Every month I throw half a dozen broken shovels at the sleeping forms lying around the RPS treehouse floor. I demand they dig a new hole for the monthly RPS Time Capsule of games we'd like to save from a certain year, and usually it isn't a problem. This time, however, the staff complained a lot about the year choice: it's 2005, baby, and they struggled. I'm okay with it though, because we ended up with a lot of cool abandonware and interesting choices I couldn't have predicted. Especially because, since I got to the Time Capsule first, I got to stuff in the most obvious choice.
]]>Double Fine's most treasured son (apart from Jack Black, who is not a real man and was obviously designed by a committee of wacky game developers some time in the late 90s) is undoubtedly Raz, protagonist of their 2005 cult hit Psychonauts.
Psychonauts is classic Double Fine. It's a 3D platformer with some puzzley bits that sees Raz training to be a psychonaut at a secret government facility disguised as a children's summer camp by having adventures that take place inside people's subconscious brains. This premise, you will note, is a cracker, even if not that many people thought so at the time. It's become more popular in recent years, though, and every so often I go back and give it a look, most recently being this weekend. So let me be the latest in a long line of people to say, "Blimey, it's still a bit good, isn't it?"
]]>Another month has begun and so another batch of games will be joining Xbox Game Pass for PC. Microsoft have revealed a list of games joining their subscription library for May and hey look, more Final Fantasy. Adventures of fantastical sports star Tidus in Final Fantasy X and X-2 are on the way along with Psychonauts, Outlast 2, Dragon Quest Builders 2, and more. As ever, that also means some games are leaving the service too. Here's what's coming to the PC side this month.
]]>Children, life’s great copy-paste. Adorable, drooling idiots with no self-control and a habit of yelling embarrassing facts to the entire supermarket. In our everyday lives, human children are a snotty emblem of hope, vulnerability, and aspiration. In videogames, they are a cursed harbinger of escort missions, narrative roadblocks, “cutesy” voice acting, and precocious dialogue. They are annoying. But hold on, that’s the point. Many of them are meant to be that way. So here is a list of the 10 most annoying children in PC games. And perhaps, the best annoying?
]]>The biggest names in platforming used to live only on console, but it's on PC now that the genre is thriving. Indies have taken the simple ingredients and spun them off in umpteen directions (but still normally from left to right). Below you'll find a collection of the very best platform games on PC - including puzzle platformers, physics platformers, platformers with roguelike elements, and platformers about absolutely nothing but pixel-perfect jumping.
]]>Double Fine Productions, the studio behind cheery games including Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, have been bought up by Microsoft. They say they'll continue to make those Double Fine games in that Double Fine way, which I suppose is what everyone says after their business is acquired.
]]>Memory is a funny old thing. Our brains are like faulty cameras, letting us unconsciously suppress moments of our lives and swap them out for brighter, more palatable realities. When we’re reminded of these small time capsules, the serene environments we were in and the people we were with, we often feel an endorphin rush and a lurid longing for something that isn’t there anymore. Plenty of games toy with the fascinating concept of memory, but it’s often very black and white. An amnesiac character to serve a twist, for example, usually employed in the final act to give a narrative some shocking gusto. The trope gets a bit stale once you’ve seen enough of it.
Double Fine’s 2005 debut Psychonauts doesn’t settle for that. The platforming adventure follows protagonist Razputin Aquato as he ventures into the troubled minds of his peers. He explores the unique landscapes of their grey matter and remedies their mental health issues in order to unravel a complex conspiracy. It’s wonderfully strange but ultimately thoughtful, as per Tim Schafer’s usual MO. Hidden it its eight levels are unique collectables called Memory Vaults, sentient safes that run in circles to avoid you. Once subdued, they give up a stereoscope Viewmaster reel with a beautiful hand-drawn story from the memories of the person whose mind you’re exploring.
]]>Sure, you've jacked into someone's mind to wander through their memories, but have you jacked into someone's mind while jacked into cyberspace? You can now do just that in Psychonauts In The Rhombus Of Ruin. Double Fine's VR spin-off from peachy physic platformer Psychonauts arrived on PC last night, supporting Rift and Vive cybergoggles, following its debut on PlayStation VR in February 2017. It's set right after Psychonauts, bridging the gap to the upcoming full sequel Psychonauts 2, and looks a little something like this:
]]>As one of the last hoorah's of Humble's End of Summer Sale, the store is currently offering Tim Schafer's classic mind-entering platform game Psychonauts absolutely free.
]]>An odd feeling - this thing we prayed for for years, and which seemed such an impossibility, is now happening. And not just happening: it felt like a foregone conclusion from the second it was announced. With $3.35 million pledged by crowdfunders and investors, it looks like Psychonauts 2, Double Fine's sequel to their acclaimed 2005 adventure-platformer, will become a reality at last.
