Sad news, folks. Munich, Germany-based independent developer Mimimi Games have announced that they're closing doors following the release of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, which RPS only recently described as the studio's best work yet. The developer plan to support Shadow Gambit with patches and additions, but are otherwise ceasing development and will "slowly ramp down" in the coming months. Founders Dominik Abé and Johannes Roth are even now trying to relocate the studio's few dozen employees, who will be paid a bonus taken from Shadow Gambit profits to ease the transition.
]]>There’s still so much we don’t know about the next stealth strategy game from the makers of Desperados 3 and Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun. Until yesterday, all we had was a codename (“Süßkartoffel”, or Sweet Potato), and a few other scant business facts developer Mimimi Games posted about on their blog last year. In fact, the only concrete thing we really know about it right now is that it’s not going to be Shadow Tactics 2.
However, in chatting to Mimimi this week about leaving real-time tactics behind in favour of their new "Stealth Strategy" label, I’ve managed to glean a few more details. Alas, Mimimi still aren’t ready to reveal Süßkartoffel’s official name just yet, but head of design Moritz Wagner told me it’s not only going to be much more beginner-friendly than their previous games, but that it will also be much more like one big sandbox this time, resisting the urge to limit players by strict level constraints. To me, it all sounded a bit like they were aiming for something akin to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, so I asked him about whether that was an accurate assessment of it. “Yes and no,” he said.
]]>The makers of Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun and Desperados 3 have been thinking a lot about real-time tactics recently. Not just because they’re knee-deep in making their next tactics game at the moment, currently known as Codename Süßkartoffel (the word for "Sweet Potato" in their native German), but because they feel the genre as a whole doesn’t quite convey what’s so special about their catalogue of excellent stealth ‘em ups anymore. It’s a fair cop – despite appearing in our best strategy games list for many years, even I’ve struggled to come up with a succinct way of describing them. Thus, it’s time for a change, say the studio.
In a blog post published today on Mimimi Games’ website, the studio announced they’re going to be referring to their work as “Stealth Strategy” games going forward, and they’re hoping this new genre label will help prospective players better understand their special blend of silent assassination tactics. This kind of shift isn’t without its challenges, though, so I caught up with the team at Mimimi to talk more about this newfound shift, and how it’s going to lay the foundations for what’s to come in Codename Süßkartoffel.
]]>THQ Nordic are celebrating their 10th anniversary by giving away free games via Steam. Surprisingly enduring action RPG Titan Quest is currently free-to-keep, and so is the ancient turn-based tactics of Jagged Alliance.
Then, if you want something a little more modern, the real-time tactical stealth of Desperados 3 is free-to-try for the next three days.
]]>The revival of tactics games has been one of the most exciting trends of the past few years. The best of the recent bunch is Desperados 3, developer Mimimi's cowboy sneak 'em up. To celebrate the series' 20th birthday, it's half off - and the older games in the series have even deeper discounts.
]]>Whenever I have a chunk of holiday sitting in front of me, the possibilities seem endless. Maybe I'll finally play Cyberpunk 2077 now it's been properly patched, I think. But maybe I should also finally finish Nier: Automata in preparation for when Replicant comes out at the end of the month. There are also those dozen odd indie games I've got piled up, too. Narita Boy, the final bit of Record Of Lodoss War: Deelit In Wonder Labyrinth, Signs Of The Sojourner and goodness knows what else. "I could probably do a bit of each!" I say optimistically. In the end, though, my grand plans for playing loads of games never really materialises. I might be able to manage it if I literally play games every second I'm awake from morning til night, but that's not very relaxing now, is it?
In the end, after an impromptu viewing of the 90s western film Tombstone, I decided to opt for the very manageable mission chunks of Desperados 3 as my big Easter holiday project, which is the latest rootin' tootin' real-time tactics game from the Shadow Tactics devs, Mimimi Productions. I'd played the opening few missions back when it came out last summer, but its long, sprawling maps gradually demanded more time and dedication than I was able to give them. I like to do entire missions in one go, you see, and do them stealthily, which often takes even longer because I'm pretty bad at being sneaky - as my five hours doing a complete ghost run of Dishonored 2's Clockwork Mansion level will attest. Now, though, I had entire afternoons to luxuriate in its detailed, densely packed playgrounds of trigger happy cowboys, and goodness, what an astonishingly satisfying and generous game it is.
