Fog clings to the island of St Amelia like taut plastic on skin, but I'm still not convinced Silent Hill: Townfall makes sense in the Konami psychological horror franchise. The 30-minute hands-off demonstration developer Screen Burn shows me during Summer Game Fest 2026 is laden with Silent Hill's trappings, milky fog and scabby monsters, but it's missing the cigarette-burned soul.

It's all too clean. Leading man Simon Ordell has ripped himself out of a hospital bed with all the tape and needles attached. A cannula pokes through a vein between his fingers, allowing healing liquid to revive him when he's injured, and a tight medical bracelet sticks to his wrist. But Simon is otherwise spotless while investigating St. Amelia in 1996, with vague instructions to find a brunette who I need to double check isn't Mary, the missing brunette from the soul-tearing Silent Hill 2. In only 30 minutes, I notice many callbacks to fan-favorite, early Silent Hill games – and I worry the unique parts of Silent Hill: Townfall can't compare.

Take me upstate

Townfall follows 2025's Silent Hill f, which was set in Japan, in taking Silent Hill international. I still yearn for the original lakeside town in Nowhere, USA, and the slow, somewhat inviting decay it represented, but I appreciated Silent Hill f's invention of a highly stylized, red spider lily landscape, too. Townfall's Scottish island St. Amelia is ruled by realism. Its cobblestone streets and neat white houses are hyper-realistic, looking better-suited to Call of Duty than an introspective horror game. Nonetheless, they are impressive. When the camera lingers on a bit of patterned wallpaper in an abandoned home, I can imagine what it would feel like just by looking at it.

Less tantalizing to me, someone whose favorite aspect of the best Silent Hill games is the poetry of their strangeness, is that Silent Hill: Townfall also employs realism in its puzzles. Rather than adding names to the Grim Reaper's list, as you do in the original Silent Hill, or burning pork liver to reveal a path in Silent Hill 3, the Townfall demo I saw has Simon searching for a prepaid electric card common in '90s Scotland to get the house's lights working.

Again, Screen Burn is demonstrating an impressive attention to detail here. But I don't play Silent Hill games for their faithfulness to history, and especially not to reality. I love them for the way they use magic to reveal our skeletons. Whenever the occult Otherworld falls over a Silent Hill protagonist, you're confronted with the rust under the hospital room paint, blood beneath a young woman's skirt, denial before freedom. I've always thought the supernatural was more real than real, so I've found comfort in past Silent Hill games, which lie on the cliff between observable life and hidden feelings. They push into each other, yin and yang, to make a whole world.

But Silent Hill: Townfall seems more oriented toward its surface. I'm first introduced to Simon as he's seated near a town monument littered with protest signs – "We Need The Truth," "Whatever Heart This Town Had Has Stopped" – and their unsubtle nature reminds me of Dead Space graffiti that routinely took me out of that game's horror. A Screen Burn developer also suggests during my Summer Game Fest session that Townfall uses first-person perspective because the series' usual third-person does more to coddle you from horror. In a sense, that's probably true. It's more viscerally horrifying to play Resident Evil in a VR headset than with ungainly tank controls, after all.

But third-person also encourages players to connect with a game's protagonist, as you can observe them as you control them, linking your movements with their mind. And since the average Silent Hill story is a storm whipped up to torment its main character, specifically (there are very few all-purpose spooks aimed at you, the player), third-person helps its effectiveness.

Though, Townfall isn't completely devoid of fantasy. It pays homage to the series' early convention of letting you identify monsters with a stammering radio by replacing the tech with a handheld CRT TV, which also swaps the need for on-screen UI by flashing cryptic images of your next location. It's an intriguing change, as the CRT TV is an elegant way to focus the player's attention on their next game objective while still being immersive in its story. However, I don't think a Silent Hill game's user interface has ever dulled the impact of its corpse nurses and brown toilets for me.

Ultimately, I feel like Screen Burn is worried about iterating on the wrong genre conventions.

I'm confused by all the changes I see in my Silent Hill: Townfall demo that are neutral at best. When the monster finally arrives, it's a melted flesh humanoid with its head sharpened into an axe. It looks like a struggling Lying Figure from Silent Hill 2... except with an axe for its head.

I thought this was supposed to be the fun part, but it's still too tame.

Refresh your memory of the Silent Hill we left behind with our list of the best Silent Hill games.

I'm not sure if it's right to say that Morsels puts its best foot forward, but this roguelike shooter admirably puts its foot right in some grimy mess as soon as you boot up the game. Defaulting to an extreme VHS-style CRT look, your lil mouse critter main character flops down a pipe dripping brown goop before being greeted by an (admittedly charming) sentient fatberg. At this point, less than a minute in, Morsels is either scratching an exact, cursed itch, or is making you feel so sick you immediately won't want to play. I have to respect how quickly the vibe check happens.

Morsels' style is the best thing about it, and as I learn to battle my way through dungeon-like layer after layer I'm enthralled to discover new sights. With big eyes, each playable 'morsel' critter and enemy looks like A Nightmare on Sesame Street meets claymation – striking an odd balance between adorable and terrifying, but always with a degree of tactility. Almost like the brilliant Animal Well, at times your tiny pals will encounter much larger, realistically styled animals which become unsettling in a whole different way because of the contrast in visual styles.

Crumb and yolk

The grossout approach is interesting, as it's one of many similarities between Morsels and The Binding of Isaac. Though they diverge in several crucial ways, they overlap an awful lot. They're both top-down roguelikes where you attack – usually by shooting – around you in multiple directions (eight in Morsels, as you can blast diagonally). Room and floor layouts are even similar, though here your little mouse and other morsels in tow are looking to ascend from the depths, to dethrone larger animal leaders. Each floor is also completely seamless, so you won't be trawling through fast loads, but enemies will follow you quite a stretch.

Morsels' biggest differentiator is the titular morsels themselves, each a kind of grimy but downtrodden underdog just like the mouse. Becoming a sort of creature collector, cards can be obtained – either as simple loot or through fighting optional small boss fights – that allow you to become another character. For the most part, the small mouse doesn't even feature, instead having you control one of three Morsels you can swap between on the fly with just a tap on the d-pad.

Each has their own health bar, experience points, and – crucially – abilities. No two Morsels control quite alike, making much of the early learning curve about understanding what each new Morsel you recruit does. Gumsel is perhaps the closest Morsels has to a 'normal' one, a wad of gum that simply shoots bubbles in a direction. There's Smugsel, an angry clump of city smoke who has to get in close to land powerful punches, which can be boosted by landing right after a dodge to encourage ducking and weaving. Shromshel, a mushroom who shoots out other fungi that lock into place and then move alongside player movement before exploding on enemy impact. Uggsel, an egg that can never hatch, who attacks by kicking a football around.

Unlike Isaac who can cry infinitely, all moves have a cooldown meter. It's generous enough to rarely be a problem, but having to meter-watch just to shoot out a round of bullets is irritating more often than not. This can be a big factor on which Morsels you find irritating to play as and try to skip – and you almost certainly will have some that rub you the wrong way to play. As they experience points, they reach a second form, which is much like the first but more powerful. Keep earning experience and, erm, they die, turning into a ghost powerup instead.

