Latest

wot i think

the-tartarus-key-review:-an-absolutely-nails-thriller-puzzler-that’s-worth-the-effort Rock,Paper,Shotgun

The Tartarus Key review: an absolutely nails thriller-puzzler that’s worth the effort

May 31, 2023RockPaperShotgun

If you woke up in a mysterious mansion, with no memory of how you got there and only a walkie-talkie and a bunch of security cameras for company, how d’you reckon you’d handle it? Personally I know, sure as eggs is eggs, that I would absolutely go to pieces. I’m not hitting the end credits of The Tartarus Key in real life, but fortunately, it’s a nails thriller puzzle game that fuses PS1-style retro graphics with Saw-esque murder traps. Plus, you know, it’s only about six hours end to end, which isn’t bad for a semi-magical kidnap plot. In this…

Read More
street-fighter-6-review:-the-former-champ-is-finally-back-on-top Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Street Fighter 6 review: the former champ is finally back on top

May 30, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Back in February 1991, Capcom released Street Fighter 2 to arcades. Unbeknownst to Capcom at the time, Street Fighter 2’s massive success would cause it to become the blueprint for fighting games – a genre the game effectively created upon its release. This blueprint proved to be so influential that even some of Street Fighter 2’s most underwhelming elements are still being parroted in fighting games today. As a result, more than 30 years later, one constant in the fighting game genre has always remained true: the story mode is gonna suck. There have been some valiant attempts at rectifying…

Read More
system-shock-remake-review:-nightdive-rebuilds-the-immersive-sim-mothership-just-as-it-was Rock,Paper,Shotgun

System Shock remake review: Nightdive rebuilds the immersive sim mothership just as it was

May 29, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Sometime before SHODAN’s ethical constraints were removed and the rogue AI set about converting the people of Citadel Station into cyborgs, a researcher named Stacy Everson found a smoking gun hidden among the blinking servers of the spaceship’s library. Not an assault rifle or mini-pistol, but a decades-old email chain between her TriOptimum bosses and a psychologist named Jeffrey Hammer. In the early stages of Citadel’s construction, Hammer suggested that each level of the station be designed in such a way as to induce stress and anxiety, so that experts could study their impact on the human psyche during space…

Read More
asus-rog-ally-review:-a-nifty-handheld-pc-with-the-best-and-worst-of-windows Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Asus ROG Ally review: a nifty handheld PC with the best and worst of Windows

May 26, 2023RockPaperShotgun

The Asus ROG Ally was, in hindsight, inevitable. After the Steam Deck proved that handheld gaming PCs could flourish outside of a microscopic niche, it was surely only a matter of time before one of the big PC hardware movers would have a crack at the concept. This time, with more powerful internals, and none of the SteamOS compatibility problems that led to Valve creating a whole new verification system. Read more

Read More
miasma-chronicles-review:-this-tactically-sound-turn-based-post-apocalypse-is-short-on-fresh-ideas Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Miasma Chronicles review: this tactically sound turn-based post-apocalypse is short on fresh ideas

May 24, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Swedish developers The Bearded Ladies certainly have a type. If you’ve played the memorably odd Mutant Year Zero or the largely forgettable Corruption 2029, you’ll know it by now – a blend of real-time stealth and turn-based tactics, where you quietly pick off stragglers from enemy squads before confronting the rest in a team scrap. Now here’s Miasma Chronicles, the Ladies’ third effort, and let’s just say they’re clearly happy to stick with what they know. While the patterns of play are to a great extent the same, though, Miasma Chronicles is a more ambitious project. Addressing criticisms that those…

Read More
warhammer-40,000:-boltgun-review:-gloriously-maximalist-shooting-and-sawing-in-the-41st-millennium Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun review: gloriously maximalist shooting and sawing in the 41st millennium

May 23, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is possibly one of the most perfectly named games in history. The first bit lets you know you’re playing a game set in the venerable Warhammer 40,000 tabletop universe, while the second bit tells you everything else you need to know. What kind of game is it? Boltgun. What’s the gameplay like? Boltgun! What’s the story? BOLTGUN! Okay, there is technically a story, but it’s a thin excuse to let you shoot crunchy Chaos things in 40k, and shooting things in 40k means BOLTGUN!!! Boltgun is a retro-styled first-person shooter, or boomer shooter, to use the parlance…

Read More
planet-of-lana-review:-a-gorgeous-sci-fi-tale-that-shoots-for-the-stars Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Planet Of Lana review: a gorgeous sci-fi tale that shoots for the stars

May 22, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Planet of Lana has all the hallmarks of a story-rich platformer. Across its six-hour run time, you’ll encounter a string of environmental puzzles, an evil plan concocted by a group of baddies, a rich orchestral soundtrack that swells at all the right moments, a cute animal companion, and a gorgeous world that needs saving. On paper, it has everything you could possibly want from this kind of game, but in practice, it can also be Lana’s undoing at times. It does everything well – admittedly some much better than others – but it feels like this sci-fi tale is missing…

Read More
philips-evnia-42m2n8900-review:-a-colourful-colossus-of-an-oled-gaming-monitor Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Philips Evnia 42M2N8900 review: a colourful colossus of an OLED gaming monitor

