!.04-Rock Paper Shotgun

!.04-Rock Paper Shotgun

Icarus review: frustrating, familiar survival fare that’s nonetheless enticing

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 05:03 AM PST

About five hours into Icarus, the new survival game from Day Z’s Dean Hall and co, I had a moment. I’d just been savaged by a bear, and had morosely jogged back over to my corpse from the respawn drop ship several miles away. It was dark, and also stormy, and also there were more bears. I desperately needed to find and reclaim my pack, stuffed with meat, tools and building supplies, which was proving difficult because your corpse just appears as a small pile of excruciatingly indiscernible brown sandbags. As the minutes dragged on, my mind flashed back to the time I spent half an hour searching for my wireless earphones amidst gails of horizontal rain on Brighton beach, shivering and still half-soaked from a foolhardy morning swim. The experience was so horrible it transcended mere discomfort and turned into, on some level, genuinely enjoyable farce.

That’s Icarus, that is. It’s obviously flawed, wildly frustrating and frequently janky, but it’s also somehow simultaneously good enough to have kept me playing into the early morning on multiple nights without even realizing the time. It’s like Schrodinger's cat, except if the cat was a bear made of draining thirst meters. I went on to spend another 20 hours (mostly) happily within its grasp.

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The RPS Advent Calendar 2021, December 10th

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 05:00 AM PST

Today, as you open the tenth door on our Advent Calendar, you are greeted by what appears to be a shining web of polished jewels, connected by glimmering silver chains. A very expensive present! But as you look closer you see that the black background isn't the inside of a velvet box. No, that is space, and those aren't jewels...

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Our first look at the Halo TV series is actually quite good

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 04:32 AM PST

There he is! John Halo on the telly! That’s right, during The Game Awards we got our first look at the Halo TV series arriving next year. The trailer shows the Chief walk slowly towards a large obelisk. There’s a classic dunnn of the piano and a cool space-mushroom city. Plus lots of close ups of human faces. Honestly, it looks quite good.

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PUBG is going free-to-play next year

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 03:42 AM PST

PUBG Battlegrounds is going free-to-play in January 2022. The low admission fee of zero pounds was announced at The Game Awards, which is a pretty good deal if you’re looking to participate in a battle royale that’s still very much alive and kicking. Players can also pay for Battlegrounds Plus, an account upgrade that’ll net you some extra in-game unlocks. And don't worry, if you already own the game you'll get that upgrade for free.

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Tunic, that cute Zelda-like you've been hearing about forever, finally has a release date

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 03:37 AM PST

Praise be to Geoff and all the Keighleys! Tunic, that indie Zelda-like with a fox that you sort of thought was probably already out until I just told you it isn't yet, finally has a release date! As announced during The Game Awards last night, we can expect it to arrive on March 16th, 2022.

We've been hearing about Tunic for literal years now, and its omnipresence at showcases and announceathons like The Game Awards has kept it on everyone's radar the whole time. Feast your eyes on what will hopefully be one of the last trailers for it, until the happy day we post about a launch trailer.

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Wytchwood review: a dark fairytale to-do list you'll fall in love with

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 03:00 AM PST

I am not great at keeping my mind palace organised. I don't even have a mind palace. If my mind were any kind of structure it would be a Lego creative box of randomly mixed bricks. Thus, like an advanced robot, I store my memory outside my body in the form of daily to-do lists that I write up every morning. Wytchwood is a to-do list game, with each item cascading into a sub-list of more things to be ticked off. The difference is, in real life, my daily to-do list only includes 'make shiny lure to catch an elf and steal its shoes' on Tuesdays.

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New Saints Row trailer is just a showreel of explosions, but in a cool city

Posted: 10 Dec 2021 02:34 AM PST

Remember Saints Row? It's back, in trailer form. After Volition's reboot of their wacky crime RPG series was revealed in August, then delayed in November, we were treated to a new gameplay trailer at last night's Game Awards.

The trailer is a series of clips, each averaging about 3 seconds long, of different people shooting different guns and rockets and so on. So it's technically a gameplay trailer in the way that loads of different corpses stitched together is a person (no comments from Frankenstein fans). Still, aside from confirming the new release date of August 23rd next year, I think this trailer also confirms that the new city of Santo Ileso is going to be the star of this game. Check out the trailer below to agree with me.

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Some former Telltale developers are making a Star Trek game

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 11:35 PM PST

Shortly after Telltale Games announced a game based on The Expanse at The Game Awards tonight, a group of former Telltale employees announced they too were boldly going into an interactive sci-fi story based on a TV show. New studio Dramatic Labs announced Star Trek: Resurgence, a Telltale-style game about choosing your own adventure in the world of Luke Skywalker and Hans Solo. It looks hella Telltale, and they even have the digital corpse of Leonard Nimoy. But man, the Star Trek story I crave would be about downtime, not action.

