Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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The Blasphemous dev’s new Goya-fuelled stealth tactics monastery sim is basically Umberto Eco’s The Great Escape

Earlier today, old man James wagged a finger at us all sternly for not writing about Atomfall before. My turn to puff out my cheeks and look not angry, just disappointed: why haven’t we covered The Stone Of Madness prior to the below Gamescom 2024 story trailer? I mean, it’s only a real-time tactical stealth game set in a cursed 18th century Jesuit monastery, developed by the people behind gorgeously gross metroidvania Blasphemous. It’s only got isometric art inspired by Goya and a sanity/trauma system redolent of Darkest Dungeon. Sounds like an automatic RPS write-up to me.

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SteamWorld Heist 2 review: a tactical trick shot across the bow of lesser strategy games

I’ve yet to discover a SteamWorld game I don’t like. Whether plundering the earth in SteamWorld Dig 2 or mucking about with magic in SteamWorld Quest, these are solid and approachable adventures that enthusiastically embrace whatever theme the developers have decided upon. Cowboys? Sure. Wizards? Why not. It barely matters, as long as it results in some good puns. As a studio, Thunderful have a reputation for hopping from one style of game to the next, boiling entire genres down to their essence, and reconstituting them with competence and style to exist within a now-familiar steampunk world of colourful pals and Saturday morning cartoon jokes. The studio is a perpetual notion machine. Yes, with SteamWorld Heist 2, they’re revisiting the sci-fi bullet-bouncing of their 2016 tactics game SteamWorld Heist, but they’re also introducing significant changes to create a compulsive XCOM-like full of sea-faring submariners that may be their best work yet, even against a back catalogue of blinders.

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Atomfall plays like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Scouse accents

We’ve apparently never written about Atomfall, an oversight I’m now all too happy to correct, having played a promising forty minutes or so at Gamescom 2024. In development at Sniper Elite makers Rebellion, it’s a “survival-action game inspired by real-life events” – specifically the Windscale fire, which in 1957 coated much of northern England in radioactive fallout. Atomfall’s alternative history makes Britain’s worst nuclear disaster even more disastrous, plunging the realm into full-on post-apocalyptica and leaving your good amnesiac self to dodge death with nothing but a cricket bat and whatever you can scrounge out of sheds. I like it! Mostly.

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BioWare detail Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s PC-specific graphics features and controller options

I’ve never really understood the charm of ultrawide monitors. I dare boldly to maintain that there is such a thing as Too Wide, a point beyond which the extra visual estate becomes a waste of electricity, unless you watch the screen in pairs. I can only assume people who use ultrawide monitors live in constant terror of flanking manoeuvres and demand the maximum amount of peripheral vision. Mind you, I tend to play games with my nose about 10 centimetres from the screen. Forget being flanked – it’s the prospect of snipers up ahead I’m worried about.

If you’re among the people who fret excessively about flankers, I’ve got great news from Uncle BioWare. Forthcoming RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard will support 21:9 ultrawide monitors. The ultrawide functionality extends to cinematics – you can disable “cinematic aspect ratios” to switch off the black bars that otherwise hem in the view. It’s one of several PC-specific flourishes they’ve just blogged about. Have a look.

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Cupiclaw wants to do for claw machines what Balatro did for poker

Gamescom is exploding all around us, but there is still time to lower a pincer into the pile of Steam indie game announcements and reel up the occasional treasure. In this case, it’s the demo for Cupiclaw, which is possibly the first ever “roguelike deckbuilding claw machine game”. You know how Balatro made you feel about Joker cards? Well, this game wants to make you feel the same about claw machines. It’s a terrible turn of events, frankly. I’m sorry for inflicting yet another potential bingeplay upon you. Here’s a trailer.

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Splitgate 2 remains a portal-hopping FPS delight, but it really needs to lighten up

Now, I never played quite as much as our Brendy did of the original Splitgate. But I had a fun time with its mixture of Halo-esque trigger pulling and portalling around! So I was intrigued to give the alpha version of Splitgate 2 a go and see if it had a little more substance to it than its initial reveal, which gave off a, “it’s Splitgate but with more money” feel.

Well, I think it’s… a bit serious? It certainly has more polish and some extra additions, yet I didn’t come away from it thrilled by its more competitive, class-based FPS leanings. I think it just needs a bit more time, perhaps, for a portal to open and some silly rocket launchers and baseball bats and zombies to come tumbling out of it.

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Netease gloatingly note that Overwatch-like Marvel Rivals won’t make you unlock heroes, unlike Overwatch 2

Marvel Rivals, Netease’ free-to-play Overwatch wannabe comprised of superheroes from the Marvelverse, is set to launch on December 6th. And in a “hah, take this Overwatch!” way, they’ve also announced that all of its heroes will be unlocked for everyone straight off the bat (man). Oh no wait, he’s DC isn’t he. To be fair, I’ve only watched one Avengers film, two Captain Americas, and Thor: Ragnarok (without seeing the other Thors). All of which I have zero recollection of. Anyway, yes, Marvel Rivals.

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