]]>Desperados III is probably the best real-time tactics game I've played. Previously, that title was held by developer Mimimi Games's previous creation, Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun, which was very nearly as excellent. But with Desperados III, Mimimi elevated their Commandos-style formula to near-perfection.
]]>The studio behind Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun and Desperados 3 today revealed that their next real-time tactics game is something brand new, telling a whole new story all of their own. So no, it's not Desperados 4, and it's not Shadow Tactics 2 either. After two cracking games, I'm well up for whatever their third is.
]]>Microsoft have revealed the next load of games arriving on Xbox Game Pass for PC this month, and I think you Yakuza fans are going to be rather pleased. The Yakuza Remastered collection (containing Yakuzas 3, 4 and 5) will hit the subscription service on January 28th, along with Bloober Team's brand new horror The Medium. On top of that, Donut County, and RPS fave Desperados 3 are on the way too. Lovely stuff.
]]>The developers at Mimimi Productions who brought us the quite good stealth tactics game Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun and Desperados 3 are, surprise of surprises, working on another real-time tactics game. It'll be a while before the project codenamed "süßkartoffel" or "sweet potato" reaches our hands, but Mimimi have confirmed that it is indeed the next game on their docket.
]]>Oh dear, is it that time already? Yes indeed, the Steam Autumn Sale has arrived, bringing the seasonal discounts on thousands of games. Awards season is upon as as well, so they've opened up nominations for the yearly Steam Awards. You can vote and reap the discounts from now until December 1st at 10am PST / 6pm GMT.
]]>Strategy games is an enormous genre in PC gaming, with real-time, turn-based, 4X and tactics games all flying the same flag to stake their claim as the one true best strategy game. Our list of the best strategy games on PC covers the lot of them. We like to take a broad view here at RPS, and every game listed below is something we firmly believe that you could love and play today. You'll find 30-year-old classics nestled right up against recent favourites here, so whether you're to the genre or want to dig deep for some hidden gems, we've got you covered. Here are our 50 best strategy games for 2023.
]]>After so splendidly reviving the real-time tactical squad series, Desperados 3 is now just showing off with its own new take on an old location. The third and final DLC of its season pass is out today, Part 3: Once More With Feeling, and it's returning to the Eagle's Nest - a vast bandit fortress from previous games. The base game and its DLCs have hearty discounts for a few days, too. Get a peek at the task ahead in the new trailer below.
]]>Here's a fun computing fact for you: the Linux term root is derived from the cowboy term rootin' tootin', because the console cowboys who clip-clopped on their mechanical keyboards like a bucking bronco and listened to Fields Of The Nephilim would cry "Yeehaw!" and wave their leather Stetsons when they got system admin rights - a real rootin' tootin' time. How fitting, then, that wonderful Wild West squad tactics game Desperados 3 today launched a Linux version. A Mac version arrived too, so even those city slickers might be tempted by the cowboy lifestyle.
The first paid DLC mission is out now too, plus a challenge mission that's free for all players.
]]>Geralt of Rivia returns to Desperados 3 today with another four Baron's Challenges for you. These are the bonus missions which revisit levels with some weirder objectives at the invitation of The Baron, voiced by yer witchy man Doug Cockle. The game launched with only five such Challenges, so another four in a free patch is a good whack more - and a good excuse to revisit a great game. Here's a trailer with Doug encouraging you to ruin a party:
]]>Halloo, gentle reader. Since we're half way through the entire year of 2020 (yet somehow it is also still March?), we decided to run down, lasso and tie up some of our favourite games from the last six months, and force them into a nice list for you.
2020 still has plenty of new PC games to come, of course, but these are the ones closest to our little hearts so far. We've got strategy, we've got card games, we've got systematic reclamation of scraped spaceships. And, since Nate Crowley is one of the contributors to this list, we've got fish. Statistically speaking, there's bound to be at least one game on here that you'll ruddy bloody love too!
]]>Strategic wild west adventure Desperados 3 is out and yup, it's a gunslingin' good time according to RPS's Desperados 3 review. Your crew of misfits sneak through trains, towns, and other yeehaw settings to take out enemies with stealth and trickery. What good's all that strategy though if you can't do it with frightful efficiency? Ye olde speedrunners are on the case as always and boy howdy watching them blast through Desperados 3 levels is a treat.
