Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s finally time for this month’s RPS Game Club live blog. This April, we’ve been tackling the comedy-horror Lethal Company. Whilst some of us have enjoyed the nonsensical hijinks Lethal Company can offer, others have been less enthused with the progression system and prefer the shiny newbie experience.

We’ve had some good chat on the matter. Although, I’ve mostly been preoccupied by the various hardworking monsters in the game. Now, it’s your turn to hit us with your questions (or your shovels). Let’s chat about all things Lethal Company, today (April 26th) at 4pm BST.

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James made the observation that Lethal Company, a co-op game about being haunted space binmen, and this month’s pick for the RPS Game Club, gets less fun the better you are at it. This is true! It’s also janky, and the RNG on the weird, warren-like buildings prompted me to ask “Who designed this? What is this for? What kind of office is this??” out loud, as I faced yet another dead end full of pipes. And yet! There’s something about it that endears me to it far more than other similar games like Phasmophobia. Games like this all largely rely on you making your own fun with the tools they provide, but I think we should give the Lethal Company devs props for their tools, because they are weird and make no sense, and allow for some fantastic slapstick.

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Mayors in RPG games are rarely given the spotlight. They’re mostly just there to give you an early quest involving goat banditry or windmill rats or some such other domestic drudgery. Or, in the case of Tristram’s mayor in Diablo, to fret behind the scenes about how to properly fit considerable cathedral repairs into this month’s budget. Well, no more must this valuable civil servant hide behind balance sheets, occasionally popping out to cut a big ribbon in celebration of a nearby mausoleum being turned into a Wetherspoons. Tristam is a 72 hour Ludum Dare project where you play as said town’s mayor. And this time: It’s ceremonial!

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Left-handed Counter-Strike 2 players, time to raise that left hand in what could be interpreted as a celebration. In the game’s latest update, Valve have added the ability to swap from the default right-handed viewmodel to a left-handed one. There’s also an update to the buy menu, making it easier to track your bank account and grab weapons your mates have dropped. Alongside further UI improvements for grenade line-ups, and a tweak to the Active Duty map pool.

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Manor Lords is obviously this week’s big survival-citybuilder game release, but I suspect Diluvian Winds is more my pace. It’s a “relaxing management game” about building a town for anthropomorphic animals around the foot of a lighthouse, although exactly how relaxing will depend on your ability to prepare for tsunamis and other weather emergencies which can strike and destroy your buildings. It’s out now.

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People Can Fly, the developers of Bulletstorm and Outriders, have cancelled development of a co-op action RPG codenamed Project Dagger. The Polish company informed investors of the decision to cancel the game, which was initially to be published by Take-Two, earlier this month.

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I never expected to feel genuine affection for Dr Robotnik, whose various level-ending wrecking balls and spiked doodads have killed me a million times over, but here I am sobbing like a banshee over the release of Dr Robotnik’s Ring Racers, a free Mario Kart-alike created by Kart Krew, the fangamer team behind Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart, using the Doom Legacy source port.

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This week saw the first (small) look at the new and upcoming Hobbit-themed cosy life sim Tales Of The Shire, plus the news that Embracer group is splitting into three, including a Middle-earth And Friends group. We thus use this as an excuse to spend some time talking about The Lord Of The Rings games we’d like to see, plus our favourite Rings games from days gone by (and also Gollum, and also we do impressions of Gollum).

Nate has been playing an impressive number of games, including one that did not allow him to invent the stick and therefore hampered his progress. We also talk about AI NPCs again, because one of them tried to get James drunk. Plus: some lovely recommendations to round off your weekly pod (one of them is a long life meat product).

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Pine: A Story Of Loss, which stars a bereaved woodworker and thus may be a play on the double meaning of ‘pine’, is a gorgeously animated interactive fiction game that sees you performing farming chores and wordlessly reminiscing upon cherished memories. It’s short – designed to be played in a couple of sittings – and while the fiction is the focus here, you’ll spend time gardening and whittling in bespoke minigames as you find out more about the woodworker’s relationship. The publisher describes it thusly:

As each season changes, the woodworker must prepare for what’s to come. Tasks such as collecting water, thatching the roof, or planting crops each bring back vivid memories of his wife. Desperate to not let her memory disappear, the woodworker captures these moments in beautiful wood carvings. Yet, while each one is a promise to her memory, they soon become a dangerous obsession.

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To keep the ball rolling with this month’s Game Club pick, we’re asking what you, the readers, think of Lethal Company?

By now, I can confidently say that the RPS team are scrap collecting experts and can easily meet the quota set by the enigmatic Company. Much to James’ chagrin, who prefers the chaos of being objectively ‘bad’ at the game. So confident was I in our abilities after our co-op sesh, that I dove into a solo game. Cue immediate death by a vengeful face-hugging bug. I’m expecting my first round of xenomorph child maintenance fees any day now.

With our blog chat scheduled for Friday 26th April, 4 PM GMT, here are a few conversation prompts we’ve gathered ahead of time. Tell us your thoughts in the comments and shoot any questions our way too. We hope to see you there!

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