(Formerly) indie developers System Era, known for planet-exploring space sandbox Astroneer, have been acquired by Devolver Digital, known for putting out that offbeat indie game you like, probably.
]]>Space survival explorathons can usually be pretty stressful affairs since, y’know, breathable air can be a finite resource in these environments, and being chomped up by an indescribable horror is never off the table. That’s why Astroneer won me over with its more chilled take on the not-so-chill genre. But for those who enjoy the scary parts of space, Astroneer can now be turned into that hardcore survival experience. Or anything else you want. That’s thanks to the expansive Custom Games Mode update which launched last week - I've been working in Interstellar's timezone, sorry!
]]>Monorail! Humanity’s greatest form of transport after dirigibles and the tuktuk. Space survival sandbox Astroneer has been good enough to plonk in the ability to construct our own railways among the stars in its new free rails update. It looks like a pretty chill addition to an already chilled take on the survival genre, if I’m using my chills correctly. Raise your visor and have a watch for yourself below.
]]>I might have to return to Astroneer. I played it a lot when it was first released, but drifted away like George Clooney in the movie Gravity. What’s grabbing my attention now, a whole two years after the initial release? They just added hoverboards in a new update. I will now return to it, also like George Clooney in the movie Gravity, but without the terrible twist.
]]>There's never been a better time to get into survival games on PC, as the recent revival of the genre means Steam is now awash in some truly great games, both in early access and in full release. There are more arriving every year, too, which is why we've done the hard work for you and ranked the very best survival games to dive into today. Fair warning - there are some early access games on this list, which mean they might be a little janky early on. Give them the time they deserve, though, and you'll find they often blossom into some truly great games over subsequent updates. We've only included the very best and most complete-feeling survival games on this list, though, so you can rest assured that every game here will leave you hungry for more. It's by no means exhaustive, but it should give you a nice selection of wolf-taming, base-building, carrot-picking action to choose from.
]]>Whether it's making honest-to-god computers out of Minecraft redstone or constructing elaborate rube-goldberg machines in Garry's Mod, it seems unavoidable that any given sandbox game will eventually add complex mechanical systems. Well, now we can add Astroneer to that lineup with this week's Automation update, which lets you sit back on your space lawnchair and let the game do all the busywork for you.
Assuming, of course, you know how to piece together a fully-automated mining, processing, and power production setup.
]]>We didn't travel the stars just to be stuck on solid ground. Gravity has kept a tight leash on chunky space adventure Astroneer for too long, but that stops now. Alien nasties can't you when you're 30 feet in the air, but gravity sure can. You packed enough fuel to get down safely, right? Last night's update for the adorably brutal space survivor is all about exploration, giving you new tools to take to the skies - and look good doing it.
]]>To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, space science 'em up Astroneer has turned its attention a little closer to home in a big update and time-limited event. Available now and running until August 31st, System Era Softworks are sending players to the barren moon of Desolo to search for the NASA lunar lander. Players who discover the old relic will get a chance to pose for a photo opportunity (using its still-functioning TV cameras) and unlock some commemorative goodies. Of course, there's a bit more to the update, as you can see in the video below.
]]>Space survival craft 'em ups can be pretty grim places, what with the lack of oxygen and constant threat of being eaten alive by the resident fauna and all that, but for some developers there's nowhere more hostile than the mothership from which they all originate. “Throw a dart on Steam,” says Joe Tirado, head communications honcho for Astroneer, “and you could probably hit a bunch of other things [like ours]". It's partly why Astroneer adopted such a bright and bubbly exterior during its run in early access, he adds. Originally, however, it was going to be a very different game indeed.
]]>If Peggle-era PopCap (Gawd rest its consumed soul) had survived into the era of survival, I reckon they'd have made something a lot like Astroneer. Where other sci-fi don't-die-'em-ups are soundtracked by the angry buzz of e'er-encroaching death, Astroneer's is all endorphin-inducing rising notes, delightful popping noises and the happy whirr of toylike tractors.
Slowly asphyxiating to death in an unforgiving alien wasteland has never been so joyful.
]]>The game you like isn't as good as the game I like. When you like the game you like, you are made to look a fool!
Find out why in this week's Steam Charts.
