RPS Advent Calendar voting remains an esoteric and fickle process even for those of us who practice it. If two games get the same number of votes, which one will be higher on the list? Did Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor technically release in 2025 or 2024? These are questions that most of us don't dare ask, and those that are asked often mysteriously disappear overnight. Until approximately January 3, when they return from vacation.
One thing is for sure: I had a bunch of games that no one else voted for. Don't be sad, games. I still like you.
He has my face
I saw the “Kill someone in a busy place” aspect. He has my face – formerly known as DoubleWe – attract comparisons to killer. Fair. Except here you're not a genetically enhanced master assassin, but a random asshole forced to arm yourself with salvaged bats and shitty single-shot revolvers, and your target isn't hanging out in a glass-bottomed hot tub hanging over a cliff. They know who you are and why you are here, and are actively hunting you, ready to cut through the crowd of citizens if it means destroying you before you cut them down.
This relative balance of power makes for deliciously tense rounds of brutal hide-and-seek games, as does the effectiveness with which It Has My Face stokes paranoia. Crowds are often thick enough to hide a speeding target, and your only way to identify them in the open is to pull out a mirror and check your reflection (they have your face, you see). Between the regular reminders of the mirror, the jerky movements of NPC doppelgängers, and the frustratingly long time it takes to unlock a weapon crate, It Has My Face skillfully diverts your attention from the real threat, often right up until the moment they pick up a knife. And the only feeling that is stronger than this simmering nervousness is the relief that comes from gaining momentum faster.
It's only launched in Early Access, so a full story mode and multiplayer features have yet to be implemented, but I really enjoyed how It Has My Face got under my skin in its current state. Eat Steam demo try it if you're not sure.
Jump into space
Oh no, this is another Early Access game, and unlike the deliberately low-quality It Has My Face, a game whose rough edges clearly covered in potential debris. The game “Sea of ​​Thieves” from Jump Space, but you're in space, strewn with spikes. Repetitive mission types. Nonsense (albeit ostensibly a placeholder) AI voices. Jukeboxes that occasionally malfunction and start to sound like they're playing rock tunes, not only from outside your spaceship's lounge, but also from outside the ship itself.
However, I keep coming back to Jump into spaceboth for its goofy charm and the rocket ship adventures that form its central fantasy. It's a game where plans go awry and vital tools explode, but it's usually farcical, without punitive action, making it seem like the developers were joking. A teammate stumbles off a cliff, let's say left 4 Deadcan ruin the entire run; here, when you turn a corner and see the entire bridge engulfed in flames and an unsuspecting pilot sneaking into the crosshairs of another enemy gunship, it's just… funny.
Jump Space is not blunt game, mind Some of its raid types can be quite clever in the way they distribute objectives to effectively split up your team, upping the stakes by forcing ground teams to fight unsupported while the skeletal crew remains on the ship to ensure it doesn't get blown out of the sky in the meantime. This combination of flying and on-foot action has been attempted in several space games, but few have pulled it off as smoothly, and I'm excited to see what more Jump Space can achieve as it continues to develop and expand.
Lushfoil Photography Simulator
I can't remember why Graham (RPS of the world) asked me review Lushfoil Photography Simulator; he may have looked at my SSD photos and thought, “God, this guy needs to learn about focal length.”
Well, I learned because it is both a simulator and a teacher at the same time. That's no small feat when a subject is as thickly cloaked in jargon as photography, but Lushfoil patiently and effectively dispels all the aperture and ISO gobbledygook, then puts you and the camera in front of some of the best landscapes on Earth for some practical lessons. Result: Wow, I really understand what the buttons and switches on my DSLR camera do now. Would anyone hire me for their wedding? Probably not. But I would say that I can be trusted to take photographs more than someone who has twelve hours of work. iRacing Ferrari could be trusted.
Let's also not gloss over how impressive these places are. If emulating photography is Lushfoil's first priority and teaching it is second, then the third is surely celebrating Mother Nature in all her wild, snowy, leafy, sunny and all-encompassing glory. It's easy to get so isolated in these mountains and forests, built to capture the wanderlust of their real-life counterparts, that you end up forgetting to take any photographs. However, you should do it. You can learn something.