The idea seems to be to force you to keep learning new Morsels, but I'm not entirely sold on this. Instead, I save my best ones for crucial moments so they don't get over-used and rotate ones I didn't like so much instead. I'm not sure a complete run really goes on long enough for you to need several – only going through two or three generations. It can just feel a bit annoying to have a preferred way of playing taken away, and I've yet to find being forced to pivot very thrilling.

Still, each Morsel is impressively and radically transformative on play. At times, each can make you feel like you're playing a different game – though every one of those different games still feels like you're playing The Binding of Isaac but not quite as good. I'm less into most of Morsels' other roguelike upgrades and pickups – many of which seem to be simple stat boosts which are hard to really appreciate, or Isaac-like items you deploy to, for example, temporarily get a sort of invincibility or summon a powerful throwing item.

Either at hidden shops or in encounters between each floor you have the option to spend crumbs or take part in a challenge to earn more crumbs. Forking over these tiny bites can get you some powerful ability upgrades, but mostly they amount to kind of more things happening. My first clear came about by combining a somewhat frequent item that turned my daisy shields into spinning attacks while another upgrade helped me spawn more, all on top of another that summoned increasingly large numbers of birds to swarm around me, ultimately undermining the importance of the Morsels themselves as I could sort of just sit back and let what would happen, happen.

I grumble, but I have enjoyed my time with Morsels. I like the idea of juggling multiple characters with radically different movesets, even if I ended up ignoring a few who feel miserable to play as (looking at the gas spewing dog rectum Zigsel especially). The visuals are wonderfully disgusting, and the vaporwave dreamscape soundtrack is lovely stuff. The problem with newcomers in the roguelike genre, though, is they're designed to be endlessly replayable, meaning the best roguelike games have remarkable staying power. Morsels is a good one of these while also frequently a bit annoying to play, all while being too similar to The Binding of Isaac for me to not just play that instead. Morsels stands out, but not quite enough – and it's left eating crumbs.

Morsels was reviewed on PC, with code provided by the publisher.

What else is there to look forward to playing? Check out our new games calendar!

Games that evoke a cozy vibe often aim to get players to unwind in a soothing virtual world, allowing them to escape the stresses of the real world. However, for the upcoming narrative puzzle-adventure game D-Topia from developer Marumittu Games, it's all about immersing players in a supposed utopia that's warm and inviting – yet it also raises some profound questions about the very nature of what a utopia is.

I got to play an early build of D-Topia at Tokyo Game Show 2025, which is one of publisher Annapurna Interactive's latest offerings. During my hands-on time with the cozy, introspective narrative game about living in a utopia, I spoke with lead artist Hiroco Shiino and lead programmer Akira Mitsuhashi to learn more about their mysterious puzzle-adventure game, which explores questioning the world around you and your place in it.

Paradise lost?

Set in a far future where humanity has established a utopian society, D-Topia focuses on a community of workers and their AI assistants living together in a world that has been curated for their well-being. Playing as a new resident to the community called Paradise, you're assigned to help keep the community going by making repairs to the mainframe on a daily schedule.

As you establish a routine that involves going to work, interacting with your neighbors, and learning more about Paradise, questions will begin to arise about the nature of your cozy and carefree existence, and whether peace and harmony can truly be curated for people.

D-Topia has such an interesting premise for what appears to be a warm vibes narrative adventure game. As the protagonist, you gradually become accustomed to the routine of being a worker, which involves solving puzzles that also serve as assignments to help keep the community running. In between jobs and after work, you'll also encounter other residents who have either embraced life in Paradise or are starting to ask questions in their own odd way.

Speaking with Hiroco Shiino, the lead artist on D-Topia, she explains the origins of the game's concept, which involved extensive historical research and contemplation on what constitutes a Utopia.

"The concept for the game centered around the idea of how humanity would evolve if they moved beyond a life with smaller conflicts and obstacles, what would it be like if characters lived in this utopian world where everything was set for them?" says Shiino. "Those are the questions I had when coming up with the concept, and something I wanted to explore in a game."

In my demo, I play through some of the protagonist's early days as a resident in Paradise. Starting with getting the day going, which entails preparing breakfast and getting my outfit sorted, I get to experience a day in the life of a city worker, allowing me to take in the sights of Paradise. The art style of the game has a very clean look with bursts of blue and green color sticking out among huge swathes of white and grey, which works wonderfully for setting the tone.

During working hours, the protagonist must fix glitches in the city's mainframe, which transports them into a digital world where they must rearrange blocks and panels to free up resources. One of the puzzles I encounter is similar to Match-3, where you can amplify the numbers by combining them with similar blocks and then have to move them to their corresponding tiles.

Between running around Paradise and completing these maintenance tasks, the protagonist also has many opportunities to interact with other characters, including AI assistants, throughout the city. This is where the game's deeper narrative unfolds further, allowing your choices to influence relationships and events.

Of course, the game's focus on AI assistants and their interactions with people immediately reminds me of the current and distressing pace at which technology is evolving in our present times. However, the developers are clear that the AI characters and commentary aren't hiding anything nefarious exactly. Still, the game's larger themes will focus more on what humanity will become if we embrace a 'utopia' that's curated for us.

"Our version of AI in D-Topia is not quite Skynet," jokes the lead programmer. "In the setting of D-Topia, AI characters are present in the game as a supporting resource for the human characters, and they're primarily there to help purge much of the negative elements of their lives. This, of course, leads to a larger topic of agency within the world, and what will humanity become if we live in a utopia that's about a curated existence."

There's a sense of mystery to D-Topia that I find compelling, but it's also very charming and cozy, which is so inviting. It felt like playing a more laid-back version of the excellent 1000xResist, which has really piqued my interest in what's to come in the final release – and I hope it'll fully commit to its existential questions about what it truly means to live in a so-called utopia.

Our new games list has everything you need to find your next favorite adventure

Demi and the Fractured Dream, from new developer Yarn Owl Studios (and published by Annapurna Interactive), feels like a warm throwback to '00s adventures of old. Think embarking on journeys across the PS2 and GameCube. Action-adventure games from that era had a particular way of showcasing a world full of mystery and intrigue that made it so enticing to explore. Even today, many developers still have a fondness for 2000s video games, to the extent that they're creating their own games that aim to recapture that captivating era.

Going hands-on with Demi and the Fractured Dream at Tokyo Game Show 2025, alongside a slate of reveals from Annapurna, I got to give it a go for myself. Centering on a dungeon crawl, my time with Demi really does remind me of some stone cold classics. But, I also got the chance to speak with art director Fabian Willis about their inspirations for Demi and the Fractured Dream, and how the final game will be much larger than they anticipated.

Into the void

"We're definitely inspired by the early 2000s classics like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Okami, and even PS2 games like Jak and Daxter," says Willis. "We grew up with those games, and we just wanted to write a love letter to that era of gaming, and then modernize it with our game."

Demi and the Fractured Dream focuses on the adventures of the titular Demi, who explores the world of Somnus to slay three mythical beasts scattered across the land. As Demi takes on mysterious void powers to even the odds, they soon discover that they're cursed to have their life slowly taken away. In a race against time, Demi uncovers hidden dungeons that reveal the path to each of the beasts to find a way to reverse the curse and save the world.

