Rock, Paper, Birthday: We Are Two
Can it only be two years? Rock, Paper, Shotgun feels like such a fixture of the internet it's hard to imagine a time before we existed. Don't try - it's bleak, dank and induces vomiting. This very day, two years ago, Rock, Paper, Shotgun began existing on the internet. (Okay Mr and Mrs Super-Fussy, it's true there are posts from July 07, but that was us mucking about and the site launched in August, so you're a wrongface.)
As we enter our terrible twos, it seems important to look back at what got us here over the past year. (To see what got us through the first, head here.) We've been a mixture of exclusive previews and reviews, unique interviews, exquisite Wot I Thinks, Verdicts and Impressions, and the sorts of features and wordythinks that make us unlike any other site. What we're saying is, we're bloody awesome. And so are you. We love you, and we love that you read our site.
Wot I Thinks & Reviews
We have opinions, and we share them at all costs. In fact, at no costs. Here's the last year's bunch in no order decipherable by man:
Bookworm Adventures 2
The Blackwell Convergence
Trine
Time Gentlemen Please
Anno 1404: Dawn Of Discovery
Arma II
Prototype
Damnation
Killing Floor
Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena
Plants Vs. Zombies
Demigod
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
Men Of War
Tom Clancy's HAWX
Empire: Total War
Dawn Of War II
F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin
Rise Of The Argonauts
Burnout Paradise
Mirror's Edge
Saints Row 2
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Space Giraffe
Prince Of Persia
Spore
Zeno Clash
World Of Goo
Left 4 Dead
Cogs
The Path
Demigod
Stalin Vs. Martians
Overlord 2
Braid
Drakensang
Dawn Of War II Multiplayer
Previews
Sometimes games can be seen before they're born. Here's all the ultrasound-based writing we performed in the last year:
DIRT 2
Section 8
Borderlands
Order Of War
Champions Online
Mafia II
BioShock 2
Red Faction: Guerilla
Ruse
Dragon Age
Battlefield 1943
The Old Republic
Love
An Hour With
On some occasions it's important to tell you about the first hour of a game. These are two of those occasions:
Retro
Games from the past aren't gone. They aren't lost to us! We have love for them, and we share it with you.
MegaBiff! It's Megarace
Manhunt
Dead Space
Rogue Trooper
Dredd Versus Death
Fable
Evil Genius
Outrun 2006: Coast To Coast
Where Time Stood Still
The Thing
Sacrifice
SWAT 4
Features
Oh boy, do we write features. From controversial anger-inducing rants to thoughtful meditations on matters of our minds, topical events to nonsense whimsy, these are the chunks of meat around which we arrange our vegetables. Dive in.
The Oh Dear Hunter: Tunnel Rats 1968
The Girl Who Wanted To Be God
Having A Good Cry
Book: Game Addiction
The Majesty Of Welcome Tape
Education As Deception: The Logical Journey
China And The Future Of Gaming
Develop 09: Is Digital Distribution The PC Saviour?
Letters Of Love: Galatea
Darkfallout
Some Stuff About Open World Games
Smashing Stuff: Burnout Paradise Revisited
Why Can't I Teleport In MMOs?
Didn't Beat It: Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
Rock, Paper, Houseshare: The RPS Sims
Fuel: Around The World In Eight Hours
Roburky’s Dwarf Fortress Diary
Day Of The Jackals: The Brits Invade CMSF
Bohemia Rhapsody? RPS Debates ArmA II
The Cosplay Of Doing Business: The MCM Expo
The TF2 Unlock Teacup-Storm
The Extraordinary Saga Of Left Behind
Checking For A Pulse: Doom 3 Mods
Touched By The Hand Of Mod: Dear Esther
Velvet Assassin: Sick Filth or Slick Thrills?
Locked Door
Step By Steppe: Men Of War
Warring Factions: Six Days In Fallujah Controversy
The Making Of Monopoly Tycoon
Snake To Death: The Majesty Of Spelunky
Nolan Bushnell: “Games Are Good For You”
Unreal Tournament 3 And The New Lazarus Effect
Don’t Stop Moving (Capital): HighStreet 5
Should Gaming Age Ratings Be Enforced?
Y’know, For Kids: Thoughts On Free Realms
When Legends Fade: A Farewell To King’s Bounty
Forever Young, The Tragedy Of Bloodlines
John Romero Makes Me His Bitch
Fallout 3 New Content, Adventures In GFWL
The Planetside War: Weekend Warriors
ZangbandTK: Confessions of a Dungeon Hack
Gaming In The Russian Cosmos, Part 1
Gaming In The Russian Cosmos, Part 2
The Top 10 Angry Internet Man Angerers of 2008
Korea
Flying Lessons
Oiligarcy: Crude Oil Meets Crude Politics
Quicksave-Fail: The Agony and The Ecstacy
The season Of The Witch
World Of Goo Piracy Rate: “82%”
In Holy Murloctrimony
Our Man In Northrend
Ninth Art Meets Tenth Art: Games To Comics
The Witcher Done Good?
Behind The Scenes On City of Heroes
Notes from the Underground: The Thinkosium!
