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Our favourite RPS features from 2023There are a lot
There are a lot
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/GT Interactive/Marvel Comics/Xbox Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks/EA/New Blood Interactive
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/GT Interactive/Marvel Comics/Xbox Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks/EA/New Blood Interactive
Still, read on for a place to start if you want to look back at the year that was on RPS. We’ve got interviews, community nonsense, and even more interviews for you to enjoy here. I think in 2024 I’m going to advocate for more horseposting.
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Sin, who writes our Scout Report supporter series and our strategy-gaming focused The Rally Point, is very good, and you should read all her articles, but I really enjoyed this, from the start of the year, assessing whereDwarf Fortressin its new context after its second release.
Dead Space’s USG Ishimura is believable because it sucks
It was always a pleasure to edit Liam (RPS in peace)’s work whenever he wasn’t doing a video, and I loved his assessment of the Ishimura as a place that people lived and worked in rather than a video game level.
Image credit:EA
Returning to The Sims 1 in 2023 is a weird challenge I fully recommend
Rebecca (likewise RPS in peace, likewise not often one to dip her toe in the sea of features) was a fellow Simmer, albeit much more immersed and smart than I am about playing the Sims, and though her planned set of articles on the series ended up being only one article long, as a look back at the first Sims game it’s a very good standalone piece.
How Obsidian Entertainment resurrected dead fonts for Pentiment
FreelancerChris Wallace’s interview with Josh Sawyer, on the animated Medieval fonts inPentiment, is exactly the kind of interview I like. Break downs one specific cool thing about a game will never not be fascinating to me, and I’m glad RPS got to host this one.
“The community continues to blow our minds”: Valve talk the Steam Deck, one year on
Hardware editor James has done some great interviews inbetween reviewing and breaking handhelds, but he didn’t break the Steam Deck, and this particular interview - wherein some Valve heads (Valve-Os? Valve Nuts?) assess their new toy after a year - is a very good one.
Inventory Space: Destiny 2 is an unparalleled FPS wrapped in a taxing MMO
Cheating a bit with a video, but Inventory Space was great while it lasted, andDestiny 2is such a brilliant game to tackle. Live service games are basically second jobs to some people, and I really enjoyed the way Liam and Ed approached this.
The sets aren’t ready, and the actors have no eyes: making game trailers
Nic Rueben always sends me good, idiosyncratic ideas for features and I love seeing how the sausage gets made with things that you never even really think of as sausage - in this case, video game trailers, which turn out to be weird sausages indeed. See also: hisroundtable interview on RPGs.
Japanese PC doujin are keeping indie games creative at Tokyo Game Dungeon
Alicia Haddick did a few reports on parts of the Japanese dev scene for us and they’re all fascinating glimpses into what seems to be a unique and lovely community. If nothing else, calling your convention the Game Dungeon is a move I massively respect.
Hi-Fi Rush feels great, even when you have no sense of rhythm
We did a bunch of Game Clubs this year, where we picked a gam to all have a go at and then live chat about, and Hi=Fi Rush was a popular one. Hayden (another RPS in peace) wrote a really nice example of analysing the extra touches inHi-Fi Rush’s design that make it more accessible as a rhythm game, from a personal point of view.
The Jurassic Park: Trespasser team walked where no other developer dared, and paid for it
Jeremy Peel did a bunch of extremely good interviews for us this year and it was a struggle to pick just one - he interviewedMarc Laidlaw about writing Half-Life, for example, and, more recently,John Romero on Doom’s 30th anniversary. Ultimately I picked this piece on Jurassic Park: Trespasser because it offers a look at a fun oddity, and I love fun oddities!
The first CRPG is a min-maxing hell you can - and should - break
Similarly, Diana Croce’s piece on how and why to break Akalabeth/Ultima 0, Lord British’s first game and one of the very first RPGS, it’s fascinating and funny. Games and games media and the internet have a short memory, so I like pieces like this for remembering how things were.
Mr. Saitou is a heartfelt commentary on the absurdities of business
Ed spends a lot of time reviewing and previewing, and actually a lot of my favourite work of his ends up being supporter posts (a reason to sign up, mayhap). This piece, about a short game about working culture in Japan, highlights both what I like about Ed’s writing and a cool game.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Here are 6 whole horse games you could buy for the same price as Diablo 4’s £6.39 horse armour
I am exactly one hundred percentiles sure that Katharine would prefer - and indeed may have been expecting - that I picked her hugeGDC interview with Jake Solomonfor this list, but this horse post is imaginative and silly, soin it goes.Sorry, I don’t make the rules (I do).
Hardspace: Shipbreaker and the joy of doing a boring spacejob perfectly
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bethesda Game Studios
The Starfield no-planets run: Honey, I broke the Universe
Edwin arriving as our news editor was a real shot in the arm. This late-stage entry in his ‘no planets’ run of playing Starfield is excellent, as are his many other features (e.g.on Metacritic;Roadwarden;Amnesia;Indika). Just read everything Edwin posts, basically.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/New Blood Interactive
Indie gaming is on the verge of an immersive sim eruption
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Square Enix
Final Fantasy XIV’s huge fishing community make their own fun with spreadsheets and bootleg aquariums
Jai Singh Bains did a few pieces on Final Fantasy XIV for us this year. I like this fishing article in particular for diving (ho ho) into a very specific community project, and showcasing the love and collegiate spirit you can find in massive multiplayer games. Joyful and slightly weird: the perfect combination.
Image credit:RPS/CD Projekt Red
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s combat is great - and best of all, often avoidable
Come home, Graham, nothing is forgiven.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/From Software
The Headless in Sekiro is the only boss that legimitately terrifies me
Image credit:RPS/Electronic Arts
Meet the men hiding their FIFA Ultimate Team addiction from their families
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/GT Interactive/Marvel Comics
Doom At 30: The 1996 Doom comic book is an over-the-top masterwork
Jeremy hasn’t worked here long, but editing his article about the 90s Doom comic (as part of our Doom At 30 set of features) made me go “haha okay, this guy is cool”, which I think is probably the strongest endorsement I can give anyone about anything.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bethesda Softworks
Doom At 30: Does 1993’s Doom still hold up for a first-time player today?
Speaking of, Kiera (also quite new to the treehouse) wrote a piece on playing Doom for the first time, now, in 2023, and it’s utterly charming in a way articles using this premise rarely are.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Veddge
Doom At 30: MyHouse.wad is an extraordinary mod that asks, “What if Doom was an ultra creepy horror game?”
Last doom post, I promise, but Saleh Karaman wrote a really good one about a WAD called MyHouse, which is sort of Doom meets House Of Leaves meets an ARG. Yet more fascinating community antics, good work video games.
The Black Parade is a Thief mod from a team including a dev at Arkane and an original Thief designer
Let’s close this out with another cool inteview piece that I couldn’t think of a good title for because my brain is mush. Thief is 25 years old, and this cool prequel expansion is a labour of love from modders at all levels of the dev ecosystem.
