Simon Parkin
Bethesda's long-awaited space epic is a vast interstellar canvas full of glorious sights to see and intriguing threads to pull – if you can keep patience with its fussy systems
You solve puzzles, then create the songs, in this tactile puzzle game spanning genres and instruments, from Ethiopian jazz to krautrock
This music-centred adventure pits a teenage boy against robotic assassins in a colourful title for gamers of all talents.
Plants can cure or kill in this atmospheric puzzle game.
A treasure inspires murder, and your job as detective is to piece together the crime in this addictive 18th-century whodunnit
A pretty Sardinian village merges with all kinds of hellish influence in this nightmarish, claustrophic horror from arthouse developer Santa Ragione.
This award-winning single-person adventure, set in a run-down refinery town, is full of compelling mysteries
Timing is all as you wake from the dead and race towards a heavenly finish line, slaying demons en route, in this chaotic yet ingenious anime-inspired game
Your job is to manage a digital influencing agency with commercial and political clients – and ethical challenges
Presenting a series of impossible choices, this darkly comedic game stretches the player's moral scaffolding to its limits
An Olympic swimmer explores the roots of her compulsion to succeed in this dreamlike 'interactive poem'
With sumptuous attention to detail, the series' 25th anniversary edition is its most reverent and irresistible yet.
This is a massive world, astonishingly rendered and seemingly limitless in its creative diversity
The quick, free online word-guessing game designed as a present for one is proving a daily gift for all.
Soar across alien vistas powered only by kinetic energy in this interplanetary search for the mysterious, life-giving monolith
You play a girl on the cusp of adulthood, trying out different vocations, in this exquisitely rendered 'open world' journey
You play a young guitarist exploring your prog-rock ambitions to the full in this richly enjoyable psychedelic journey
This expansion of last year's hit offers a wider range of missions and side quests to its samurai warfare
As a single-celled animal, your options are limited – and yet this gem of a game is a masterclass in minimalism.
A compelling mission to locate and photograph a series of images in a Māori-influenced world under occupation