The core gameplay of Demi and the Fractured Dream feels reminiscent of early 3D Zelda, focusing on a balanced mix of combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving in tightly designed zones across a visually diverse world. It's a tried-and-true formula, and Demi does well to update it with some modern influences. What I do like about Demi and the Fractured Dream is that, while it has the element of a whimsical adventure, much like the classic games from the 2000s, it also has a darker edge, given that the game's setting is about a world teetering towards oblivion.

It's a dungeon like this that makes up most of my Demi playtime so far. Puzzle-platforming challenges that involve manipulating a magic orb through tight spaces to reach a switch and engage a platform feel right out of the classics. One of the gadgets Demi uses is even a large leaf, similar to the one Link uses in The Wind Waker, which can be used to push platforms and help you cross gaps.

Of course, much like its influences, combat plays a key role in the dungeon crawl, and Demi and the Fractured Dream has a surprisingly complex combat system, allowing me to weave together combo strikes and defensive skills. It's also got a bit of influence from the Souls series, in that you can stop at rest points to restore health and healing items, with the consequence of enemies returning. It's not a full Soulslike, but I do appreciate the subtle influence on the game's structure, which itself feels rooted in classic 3D action-adventure games.

I appreciate just how passionate of a homage to 3D action-adventure game Yarn Owl Studios' latest is, and its world has a charm that feels both inviting and mysterious. During my talk with Willis, he notes the initial concept for Demi and the Fractured Dream was a bit more modest, but once they secured a publisher, that allowed them to think a bit bigger.

"This is our first game, and we wouldn't have it any other way working with Annapurna Interactive on this," says Willis. "We were doing this by ourselves with our small team, and initially, we thought it was going to be a much smaller game, but after partnering with Annapurna Interactive, we got to figure out what the game was, and now it's much bigger. It's our first major game, and it's also the biggest project we've ever worked on."

Just like its influences, Demi and the Fractured Dream presents a world that is captivating, but conceals many challenges and surprises that serve to flesh out its vision. I have a soft spot for games that seek to capture a particular era of gaming, and so far, this upcoming adventure game seems to be sticking true to its inspirations.

Find your next adventure by checking out our new games list!

At Tokyo Game Show 2025, I had the opportunity to check out the latest games from Annapurna Interactive, which included the new turn-based role-playing game People of Note. This game seeks to deliver a traditional JRPG with a modern twist, allowing players to fight with the power of music. Speaking with creative director Jason Wishnov from Iridium Studios, I learned what went into the game's blend of a musical and a turn-based RPG, and how the developers aim to "bring more musicals to the gamers."

It's great to see, as turn-based RPGs are on the upswing lately, especially in 2025 with the recent releases of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the excellent Trails into the Sky 1st Chapter. Many fans have been eager to see more games in the style of classic Japanese role-playing games, and with games like People of Note there's still plenty more on the horizon making up the new games we're looking forward to playing.

Tap lessons

People of Note has me taking on the role of Cadence, an aspiring singer seeking to make her mark in the city. Unfortunately, she soon finds herself removed from a song contest that could either break or shape her future as a musician. To prove herself as a worthy artist, she teams up with other talented musicians specializing in different genres to take their up-and-coming act on the road to different cities to build up their reputation, face off against fierce rivals, and take on the mysterious forces looking to disrupt the power of music.

What's immediately clear about People of Note is that it's all about being a game that's about the love of music and the culture it inspires. Cadence and her companions utilize their musical talents to strengthen their bonds, while also fighting against enemies during their dungeon crawls in areas modeled after heavy metal, EDM, and rock and roll cultures. It's essentially Double Fine's Brutal Legend by way of Clair Obscur, and I really dug it.

It's a musical RPG, and the premise and setting of People of Note totally match the sense of optimism and cheerfulness that many classic JRPGs had, and that's totally something that the developers want to lean into with this game. In my chat with creative director Jason Wishnov, he states that one of the driving motivators for People of Note is to build a musical experience within an RPG.

"I love musicals, and I'm a massive fan of Hamilton, and it really got me thinking – 'Why aren't more games using music in this way?", said the creative director. "Music has a way of connecting us so deeply, and not everyone indeed loves stage musicals like the ones of Broadway, but you know what a lot of people do love? Disney movies. Just seeing those musical elements in narratives has such a way of getting people to connect with them. You just can't beat having a catchy song, and we wanted to bring that into video games in a way that I haven't seen before. There have been a few other musical games out there, but we hope to bring about a shift that will lead to more musicals. I want to help bring more musicals to the gamers out there."

My demo has me exploring a heavy metal dungeon with Cadence and her party, which helps me get into the flow of how battles work, showcasing People of Note's unique yet intriguing spin on special attacks. The battles play out similarly to a turn-based RPG, where you send commands out to your party members to execute attacks, defensive moves, and supporting skills. It's very similar to Super Mario RPG and Clair Obscur, with a focus on timed button inputs to maximize your attacks. Before long, I'm locked into the rhythm of battle, the flow of fights emphasizing the feeling of stepping in time to a beat.

And therein lies what makes People of Note's battle system so interesting – I'm actually adding to the beat of the battle music as I execute moves. Each party member is tuned to a different musical style, which also doubles as this RPG's spin on elemental attacks. One party member with an electronic keyboard utilizes special EDM attacks and buffs, which helps my other party members with metal and singing powers to enhance their attacks and deal heavier damage.

It takes me some battles to get the hang of the pacing of the timed inputs and how each musical style can be amplified and work with others, but by the end of my time with People of Note I feel like I've got a better handle on it. Things really came to a head with a boss battle against a heavy metal rocker that knows how to prime their strikes across several turns.

This battle is where I have to really utilize all my party members' skills to keep the group alive and in sync. Fortunately, once you acquire enough rhythm energy for each party member, you can engage special duet attacks to deal extra damage. This boss battle was a fierce fight, and it really showcases just how deeply the musical experience is embedded into the game's flow.

According to Wishnov, People of Note pays tribute to a well-loved genre, which is now thriving thanks to some fantastic recent releases that have been well received. The developers state that this new "JRPG renaissance" means the timing is great for their game.

"I think we're coming in at the right time with this JRPG renaissance we're in, not that it ever went away, but there's just been this big resurgence of games for this genre," says Wishnov. "Not just from Square Enix but from newer studios as well – the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and so many other games means that this genre is doing well and we're coming in with our take on it being a musical means that we're coming in at such a wonderful time."

So far, People of Note features a really clever spin on a JRPG, but what really takes it to another level is its clear dedication to offering a musical experience as well. Stylistically, they have a lot in common when it comes to getting players in a certain mood, and People of Note is all about inspiring a sense of optimism for the journey ahead – which is something we could certainly see more of in games.

Check out our best RPGs ranking for you next adventure!

While it may be set to the '80s alt-rock fuzz of bands like Lush and Roxy Music, upcoming narrative adventure game Mixtape impressed us at both Summer Game Fest and Tribeca Film Festival this year with how its demo plays out like a timeless dream – which developer Beethoven and Dinosaur's producer Woody suggests is part of the point.

