All dogs go to heaven, we have heard it said. But what about videogame dogs? By the virtue of their non-existence you may suspect they are refused entry. However, after contemplating the issue for some time, our finest minds in the listicle archives have concluded that, yes, even videogame dogs go to heaven. What a relief. Here are the 10 goodest boys in PC games, all approved for divine ascendence.
]]>The greasy realm of the videogame is not always the best place to look for good writing. For every Disco Elysium there are roughly 800 Detroit: Beyond Humans. But it is a good place to look for wondrous, over-the-top nonsense. I’m talking about character dialogue so flamboyant and exaggerated, you could insert some line breaks and it would instantly become a verse in a glam rock anthem. Here are the 12 most extravagant, exuberant, and intense lines of dialogue. In games, subtext is just whatever’s written on the side of the nuclear submarine.
]]>Imagine a world without electricity. Horrible. What would we use to blend our smoothies? How would we know when uncle Derek hits the metal bit again in the Sunday game of Operation? Electricity has roughly one dozen uses, and yet it is in the realm of videogames when we see its most fantastical and offensive capabilities brought screaming to life. To celebrate the important role of sassy electrons in your otherwise mundane life of neutrons and - ugh - protons, here are the 8 most shocking uses of electricity in games.
]]>Summer. The heat age. Scorch season. Spring's hangover. It's the mid-point of the year and you know what that means. No, not "mojito time", Geoff, put those away. It's time we told you what the best games of the year are so far. There are quite a lot of them. Just look how many videogames have escaped from their developers in the past six months and are now running amok through the blistering streets, getting stuck in the melting tarmac, like ants in jam. It's unsanitary. So allow us to round up these unruly games and trap them in a handy list. Here are our favourite sword swingers and space 'splorers so far this year (and a couple of DLCs for good measure).
Okay, Geoff, now bring the mojitos.
]]>Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown features a veteran fighter pilot whose full name is Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage. That's fabulous. It’s also got plenty of smashing dogfight action. But you know what it doesn’t have? Support for most flight sticks. That’s disappointing. However, there are now at least a few more twisty toys functional with the game, the developers have said in a Steam update. The bad news: only joysticks made by Thrustmaster have been added. They are the hardware folks who make admittedly good flight sticks and HOTAS, and who cause untold spluttering as its customers try to explain to their significant others why there is a transaction for something called the “Thrustmaster hot ass” on the bank statement this month. Well, Gareth? WELL?
]]>Ace Combat 7, the unflappable JRPG disguised as a jet fighter game, had some dissatisfied pilots when it came out on PC last week. The trigger-happy fly ‘em up released without support for most joysticks or HOTAS controllers, which irritated folks. And other technical foibles also inevitably annoyed people. Well, there's still no joy for the stick users. But there are some other small fixes, unofficial ones, courtesy of those rapscallions in modder squadron. One of these increases the draw distance to reduce pop-in, and the other adds support for those ultrawide monitors you never stop going on about.
]]>It worked! Everyone, it worked! The sacrifices we all made, they were all worth it. Some said we were fools to ritually slaughter those Fortnite players and smear our naked bodies with their blood and entrails, but look! No GTA V in the Steam Charts! And no Monster Hunter World! Sure, there's still flipping Clancy Siege, and obviously nothing short of sacrificing a god could take out Plunkbat, but it's a chart filled with fresh, new and even lovely games!
]]>I expected to hear many sentences in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the latest in the long-running series of jet fighter games. Radio call-outs that any good fighter pilot might recognise. “Bogey on your six” - yep. “Missiles away” - sure. “Hostile down” - uh huh. All the familiar phrases of aeronautic warfare, hissing through the high-altitude static, predictable and safe.
“We need to make it to the space elevator” was not one of them.
]]>Once bitten, twice shy, is not a good aphorism for zombies. They're not very shy at all. In fact, some of them are positively bold. They've wreaked havoc with this week's Steam Charts, taking over nearly half the entries. Which, admittedly, saves me thinking up a bunch of other stupid shit to write.
Yes, click through, read on, for the bunch of stupid shit I did write.
]]>Battle royale games. For a long time the RPS treehouse was unable to comprehend these chaotic, destructive influences on society. Shooters, yes, we understand. Survival games, we get it. But 100-person death marches in a shrinking zone of hate? What’s so good about that? Well, this week we’ve got a young person* to help us decipher this most murderous of riddles.
]]>Don't be scared. It's OK. I've got you. Hold my hand. Tighter. Come on. We can do this together. You and me. Lets... Steam Chart.
]]>There's just one week left until a borderline-biblical plague of developers descend upon Birmingham to showcase their up-and-coming games to all. This great gathering shall be known as EGX 2018 and starts on September 20th, running until the 23rd.
There's going to be hundreds of games on show there across all platforms, featuring developers of all shapes and sizes - both physically and business-wise. While I'll be sadly missing out on the fun (someone's got to man the news desk), here's a few choice PC games that'll be at the show, and everyone should be checking out.
]]>If we're not counting spinoff Assault Horizon (and we shouldn't), Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is set to be the first in Bandai Namco's long-running air combat series to land on PC. Due out on February 1st, it promises melodrama and dogfights, wrapped up in an alternate earth setting filled with familiar aircraft plus the occasional flying sci-fi battleship. Below, a new trailer from Gamescom, giving us a glimpse at its cutscenes, characters and some of the weapons of war featured in the game.
]]>I've got a soft-spot as big as an AWACS plane for the Ace Combat series. Alternate-earth settings, military melodrama, rousing music and the occasional sci-fi superweapon to shoot down in your unrealistically well armed jet. It's all good stuff, and today's Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown trailer ticks every box. While there's no release date confirmed, it's nice to see that it's development is still zooming along and looking lovely, and that it's still coming to PC.
]]>The arcadey aeroplane action of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown [official site] has been delayed, publishers Bandai Namco announced today. It was due towards the end of this year but is now pushed into 2018. Ace Combat hasn't been on PC much and its last visit, in 2011's Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, was a bit bum. But Skies Unknown is returning to the 'Strangereal' alternate history and has brought back the writer of AC 4 & 5, sidestepping the whole mess of Assault Horizon.
]]>Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown [official site] will indeed come to PC too, Bandai Namco confirmed today. Since announcing it in 2015, they'd only mentioned a PlayStation 4 release, so huzzah! This will be the second game in the arcade-y fly 'em up series' 25-year run to hit PC, following the disappointing Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, and it sounds like it may be more of a return to form. It's returning to the alternate Earth of the 'Strangereal' universe, for starters. This here story trailer brings to mind the earnest oddity and technononsense of Metal Gear Solid, which I'm up for:
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