Last June, Jagex - the developers of medieval MMO Runescape - found themselves at odds with players after deciding not to create any new content for Pride Month. Disputed internally at the studio before the discussion then leaked online, the decision appeared to be a retreat in the face of a world turning on minority groups.
Following up in September, Games Industry asked Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy if he stood by the call to simply re-run existing Pride-themed quests and events. "Ultimately, my job is governance and protection as much as anything else, and so sometimes those kinds of harsh decisions have to be made to protect the imminent future of the game," he told them. "If there are tough decisions to be made next year, we'll make them. If the world has changed a bit and the environment is different, we will react accordingly."
Five months on and with this year's Pride Month on the horizon, we've asked if the environment is different.
Czech indie developers Amanita Design – creators of Samorost, Creaks and Machinarium, among other marvels – have released a demo for Phonopolis, their 3D cardboard adventure about a young man called Felix who is trying to save a city brainwashed by massive loudspeakers. Protected by his headphones, Felix is on a mission to stop the authoritarian Leader from issuing the Absolute Tone, which will “strip every citizen of their humanity forever”. Seems like a thing to avoid!
Cthulhu games are a dime a dozen these days, with everything from JRPG parodies to well-meaning but flawed efforts that bear the official Call of Cthulhu license. But there aren't many point and click adventures showcasing H.P. Lovecraft's sanity-twisting mythos. Two very dated Infogrames efforts in the early 90s come to mind, but if you haven't played 1993's Shadow of the Comet and 1995's Prisoner of Ice, you're not missing much.
The Dark Rites of Arkham, by indie developer Postmodern Adventures, rectifies this with a well-rounded effort filled with odes to all of Lovecraft's best stories. It has the quality of a Call of Cthulhu tabletop campaign assembled by a well-read fan.
The botanical puzzles of Botany Manor have officially rotated out as the Epic Games Store shifts into a much darker, rain-soaked atmosphere for mid-February. From today, February 12, until February 19 at 11:00 AM ET, you can permanently add the cinematic thriller Nobody Wants to Die and the comedic mystery The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark to your library for zero dollars. This week’s rotation is a resourceful haul for fans of narrative-driven investigation, providing a high-quality double-feature that would otherwise cost you $40 at retail.
Nobody Wants to Die – Icarus zeppelin
Dystopian Reconstruction in ‘Nobody Wants to Die’
Nobody Wants to Die is a photorealistic, noir-inspired adventure built in Unreal Engine 5 that drops you into a futuristic New York City in the year 2329. You step into the role of Detective James Karra, a man using high-tech time manipulation tools to reconstruct crime scenes and hunt a serial killer targeting the city’s immortal elite. It handles heavy themes like transhumanism and class divide with a thick, atmospheric tone that makes it an essential pick for narrative junkies. While the Steam Store currently lists the game at its standard $24.99 price, it is a massive value-add to any library right now. If you happen to miss the 7-day window, you can typically find global keys on the G2A Marketplace (affiliate) for roughly $2.30 to $5.00 during major sale events.
Nobody Wants to Die – Cab driver with a gun
Supernatural Wit in ‘The Darkside Detective’
Providing a sharp contrast to the grit of NYC, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark is a pixel-art point-and-click adventure that prioritizes humor over horror. You follow Detective Francis McQueen through nine paranormal cases in the “mildly cursed” town of Twin Lakes, solving mysteries that range from ghostly disruptions to full-blown demonic urban legends. It relies on self-aware writing and classic adventure logic, currently holding an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on the Steam Store where it retails for $14.99. For a resourceful backup later on, the G2A Marketplace usually has keys for approximately $1.90 to $2.50, making it one of the most accessible cult hits in the genre.
The Darkside Detective – Pixelart Twin Peaks Parody free on Epic Games Store
High-Scoring Winter Deals on the Epic Store
If you are looking to spend some actual cash while the Winter Sale is active, the storefront is currently hosting some of the highest-rated games in the industry at significant discounts. For fans of massive, cinematic storytelling, the 90+ Metascore hit God of War Ragnarök is currently 33% off, providing a sprawling Norse epic for around $40. For an even deeper discount on a legendary title, Red Dead Redemption 2 is sitting at 67% off, which is a resourceful way to grab a 93-rated masterpiece for less than $20. Strategy enthusiasts should look toward Total War: Three Kingdoms, which is currently slashed by 75%, a price point that makes the 85-rated campaign an easy recommendation. Finally, for a perfect cooperative experience, the 88-rated It Takes Two is currently 80% off, offering one of the most inventive puzzle-platformers ever made for just a few dollars.
A truly excellent point and click adventure game The Drifter is now more easily playable thanks to some official translations, and support for fan additions.
43.8 million player votes later, the winners of the 2025 Steam Awards have been announced, with Hollow Knight: Silksong securing top prize, Game of the Year.
I think a lot of Dispatch can be distilled into a single moment at the beginning of the game when the player comes face to face with a penis. There it is, dangling visibly between the legs of an unclothed, toxic-drenched super-villain you're about to fight. The camera all but centers on it. There's no way you can miss it unless you've flipped the nudity switch off, in which case it's replaced by an even more conspicuous black box that only amplifies the naughtiness of the part hidden within. But most people don't turn nudity off because they're expecting boobs. That's what we usually see. In Dispatch, however, it's a penis we see waggling unavoidably on our screens.
Oodles of games are coming out in 2026, and many look impressive. There's the new Resident Evil, yet another reimagining of Tomb Raider 1, and a 007 game that reminds me of the often-forgotten cartoon series James Bond Jr. All will probably be decent, and some might even dictate my guide writing duties.
In the grand spirit of Christmas, I want everyone to know that for this year's RPS Advent Calendar, I nominated a bunch of games about Japanese assassins and at least one point and click thriller featuring a netherworld of torture devices. Some of those assassins appeared on the final calendar, but not all, and the point and click didn't make the cut.
While I would go so far as to say that I have an affection for the team here at RPS, they certainly tried my patience when it came to the Advent Calendar voting. How dare they not have played and loved the same games as me through the year? Here I was, new head honcho, and I couldn't find a single one in the bunch who had put the necessary hours into Chip 'n Clawz vs. The Brainoids. Shameful.
Thank goodness I can put that right with my Selection Box.
Bloody waiters. Asking you what you'd like to eat after you waltz into the restaurant at which they're employed. The absolute cheek of it. Why can't they just ingest my money and spit a vaguely edible chocolate bar out of their belly button? This is the central philosophy which serves as the "touchstone" of BioShock creator Ken Levine's Judas and its protagonist, Judas.
Yep, there's another dev blog out for the BioShocky FPS in which you'll run around a colony ship and gradually force someone to dislike you so much they go full villain.
Around May last year, the one and only Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame announced an RPG that was meant to be some kind of mix between classic Zelda, and Diablo, and Thimbleweed Park, that last one being another of the game designer's notable works. It never got a full reveal, or even a name, and unfortunately it seems it never will, as it's essentially been canned.
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing. This week, Kelsey discovers the joys and stresses of managing border control in Papers, Please; Tom holds off his Kojima dislike and plays Death Stranding; Victoria looks for anyone she can to talk to about Dispatch; Ed can't stop thinking about balls; Connor finds himself back in Guild Wars 2; and Bertie finds himself back in Dungeons & Dragons, getting everyone in trouble again.
.
.
