Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Three-person Danish team The Outer Zone and Frostpunk creators 11-bit studios have announced Death Howl, a very gloomy soulslike deck-builder set in a “stone-age Nordic-inspired” open world that consists of biomes with names like “the Forest of Howling Shadows”. Lots of howling round these parts.

You play a mother, Ro, whose son has been claimed by the Grim Reaper, or whatever they had instead of the Grim Reaper back then – this was, I think, prior to the invention of scythes? And cards? Anyway, while searching for Ro’s son, you’ll take part in grid- and turn-based battles against a regular cauldron of unspeakables, including disembodied raven heads and what appears to be a huge pair of subterranean lungs. Here’s a trailer.

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Looks like Sony have caught the live service jitters. The company have cancelled two online multiplayer games, including one based on God Of War, according to a report by Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier. Two different Sony-owned studios were recently told to stop development on their projects. One of those studios is Bluepoint, known for their work on the Demon’s Souls remake. They were making the unannounced live service God Of War game, according to Schreier. The other studio is Bend, developers of open world zombie ’em up Days Gone. We don’t know what they were working on, aside from the fact it was also to have a live service business model. In any case, both have been canned.

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Superheroes often conceal their identities behind masks, capes and in my case, a pungent snood-and-hoodtop combo that makes me look like I’ve crawled out of a drain. No, don’t ask what my real superhero identity is. After all, knowing my secrets might expose you to the wrath of my enemies. And in any case, I don’t trust you. It turns out some of you people have been keeping secrets from me, as well. You have been furtively playing superhero shooter Marvel Rivals with a keyboard and mouse adapter, which makes it look as though you’re playing with a controller, so that you can take advantage of controller features such as high-sensitivity aim-assist in competitive play.

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Friends, another soul is departing the RPS treehouse today. Ed has decided to lay down the mantle of reviews editor and rejoin polite society. Come join me in saying goodbye.

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Like many JRPG series, it feels as if the Tales Of series has made strides in popularity in recent years. Both 2016’s Tales Of Berseria and 2021’s Tales Of Arise had charming worlds and flashy combat, and the latter has found a home on our picks for the best of the genre.

Now the series is adopting the other dominant JRPG trend of late: remakes and remasters. Tales Of Graces f Remastered, a revision of the 2009 entry in the series, is out now.

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The announcement of a new Tokyo Xtreme Racer for the first time in 18 years was a welcome surprise at the end of 2024. It now has a release date: January 23rd. It’s an Early Access launch, but I am excited to drive a gaudy monstrosity on a Japanese highway.

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Blade Chimera is a cyberpunk metroidvania from Team Ladybug, the team behind the really very good Touhou Luna Nights and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. As with Deedlit – one of our favourite ‘vanias – I’m drawn to it partly for the opulent real-time RPG combat, and partly because, to be very superficial, the protagonist is taller than I’m used to in games like this. Sometimes he feels too tall for the levels.

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Following the Republican victory in the US 2024 elections, several US companies have experimented with “pivoting away” from Diversity, Ethics and Inclusion, a collection of employment practices aimed at challenging bias and prejudice in the workplace. Facebook owners Meta, Amazon, Walmart, McDonalds and others are reportedly scaling back their DEI initiatives to stave off backlash or litigation from conservative pundits and politicians, who regard DEI guidance about discrimination as a form of discrimination in itself. Following the election, I’ve also noticed a couple of video game company executives express misgivings about DEI – misgivings that, amongst other things, illustrate that “DEI” has come to mean a lot more than just annual training about micro-aggressions.

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I have an on-and-off-again relationship with boardgaming based mostly on the fact that I have nobody to play boardgames with. I used to be part of a boardgaming circle, but then I missed a fateful opening round of Twilight Imperium, and then the pandemic started, and then everybody lost patience with Tabletop Game Simulator.

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In what has become fine tradition, I have learned of an amazing mod on the same day I have learned that the mod has been kiboshed by publishers. The mod in question is the GTA 5 Liberty City Preservation Project, a six year project that rebuilds GTA 4’s Liberty City in GTA 5’s world. It launched earlier this month – and now it is no more, for Rockstar have descended like briefcase-wielding peregrine falcons and performed what is being called a “friendly takedown” on modding team World Travel. My brother did a “friendly takedown” on me once, and my elbow still doesn’t bend the right way.

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