Hello! It's RPS Game Club chat time! As you know, this month's pick is Unpacking, and here at RPS, we've been writing a bunch of lovely words about Witch Beam's block puzzle tidy-em-up. I've really enjoyed returning to this indie gem and have noted the irony of my Unpacking house being spick and span but my own house being, well, a dumping ground. But we wanna hear what you have to say, so put that kettle on, grab some bourbons, and tell us what you think. The chat below will start today at 4pm BST / 8am PDT. See you then!
]]>I'm not someone who usually likes little puzzles or point-and-click games as I'm far too impatient. I'd much rather solve the puzzle by battering it with my fist so the pieces go flying everywhere, or turn my pointer into a fist so I can batter the dialogue out of the dialogue box and watch the wizard's words spill onto the dirt like I've just shaken an open can of spaghettios.
Unpacking, a game where you click on items and shelve them nicely, has somehow tamed my urge to punch the boxes open. Except it's done one thing to personally attack me, and that's by not allowing me to unpack stuff and leave it on the floor. It's a fight I simply can't win.
]]>In writing about games like A Little To The Left or current RPS Game Club pick Unpacking, I often have to point out that I am a weird little gremlin who loves puzzles and putting things in the right place in games, but not actually in real life. In real life, I write to you today from a desk covered in a weird detritus of work and life that wouldn't quite see me on an exploitative reality TV show with the word hoarder somewhere in the title, but, you know... maybe give it 15 years.
But I bloody love tidying things in games. Getting everything in the right place. And something that makes it extra enjoyable in Unpacking is the sound design. The house itself is quiet, but everything in the game makes a little noise when you put it away or hang it up or slide it in a shelf, and it's all stuff you recognise from home. It makes the whole experience feel domestic and familiar.
]]>This month's Game Club Pick is the wonderfully cosy puzzler Unpacking, so as is Game Club tradition we'll be doing another liveblog chat with you lovely lot Friday 28th at 4pm BST / 8am PDT. If you have opinions about Unpacking, we wanna hear them.
]]>Unpacking is, for the most part, a laid-back puzzle game. I’ve had a cosy ol’ time taking out all the protagonist's items one by one and placing them in the various places around her rooms. From her childhood bedroom right up until her first house, I love how relaxing and gratifying it is to decorate each room. But after replaying it for this month's RPS Game Club, there’s one section that gave me quite the opposite reaction.
A big part of Unpacking is learning about the character’s personalities through their objects: what clothes they have in their wardrobes, what items fill their bookshelves, which kitchen utensils make it from move to move, and so on. These contextual clues act as a subtle but incredibly effective story-telling device. There is one level, however, where it’s not all laid-back fun times and it's when the protagonist moves in with her first partner, who I will henceforth be referring to as ‘finance bro boyfriend’ - and wow, he is the absolute worst. Spoilers ahead for those who have not played Unpacking.
]]>Now that we've all escaped the clutches of The Tartarus Key, it's time for another RPS Game Club pick! This month's game has been chosen by yours truly and I'm very much in the mood to revisit a comfy, cosy puzzle game so I've chosen Unpacking. Cue the confetti!
Unpacking is a puzzle game that's all about pulling your homewares and personal items out of cardboard moving boxes and placing them in a new home. It's best described as a relaxing house moving sim but it's also a sort of block-fitting puzzle game. Finding the perfect spot for each item is largely down to your own personal taste, but there are some loose 'room rules' (no, you cannot put your toaster in the bedroom for some midnight cheese toastie action). If you like organising games - A Little To The Left, Sticky Business, Wilmot's Warehouse and the like - then Unpacking is the game for you.
]]>Whether you like to visit space, indulge in an RPGs or a grand adventure, get spooked by horror or get uber techy with hacking, the chances are that there's also a puzzle game for you - hence our list of the best puzzle games on PC. The queen genre straddles many others, so our list of the 25 best puzzle games has all that we just mentioned and more. Take a look to find a new favourite puzzle game today.