]]>Astroneer has finally escaped the gravitational pull of early access and launched in full. System Era Softworks's survival sandbox stands out from its often-bloody peers by being non-violent, cooperative and scientifically minded. Players aren't pioneers sent to tame foreign lands, but explorers, discovering new alien flora, fauna and environments. Launch has been accompanied by the game's biggest update yet, overhauling the entire seven-world solar system, adding a new tutorial and UI to help ease players into their spacesuits. Study the launch trailer below - gently, please.
]]>Cute space survival sandbox Astroneer isn't far from the finish line, say developers System Era Softworks, it'll be bounding out of early access in just a few months - February 6th, specifically. The studio have some big plans for the release - the launch version will include a "new exploration-focused adventure", taking you to new planets full of interesting new things to poke around, or be poked by. The launch version will also support cross-play with Xbox One folks, hopefully ensuring a healthy and well oxygenated player-base for a while. A stardate trailer lies below.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>As the song goes, in space no-one can hear you party like it's one-hundred-and-ninety-nine. Which is a shame given update 199 for Astroneer [official site] contains a whole bundle of things. It's not content-heavy/content-at-all-y which I know is a source of frustration for people who are playing it through Early Access. For people like me who pop back in every few months it's fun to see how the development process is moving, though.
In this instance it sounds like developers System Era are making some meaningful changes on the engineering and stability side which is good. If you'd prefer to know about future content stuff skip down to the part about Prototyping, otherwise join me as I get excited about the ability to change the colours of beacons - no longer will I roam the land assuming I'm going in one direction and then realising I confused one identical beacon with another...
]]>Update: The year is finished, which means you can now read the final list of our favourite games of 2017.
2017 has already been an extraordinary year for PC games, from both big-name AAA successes to no-name surprise indie smashes. Keeping up with so much that's worth playing is a tough job, but we've got your back. Here is a collection of the games that have rocked the RPS Treehouse so far this year.
We've all picked our favourites, and present them here in alphabetical order so as not to start any fights. You're bound to have a game you'd have wanted to see on the list, so please do add it to the comments below.
]]>Astroneer's [official site] devs have published their game development roadmap. To be clear, there is no road and no map. It's actually a Trello board which explains they are prioritising things like dedicated servers for multiplayer and a new pass of the terrain in general. Fun fact: There is also no map and no road in Astroneer itself. Instead you drive your little rover over whatever terrain you're surrounded by and hope like heck you're heading towards the marker you think you're heading towards.
I just tried to add "roads" to the Trello board but they made it read-only. Maps is in there under Cartography though!
]]>I'm trying to do that thing of staying away from an Early Access game I'm really into so I don't burn out on it before it gets to actual release form. Subnautica is in that bucket, as is Astroneer [official site], although I'm sorely tempted by the latter now I'm writing about exploding hydrazine cans and looking at screenshots as I read the latest patch. STAY STRONG, PIP.
]]>I did enjoy Pip's tour of her space base in Astroneer [official site] and I'm quite keen to see what she might do after the explore-a-craft-o-sandbox's recent bug early access update. It adds ways to paint terrain, see, along with new ways to shape it. And sure, I guess it overhauls the research system and fixes bugs and blah blah but the point is: spacepaints. Have a look in this trailer for the 'Augments & Research Curve' update:
]]>Great Odin's beard, it's only the weekly Steam charts! That is to say, the ten games which sold best on Steam last week.
This week: new entries, old favourites, and a very dirty house indeed.
]]>Heavens to Murgatroyd, it's only the weekly Steam charts! That is to say, the ten games which sold best on Steam last week.
After a string of backwards-looking weeks, it's beginning to look a lot like 2017 at last.
]]>Tutorials are a lot like first dates. They’re awkward but necessary, can be a total waste of time, and sometimes there’s a lot more hand-holding than you’d like. It would be best for everyone if we just skipped all that uncomfortable small talk and went straight to the middle part. The good part. Unfortunately, you can’t have a good relationship without getting to know someone first, and you can’t have fun with a game if you don’t understand how to play it.
Or can you?
]]>Cor blimey, it's only the weekly Steam Charts! As always, these are based on the accumulated sales on Steam over the previous week, not what's doing best for itself at this exact moment in time.
A nice number one this week, but a rather old-fashioned top ten otherwise - with one unexpected aberration.
N.B. there is NO VENGABUS this week. Repeat NO VENGA BUS. It'll return when it is most needed.
