It's time for another edition of Ask RPS, where we answer reader questions put forward by RPS supporters. Today's question is a nice, warm, fuzzy one, as it's all about the good times we've had playing games in co-op with friends and family.
It comes courtesy of Aerothorn, who asks: What is your favorite co-op gaming memory? (along with the additional clarification that these memories don't need to be confined to designed-for-co-op games, but could also stem from playing a single-player game with a friend. "I used to play Descent with me piloting and my friend gunning!" they said).
So which games make us think of happy times with pals and good company? Come and find out below.
]]>Team 17 and Ghost Town Games have added some freebies to Overcooked: All You Can Eat to celebrate five years since the chaotic co-op cooking game first graced our screens. The Birthday Party update is available now, and brings new levels, a new chef and a new recipe for you to stressfully launch at your customers. Overcooked: All You Can Eat is also free to play for a short period of time. Bear in mind this new stuff is only available in All You Can Eat however, not the original Overcooked 1 or 2.
]]>Overcooked is slinging a third course out of the kitchen next month when Overcooked! All You Can Eat launches on March 23rd. All You Can Eat will stuff the original game and sequel onto the same plate with some fresh updates and seasoned with expanded multiplayer for the slapstick Hell's Kitchen 'em up.
]]>The dust is finally settling on the Epic Games Store's giveaways. After a wild few weeks of big sales, surprise drops and store-crashing mystery guests, Epic are playing it safe by putting Overcooked back up for grabs. Almost a year on, the cooperative kitchen calamity is once again your freebie for the week, available to download and keep forever until this time next Thursday.
]]>Everyone’s a cook now, is that it? A few weeks in lockdown and you’re all suddenly artisan bakers and Bon Appétit Kitchen presenters? Sorry, I don’t buy it. Put the chickpeas down, Jeff. We all know what happens when you let things “simmer”. However, there is a world in which your cooking really does impress. Where it comes out of the pot scrumptious and hot and more flavourful than a generous bite from a big round onion. That world is videogames. Did you think I was going to say something else? I never say anything else. It’s videogames. Here are the 9 most delicious dinners in videogames.
]]>Team 17, the mob who make Worms as well as publishing games like Yooka-Laylee and Overcooked, have bought games studio Yippee Entertainment in a £1.4 million deal.
If you haven't heard of Yippee before, they predominantly work on licensed games for companies like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and the BBC. They've also made a platformer series of their own, Chimpact, which is mostly for mobile but has jumped on PC too.
]]>The Epic Game Store's giveaway du jour is the brillo Overcooked. A co-op cooking game for up to four (local only) about wobbly little chefs running around top-down diorama kitchens, preparing ingredients and serving dishes. Simple, except sometimes you're trying to serve food during an earthquake, or across a kitchen built into multiple moving trucks. Good fun, and while its sequel improved on the recipe, you get a generous free portion with the first, including the Lost Morsel and Festive Seasoning DLC. Grab it here before another game takes its place next Thursday.
]]>Ghost Town's messy co-op chefmatch Overcooked 2 has me in the mood for some barbecue, with a new bit of DLC featuring smoothies, kebabs and helpfully pushing your fellow chefs into pools so they can cool off. A bit oddly timed, given that the nights are growing darker and colder, but that's perhaps why - even shut indoors and playing videogames, we can get a taste of summer. The Surf 'N' Turf DLC is out now, and there's a juicy trailer being plated up just below.
]]>Ghost Town Games will serve more chaotic cooperative cooking action on August 7th with Overcooked 2, following up on 2016's wonderful chef 'em up. Along with more hazardous kitchens and tricky recipes, the sequel will add one often-requested ingredient: online multiplayer. We've declared the first Overcooked one of the the best co-op games and I'm sure this will sure be at its best shouting on the same sofa, but it'll be great to have the option to invite remote friends into your kitchen to try to cook as orders stack up, the kitchen starts moving, and our old friend fire comes calling.
