What we’re most excited about playing this year
Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown
Release date:January 18thFrom:Ubisoft Connect,Epic Games Store
Jeremy:Every five years Ubisoft quietly drops a surprise project that makes me temporarily ignore all of their sins, and this year, it looks like it’s The Lost Crown. This revitalisation of the classic PoP formula got an unfair degree of vitriol when it was first revealed, and while I can understand not liking a standalone 2D Metroidvania if you were looking forward to The Sands of Time remake (rest in limbo), the number of horrid tweets I saw hating on this game for featuring a Black protagonist drove me nuts. I think Sargon is a fantastic-looking lead, and I’m eager to rush him through Mount Qaf and collect a million doodads to save the Prince’s skin. Honestly, I hope the old Prince dies in the end and Sargon becomes the new Prince of Persia.
Release date:January 24th (early access)From:Steam
Katharine:I wasvery takenwith this Viking-themed roguelike citybuilder during last February’s Steam Next Fest, so the news thatRoots Of Yggdrasilis entering early access later this month has made me very keen to check it out again. In the pre-alpha Next Fest demo, its inkwash-style visuals made Roots Of Yggdrasil’s methodical and strategic townbuilding very easy on the eyes, and watching your town grow and get busier over several turns was very satisfying. Your main goal is to expand out enough to reach that level’s titular root so you can power up your base back at your home hub, but you can also seek out additional sidequests and events to gain new building types and items for your hero characters. You’ll need to keep an eye on your turn count, though, as you only have a certain number of ‘em before each world is overrun by the Ginnungagap - a primordial void from Norse myth that will start eating your map in mouthfuls of tiles at a time. Here’s hoping the early access version makes the roguelike loop compelling enough to keep coming back.
Release date:January 25thFrom:Steam
Katharine:The latter Ace Attorney games may not be quite as beloved as Phoenix Wright’s tenure as chief finger-pointer when it comes to putting baddies behind bars in a court of law, but I do have a real soft spot for Ace Attorneys 5 and 6, and the fact that Capcom havefinally bundled them togetherfor PC along with the eponymous Apollo Justice game (the only one I haven’t played in the series) is excellent news indeed. Andwhat a glow-upthey’ve received since their initial DS and 3DS debuts all those years ago. If you enjoyed the original trilogy or the more recent Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, this will no doubt be a must-play.
Release date:January 26thFrom:Steam
Release date:February 1stFrom:Steam
Release date:February 2ndFrom:Steam,Game Pass
Release date:February 13thFrom:Steam,Epic Games Store
Release date:February 14thFrom:Steam
Katharine:Based on my performance during our family Christmas board game gauntlet this year, I can tell you now thatSolium Infernumis almost certainly going to be a game that I’m absolutely terrible at. My ability to scheme and accurately backstab is so woefully inept that I almost always finish last or near the bottom in such games of intrigue and manipulation, as I can never quite predict just what depraved depths my opponents will really go to in order to secure their victory. Perhaps Solium Infernum will be just the proving ground I need to hone my devilish plotting skills, however, what with it being set in Hell and all as multiple demon lords fight over who gets to be the next Satan. Made by League Of Geeks, the team behind the excellent strategy RPG Armello, this modern remake of Vic Davis’ cult turn-based classic is shaping up very nicely indeed based on theSteam Next Fest demo I played last autumn, and I’m excited to repeatedly fail miserably at it once it releases in full next month.
Release date:February 20thFrom:Steam,GOG,Epic Games Store
Katharine:I also hada rad timewith the October Next Fest demo of The Thaumaturge, and I’m well up for some Divinity: Original Sin meets demonic Pokémon-ing when it comes out next month.
Release date:February 22ndFrom:Steam
Alice Bee:I do not have a garden, but I like gardens. If I did have one, I would be very bad at looking after it as a nice place to be. Thus I am drawn to the idea ofGarden Life(I played the demo of it, I think, in a Steam Next Fest). You plant stuff! Tidy up! Put down stones to make a path! I really liked the sort of semi-ritual way of playing it that developed, and I took the path placement very seriously (because if the stones aren’t equidistant from one another, it makes it more stressful to walk along the path). I know it’s not going to be anything like actually having a garden, but it’s more like having a garden than not having one at all.
