Leana Hafer

A gorgeous antique city-builder that is worthy of a standing ovation.

A leaner but meaner follow-up to one of the best ever open-world survival games.

This remaster makes a grand old game feel less old – but it doesn't make it feel new again.

A fiddly world map and confusing objectives foil the plans of this stylish, gleeful villain simulator.

Stronghold Warlords has a refreshing East Asian setting and satisfying castle building, but it looks and plays like an RTS that was asleep for most of the last decade or two.

This RPG has decent stealth going for it, but its weak story forces you into painfully mediocre combat too often to be worthwhile, wasting the potential of the World of Darkness universe.

It's dauntingly complex, but offers almost endlessly enjoyable depth for optimizers and survival fans if you take the time to learn its systems.

Long live the new king of historical strategy.

A Total War Saga: Troy absolutely nails its Bronze Age setting and comes up with interesting ways to make the period work in its grand strategy framework, but its AI has trouble wrapping its head around it.