]]>Remember back in 2012 when Notch was like, "I could fund a Psychonauts 2!" and Double Fine were all, "Cool! $18m please!" and Notch was all, "Shiiiit, I was thinking more 25p, and - wow, look, an octopus on a tricycle!"? Well, that's all history now.
Double Fine are looking to make Psychonauts 2. They're after $3.3m from backers, alongside their own investment, plus external funding from a mysterious, possibly legal party. More Psychonauts! There's a trailer too, of sorts.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Tim Schafer's last great game? Oooh, there's a statement. Whichever way you fall on that, it'd be hard to argue that Psychonauts [official site] weren't a wondrous thing.
]]>"Double Fine?" someone somewhere has probably said at some point maybe. "Who do they think they are, claiming to be twice as fine as the rest of us? I'm no fool. I don't believe it for a second." But, Mr Somewhere, what if you're wrong? Then you'll just look silly, your only solace coming in the fact that going off the grid in shame would be simple, given that you have the least Google-able name of all time. Clearly, the only solution to your conundrum is a test. You need to play most of Double Fine's back catalog, but your gleaming shield of skepticism must be kept aloft. Buying these games full price would only create suspicion that you might harbor legitimate interest. We can't have that. The solution? A new Humble Double Fine Bundle. It's offering all of the laugh factory's PC games except Iron Brigade on a pay-what-you-want basis, and a pre-purchase of Broken Age if you're willing to part with $35. Exceedingly strange, vaguely arousing video after the break.
]]>How we had hoped to see Pat Garratt enjoying a hearty feast of broiled denim and shallow-fried zipper, but it was not to be. The editor of VG247 last year swore to eat his own trousers in the event Minecraft man Markus 'Notch' Persson made good on his talk of funding a sequel to Double Fine's Psychonauts. Alas, Persson has recently confessed that such a thing is not currently possible/desirable, as Double Fine's estimated $18 million budget for the game was beyond even his mighty means (or, at least, what he considered to be a lucrative investment of his mighty means).
]]>Yesterday, you probably read the first part of my chat with Valve's Erik Wolpaw and Double Fine's Anna Kipnis. If not, it's right here- but FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY. By which I mean until the Internet ceases to exist, which, you know, could happen someday. Anyway, in today's installment, we branch out a bit from yesterday's story-centric beat. Valve's newfound love of wearable computing, virtual reality, heaps behind-the-scenes info on Portal, crowd-sourcing, and more are all on the docket. OK, there wasn't actually any sort of docket involved. I'm not entirely sure why I said that.
]]>There's a new Humble Bundle, wouldn't you believe it. And blimey, it's a good-un. I'm not in charge of deciding what's best, but this looks to me like one of the best bundles I've ever seen. Just look at this list: Amnesia, Limbo, Sword & Sworcery, Bastion, and Psychonauts. Seriously. And it has an absolutely brilliant video to promote it.
]]>In the second part of our interview with Double Fine's Tim Schafer (the first part is here), we get to talking about the nature of the adventure game, and reflect on some of Schafer's defining classics from the 90s, Day Of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, to consider what lessons they offer for today, the reasons for avoiding 3D altogether, and I almost trick him into making a sequel to Day Of The Tentacle.
]]>Industry legend Tim "Industry Legend" Schafer has been at the front of gaming news for the last couple of weeks. After the twitterstorm that followed Notch's somewhat speculative offer to fund Psychonauts 2 came the record-breaking Kickstarter project, that saw Schafer's company, Double Fine, raise over $2 million in a fortnight. I spoke to him over the weekend to find out how the process has been, what the intentions are for a new 2D adventure, to reflect on the classic adventures of the 90s, and to see if there were any other dream projects he has left. In the first part of this two-part interview we discuss the reactions to the Kickstarter, the role dads play in playing adventures, and where things are with Psychonauts 2. Tomorrow we'll go into the lessons learned from Schafer's previous adventures, memories of Day Of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, and how that will affect design today.
]]>With all the recent brouhaha over Tim Schafer, from his raising $1.75m in four days, to the suggestion that Notch might fund a Psychonauts sequel, it was unavoidable that I'd replay Psychonauts. The astonishing game is in my all-time top 10, and makes me want to hug the planet and have them see. When I'm done with the play through I'll not be able to stop myself writing about it, but at this convenient midpoint I thought I'd pause to share the joy with you in the form of 38 screenshots. I implore you to buy Psychonauts. If you've never played it, it's so much more than you could be expecting. It's on Steam for £6 and Good Old Games for $10. Just look.
