The Very Best Of RPS 2012: Diaries
Next Year: Our Secret Dairy
Diaries are our most requested feature, and by far the hardest to write. Not because the words are a struggle to find, but because it has to be the right game and the right person clicking at the right time. You can't force them, they have to just happen. A game has to provide the longevity to let such accounts be relevant, and the writer has to feel the need to tell the story. But when all these stars align, the results are some of the most popular and entertaining content RPS produces. The best of 2012's diaries are below.
Knowing almost nothing about the mystical sport of foot-to-ball, Alec set out to conquer the arcane spreadsheets of Football Manager 2012. Taking on Worcester City Football Club, Ian Football seeks to become the greatest at football managering the world has ever seen.
The Rise And Fall Of Reginald Samurai
With the release of Shogun 2 expansion Fall Of The Samurai, Dan Gril set out to restore a traditional Japan in the face of encroaching modernisation. This is well worth a read for a compelling history lesson as much as a gaming diary.
John's dad is the reason John is a games journalist. Having invested in computers since they were a thing that could fit in a home, it meant John and Hugh spent two decades exploring the dungeons of gaming's history, from text-only catacombs to the arrival of 3D corridors, the pair took on all underground threats. So when Dungeon Master/Eye Of The Beholder-alike Legend Of Grimrock came along, it only made sense to ask adventure-dentist Hugh Walker to return to the subterranean tunnels once more.
RPS's main diarist, Alec, spied another place to tell a tale - spaceshipping sim FTL. With its roguelike ways, it makes for ideal diary fodder. It also makes for a chance for Alec to name a crew after cats he's known, and then see which ones of them die. However, not choosing to name any of them Dexter, he sealed his certain fate.
Of course the final diary of 2012 had to be XCOM. And it could only be Alec at the pen. Naming his crew after RPS writers, it can only have been with suicidal intent that he made John the team's main healer. Guess who dies first.