Most video games are too big. Their lands are too expansive, their histories over-explained, their playtimes too long. Most of everything is too long (songs, books, movies, everything) but it's especially felt in games, where the magical "What's next?" feeling of discovering a world often fades to leave the "What task must I complete now?" drudgery of playing a video game. So I hugely admire Cosmo D's Off-Peak series, which has built the feeling of a huge and fascinating city through only four tiny locations visited across four games with a combined playtime of under eight hours.
]]>Cosmo D will this summer invite us back to his weird and wonderful world of Off-Peak City for another strange caper. With Betrayal At Club Low, the surreal adventure game series will grow into a bit of a mini-RPG, complete with stats and dice—including a Pizza Dice. This time we're an undercover agent trying to rescue a fellow operative from a nightclub in a former coffin factory, and oh I'm excited for more of Cosmo D's strange sights and excellent music.
]]>It's been an eventful decade for PC games, and it would be hard for you to summarise everything that's happened in the medium across the past ten years. Hard for you, but a day's work for us. Below you'll find our picks for the 50 greatest games released on PC across the past decade.
]]>Even if the name weren't a giveaway, you'd know Tales From Off-Peak City is a Cosmo D game from the philosophical pizza order, the eclectic collections of oversized objects, a building morphed into a face, and his visual style that I've just realised reminds me of 90s multimedia CD-ROMs. The musician and developer recently announced his next game set in the world of Off-Peak, another first-person adventure game exploring a strange place, poking into secrets, opening drawers and pressing buttons, and getting tangled in something stranger than it first seems. I am well up for another Cosmo D game.
]]>More games should be set in hotels. We've seen plenty of home and mansion interiors over the years, as well as countless space stations and industrial warehouses, but the humble hotel is its own special beast, especially when you're dealing with the mad fever dream that is Cosmo D's The Norwood Suite.
]]>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.
]]>Around an hour into The Norwood Suite, I was nestled so snugly into my comfort zone that it would have taken heavy machinery to shift me. That's despite the fact that this is a game that makes me suspect something sinister is lurking just out of view, that the edges of my vision aren't to be trusted. It's a very discomforting comfort zone.
]]>The surreal hotel in The Norwood Suite has been one of my favourite video game places to explore this year. When I last wrote about it, I tried to avoid saying too much because surprises like a man boogying in a Godzilla city in a hotel room are best discovered for oneself. Evidently I have abandoned subtlety. Like creator Cosmo D's Off Peak before, The Norwood Suite is great and woe betide anyone who tries to talk to me about game worlds in a pub without playing it. It now has a demo so get cracking.
]]>Pack your bags for a surreal stay in The Norwood Suite [official site], the new first-person adventure game from the fella who gave us an odd train station in Off-Peak. Cosmo D launched The Norwood Suite last night and it's pretty great. Sent in on a covert mission, we meet guests and staff, run errands, poke about, and explore this beautiful place. Music runs through the whole game -- and the hotel itself -- exploring the legacy of a famous musician and those caught in his wake. And as Cosmo is a musician himself, it has a kicking soundtrack.
]]>After taking us to a strange train station in the wonderful Off-Peak, Cosmo D will invite us to visit a surreal hotel next week in The Norwood Suite [official site]. He has again composed the soundtrack himself, and again it sounds grand. Here's the main theme:
]]>I thought the style looked familiar! The Norwood Suite [official site] is the new game from Off-Peak creator Cosmo D. Off-Peak, you might remember, is the surreal train station experience Alice and I played which I'd tend to describe as an experiential collage more than a game, if you're into that categorisation. You should definitely play it if you're looking for a curious project for the weekend - it's free.
The Norwood Suite seems to have a similar style and is set in the same universe but is about a secluded, mysterious hotel filled with secrets. It now has an official launch date too so Alice and I can pencil in some time to play it simultaneously over the phone! October 2, if you are thinking of doing the same with your pals...
]]>I enjoyed exploring Off-Peak's train station, a curious place 'curated' with curios like a Tumblr or Pinterest by its sinister station master, so I'm quite keen to see more of what developer Cosmo D's next game. The Norwood Suite [official site] will take us to a weird hotel, ostensibly to deliver a package but really to have a bloody good rummage and poke into the lives of its staff and guests. Good news: a new trailer gives us a peek inside the hotel's walls. Bad news: it also says the game's not due until spring 2017.
]]>If you haven't yet explored the strange 'curated' train station of Off-Peak yet, hey, go do that - it's free. Off-Peak has popped into my thoughts enough since it came out a year ago that I wish I'd mentioned it more beyond in that fun chat with Pip. Do play it - it's great, and then you'll be keen to see what creator Cosmo D is up to next.
All of which leads me to my real point: Cosmo has shown a little more of his upcoming follow-up, The Norwood Suite.
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