Winter is coming and so are The Game Awards. I've double-checked my calendar and, sure enough, the yearly awards show presented by Mr. Game Awards man Geoff Keighley is less than a month away. The nominees for every category have been announced, so it's time to vote for your picks for everything from the ever-competitive "Game of the Year" on down to "Best Multiplayer" and "Best Esports Team". Get your opinion hat on.
]]>Red Dead Redemption 2 may be a good Animal Crossing substitute for people suffering from AC-FOMO at the moment, but I'd argue that the best PC stand-in for Nintendo's cozy life sim is Adamgryu's A Short Hike, which you can currently get on the cheap as part of Itch's stupidly good value Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.
Indeed, it made the long wait until Animal Crossing: New Horizons that bit shorter when I gorged myself on it over the Christmas holidays last year, and I often find myself returning to it even now. Despite being infinitely smaller in stature than Animal Crossing, my frequent dips into this cosy island jaunt became a bit like opening a tin of Cadbury Heroes, promising myself I'd have just the one and then an hour later finding the entire box had mysteriously disappeared in a puff of plastic wrappers. I just couldn't get enough of it. So if you, too, are feeling hungry for some Animal Crossing, why not ease that growling stomach with a little Short Hike. I promise it will do wonders for your digestive system.
]]>You may not be able to play Animal Crossing proper on your PC, but now there's an Island Planner that lets you design your very own village layout. Created by Rob Fichman, the Island Planner lets you figure out your terraforming plans before you commit to them in your actual game. It's great because the terraforming in Animal Crossing itself kinda sucks, and the Planner makes it much easier to organise where you want to put houses, rivers, bridges and all that good stuff. But I don't think you even need to have Animal Crossing to enjoy this free game, because it's quite fun just to mess around making cute little island designs.
]]>I am not myself an Animal Crossing fan (or a "Crossie", as I believe they like to be called), but I know the game is big news at the moment, because approximately the entire rest of the RPS staff have been going on about it. They're all at it, and it's like people talking in a secret language I don't understand. Someone please buy and send me a Switch.
The closest I think I get to playing Animal Crossing is playing Stardew Valley. This isn't a bad trade off, because Stardew Valley is very good, and appears on lots of our bestest best lists (like best RPGs, best management games, and best co-op games). But in the spirit of inquiry, I have been investigating mods which make Stardew Valley feel more like Animal Crossing. Spoilers: you can't do anything very drastic. I'm not about to reveal a total conversion mod, here. But you can make a couple of small but significant changes.
]]>Even before their shared release date rolled around, Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing fans were wishing one another the best of luck on the arrival of their extremely opposite games. It's silly. It's adorable. It's like that anime trope where the large, scary looking character is actually a softie and their adorable and dainty best friend secretly has a murderous temper. Doomguy and Isabelle are continuing their friendship post-launch in this fan video that is honestly exactly what I needed right now.
]]>Over here in PC land we normally wouldn't get to write about Nintendo's cutesy island life sim, Animal Crossing, but I've found a wonderful reason to bring it before your eyes today. Animal Crossing: New Horizons lets you design all manner of lovely clothing items and pictures for you to display somewhere in your town, and players have been using it to create outfits inspired by PC games like Sea Of Thieves, Sayonara Wild Hearts and, of course, Doom: Eternal.
]]>Animal Crossing: New Horizons may only be on Switch, but that will not stop me from finding ways to talk about it in relation to my fave PC games. We've already seen loads of the adorable mashups of Isabelle and Doom Guy, frolicking amongst fields of demons, and now I want to show you the cutest piece of Hades fan art where someone has drawn all the gods as cartoon-y Animal Crossing Villagers.
]]>We don't really get the chance to write about Animal Crossing here in the PC gaming wasteland, even though several members of the team are avowed fans of Nintendo's build a lovely village and make friends 'em up. Happily, the somewhat unlikely crossover between Animal Crossing's fans and those of gory demonslaying FPS Doom has given me a valid reason.
Doom Eternal's release was delayed to March 20th, y'see, which happens to be the same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrives for the Switch. The internet thus reasonably decided that Doomguy (supersoldier; gun wielder) and Isabelle (secretary; dog) were best friends who shared common interests. Now, with just a month to go, fans of both are wishing each other good luck and good health for their shared launch day with extremely wholesome fan art. I am, as the kids say, here for it.
]]>If you're a digital artist, or have a friend who is a digital artist, then you're intimately familiar with the dread associated with the following phrase:
"Your job looks easy, the computer draws everything for you!"
Art is not a game, but games can help produce art. In the hand of capable webcomic artists, games can become brush and canvas and muse, and be ripped apart and glued together in new weird forms. Take sprite comics, for example.
]]>You've been locked out of your cabin and you have to explore the woods. Turns out that getting your key back is going to involve a few spooky adventures. You know why? Because in Woodsy the woods are spooky. There are monsters everywhere, but said monsters very quickly can become your friends, if you run a series of errands on their behalf. It's a delightful mix of scares and cares, and it is absolutely free.
]]>N.B. I'm posting this outside the paywall from the get go because I'm hoping people will add their own suggestions in the comments and it will become a Useful Resource for those who don't know what to play over Christmas!
Whether you celebrate or not, chances are you'll have a bit of extra downtime in the coming fortnight and you might be looking for games to play. For me I tend to pick multiplayer things which I can use to get a chunky bit of time with friends even though we're all scattered around the country. If I want to be on my own I tend to go for puzzles because it means I can watch Midsomer Murders at the same time.
Here's what I'm planning to hunker down with over while the festive season is in full swing but it would be great if you share your own plans as well...
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