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Sonic goes "open-zone" in Sonic Frontiers next year

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 11:08 PM PST

Here he comes, that speedy blue boy. Where will he go? Who knows! He can run around in an open world now, no longer restrained by specific paths which cause him to inexplicably die when he steps a toe off of them. I am, of course, talking about the newly announced Sonic Frontiers. The next 3D Sonic game is set to arrive late 2022, and we got our first glimpse of it at The Game Awards tonight.

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Square Enix's Forspoken gets a May 2022 release date

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 10:33 PM PST

Forspoken, a game whose name I will never pronounce correctly but was once known as Project Athia, finally has a concrete release date. Announced tonight at The Game Awards, Square Enix's big action RPG adventure will be hitting PC on May 24th 2022. I guess that technically still counts as 'spring' and therefore doesn't constitute a delay on its previous launch window, but it sure is a lot closer to summer than I was expecting. In any case, there's a shiny new trailer with some very hammy villains to enjoy at the same time.

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Shadow Of Mordor studio are making a Wonder Woman game with the Nemesis System

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 10:32 PM PST

Honestly, I've no interest in Wonder Woman. Warner Bros announcing an open-world Wonder Woman game at The Game Awards tonight meant nothing to me at first. My interest was piqued when I saw it's being made by Monolith, the studio behind F.E.A.R. and the Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor series. Then I saw OH WAIT it's using that wonderful patented Nemesis System which breathes personality and history into enemies? I'm in. Fully. Let's go.

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Arc Raiders is a co-op sci-fi robot-shooter arriving next year

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 10:24 PM PST

I almost missed the trailer for Arc Raiders during The Game Awards, but quickly found the tab it was playing in as soon as I heard Robyn's Dancing On My Own. What a fab tune for a game trailer! Arc Raiders looks alright - it's a free-to-play third-person shooter in which you and a squad of mates fight evil robots, and it's coming out in 2022. Check out the vid below (if only to listen to a proper bop).

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Babylon's Fall carves out a March 2022 release date

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 09:43 PM PST

It's been three years since Babylon's Fall was first announced, but PlatinumGames' co-op hack and slasher finally has a release date. It's out on March 3rd 2022, and its new Game Awards trailer certainly shows a much more vivid and eye-catching game than the one Ed and I saw in the most recent closed beta. Not only are there giant skull bosses with lasers bursting out of their eye sockets, but some of the creatures you'll face in the Tower Of Babylon look suspiciously like Nier: Automata-style bullet-hell boys. See it all in action below.

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Silent Hill director reveals new horror game Slitterhead

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 09:38 PM PST

While horror fans wait with dread to see what Konami do with Silent Hill next, several people vital to that series have announced a new horror game of their own, Slitterhead. Revealed during The Game Awards tonight, it's coming from Bokeh Game Studio, who are led by Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama and boast a number of other people from the Silent Hill and Siren games. Check out the announcement trailer below for some deeply unpleasant monsters rampaging in a city.

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GTFO has left early early access

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 09:08 PM PST

Developers 10 Chambers Collective had a little surprise for everyone at The Game Awards tonight - their co-op horror game GTFO has launched out of early access. It first arrived in early access two years ago, and has had loads of update adding new weapons and environments since. With today's 1.0 launch, it adds even more content too, including new environments, tools, bots, checkpoints and more. That's my weekend plans sorted.

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Elden Ring's new story trailer is fittingly cryptic

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 08:32 PM PST

A new Elden Ring trailer fresh out The Game Awards introduces the story of the new game from Dark Souls developers FromSoftware and Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. Well, I say it introduces the story, I mean it does it in a very Souls way, reeling off names like "the Blade of Miquella, Malenia the Severed" without explaining anything. This seems like it would be the game's opening cinematic so if you watch this trailer now, hey, it's almost as if you're starting Elden Ring two months early. Almost.

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Every new trailer announced at The Game Awards 2021

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 08:26 PM PST

The Game Awards is done and dusted for 2021, and there were buckets of big reveals and new trailers alongside all the trophy handouts. If you missed the action or just need a handy reminder of everything that went down, we've got all the new trailers and announcements right here in a handy list. From all the pre-show reveals to the grand (sort of) finale, here's everything you missed at The Game Awards 2021.

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Dune: Spice Wars is an RTS from the developers of Northgard

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 08:13 PM PST

During The Game Awards, Conan Exiles developers Funcom announced Dune: Spice Wars, a real-time strategy game with 4X elements that's coming out in 2022. While Funcom are publishing the game, it's being developed by Shiro Games, the folks who made Northgard. Check out the new trailer below, it's rather vague, but does have some very nice sand in a very large hand.

