We've already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin' and a-shakin' in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding pre-release expectations and most head-messing-with. Vintage cartoon-themed reflex-tester Cuphead leads the charge with two gongs, but ol' Plunkbat and The Witcher series also do rather well - as do a host of other games from 2017's great and good.
Full winners and runners-up below, with links to our previous coverage of each game if you're so-minded. Plus: I reveal which game I'd have gone for in each category.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>People, people of Earth, for the second week in a row GTA V isn't in the Steam Charts! And for the first time in human history, this week nor is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive! What's happened? I'll tell you what's happened. Everyone's got a copy now. Phew.
So instead, here are eight other games and Plunkbat, and one plastic box, in ascending order of dollar-eyes.
]]>Hold onto your butts: South Park: The Fractured but Whole [official site] launched today. Fraser Brown already told us wot he thinks in our South Park: The Fractured but Whole review but gosh, that was yesterday afternoon and who can remember that far back? The world is full of distracting things like tea and weather. Ah, tea! Sec, nipping off to put the kettle on.
Right. What were we doing here? Oh! Yes. Farty Bottoms is out now. The launch trailer:
]]>South Park: The Fractured But Whole [official site] is essentially the show’s greatest hits, with 20 years worth of call backs, characters and gags, all built around a LARP-inspired RPG that sees the town’s foul-mouthed kids beating the snot out of each other. If this sounds extremely familiar, that’s because I’ve also just described its predecessor, The Stick of Truth.
Crab People, magical farts, obsessively collecting social media pals, Morgan Freeman -- they are all back. Only the switch from wizards and Elves to superheroes, something that could have been a superficial change, manages to keep it from feeling like watching a repeat.
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>The mighty parpin' sweary babies of South Park: The Fractured but Whole [official site] will arrive on October 17th, Ubisoft announced today. It's the the superhero-themed RPG follow-up to The Stick of Truth, which riffed on epic fantasy movies. All right, superhero jokes are maybe a little behind but hey, so is the game. And you know what else is behind? A bottom. And you know what comes out of bottoms? Farts. See the power of crime-fighting farts in this here new trailer:
]]>I think the last we wrote about South Park: The Fractured But Whole [official site] was a delay into 2017, but Ubisoft have announced a further delay into fiscal year 2018 - looking at how Ubi's financial calendar works that would put the current release window as 1 April 2017 - 31 March 2018. Thus, it could still come out in 2017, but it could also be 2018 or it could be delayed again in the manner of Project CARS (this joke courtesy of fiscal year 2015).
]]>As Old Father Time grabs his sickle and prepares to take ailing 2016 around the back of the barn for a big sleep, we're looking to the future. The mewling pup that goes by the name 2017 will come into the world soon and we must prepare ourselves for its arrival. Here at RPS, our preparations come in the form of this enormous preview feature, which contains details on more than a hundred of the exciting games that are coming our way over the next twelve months. 2016 was a good one - in the world of games at least - but, ever the optimists, we're hoping next year will be even better.
]]>So... 2016. (FX: 'Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh....') It's not been the greatest of years, from just about every celebrity you might have loved deciding to peg it, to America electing the Curious Orange. As far as RPGs go, it's also been fairly quiet, thanks to lots of stuff deciding to stay in the oven for a few more months. That's not to say we've had nothing, not least Early Access versions of many of these games. Awards are coming later this month! But in terms of big, BIG, BIG releases, it's been kinda quiet. Next year though? Whoooo-boy, do we have a lot of awesome stuff on the way. Here are some of my picks for the games I'm most excited to get my hands on in 2017.
]]>Things at Ubisoft are a bit... backed up, as South Park: The Fractured But Whole [official site] has been delayed into early 2017.
What could be the cause? Does the revolutionary Nosulus Rift need added tinkering? After all, the experience would not be complete without a device to literally fart in your face. Speculation aside, Ubisoft left a brief note on the Ubiblog explaining the game would be much more polished with a few more months in development.
]]>South Park: The Fractured But Whole [official site] isn't just content to offer up another round of hilarious role-playing, it will also be improving on the fundamentals of The Stick of Truth—including some pretty epic farts that can tear a hole in the time-space continuum. In a recently released developer diary, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk about their lessons learned and detail some improvements made to South Park's turn-based combat.
]]>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 watch South Park anymore. I bought the first few 'volumes' on VHS back in my teenage years but I fell out of the habit of watching shortly after seeing the film at the cinema. It's not that I have anything against the show - I don't even keep up with the controversies or conversation around it so I have no idea if it's still to my taste - I just haven't made time for it in my life for a long time.
Obsidian's game, though? I made time for that and I'm glad I did.
]]>We're almost half-way through the year, and it's not been a bad one. The finale of The Witcher 3. Dark Souls III, for those players who consider it an RPG. A couple of late-arrivals, like Dragon's Dogma. But as the nights again start to draw darker, what's up next? Here's some of the big quests still promised for 2016. As ever, don't be too surprised to see a few more jump from A to B.
]]>Ubisoft went a little quiet about South Park: The Fractured but Whole [official site] after announcing the RPG sequel during E3 2015 but this year's show has brought a release date: December 6th. Those naughty little children imagined they were fantasy heroes in The Stick of Truth but for the sequel they've become superheroes. Superheroes with grand visions of a huge movie franchise. Here, watch the E3 trailer to discover what brings about their own little civil war:
]]>It was Ubisoft's turn yesterday to report to their investors, and they laid out their release plans between now and March 2017. Those plans include the arrival of four games we know about - Watch_Dogs 2, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, For Honor - and, perhaps more excitingly, one we do not. That new game won't be a sequel but a "new AAA IP".
]]>The holidays are now over, and it's time to get back to what matters - saving a million accident-prone fantasy realms from their own past mistakes, evil gods on the rampage, and all that pesky loot that they clearly don't have anything better to do with than stick it in barrels at the bottom of dungeons. This is why so many of them have no choice but to have bandit-driven economies. Shameful. Someone should Do Something There.
Here's some of the most exciting RPGs due in 2016. I suspect a couple may not actually make it to final release this year, but never mind - 'tis the season to be generous. In no particular order, then, some of the ones I'm looking forward to...
]]>South Park: The Stick of Truth was pretty good (though not without its problems), and South Park is big bucks, so Ubisoft announcing a sequel is no surprise. But who cares about fantasy any more? No, all the kids are into superheroes now. It's not Stick or Truth 2, then, but South Park: The Fractured but Whole [official site].
Trey Parker and Matt Stone say it should be better this time.
]]>
