Developer Cardboard Computer sporadically released their poetic adventure game, Kentucky Route Zero, in acts spread across multiple years. It was a teasing release schedule that only aided the game’s surreal mystery, so it’s no surprise that the studio have dropped the game’s first major update three years after the fifth and final chapter wrapped things up. The aptly named Postmodern Update overhauls the game’s user interface with a new Modern mode, alongside a host of bug fixes and more language options.
]]>When RPS awarded Kentucky Route Zero the title of Game Of The Year in 2013, only two episodes out of an eventual five had been released. If this sounds like a bland statement of fact, just think about it for a second. I can't recall any other time an episodic adventure game has received GOTY-level praise before it was even concluded, let alone only 40% done.
]]>Whoooo we’re officially in the double-digits gang! We’ve somehow managed to make it to episode 10 of Indiescovery without going completely feral and wrecking the joint. I say that, but this week’s episode is a little, shall we say, unhinged? Rebecca, Liam, and Rachel hadn’t really had a proper chat all week so there’s a lot of Friday energy and catching up, and the energy levels only increase when we start to talk about our main topic of this episode: Eurovision! And indie games, of course.
]]>It’s episode five of Indiescovery and we'd like our listeners to get to know us a little better, so this week we picked our ultimate favourite indie games and then had a big old natter about them. Talking about all our favourite games would take us into 3023, so we’ve kept it to two games per person, which actually wasn’t as hard as we thought it would be.
As always, you can also listen and subscribe via your podcast provider of choice! Find us on RSS feed, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Deezer.
]]>March means Springtime has begun and it’s finally time to say goodbye to Winter - and a fresh batch of Game Pass leavers. This month’s leaving soon list is bulkier than usual, with games such as Guardians Of The Galaxy, Goat Simulator, and Undertale all waving goodbye on March 15/16th.
]]>Guardians Of The Galaxy will be coming to Xbox Game Pass on March 10. Star-Lord for the cost of your subscription only. There are a handful of other games being added too.
]]>Nerves have been sufficiently jangled as of late, not least thanks to the slew of action packed games that have landed in recent months. I crave an altogether more sedate beginning to next year, and so my mind turns to games in which violence, reflex or any other kind of unblinking attentiveness takes a back seat.
]]>Looking back, I reckon Kentucky Route Zero's third act might've been the best of the lot. That it was the act to introduce wandering musicians Johnny and Junebug playing no small part in that impression. This week, the fictional duo took their music out of the supernatural road trip with an EP full of sad robot love songs - a perfect soundtrack for getting lonely with on these rainy October afternoons.
]]>I adore Kentucky Route Zero. Likewise, I adore the pieces on this site that discuss it. Alec's review in particular is incredibly articulate, goes into a lot of depth, and comes from a place of passion for the game. The discussion of Kentucky Route Zero generally, however, can be somewhat overwhelming to trawl through as a newcomer, and in order to fully take in much of what Alec Meer and others have written about Cardboard Computer’s point-and-click interactive fiction, you’d have to pour yourself a cup of relaxing peppermint tea and set aside a whole day of reading, like I did.
]]>This is the story of a journey’s end. But no homecoming can have meaning in isolation from the voyage that preceded it. This is why offering some critical judgement upon the fifth and (as far as we know) final Act of the interstate dream odyssey that is Kentucky Route Zero is an exercise in absurdity. It cannot be separated from what came before, nor from how the long years of waiting altered its place and power in memory. It also, perhaps, cannot be separated from how the world has changed during those long years.
So the following must be about all of those things, and not just the final moments of a landmark in videogame storytelling. To call Act V a climax, or a finale, or a denouement, is incorrect. Unexpectedly short and sharp, yet still wide of focus, it’s more of an epilogue to a decade-long journey which reached its final destination three and a half years ago.
]]>Act V of Kentucky Route Zero has finally launched, ending a journey that many in the RPS treehouse have come to love. If you haven't played the adventure game before, now is the perfect time to jump into Cardboard Computer's mysterious trip through a secret highway below Kentucky - but don't take my word for it, because almost everyone at RPS has had great things to say about this weird and wonderful game.