]]>This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Astroneer [official site].
Astroneer is a space game about hoovering up alien materials with a magic gun and listening to them plop into your backpack. And in this Astroneer has cracked something very special in crafting and resource management: it’s actually fun.
Developer System Era Software has put a peculiar focus on how resources are presented and how you manipulate them, and at its centre is an idea that’s surprisingly rare in games:
THE MECHANIC: Resources are physical
]]>It's the weekly Steam charts! These are the games which sold best on Steam last week. This week, it's the first true chart of 2017, as the last one covered the arse-end of 2016. All change, all change.
I'm even going to do this one upside-down. New year, new rules! And I don't want to spoil the surprise right away.
]]>Out with the old, in with the new. By which I mean 'and our weekly Steam Charts, showing the ten games which sold best over the previous week, returns - replete with most of the same names as last year.'
SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT AND NEVER BROUGHT TO MIND?
Welcome back.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time. (Apart from the next week and a half while we hide in Horace's warm, warm fur.)
Normally when selecting games for HYP, I favour those that are at least a few years old, so that the suggestion comes as a greater surprise. But Astroneer [official site] is all I've been playing since it was released into early access earlier this month, and it's lovely enough that it deserves more words written about it.
]]>Astroneer [official site] is so lovely. It's a really pretty game with this fondness of geometry and at the moment, in its early access phase, it's forgiving enough that I can potter in my sleep-deprived state without getting confused. There are also ace caves to explore and weird plants and ribcages and hostile fungi to find. To explain what I've been up to in the last day or so I've made a video explaining some basics and showcasing my base!
]]>It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's THE mosssssssst wonderful tiiiiiiiiiiiime ahaahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I wish I had a machinegun ho ho ho ahahaha, get stuffed 2016.
]]>I drive the short trip back to my base, park my truck close enough to one of the buildings for the cable to attach, and offload the red blob from the back of my buggy. It looks like a thorned vegetable and I plug it into my research station, which is receiving power via cables from the solar panel on the back of my truck. When the research is complete, I will have the knowledge of which resources I need in order for my 3D printer to create a drill head, which I can then attach to a vehicle and use to cut paths through the fully deformable terrain.
Astroneer [official site] is a survive-and-craft game like many others, but it throws out a lot of the cruft and grind. I played it and suddenly it was five hours later, the intervening period a blur of pretty landscapes and achievable goals.
]]>Astroneer [official site] caught my eye at... GDC? Yes, it was GDC, earlier this year. It's a kind of planetary potterer where you bimble around doing space exploration and terrain reshaping as you search for crafting/trading resources. I remember I rather liked the polygonal art style and figured I'd probably end up with a bulging screenshot folder when I got to playing it. It looks like my screenshots folder should start preparing itself as Astroneers is popping onto Early Access this Friday, 16 December.
This is something which got announced earlier in the year but which I'd forgotten because CHRISTMAS THINGS! until a dev update landed somewhere in my newsfeeds.
]]>We have been cooing at Astroneer [official site] on and off for the past year, its colourful planets, bouncing astronauts and clicky base-building. And although we enjoyed footage of little men bounding across low-poly worlds together and carving out tunnels in the rock with some sort of futuristic matter displacer, we didn’t know exactly when it would come out. Well, we still don’t know. Not exactly. But it will be in December this year, say the developers, hitting Steam and Windows 10 as an early access game. Here’s another trailer they released along with the news.
]]>It's been nearly a year since I last posted about Astroneer, in which I purred with delight at its planetary landscapes, bouncy buggies and spaceships, and the terrain-deforming vaccuum that seems to fuel your creations. Development continues and last week's PAX West brought a short new video.
]]>Curse my rush to share pretty things. It was only a few days ago that I wrote a post about the attractive GIFs of Astroneer [official site], a game about surviving on another planet by building a base and deforming terrain. Had I know that a trailer would arrive by the end of the week, I might have resisted. Watch it below -
]]>Sometimes game news is that a trailer came out. Sometimes game news is that a game came out. Sometimes game news is just look, look at it, look at the pretty thing, look, look it looks nice, I like how it looks.
Hey look! It's Astroneer [Twitter page], a game about exploring big procedural planets with a dune buggy and a thing that deforms the terrain and look at it look.
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