The Trouble With Other People
Deux Ex 3: Inflammatory Hit-Chasing Quote Special
NSFW: Boneland Demo: Hotttttttttt Coffee?
A Fuller Life: HL1 vs HL2
King’s Bounty: My Zombie Wife & The Belt O’Doom
RPS Criminal Acts Special: Deus Ex 3 Break-In
Tron in 3D And Awesome: Armagetron
RPS Demands: 10 Things All PC Games Should Do
Gamers Are Here: Middle East Gaming
Ultro Mega Features
Sometimes a feature isn't enough. Sometimes we need to break out the RPS Ultro Mega Feature. Features bigger than we know how to control.
Gaming Made Me
It begins with the four of us reminiscing about the moments of our gaming pasts that contributed to the people we are today. We then opened the floor to our wonderful regular contributors, and then to developers and games industry peeps who were kind enough to provide their personal stories. It's a fabulous thing.
RPS At E3
This year John Walker was sent to LA to struggle through the horrors of E3. He saw games, so many games. He wrote about as many of them as his tired, confused fingers could manage.
The Complete 7-In-1 Magnetic Family Game
This year Kieron went on holiday. And seemingly got a bit too much sun, leading him to reviewing the contents of a 7 in 1 collection of magnetic board games. Well yes. An intriguing experiment.
Paul Barnett
There's this guy we know, a guy called Paul Barnett. He's two useful things: smart and talkative. The results of this very often appear on RPS, collected together here.
NYCC
In February this year, Kieron spent some time at New York Comic Con, and sent many reports back about what his eyes had spied. Collected here.
Unknown Pleasures 2009
The new year so often leads gaming sites and magazines to look forward at the big name games that will be coming out that year. RPS decided to look forward to the games that we were looking forward to that people may not have heard of. The Unknown Pleasures, all here.
The Complete Now That’s What I Call A Best 2008
Entire years are big, unwieldy things. At the end of 2008 we gathered it all together in one basket, and explained why it had been such a splendid year for PC gaming.
A Fool In Morrowind
Alec has been playing Morrowind, and rather splendidly, has been chronicling his adventures in a diary of many parts. Read them all here.
Interviews
It's not only our thoughts we're interested in! How could you think that? Here's the interviews RPS has conducted over the last year, either face-to-face or via emailed questions, so we can all increase our brainknows.
Zombie Cow Again
Roy Meredith On Championship Manager
NOD And A Wink: C&C4’s Producer Explains All
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
Randy Pitchford
Jagex
Zombie Cow
Hidden Path Entertainment
Mysteries Of Westgate
Frontier Psychiatry: Wurm Online Interview
Valve On L4D2 Controversy
Johan Andersson On Hearts Of Iron 3
Unknown Worlds
GSC On Call Of Pripyat
FrozenByte’s Lauri Hyvärinen
Guild Wars' Eric Flannum
Reakktor Talk Black Prophecy
BioShock 2
Ragnar Tørnquist On The Secret World
Fallen Earth's Marie Croall
Paperboy: Felix Bohatsch On ‘And Yet It Moves’
Dangerous High School Girls In Award Ceremonies
PCGA President Randy Stude Talks Methodology
Jason Schklar on Useability
Bloodlines’ B Mitsoda
CyberSport On Football Superstars
Derek Smart On All Aspects Warfare
StarWraith On Evochron Legends
Massive On Soviet Assault As “The Director’s Cut”
Capcom On Digital Distribution, PC Ubiquity
Bohemia On Arma II
Codies on FUEL
Frictional Games On Penumbra And The Future
Mezmer Games
Games Faction on Project Aftermath
“Unexplored Territory”: The Cactus Interview
Ice Pick Lodge
Matt Wagner On Black Shark
Behind The Bad (People At Telltale)
RPS Speaks Exclusively To Videlectrix*
Flashbang
Cities XL
Love
Empire: Total War
2D BOY
Mount & Blade
Hinterland Designer Diary
Jeffrey Steefel on LOTRO: Mines of Moria
Pete Hines On Fallout 3 Mods
Spore’s Lead Designer On Spore’s Design
Kerberos On Sword Of The Stars
David Braben on all things PC
Podcast
And of course there's the podcast! 26 episodes old, it started off recorded on a piece of string tied to a wooden board, and has evolved into something that's (almost always) of finest audio quality. You can find them all here.
In Conclusion
Thank you. That's the most important thing to say. It's great fun to be RPS. We're different from the other gaming sites, and we think that's why you read us in your large numbers. Tell everyone else you know to read us too, and we'll get bigger, better, and eventually become giant killer robots who will destroy the world. Which is what everyone wants. A extra-big double thank you with sugar (or sugar-substitute, if you're worried about your health) on top goes to our super-lovely subscribers and donors. Thanks to them, we're now able to cover our bandwidth costs - and every new subscriber means we can spend more time focusing on RPS, rather than on the external freelance work we need to pay our individual bills. Thank you.
The other important thank you goes to our regular contributors, Quintin Smith and Tim Stone, and most recently Lewie Proctor. They are heroes, and we love them and their amazing work dearly. You should love them too. Go find them and tell them you love them. With tongues.
Happy birthday, us.