Crypt Of The NecroDancer developers Brace Yourself Games have laid off around half their staff. Employees began tweeting about being affected cuts yesterday, with Brace Yourself Games later confirming the decision to "lay off a portion" of staff. The studio had around 43 employees before the cuts, according to LinkedIn.
]]>Wanna get into the Halloween spirit but are a bit of a wimp (100% guilty), or just struggle with horror games in general (1000% guilty)? No worries; I got you. Here's a list of the best spooky games for non-horror fans.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Halloween, I just don’t want to have the bejesus scared outta me, you know? I like games that give me a lil bit of spooky-ookiness, but not like bone-chilling, stomach-churning, nightmare inducing, wont-sleep-for-a-week horror games. Absolutely not. You won’t find any Resident Evil or Silent Hill recommendations here! Feel safe knowing that the spooky-not-scary games you'll find below will get you thoroughly into the Halloween mood, just without all the over-the-top violence and buckets of gore. Enjoy!
]]>The developers of Crypt Of The NecroDancer just sneakily announced a followup. It's called Rift Of The NecroDancer, and it's a "standalone rhythm game in the NecroDancer universe." You can watch its surprise reveal below, at the end of the trailer for the newly released Synchrony DLC for Crypt Of The NecroDancer.
]]>Down it, down it, dowwwn it, yeeaahhh! Nice one, you skulled that pint of fizzy water and lemon like an absolute legend, mate, well done. I always knew you were a top enjoyer of a wild night on the tiles, on the rip, on the slosh, on the tear, on the floor, on the bathroom floor, no listen you’re on the bathroom floor mate, for real, get up. I think that San Pelegrino went straight to your head. Maybe just go home, lie down, and play some RPGs. You can always simulate the reckless abandon of a big night in one of these, the 9 best nights out in PC games.
]]>Another month, another big video game publisher puts a great big dollop of video game music online for zero pennies. This time, it's Bandai Namco, who have just uploaded every single Tekken soundtrack onto Spotify because, well, apparently everyone loves Tekken. I've never partaken in a Tekken, but with track names like "Massive Stunner" and "Lonesome City Jazz Party 1st", I'm already 100% convinced the music must be great.
However, given my rather lacking expertise in all things Tekken-related, I thought that instead of doing a big Tekken musical breakdown like I did for Capcom and all the Final Fantasy games, I'd take this opportunity to celebrate some of the other great gaming soundtracks you can currently listen to for free right now, because boy howdy are there loads of 'em. So bang on those headphones and turn up the volume, folks. It's head-banging time.
]]>We've already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin' and a-shakin' in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding pre-release expectations and most head-messing-with. Vintage cartoon-themed reflex-tester Cuphead leads the charge with two gongs, but ol' Plunkbat and The Witcher series also do rather well - as do a host of other games from 2017's great and good.
Full winners and runners-up below, with links to our previous coverage of each game if you're so-minded. Plus: I reveal which game I'd have gone for in each category.
]]>After almost six months practising its moves in front of the early access mirror, the new 'Amplified' expansion for Crypt of the NecroDancer [official site] is ready to hit the dancefloor. The prequel DLC launched last night, bringing a new story, a new zone, protagonist, enemies, items, songs, and more to the dungeon-crawling rhythm game. More of a good game is good. Here, have a look at this:
]]>Rhythmic dungeon crawler Crypt of the Necrodancer [official site] was one of my games of the year back in 2015. It would probably have made the list for the shopkeeper's song alone but the game itself is ace, beat-based combat. Anyhoodle, the base game now has DLC prequel, Amplified, available in early access as the devs fine tune the experience.
]]>Dark days for the world. Maybe videogames can save us? Haha yes of course they can haha.
Here are some really good videogames, though. They'll take you to a better place for a while. These are the RPS team's 13 personal favourites from the current Steam Summer Sale: we believe in these games, and we believe that you should play them too.
]]>The Witcher 3 took home two awards last night at the 16th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, including the coveted Game of the Year prize. Her Story, after winning big at the IGF Awards hours earlier, captured a further three trophies. Comes see the full list of winners and nominees below.
