Every PC* needs fans, so why not pick up some of the best value options for a historic low price? Arctic’s P14 140mm fans are great performers as both radiator and case fans, although they’re intended primarily for the former. They’ve attracted strong user and critical reviews since debuting a few years back, as they offer a good balance of airflow, pressure, noise and price, and now you can pick up a five-pack for just £22 – a solid £5 off their normal cost, and the cheapest they’ve been since 2020.
*OK, there are some passively cooled PCs, but most of us have at least one case or radiator fan contributing to our airflow needs!
We’ve covered the EVGA Z20 mechanical keyboard a couple of times here on the RPS Deals beat, thanks to its quality design, full-size layout and extremely low asking price, and now we have an alternative deal for those that prefer the lighter feel and softer sound of membrane keyboards.
The EVGA Z12 is the firm’s rubber dome offering, and it’s down to £20 at Amazon UK, a heavy reduction from its £60 RRP and a few quid less than it’s been over the past few months.
It’s funny how some aspects of game design are so ubiquitous that we stop questioning them, or even noticing them. After decades spent playing video games, I know that if I look behind the waterfall, there’s likely to be some sort of shiny goodie to collect. If I head left rather than right at the start of a level, I’m bound to find a juicy secret. There are conventions. Traditions. I can’t remember a time when games didn’t have giant lifts – and yet, I’m not entirely sure why they’re there. I’m not talking about the regular kind of lifts that you pile into, usually at the end of a level, to transition from one part of the game to another; those ones have historically been used to hide lengthy loading times, like the interminably long lifts of Mass Effect.
What I mean is the lifts that are essentially tennis-court-sized moving platforms, usually with little more than a flimsy guard rail around the edge to stop elevator enjoyers from plunging down the shaft. Even more specifically, I’m talking about the diagonally moving elevators that trundle slowly into the depths, often to some nefarious laboratory. There’s a good example in the Resident Evil 2 remake, where you fight the final boss on an inclined elevator as it slowly, ever so slowly, descends towards the train that will grant your escape. So where did these giant elevators come from? And why do developers keep putting them in their games? I set out to answer both questions, and went somewhere unexpected.
Last month Rachel made us aware of a life sim called Grave Seasons, a kind of mash up of perennial favourite Stardew Valley and, er, the half-season serial killer arc of a police procedural TV show. Naturally this turned my head, like Tarantino walking past a ladies shoe store, and I emailed the developers Perfect Garbage to find out a bit more. They describe the game as “fun, campy and spooky” and hint at yet more secrets to be revealed. Appropriate for a game where, every time you start a new run, one of the townsfolk starts killing everyone else.
RPS will mostly be slumbering this Monday, May 8th, as the UK has a national holiday for some reason or other. That means I won’t be around to tell you about a stagecoach’s journey across a decaying land. I’m referring, of course, to Darkest Dungeon 2 hitting 1.0 and arriving on Steam for the first time.
I’m telling you now, instead. Helpfully there’s already a launch trailer and Red Hook have shared some details of their post-release plans.
Mimimi Games, the developers of upcoming supernatural pirate stealth-strategy Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, have warned that they’re being “targeted by a phishing campaign.” Apparently some nefarious party is sending out emails with a link to a website that looks nearly identical to the official Shadow Gambit site with the promise of beta access. Mimimi say that the email is not from them and that there is no beta.
Here in the UK, we’re having another long weekend for no particular reason. Government thought we might enjoy a day in the sun, you know? An opportunity to go marvel at some lambs, catch up on the housework, read a book, lounge on a beach, have some pals over for a barbecue, just a free day to do nothing in particular for no reason. We’ll return in full force on Tuesday. Until then, what are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!
Welcome back to another RPS Time Capsule. I will age a thousand years by writing this next sentence, but today we’re casting our minds back to twenty years ago, excavating our personal favourite games from the actually quite good year of 2003. Yep, instant wrinkles like I’ve just been caught in a Death Stranding rain shower. I better finish this introduction quickly before I disintegrate to a pile of dust – much like all the other games from this year that didn’t make it into this year’s Time Capsule. Come and find out which ones we’ve decided to save below.
Aeons ago, I wrote about the Leftfield collection that was supposed to happen at Rezzed 2020. Ploughing through several emotions without comment, in amongst the games that we never got to see as a result of Things Happening was an earlier version of Lunark, a clearly Flashback-influenced action puzzle platformer.
I’ve kind of worried about it ever since, so I was glad to see it released recently, and gladder still that it’s a lot of fun.
