CATEGORIES

SUNDAY FUNDAY

SUNDAY GOLD is a point-and-click adventure that penalises clicking on everything

SISTER SISTER

DMC meets Dark Souls in grungy action adventure SOULSTICE

BROKEN ROADS

The post-apocalypse is returning to Australia

FOUR SCORE

The BEST 4X GAMES for today’s discerning a explorers, expanderspexploiters, Ae and exterminators

BEACH-COMBING

Take a mini-break with 3D platformer BEACH ISLAND DELUXE

THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: THE DEVIL IN ME

Supermassive turns to a notorious serial killer for its season finale

DELIVER US MARS

A pair of pickaxes raises the stakes in this expanded sequel

AN AUDIENCE WITH…LARS WINGEFORS

Embracer’s CEO explains the story behind the company’s explosive expansion

ΤΗΕ PRESERVATIONISTS

Digging through the archives with the people striving to safeguard videogame history

Splatoon 3

We open on a clear, blue sky – as vivid a hue as any with which you’ll ink your environment and opponents in Splatoon 3. In the wastes below, an Inkling shelters from the baking sun, shawled in a threadbare cloak, sporting mirrored shades and what appears to be some kind of breathing apparatus.

Roadwarden

This engrossing fantasy RPG may be predominantly text-based, but one of its finest tricks is entirely visual. A large window dominates the centre of the screen, containing flavourful descriptions of the place you’re visiting or the people you’re conversing with, above the available actions or answers.

Metal: Hellsinger

The rhythm shooter was, perhaps, inevitable. After all, a sense of timing and the ability to predict what’s coming next serve you equally well whether you’re lining up a head in your crosshairs or strutting your stuff on a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

Steelrising

Developing a Soulslike poses a very particular challenge. FromSoftware’s output is the yardstick by which all others are measured, and the studio has a habit of putting greater distance between it and its peers.

Sunday Gold

Timing is everything during a heist, but seldom as obviously as in Sunday Gold – a point-and-click crime caper that is technically a single 15–20-hour turn-based RPG encounter, played out in mansions, warehouses and laboratories across a near-future London.

SYSTEM SHOCK

Rebooting the '90s immersive sim with some hi-tech augmentations

ΡΕΝΤΙΜΕΝΤ

Obsidian's medieval mystery is a trove of novel influences

Tokyo rising

Japan’s long-running expo returns with a renewed, outward-facing urgency

BLOOD MOON

Striking Distance goes beyond Dead Space with the highly evolved survival horror of The Callisto Protocol

STUDIO PROFILE MILESTONE INTERACTIVE

How Italy’s long-running studio moved from arcade racer to sim specialist and back again

MARS FIRST LOGISTICS

From Deliver Us Mars to Deliver On Mars

The Case Of The Golden Idol

Any detective story worth its salt needs a good villain, and this clever, complex and exuberantly macabre tale from Latvian brothers Andrejs and Ernests delivers a veritable rogues’ gallery.

HUBRIS

A VR space adventure that's reaching for the stars

DRAGON QUEST TREASURES

Will this spinoff prove to be a hidden gem?

Return To Monkey Island

There is a COVID joke in Return To Monkey Island. This shouldn’t be surprising, given that the series has always given its pirates distinctly modern concerns – retirement, health inspections, adequately expressing the power of Loom’s 3D engine.

ΤΗΕ MAKING ΟF DEATHLOOP

How the time-loop shooter won over Bethesda, players – and its own developers

A fighting chance

Big news about multiple fighting games as the genre is poised for a new era

Live, die, repeat

The best things in life are free. Beyond Genshin Impact, there’s plenty of fun to be had without spending a penny

A Plague Tale goes bigger and better

Requiem’s lead level designer Kevin Pinson discusses greater freedom and heaps o’ rats

Woah de Cologne

It was great to be back in person at Europe’s biggest gaming event, even if there were few surprises

Holmes improvement

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened gets ground-up remake