RPS Feature Shrugging at Atlas
A month after release, four crew members of the good ship RPS have gathered to discuss their experiences in the vast reaches of No Man’s Sky [official site]. Do those procedural planets and creatures keep the game feeling fresh after hours of play? Do we enjoy collecting minerals to upgrade the laser that helps us to collect more minerals? And are we still going to be playing a hundred years from now, determined to uncover all of this universe’s secrets?
Here’s wot we think.
RPS Feature DOOM IS BALLET
DOOM [official site], in singleplayer at least, is probably the biggest surprise of the year to date. But just what is it about id’s rebooted demon-botherer which feels so damn good? Alec ‘Mancubus’ Meer and Adam ‘Shotgun’ Smith gathered to discuss their unexpected love of double-jumping, melee kills and exposed Pinky Demon bottoms.
N.B. includes SPOILERS for the plot, such as it is.
RPS Feature Unofficial co-op comedy 40K
Adam: Helldiving is hard. I think I am the worst Helldiver.
Alec: Helldiving is AWESOME.
Adam: Helldiving is the act of diving into hell. Where hell is understood to be one of several planets occupied by hostile forces. Mostly, in our experience, bugs. Bugs that tore our starship troopers into pieces.
To be clear about this, Helldivers [official site] is a cooperative game, from the creators of the original Magicka. It involves friendly fire, d-pad combos, mechs dropping from alien skies, ammunition shortages, panic, awesome motorbikes and death. Lots of death. I think I like it rather a lot.
RPS Feature A new hope?
Adam, Alec and Pip all went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens this week, as did many other people around the world. Yesterday, they discussed their feelings and thoughts about the film in the company of a transcription droid, which produced the following report. Plot spoilers are clearly tagged and hidden, but there are discussions of structure and character throughout so turn back now if you want to go in completely cold.
Adam: Christmas comes but once a year. And for the forseeable future, it appears that Star Wars will arrive on an annual basis as well. Episode VII: The Force Awakens opened in cinemas across the UK this week, with packed midnight screenings and all manner of excitement. We three have seen it already and the first matter for discussion is, naturally, wot did you think?
Alec: IV, V, VI, VII, I, III, II.
RPS Feature Setting the post-world to rights
Alec’s already run his own review of Fallout 4 [official site], based on 50 predominantly campaign-inclined hours in post-nuclear New England, but now Bethesda’s latest is out John and Adam have been taking a more leisurely look at it too. Have they found convincing life in the wasteland? Do they agree that writing and characterisation is much improved? Or that the relentless focus on combat keeps it just short of rad status? Is the Witcher 3 still 2015’s RPG king after this? And why do they think a game which is prompting rather a lot of griping about bugs and graphics and meatheadedness has scored so many 9s and 10s from other critics? Time to set the post-world to rights…
There are no plot spoilers below, bar a passing reference to what happens in the introductory 15 minutes.
Assassin’s Creed Landahn is out! But not on PC, as we have to wait till next month before we can leap across all of Victoriana like an acrobatic chimney sweep. Far Cry Primal, the caveman sequel, will also arrive on PC the month after its February appearance on the console box. While this sort of situation isn’t quite as common as it used to be, it is one which refuses to go away – with Assassin’s Creed in particular a repeat offender, despite occasional promises to the contrary.
Is this – and the late arrival of other games on PC – cause for alarm? Alec, Alice, Pip and Graham gathered to discuss.
RPS Feature Why it's our game of the month (at the very least)
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain [official site] is our Game of the Month for September, but why has this traditionally non-PC series infiltrated our chests and Fulton’d our hearts? Alice, Adam, Alec and a Graham gathered to discuss stealth, balloons, dogs in eye-patches, making enemy grunts feel alive and accidental kill-sprees.
No plot spoilers here, but if you still hope to go into the game entirely blind, be warned that we do discuss some of the game’s systems and mechanics in some detail.
