Beloved indie outlet Annapurna have made their first-ever acquisition in the video game space, snapping up the studio responsible for co-developing a number of their biggest hits.
]]>It's free games day once again over on the Epic Games Store, readers. This time, Tacoma is up for grabs, the interstellar sleuth 'em up from the studio behind Gone Home. Isometric hack 'n' slasher Next Up Hero is free too. The pair of 'em are yours to keep if you grab them by this time next week, at which point they'll go back up to £15 a pop.
]]>May day! May day! It’s May Day, get it? I constructed this list of the 7 best distress calls in videogames so I could make this joke, and I refuse to back down now. Even if the 1st of May is associated with pagan spring festivities, and nothing at all to do with things going badly wrong in space or at sea. Even if the piece of radio lingo “mayday” has more to do with the French term “m’aider” than the one day per annum on which Morris dancers are allowed out of their cages. I refuse to acknowledge the longwindedness of this joke, and invite you to read this list article with a similar bullheaded attitude. You’ll enjoy it more that way.
(Warning: some spoilers for the games mentioned.)
]]>It’s International Cat Day! You know, one of those days reportedly invented by a charity, spread by the internet without question, and propagated by the scoundrel media because quite simply we are desperate to post pictures of cats, big cats, fluffy cats, kitten cats, any cat, any excuse for any cat, please, just let me have this day, please, I don't care if it's a fake day, please, I need this.
Here are some good videogame cats for International Cat Day.
]]>Not every problem in games needs to be solved by shooting, stabbing or going very fast. Sometimes you just need to stop, listen and talk things over, like in Oxenfree and Tacoma, two lovely story-driven games that you can snag free right now and keep forever. Contemporary teen ghost story Oxenfree by Night School is the current fortnightly giveaway over on the Epic store, full of sass and supernatural weirdness. Sci-fi mystery Tacoma by Fullbright is a little more grounded and quiet, letting you explore the lives and recorded dialogues of a space station's crew after some manner of space-disaster. Grab them on Epic and Humble respectively today.
]]>Tacoma is a game about a world that never stops watching. Corporations have achieved vertical integration on a near-total level, functioning as distinct economies running on contract workers and loyalty points. You go to the Amazon school, you work at your Amazon job, you get paid in Amazon points.
The characters of the game are so consumed by the anxiety of keeping up with this treadmill that they don’t have the time to think about what actions they could collectively take to improve their material conditions, let alone act on them. And of course their every waking (and sleeping) moment is logged on company servers by an inescapable Augmented Reality surveillance system.
]]>Well, this is quite embarrassing. I still haven't played Tacoma, but I have a good reason: I was quite positive that Steve Gaynor of Fullbright was pranking me. I bought the game for Xbox One and, at release, that version of the game simply did not work. I took to Twitter, where several days later, Gaynor informed me that the best work-around for getting the game to launch involved me deleting all of my Xbox 360 save games on my Xbox One. It's the kind of solution that I'm sure worked but also sounded like telling your buddy to stick his iPhone in the microwave if it got wet. The game is long since patched but I never went back because, well, I still think Gaynor was somehow pranking me. Anyhow, his voice has now been added to the game I haven't played, and it is time Steve and I made our peace -- in space.
]]>Us PC-using folk are really reaping the rewards of this generation of consoles being so indie-friendly. Not only are more great games being made in general, but developers tend to add extra features to later console ports which frequently find their way back home. The Fullbright Company's excellent Tacoma is the latest to walk this road, and is set to add an interactive developer commentary track in a free update next month.
]]>♪♫ When you go to San Fraaaanciscooo, be sure to wear a lanyard with ‘Media’ inscribed on it round youuur nnnneck ♪♫ That’s what Adam, John and Brendan sang to each other as they gleefully skipped through the streets of California’s tram-infested hill city. The crew were in town for the yearly Game Developer's Conference where they spoke to developers, played games, and gambled on the results of the annual awards show. Now they’re back and ready to tell you all about their Stateside adventures on the latest RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show.
]]>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!"
]]>We asked a handful of our contributors to put together a list of their three favourite games from 2017. Their picks are running across the week while the rest of RPS slumbers.
I think I would have lost my mind if it wasn’t for the many incredible digital holidays I’ve taken in 2017. It’s been a bit overwhelming to play so many great but also massive games in a single year, however. New Year’s resolution: squeeze more brief games into my life.
]]>The calendar's doors have been opened and the games inside have been eaten. But fear not, latecomer - we've reconstructed the list in this single post for easy re-consumption. Click on to discover the best games of 2017.
]]>This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Tacoma [official site].
Fullbright is running out of things to steal from the Shock series. “Like, we made a game that is basically about audio diaries for Gone Home, and now we’ve made a game that’s basically about the ghost sequences in System Shock 2 and BioShock with Tacoma,” co-founder Steve Gaynor tells me. “We’re running out of things to rip! What are we doing next?”
He’s laughing about it, but it’s only half true, since Tacoma is really about taking audio diaries and making them into a game. You don’t find and passively listen to them, you’re an active observer of augmented reality recordings of the crew members of a now-deserted space station. The distinction makes a huge difference, and had a profound effect on the way Tacoma’s story was written, because it posed complex puzzles of fitting dialogue and direction into both space and time. All because in Tacoma you can:
THE MECHANIC: Pause, fast-forward and rewind ghosts
]]>The most recent two episodes of the Designer Notes podcast is well worth listening to if you're interested in game development. In it, podcast creator (and Civilization IV designer) Soren Johnson interviews Steve Gaynor, co-founder of Fullbright Company and designer of Tacoma. Designer Notes is a podcast about "why we make games," and typically charts a designer's career, from the first game they played, to how they got started in the industry and how they ended up wherever they are now. In Steve Gaynor's case, parts one and two cover early forays into level design, working on a FEAR expansion, joining the BioShock 2 team, designing Minerva's Den, going indie to make Gone Home, and finally the challenges of making Tacoma. Check out the podcast's archives for lots more, too - the Amy Hennig episodes are particularly great.