]]>The Oxford English Dictionary defines “strategy” as “any game that centres puzzle-solving or cerebral thought”. I’ve taken that surprisingly liberal definition, ran off to the Steam Summer Games Festival, and come back with an armful of videogames that vaguely fall under that umbrella. Some of them are definitely skirting the edges and getting their feet wet, but you should play them anyway.
Below you’ll find a digital board game, a cute puzzler, surreal turn-based tactics, cowboy-based tactics, and… Genesis Noir. I’m really quite excited about Genesis Noir.
]]>In case you're somehow already done with the delightful Desperados 3, publishers THQ Nordic have launched an official Desperados tabletop roleplaying game. Together with the pen & paper people at Pegasus, it the rootin' tootin' tactical video game into one of those there imaginary games where you and your squadmates can pash whenever you want. It's out now, and it's free to download - printer not included.
]]>The rootin', tootin', squad-based tactical shooting that is Desperados 3 finally launched today, reviving the Commandos-esque noughties series created by Spellbound Entertainment. It's been placed in great hands: Minimi, the makers of Shadow Tactics, and our Desperados 3 review from Commandos devotee Tim Stone declares Desperados 3 "every bit as brilliant" as Shadow Tactics. So, that's good. It has a demo too.
]]>Claymore Game Studios, the newly formed outfit tasked with reviving the Commandos franchise, is in need of an Unreal Engine expert, a 3D artist, a 3D animator, and a senior level designer. Whoever secures the latter job will, if they are sensible, do nothing their first week except watch old war movies and play Desperados III. Proving that the superb Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun was no fluke, Mimimi have followed it with an Old West effort that's every bit as brilliant.
]]>[Warning: this article must be read entirely in a comedy cowboy voice]
Howdy pardner. Spittoon? Take it, we got a whole crate of them right here. Every god-fearing outlaw needs a good spittoon at their heels, as my grandmammy used to say. Hoo-wee, what a women. She was known to enjoy a strong snifter of list article, you know. Everyone who visited got a spittoon and a list article. And vidyagames be damned if I ain’t the same obliging sort as my grammy, yes sir. So here you go, friend. In anticipation of that there Desperados III, here are the 9 most desperate cowboys, cowgals, and cowbots in PC gaming. Yeehaw, I say, yee and haw.
]]>I've definitely not been hiding the fact that I'm psyched about stealth games that are actually just puzzles in disguise. This new Desperados 3 trailer presents a couple puzzling pickles of the variety you'll navigate when the game releases later this month. It's a choose your own trailer assisted by the magic of world wide web hyperlinks. Do you roll into cowboyville through the front doors or do you play the only way I deign acceptable by sneaking in and using the tricks up your sleeve?
]]>You, there, stop that. You've got new videogames to play. Good Old Games has just launched free demos for Desperados 3 and the System Shock remake, along with a handful of other upcoming games. I've already had a sneaky play of both tactical cowboys and cybernetic spaceship loners, so I can already tell you they're worth your time. Aren't I good.
This is also another chance to check out Carrion, a horror game where you are a horrible mass of sticky tentacles.
]]>There's a new trailer in town for cowboy stealth game Desperados 3. What they're calling an "explanation trailer" doubles as a very long gameplay trailer that pretty well serves as a tutorial too. The new video goes over each of the characters, cover mechanics, coordinated attacks, and lots more with a nice fresh look at each.
]]>THQ Nordic today announced a June 16th release date for Desperados III, a revival of the rootin' tootin' real-time tactical squad game. Last seen in 2006, Desperados was a decent wild west take on ye olde Commandos series. What's particularly exciting about Desperados III is that it's being made by Mimimi, the studio who already proved their tactical chops with Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun. Hurry up, June.
]]>As you may have noticed, we've been throwing a Rezzed Digital party over the last few days, and were inundated with demo and preview builds for a whole plethora of interesting indie games. We weren't able to play them all - but we played a lot. As is our way, a few of us got together to share our pick of the bunch, which coincidentally turned out to be a nice round 10! We weren't even trying to do that.