Release date:February 22nd (early access)From:Steam,Epic Games Store
Ollie:I am entirely too hyped forNightingale. At this point, there’s no way it can live up to my expectations. Which is entirely my own doing. But when asurvivalcrafting game comes along, with a gorgeous gaslamp fae realms aesthetic, flintlock weapons, and fantastical creatures to fight or run from… Well, I can’t help but get excited. What really caught my eye early on was the realm-hopping system, allowing you to insert combinations of realm cards into portals to procedurally generate new worlds to your specifications. You pick between different biome cards like swamp, desert, and so on; and then you play major and minor realm cards to influence the world that will appear on the other side of that portal. It’s a fascinating way to handle exploration which gives the player a lot more agency when it comes to where they want to go and what they want to contend with at each stage of a playthrough.
Release date:February 22ndFrom:Steam,Epic Games Store
Katharine:Everything I’ve seen so far of this survival driving roguelike has meintrigued. I love the strange, alt-world sci-fi setting of its mildly cursed (and very Control-like) Pacific Northwest, and I love how much methodical detail developers Ironwood Studios have put into actually operating your beaten-up old station wagon (including remembering to put the handbrake on, shift the gearstick into neutral, turn off the windscreen wipers, and maybe switching off your headlights before exiting the car, lest it scare or alert one of the area’s many strange alien inhabitants, or a gust of wind accidentally rolls your car down a ravine). Combined with ever-changing weather systems, it’s just the right kind of mechanical pressure to place on a player as you go about charting its procedural pathways as you push deeper into its supernatural exclusion zone to unravel the mysteries waiting for you at the end of it. If it can nail the roguelike structure of its cross-country jaunts (and mad, end-of-run death chases to your extraction point), we’ll no doubt be honking our horns aboutPacific Drivefor months to come.
Release date:March 5th (early access)From:Steam
Katharine:The Sims has always been a little too intimidating for me to really get into - I often put it in the same category as Theme Park and Theme Hospital: games I can only ever really enjoy when I’m cheating and ignoring the real point of the whole thing. But cheats, mods and generally not caring about the rules is a mindset that Paradox’s new Sims rivalLife By Youseems to be embracing, which I’m very much on board with. If your human is hungry or you just can’t quite be bothered to make sure they don’t wet themselves in public, you can reset and bump up all their needs and desires quick as you like, no cheat required and without penalty. More than that, though, I’m just dead keen to see how wild its actual simulation is, especially when it’s promising you the ability to dip into the minds of any of its NPC characters andpick up their liveslike they’re one of your own. New diary series, here we come.
Release date:March 8thFrom:Steam,Epic Games Store
Edwin:The near-to-medium future teems with new space strategy properties, thanks to up-and-coming publishers like Hooded Horse, but even so, it’sHomeworld 3that I’m most looking forward to. The threequel blasphemously flips the Mothership sideways - I know, it’s outer space and questions of flat vs vertical orientation are fundamentally meaningless, but the new ship is designed to be viewed horizontally – while introducing maps that are full of far larger derelicts and celestial bodies that serve (or so the developers claim) as a cavernous tactical landscape. You’ll be squirrelling fighter formations behind trashed battlecruisers to blindside frigates, and using bits of asteroid as cover against the other side’s heavy artillery, while listening to your pilots chatter about the fortunes of war.
Release date:March 20thFrom:Steam,GOG
Release date:March 21stFrom:Steam
Edwin:Dragon’s Dogma 2isextremely similarto Dragon’s Dogma 1, which is terrible news if you dislike climbing on ogres to stop them eating your mates, listening to crackpot anime dialogue (“tis a troubling foe!”), and exploring the almost imsim-worthy combinatory possibilities of spells of levitation, illumination and, er, setting wolves on fire. Honestly, the build I played last year felt like a glorified expandalone, but there is still nothing quite like Capcom’s action RPG, with its wonderfully zealous AI party-members, toybox class design and Monster Hunter-adjacent brawls. I’m very glad it’s getting another shot at stardom.
Ed: I look forward to dipping my hands into the abyss and plucking out a party of player-made abominations to accompany me on my journey. There’s nothing quite like the pawn system.
