PC Powerplay

This month Became queen of the cosy games genre. There was a totally chill parade and laid-back acoustic guitar. This month Wrestled Fortnite's Peely for bragging rights over who was most dench.lt ended in a split decision. This month Tested so many

Editorial Editor Ben Mansill ben.mansill@futurenet.com Creative Director Troy Coleman troy.coleman@futurenet.com Photography All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected Advertising auadvertising@futurenet.com Management Managing Direct

Sony Honda Mobility president and COO Izumi Kawanishi livened up CES by driving a car onstage with a Sony DualSense controller. The new Afeela concept has all the features you'd expect, but the ads on the front bumper and the smoke-and-mirrors of gam

It didn't trouble many GOTY lists, and the launch saw its share of controversy, but Warner Bros Games announced that Hogwarts Legacy sold over 22 million copies. WB exec David Haddad claims it was “the best-selling game of the year in the entire indu

Worried about the AI apocalypse? Don't be. Dell founder Michael Dell reckons we've nothing to fear from AI gaining sentience because humanity's good at fixing problems like “the ozone and all” before they happen. Climate change wants a word, Michael,

Check out Daggerfall Unity, a rebuild of Bethesda's 1996 RPG Portal: Revolution is a free fan-made and Valve-approved seven-hour prequel to the Portal games. Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm has now become a fully featured StarCraft 2 mod. Moang and Bl

Every shooter has a fancy mask guy who's trying way too hard to look cool. Just take it off, eejit. Looks cool. You want it, but immediately lose your appetite once realising it costs more than a dinner for two. The callsign of a sweatlord. Fashion d

Difficult to play today, the PS4-exclusive demo remains unique and terrifying. Stretches the definition of ‘demo’, but currently free, with future instalments to be paid releases. As hilarious and unpredictable as the main game. This is in effect an

RELEASE Ql, 2024 | DEVELOPER Ironwood Studios Drive to survive in this run-based driving adventure. Scavenge resources from the anomaly-filled Olympic Exclusion Zone, upgrade your car and complete missions. RELEASE February 22,2024 | DEVELOPER Inflex

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Sep 15, 2023 (Early Access) DEVELOPER Felipe Aulló PUBLISHER IndieArk LINK railroadsandcatacombs.com The name may conjure images of a goth railway management game in which you transport skeletons between the ossuaries beneath Par

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE December 17, 2023 DEVELOPER Battlestate Games PUBLISHER Battlestate Games LINK arena.tarkov.com Escape From Tarkov has some of the most satisfying gun fights in any shooter, with one well-placed bullet being all you need to win a

The Hunting Baron keeps the pit you know, but will punish enemies that group together too closely. Opens his pit up to have two entrances but will deal a lot of damage, so you need to be quick to get out of the way. The All-Seeing Baron makes his pit

This new brush is the perfect place forwards as it always gives vision of the red side tri-brush above. The red side now resembles the blue side to make things more even and give junglers a better gank route. This is still the bot lane you know and l

Teleport “leads to some stagnation in pro play” according to the devs, so it's on the list of things to explore further. After years of looking the same, 2025 could be the year we get a visual overhaul of the bases and how they are set up. Split push

We review each game on its own merits, and try to match it to a reviewer who's a passionate expert in the field. The main aim of reviews is to help you make buying decisions. To this end, we're selective about what we review, and try to focus on the

Unique among Warhammer Fantasy stories in that it features a teenage (in dwarf years) female protagonist, this is basically a disaster movie in a Dawi hold. Everything goes wrong and it'll make you sad, in a good way. An epic tale that basically sums

The good things about goblins is that there are lots of them, and killing them feels amazing. It does take rather a lot of time, though. The beer was too flat. The enemies too soft. The elves too nearby. Actually retaking the dwarf holds we set out t

Specialist in Painting himself blue Currently playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora This month Learned the Na'vi language. Used it to say naughty words. Specialist in Merry men Currently playing Gangs of Sherwood This month Wore green tights and disap

