If you’re in it for the long haul you’ll find that there will be a few times that your options get bottlenecked. When each run can be anywhere from 15 minutes to VIKING TOTO over an hour, if you don’t happen to have the stars align for what you’re after, it can start to feel like you’ve wasted that time. Something that the Blue Prince does so well with its puzzles is how disconnected they all are from one another.
The marvelous PC port overhauled and further enhanced the gorgeous wild western atmosphere of Rockstar’s most recent (for now) open-world adventure and added even more activities, unlockables, and impossibly fine details to its expansive map to what was already a massive game. It’s possibly one of the biggest and best single-player PC games ever – and it has an extensive multiplayer mode, too. Technical problems with the PC version kept Nier Automata off of this list in the past, but with Steam’s user reviews now giving a “Very positive” all-clear its popularity with the IGN staff has powered it into a strong position.
Because the game is so focused on your step-by-step exploits in these ‘catacombs of Dread’ rather than a cliff-notes version of your journey like the one seen in Talisman, it feels easier to become invested too. Paired with the need for teamwork, each hero’s unique stats, and the many traps you’ll contend with, HeroQuest immerses you in its adventure right away. Although I’d prefer more variety in terms of the board (there’s only one in the core set, even if different rooms are accessed for each mission), it’s a small niggle that’s forgotten quickly once you get started. Overall, Game Informer is a website run by people who love video games, built for players. The site doesn’t review every little game, but what’s here is excellent and there’s no political nonsense to worry about.
The SteamWorld franchise doesn’t iterate with sequels often, but when it does, you can count on it being worthwhile. SteamWorld Heist 2 takes the foundation built by its turn-based ricochet strategy game predecessor and builds and expands on it in every way. The missions and the world are bigger, and there’s tons more to do. A new class system lets you mix and match powerful abilities into a mind-boggling array of possibilities, and a smart overleveling system helps stave off the pain of grinding. Not only that but you can outfit your characters, upgrade your ship, earn special unique skills for each character, and more.
People burnt out on WoW get it, people tired of shooting men get it. Whenever a given tile is dark, a monster can spawn on it, and at night, there are hundreds of them. Spiders are low and wide, can climb vertical surfaces, and tend to jump right in your face while hissing. Zombies are slow melee oppressors, walking in a straight line towards you and able to hop over short, one-block-high obstacles. Endermen are tall, teleporting nasties who only get angry when you look at them. They’re scattered infrequently throughout the night, and each requires careful attention to dispatch when you’re unarmed.
If not, you’ll have to go to the map and ask them to meet up with you somewhere. More than anything, the process was a bit annoying and added some unnecessary friction. More often than not, I find them unnecessary–large for the sake of being large, and filled with things for the sake of being filled with things. The games that win me over tend to be those select RPGs that show restraint and focus more on curating a certain kind of atmosphere rather than thrusting tasks at me.
This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score. Looking back, it’s quite astounding to me how the core of the gameplay has been so consistent, yet the upgrades make exploration more and more consistent. You definitely never feel like the requirements are helpless, but it can be frustrating to put a few hours into the late game and not feel like you’ve made meaningful progression. You explore the house and its grounds in the first person, immersing you in the world and also making it easy to miss out on interesting clues here and there if you’re not looking closely enough.
Watching my Zoi stroll around Dowon, the game’s South Korean-inspired metropolis, brought me back to walking around Seoul a couple springs ago, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and vibrating with the kind of delight that being a small stranger in a big, beautiful city brings about. The world is beautiful, life-like, and bustling with Zois, all of whom you can have a pleasant chat with or scold for watching you do squats in the park. A lot of the clothing options in InZoi are staple pieces and basics, which might sound dull on paper but is something I greatly appreciated, as it allowed me to play around with and truly customize looks. These might seem like little things, but I remember the days of praying to the Simlish gods that they’d let me wear boots over my pants, and it took a long time for that to happen. And they still don’t have the ability to layer outerwear over there. It’s more involved than some board games, true, but is very accommodating nonetheless.
Games Of April 2025
Luke contributed regularly to PLAY Magazine as well as PC Gamer, SFX, The Guardian, and Eurogamer. Writing many, many words for the last 18 issues of GamesMaster, something he’ll eagerly tell anybody who’ll listen (and anybody who won’t). While happy to try his hand at anything, he’s particularly fond of FPS games, strong narratives, and anything with a good sense of humour. He is also in a competition with his eldest child to see who can be the most enthusiastic fan of the Life is Strange series. The interconnected open world maps, taken as a whole, make up an area significantly smaller than most open world games of recent years. But this ‘less is more’ philosophy works to the game’s benefit.
Nike Released Goldeneye 007-inspired Sneakers, And They Quickly Sold Out
My grandparents played Solo, my generation played 500, but my parents played Bridge. The house had shelf upon shelf of Bridge books explaining conventions and the like. I ventured to ask why one day but never got a straight answer, just walk-away mutterings about idiots, bidding mistakes, and imminent divorces. I believe the second most common reason for divorce in the 70’s was Bridge. The house certainly became less tense for the stopping, which the kids were all grateful for. I think the death-knell was wrapping their new sporty red Holden Torana hatchback (which Peter Brock was slaying Bathurst with at the time) into a tree late one night on the way back from Sydney after a Bridge fight-night, sending both parents to hospital for short stays.
Back in 2015, Xenoblade Chronicles X was a huge RPG that strayed away from the usual formula of the series. This Definitive Edition cleans up some of its shortcomings and lets a new generation of players experience it for the first time. Many multiplayer games, even our favourites, offer nothing more than friendly feet shuffling alongside us.