Release date:MarchFrom:Steam,Game Pass
Katharine:I would say I’m more of a fair-weather farming game player these days, but add mechs to the equation and you have my attention. I love a good mech, me, andLightyear Frontierputs them front and centre in this chill,farmingexploration game. You’ll need them to gamble about the strange alien planet you crash land on to find resources, and you’ll also use them to plant (aka: shoot) seeds, harvest (aka: vacuum up) crops and build a new life for yourself - and your mates, if you fancy playing together in online co-op. It even hasa touch of PowerWash Simulator about itas well, as you have a hose tool to blast away ominous patches of goop plaguing the environment. After speaking to the devs at Gamescom last year, I’m very much looking forward to seeing what sights and secrets await us when it launches in early access later this March.
Katharine:Hardware editor James is still on holiday this week (the lucky devil), but I know he’d be pumped forDeep Rock Galactic: Survivorthis year, the Vampire Survivors-like spin-off of everyone’s favourite co-op mining adventure. James had agreat timewith a very early build of it last year, and his enthusiasm for it has proven quite infectious, as I, too, am quite keen to give it a go when it launches into early access. I’ve fallen off the Vampire Survivors wagon a bit recently – I have to be careful with my rationing otherwise I’ll just fall down a pit of auto-shooting and never get out of it again – but here’s hoping I’ll be able to show more restraint with DRG’s take on the genre.
Edwin:If VoidStranger has an opposite within the suddenly-hip sokoban genre it’s surely this Link’s Awakening-esque treat, in which you are a burly young man who must solve an archipelago’s worth of single-screen block and tile puzzles. The blocks and tiles come in all varieties – slippy ice, crumbling rock, floating lilies, crystal blocks that regenerate behind you – and the 16-bit ambience is gorgeous. If you’re stumped by a puzzle, you can always board your friend the giant turtle and investigate a different island.Isles Of Sea And Skyis shaping up to be a laidback thrill, but why take my word for it when you can try the demo?
Katharine:Flock ispure. Flock iskind. Flock isinner peace. At its core, this is a game about riding around on the back of a big giant bird while grazing your sheep on meadowy hillocks. Some cheeky critters stole your aunt’s whistle collection, you see, and your woolly companions will need to chew the cud to find them all after they’ve been scattered to the wind in the long grass. But while you’re waiting for your sheep to munch their way to victory,Flockis ultimately a game about curiosity, as you’ll inevitably be tempted into its weird and wonderful wilds by the strange chirrups, hoots and echoing trills of its local wildlife. There are so many delightful creatures to discover in this chill explore ‘em up, though some will require more cajoling than others before they make themselves known. A likely oasis of calm in a very busy first half of the year, I’m looking forward to cataloguing every last one of them when Flock launches later this spring.Disclosure: Pip Warr, formerly of this parish, is a game and narrative designer on Flock.
Release date:April 26thFrom:Steam
Ollie:There’s a lot aboutManor Lordsthat catches the eye. First is the mix of genres. It’s a dedicated city-builder, but with huge Total War-esque tactical battles. That’s something that, as far as I know, hasn’t been attempted before - at least not on this scale. Secondly, the city-building is what they call entirely “organic”, which means there are no grids limiting the placement of buildings, roads, and so on. It results in very natural-looking towns and cities, and in motion it looks absolutely fantastic. Thirdly, you can enter your own towns as the lord, walking around in third-person like Kingdom Come: Deliverance. And finally, it’s all made by just one person. And it looks and plays this good. That’s just insane.
Release date:May 31st (early access)From:Steam
Katharine:I was first put ontoSelacoby Craig Pearson (RPS in peace) around two years ago, and yep, its pitch of F.E.A.R meets Doom (in the GDZoom engine, no less) is a concept I’m very much on board with. It looks to be shaping up very nicely indeed, and after revisiting all the old Dooms at the end of last year (and dipping my toes into Trepang2, another F.E.A.R-style FPS that made it into our Advent Calendar this year), my appetite for more great retro shooters is growing at an alarming rate.
Release date:June 7th (closed beta)From:Steam
Ollie:Action RPGs like Diablo and Path Of Exile tend to be gigantic time-sinks, the kind where veteran players put literally thousands of hours into grinding the best possible gear to take on the most powerful bosses. I’m not one of those players, but I still feel like I get a lot out of those games for the amount of time I put into them.Path Of Exile 2is shaping up to be possibly the greatest ARPG since Diablo 2, keeping much of the depth of the original POE while also streamlining and improving the experience in a lot of ways. Dodge-rolling, attack-cancelling, and the ability to use WASD to move your character arouaaarrrgh— Sorry, started drooling a bit there. I’ve just been waiting for WASD movement in these games for a long time.