"We don't have an ideal player," Woody says, "we don't make our games with a target player or audience in mind. We make our weird little games and hope people can find some escape and enjoyment, maybe some respite from the current cursed reality we find ourselves in."

"After The Artful Escape, we knew we wanted to do another music adjacent game, but weren't really set on anything," he continues. Beethoven and Dinosaur's last game from 2021, The Artful Escape, similarly followed a teenager with rock star aspirations, and the game was also published by Annapurna, like Mixtape will be; in our The Artful Escape review, we think the platformer game offers "up an entrancing psychedelic world that is somehow still half-dormant, waiting for a few chords to help burst it open at the seams in explosions of colors and lasers."

Mixtape, set among the mowed lawns and identical driveways of an American suburb, is visually more restrained than that, but its protagonists nonetheless continue to prove Beethoven and Dinosaur's point: good music is transformative. So, Mixtape's best friends let songs like "Just Like Honey" supercharge their shopping cart joyrides on the night of their last high school party together.

I wonder how true Mixtape's mischief is to its developers' experiences, and Woody answers that, "I mean, I have ridden in a shopping cart that was tied to the back of a dirt bike and was getting towed around a cow paddock. Ended about as well as you can expect, including a nice scar and cow shit."

Anyway, also on the topic of shit, some aspects of young adulthood are universal – regardless of whether you experience them from Ronald Reagan's suburbs or, I guess, an iPhone 1 Million in a few decades.

Like, most kids feel "that whirlpool of feelings that is wanting to be something so bad, but you don't know what that something is yet," Woody says.

"Every band you hear, every film you see – grabbing onto those [things] so tightly, as a way to define and anchor yourself, to be able to say this, this, is who I am," Woody continues.

"Everything always feels like it's the most important thing that's ever happened to you. It's a wild time."

Mixtape will be out some time this year on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Mixtape sent a sherpa up a mountain to get the rights to use a song, and Grand Theft Auto has "nothing on our toilet paper tech."

If there is one word that can describe Skin Deep, the latest release from Blendo Games, it is 'stylish'. I almost want there to be shimmering WordArt in this review, just for that word, since seeing it so plainly in black and white doesn't begin to sell how whimsical, stylish, and fun this is. In terms of the more standard categorizations of games, Skin Deep is an immersive sim, and an immersive sim par excellence, but it's a comedy too, and genuinely funny.

You are Nina Pasadena, an Insurance Commando and former criminal. In essence, you are cryogenically frozen and then hidden on spaceships as they go about their business. If pirates attack, it's up to you to eliminate them and free the ship's crew. Also, the crew are all cats. You will encounter many felines over your time in Skin Deep, including the chef Tornado, scuba diver Casiano, and the rancher Dusty. Once you've met these cats, they'll often email you in between missions, feeding you tidbits of information about their lives and dreams.

Ships that you are embarked on have a particular piracy problem. The pirate group known as the Numb Bunch wants you dead, and specifically targets ships that you're aboard. It's up to you to figure out why. I won't go any deeper into the story than that to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say the pirate leader has a bone to pick with you.

The missions themselves are consistently fantastic. The ships have vents to crawl through, trash chutes that can flush you into space, airlocks, and eminently breakable windows. Often, these will be locked until you find a code, but finding these is far from onerous. Your eyes are equipped with a zoom function that's less of a standard zoom and more of a CSI-inflected "enhance!" button, allowing you to read notes from clear across a room. Notes are stored in your memory palace, accessible by holding tab. After the notepad jamboree that was Blue Prince, it was a welcome break.

Ships of Fools

Exploration of the ships isn't limited to their interior either: getting chucked out into space doesn't cue a frantic race back inside for oxygen. Thanks to Nina's third lung, she can survive in the vacuum in nothing but her overalls.

This leads to some fantastically open levels where, for instance, if a door is barricaded and you don't have the requisite keycard to open it, you can simply pop outside, float around to that room, then smash the window to gain access. Special mention should be given to the fact that the ships are wildly different from one another: one is a floating wind power plant (just go with it), another an icebreaker (just go with it again), and yet another a floating fast food restaurant, complete with a drive-through window that you can man yourself (yeah, I don't know either).

Each ship has a set of secondary objectives. One is always, as far as I can tell, to find a hidden cassette tape like we're playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, but others include being tasked with repairing a mech to use against your enemies, or opening a weapons cache with a mining laser. The former, in particular, gave me Shogo: Mobile Armor Division flashbacks, as I stomped around the cargo bay annihilating the elites that had forcefully shoved me off this mortal coil multiple times in the last half hour.

In between missions, you'll occasionally do interstitial sequences such as visiting Little Lion, your former friend and contact in the criminal underworld, or infiltrating a space pirate convention. It's goofy and allows for a nice break after some hair-raising escapes. The latter, in particular, made me laugh out loud multiple times – I spent a great deal of time perusing the convention's various stands, advertising various inventions like a jammer keypad that was the size of an SUV.

The pirates, too, are very entertaining. There are many ways to approach them: you could become a ghost in the machine and simply pickpocket their Cat Keys, allowing you to free their purring prisoners. You can stealthily take out the standard pirates by bashing open a window or making an airlock explosively decompress. You could also, if you prefer, throw pepper at them, stunning them, then pounce on their back before slamming them into various stations and consoles around the ship like they're giving you the world's deadliest piggyback ride.

If you do decide to take them on, you'll need to eject their heads from their bodies afterwards. They're equipped with devices called Skullsavers, which can sustain their heads, allowing them to float to regeneration pads and regrow their body before reentering the fray. Ejecting their heads gives you their Skullsaver, which you can then flush out of an airlock, a trash chute, or indeed, a toilet. The Skullsavers talk to you throughout, sometimes threateningly, sometimes pleadingly, but they're all going on the same grim journey. If you keep the Skullsaver in your inventory but don't have it equipped, you'll still hear their muffled protestations, which is a nice touch.

Enemy variety is gradually increased over the course of the game – you can expect to fight the standard pirates on every level, but they'll gradually be joined by other units including engineers, who can lay landmines, and elites, who provide much stiffer resistance. Honestly, a little too stiff. This isn't a game where you'll have a gun most of the time, and you can't kill elites by breaking windows or opening airlocks, so taking them down is annoyingly tough at times. Their health pool is more than double that of the standard space pirates, and they can't be pounced upon, either. They're an annoying little speed bump that interrupts the game's otherwise impressive flow.

Fuel for the imsim fire

As an imsim, you'd expect the game to give you a huge variety of toys to play with, and you won't be disappointed. Items range from the mundane (mugs) to the sci-fi (the duper, allowing you to make a copy of most physical objects, including the all important Cat Keys).

Many of the items serve secondary purposes, some of which I hadn't discovered until the game's last few levels. For example, the pirate walkie-talkie, which you use to call off alerts, can be smashed against a wall. This makes it spark: create a leak in a fuel line, wait for a pirate to investigate, and then chuck the sparking walkie-talkie, resulting in a quick demonstration of chemistry and thermodynamics, as well as a quick freeze, with the walkie-talkie and the flammable gas annotated to demonstrate exactly what you've done.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of item interactivity inherent in Skin Deep: you can use soap and banana peels to trip up and stun pirates, make flammable clouds with deodorant, and distract enemies with cat toys. My favorite combination of tools was the humble lighter and various flammable objects, which I used to have many a pirate BBQ.

