like "Ah yes, good.".
A Year Of Springs dev npckc "never planned" on making games
Alicia Haddick did some great coverage of BitSummit for us this year, but I think this interview with npckc on telling kinder LGBTQ+ stories is my favourite
The Night Call devs are swapping taxis for tech-fuelled gas stations in Flat Eye
Katharine became something of a preview specialist this year, especially the preview interview. This one on Flat Eye is super interesting.
Terra Invicta is too much for one article, and possibly one lifetime
It is very hard to pick one of Sin's Rally Point strategy gaming columns, but if it must be one then let it be this.
Why some games disappear from Steam
This is about why games get delisted from Steam. It's sometimes by choice and sometimes necessity, and sometimes by force. One of the most interesting things we've run.
Has World Of Warcraft become too big for its own good?
This is a companion piece to Ed and Liam's excellent Inventory Space on WOW. Lord knows Ed has done many excellent articles and reviews this year, but this strikes a great note between nostalgia and practicality.
[Pre-emptive backlash to backlash to positive reviews for Judas]
It was either this or the one about not having trousers in Lost Ark that made so many people mad at me for no rationally explicable reason, so count yourselves lucky.
Nightingale's closed alpha tests revealed one glaring omission: doors
CJ is our news bud, but this rare foray into feature territory produced a very interesting interview that goes into how alpha players have changed Nightingale during development.
Modding Duke Nukem 3D into a joke about English culture can be good for your mental health
Daniel Lipscombe turned in this candid interview with Dan Douglas, about how Douglas's now-famous Duke Smoochem mod has helped his own mental health over the last few years.