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 announced, a sequel I never expected

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:52 PM PST

The actual biggest surprise of The Game Awards was the announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a sequel coming a decade after Relic's chainsword-wielding action game. Spoice Mahreen was a lovely wee stompy hack-and-slash game, capturing the chunky feeling and ultraviolence of futurefascists in a way no other 40K game had. Ultramarine boy Captain Titus will return, this time cutting into the Tyranid hordes. Check out the announcement trailer.

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Epic Games announce melee battle royale Rumbleverse

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:28 PM PST

Announced at The Game Awards, Rumbleverse is an upcoming third-person last-man-standing brawler published by Epic Games and developed by Iron Galaxy Games (who've previously worked on the Killer Instinct series, as well as the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro PC ports). I attended a hands-off preview, and it sure does look like a cartoony battle royale. The most standout thing to me was that you could put an entire cooked chicken in your pocket, or throw it at someone, so that's something.

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Suicide Squad first gameplay trailer attempts to kill The Flash

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:23 PM PST

With an unexpected live-action appearance from Amanda Waller on stage at The Game Awards, Rocksteady Studios gave a wee look at Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League in motion with its first gameplay trailer. After years of playing goodies in their Batman: Arkham games, now they'll have us playing goodies to kill the goodies—but for a good cause. This new trailer focuses on their attempts to murder the brainwashed Flash, come see.

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Among Us VR announced, made with I Expect You To Die devs

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:21 PM PST

As pandemic restrictions ramp back up in England, hey, let's do 2020 all over again with a return to Among Us too. At The Game Awards tonight, developers Innersloth announced a VR version of their multiplayer hidden roles game. Taking the action into a first-person view for goggleheads, it's being made by Schell Games, the studio behind James Bond-y VR escape room series I Expect You To Die. Check out the announcement trailer below.

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Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course will be served in June

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 07:08 PM PST

After multiple delays, Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course finally has a release date. The expansion for Studio MDHR's 1930s cartoon-inspired platformer comes out on June 30th, 2022, and adds a new character to play and a bunch of new bosses to die to over and over again. You can see some of the newbies in the new trailer below from this evening's Game Awards, including a spooky witch and a donkey (mule? horse?) in shining armour.

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Quantic Dream are making a Star Wars game

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 06:31 PM PST

Heavy Rain developers Quantic Dream and Lucasfilm Games are making Star Wars: Eclipse, an action-adventure game set in the "golden age of the Jedi". It was announced at The Game Awards with a rather dramatic trailer featuring an alien playing some drums, adorable green monkeys in a market, lotsa space ships, and of course, plenty of shiny lightsaber shots. The rumours were true, then.

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Vermintide 2's Saltzpyre finally bags his fourth class today

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 06:29 PM PST

Poor Saltzpyre has been waiting so patiently while all the other characters in Fatshark's Warhammer: Vermintide 2 have received their snazzy new classes over the last year or so, but his wait is finally over. During The Game Awards, the developers announced Saltzpyre players will be able to become the Warrior Priest of Sigmar today, wielding a chunky, glowing hammer for some close-quarters action. He also has new armour that's covered in skulls, which looks very edgy indeed.

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Amazon Games launching Diablo-y action-RPG Lost Ark in February

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 06:26 PM PST

After needing seven years and several failed starts to successfully launch a game of their own, Amazon Game Studios are perhaps cautiously turning to other developers for their next. Today they announced a release date of February 11th for Lost Ark, the Diablo-y action-RPG first released by Smilegate in South Korea in 2019, which Amazon will publish in Europe and the Americas. Might be alright? It'll free-to-play, anyway. Check out the new trailer from The Game Awards below.

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Surprise! Final Fantasy 7 Remake comes to PC next week

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 06:24 PM PST

After yonks of leaving us aching for even a mention of a PC release for Final Fantasy VII Remake, Square Enix casually announced at The Game Awards tonight, oh hey, it's coming next week. Just like that. Next Thursday, the 16th of December, FF7 Remake will hit PC in its expanded Intergrade form. Like many other recent Square Enix RPG ports (and as expected), it will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

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Former BioWare boss reveals new studio's crafting survival game

Posted: 09 Dec 2021 06:05 PM PST

Inflexion Games, the new studio of former BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn, announced their debut game during The Game Awards. Nightingale is a "shared world survival crafting game" set in a Victorian world of gaslamp fantasy, which will send us into magical realms to explore, build farms and communities, craft tools and weapons, and such for a fight against the Fae. Should any Fae be reading this post, allow me to stress to our readers that this is vile propaganda, and to stress to you that I would very much like to wake up with all my teeth.

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