Posts tagged “rps-ultromegafeature”

From 2014-2015, RPS's Senior Scottish Correspondent Cara Ellison wrote S.EXE, 29 columns about games about sex, games about love, games about the space in between those two things, games about sexuality, and games about schlongs. Unfortunately the series is on indefinite hiatus as Cara takes a break from writing about games after her spectacular but surely exhausting Embed With... project, but whether you missed it…

Tagged with Cara Ellison, love, Outrun 2006, rps-ultromegafeature, S.EXE, Sex, Dragon Age II, full throttle, Gone Home.

And you thought it had to be a game that hadn't featured previously on the list. Adam: Cor. It's a strategy game!

Tagged with Amplitude Studios, Bestest Bests, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Endless Legend.

2014 saw the release of three or four interesting and excellent card games, but it was Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft that most captured our attention and drew us back for match after match. Alec: I've shied away from multiplayer in the last couple of years. Partly it's self-consciousness, and partly because the constant background sound of bloodcurdling screaming* whenever my microphone was turned on didn't…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, Blizzard Entertainment, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Hearthstone, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

In Dragon Age: Inquisition, you are the most important person in the entire world. People will follow you into battle, go along with your decisions and occasionally kiss you on the lips. There's an enormous world to discover and it's all there for you. Go and have an adventure. You deserve it. Adam: Inquisition is like comfort food. A month-long banquet of comfort food, with…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, BioWare, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins.

Secret Habitat is an artgame. Its procedurally generated islands are full of procedurally generated paintings, which have been created by (unseen) procedurally generated painters. Fascinating and fulfilling, it is without a doubt the Bestest Best WHAT of the year. Adam, Alice, Graham and Pip donned their finest berets and sat down in a procedurally generated Parisian cafe to discuss.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, free games, rps-ultromegafeature, Strangethink Software, Secret Habitat.

Legend of Grimrock 2 sure was very good, everyone can agree. It took the style and mechanics of the original and expanded them in every direction, and the result is something that is definitely the best... something or other. John: Ooh, this was a tough game. A lovely, tough game. Not just because it starts you off far too weak and dumps you in the…

Tagged with Almost Human, Bestest Bests, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Legend of Grimrock 2.

Give up on trying to find your way around Bernband's neon alien futurecity. Give in to wandering, see where your tippy-tappy feet and the turbolifts take you. One minute's wandering might take you through a bustling club, over a bridge with hovercars zipping past, to a horrible trumpet performance, then bumping into an alien weeing in a corner. Variety is the spice of life, They…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, free games, rps-ultromegafeature, Tom van den Boogaart, Bernband.

The last couple of years I've seen games in various stages of completion making overtures towards the professional gaming scene. Of these I'd say Smite - a third-person over-the-shoulder lane pusher has done the most to convince me of its intentions towards competitive gaming.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, Hi-Rez Studios, rps-ultromegafeature, Smite.

A game about Alien rather than a game about Aliens. A game about fleeing and hiding rather than running and gunning. A game that uses a license as effectively as any in the history of the medium. Alien: Isolation is a worthy successor to Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic. Adam: We're not using the X word.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Sega, The Creative Assembly, Alien: Isolation.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's moment-to-moment biffing is a trick we've seen before, but it's still impressive to watch your wraith-Ranger shift and flip with seamless animations between punching one gribbly uruk and gutting another. Yet it's the Nemesis system, which gives the action context within the larger army of Sauron and world of Mordor, that makes every assassination matter so much more and which makes…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, Monolith, rps-ultromegafeature, Warner Bros., Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Failbetter have been writing the bestest best words in gaming for a while now and in Sunless Sea they have created a worthy vessel to carry those words to new audiences. There is horror, humour and haunting in the cavernous depths, and through it all, your ship cuts through the waters seeking new mysteries and fresh hells. Adam: Worse things happen on the Sunless Sea.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, Failbetter Games, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Sunless Sea.

Moving from the earliest steps toward the stars to space operas and sci-fi dreams that could be responsible for an expanded universe of spin-off novels, Distant Worlds has never seen a horizon that it doesn't want to touch. It copes with the enormous scale by allowing players to pick and choose their responsibilities. Yes, the game was first released four years ago and, yes, it's…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, Code Force, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Slitherine.

Dark Souls II may not be the greatest Souls game ever made but despite its flaws, it's still one of the year's finest. Behind the hideous enemies and the stern challenge lies a world unlike any other - the combat systems and RPG elements may be at the heart of From's series, but it's the world of Drangleic that lingers in the memory. Adam: An…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, From Software, rps-ultromegafeature, Dark Souls II.

In a year when the genre seemed to be in the ascendant once again, Divinity: Original Sin is the most playful and experimental RPG in a strong field. Taking its cues from the intricately interactive world of Ultima VII as much as previous Divinity titles, Original Sin is one of the year's finest games. Adam: Partly crowdfunded, wholly crowdpleasing.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, Larian Studios, rps-ultromegafeature, Divinity: Original Sin.

When Far Cry 3 came out in 2012, we were as surprised as anyone to see it top our advent calendar. It's less surprising to discover that Far Cry 4 offers many of the same joys, from the liberation of an exotic land's outposts and fortresses to the liberation of player movement as you zip about with a grappling hook and wingsuit. There's one big…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Ubisoft, Far Cry 4.

Adventure games have been experiencing a resurgence this past year, but our favourite was by a developer that's hit a creative peak of their own after grinding away at the genre persistently for years. It's The Wolf Among Us. Adam: Wolf-a-Mongoose, as my computer just autocorrected, pips a couple of other contenders to the post in this category thanks to its new-noir style. If the…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Telltale Games, The Wolf Among Us.

Salt has been a real treat this year - a real alternative. Where survival games have (rightly) mostly focused on intense difficulty, Salt put its emphasis on just idling about. And that's a fantastic thing to have in the mix. Even in its early alpha form, with minimal goings-on, it's still the most pleasant exploration I've had this year, and that makes it Bestest.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, Lavaboots Studios, rps-ultromegafeature, Salt.

Amplitude have released two games this year and either one would be deserving of a place in this bestest best December round-up. Dungeon of the Endless can slumber on in cryosleep for now though because it's time to sing the praises of Endless Legend, the finest 4X game of recent times. Adam: Science fiction, fantastic factions.

Tagged with Amplitude Studios, Bestest Bests, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Endless Legend.

Most PC games are about terrain, but Mountain was the only monadnock this year to cause the RPS chatroom to feel empathy, to mellow, and to excitedly compare notes. Alec: Passive game-viewing is the new game-playing, apparently. I’m not quite ready to leave the homeland and sign aboard the HMS Twitch myself, but Mountain made for a happy medium. The game that plays itself. The…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, David OReilly, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, Mountain.

A lot of games contain an onslaught of right hooks, high kicks and hot lead, but few manage to make each individual encounter with violence meaningful, tense, exciting, important. NEO Scavenger manages to do all of the above through a turn-based RPG with permadeath, and it has offered more memorable fights than any other game this year. Graham: I could happily give every one of…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, Blue Bottle Games, feature, rps-ultromegafeature, NEO Scavenger.