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Feature: Sex: from hyperreal to hyper-abstract, text, sext, and Flash.
**This week's Priceless Play is NSFW!!!** Sex in games is certainly nothing new. There are, of course, the various moral panics -- GTA's famed "hot coffee," for instance -- to countless articles about the sex lives in SecondLife. Our Very Own Kieron Gillen wrote a primer on Sporn (that's "Spore porn," for the uninitiated) eleven years ago. Cara Ellison had a column, called S.EXE, here…
Get In The Car, Loser! is a lesbian road trip RPG from the makers of Ladykiller In A Bind
From bleak sci-fi to kinky bondage sex-comedy, and now an 80s glam-tinged road trip RPG? You definitely can't accuse Love Conquers All Games of being one trick ponies. I've seen Get In The Car, Loser! doing the rounds on Twitter for a while, with a fair bit of buzz surrounding it, but only now does it have a store page up on Itch. It's the…
Feature: Independent Games Festival
Stop sniggering at the back. The RPS podcast of yore has returned, as you might have noticed, in which we are chatting to all sorts of interesting people from the makers of 90s cyberpunk thriller Quadrilateral Cowboy to the creators of political elbow-nudging Orwell, and so many more. In the third episode of this special #content we are talking to the visual novelists behind erotic…
Ladykiller in a Bind [official site] is an erotic visual novel in which you're trying to win votes from former classmates on a transatlantic cruise while impersonating your twin brother. There's a fair amount of sex and the tale doesn't shy away from exploring elements of queerness, roleplaying and various kinks as well as having sections of dialogue which explicitly demonstrate people asking for and…
Feature: Sexy teens head to Southampton
Content warning: this review discusses a rape scene. Sex in games is a (t)horny issue. Games are predominantly made for and marketed at men, and thus most games that attempt to cause a panic in your battlestations are normally pointing their hormone missiles at your throbbing periscope and not the, uh, hang on, there aren’t any vagina analogues in this terrible, tortured metaphor. Look, Ladykiller…
Christine Love, creator of Digital: A Love Story and Analogue: A Hate Story, has released her latest visual novel. Ladykiller in a Bind [official site] is just a touch sexier than those, as will become perfectly clear when I tell you the game's extended name: My Twin Brother Made Me Crossdress As Him And Now I Have To Deal With A Geeky Stalker And A…
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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. There’s a moment in Digital: A Love Story [official site] when your (in-game) computer starts to crackle. Lines of pixels run across your screen and obscure your view. You’re under attack! Your attacker has manipulated a vulnerability in your system. But… didn’t you…
Feature: Fifty Shades Of Pink
Christine Love's games have always existed to be the antithesis of something. And where Digital: A Love Story and Analogue: A Hate Story were an antithesis to typical visual novels, her next game, Ladykiller In A Bind [official site], is shaping up to be the antithesis to dating games. With a fascinating approach to dialogue, and a genuine desire to make you feel both turned…
Feature: Cyberpunk Bartending Sim
Some of my favourite people in the world have been bartenders. I mean, I didn't speak to many of them for more than ten minutes, and I know how it works - I used to tend bar too - you flirt for tips and for kicks. But a bartender has an uncanny way of being able to flip a switch in you. Not just with…
I am constantly frustrated by videogame names, as too often they're oblique, or cliché, or unsearchable. Christine Love knows how to do it right. The creator of Analogue: A Hate Story just announced her next project: My Twin Brother Made Me Crossdress As Him And Now I Have To Deal With A Geeky Stalker And A Domme Beauty Who Want Me In A Bind!! It's…
"Christine Love!" I would say, breathlessly, as I caught up with the prolific visual novel writer on her morning jog (possibly?), "You're releasing Hate Plus your sequel to the phenomenal visual novel Analogue: A Hate Story soon, and I'm so excited!" "Oh Cara," she'd say, brushing pink fronds of hair from her face as she effortlessly kept pace, "I know you're so very excited. Thank…
Feature: Love Games
I do so love the blend of madness, sincerity, and unbridled subversion game jams often inspire. While genres normally build on themselves - ripping conceits and mechanics from compatriots like oily scrap from a spent machine - jams often operate in reverse: curious developers tear down everything that's been established and rebuild, in their own image, from the ground up. I say this because -…
When Christine Love writes, you should probably listen. She's proven incredibly capable of spinning choice-powered yarns around love and hate, weaving in themes of misogyny, history, the ramifications of technology, and many more with a deft, personal hand. Seriously, if you're not convinced, go read Kieron (pre-vengeful virtual ghost state) and Alec's respective write-ups of Digital: A Love Story and Analogue: A Hate Story. Then…
Feature: This is not a love song
Analogue: A Hate Story, the latest game from Digital: A Love Story and Don't Take It Personally, Babe creator Christine Love, came out a few weeks back. I've finally been able to sit down and explore this dark, sad detective story set on a ghost ship from the 25th century. Here's what I discovered. CHOOSE: I like the art style/don't care either way/won't let my…
Y U NO MENTION THAT [GAME X] IS OUT RPS? COS WE HAV LIKE A MILLION TINGS 2 PLAY N POST ABOUT RAEDER K? But: it is well worth observing Fortune Summoners - the latest release from Recettear and Chantelise Westernisers Carpe Fulgur - and Analogue: A Hate Story - the latest from Digital: A Love Story and Don't Take It Personally dev Christine Love…
Around a year after the fascinating, sinister but divisive saga of schooling, sex, duplicity and privacy infringement that was Don't Take It Personally Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story, Christine Love is to release a fully-fledged sequel to her breakthrough game Digital: A Love Story. It's called Analogue: A Hate Story but despite the inverted title aesthetically it has more in common with Don't Take…
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The next game from Christine Love, creator of remarkable 2010 adventure game Digital: A Love Story, was released a few days ago. It's another adventure of sorts, but more specifically it's a visual novel with heightened interactivity. Here's how it made me feel. I know next to nothing about visual novels, I don’t know anything about anime, I’m only passingly familiar with 4Chan, I’ve never…
I'm going to have a whole lot more to say about this later in the week, but it is only right to point your ocular organs its way while I finish playing it and arranging my thoughts. The wonderfully-titled 'Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story' is the next (free) game from Christine Love, who you may know from the best adventure…
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Attention-getting top line: right now, I can't think of a better love story in the western medium.