]]>The strange and wonderful adventure along the underground Kentucky Route Zero will conclude with Act V on January 28th, developers Cardboard Computer announced today. Seven years after the journey started, the end is almost in sight and oh it is glorious.
]]>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.
]]>Hopefully this is a sign that the long-awaited fifth and final episode of the incomparable, theatrical road trip adventure Kentucky Route Zero is not far away. Devs Cardboard Computer last week snuck out another of their brief, experimental 'interludes', free game-ettes which also act as as previews and alternate perspectives on scenes and themes in forthcoming episodes. Previously they've done VR theatre, mystery phone calls and installation art, and now 'Un Pueblo De Nada' adds live-action TV into the beautifully unpredictable mix.
]]>BAM. A sound captures your headphones and holds you hostage. It's the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. We've been lying in wait for the past three weeks, consolidating our strength and preparing to kidnap you by the ear canals. "Listen up, 2018!" we shout out from atop this metaphor. "We have a list of demands and we're not releasing this poor listener until you've delivered! Or until the one hour playtime is up, whichever comes first!"
]]>I am dad, hear me whinge. Too many games, not enough spare time, for all my non-work hours are spent kissing grazed knees, explaining why you cannot eat the food in that cupboard, constructing awful Lion King dioramas out of toilet roll tubes and being terrified that the next jump from the sofa to the armchair will go fatally wrong. I'm lucky in that my job to some extent involves playing games, so by and large if there's something I really want to check out I can find a way to, but I appreciate that there are many long-time, older or otherwise time-starved readers for whom RPS is a daily tease of wondrous things they cannot play.
Now, clearly I cannot magically truncate The Witcher 3 into three hours for you, but what I can do is suggest a few games from across the length and breadth of recent PC gaming that can either be completed within a few hours or dipped into now and again without being unduly punished because you've lost your muscle-memory.
]]>I finally completed Dark Souls III [official site] last week, a world that I have been dipping in and out of between bouts of listlessness since its release in April last year. It didn’t grip me like the first revered Dark Souls, but it still made me sad to know it was all over. Where could I go now for my Souls fix? The answer, it turns out, is loads of places. The games industry is quietly reverberating with the series’ influence. From small games boasting “souls-like” combat, to bigger games doing weird things with death and player messages. Meanwhile, our PlayStation brethren got Nioh, which took the “pocket full o’ souls” idea and simply renamed them “Amrita”. There is a popular complaint that everything in the industry is now being compared to Dark Souls, and it's easy to forget that games embraced difficulty and strangeness long before the Bed of Chaos made you weep with frustration. Nevertheless, the mechanics and the tone of Miyazaki’s magnum opus is leaking into games everywhere.
That there's an influx of Soulsian disciples out there isn’t a problem to me. My problem is that they are learning all the wrong lessons. At least, they are neglecting the most important one. But first let’s look at what sly tricks are being lifted from the series, and who is lifting them.
]]>Kentucky Route Zero, the game so good we declared it our game of the year back when only two of its episodes were out, is currently half-price. That's always worth pointing out, that. Sales from this latest sale will go to the American Civil Liberties Union, joining similar fundraisers with other cracking games. Also joining in are the delightful Fez, frightful treasures from Kitty Horrorshow, and the next game from Tetrageddon dev Nathalie Lawhead.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I don't want to say too much - the power of offbeat road trip adventure Kentucky Route Zero is in discovering its twisting tale and flabbergasting sights for yourself. Instead, I wish to make a plea.
]]>I don't think I could name a more beautiful game. I don't use 'beauty' in the straightforward sense of Kentucky Route Zero [official site]'s appearance, although its bold geometric shapes and flat-wash colour absolutely qualifies, as does its wonderful architecture - Americana infused with magic realism. There is the soundtrack and the sounds too, ambience and steel guitar and the lonely sound of engines - gentle sonic beauty, but again that is on the surface.
