personal computer
It starts with a single machine: a landing capsule on a virgin planet. Then a drill, built with iron extracted by your own hand. Hours later, the planet is covered in neat (or not) arrays of extractors and conveyor belts, machines that hum comfortingly as they create their endless little things. It may be a corporate strip mining simulator, but it’s very absorbing.
PS4/5, PC, Nintendo Switch
Like much of the best British comedy, this puzzle game is capped with just a hint of trepidation. As a small-time traveling salesman, you explore a crackpot-flavored northern town of Viz, solving the strange problems of its citizens (a child afraid of milk, pie meat of questionable provenance, a lost screwdriver stolen by sentient rats). Unfailingly fun.
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
A cleverly self-referential horror game about a gruesome theme park that takes inspiration from all the classics of the ’90s genre and borrows its fuzzy polygonal aesthetic. Its twisted fairground settings are as detailed as a dollhouse, evolving hauntingly as the hours pass and the mystery of Crow Country unfolds, and the bold ending is worth the effort.
Smart phones
What at first appears to be a manipulatively compelling mobile card-collecting game with a bunch of different inscrutable currencies is… well, exactly that, but with the addition of impressively well-balanced, fast-paced and fun competitive battles. It plays fast and smart, allowing for creative decks and creature combinations that allow each player to put their own spin on their game.
PS4/5, Xbox, PC
A seance in a high school library goes very wrong in this adventure game, a fun and creepy tribute to the best of ’90s horror, both movies and games. Thanks to its heartfelt, slightly metaphorical story and merciful absence of blood, this is the kind of game that even people who normally hate horror can enjoy.
PS5, PC (2025)
Using 1997’s Final Fantasy VII as a base, Rebirth creates a bigger, richer, and of course, much more beautiful world for Cloud Strife and his companions to roam. A maximalist miracle of fan service packed with things to do and extensive new details about some of the most beloved characters and stories in gaming history.
personal computer
From the title, you’d expect a game about a magical special ops team blasting their way through enemy territory with spells and time-rewinding powers. You may not expect a quietly radical story with superb characterization and the courage to question the morality of the entire military shooter genre it borrows from, but you’ll get that too.
PS5, Xbox, PC
Simply a splendid modern fighting game, polished in every aspect. New contenders join the highlights of 30 years of Tekken rosters (including martial artists, cyborgs, a demon, and two giant bears) to beat each other up in excitingly ostentatious combat that can change at any moment.
PS4/5, PC, Nintendo Switch
An artist invites you to an abandoned baroque hotel where nothing is as it seems. When you get there, you can rely only on your mind to unravel the confusing timelines and personalized puzzles that await you, finding fragments of answers in paintings, discarded documents, behind closed doors, and on the other end of a ringing phone. As ambitious, compulsive and elegant as puzzle games.
PS5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
The eeriness of this underground labyrinth, full of eerie pixelated animals trying to catch you as a snack, is offset by quiet beauty. The leaves of luminescent plants sway as you pass by them; Drips, creaks and distorted cries of animals echo off the damp walls of intricate caverns. Exquisitely intelligent and atmospheric.
Xbox, PC
The adventurous archaeologist tours fascinating recreations of Vatican City and the Pyramids of Giza in the 1940s, delving into ancient crypts and, naturally, punching Nazis. Anyone expecting a first-person Uncharted or Tomb Raider will be pleasantly surprised by the emphasis on puzzles, costumes, and exploration rather than pulling out a gun.
personal computer
A compilation of 50 games from the defunct (fictional) 1980s game company UFO Soft, covering an incredibly creative variety of themes and gameplay styles while remaining faithfully retro in appearance. Almost any of these games individually would be a standalone release worth paying for. Together, they make an absurdly generous package.
PS5, PC
It’s rare to play an action game in 2024 that feels truly original. Black Myth: Wukong’s spectacular take on Journey to the West is as flashy as Devil May Cry and (almost) as rewarding and challenging as Dark Souls. A carefully curated journey through Buddhist legends and landscapes that will leave you speechless.
PS5, PC
The premise of this successful shooter is very simple and very trite: four players land on a planet full of insectoid aliens and destroy everything. But everything from the feel of the weapons to the pacing of each mission to the jingoistic satire is designed precisely to entertain, and with the right friends, every session has the potential to descend into slapstick hilarity.
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch
A warrior and her wolf pup fight to survive and repel an incursion of pitch-black demons into their natural paradise. As the seasons pass, the wolf grows and threatens her as well. One of the most extraordinary looking games you will ever play, imbued with deep and sincere feeling.
PS5, Xbox, PC
A highly unusual and unfailingly entertaining quasi-medieval fantasy RPG that has no qualms about getting you into trouble and challenging you to figure things out for yourself. Stuck in the woods at night after forgetting to pack your camping gear, surrounded by ghosts, you can’t help but find your way to adventure.
PS4/5, Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch, smartphones
The biggest indie hit of the year, this laid-back, psychedelic take on poker can make the hours disappear. Create outrageous hands with decks of cards that transform with each game, making your score higher and higher (if you know what you’re doing). Victories are elusive, but each attempt brings you tantalizingly closer.
PS4/5, Xbox, PC
Extraordinary art direction, an operatic soundtrack, and theatrical battles between transformative fantasy robots and grotesque human-adjacent Bush monstrosities come together in a passionate plea for the adoption of a multicultural society and an end to divisive politics. A role-playing game as intelligent as it is great, which combines philosophical postulates with intense strangeness and a scandalous style.
PS4/5, Xbox, PC
It’s not technically a sequel to the 2022 dark fantasy masterpiece, but it might as well be. Shadow of the Erdtree adds dozens of hours, more creatively disturbing enemies, and even more fascinatingly desecrated locations to FromSoftware’s incomparable realm. It revitalizes an already great game with a renewed sense of danger and possibility.
PS5
A friendly blue and white robot and his hundreds of little friends roam a galaxy of fun-filled planets, helped by backpack monkeys, extendable frog boxing gloves, and a rocket-powered chicken. With over 10 hours of pure, focused fun from Sony’s Team Asobi, this clever and adorable adventure shows exactly what the advanced technology of modern consoles can add to the entertainment business.