To make it plain how chaotic and joyous a lot of the combat can be, let me tell you about the time I defeated pirate reinforcements on a space radio station. After finding notes stating that playing music in the DJ Booth was deafening everyone on the ship, I dug out an old electronica reel and loaded it up. With music blasting throughout the ship, no one could hear me. I laid an ambush in the drive room staircase, trapping them with a grenade. In the ensuing chaos, I took out two of the trio, with one being taken out by a rocket from his comrade, before making my escape. It's that kind of game.

Another feature that gets titrated into the game is having to call in a rescue pod for the cats. To do this, you need a signal lamp, which you'll aim at a beacon and flash SOS. This summons the pod, into which you deposit the cats before retrieving some weapons from inside it to fight a wave of pirate reinforcements. I use shotguns, rifles (that look like Sten guns, fact fans), and a curiously lethal thing called an Autopistol to take out my enemies. Honestly, guns are perhaps the least interesting part of combat – they feel fine, and are pleasingly silly, but after using deodorant and sparking electronics to MacGyver my way across the ship, they just tend to feel a little dull.

Getting into out-and-out combat isn't something that I'd tend to encourage either, at least without laying an ambush first. You're very fragile – if you die, an automatic defibrillator will jumpstart your heart and stun nearby enemies, but if you die after that, you're done. Due to the general chaos in Skin Deep, you'll probably find yourself kicking the bucket a reasonable amount, and it's here that probably the most frustrating element of the game rears its head.

You can save during missions at various terminals, but the game only autosaves at the start of each mission. If you die and haven't saved, then you're cooked. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if the game didn't crash when saving fairly regularly. Trying to load this save would then just give me a console readout displaying information about the crash, forcing me to start the whole level again. Each one only takes about 20-30 minutes to complete on average, but it's still extremely annoying.

Back to the Future-past

As you might have surmised from having to use a signal lamp and Morse code to summon a rescue pod, the game is solidly retrofuturistic. At times, it feels like I was playing a game set in the Red Dwarf universe, all '80s (and older) electronics juxtaposed against futuristic space travel. Other times, it felt like No One Lives Forever, with Nina's one-liners being such a great throwback.

The music, too, is a real joy. The ship that carries pirate reinforcements blasts out a synthesized version of the Wellerman sea shanty, the game's title drop is accompanied by a full Bond-style intro sequence, and a stakeout mission is accompanied by slinky Pink Panther-esque jazz, tipping the scales even more into retrofuturism. Even the title itself sounds like a film from the 1960s.

Despite the bugs and the paucity of autosaves, I do strongly recommend Skin Deep. The frustration that I felt after each crash was certainly intense, but these bugs will be ironed out given enough time. The game itself is beautifully imaginative, fun, chaotic, and, once again, stylish in the extreme. Get in the cryo-pod, it's time to fight some space pirates.

Skin Deep was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

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The third annual Annapurna Interactive Showcase has officially come and gone, but the announcements… the announcements live on. That includes, but is not limited to, several surprising new games as well as new platform announcements for previously released darlings.

While the below largely focuses on new games, platforms, and release dates, the showcase also featured new looks at Lorelei and the Laser Eyes from developer Simogo, Bounty Star from Dinogod, and Flock from Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg. New partnerships between Annapurna Interactive and developer Marumittu Games as well as Glass Revolver were also announced.

Without further delay, however, here are all the games announced during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase 2023 alongside any new platform announcements or release dates and what we know about them so far.

Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth

Surprise! The first internally developed video game from Annapurna Interactive and game director Chelsea Hash is Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth. While relatively little is known about what the game actually is, there is a delightfully atmospheric announcement trailer. We also know that it's coming to PC and console. This marks the first new Blade Runner video game in 25 years, with the original 1997 Blade Runner game getting a largely panned enhanced edition last year.

Ghost Bike

This is a new game from developer Messhof, perhaps best known for developing Nidhogg and Nidhogg 2. Unlike Nidhogg, it seems that Ghost Bike pits players against ghosts in the afterlife in contests of speed and skill in order to "return the true spirit of biking back to Wheel World," according to Annapurna. In other words, it kind of does what it says on the tin. It's set to launch for PlayStation, Xbox (including Game Pass), and PC via Steam, though no definitive window or date has been announced.

Lushfoil Photography Sim

First-person photography simulator Lushfoil Photography Sim from developer Matt Newell looks, as one might expect given the intended genre, gorgeous. It allows players to explore detailed recreations of locations from around the world, letting them capture photos of various landscapes using the in-game camera while traversing around and unlocking different cameras and even a first-person drone. The game is coming to Steam and console at some point in the future.

Cocoon release date

Alongside a new look at Cocoon, the upcoming video game from developer Geometric Interactive and Jeppe Carlsen of Limbo and Inside fame, the official release date was announced as September 29, 2023 for PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox (and Game Pass), and PC via Steam. The adventure puzzle game continues to look rather solid, just like we thought at Summer Game Fest 2023, and September can't come soon enough.

Thirsty Suitors release date

Late last year, we called Thirsty Suitors from developer Outerloop Games "an emotionally mature yet playful RPG," and it finally has a release date. The showcase included a new look at a bunch of gameplay from the title before announcing that it will officially drop on November 2, 2023 for PS5, PS4, Xbox (including Game Pass), Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

to a T name and first details

The mysterious, previously revealed game from Keita Takahashi and the uvula team officially has a name and far more details. to a T is described as a 3D narrative adventure game that sees players take on the role of a teen (named Teen, apparently) that is… stuck in T-pose. As in, the default model pose with hands out to their side. Teen's dog and mother help out while they go to school and generally try to interact with objects. It looks delightful, and is coming to Xbox (and Game Pass) as well as PC via Steam at some point in the future.

Mundaun new platform launch

Hand-penciled horror adventure Mundaun is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S… today! It's out today, June 29! The updated version includes 4K/60fps support, bug fixes, and more. We had a good time with it back in 2021, and a current-gen version seems like icing on the cake.

Stray coming to Xbox

Incredibly cute, critically acclaimed video game Stray from developer BlueTwelve Studio is finally coming to Xbox consoles. Our own Sam Loveridge gave the PS5 version a nearly "purrfect" score in her Stray review last year, so this is one to pick up if you didn't have access previously. The new announcement trailer indicates that Stray should, well, stray onto Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One on August 10, 2023.

Storyteller coming to Netflix

Speaking of new platforms, Storyteller is coming to the most surprising platform of all: Netflix. The video game from developer Daniel Benmergui is set to hit the streaming service on September 26, 2023 alongside a free content update that looks to add a little chaos to things. "Netflix" here also technically means "mobile."

While there's still likely plenty of time to wait for the above, there are dozens of upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games to keep you otherwise preoccupied.

Stray publisher Annapurna Interactive has announced it is currently working on the first Blade Runner game in 25 years.

Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth will be the debut game for Annapurna Interactive's new internal studio which is being led by former What Remains of Edith Finch and Solar Ash developer Chelsea Hash. As its title suggests, Blade Runner 2033 takes place in 2033 (which is only a little bit alarming considering that's only 10 years away) and is set in a dystopian Los Angeles after the blackout hits.  

Working in collaboration with Blade Runner 2049 studio, Alcon Interactive Group, which is currently also developing a new Blade Runner TV series for Amazon Prime, Annapurna has said that the upcoming game is set to release on both PC and consoles and that more information about the project will be "revealed soon."

The juicy details about Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth (eg: what genre it'll be, how it'll play, etc.) remain under wraps for now but we did get to see a teaser trailer during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase on June 29, which you can watch here. I wouldn't worry too much about the future of this game as it's definitely in good hands with the Outer Wilds, Neon White, and The Artful Escape publisher. 

This is especially exciting as the last Blade Runner game we got was the point-and-click adventure game developed by Westwood Studios for PC (before it was later remastered in 2022) back in 1997. I can only imagine how good a new Blade Runner game will look now that technology like ray tracing is common in game development - just look at Stray!

Find out what else we've got to look forward to with our new games 2023 list. 

The best feline adventure of 2022, Stray, has made a real difference in animal shelters.

As reported by PBS (thanks, PC Gamer), Stray has been such a hit with cat fans that it's inspired a number of fundraising activities. As explained in the original report, Stray has helped to raise thousands of dollars for various charities that all help real-life stray cats and other animals. 

Using the feline-centric game to bring awareness to cat-related issues was apparently a "no-brainer" according to Annapurna Interactive's Jeff Legaspi, who was interviewed in the report. In Stray, players take control of a little orange tabby who must travel through a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by only animals and robots. Part of Stray's gameplay requires players to act like a cat by meowing, knocking things off of tables, scratching at scraps of carpet, and more. 

PBS also spoke to a number of animal charity representatives for its Stray coverage, including the marketing specialist at the Nebraska Humane Society, Brendan Gepson. Discussing the organization's marketing strategy from last year - which saw the charity giving away codes for Stray in exchange for $5 donations - Gepson described the campaign as "very successful," after it raised around $8,000 for the charity.

Annapurna Interactive also worked with streamers (one of which managed to raise $1,500 with their Stray content alone) and sponsored the Stray Cat Relief Fund's 5K walkathon last year - which went on to raise $6,500 for the cats in its care. "Having a stray cat be the star of a video game is just amazing," Debbie Distanisloa of Stray Cat Relief Fund said in the same report, "we're really hoping it can shed more empathy in the community for the stray cat community." 

Can't get enough of Stray's adorable protagonist? Take a look at our list of the best cat games for ideas on what to play next. 

Among the numerous projects announced during today's broadcast, Konami unveiled Silent Hill: Townfall, a new game developed by Stories Untold developer No Code and published by Annapurna Interactive.

The reveal trailer focuses on a transmission received on a small, portable television, with someone warning that punishment and judgment are on the way. There are numerous quick clips of unsettling images, and some footage that suggests a seaside setting.

"I remember playing the original Silent Hill on PS1 back in 1999, and became a fan from that moment on," creative director Jon McKellan said during the full broadcast. "So for us to work on this game with our friends at Annapurna feels like an actual dream come true. It's a real honor for us to bring a new title to this series that both respects the source material, but also does something a little bit different with it.

"To say that Silent Hill has been an inspiration to No Code would be a massive understatement. Our previous two games, Stories Untold and Observation, both played with that same deep psychological horror. And at No Code, we're all about weaving that narrative and that experience of our game design, our audio, our visuals, even our UI."

Unfortunately, that's all the info we've gotten. McKellan says the studio will reveal more about the game in 2023, and in the meantime, recommends that everyone rewatches the trailer to "see what you might have missed."

Producer Motoi Okamoto says that Townfall came to be as a result of a "simple lunch meeting in California," and hints that further Silent Hill collaborations with smaller studios are in the works.

Konami also announced Silent Hill f, Silent Hill Ascension, the long-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake, and even a Silent Hill 2 movie as part of today's show.

When I reached the end of Hindsight, all I wanted to do was give my mum a call. This new narrative adventure from Team Hindsight and Annapurna Interactive takes you through the life of Mary, a woman who returns to her childhood home after the passing of her mother. With the task of clearing out the house, you start to pack away belongings that become literal windows into the past using a mechanic known as an 'aperture.' With the objects framing a memory that you can physically step through, each starts to build a complete picture of Mary's life as she remembers it. 

As a reflective experience, Hindsight had me contemplating the perceptions and memories we hold about our lives and relationships, and how they can change with time. While it explores many themes, the nature of memory and the relationship between Mary and her mother is at the heart of what makes Hindsight so affecting. It's interesting 'aperture' mechanic, creative presentation, and beautiful soundtrack effectively bring the experience to life, but the connection I felt to Hindsight's narrative is what will really stay with me. 

Life experiences 

Hindsight begins on a beachfront where you first experience the 'aperture' mechanic, with a sun on the horizon that you interact with. Doing so pulls you through to the beginning of the story, when Mary is born; with the sun now serving as the light over the hospital bed. When you enter into a memory, you have to try to locate an item that will take you into another. You don't get much in the way of guidance from the get-go, but anything you can interact with is indicated by a sort of glowing effect. 

Another puzzle aspect also comes from the way you interact with a belonging to unlock a memory, which changes throughout. Some require you to align an object just so to complete an image of a memory, while others will have you physically move possessions into a particular position. Some belongings are trickier to spot than others, but it's worth exploring around to unearth hidden memories that are attached to objects that might be tucked away - you'll be rewarded with the chance to see smaller moments that were important to Mary for one reason or another. 

So many of the apertures can be interacted with in a creative assortment of ways, from painting a wall, to pulling open curtains, and lining up books on shelves to align with the memory mirrored on the other side of the wall. Sometimes apertures can form in more abstract ways that reflect how Mary was feeling in that moment. In a period of grief and sadness, all of the colors in each memory become muted and cold, while happier times take on a warmer palette. The interactions with the apertures effectively pull you into a memory, and the sounds and designs of each moment really bring these recollections to life. 

Memory

Memories are often shaped by our own perceptions and perspectives. . Two people could go through the same event, for example, and remember it differently. So can you ever really rely on your own recollections? And when you look back on something, do you see the whole picture, or just what you want to see? When it comes to Mary, these questions often come to mind as I navigate through her life. 

Going from the moment she was born through to the years that led up to her return home, Hindsight is made up of chapters that explore different prominent moments. And throughout, Mary speaks as though she's in conversation with her late mother – often contemplating her experiences and questioning her perception of them just as I do. 

I start to see how she's trying to better understand who her mother really was rather than the person she perceived her to be. While my own experiences are quite different to Mary's, I didn't always understand or appreciate the things my mum or dad did for me when I was younger. It's only until I got older that I came to see my parents as flawed people with their own issues, who, (rather aptly) in hindsight, were trying to do the best job they knew how to do. 