In fact there is beauty woven through the core of KRZ: its love of images, its love of words, its love of the American landscape, and perhaps most of all in its preoccupation with the warmer side of the human mind. Whether that be conviviality and the coming together of sympathetic souls, or pulling solace from solitude and from the road. This has been a theme, of sorts, throughout KRZ's first three acts, but the fourth arguably pushes it more to the fore, consciously slowing down and allowing its expanding cast to idle, to find themselves in idyllic rather than unsettling locales. This could be a good life, if they wanted it.
]]>Act IV of Kentucky Route Zero [official site] is finally here, continuing the magical realist journey through subterranean Americana. It's a pretty flipping special game. We declared the first two episodes our favourites of 2013 and 2014's Act III was just as lovely but the wait for IV has been long. But doesn't KRZ teach patience, to enjoy slowness and quiet? It's here now, and that's just fine. Settle down with a bottle of Wild Turkey for a lovely evening.
]]>We're coming to the end of the Summer Steam Sale so chances are you've picked up the things you'd already got your eye on, but there are always games that sneak under the radar or come from genres you might usually ignore. That's why we've put together our final recommendation list. Here's a whole list of things we love and why we think they're worth your time! (Don't forget to check out our earlier picks and the comments, though - I picked up a bunch of games that had escaped my own notice through reader enthusiasm...)
]]>This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Kentucky Route Zero [official site].
I haven’t a lot of patience for dialogue in games. Weighted by exposition and lumpen characterisation, it tends to lumber, but I love the dialogue in Kentucky Route Zero. Telling a story which balances the bizarre with the everyday, it communicates so much with so few words. And the technology that lies behind them is ancient, wielded by games pretty much since their advent. But Kentucky Route Zero employs a twist of design that makes a world of difference:
THE MECHANIC: Multiple choice
]]>Oh, happy day! Act IV of Kentucky Route Zero [official site] is "almost done", say developers Cardboard Computer. They have a picture of a wee boat and everything. It's a lovely boat. It's not that we believed Act IV wouldn't come, as apparently some had started to mutter after more than a year between acts, it's just grand to hear from it again and know we're not too far from playing. Even with only two of five planned acts out, KRZ was our game of 2013.
]]>I've been on holiday, which means I've spent more energy walking around and looking at things, than I do when I'm at work. It's a tricky thing, this holiday business. How am I supposed to enjoy the majesty of nature (and the cold pint in a country pub that waits at the end of nature) when my muscles are aching, the sweat is like an oil slick on my brow, and I've fallen into the habit of checking my maps every fifteen minutes because I'm convinced I'm walking in the wrong direction.
]]>This article is a part of a series based on 6 months as resident speaker at VideoBrains called A Psychogeography of Games. Psychogeography is a big chewy word put together by drunk French dudes in 1955 to talk about how the landscape of our lives affects how we feel, think and act. Here, I’m particularly interested in how the geography of our lives affects how we make games - the psychogeography of our games. So, in 2015, I’m going on a series of walks with some of my favourite game designers, in places that have affected how they think about what they make, and turning these into talks and articles.
This first piece is about a walk with Jake Elliott (Kentucky Route Zero [official site]). Except that because I don’t fly, the first walk happened in two different continents – we walked on the same day, on different continents, to similar places.
]]>You know that there are adventure games, and you know that some of those adventure games are better than others. But do you know which one is best, and which one is twenty-fifth best? Well, at last you can find out, with our definitive, unimpeachable breakdown of adventure gaming's best moments.
]]>Kentucky Route Zero isn't just gaming's finest slice of magical realism and shaggy dog symphonies, it's also a magnificent feat of myth-making. Like so much Americana, it straddles the line between fact and folk tale, and finds recognisable unrealities along the road to the grave. If the melancholic dramas of the main episodes take place at centre stage, the occasional interludes aren't the entertainment in between acts, they're happening somewhere in the wings, backstage or downriver. The latest free offering, Here And There Along The Echo, has a sinister setup - a telephone that can only dial one number - but turns out to be the closest the series has come to revealing its own absurd comedic heart.
