Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

In a year as stuffed with great games as this one, it was always inevitable that lots of very good ones would be left on the cutting room floor of our Advent Calendar this year. It’s also perhaps no surprise that in the big spreadsheet of games I’ve played this year, I’ve set yet another new record for things I’ve played to completion. At time of writing, my list stands at 58 games for 2023, and by the time you’re reading this in your post-Christmas lunch coma, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had risen further. 58! That’s more than one a week! Honestly, what was past Katharine thinking? No wonder I’m so chuffing tired right now.

In any case, my list of honourable mentions is so long this year I’ve taken the cheeky liberty of cramming some extra entries into my 2023 Selection Box, bringing you five more personal picks that I think are just smashing and that you should absolutely play when you get a spare moment or three.

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Promise you won’t tell the other children, but the RPS staff are actually complex magical spells cast by the Sugar Plum Fairy, as part of an age old pact with the ents of the forest where the RPS treehouse was built hundreds of years ago. Each year the Sugar Plum Fairy has to collect more wishes to power the spells every year (you can help to make the spells more powerful by joining the RPS supporter program). While she’s out wish-hunting, here are some Christmas Crackers to distract you.

Time to enjoy your lovely joke!

Q. What code do dermatologists live by?

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Promise you won’t tell the other children, but the RPS staff are actually complex magical spells cast by the Sugar Plum Fairy, as part of an age old pact with the ents of the forest where the RPS treehouse was built hundreds of years ago. Each year the Sugar Plum Fairy has to collect more wishes to power the spells every year (you can help to make the spells more powerful by joining the RPS supporter program). While she’s out wish-hunting, here are some Christmas Crackers to distract you.

Time to enjoy your lovely joke!

Q: What did the Starfleet Officers call the Chief Of Security’s new toupee?

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Alright folks, it’s time for our actual Game Of The Year reveal. Do I actually have to do a tease for this? Do we not all know what it is? Fine. Roll for initiative.

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Promise you won’t tell the other children, but the RPS staff are actually complex magical spells cast by the Sugar Plum Fairy, as part of an age old pact with the ents of the forest where the RPS treehouse was built hundreds of years ago. Each year the Sugar Plum Fairy has to collect more wishes to power the spells every year (you can help to make the spells more powerful by joining the RPS supporter program). While she’s out wish-hunting, here are some Christmas Crackers to distract you.

Time to enjoy your lovely joke!

Q. What do you write on your Christmas list when you really want a chocolate bar?

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Christmas is a time for joy and togetherness, yes, but also lends itself to strange spirits, sacrifice, and Old Gods. So if you want the world to still be here in time for you to open your presents and stuff your face with turkey and potatoes, you’re going to have to climb that scary lighthouse and open the Advent Calendar door at the top.

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Promise you won’t tell the other children, but the RPS staff are actually complex magical spells cast by the Sugar Plum Fairy, as part of an age old pact with the ents of the forest where the RPS treehouse was built hundreds of years ago. Each year the Sugar Plum Fairy has to collect more wishes to power the spells every year (you can help to make the spells more powerful by joining the RPS supporter program). While she’s out wish-hunting, here are some Christmas Crackers to distract you.

Time to enjoy your lovely joke!

Q. What’s Idris Elba’s favourite drink?

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We made it! The winter solstice has passed and the days are growing longer. To celebrate this (plus some other, non-astronomical events), we’re taking a week off! I imagine many of you will too. Oh how happy we’ll all be, gathering at the window with our loved ones to count aloud the extra seconds of each day! This novelty will wear off in a week or so once we realise longer days don’t mean warmer days, so we here at RPS will return on Tuesday the second of January. We have a few more bits and pieces still to come this year, mind. Expect more of our favourite games and—I’m very sorry—Christmas cracker jokes. Before I send you away, please, do tell us all: what are you playing this holiday?

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Seriously. I have had new emails today from PRs. What are you doing? Genuine question. But yes, Rock Paper Shotgun is closing up the treehouse for our Christmas break. It’s far too cold to sit in a treehouse at this time of year! But owing to a miscalculaton, our bosses think it’s plenty warm enough in January, so we’ll be back on Tuesday the 2nd of Jan, 2024, at which time I will continually write the wrong year on things for at least three months. I hope that, whatever you’re celebrating this season, you have a lovely few days off, as I imagine most of you will. In the meantime, we will not leave you completely bereft! Because we love you, we’ve got some hashtag content scheduled for you while we’re gone.

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If you’re looking for something short, free, simple of concept and pleasant of execution to play this Decemberween, may I recommend Grimhook, a first-person action-platformer which had the misfortune to launch on 9th December, while the entire videogame journalism profession were recovering from the Geoffapocalypse. Here’s the setup: you are an irreverent young man called Dart exploring a bunch of caves with the aid of a grappling hook and a grumpy goddess trapped in a pebble.

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