]]>It’s episode four of RPS’ indie podcast Indiescovery and this week the team got into the Valentine's Day spirit and had a long chat about our favourite indie game romances (any excuse to gush about how hot the characters are in Hades, really). We get gabbing about our favourite game OTPs, the fabulous representation of queer romances in indies, and then finish with a cursed (not horny) Cosmo-style dating quiz.
]]>This year's BAFTA Game Awards winners were announced earlier this week, and just as It Takes Two and Unpacking received a lot of nominations, so did It Takes Two and Unpacking win a lot of awards. The co-op divorce sim picked up the big weird face for Best Multiplayer and Best Original Property while Unpacking won Best Narrative and the publicly voted EE Game Of The Year award. Nice.
]]>Last night, RPS' Bestest Best game of 2021 Inscryption won the Seumus McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards, confirming that once again, we are correct about everything. If that wasn't enough, though, an hour later, Inscryption then won the Game Of The Year award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. It's the first time a game has ever won both awards in the same year, which is a stonking achievement. Clearly, our Advent Calendar made some pretty big waves this year. Just saying.
]]>It is a truth universally acknowledged (like the status of single men in possession of large fortunes viz. wanting wives) that moving house is one of the worst things to undertake in adult life. And you have to undertake it several times! The packing, the unpacking, the stuffing of old newspaper in gaps between fragile plates: it's all hell. And comes with the creeping realisation that your life has as much meaning as can be physically stuffed into a few cardboard boxes.
An extra special high-five, then, to Unpacking, which not only makes this stressful event a delightful puzzle, but also demonstrates that your life and things actually have incredible meaning.
]]>When I first heard about it, I didn't think Unpacking would appeal to me. Released today, it's a chill game about unpacking moving boxes, unloading all the items from someone's life into their new home. I've never liked unpacking in real life, it feels stressful and annoying trying to find space for all my stuff. But I'm starting to think that Unpacking (the game) might make me feel better about it. Perhaps next time I move house, I should go into it with the energy of this relaxed puzzler.
]]>Almost all of the games I'm interested in playing this November will launch on Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft's subscription service on PC will see the arrival of Forza Horizon 5, Football Manager 2022 and Unpacking.
]]>As is tradition, our Vidbuds are today hosting a day-long livestream playing all sorts of wee indie games that are in PAX X EGX. Matthew and Colm are on the Indies Uncovered sofa until 5pm, with 15 games coming before then. They're starting out exploring a weird WW2 bunker in Paradise Lost, then later will be solving crimes inside video games with Gamedec, levelling up their lovers in dungeon-crawling dating sim Boyfriend Dungeon, admiring birds in the card game Wingspan, and more. A few devs will hop on for a wee chat too. Watch the stream below.
]]>There are two stages of packing for a move, as everyone knows. The first stage happens when you have loads of time before you have to leave, and is when you box things up in a way that makes sense. You slowly wrap up all but one of each piece of crockery in old wrapping paper and copies of The Metro, and put them in a box with KITCHEN written on the side. You put most of your books and DVDs in smaller boxes because they are very heavy. The majority of your clothes go into a suitcase.
The second stage is the panic stage, which is done anywhere from about a week from your moving date up to the second you hand your keys back. At this point you shove everything into wherever it will fit and have a lot of boxes that say 'GENERAL' or 'STUFF'. When you start unpacking these boxes, you get to enjoy being suddenly ambushed by a load of pants or a scented candle lurking in a box of plugs and batteries. Unpacking does a very accurate representation of this, whilst also being a very satisfying and sweet game of Tetris-with-stuff.
]]>Moving house is a nightmare. From dealing with landlords to hauling your junk halfway across the country, it's more stressful than anything the world of videogames could throw at you. Fortunately, upcoming chill puzzler Unpacking skips all that for the good part of settling into new digs - the moment where you finally get to spill boxes all over the floor and start turning a sterile showroom into a messy, intimate home.
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