]]>Here at RPS, we're quite fond of Cardboard Computer's magical realist adventure. Kentucky Route Zero took the final spot in our 2013 Advent Calendar and while the wait for the third act has been longer than I would have liked, it's good to have Conway and his companions back in my life. The new chapter of gaming's strangest trip since Sam and Max hit the road contains a musical performance worthy of Lynch, a whiskey-soaked underworld and enough melancholic mystery to fuel a new generation of the blues. Here's wot I think.
]]>An old time radio crackles into life, the dial set between nowhere in particular and somewhere else entirely. The voice that speaks could warble with the best of them but it catches on the hooks and snags of age. The accompaniment is the picking of a banjo and the wail of a harmonica. A boot thumping against a dusty floorboard, that's percussion. This is how we learn that Kentucky Route Zero Act III has been released.
I actually heard about it through Twitter, at which point I loaded up my copy of the game (through Steam) and saw that the new act is already available to play, right from the menu. Guess I know what I'm doing tonight.
]]>You might remember that we liked sleepy-as-the-night, sharp-as-a-knife adventure Kentucky Route Zero quite a lot. We even gave it game of the year, doncha know. So when Last Life creator Sam Farmer told me his game was best described as "Kentucky Route Zero in space," I nearly warbled with glee. The noir-themed tale of a detective trying to solve the mystery of his own murder has Double Fine's blessing and backing, and it's taking to Kickstarter for one more boost. I sat down with Farmer for what turned out to be his first interview ever, and we discussed Last Life's universe and story, Sherlock-style inspection mechanics, Double Fine's involvement, what it means to be "noir," and transhumanism. It's all below.
]]>[Waves arms wildly]I DON'T HAVE RELEASE DATE FOR YOU DON'T GET EXCITED[/waves arms wildly]
Wolf Among Us isn't the only recent episodic game playing silly buggers with our expectations: there's still no sign of when the passenger door episode III to RPS GOTY 2013 Kentucky Route Zero will open and offer us a ride down its strange, whip-smart highway. To some degree I'm less troubled by the wait than I was by WAU's, as I'm not really in KRZ for the plot - it's more of an experiential thing for me, as wanky as that might sound. I would like more of it and soon, though.
Devs Cardboard Computer have attempted to allay fears that something terrible has happened behind the scenes, and explained why no KRZE3 date yet. Apparently it will be "significantly more involved than the first two acts." Maybe that means it'll have guns! Or a jump button! Or microtransactions!
]]>This is it. The 24th door. The panel behind which every developer on Earth desperately hopes to be. Last year it was Far Cry 3. In 2011 it was Skyrim. 2010 saw Minecraft grab it, 2009 went to Dragon Age, in 2008 it was World Of Goo, and the very first was Portal in 2007.
So what is it this time? Did you guess?
]]>This is probably the most exciting game-related anything I've seen in months. And yes, as the headline suggests, it's entirely bonkers. Remember Zineth developer Arcane Kids' Tribes-meets-Tony-Hawk thing Perfect Stride? Well, it's just one of 30+ games (23 of which are already finished and playable) that'll immediately be yours if you hand LA Game Space a pithy 15 of your bacteria-and-filth-ridden Human Dollars. Experimental Game Pack 01 also includes entirely new projects from the likes of Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, Adventure Time (yes, the TV show) maestro Pendleton Ward, Hotline Miami madman Cactus, Kentucky Route Zero devs Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy, and sooooooooooo many more. I'm not even going to pretend to be impartial on this one. Buy it. Buy it because duh.
]]>The second act of the excellent Kentucky Route Zero snuck out late last week. Adam explained why you should play the first part back in January. I'm going to explain why you should play the second part right now. Here's wot I think:
]]>Making something that's really, really different from all the other things takes time. The first Act of Kentucky Route Zero, for instance, was a perfectly serene drop in this industry's bellowing ocean of shooty shooty bang bang madness, a soul-rehabilitating triumph that plucked both heart and banjo strings just so. Part traditional adventure, part ode to theater, it was so very effortlessly bizarre and bold. So naturally, it spent years in the making, weathering multiple revamps as well as life's countless ups and downs. With the groundwork laid, however, Cardboard Computer was pretty confident that Act II could make March. Or not. Or April. Or not. But May? Well, depending on which territory you're in, the madly methodical developer kept its promise. Kentucky Route Zero Act II has finally arrived.
