The RPS Advent Calendar Guessing Game - 2017 Edition

[Vandelay]

I was initially happy reading the teaser for today’s entry, assuming it would be Caveblazers… Fortunately only a few actually went for Steam World Dig 2.

I was thinking that I agreed with the couple of people saying the games have not overly interested them so far, but when I looked at the list again most of them are games I would like to try. Only Rakeun and Songbringer really don’t appeal. Having said that, of those I do want to try many don’t scream top 24 games of the year.

[Aerothorn]

The cynic in me says “This one got picked because it was on the Switch which is where Katherine (and increasingly John) does all their gaming.” There wasn’t a WIT, though there was a review (I think that means the reviewer didn’t finish it?) and it wasn’t a recommended review. Which makes it weird when it gets a pick in the face of all the Recommended games that didn’t. But, of course, that’s the difference between one person and a group of people.

I have found both Steamworld games to be lovely in exactly the way Brendan describes (albeit lightweight and somewhat forgettable), so I’m surprised but not shocked.

[alms]

I’ll just say it’s easier for me to change my mind about Getting Over It than it is about Steamworld Dig. I just don’t see the loveliness in these games.

About Caveblazers, it has some problem with the ending, it’s misogynistic or something along the lines, so I wouldn’t hold my breath about it getting picked.

(albeit lightweight and somewhat forgettable)

Yup they have absolutely zero personality. I have been told Heist has a lot of depth, though, so there may be an interesting game in there after all. My attention was diverted before I got to the interesting parts, FWIW.

[vinraith]

The funny thing about Steamworld Dig 2 is that I’d have sworn it was an article I read here that scared me away from it. The last thing I would have expected was for it to show up in the Advent calendar.

I have been told Heist has a lot of depth, though

I played through about two thirds of Heist - it was very much the same game from the beginning to where I got. I’m not sure where the depth is supposed to be, if there is any. It was fun for a little while, but it’s an extremely light and fluffy game.

[alms]

it’s an extremely light and fluffy game.

It may depend on what one considers deep, though I cannot really say much more than that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[vinraith]

Sure, individual everything tends to vary, I’m just a little baffled. There are a lot of hats to collect, maybe they meant millinery depth?

[Aerothorn]

About Caveblazers, it has some problem with the ending, it’s misogynistic or something along the lines, so I wouldn’t hold my breath about it getting picked.

I mean, John himself just wrote that a bad ending does not and should not define a game, so absent any specific details of Caveblazers ending (and I’m going to assume that it doesn’t literally espouse hatred of women) that doesn’t seem like a good reason to cut it, given the ebullience with which it was greeted, particularly since that ebullience appeared to have absolutely nothing to do with the game’s narrative.

[alms]

Sure, individual everything tends to vary, I’m just a little baffled. There are a lot of hats to collect, maybe they meant millinery depth?

I seem to recall the argument revolved around the breadth of tactical options, but it’s not my argument, so…

I mean, John himself just wrote that a bad ending does not and should not define a game, so absent any specific details of Caveblazers ending (and I’m going to assume that it doesn’t literally espouse hatred of women) that doesn’t seem like a good reason to cut it, given the ebullience with which it was greeted, particularly since that ebullience appeared to have absolutely nothing to do with the game’s narrative.

Hm, an ending simply not being very good (then again I’m not sure in what ways Night in the Woods disappoints so I’m theorizing here) is not necessarily in the same bucket as a misogynistic one.

More recently, I haven’t touched Caveblazers since I killed the final boss – though that’s largely to do with being blindsided by its bizarrely misogynistic ending [I had not seen that ending and wish I hadn’t looked it up just now – ed].

Relevant quote, emphasis by me, taken from:

When are you done with a game?

[Aerothorn]

Yeah, absent spoiling myself I really can’t comment - it just strikes me as weird, because different games bring different things to the table, and it seemed to me that Caveblazers was not being evaluated or praised on narrative terms, and so even truly awful narrative content should not take away the joy/praise from the bulk of the game as long as that content is only a tiny portion of it (an obvious counter example would be if the game scrolled misogynist text throughout, which could pretty easily ruin every moment). Of course, it’s RPS’ show and they can and will do what they want, I’m just explaining why I didn’t factor this into my voting.

[alms]

Generally speaking, I agree that a bad ending would have a hard time completely nullifying an otherwise worthy journey. OTOH a bad enough ending can do plenty of damage.

As for Caveblazers, having not seen it either, I was going by my recollection of that reaction, maybe I have attached too much value to it, though.

[Aerothorn]

At this stage I suspect you’re right - there are just too many other games to take the top 10 and in a highly competitive field RPS probably decided that that was a pretty good tiebreaker/distinction to make.

[Vexing_Vision]

Welp. Looks like this is my best year yet, which probably speaks more about the sheer diversity of this year’s selections than my skill at predictions.

Let’s see where the journey takes us.

[MiniMatt]

Uh huh. Hmm. Ok then.

Didn’t exactly feature heavily in RPS writing over the year, did it? Zero Escape, zero points.

[vinraith]

This whole fiasco gets more amusing every day. I’m starting to think they’re just trolling us (i.e. the readership at large), now.

[and_its_man]

Yes, I’m laughing.

Also, I see John is not going back on his grumpy article about House Party (which was on my list). Come on, John!

Well, back to the musical illustration of this year’s edition of the Advent Calendar Guessing Game with Dead Can Dance, and another of their songs about ‘fortune’.
After “How Fortunate the Man with None” (which was a very personal pick), this one may reach everybody:

[Aerothorn]

This one shocked me. I bought 999 for the DS before it was ever on the PC, heard all the hype, played it…and it was TERRIBLE. Like, the first paragraph was limp, tropey anime writing introducing an undefined amnesiac protagonist (NO) and it never let up for the hour I played it. I am willing to believe it gets a lot better, but the fact that nobody ever acknowledged the terrible opening made me think that maybe it doesn’t get better and everyone else is just under some weird spell.

To be fair, Katherine didn’t join staff till just recently, so we can’t really blame RPS for not covering it. But then again, it’s yet another set of games that didn’t actually come out in 2017.

[Aerothorn]

Which also, in its way, seems like a little bit of a diss of 2017’s games - “Imma let you finish, 2017, but some of your best games weren’t as good as games from 2009.”

[MiniMatt]

Interesting that with just nine more picks remaining we still appear to be in the territory of games picked by just one person which no-one else vetos

Nine more picks. Plunkbat & Divinity OS2 are the only ones I feel are ironclad, everything else is highly vulnerable.

Some very popular (both in this comp and in positive RPS column inches generated) games are going to get dumped.

[Aerothorn]

Here’s my best guess as to What Happened:

From an editorial perspective, everyone needs to get assigned a different game to review or cover, so in terms of ‘work horurs’ people are not playing the same game unless it’s for a feature (Everyone Plays Plunkbat or something). And in terms of free time hours, a lot of RPS staff are adults with children who find their free time sucked up by not-video-game-things and only have free time for a select few games.

It could also mean staff are having increasingly divergent interests which is good for site coverage* but makes things awkward during award season.

I want to say “Okay NOW is the time we get the big obvious games that multiple people voted on” but you know, I already said that a couple of days ago, so what do I know.

*Unless you really like that genre but has different tastes than the person who covers them, e.g. me, adventure games, and John

[DeekyFun]

Speaking as someone who does like both of those Zero Escape games a lot, I never even considered putting them on my list - and although I get that they were released on PC this year, it still seems a bit odd to be picking them over new games that actually came out in this year, which has been a pretty good year overall.