Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! “What’s with the politics? Stick to games!” is a common refrain you might hear from the sort of winning individual who thinks books are a communist plot to lower their sperm count. Luckily, those people are elsewhere, so I hope you’ll allow me a brief moment of relief that the Tories are no longer in power. This is a great thing, providing you have absolutely no follow-up questions! This week, it’s QWOP, Getting Over It, and Ape Out's Bennet Foddy! Cheers Bennet! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
]]>We've all seen it. The little spinning symbol cautioning players against impatient acts of powering down. "Don't turn off your system when this symbol is displayed," goes the message seen often while booting up a game (or some other version of these words). The implication is clear. The saving process is delicate and if you interrupt this invisible ritual the data that's being written to some folder deep in your PC's innards will become corrupted, wrecked, banjaxed. You will lose all your progress, all your precious swords and accomplishments.
But is this true? How likely are you to really suffer a catastrophic loss of shotgun shells? To find out, I decided to spend a very annoying afternoon of turning my gaming rig off and on again during multiple games. Was this a good idea? I don't know. I'm a gamer, not an ideas man.
]]>It turns out there's only one way to improve Bennet Foddy's Getting Over It, and that's to exchange cauldron and mallet for motors and asphalt. A 15-person mapping team has channelled all the grief and rage from Foddy's hit fall 'em up into a 15-story tower that genuinely hurts my eyes to look at.
There's a $500+ prize pool to be shared between the first three people who can complete the damn thing. The map came out five days ago, and as yet nobody has.
]]>Just a small daft fun thing: I'm delighted to see an Elden Ring player has realised you can use a bug to dress as the star of Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, complete with his pot. Of all the strange outfits I've seen in Elden Ring, this is one of my favourites. What a joy to see that unlikely gaming icon again, and how gracious of him to visit an easy game for babies.
]]>Times are strange and frightening. But one point of great solace for me has been hearing people celebrating things in their lives. It feels especially important right now to hold on to what makes us all proud about what we do and who we are. And what I really love is people showing off things they’re proud of making.
So I’ve been asking a bunch of developers to pick out something they’ve created that brings them pleasure to look back on. And here they are, including Harvey Smith remembering his input on Deus Ex and Dishonored, Derek Yu on one of his first-ever games. There’s pride in doing something for someone else’s game, in the power of details and in little inventions, and ah gosh, shut up, let’s just tuck into a big slice of escapist positivity.
]]>“Hell is other people,” wrote Jean-Paul Sartre. “But also my favourite level in Doom.” He was a smart man, and he probably lives in hell now, on account of all the atheism. But listen, hell doesn’t seem that bad. Bit hot. Bit demonic. You could do a lot worse than a trip to the underworld, is what I’m saying, and as luck would have it, we have the perfect means for you to go there without singeing your eyebrows or being dunked in a toxic lake for eternity. That’s right: videogames. It’s always videogames. Here are the 10 best hells you can visit on PC.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
Do you know what awaits atop the mountain in Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy? Past all the nonsensical detritus, and after every snippet of Foddy's philosophical musing? I do. Not because I climbed it, obviously. I'm a coward who relies on the internet for answers.
If you're still convinced you're going to get there under your own steam one day, read no further.
]]>I heard you don’t like our podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. But have you listened to 76 hours of it yet? Honestly, mate, it opens up after that. The 76-hour mark, that’s when it “clicks”. But I understand if you don’t have the time. Just skip ahead to this week’s episode, in which we’re talking about games about which we changed our minds. Listen in for the platformers we prematurely pooh-poohed and the Souls games that “sucked” before they were super.
]]>Screenshot via "MathChief" on YouTube, whose video is below
Grappling hooks make getting around easy. Hopping into a hard iron cauldron and navigating only with a two-handed pick? That's true mastery. Sexy Hiking was the last game I expected to see referenced in Just Cause 4, today's AAA explodathon du jour, but that's exactly what we've got, give or take one degree of separation. Hidden up an innocuous mountainside in Just Cause 4 is a mini-game based on Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, the soul-shattering physics nightmare that speedrunners recently flocked to. Best thing? Avalanche even got Foddy to narrate it.
]]>Hurry, hurry. There are only 37 Steam sales each year - miss a bargain now and you'll regret it for the rest of your days. (Until the next one).
As always, the latest Steam Autumn sale is a sensory overload of cut-price delights. We're here to guide you through the white noise and make a few informed choices.
]]>Bennett Foddy, the fiendish fella behind QWOP and Getting Over It, has shared his own variant of iconic game Pong. It's named FLOP, and you can probably guess what makes it different. Foddy actually made FLOP years ago, as a secret game hidden in the ace local multiplayer collection Sportsfriends, but now he's released a standalone version so it's simpler to play (with events in mind, really, but we benefit too). If you like a bit of jostling on a couch, it might give you some giggles.
]]>The awards ceremony at this year’s GDC was fun. At least, that’s what John told me from his seat in the crowd, where he saw the winners mount a stage some would consider too colourful for this planet. The Independent Games Festival Awards and subsequent Game Developer’s Choice Awards saw a range of trophy-grabbers, from indie students to adventure game veterans. Unfortunately for them, I was hiding backstage, skulking behind a black curtain and holding a voice recorder like a cudgel. I had one question to ask them all: If they had to give their award away, who would get it?
It’s like re-gifting, except you worked really hard for the gift and now you have to hand it over three minutes after your acceptance speech. Life is pain.