]]>We don't usually allow RPS headlines to run onto a second line, but this is a very special case indeed. During idle Twitter discussions about the whys and wherefores of a possible Mojang-funded Psychonauts sequel, I heard that the first game had cost $15 million to develop and that Tim Schafer was estimating a $20m cost for a sequel.
Clearly, these eyewatering figures cast some doubt on Mojang being able to successfully (or at least wholly) fund the game. So much so that VG247 editor, friend of RPS and entertainingly relentless cynic Pat Garratt has pledged to me - and now to the public - that he will eat his own trousers, on camera, in the event that a Mojang-funded Psychonauts 2 comes to pass.
]]>We mentioned earlier that Tim Schafer would love to make a Pyschonauts 2, but can't get the funding. Well, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson spotted our story and suggested to Schafer that they should work together to make it happen. Multimillionaire Persson clearly has the funds to do this, and everyone in the world with their brain in the right place wants to see a sequel to one of the most joyful games of all time, so this is a thing that might actually happen.
]]>Update: Minecraft-master Markus 'Notch' Persson has been publicly trying to get Tim Schafer's attention today, saying "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen" and confirming to us that he's serious. Who knows what, if anything, will come of this - but how exciting, eh?
Ah, the fine art of reporting on non-events: not news as such, but they make us go all misty-eyed and slightly sad. In this case, it's Double Fine's Tim Schafer revealing that he would gladly make another Psychonauts game, but no-one will give the studio the money they need for it. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!
]]>After far too long a hiatus, Double Fine Productions unexpectedly returned to PC last week, releasing their year-old, Halloween-themed RPG Costume Quest on Steam. Hopefully the rest of their games will follow, but in the meantime here's what I made of their dress-up duff 'em up.
There aren’t enough costumes! Then again, any number of additional costumes probably still wouldn’t have been enough to dissuade me from using the very first one, the winged, rocket-lobbing robot suit, over and over again. Maybe it’s because it looks a bit like Thundercracker from Transformers, or maybe it’s just because I’m a boy. Boys like machines and violence, girls like pink and unicorns. Those are the rules. (Apart from when they're not.) Costume Quest does, after all, play unashamedly to the child in us: it’s a celebration of the goofy cheesiness of American Halloween, admirably managing to keep cynicism out while never falling prey to mawkishness.
]]>Gentlethings, prepare to perform your happy dance. Unexpectedly and suddenly, Psychonauts-makers Double Fine have ended their silly sabbatical from PC games, and announced that they'll be releasing their Halloween-themed RPG Costume Quest on Steam. When? Why, it's there right now.
Happy, happy days. And hopefully CQ is but the first of many of the Tim Schafer-headed studio's titles due to return to the motherland. In fact, they imply as much below.
]]>Psychonauts unexpectedly updated itself on Steam today, adding achievements and cloud saves. For our Macintosh brethren, there’s super-exciting news in that the game is now available on OSX, so you too can neglect to buy it. To ensure that your portable iDevices won't be jealous when they see the mindscapes you're traversing, Doublefine have also released a Memory Vault Viewer app, which has all the memory slides with new commentary by Tim Schafer and Scott Campbell. Along with the other Steamy updates, there’s also a difficulty tweak to one area of the game. Guess which one? I’ll tell you, but only if you click for more.
]]>Via Tim Schafer's twitter, here's Inceptionauts. Psychonaut visuals with Inception dialogue. Bless. Watch it below...
]]>You need no more information than this. Until Thursday Steam has one of the loveliest games ever, Psychonauts, for £1. It's hilarious, it's so beautifully written, and it's bursting with invention and ideas like nothing else. And if you want to complain that the platforming is often a bit dodgy, I reply with: IT'S ONE POUND. A pound.
]]>Once upon a time this platform game came out that no one cared about. Mark Donald was the editor of PC Gamer at the time, and it was given to me because it came from that guy who used to do adventure games, and I'm the adventure game guy. It was down on the magazine's flatplan for a page. Psychonauts or something. Not knowing anything about it, and with absolutely no PR foretelling us about it, I installed it with confused expectations. Within a couple of hours I called Donald and said, "This needs more than a page." By the next day I had bargained it up to four pages. Which was all the space they had left. Psychonauts was something special. And is now available for $10 on Good Old Games.
]]>Which is something I seem to saying quite a lot lately. Seeing that Psychonauts has just appeared for free (until Dec 31) on Gametap, but only to US folks, makes my urge to emigrate keener than ever. Anyone in New York or San Francisco want to hire a scruffy, bitter games hack? Bah. Anyway, go play one of the best electric videogames of the last few years for absolutely nothing, you spoilt bunch of bastards.
]]>Update - hopes cruelly dashed. See bottom of post for more.
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