Goodnight Universe: inside the mind of a psychic baby
From the writer of lockdown hit Before Your Eyes, the new game uses VR or plain old webcam tech to see how life looks as a paranormally gifted infant
The Crush House review – Love Island with a dark heart
Playing the producer of a seemingly-glitzy reality TV show, audiences and cast must be kept happy, no matter how outrageous the request, in easily the funniest game I’ve played all year
Summer games previews
Tides of Tomorrow – ghostly gamers offer a novel navigation of the climate crisis
Summer games previews
Tactical Breach Wizards puts the magic into military tactics games
Summer games previews
Grab your Ouija board: behind Fear the Spotlight’s 90s-inspired horror
July 2024
Summer games previews
Star Wars Outlaws: what to expect from Ubisoft’s galactic adventure
Set in the year between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Outlaws follows Kay, an ambitious street thief as she plots a giant heist. We meet the gang behind the gang
Summer games previews
‘The windmill is pretty flirty’: Building Relationships, the game where you take a house out on a date
In this uniquely absurd mishmash of adventure and dating game, you are a house looking for love on an island of eligible bachelor pads
Summer games previews
‘I’m not sure if it will sell, but it should exist’: Horses, a surreal Lynchian horror game
Flock review – chill creature-collecting flying game is shear bliss
Zenless Zone Zero review – stylish, enchanting and seductive
June 2024
Still Wakes the Deep review – The Thing, but on a Scottish oil rig in the 1970s
This horror game creates great atmosphere with its acting and visual design, but is regularly brought to its knees by uninspiring gameplay
Civilization 7 and more announced at Summer Game Fest
The latest title in the long-running strategy series was the biggest reveal at an event that celebrated small indie titles as much as big hitters
SpaceWar is back! Rebuilding the world’s first gaming computer
A large team of tech nostalgia enthusiasts have made a PiDP-10, a replica of the PDP-10 mainframe computer first launched by the Digital Equipment Corporation in 1966
May 2024
XDefiant review – Overwatch meets Call of Duty in an Ubisoft theme park
You may feel a touch of deja vu as you mow down rivals with your M16 – but although it’s unoriginal, this free six-person shooter is slick and enjoyable
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes review – eerie visuals and a thrilling story
This compulsive atavistic mystery is told through bewildering yet tantalising non-linear narrative strands that the player must tease apart
What is Manor Lords? The medieval city-building game that sold a million copies in a single day
Developer Slavic Magic’s feudal simulator is Steam’s latest early access sensation, but there’s a seven-year story behind its overnight success
April 2024
My undying love for the painfully uncool Amiga
Dominik Diamond
It may have looked like something you’d see a bank teller use, but it withstood heavy battering. And it ran the coolest games
TopSpin 2K25 review – game, set and match to an engrossing tennis sim
Whether you’re playing as a real-life pro or your own wacky avatar, this subtly calibrated title will have you perfecting your lobs and dropshots for hours
A skate through cyberspace: on the edge with the Now Play This festival of experimental video games
This week, Somerset House houses a selection of avant garde games on the theme of liminality
March 2024
Alone in the Dark review – Jodie Comer and David Harbour can’t save this soporific horror
The stars are lost in a swamp of poor writing and buggy combat in this wearisome reimagining of the 1992 survival classic