]]>Aw, hey! I'm so glad you came. You know, I was saying to Alice, just a second ago I was saying to her: "I hope our favourite listener drops in" and now look here you are. That's great, that's so nice. YOU'RE nice. Ha ha. Have a drink. No thank you, I've had twelve. Look, there's Adam. Watch out though, he's gabbing on about Overcooked and those Jackbox Party Packs But never mind, Alice is outside by the paddling pool, talking some chumps into a game of Jelly Stompers. I also think she has a copy of Deadly Premonition with her for some reason. Brendan? He's in the kitchen, probably boring somebody about Gang Beasts. Best stay here. With me, the Electronic Wireless Show.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
Overcooked [official site] is a silly, funny, joyous game about cooperative cooking. Each player handles their own area of the kitchen, or works at specific tasks, and instructions or calls for help are passed back and forth as the orders pile up. And then the dirty dishes pile up, and somebody burns the soup, and then the counters slide across the room because the boat has hit rough waters, and why are we on a boat, and will you please stop burning the soup you are the worst chef ever and I hate you.
]]>Eerie puzzle platformer Inside [official site] has nabbed four awards as the winners of this year’s videogame BAFTAs were announced at the annual ceremony in London. Firewatch and Overcooked were also lathered with attention, winning two awards each. But some skinny bum in a dirty shirt called ‘Nathan’ took home the Best Game award for something called Uncharted 4, which is, like, probably not even that cool, chuh.
]]>And so this cosmic dance begins anew. The finalists for the Independent Games Festival awards 2017 have been announced. Out of 650 games examined by the giant gang of 340 judges, a final 30 have been selected for a bunch of categories. There’s plenty of familiar names among them, including Inside, Stardew Valley, Virginia, Hyper Light Drifter and Event[0]. But also some other boyos worth giving some attention. Come on over here and let’s take a look at them all.
]]>"Christmas time, mistletoe and wine," sang Cliff Richard. I'll decline the invitation to his Crimbo cocktail party if that's his idea of a good tipple. Heck, I'd sooner eat something prepared in Overcooked [official site]. The chaotic cooperative chef 'em up has launched a festive update with new wintery levels, new festive dishes, and all sorts of new hats and gadgets. Delia Smith may recommend cooking a turkey at gas mark 7 but heck, Overcooked will now let you flamethrower it.
]]>Overcooked [official site] deposited me into a frantic multiplayer kitchen desperately churning out tomato soup and attempting (unsuccessfully) to keep anything from catching fire while I was at Rezzed earlier in the year. By contrast, I watched perfect strangers strategise burgers – BURGERS! – perfectly on a galleon which rearranged the cooking surfaces every few seconds. The daft joy and urge to chat with teammates is firmly rooted in its local co-op play. You're yelling for clean plates, wondering where that onion has gone or zipping across the space to prevent a conflagration.
But how did the developers encourage that positive co-op experience? Why is the "onion moment" so important? And what's the climate like out there for local co-op PC gaming? We asked Phil Duncan, co-founder of Overcooked studio, Ghost Town Games.
]]>Team 17 have upped their publishing game in recent years, grabbing as many indie cubs from the wild as possible and nursing them to adulthood. Overcooked [official site] by Ghost Town Games is one of those little nibblers. It's a co-op cooking game for up to 4 players. You have to work together to prepare food for hungry customers before they get miffed and leave your restaurant unsatisfied. It's coming out on August 3, the creators have announced. Come check out the release trailer and see what happens when too many cooks (too many cooks) spoil the broth.
]]>Lurking in the RPS Tunnel Of Awesome (did we officially call it that?) at Rezzed was Overcooked [official site] – a co-op cooking game which has you work with other player-chefs to create delicious dishes in a chaotic kitchen.
I sort of wanted to get all of the RPS team in attendance – Adam, Jim, John and me – to play a round but given how competitive I get in Cook, Serve Delicious which I play ALONE maybe my employment would have been at risk.
Instead, I played with three strangers and then lurked like a cookery creeper to watch others.
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