]]>We made our list for Games of the Year or Bestest Bests or Advent Calendars or whatever it was but some of my candidates were missed off the list for NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER. I mean, fine, some of them were console games and some of them are from the wrong year but they're still games that were good this year and I still want to highlight them. Read on for gory janitorial duties, party crypts and the end of Dinklebot. I've also included a link or two in case you wanted to read a bit more about those games :)
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I almost didn't play Crypt of the Necrodancer [official site]. A roguelite dungeoncrawler with a rhythm action gimmick? Lord have mercy, I thought to myself, what will they think of next. That the game's music and rhythmic actions are a brilliantly realised and fundamental central mechanic rather than a gimmick is such a delightful surprise.
]]>What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day two of the sale and how to play the monster summer sale game.
]]>Crypt of the Necrodancer [official site] has been shuffling through Early Access for some time, even though it impressed Alec with its very first flick of the hips. Now the rhythm-based roguelike has a full launch date and it's April 23rd, which is next week. There's a new trailer below to prove it.
]]>Hey! It's a new weekly video series from Quinns talking about one mechanic in one game. First up: rhythm-based movement in music-infused roguelike Crypt of the Necrodancer [official site].
]]>Crypt of the Necrodancer blends roguelikes with rhythm action, neatly makes that wild concept work, and is out on Early Access today. I’ve been dipping my twitching toes in and out of it for the last couple of weeks.
I’ve long been aware of my own challenging relationship with rhythm – although I did take a certain pride in people moving away from my frenzied, unpredictable whirling in clubs – but struggling to cope with even Crypt of the Necrodancer’s sound latency calibration tool was a blow. I stared at the blinking icons and listened to the test tone I couldn’t seem to predict, gripped by professional terror. Somehow I’d decided it was a great idea to write about a game based on rhythm. Now, excuses rushes through my brain. "I damaged both my index fingers while making a sandwich." "My middle ear blew because my baby screamed too loud." "It turns out I’m allergic to the word ‘crypt."
]]>I'm exploring the disco dungeons of Crypt of the Necrodancer right now, though I'm saving words for a little closer to its Early Access release. I'll say just this for now: you're going to see photos of me using a dance mat, and for that you have my eternal pity. Dancemats (official Necrodancer variants of which are now for sale) are not the only way to play this rythym-action rogue like, but they are certainly the most tiring, sweat-inducing and inefficient. And therefore best. Gamepads and keyboards are an equally-supported system of duffing up skeletons and opening chests by moving your character's feet to the beat though, fear not.
Here's a new trailer that sells the tone and danceability of Brace Yourself Games' dance dance dungeonering game rather well. Ooh, the things a well-timed screen-shake can do.
]]>Er. We didn't entirely plan that well, did we? The IGF Awards have been and gone, but our series of interviews with the finalists in the 2014 version of the world's premier indie competition continue. Moonwalking excitedly up to the plinth this time is Brace Yourself's appealingly mad roguelike/rhythm action mash-up, Crypt of the Necrodancer . Read on for how to play the bally thing, if people without rhythm can cope, lead dev Ryan Clark's take on the bastardisation of the term 'roguelike' and the importance of Michael Jackson's Thriller to the whole endeavour.
]]>You might think that Crypt Of The NecroDancer is being cute by combining a dance floor with a dungeon. That it's one of those mash-ups that people seem to like nowadays. That they're taking one thing and another thing and making a rhythm-action roguelike with it. You're so wrong it hurts. Turning a dance floor into a dungeon, making the player move through the throng to the beat of the music as they fight for their life, pretty much describes 99% of clubs I've found myself in. All that's different are the clothes and the fact that the weapons aren't hidden. Why yes, I did grow up in Glasgow. Why do you ask?
]]>Back in my day, combining chocolate and peanut butter was the height of invention. Anything beyond that, incidentally, was viewed as witchcraft punishable to the fullest extent of the law – which at that point basically meant having your limbs tied to very determined geese as they yanked you in various directions until it hurt a little. Now, though, we live in a lawless “progressive” society where all sorts of mad alchemical science isn't just allowed; it's encouraged! Case in point: Crypt of the NecroDancer combines Dance Dance Revolution and roguelikes. Madness! Heresy! The end of civilization as we know it! Also, pretty cool looking.
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