Titanic, aggressively territorial grazers, Hammerheads will pulverise you if given the chance. Hastily converted loaders used by the RDA to patrol Pandora. No life-support systems. Tameable pterodactyl-dragon hybrids, a bond with one marks a Na'vi as

Like its babbling crew of outlaws, Gangs of Sherwood tries to compensate for its fundamental shortcomings with a brash persona and propulsive energy. It's a fast-paced, four-player shooter-slash-brawler with a vividly drawn alt-fantasy world, a knock

Can stack star arrows for bonus hits. Specialises in bladed weapons. Light attacks can throw daggers. Specialises in a massive club. Doubles as a healer. Gives amazing hugs. Specialises in punching. Can go berserk. Drinks cortados. ■

We've just defeated a cult, foiled a plot, saved a world. A bureaucrat says the triumphant parade has already been organised. We'll get to ride a battle tank, and halfway it'll stop and a small crowd will mob us. It's all stage-managed. The mob has b

Too sensual for the 41st millennium. Having an unsanctioned amount of fun. Music? God-Emperor save us, someone might dance. No sex please, we're Imperial. WHAT IS IT? Mass Effect but isometric, dystopian, turn-based and not that much like Mass Effect

One of the alien Aeldari who regards you as little better than an animal. A three-eyed mutant Navigator who pilots your ship through the warp. An Interrogator who works for the Inquisition and keeps you in line. The tech-priest who keeps your ship ru

Carrying the desert aura, you'll use orange to cross invisible bridges that light up. Its world feels like being trapped inside a giant body. The purple orb can travel through growths. Inside is a swamp land where you'll get your feet wet. Carry gree

You can see why the original House Flipper was such a hit. Its cosy fantasy of home ownership and fulfilling work was a soothing balm after a miserable day at the office, and that fantasy is only strengthened in this sequel. The basics remain the sam

From the menu, you can tackle Assembly missions in your workshop. As it's not part of your house, it seems to exist outside of time and space. Take on challenges to build items, like this clock. The process is in-depth, with mechanics you won't find

Over the pandemic everyone seemed to find comfort in the gentle virtual maintenance of their Animal Crossing islands. Pootling about, talking to villagers, and designing things just so. Nothing else has come close to replicating that weird state of z

The basic idea baked into a city builder is that I'm creating something to last. So when Against the Storm presented me with the premise that each of my handmade habitats would be wiped away by a terrible tempest as part of an unavoidable, cataclysmi

Humans, beavers, lizards and more must venture into the wilderness. Complete missions to fill the Queen's grace bar and win the area. A settlement's hearthfire must always be supplied with wood to burn. ■

Experimental, genre-bending approaches to interactive storytelling have always been inkle's stock-in-trade, from the increasingly ambitious multi-part adaptation of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! to the high-seas intrigue of Overboard!. And A Highland Song

Moira doesn't get on with her mother, while her father has been sadly absent all her life. Moira is on a quest to visit her Uncle Hamish, who has invited her to visit his lighthouse. On her mission Moira relies on her trusty knapsack, headtorch and s

In Last Train Home, a military management game and tactical RTS, you're in charge of the Czechoslovak Legion as the Russian civil war breaks out. Unable to return home by going west, you make a desperate plan: capture an armoured train and traverse S

Both medics and machine gunners tend to hold back during stealth segments, so drop expensive abilities like suppressive fire and carry a medical satchel instead of taking an extra soldier. Gun ‘em down, patch ‘em up. You might think that giving the s

I'm not sure that I've seen lore used as a punchline before, but it's a beautiful running gag in this urban fantasy where witches are real, and they wield submachine guns. Every titbit about the setting is delivered so matter-of-factly by the noir-st

The Two Rivers Hypothesis is pure aesthetic and atmosphere, with little beneath that – but what aesthetic and atmosphere. It's a game where you pilot a submersible around a dark and flooded facility, exploring tunnels until you discover the ending. B

Long luscious hair that blows in the wind. Needs washing four times a day to obtain this look. The ultimate ‘dad bod’ -somewhere in-between Tony Soprano and Jax Teller. A fashion sense that briefly came back into style, and then quickly left again.