Alice0:Hauntiiis a game I often see on#ScreenshotSaturdaybut refrain from posting often because I assume I have previously posted it every time I saw it. And why wouldn’t I? Just look at it! Beautiful. That two-tone world. The spectral green. The geometric designs. Lovely. It sounds fun beyond the looks, too. It’s a twin-stick explore-o-shooter starring a little ghost in search of answers by travelling across world, using ghostly powers for puzzles and violence, meeting other ghosts, and oh, just look at it. Extremely pretty. I missed its demo in October’s Steam Next Fest so here’s me just waiting for my chance to become a ghost. And in the game etc.
Ollie:I may be godawful at RTS games, but Starcraft and Warcraft III were still very important games of my childhood, and just looking at a couple of screenshots ofStormgatemakes it very clear where their inspirations lie. Frost Giant Studios are looking to create the next modern Blizzard-esque RTS with Stormgate, a game whose design and controls look more and more polished each time they release new footage. On paper it looks and sounds very similar to Starcraft II in particular, although there are some interesting and unique ideas going on within each of the factions and the units and buildings they can use - too many ideas to go through here. But it’s looking very promising to my eyes, and I can’t wait to play properly.
Release date:August 20thFrom:Steam,Epic Games Store
Jeremy:Black Myth: Wukongfinally brings the Monkey King to his rightful place as the star of a fancy blockbuster video game. Alas, Sun Wukong’s biggest shot at international stardom ever since he got turned into a Saiyan in Dragonball is also mired in controversy. Thanks to some top-notch reporting fromIGN, we know that there’s been a fair bit of sexism and misogyny espoused by the devs of this game. This doesn’t surprise me, as someone who used to live in Greater China and previously reported on the Chinese games industry, but it does dismay and embarrass me, as someone who is half-Chinese. It is wonderful to finally see a made-in-China project dominate international attention as the next bigSoulslike, and at the same time disappointing to witness its lustre impacted by stereotypical boy’s club gamer energy. I am still looking forward to Black Myth, but I’ll be playing it with a critical eye, wary of all the behind-the-scenes shit that went into the making of this sausage.
Ollie:Can’t wait to get scared out of my skin by the giant spider boss we saw in the latest trailer.
Release date:September 9thFrom:Steam,Epic Games Store
Katharine:I’m semi-writing this on behalf of James, but I, too, am quite excited to be aSpace Maureenin Saber’s upcoming hack and slash. I’ve never been much of a World War Z kind of gal, but seeing that zombie horde tech repurposed for swarms of chittering Tyranids looks mighty impressive. If the game can live up to the hefty stomping power of its nu-God Of War-looking combat, I’ll be very happy indeed.
Ed:Another honking great RPG for Edders,Metaphor: ReFantaziolooks set to be a fantasy epic with Persona stylings - an all-timer recipe. We still don’t really know a great deal about it, but it promises the forging of bonds with wizardy pals and robotic boat designs constructed by the mastermind behind Neon Genesis: Evangelion’s mechs. In onedev diary, Atlus touch on turn-based battles being an optional arena you can transition into at any point during a realtime scuffle. It seems to me like they’re finding new ways to move the genre forwards, so I think we’re in for not only a grand adventure but, quite possibly, a new IP that could eclipse Persona… or at the very least, give us a sneak peek into how Atlus might handle some bits of an inevitable Persona 6.
Katharine:All I can say about this is: “Get it into my veins now, STAT.”
Katharine:If Hades II is the grim winter death march through the annals of Greek mythology, thenMythwrecked: Ambrosia Islandis its summer holiday equivalent. Made by the same devs who were responsible for the wonderful point and click adventure Roki, Mythwrecked sees wayward backpacker Alex wash up on its eponymous spit of land only to find it’s the long lost home of all the Greek Gods. Trouble is, they’ve all forgotten who they are and what they’re about, so it’s up to you to restore their memories and bring back the island to its former glory. If it’s even half as charming as Roki was, this is sure to be an autumnal treat.
