Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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Dragon’s Dogma 2 proves that fetch quests are good as long as the space in between is interesting

I think its reasonable to say that the term ‘fetch quest’ is well passed the point of being a neutral descriptor and has moved firmly into the realm of full pejorative. You won’t see many games tout ‘epic fetch quests’ on their Steam Page, and you’re much more likely to hear the term lodged between the words ‘not a bloody’ and ‘again’, like two slices of exasperation-enriched bread stuffed with a shit-tier filling. Cucumber, perhaps. Not so, at least not for me, when it comes to Dragon’s Dogma 2. The action RPG game has more or less solved the fetch quest problem. All it took, it turns out, was some interesting world design.

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What are we all playing this Easter weekend?

Have you said hello to our new staff writer, Nic Reuben yet? You should say hi to Nic. You’ve already been reading him on RPS for years as a freelancer, but he’s ours now. Is us now. In other news, hey, it’s a long weekend! Most of us (sorry, Alice Bee) have Friday off and Monday too, so expect us to return properly on Tuesday. Until then, what are you playing this Easter weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!

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The developers of Dead Cells, Darkest Dungeon and Slay The Spire are launching their own “triple-I” Game Awards

A regular rogue’s gallery of independent game developers – including the creators of Dead Cells, Slay The Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Spiritfarer, Terraria and V Rising – have clubbed together to run their own videogame showcase: the Triple-I Initiative. Initially screening on 10th April, it’ll be a 45-minute, unhosted, back-to-back series of trailers, reveals and surprise game or demo releases, designed (as per the press release) “to highlight fan-favorite games and hype up established indie classics as well as new IPs”. It could become a yearly thing, but that’ll obviously depend on how well the first showcase goes down.

According to a few of the organisers, the IIIIs – as they shall now and forever be known – reflect a high level of anxiety even among more established indie teams about finding an audience, together with a feeling that they aren’t being served by existing showcases like the Geoffies, with their blockbuster headliners, celebrity cameos and extended Kojima soliloquies.

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Pepper Grinder review: short, sweet and incredibly neat

Pepper Grinder is one of those games that has so many great moments in it that recounting them would almost feel unfair to anyone hoping to play it. There are feats of platforming prowess on show here that should really be experienced fresh and unsullied by rudimentary descriptions of them, because to say anymore would be to spoil the surprise. This feels doubly important when the game itself is so fleeting in length, its brief and dizzying journey through the dirt, magma, ice and marshy bogs of this strange, treasure-stuffed island coming to a swift conclusion in just over three and a half hours. It left me wanting more the moment the credits rolled, but deep down I know it’s also perfectly formed just the way it is. Rather than outstay its welcome, Pepper Grinder shows up, performs its party trick, then gets the hell out of the way, leaving you to bask in the warm glow of a good game well done.

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I’m enjoying the unique challenge of playing Darktide with rubbish weapons and no talents

I’ve griped before that Warhammer 40,000 Darktide hides satisfying challenges behind tedious grind, but another interesting challenge is easily missed and forgotten at the opposite end of the scale. Darktide is hard when you start a new character, with weapons that barely scratch some foes and no talents to back them up. It’s a challenge unlike the official high difficulty levels, which lean towards drowning you in special enemies. So after hitting level 30 on all four classes and grinding out great gear, I’ve started a new character who’ll never learn skills or get a good gun. She’s quite bad, and that’s quite fun.

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In Chymicalia, you’re the slave of a teleporting alchemy shop

Chymicalia is an adventure game and/or visual novel “about causing chaos in a small Yorkshire town with unlicensed alchemy”. Hey, I’m from a small Yorkshire town originally! I recognise that chip shop with the palsied neon sign! And hey, that looks like the underpass they told us kids to stay away from! And the textile mill they eventually turned into an old folks home! And the teleporting sentient potion shop where we used to hang out and play pogs! Wait, scratch the last one.

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Bandai Namco would like you to have a free dog

Today I learned that ‘Wanko’ is Japanese for dog, rather than just being Aussie slang in the vein of ‘smoko’ or my favourite, ‘bottle-o’, which is what they call an off-license. I learnt this because of Doronko Wanko, a lovely free game about a dirty pomeranian where you try to score as high as possible by doing actual, financial damage to your owner’s home.

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