But as you're seeing the entirety of a life, Hindsight also explores lots of important themes that shape Mary as a person. From her cultural heritage to the pressures of academic achievements, the story also looks at family, connections, and the balance of trying to gain a sense of your own identity while also seeking praise and acceptance from those who raise you. Each chapter that unfolds shows how she grapples with the struggles that come with growing up and trying to find your own place in the world. From its presentation to its story, I didn't expect to be quite as moved as I was playing Hindsight. If you're looking for a creative, reflective indie, you can try out Hindsight for yourself right now. 

Hindsight is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, and iOS. 

The second annual Annapurna Interactive Showcase aired today, and it was full of exciting new games for 2022 and beyond. Not only did we get an official release date for the narrative exploration game Hindsight, but news dropped that Thirsty Suitors is now available to demo on Steam (we'll be previewing that soon enough, don't you fret). The presentation also included platform update announcements on Outer Wilds, Solar Ash, Hohokum, and more. 

But what about game announcements? Luckily, the Annapurna showcase was full of them – eight to be exact, though some were more announcements of partnerships than full reveals. From a survival horror game set in a dinosaur-filled forest to a new game from Katamari Damacy's Keita Takahashi, it's clear that there's a lot of interesting new projects coming out of Annapurna in the months and years ahead.

Here are all the games announced during the 2022 Annapurna Interactive Showcase, and what we know about them so far. 

Every game announced at the 2022 Annapurna Interactive Showcase

Untitled game from Kentucky Route Zero devs

There's no official game announcement here, but we do know that Cardboard Computer, the team behind the award-winning Kentucky Route Zero, is indeed working on a new game. That new game is being built with new tech (including something that lets them scan their faces on their phone and translate it to in-game animations), and will have a different tempo that is "faster and hopefully funnier" than Kentucky Route Zero. The studio says this is "the first project where we're seriously focusing on performance as a core part of the piece", so who knows if this new title will have a similarly protracted development cycle to KRZ – a five act play that took a decade to deliver.   

Bounty Star: The Morose Tale of Graveyard Clem

Bounty Star is an over-the-shoulder 3D action game from developer Dinogod that features mech combat, base-building, farming, and customization. You play as Clementine McKinney, a war veteran and mech pilot who wants to break free from the shame of her past and "be a force for good" in the Red Expanse, the "post-post-apocalyptic version of the American Southwest." It's due out sometime in 2023, and will launch on PS5, PS4, Steam, and via Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

Untitled game from new studio Yarn Owl

Yarn Owl is a small, two-person studio based in Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia that is working on a currently untitled game heavily inspired by one of the best games of all-time – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. That means you should expect a twisting RPG adventure, full of intricately designed dungeons and smart puzzle design. Yarn Own is still early in development of its debut adventure, but from the small peek we got of this game today, it looks like one worth watching.

Forever Ago

Forever Ago is the debut game from German studio Third Shift. While this game was technically teased all the way back in 2020, Annapurna has picked up the publishing rights and given it a fresh showing here. If you aren't familiar, Forever Ago is a narrative-driven road trip adventure game that follows an elderly man named Alfred, who is documenting his trip through the Pacific Northwest after a "tragic stroke of fate". It seems to be all about exploring beautiful environments, interacting with objects to learn more about those spaces, and taking pictures to help document your journey. There's no release date yet or confirmed platforms aside from Steam, but this is one to watch out for.

Untitled game from If Found studio

Dreamfeel is the Irish studio behind the visual novel title If Found, and it is working on a brand-new game with Annapurna Interactive. The untitled project is set in a fantasy version of Ireland where all the characters are cats – following the success of Stray, it should come as no surprise that Annapurna Interactive is doubling down in this respect – and the message/theme of the untitled game is said to be: "everything drowned will someday rise to the deep." 2020's If Found was a moving, emotionally resonant experience, so we're keen to see what Dreamfeel is able to do next.

Flock

Flock is an upcoming co-op adventure game from developers Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg. Described as a "multiplayer co-op game about the joy of flight and collecting adorable flying creatures with your friends", you'll be the flying shepherd of your own unique herd of impossibly cute creatures. You can even use the wool from your hover-sheep to make hats and cardigans! Flock is due out on 2023 and will drop on PS4, PS5, Steam, and via Xbox Game Pass for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. 

Uvula from Katamari Damacy's Keita Takahasi 

Well, this looks interesting. We only get a brief teaser trailer for Uvula, an upcoming game from Keita Takahashi – the creator of Katmari Damacy, Noby Noby Boy, and Wattam – but it's enough to leave us scratching our heads in confusion and wonder. The trailer shows the inside of someone's mouth as they're sleeping (hence the name "Uvula"), before zooming out to show a dog cuddled up next to them. Then there's a promise of more news coming, but no details on when or where. 

The Lost Wild

The Lost Wild is an upcoming survival horror game from Great Ape Games "about overcoming nature's most formidable forms of life." You're stranded in a world full of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, but a mysterious voice on the radio offers you hope. You'll have to run or intimidate attacking dinos with non-lethal weapons, discover abandoned facilities full of supplies you'll need to survive, and try and stay alive in a world full of things that want to eat you. Sick. We don't have a release date yet, but we know The Lost Wild is coming to Steam. The console situation is "TBD."

It's early days yet for many of these games, so in the meantime why not check out some of the most anticipated upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games coming in 2022 and 2023. 

If you're wondering how to watch today's Annapurna Interactive Showcase, you've come to the right place.

Below, you can see the announcement of the special Annapurna Interactive Showcase from earlier this week, set to take place later today, on July 28. At precisely 12pm PT/3pm ET/8pm BST, you can tune into either Annapurna Interactive's YouTube channel or Twitch channel for a special presentation from the company and its development partners.

Right now, details on the showcase are incredibly scarce. We don't know how long the presentation will be going on, nor do we know how many games or announcements will be featured in the broadcast, or what sort of announcements/games could appear. Annapurna could announce brand new titles or reveal details about previously announced games.

We know this is well worth paying attention to, given Annapurna Interactive's publishing record over the last few months alone. So far this year, the company has published the likes of cat adventure game Stray, fast-paced speedrunning shooter Neon White, and the fantastic narrative-driven A Memoir Blue, any one of which could well be in the running for Game of the Year.

Based on this alone, we'd say you want to keep a keen eye on the Annapurna Interactive Showcase later today. Given the company's scale and the sorts of games it publishes, we'd be surprised if this new showcase ran for more than 30 minutes at the maximum. 

Check out our complete new games 2022 guide for a full look over all the games slated to launch throughout the rest of the year. 

Zazu doesn't want me to play Stray. The adoptable kitten with an impossibly cute mustache climbs into my lap and falls asleep the moment I sit down at Meow Parlour, a cat cafe in NYC's Lower East Side. For this past weekend only, Annapurna Interactive and Meow Parlour let people sign up to play Stray in a cat cafe filled with adoptable kittens. Yes, it's as chaotic and adorable as you'd expect, but it was also a reminder of just how incredibly realistic Stray's protagonist is.