Katharine:I got asmall glimpseof this tactical action adventure at last year’s Gamescom, and cor, it’s just so gosh darn lovely-looking. Comprised of three, interconnected tales that take you to all manner of real and fantastical locations,Arcocaptures the vast scale of its South American-infused landscape with its enormous, zoomed-out pixel dioramas. Your tiny band of travellers will ride across it on tiny little llama mounts as they each work to track down the mysterious Red Company gang, but you’ll also stop to engage in several fights and dust-ups along the way, its mix of real and turn-based top-down combat providing a robust workout for both your brain and fingers.
Katharine:Move over Death Stranding, there’s a new walking simulator in town and its name isBaby Steps. Designed by the same trio of devs behind the bombastic Ape Out (Gabe Cuzzilo, Maxi Boch and Bennett “Getting Over It” Foddy), Baby Steps makes the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other look like an absolute riot. Starting at the base of a misty mountain, you’ll need to guide its onesie-clad hero Nate up to the top of it, keeping him upright at all times and not succumbing to the laws of gravity and, err, physics. Its trailers look fantastic, and I can’t wait to wrap my thumbs round Nate’s wibbly limbs later this year.
Katharine:The creators of Celeste are back with a new 2D platformer (or “explor-action”, as developers Extremely OK Games call it), and yep, I don’t need to hear anything else. Yes, please and thank you.
Katharine:Now you’ve survived the end of the world, what next? That’s the big question posed byFrostpunk 2, and in classic 11 Bit Studios fashion, the answer isn’t going to be easy to come by. You’re still building and maintaining a city in the frozen wastes of this new post apocalypse, but now you’ll be governing it across weeks, months and maybe even years, rather than days, and dealing with new factions (and their extremist offshoots) as they emerge over time. Based onwhat I saw at Gamescom last year, this is everything you could want from a Frostpunk sequel.
Ollie:There are plenty of challenging and punishing city-builders out there, but none have the same feeling of being cut off from the world and struggling to survive against all odds that Frostpunk has. It’s a bleak but fascinating story of survival through sacrifice, and Frostpunk 2 looks to continue that story at a larger scale. Not only is your city capable of growing much larger than before, but the scope of Frostpunk 2’s double-edged laws and politics is also much greater, with different factions and ambitious individuals rising up and forcing you to think twice about every choice you make. The first Frostpunk constantly provoked thoughts of morality and philosophy - something no other city-builder has done for me. Here’s hoping Frostpunk 2 can manage the same.
Edwin:The original’s best quality would have been deemed a flaw in any other city builder: ferociously limited scope. Here, all the genre’s resource-mongering has to fit inside a dying circle of firelight, the aiming reticule of an FPS transformed into a construction site. Inevitably, the prospect of adding features worries me a little, but I’m eager to get my hands on it regardless.
Alice0:Tom van den Boogaart of the indie collective Sokpop (and creator of the brilliant Bernband) offers a first-person gardening game set in the Dutch countryside. You have a weekend’s work tidying up a house’s garden, but the tools are missing and the owner is absent. So explore the nearby village, talk with the locals, and, I assume, eventually do some gardening? The blurb says it has mysteries to probe, eerie vibes to experience, and multiple endings to discover. I’m very curious about this. And if nothing else, I’m always eager to muck about with shears.
Katharine:I’m doing another James impression on this one, as by the oily gods, James absolutely adores old Horizon and I’m afraid he’d build his own sentient mega robot out of old hardware parts to come and destroy me with a vengeance if this didn’t get a look in. This is, of course, the Complete Edition of the former PlayStation exclusive that’s coming to PC later this year, which means it also comes with the Burning Shores expansion pack in it too. I have to admit, this did look very shiny on our PlayStation 5 when it came out (only Matthew, RPS in peace, actually got round to playing it, alas), so maybe I’ll give Aloy and her chums another go when she pitches up on PC. At least it won’t be instantly gazumped by another superior Zelda game as soon as it comes out this year, amirite?
Ollie:I’ve heard occasional rumblings aboutMewgenicsfor about ten years now, and so have you, probably. It’s the new game by Edmund McMillen, creator of The Binding Of Isaac series, which you could tell from looking at a single screenshot of the game. It’s another roguelite, but this time it’s a turn-based, tile-based tactical roguelite about drafting, breeding, and fighting cats. If it has anything close to the charm and depth of The Binding Of Isaac, then it’s sure to be a winner. And it’s about cats, so I’m automatically looking forward to it - even though these cats are probably going to be grotesquely deformed, or zombie cats, or something like that, knowing Edmund.