]]>You look tired, traveller. Come in, sit by the fire and listen to the RPS podcast with us, the Electronic Wireless Show. It's about comfort gaming this week - the things we play when we feel down in the dumps or ill with the flu or just a little cold and tired. Here, drink it all up with your ears, like a nourishing audio broth. Delicious. Adam likes to relax in his cabin in The Long Dark, Pip finds safety in the world of Zelda, while Brendan soothes his sick self with a bit of Final Fantasy IX.
But we're not done here. Space-walking simulator Tacoma also came out this week and both Pip and Brendan have things to say about it. But so does Karla Zimonja, one of the game's creators at Fullbright, who takes part in a round of Quickfire Questions. On top of all that, Adam has been putting ignorant cultists in charge of school lessons in The Shrouded Isle, and we also look at what our listeners consider their own go-to comfort games.
]]>Tacoma is… a beautifully designed lift-the-flap book for grownups? An interactive theatrical novella set somewhere between now and a far-future cyberpunk dystopia? A mysterious soap opera? A snoop-sim? A basket of Easter eggs being used to make a sci-fi omelette? I found it to be a rewarding, tightly edited mix of all of the above, but you probably want to know a bit more so here's Wot I Think...
]]>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.
]]>Your invitation to board the ghost party spaceboat exploration game, Tacoma [official site], has been issued: the game launches on August 2nd. Well, I say party spaceboat. There is a party, but it's just one element of the spectal past you can investigate as you piece together what happened as Tacoma Station's crew faced calamity. Here's the launch date trailer which offers some more peeks at life in 2088 aboard the station:
]]>Tacoma [official site] is a game I'd been avoiding until there was something to play – I loved Fullbright's first game, Gone Home, and part of that was the sense of discovering the world and story as I played the game in its completed state. I wanted to do the same with Tacoma so was largely avoiding "news". GDC brought with it a snippet of the space station-set story which I was happy to play, though, as the game feels close enough that this was a teaser I could think on rather than seeing the game in its metaphorical underwear and not being able to forget that.
]]>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.
]]>Oh, Tacoma [official site], where the wind comes sweeping down the nacelles. This is the next game from Gone Home folks Fullbright, and this time we're in space, and there are people. Well, sort of. The below 15 minutes of footage from the start of the game gives a clearer picture of how this is going to work, and its similarities and dissimilarities to the cupboard-rummaging and diary-reading of Gone Home. There's a train ride, a musical interlude, and most important of all, SPACE BLANKETS.
]]>We live in a post-Gone Home world, in which games like Firewatch have taken the environmental storytelling of the suburban-house-wanderer and advanced upon it.
Fullbright might feel the same way: they've redesigned parts of their next game, Tacoma, since first unveiling it last summer, and now the spaceship-wanderer is due for release in spring 2017.
]]>Given The Fullbright Company's background with 0451 games (its founders were behind BioShock 2's DLC chapter Minerva's Den), their next game going into space makes me a little uneasy. Watching five minutes of gameplay from the Gone Home folks' spaceborne second game, Tacoma [official site], part of me is on edge waiting to hear a System Shock 2 protocol droid mutter "This place is a terrible mess" or hear a midwife's eerie call of "I'll tear out your spine."
That doesn't come, or at least not in this video. Or as far as I can tell, anyway, as two folks from Game Informer are gabbing over the top of it.
]]>Tacoma [official site] - AKA wot the Gone Home studio are doing right now - isn't necessarily channeling System Shock or 2001, but a short new trailer revealed during the Microsoft E3 conference suggests there's something a little bit off about the AI on board the titular station. Steve Gaynor presented live onstage at the conference and spoke about how Gone Home had explored the familiar and Fullbright were now trying to show life in an unfamiliar place. His words seemed appropriate to his own situation as he stood in the echo chamber of whooping and hollering*. META.
]]>Earlier this month, Gone Home developers Fullbright dropped a trailer for their follow-up, Tacoma. It's set on a space station! People talk to each other! The gravity ain't all there! There's a toilet! And, er, that's about all we found out. So let's find out some more, by talking to Fullbright's Steve Gaynor. Discussed: micro-gravity, Demolition Man, Chris Hadfield, being 'socially conscious' devs, accidental BioShock inspirations, what of Gone Home can and can't work in a fantastical setting, System Shock, locked doors and whether Tacoma is more or less not-a-game than Gone Home was or wasn't.
]]>Gone Home developers Fullbright have shed a little more light on their so-far cryptic follow-up, Tacoma. The space station-set exploration title is due for release in 2016, but gave away little in its announcement trailer. In a forthcoming interview with RPS, Fullbright's Steve Gaynor revealed that "you can tell from the teaser that it’s in micro-gravity; stuff is floating around. And some of the implications that has for the relationship that the player can have to the space that you’re exploring, that you couldn’t have in a terrestrial setting, is really exciting to us."
]]>Another first-person walking simulator in which you play a person in a coma? Oh n-- Wait. In Tacoma - and from The Fullbright Company, those who made Gone Home. Tacoma reveal trailer suggests a similar style, but this time you will be playing as a female astronaut tasked with exploring the eponymous lunar transfer station.
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