Stray with strays 

Meow Parlour always has a rotating cast of adoptable adult cats and kittens, but we've been blessed with an influx of the latter for this event – and they don't care that I'm there to play Stray for the first time, following the game's release on July 19 for PS5 and PC. After Zazu falls asleep in my lap, another cat cafe patron shakes a jingly toy and he wakes up with a start, bolting away before I even get a chance to say goodbye. An Annapurna rep hands me a DualSense controller, but I don't even get a chance to press start before another kitten quickly clambers my lap, dangling his back legs so far off of me I have to cup his little feet in one of my hands to keep him from falling off. This is Charlie, and he loves to sleep, falling into a REM cycle faster than Zazu did.

All of these kittens clearly want attention. If both of my hands are occupied with a controller then they aren't getting pets, so they're quick to frustratingly meow or rub on me whenever I try to focus on Stray. Realizing I want to pet more cats, I hand the controller to another person at the cafe, hoping they'll be better at paying attention to the game and I can play via osmosis. I help them with some of the puzzles, absentmindedly rocking Charlie in my arms before I realize that this is the perfect opportunity to get a Cats Watching Stray moment. I ask the person playing to press the circle on the DualSense controller (which makes the Stray cat meow as much as you'd like), hoping the kittens would react. But apparently, when your every day is filled with meows, hisses, and jingly toys, you're a bit desensitized to cat sounds, because not a single one of them even blinks at the meowing ginger cat.

They are, however, incredibly interested in the dangling DualSense USB cord that I unplugged from the controller and erroneously left hanging off the side of the counter. When I get a chance to play again, I'm in the middle of the Dead City level trying to run away from Zurks when I notice the kittens batting about the USB cord with gusto, and worry that they're going to yank the PS5 off of the rather high counter. The Zurks overwhelm me quickly, and I'm forced to restart the section. 

Kitten behavior

This may very well be the best way possible to play Stray. After all, it's a fairly short and compact game that you could easily blow through in a day if you aren't looking to go completionist and get all the Stray Badges or every one of the Stray Memories. But when you're surrounded by over a dozen cats and kittens purring, jumping, sleeping, or otherwise being adorable, it's hard to make any headway. This just means that you can enjoy it for longer and you can enjoy it while basically buried in a pile of kittens. 

If I'm being honest, I can't even make it to the third level, The Flat, during my Stray playthrough. I am just so damn distracted by the kittens. There are two black cats who I discover halfway through my session actually have very faint stripes on them - something I've never seen before on a black cat. There's a momma cat who won't stop angrily meowing at the person closest to a door, which the Meow Parlour employee tells me houses her food. There's an older ginger kitten that I don't even notice until I get ready to leave, as it was sleeping inside one of the end tables that doubles as a cat bed the entire time. At one point, Bella the black cat manages to get her paws on a Stray pin that Annapurna was offering to attendees for free. This quickly became her favorite toy, as she batted it around the space with glee, clearly transfixed by the plastic-y rattle it made while skittering along the floor. Soon, several of the other kittens were chasing the pin around with her, but their joy was cut short by an eagle-eyed employee who realized a pin probably isn't a good toy for kittens.

But when I or other attendees actually get some playtime in, it's clear just how much work developer Blue Twelve Studio has put into the cat animations in Stray. The subtle ear flick when a butterfly lands on a sleeping cat's ear is a dead ringer for Zazu's reaction to me gently stroking his ear hair with my nail. The way the cats in the opening scene nuzzle up against each other looks just like how two of the more friendly kittens interact in the cat cafe. And the cat sounds in Stray could just be background noise at Meow Parlor, from the inquisitive, questionable meows to the angry hiss that escapes the protagonist's mouth when a robot scares it. 

When the team at Meow Parlor says my time is up, I audibly groan in discontent. I have Stray and three rescue cats at home, but playing it in a small space filled with kittens is so magical I don't want to leave. As I gather up my belongings, I'm startled by a kitten's head popping up out of an egg-shaped bed on the counter next to the Stray setup. The little tabby was asleep in there the entire time, and I had no idea. I give it a little chin scritch and let loose a string of nonsensical cooing sounds before reluctantly leaving. I'm not sure any other gaming experience can top Stray in a cat cafe, and I'm equally unsure if I've ever seen such a realistic portrayal of an animal in video games yet. Stray is a love letter to cat lovers, and Stray in a cat cafe is how I nearly obtained nirvana. 

Where does Stray fall on our list of best cat games?

Indie publisher Annapurna Interactive's secret weapon is the simple fact that the people there "have really good taste," as Donut County creator and Neon White director Ben Esposito puts it in the latest issue of Edge magazine.

Esposito says that Annapurna explained its approach to publishing around the time it was founded. "We are not trying to have a genre," he says of the studio's message. "We're not trying to have a vibe. We are just trying to make really cool games with really cool people."

"Now I understand where they're coming from," he adds, admitting that he was skeptical of this vision at first. "They don't want to be pinned down in that way. They just have really good taste. And that's it. That's the only thing that connects all the games."

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Annapurna has quickly become one of the most reliable hallmarks of quality in the industry, and Esposito has more experience with the publisher than most after contributing to What Remains of Edith Finch, developing Donut County entirely solo, and now leading work on Neon White at Angel Matrix. Even he was surprised that Annapurna responded to all of these radically different games with equal enthusiasm. 

"I didn’t think they would like it," he says of Neon White, an off-the-walls first-person platformer with card-powered shooting that hides a visual novel dating sim. Whereas Donut County was explicitly designed to appeal to many types of players, no matter their age or gaming experience or tastes, Neon White is unabashedly "for specific people."

"It’s not that high-minded, it’s campy, its genre. That’s not their thing," he continues. However, Annapurna was on board, and Esposito says this experience has shaped his perception of what he, too, expects from an Annapurna game. "I'm learning that too, as we go," he says. 

Edge 363 is in UK shops now, and can also be ordered for delivery via Magazines Direct. To buy the issue digitally, head to Apple’s App Store or PocketMags.

Eight of the best indie games you can play on PS4 are getting a luxe physical compilation in time for the holidays.

Annapurna Interactive, which has honestly been killing it since it first hit the game publishing scene with What Remains of Edith Finch, is putting out a box set to commemorate its lineup on PS4. Two of the eight titles have never before received a physical release, so this is also an opportunity to complete your physical collection if you're a big Annapurna fan. Here's what's on offer.

• Donut County
• Gorogoa (exclusive physical release)
• Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
• Outer Wilds
• Sayonara Wild Hearts
• Telling Lies (exclusive physical release)
• Wattam
• What Remains of Edith Finch

The box set will be available in two special editions: the Ultimate PS4 collection, which will cost $179.99, and the Deluxe PS4 Limited Edition, which will go for $199.99. While both will include specially designed physical packaging and discs, the latter will also include a folio package with statements from the creators of each game, as well as a foreword from the founder of Annapurna Interactive. Only 2,000 copies of the limited edition set will be created, and both versions start shipping out in time for the holidays.

"Since we launched almost five years ago, Annapurna Interactive’s goal has always been to create unique, special games for people that would truly appreciate them," Annapurna Interactive founder Nathan Gary said in a press release. "These titles have been a labor of love for not only our team - but for each and every one of the creative teams behind the games - and we’re excited to offer our fans these games and celebrate them for years to come."

See what else is coming later this year in our guide to the upcoming games of 2020.