May 11, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Gaming monitor makers are slowly getting on board with OLED as a viable panel type, something I’ve been perfectly happy about – even when the monitors themselves initially look, let’s be honest, a bit much. That’s likely going to be a common reaction to the Philips Evnia 42M2N8900, the OLED-powered headliner of Philips’ all-new gaming monitor range. Read more

Read More
star-wars-jedi:-survivor-review:-a-good-star-wars-epic-with-a-lot-of-collectibles Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review: a good Star Wars epic with a lot of collectibles

April 26, 2023RockPaperShotgun

In my preview of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor I said it was a competent game that essentially offered Star Wars Jedi: Outcast, but more. Playing the full thing reveals I was correct, both for better and for worse, which is why you should never doubt me. Are we done here? Oh alright. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a third-person action game where you play Cal Kestis in his second rip-roaring adventure across a localised part of the galaxy, fighting both the Empire and a very naughty little Sith, with a flanking attack from Cal’s own regrets about getting people killed…

Read More
honkai:-star-rail-review:-a-slick,-anime-infused-rpg-bursting-with-potential Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Honkai: Star Rail review: a slick, anime-infused RPG bursting with potential

April 26, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Honkai: Star Rail throws you into the body of an amnesiac protagonist with unknowable hidden powers who has been awakened from a deep slumber by someone called Kafka. This woman is something of a mystery and seems to have a flair for the dramatic as she kicks off the whole game by playing an invisible violin along to the classic Baroque epic Pachelbel’s Canon as massive, intergalactic monsters invade a spaceship. It’s an incredibly cool opening, the kind of thing that John Wick would watch to get pumped up before, well, John Wick-ing all over the place. It’s pretty clear…

Read More
minecraft-legends-review:-a-colourful-rts-limited-by-its-own-small-ambitions Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Minecraft Legends review: a colourful RTS limited by its own small ambitions

April 14, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Surveying the sprawling piglin outpost before me, a plan forms. With a flourish of button presses from my controller, I spawn a sizeable army of zombies. They’ll zomble their way up the main path, and with their high health pools they’ll cut into the vast piglin forces and buy me time. With another flourish a contingent of friendly creepers scuttles along behind me. I lead them on a flanking attack to he outpost, targeting their spawners while the main piglin army is occupied with my frontal assault. A masterpiece of tactical engineering! Or it would have been, if my minions…

Read More
road-96:-mile-0-review:-an-unexpected-but-enjoyable-mashup-prequel Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Road 96: Mile 0 review: an unexpected but enjoyable mashup prequel

April 6, 2023RockPaperShotgun

It’s weird that Road 96 has gotten a prequel, because it only came out about six months ag- what’s that? A year and a half? Good lord. Still, it seems a slightly odd move, because Road 96 – a first person hitchhiking choose ’em up about the collective action of wayward teens bringing down a totalitarian government – doesn’t really need a prequel. On top of that, Road 96: Mile 0 is a sequel to developer DigixArt’s first game Lost In Harmony, a musical runner about skateboarder Kaito whose fiend Aya is dying of a terminal illness. In Mile 0,…

Read More
wildfrost-review:-cute,-compelling,-and-chaotic-card-battling Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Wildfrost review: cute, compelling, and chaotic card battling

March 30, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Wildfrost is excellent at creating moments of triumph. Early on in my playthrough while I was still getting to grips with the game, I came face-to-face with a boss who got stronger when hit. Its card art had become bigger, juicier, more tauntingly malevolent, and easily could have taken out any of my team with a single hit. Thankfully, three of my team members were due to act one turn before it. The first chipped away a little of its health (its job was mostly healing) but the next doubled a stacked debuff that I had set up and turned…

Read More
the-great-war:-western-front-review:-alternately-compelling-and-exhausting,-which-is-probably-deliberate Rock,Paper,Shotgun

The Great War: Western Front review: alternately compelling and exhausting, which is probably deliberate

March 27, 2023RockPaperShotgun

I keep alternating between wanting to play more and feeling weary at the prospect. While that might sound bad, it arguably means that it’s balanced an appealing strategic challenge with the grinding theme of trench warfare. The Great War Colon Western Front is about taking the Triple Alliance or Entente through the hell years of 1914-18, or beyond. It’s a purely military game about overcoming massed defences through attrition, both in localised real-time battles, and a turn-based strategic map. It’s perhaps unfair to criticise it for repetition and some intermittent sense of futility, since a First World War game without…

Read More
storyteller-review:-a-delightful-bookish-puzzler-that-ends-before-you’re-ready Rock,Paper,Shotgun

Storyteller review: a delightful bookish puzzler that ends before you’re ready

March 22, 2023RockPaperShotgun

Storyteller is a make-your-own drama puzzle game, taking place on the pages of a book and within empty comic-ish panels on those pages. For each puzzle you’re given a set of characters and scenarios (the Baron, the Knight, the Queen; a wedding, a kidnap, an execution) and are tasked with arranging them in a combination that fits the story title you’re given (The Queen Marries). It’s playful and cute, with surprising depth that draws inspiration from classic stories. It’s also very short. I’d wager you’ll have hunnerpercented Storyteller in two hours max, which will sound like mana from heaven to…

Read More