Kiera:The firstHellbladewas an interesting take on mental illness during the Viking/Pict era. The story followed Senua, a warrior who journeys into Hel to save the soul of her lover Dillion. It was a unique idea that had a profound effect on me when I played it for the first time. The Norse mythology was right up my street, and the use of binaural 3D audio was startingly effective. Having the different voices in Senua’s head give you mixed signals and sometimes outright laugh at your attempts to progress was unnerving - which was exactly the point. The game felt like something out of a fever dream and had a general feeling of oppressiveness that you had to slog through. Thesequelpicks up Senua’s story from where the first left it and promises to feature more set pieces, stunning music and intimidating foes. I’m hoping for more varied character designs and perhaps a little more clarity around solving puzzles as the first game ventured into frustrating territory at times.
Ollie:Anyone who knows me knows that when I get stuck into a factory game, it’s all over. I’m dead to the world. All that matters is automation. I’ve previously remarked on what I consider to be the holy trinity of factory games: Factorio, Satisfactory, and Dyson Sphere Program - butShapez 2is shaping up to potentially turn that trinity into a quartet. It behaves in much the same way as the original Shapez - it’s an extremely pure factory-building experience about rotating, cutting, and stitching together different shapes. There’s no lore or story, no world-building, no diegetic items like circuit boards or iron plates. Just shapes, infinite resources, free buildings, and an endless supply of tasks to perform. But Shapez 2 transforms the game into 3D, with its resources spread across floating islands. It looks amazingly pretty considering it’s all just basic shapes, and I can’t wait to give it a try.
Alice0:Sorry We’re Closedis cool. It’s a survival horror game mixing fixed third-person camera perspectives with first-person action as you explore the overlapping layers of realities as you try to escape a demon’s curse. And it’s cool. Character designs are punky, trashy, sexy. Accent colours are loud. Weapons and effects are bold. And oh, its layers of London are like Silent Hill by way of Persona and Paradise Killer. God it looks great. It’s fun, too, as you can try for yourself with the demo still available on Steam.
Ollie:I do love lightsabers, don’t get me wrong. But I’m also quite excited to play my first Star Wars game since Republic Commando that didn’t give you a lightsaber in the first half-hour.Star Wars Outlawsis an open world Ubisoft RPG set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. The game puts you in the shoes of scoundrel Kay Vess, who appears to be gradually pulled from her self-interested outlaw lifestyle into a larger story which seems quite reminiscent of Andor. And that’s a very good thing, since Andor is possibly the best thing to ever come out of Star Wars as far as I’m concerned.
Katharine:As excited as I am for Frostpunk 2, it’s 11 Bit’sThe Altersthat’s arguably their most intriguing-looking game of the year. As Jan Dolski, you find yourself the sole survivor of a mining accident on an alien planet, in charge of a huge facility all on your lonesome, and where the sunrise will literally burn you alive if you don’t keep one step ahead of it. You can’t run the base by yourself, so you must use its dubious cloning machine to make more of you to help you escape. Only these aren’t clones, but alternate versions of yourself, taken from a branching timeline of your life’s decisions. Each Alter comes with their own personality and emotional baggage, and you’ll need to keep the peace if you’re all going to survive. It’sa fascinating premise, and its mix of management, survival and resource gathering look to be the perfect proving ground for it.
Alice Bee:I loved Tangle Tower, and was immediately disappointed that there wasn’t a whole series of games to binge. If it’s anything like the first,The Mermaid’s Tonguewill be a playful, colourful detective game with easy-to-solve puzzles and a memorable cast of oddballs. The character design in Tangle Tower was one of my favourite things about it, as was the sense of humour and the slightly strange vibe of the mystery itself. The starting premise cast it as an almost magical realist sort of a deal, but it’s got a very ‘once you eliminate the impossible’ vibe to it. Honestly very stoked that there’s a sequel.
Katharine:As a fellow Tangle Tower-liker, you can consider me equally pumped for The Mermaid’s Tongue. I’m well up for another adventure with Detective Grimoire and his assistant Sally, only this time on a submarine!