]]>EGX Rezzed may be delayed to July but we're doing our darnedest to plug the gap it left in the week using Rezzed Digital. On this second day we we shove those GamesIndustry.biz and Eurogamer chumps away from the camera so we can have more of the spotlight. On our streams we'll talk with one of the folks behind Desperados III (the return of the much-beloved real-time tactical cowboy 'em up), Imogen will gab about gamewords jobs, and Nate will give a fully true history of Jason Statham in video gaming. Plus those other nerks will still be doing other stuff, I guess. Read on for the schedule and streams.
]]>Things have been quiet out of the Desperados 3 corner for several months, ever since the closed beta in 2019. Sometimes a cowboy's got a feeling though and I had a good feeling we'd see Mimimi Productions' next tactical game in 2020. Looks like it's time to put another news in the chamber and cock it because Desperados 3 has a new trailer today and a release window of "Summer 2020." There's lots of real-time death-dealin' and party management shown off for the deadly Doctor McCoy.
]]>Over the break we had a chance to do some serious scientific study of this business we call games, and it turns out that games are actually good. 2020 in particular has a healthy mix of big budget bonanzas and smaller indie plates to suit everyone's discerning tastes. And, as you know, the RPS treehouse is the most discerning, so to make it easier for you we've got a big ol' list of the games we're most looking forwards to this year. It's traditional.
]]>I was up for Desperados III just knowing the real-time tactical stealth series is being resumed by the studio behind the swish Shadow Tactics. But the most important detail of the game has, for reasons I cannot fathom, been kept quiet until this month: one of our squad members has a cat. This cat is named Stella. When Stella's food-provider talks to Stella, she meows like she definitely does understand. A good cat. Stella is also so adorable that baddies admiring her don't even notice someone sneaking up to slit their throat. Come meet Stella and her feeder, Isabelle Moreau, in a new video from our Matthew out at Gamescom.
]]>It’s a bit tricky to knock together a list of the best upcoming stealth games, because it’s a bit tricky to say what a stealth game even is anymore. Stealth is more frequently looking like a playstyle or bulletpoint rather than the crux of an entire game. Even the best stealth games in recent memory - yer Invisible Incs, Ian Hitmans, Alien: Isolations - have all layered their stealth within towering trifles of genre mashups. And that’s good! It just means we've had to flex the definition for this list.
Below, I’ve gathered together a few of the best upcoming stealth games that I’ve got my ridiculously over powered, patrol pattern-sensing eye on. Some of these aren’t strictly genre adherent, but all offer stealthy play as at least core element. Do feel free to suggest your own upcoming games in the comments.
]]>E3 2019 is finished! More importantly, we have almost recovered from E3 2019. To celebrate their convalescence, Alice B and Matt piled into the podcast studio for a 40-minute post-show chat about their favourite games from the show and thoughts on the many E3 press conferences.
]]>My main memory of Desperados is repeatedly getting shot and not understanding why. That's because I tried to play it when I was eight, not because it was impenetrable or confusing. I'm simply making you aware that Desperados was before my time, and so based on my hands on with Desperados III I can't tell you whether it's living up that legacy.
It's from the same team that made Shadow Tactics though, and I can tell from the little I've played this absolutely lives up to that.
]]>If you believe (incorrectly) that there's no such thing as bad publicity, you may be impressed that people are still talking about publisher THQ Nordic GmbH. Their 'Ask Me Anything' Q&A session on 8chan - an infamous image-board permanently delisted from Google for hosting suspected child porn - got people chattering. Unfortunately it's the kind of chatter that has brought parent company THQ Nordic AB out of the woodwork to publicly apologise for the incident to "group employees, partners and consumers", although it's a predictably rote and half-hearted statement.
]]>"We're doing an 8chan AMA and we have no idea why," announced THQ Nordic on their Twitter account earlier this evening. If you're not aware, 8chan is an imageboard website which has been de-listed from Google search results for hosting "suspected child abuse content," and which is associated with Swatting and Gamergate.
THQ Nordic's marketing director has since apologised and claimed ignorance, but both are hard to believe.
]]>After a decade face-down in a dusty digital gulch with the buzzards fighting the lizards for its gizzards, the Desperados series will return to life next year. Publishers THQ Nordic today announced Desperados III, resuming the real-time tactical action, and excitingly it's being made by Mimimi. They're the studio who made 2016's Desperados/Commandos homage Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun, which was great - a fine match. Here, have a look at Desperados III in this preview video from our Matthew.
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