Valve is celebrating Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary with updates including bug fixes, restored content, improved graphics, and Steam Workshop support. Episodes One and Two are now bundled, and it’s all free on Steam until November 18. There’s also a feature length documentary exploring its iconic development. Legendary.

It’s another survival horror MMO set in a post-apocalyptic world infested with monstrous creatures! Once Human has something, though - the world is wonderfully creative and its crafting and base-building are intuitive and satisfying. Great visuals and an atmospheric setting, but it feels typically grindy and repetitive over time. Definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre.

HoYo’s latest gacha has all the tropes and systems you’d expect, this time in a retrofuture urban setting and excelling in presentation, fast-paced combat and quality-of-life improvements. The combat is fluid, satisfying and addictive (albeit never particularly challenging), the story isn’t the deepest but has its moments (even if the pacing could use some work), and the whole thing has great visual design, sound design and music. Smaller than Genshin, its minor flaws are easy to overlook if you’re willing to ignore or accept the predatory gacha foundation.

Apart from the obvious gacha repulsion, the major things stopping me from enjoying Genshin were laborious movement and unsatisfying combat. Wuthering Waves attempts to remedies these, with almost over-the-top traversal abilities, and more impactful (albeit still button-mashy) combat. That said, even ignoring how unashamedly they’re ripping Genshin, I still struggle to get properly into it. Several hours in, it feels like 90% of that has been spamming ‘advance dialog’, the VO is hilariously flat, and the story isn’t particularly compelling. Ultimately, if you’re into the genre, it’s worth checking out - and even if you’re not, it’s a fun braindead way to spend some time before the F2P grind becomes too harsh.

Psychedelic and delightfully illustrated, Gubbins is a fresh take on the tile-based word game, straight outta Melbourne. Easy to pick up - thanks to pleasant and intuitive interactions - but hard to master once the Gubbins start coming to ruin everything. Cool game.

Ahead of Alan Wake 2 releasing on October 27th, Epic Games have unveiled a clever promotional tie-in, in the form of a playable custom Fortnite island. Alan Wake: Flashback is a ‘reimagining the iconic story’, available now with island code 3426-5561-3374. We’ve seen these sort of collabs before, but this is a bit more involved, substantial and creative. Perk of a good relationship I s’pose!

It was already the best selling game of all time, but at this year’s annual Minecraft Live, it was announced that they’ve sold over 300 million copies. This puts Minecraft over 100 million ahead of the next best selling game, GTA V. Crazy.

A simple premise executed virtually to perfection. As its description says, more of a toy than a ‘full game’, but it’s short, relaxing and fun. No unlockables, no story, just ramps.

Lots of fun puzzles to solve in a wholesome little world full of great art and atmosphere. Simple, relaxing and whimsical, it takes me back to games I played as a kid.

Your IRL blinking is a core mechanic of this game - very cool concept. That aside, this game is a cathartic and artistic journey and as often as it’s on sale, a real steal.