Katharine:I absolutely adored The Case Of The Golden Idol, so I was thrilled to seethis sequelannounced during December’s Game Awards. Based on the announcement trailer, it looks like we’ll still be solving lots of individual murder tableaus, trying to work out whodunnit, how and why, but this time it’s set several hundreds years in the future, bringing us to the 1970s. I’m a bit sad that it’s moved away from the original’s pixel-heavy visuals, but at least its new cartoonish look and bug-eyed character portraits still have plenty of character to them. What mischief with the legendary Golden Idol bring with it this time? We’ll find out later this year.
Kiera:Tiny Gladehas been on my radar for some time now. The game is essentially a cosy building sim without combat, management systems or quests. You simply sit back and build pretty buildings in different glades just for the sake of it. Beyond the whimsical aesthetics that look like something straight out of a fairy tale, the cheery music and clickety-clack sound effects are delightfully satisfying and somehow scratch an itch in my brain that I didn’t know I had. The building is gridless and without restriction, there are different themed glades including a gorgeous orange autumnal one, you can alter walls and terrain seamlessly, and you can pet sheep. What’s not to love?
Kiera:I loved the original Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. It was janky and pretty much unplayable without the unofficial patch, but there was something earnest about it. I’m desperately hoping thatVampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2takes advantage of the wealth of vampire clan lore out there and provides the goth vampire simulator we all want. Given the tumultuous development history of the project, I’m cautious about getting my hopes up too high. Although I like the idea of skulking around like a true creature of the night, let’s face it - I’ll probably cave and pick the sexiest Kate Beckinsale wannabe class I can.
Alice Bee:[throwing-up-hands-I-GUESS-meme.jpg]
Alice0:I’m rarely super stoked about sequels. Rather than plough on into more of the same, often I’d rather see the developers explore something new. Well, the makers of World Of Goo already did that. After making a phenomenalpuzzle gameabout buildings structures from different types of goo blobs, a game whichis still great 15 years later, they parted ways and made a heap of different games and followed different ventures. Now they’re back together and I’m super stoked.World Of Goo 2! A follow-up to one of the most delightful and stylish indie puzzle games ever made, made after years of extra experience. World Of Goo 2!
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Katharine:There are lots of otherworldly horrors awaiting you inAnimal Well, and you must face them as just a tiny, fuzzy lump that can barely hop onto the most meagre of ledges. At first, at least. Over time, you’ll learn to twist the environment to your advantage, sussing out traps with bioluminescent plants and nuzzling through its wonderfully reactive and physicsy vines and grass to discover new pathways through its non-linear labyrinth. It’s a little bit Cave Story, a little bit Fez, but all its weird, own wonderful thing at the same time. If it sticks the landing, this could be a Metroid-like for the ages.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Ollie:Ara: History Untoldis an upcoming turn-based grandstrategy gamewearing the skin of Civilization. It’s being developed by Oxide Games, a teamful of ex-Firaxis devs who previously made Ashes Of The Singularity. Now I’ll be honest - I’ve read up a bit on Ara: History Untold, and I’m still not entirely sure what its unique selling point is. It talks about rewriting history, about simultaneous turns, about various other things that are instantly recognisable from various other historical strategy games. I’ll admit, I am a bit interested in seeing how much of it is 4X and how much is grand strategy. But whatever the case, I’m still going to play it on day one, because I love these kinds of games, and from the announcement trailer, it looks very pretty indeed.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam,Epic Games Store
Ollie:Back in July last year, I played the closed alpha forArc Raiders, a third-person sci-fi extraction shooter by the now-esteemed creators of The Finals. While I remain steadfast in my opinion that first-person is always a better choice than third-person for these kinds of games, Arc Raiders did impress me. The gunplay feels surprisingly good, the maps were interesting to traverse, and most of all, the NPC enemies were fantastic. In Arc Raiders, you must fend against both human players and autonomous drones of various kinds which prowl the maps. They feel a bit Horizon-esque, because you really need to learn each enemy’s weak spots and attack patterns if you want to avoid being rather ignobly disintegrated within a few minutes of starting a match. It’s tough and punishing, as most extraction shooters are, but it’s also got a very unique atmosphere which drew me in a lot more strongly than I expected.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam,Epic Games Store,EA
