“OUR HANDS-ON REVEALS A VERY SURPRISING BEAST”

ROBIN VALENTINE Twitter @robinlvalentine This month Put a

UNDER SIEGE

How the Russian invasion is affecting UKRAINIAN studios

Highs & Lows

HIGHS PCStation Marvel’s Spider-Man will be out on

The Spy

BUT WHO WATCHES THE SPY?

This month in… 2012

1 Atreat of an issue for strategy fans.

FACE OFF

VTuber FOFAMIT turns popular Twitch streamer faces into virtual flesh masks

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Inside the dioramic mind of Oskar Stålberg, creator of TOWNSCAPER

BALD DECISIONS

How LARIAN broke out of the B-tier to master the Western RPG

SAINTS ROW

A more grounded take, but don’t worry: it’s still extremely silly

DISNE YDREAMLIGHT VALLEY

It Disney get any better than this

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: GOLLUM

A stealth adventure with an identity crisis

GERDA: A FLAME IN WINTER

An important story muddled by numbers

F1 MANAGER 22

An irresistible chance to undo Binotto’s mistakes

STORMGATE

StarCraft II’s devs reunite to make the RTS of their dreams

V RISING

Build, battle, and bite in this vampiric survival game

FRENEMIES WITH IN

MARVEL’S MIDNIGHT SUNS defies every expectation an XCOM player could have.

Short stories

How indie ‘MICRO-RPGs’ offer fascinating perspectives on the genre’s overstuffed epics.

REVIEW

HOW WE REVIEW We review each game on

SHIP SHAPE

Work off your debt one salvage job at a time in HARDSPACE: SHIPBREAKER

SECOND CHANCE

ETERNAL THREADS sends you back in time to fix some broken hearts

OVER-SCOPED

SNIPER ELITE 5 isn’t a misfire but it struggles to hit its mark

FALSE TEETH

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: SWANSONG is a choose-’em-up with charmless characters

BLADE ROLLER

Using dice to escape Deckard in cyberpunk RPG CITIZEN SLEEPER

GET LOST

UNEXPLORED 2 struggles to hit its stride

FIGHTING WORDS

Your Fortune system result can change the outcome of a tense conversation

HELL AND BACK

In TREK TO YOMI, the dog is more bark than bite

SALT OF THE DEARTH

SALT AND SACRIFICE makes the Souls-like genre feel played out

BLOODY MARY

Nice place, shame about the statues in OUR LADY OF SORROW

BOXING CLEVER

Going round and round in puzzler LOOPER

PERFECT BLUE?

Escape a puzzling maze in OUT OF THE BLUE

FROND MEMORIES

Try, try, Trigen: the original FAR CRY is hilariously difficult

BUDDING EXPERT

Something about GROW HOME feels slightly seedy

GAMING LAPTOPS

We put the newest gaming laptops through their paces, pushing Nvidia, Intel, and AMD’s latest chips to the limit

DARK MATTER

OLED is the TV standard now – so why not in monitors?

PROPHET MARGIN

The real cost of running CRYSIS in 2007, upgrade by upgrade

BUYER’S GUIDE

Build the best PC for your budget

BUDGET BUILD

Enjoy 1080p gaming without breaking the bank

MID-RANGE BUILD

Our recommended build for playing the latest games

ADVANCED BUILD

Go above and beyond with a PC powerful enough to end worlds

“As I landed the final blow, my community went wild”

It’s a pleasure to finally play game-changing roguelike deckbuilder SLAY THE SPIRE

“A spirit mostly lost in modern D&D”

Old-fashioned dungeoneering in ELDEN RING

“Our bodies were robots and our weapons were dunks”

Flailing and balling in CRYPTIC SEA’S BASKETBALL GAME

“This type of blockbuster just doesn’t get made anymore”

Diving into the gloriously stupid past with STRANGLEHOLD

Guild Wars 2

Enjoying End of Dragons from the sidelines.

A DECADE ON

What’s changed since I dropped GW2

COOP_ MISSION _ R AGE

Fighting ghouls and deathclaws in Counter-Strike

ASSET COLLAGE

This mod borrows from some familiar places

TRY THESE

The best Counter-Strike mods and maps

GET MORE OUT OF OPEN WORLDS

In the destinations that promise the world, set yourself free

CREATING THE WORST PARTY OF HEROES IN WILDERMYTH

They’re awkward, dysfunctional, and ready to save the world.

YAKUZ A 0’S HOSTESS CLUB

Cabaret Club Czar could be a whole standalone game.

NUCLEAR THRONE

Irradiated, bloodied, and still the best roguelike around.

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT

Heavy is the head that puts on one of the game-changing hats

MUST PLAY

A PERSONAL LIST OF THE BEST GAMES YOU CAN PLAY RIGHT NOW