ON DECK

Is Valve’s handheld PC ready to change the world?

Horizon Forbidden West

There cannot be many games that aged almost as instantly as Horizon Zero Dawn. Here was a handsomely realised open-world adventure, with a vibrant, expansive and well-realised setting and an absorbing story that married grand stakes with a journey of personal discovery.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human

There’s a deflated feeling, usually associated with the penultimate episode of a pot-luck Netflix miniseries, that comes once you realise you’re no longer in narratively safe hands.

AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE

Exploring the rise of the factory sim genre – and what it says about automation in our own lives

THE ANACRUSIS

This successor to Left 4 Dead risks getting lost in space

SLITTERHEAD

Silent Hill and Siren’s director promises a completely new strain of action-horror

Lost Odyssey

How Sakaguchi’s clash of past and present created a true final fantasy

PLAYED BY EAR

From interactive podcasts to 3D RPGs: why the growing audiogame scene is demanding that you listen in

GTFO

You’ll realise you have no healing items by default, friendly fire is lethal, and you have precious little ammo

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

It pulls out all the stops, capping off its long-running story arc with all the grandeur a Final Fantasy can muster

ONE MORE LEVEL

How Ghostrunner breathed new life into a Polish developer in need of a hit

DARK SECRETS

The exclusive inside story of Jumpship’s mysterious sci-fi adventure Somerville

COLLECTED WORKS JAKE SOLOMON

The journey from underqualified graphics programmer to master strategist

Back to reality

Has waning hype freed VR to shift up a gear in 2022?

Boss Encounter

A meeting with Hidetaka Miyazaki to discover the treasures of Elden Ring

STUDIO FIZBIN

From card tricks to juice shops: telling stories with one of Germany’s premier indies

Frame Gride

Mecha and fantasy mix in a forgotten but vital chapter of FromSoftware’s history

A little knight music

From Green Greens to Grammys: the story behind an award-worthy Kirby remix

Pocket universe

The best way to play Game Boy games? That’s just the beginning for Analogue’s retro handheld

Unreliable Narrator

Exploring stories in games and the art of telling tales

THE MAKING OF... OXYEN FREE

How over 30 years of friendship, and a persistent love of ’80s cinema, culminated in a spooky adventure

Trigger Happy

Shoot first, ask questions later

Valheim

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

Year of reckoning

Reviewing another difficult 12 months across the game industry

UNKNOWN WORLDS

How perseverance – and chocolate-chip cookies – has kept the Subnautica studio afloat

Trigger Happy

Shoot first, ask questions later

THE MAKING OF ... RETURNAL

How a master of arcade-style action chiseled away the superfluous to uncover something new

Pik pocket

Nintendo and Niantic’s latest AR team-up is a delightfully unassuming diversion. Is that enough?

HORROR SHOW

Strategically sowing the stylish seeds of terror in The Fabulous Fear Machine

Exhibit A

Radiohead’s collaboration with Epic is a vivid experiment in interactive art