]]>Have you been on the fence about Cardboard Computer's magnificent Kentucky Route Zero? Well, get down from there, you. It's dangerous, and honestly, you just look silly. I wasn't going to say anything, but everyone's talking about it. OK, OK, since you're apparently either very stubborn or a cat, let's try enticing you down. How about a demo? It's not just any regular old nipped and tucked snippet, either. As co-creator Jake Elliott put it, Limits and Demonstrations is "unique and doesn't overlap with Act I, and it starts sketching out some backstory for a few already-introduced characters." It's also free! Freer than coffee. Freer than moody bluegrass tunes. Freer than freedom.
]]>Yesterday, we began our journey down the winding highway that runs through Kentucky Route Zero co-creator Jake Elliott's brain, and today, we'll resume it. But while looking back is all well and good (especially on brain highways, where traffic's fierce and blind spots can hide unspeakable dangers), doing it at the expense of moving forward is unwise. So now it's time to delve into what's next: the release schedule for the rest of KRZ's Acts, how our choices will carry over, The Walking Dead's influence on the process, and a fairly mindblowing portion of Act I you probably missed. Don't worry, though. It wasn't your fault.
]]>Kentucky Route Zero is a joyously original, heartfelt thing. If you haven't already played it, go do that. If you have, then step on down to the RPS porch, pull up a slightly weather-worn deck chair, and let some soulful bluegrass overwhelm your senses. Easy, easy. The interview will begin soon, but for now, there's certainly no rush. Oh, fair warning: it's pretty SPOILERY. Co-creator Jake Elliott and I discuss Kentucky Route Zero's unique approaches to storytelling, theater's heavy influence on the game, the negative general perception of the American South, talking to animals, ghost stories, economic hardship, and a number of specific in-game scenes. So then, stroll on inside RPS' quaintly rustic hilltop abode whenever you're ready. Or don't. There's always time.
]]>Kentucky Route Zero tells a story about an underground highway and you can experience that story by pointing at things and clicking on them. So is it a point and click adventure? Sort of. But it's also a weird and wonderful bluegrass ballad, a poem about play, and a showcase for intelligent writing and gorgeous art. Here's wot I think.
]]>Ruins was a superlative, short-form exploration game starring a dog and the chaps behind it have now released the first part of their gorgeous adventure, Kentucky Route Zero. I don't know how well the humble canine is represented this time around but the game does include a "Civil War era battleship that ran ashore in an underground river hundreds of years ago and is now populated entirely by cats”, so look forward to that. Act I costs $7 but the remaining four acts, to be released throughout the year, can be purchased as a bundle for $25. I plan to try it this week and shall report back. In the meantime, allow your eyes to feast on this trailer.
]]>[Sits down on a stump next to a moonlit campfire, pulls out a banjo and plucks a few strings, flings banjo into a thistle of nearby cacti when he remembers he doesn't know how to play the banjo.]
Oooooooooooooo, Kentucky Route Zero / comin' into town / Kentucky Route Zero / probably won't make you frown / Kentucky Route Zero / Kickstarted before Double Fine / Kentucky Route Zero / I want to make you mine / Ooooooo, Kentucky Route Zeroooooooooo / [34 second off-tune, cactus-thorn-perforated banjo solo] / magical realist with a sci-fi twist / yeah!
(There's a gorgeous trailer of this hyper-promising exploration adventure after the break. And maybe more country songs!)
]]>Cardboard Computer, indie developer of A House In California an the excellent I Can Hold My Breath Forever has created a Kickstarter page for his next game, Kentucky Route Zero. It looks like another riff on the the theme of companionship, but with a much more confident and heavy-handed use of magical realism. Are you sitting comfortably? Then please, watch the video below. If only all trailers could be this entrancing.
]]>
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