CATEGORIES
Narrative Engine
Write it like you stole it
The Outer Limits
Journeys fo the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment
Trigger Happy
Shoot first, ask questions later
Go north
How does A Maze’s first UK outing compare fo the Berlin original?
Independents' pay
With publishers dwindling and funding drying up, is your next favourite indie production at risk of dying on the vine?
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas
VISIONS OF MANA
The action RPG series returns, as light on its feet as ever
TAILS OF IRON 2: WHISKERS OF WINTER
It's rats versus bats in Odd Bug's chilly sequel
PHONOPOLIS
Enter a corrugated dystopia, where everyone's card is marked
Narrative Engine
Write it like you stole it
The Outer Limits
Journeys fo the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment
Trigger Happy Shoot first, ask questions later
An on-rails driving simulator can be surprisingly immersive. I may be pootling along strictly under the speed limit, but as I turn a corner I find myself leaning over in my seat as though that will help me get a better view of what’s around the bend.
DISPATCHES JUNE
I love playing games. As an almost 40-yearold with a family, though, I spend more time reading about games and writing lists of the games I want to play than actually playing them.
Here be Dragons
What does Poland's key game dev conference have in store?
Snap decisions
What inspired the creation of Downpour, which invites you to turn photos into games?
Absolute state of the union
What this year's GDC says about the present and future of video game development
Hi-Fi Rush
A progress report on the games we just can't quit
Dragon's Lair
An old-fashioned dose of movie magic - but one that trades in a novel type of glamour
DAMBUSTER STUDIOS
How the former Free Radical found the fun amid corporate crises
THE MAKING OF... HARDSPACE: SHIPBREAKER
How Blackbird Interactive cracked the formula for a sci-fi tale of dystopian deconstruction
DREAM TICKET
As Media Molecule prepares to move on, we get the inside track on Tren, its spectacular swan song for Dreams