Forspoken

Flanked by two officers, Alfre Holland shuffles into the courtroom, cuffs around her wrists and a chip the size of Rockefeller Plaza on her shoulder. In front of her sits a high-school diploma next to her arrest and prosecution record – a rather clumsy shorthand for squandered potential.

Hi-Fi Rush

We’ve seen plenty of rhythm-action games recently that put the emphasis more heavily on the latter half of that genre label, but perhaps none so much as Hi-Fi Rush.

Like A Dragon: Ishin

With this thorough, if not comprehensive, refurbishment of 2014’s formerly Japan-only release Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin, the recently retitled Like A Dragon series might just have found the most ideal expression of its dual personality. This is, after all, a game that has blended violent drama with broad comedy from day one – and Ishin duly delivers the bloodiest fights so far, while putting forward a strong case for being the funniest entry to date.

ARCTIC AWAKENING

Telltale signs of mystery and intrigue

TIN HEARTS

Thinking outside the toy box

LIGHTYEAR FRONTIER

Standby for Titanfarm

PACIFIC DRIVE

Xen and the art of automobile maintenance

THE LAST CASE OF BENEDICT FOX

Explore the dead's memories in this Lovecraftian detective story

SKATE STORY

Skating through a cosmopolitan hell in a stylish twist on grind culture

STEAMWORLD BUILD

Anno meets Dungeon Keeper in the series' 3D debut

WADJET EYE GAMES

How Dave Gilbert found his niche, and turned a passion for point-and-click into a career

ΤΗΕ MAKING 0F WE ARE OFK

How Teddy Dief and team got the band together, on screen and in the real world

CHAMPION'S ROAD

How Street Fighter II: Champion Edition lit the blue touchpaper for tournament gaming worldwide

COLLECTED WORKS ROBERTA WILLIAMS

A legendary pioneer of the adventure genre reflects on a career that spans fairy stories, nursery rhymes and horror

RETURN SMASH

How a filmmaker and his dream team of musicians and designers are resurrecting a cult Dreamcast classic for PSVR2

WINTER IN UKRAINE

How a beleaguered region's developers are managing the uncertainty, grief and horror of unprovoked invasion

LIFE 1S STRANGE: TRUE COLORS

How defining rules - and redefining performance - led to the series’ most accomplished entry to date

FICTIORAMA STUDIOS

How a team with true family values got a taste for dark futures, voyeurism and conspiracy theories

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

The definitive document of early-'00s car culture

ΤΗΕ LΟΝG GAME

A progress report on the games we just can't quit

VIKINGS ON TRAMPOLINES

A good Viking always bounces back

THE SIEGE AND THE SANDFOX

A stealth adventure seeking inspiration from genre royalty

ENDLESS DUNGEON

VWVhere defence can be the best form of attack

PLANET OF LANA

Beautiful landscapes. Shame about the killer robots

SOLIUM INFERNUM

A forgotten classic gets one Hell of a revival

RESIDENT EVIL 4

Can Capcom’s revival find the sweet spot between nostalgia and novelty?

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.

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.

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.

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.