]]>Rad trash mammal simulator Night In The Woods scooped this year's Grand Prize during the 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards at the Game Developers Conference last night, also lifting the award for Excellence In Narrative. Baba Is You, an upcoming puzzle game about shifting words to change how parts of the levels and game work, also picked up two awards. Looking across all the winners, ah yes, there certainly are good video games going around.
]]>This is Brendan, broadcasting live from rumour world, where everything is made of a nebulous candy floss-like substance. The locals call it “hope.” Amid this sticky cloud, a figure has formed. It’s Geralt of Rivia, hero of popular Gwent spin-off, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The monster-hunting swordsman will “make an appearance” in another game later this year, according to CD Projekt Red community lead Marcin Momot. Some have asserted that he'll be a guest character in upcoming fighting game Soul Calibur VI. Which makes sense given the close business ties between the Polish studio and Japanese publisher Namco Bandai.
It isn't confirmed. But it does raise the question: who else deserves a place on the stage of history? I asked the RPS treehouse who they’d like to see. Here’s the list we all settled on.
]]>I'm still fascinated by Getting Over It, though I've reach the point where I can only handle playing it for about 15 minutes a week. Amazingly, that'd be enough time for speedrunner Christian 'Distortion2' Licht to make his way all the way up the mountain 7 and a half times: last week he became the first person to beat the game in under 2 minutes.
While I won't be performing such a feat any time soon, I did get the chance to pick Distortion's brain about his first clamber up the mountain, how speedrunning Getting Over It compares to other games, and - most importantly - how to handle those rage inducing set-backs. Be warned that though the game has no story, we do discuss some of its twists and turns.
]]>Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy has been stewing for a while - as have the people who've been playing it - so I figured the internet would have cooked up some treats for our viewing pleasure. I figured correctly: below you'll find the best clips, gifs and raps I could find.
If you've ever wondered what Getting Over It might look like if someone attempted it in real life, then wonder no more.
]]>Poise. Skill. Patience. Calm.
Those are just four of the attributes that speedrunner 'Distortion2' possess, and I am sadly lacking - at least when it comes to ascending a mountain as a man stuck in a cauldron using only a hammer (a sentence that never stops being fun to write). Ok, so you read the headline, you know what you're about to witness: Getting Over It has been completed in less than 2 minutes. If you don't mind seeing the later sections before you've reached them yourself, then this is one speedrun you won't want to miss.
]]>It's that time again already - 2018's Independent Games Festival hands out its best-in-indie gongs on March 21 (as part of the Game Developers Conference), and these are the games in line for a prize. And, more importantly, a big shot at success thanks to the profile, although it should be noted that a fair few of these have done rather well for themselves already.
Scooping the most nods at 4 is veritable brain-frying, rule-rewriting puzzler Baba Is You, while the singular, surreal climbing game Getting Over It... With Bennett Foddy and charming, cups-on-ears narrative adventure Night In The Woods both boast a respectable three, followed by FTL follow-up Into The Breach with 2. There are many more lovely, lovely things on the full list of finalists below.
]]>The calendar's doors have been opened and the games inside have been eaten. But fear not, latecomer - we've reconstructed the list in this single post for easy re-consumption. Click on to discover the best games of 2017.
]]>Ho ho hello readers! It's Father Christmas here! I hope you've all been good boys and girls this year! Now, let me see, what have you all been wishing for? Goodness gracious, it's all PC games! Well, I wouldn't know much about those I suppose, but let's have a look...
]]>We've told you about the most overlooked games and what has us excited for next year, but we haven't had a good grump yet on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. So this week the team discuss the worst games they played in 2017. John thinks the misogyny of House Party puts it firmly in the bin, and Brendan is still wiping the red dust from his eyes after woeful survival game Rokh. But Matt can't bring himself to call any game terrible, not even Star Wars Battlefront 2.
It's not all negative vibes, however. We've also been smiling at pretty and poignant Gorogoa, climbing a mountain in Getting Over It, and shooting our way through Destiny 2's Curse of Osiris expansion. We're only a bit scroogey.
]]>You may have witnessed us trying difficult mountain climbing game Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy. Last week Matt attempted to scale part of the mountain, clambering over rocks, girders, concrete pipes and wooden barrels using nothing but the game's jerky sledgehammer and terrifying upper body strength. He did well. But Matt lacks a deeper comprehension of summits and the ascent thereof - a philosophical understanding I myself possess. So I decided to pick up where he left off. Come and watch me Getting Over Matt.
]]>Welcome to the Steam Charts. Here are the headlines.
]]>Let me tell you a clubhouse secret. We have a mantra at RPS for deciding what to write about, and it’s as simple as it is helpful: 'a good time should be shared online'.
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy released on Steam yesterday, and whatever kind of time it is, the only way I can properly share it is if you’re with me. In the moment. Here are four agonising minutes of me flailing around as a man stuck in a cauldron trying to ascend a mountain with a hammer.
]]>We've taken our QWOPs and our GIRPs, like all growing youngsters should, but can we really say we are healthy, well-balanced individuals until we have tried to climb a mountain using only a sledgehammer while stuck in a cauldron? That sounds like a rhetorical question, but it is not. Getting Over It [official site] is the next game from Bennett Foddy. And while it does away with the naming convention of his previous 2D stumblers, it still looks like a game that simulates what it feels like for your hands to be drunk while the rest of your body is sober. Here's a video.
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