I slammed back into the team chat after an appointment this morning, and Katharine asked me to take a look at the new It Takes Two merch - specifically the plushy elephant. And I was like, "Sure!" and toddled off to have a look. I was delighted! But I think Katharine was anticipating it would arouse a different emotional response in me to what it actually did, because she used the word "horrifying".
]]>It Takes Two is being adapted into a movie, with the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson attached to produce and the screenwriters of the recent Sonic movies attached to pen the script. There's also a chance The Rock may star in the movie as well - presumably as the perverted book.
]]>This year's BAFTA Game Awards winners were announced earlier this week, and just as It Takes Two and Unpacking received a lot of nominations, so did It Takes Two and Unpacking win a lot of awards. The co-op divorce sim picked up the big weird face for Best Multiplayer and Best Original Property while Unpacking won Best Narrative and the publicly voted EE Game Of The Year award. Nice.
]]>Last night, RPS' Bestest Best game of 2021 Inscryption won the Seumus McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards, confirming that once again, we are correct about everything. If that wasn't enough, though, an hour later, Inscryption then won the Game Of The Year award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. It's the first time a game has ever won both awards in the same year, which is a stonking achievement. Clearly, our Advent Calendar made some pretty big waves this year. Just saying.
]]>This weekend brought the second annual Video Game Accessibility Awards, a celebration of games which make an effort to welcome a wider range of players. Prizes came in ten categories covering everything from control and text options to friendly training spaces. It was a fun awards show too, with good hosts, chat from devs, and even a special appearance from Van Wilder star Ryan Reynolds.
]]>Hazelight Studios abandoned an attempt to trademark the name of their co-op platformer It Takes Two after it was contested by Take-Two Interactive. In a comment to Eurogamer, a Hazelight spokesperson said they "cannot comment on ongoing disputes" but was "hopeful it will be resolved."
]]>Almost all of the games I'm interested in playing this November will launch on Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft's subscription service on PC will see the arrival of Forza Horizon 5, Football Manager 2022 and Unpacking.
]]>After countless Xbox Game Pass plugs, a lot of Dooming, and the arrival and subsequent disappearance of Greta Surname, The PC Gaming Weekspot is coming to an end. But, before we go, there's time to highlight some of our favourite games of 2021.
]]>With 2021 marching on at a seemingly impossible pace, we thought it was high time we sat down in our virtual Treehouses to chat about the best games of the year we've played so far. 2021 has been an odd year for games. The first few months were front-loaded with some big meaty hitters after giving Cyberpunk 2077 a wide berth at the end of last year, while others have been pushed back even further into the depths of 2022. Indeed, a lot of the games we're really looking forward to in 2021 are still hovering away on the horizon, tantalisingly close but just out of reach.
Until those juicy morsels arrive on our gaming plates, though, these are the games we've enjoyed the most over the last six months. You'll find all sorts here, from big epic space operas and zombie horror fests to cosy town builders and err... couple's therapy puzzlers. Will any of them make it to our end of year Advent Calendar? Only time will tell. And if we've missed something you think is absolutely vital playing this year, please do shout about it in the comments. Our gaming bellies are never full these days, and the Christmas turkey is still so very far away...
]]>This is a slightly different episode of The Weekspot. We had to record a little earlier because of the Easter weekend in the UK, and Matthew wasn’t able to come on because of prior commitments.
So, instead of talking to myself for an hour and a half, I drafted in two lovely guests: Josh Wise of VideoGamer and Rich Walker of Xbox Achievements.
]]>Dr. Hakim gives books a bad name, and the story is quite muddled in places, but It Takes Two is easily one of the best co-op games of the last few years. Probably the last ever years, really.
]]>The next two player 'em up from Hazelight Studios is officially out now. It Takes Two puts you and your co-op pal in a split screen adventure to help potential divorcees Cody and May learn to work together again as tiny, Honey I Shrunk My Spouse versions of themselves. Better yet, it sounds like Hazelight have even successfully mediated the marriage between all the many types of character abilities they've chucked together this time around. Knowing that, I'm plenty ready to call up my usual pal to tackle this one.
]]>At this stage in my life I am both a child of divorce and an owner of one, so the concept of a two-player co-op game that gamifies an about-to-be-divorced couple's relationship was very intriguing to me. Obviously divorces aren't fun when you're in the midst of them, but they're also incredibly common, and quite often (as was the case with my own) actually the best solution. At a very reductionist level, a divorce is just a breakup with more paperwork, and God knows we've made everything else into a game at this point. Normalise divorce.
So, here we have It Takes Two, the latest game from Hazelight Studios, wot did A Way Out. Bickering couple Cody and May are turned into little doll versions of themselves, and puzzle and platform around different bits of their home in an effort to become real again. To save disappointment I will let you know off the top that the song It Takes Two does not actually feature in the game at any point. I know; I was upset as well. Fortunately the game makes up for it by being a very good, very playful adventure.
]]>There comes a point, regardless of your interest in a particular video game, where you can't ignore the popular one. Valheim has been dominating the charts since it came out last month, so I recently decided to jump in and see what all the fuss was about. And, after a couple of hours, it seems the fuss relates to that sense of accomplishment after you've constructed a terrible house. At least that's my experience with it.
]]>Here's something I wasn't expecting: It Takes Two is pretty difficult. I didn't think it was going to be a piece of the proverbial, exactly, but considering that Hazelight Studios' last co-op game, the gritty two-lads-escaping-prison split-screen adventure A Way Out wasn't all that challenging in the end because both players were able to act pretty independently, I assumed It Takes Two would follow in a similar vein. This is not the case.
I was also lulled into a false sense of security by the contrasting design of It Takes Two, which is a cartoony, colourful toy box built on a Borrowers scale. I assumed it would be a fun run-about you could play with a kid, or your partner who isn't into games because they do normal adult things like eat poached eggs. But the two sections I played in preview were the most couchy, co-operative thing I've played in years. And they were hard.
]]>Hazelight Studios's next split screen co-op 'em up It Takes Two is set to launch next month so they've gone and shown off a look at its relationship repairing adventures. "There are no similar scenarios," says Hazelight hype man and game director Josef Fares. "Every scene is unique." Sure enough, there appears to be racing and shooting and puzzling and more that you'll tackle with your co-op pal.
]]>Sometimes a relationship can be a man, a woman and their overenthusiatic talking book. At least, that's what I assume the trailer for It Takes Two is teaching us. It's a new co-op game from Hazelight, developers of A Way Out, where you play as a couple who've been magically turned into dolls. It looks very lovely, and it comes out on March 26th next year.
]]>Following the cooperative crime tale of A Way Out, developers Hazelight today announced a cooperative platformer, It Takes Two. Love a bit of co-op, that lot. It Takes Two is about a wee kid who tries to escape her parents' impending divorce by creating two toys of them to play with, who magically come alive, so we'll be controlling them in her escapist fantasies. Learn a bit, but not much, in the announcement trailer below.
]]>Playing games with other people is one of the beloved traditions of liking video games at all, and if you're the friendly type like us at RPS, then you'll enjoy games where you work with others, rather than against them. That's why we've put together our list of the best co-op games on PC for you to find common ground with your besties. Whether you want to shoot monsters together, shoot robots together, or get a divorcing couple to work together as they run around their own home as tiny doll versions of themselves, then you can find something to enjoy on this list of co-op games.
]]>