Alice Bee:Technically, the new entry in my most favourite EA-owned RPG series is only getting a ‘full reveal’, like a participant in Naked Attraction, this summer, but that could mean a release in time for Christmas. Right? Right? Anyway. This beast has undergone rewrites and BioWare shitcanned a load of staff with decades of standing at the company, which can surely be nothing but good signs for the state this will be in when it finally comes out. Alas, my lot is to look forward to it anyway. The environments in the trailer looked cool, at least.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Release date:TBAFrom:TBA
Katharine:Come on Squeenix, you know you want to releaseFinal Fantasy 16on PC this year. Do it for Clive. Do it for Torgal. Do it for all of us. You’ve got the last bit of the DLC expansion pass arriving in the spring with The Rising Tide, that would be the perfect time to release a complete mega Windows edition of it for your friends on PC. Go on. You know you want to.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Katharine:Now this one’s a keeper. Another one of myEGX Highlightsfrom last year,Leximanis kind of like Undertale meets Touch Typing meets, well, some kind of unholy magical fever dream. You play a not very good wizard whose past failings have put them on the bottom rung of their magical school hierarchy, but when everyone gets attacked by some mysterious evil doer, it’s up to you to rise from the basement and save the day - and you’ll do that by forming words to cast spells at your opponents in polite, turn-based combat. That might sound a little pedestrian, but there’s a real WarioWare-style chaos energy to the scenarios you’ll find yourself in here, and seeing the game react to all the different spell combinations with pitch-perfect comedic timing just makes it very hard to resist. It’s proper magic.
Release date:TBAFrom:TBA
Alice0:I couldn’t tell you much of anything about this one. The four-person Tokyo team behind Nightmare Operator call it “a retro-inspired action horror game”. It appears to be set in a Japanese city. I don’t even know if it’s coming this year. But they posted this clip and oh wow yes I’m in, I’m so in:
Hide and seek✂️#nightmareoperator#screenshotsaturday#indiedevpic.twitter.com/ZVd9wUnToo
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Katharine:Right now we know very little about what Ori And The Blind Forest devs Moon Studios are cooking up for this online action RPG, but lemme tell you. A new game from Moon that isn’t an Ori game? You have my attention. Its moody visuals and oversized bosses have a very Soulsian air about them, but its top-down perspective and three-player co-op support also puts me in the mind of Diablo. Hopefully we’ll hear more about it very soon.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Katharine:I played the demo for this point and click mystery adventure late last year and wowzers, what style! Its stark block colours and painterly textures make every scene look like a graphic novel come to life, but the thing I love most aboutPhoenix Springsis its refreshingly no-nonsense protagonist, Iris Dormer. She’s looking for her brother Leo, but as you poke around abandoned buildings and chat to aloof, tetchy strangers to further your investigation, her dialogue and internal narration take no prisoners. “No point looking at that,” she’ll scoff when you click on something she’s got no use for - and if you keep on clicking, she’ll simply reply with a short, blunt, “No.” I love how abrasive she is, and the demo (which is still available if you’re keen) has hooked me in for the long haul.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam,GOG,Epic Games Store, Game Pass/p>
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Edwin:Roman Sands: REBuildis as loud, bright and agitated as Arbitrary Metric’s previous Paratopic was moody and dour. It’s many things. One of those things is a kind of wildly over-caffeinated tropical resort simulator, with players carrying out errands for mouthy guests against a backdrop of slushwave blue and purple. Another of those things is a meatpunk puzzle game set inside an undersea apartment. Both of those aspects get screentime in the Steam demo – heaven knows what’s next.
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam
Release date:TBAFrom:Steam,Itch.io
Alice0:Maybe it’s because I grew up with Godzilla movies and cartoons like Swat Kats, but I find something inherently cool about jetfighters whooshing between city blocks to fight terrible things. In this case, the city is Krasnogorie, a futuristic Soviet spectacle of skyscrapers and the space between stuffed with statues, glowing signs, cables, struts, and suspension railway lines. The terrible things are towering kaiju. And the fighting is arcadey violence in a special jet. Whooshing between buildings while battling some sort of giant spider crab sounds great fun. And while details are hazy for now, I think perhaps you’ll have the option to rebel and turn on the regime? Maybe? It’s all vague. Zakon hasn’t confirmed a release window yet so fingers crossed for this year, or at least maybe a demo in a Next Fest?
