Megapop’s underwater reef-builder swaps concrete and traffic lights for coral polyps and sea sprites, and the pitch is simple: instead of building a city that exploits its surroundings, you’re restoring an ecosystem that’s already been trashed. You seed coral, attract species, balance food chains, and watch a barren patch of seabed slowly turn into something worth protecting. It sounds like it could be worthy in a bad way, the sort of thing that lectures you between menus, but it never does. The message sits quietly in the background, the same as everything else here.

And what a background it is. This might be the best-sounding management game I’ve played in years. Julie Buchanan’s soundtrack does that rare thing where it’s clearly been composed with real care rather than looped out of a stock library, swelling gently as a new species arrives, dropping to something barely-there while you’re just pottering about placing rocks. I’d have a vinyl pressing of this on the shelf  alongside my gaming soundtrack collection the second it existed, it’s that good. Pair that with genuinely gorgeous art, all dappled light and drifting particles, and you’ve got a game that’s less “build the optimal reef” and more “sit in this really nice aquarium for a few hours.” I had it running in the background more than once just to enjoy the vibe while I did something else, which probably isn’t the intended use case but says a lot about how well it’s put together. Megapop have also quietly gone in and tightened up the audio systems since launch, and if anything it sounds even better for it.

The mighty upgrade and research tree gives some freedom to develop your reef in your own way, although initially this is locked behind a preset sequence of unlocks to teach you the ropes, something that stops the potential for overwhelming confusion early on. But it opens up quickly and hints at what’s to come, more and more plants, corals and upgrades to bring in a wider variety of fish, plants and useful improvements. It takes a while to learn what all the different symbols mean, and a few hours in you’ll find your screen swimming in them, but pay close attention to the on-screen prompts and you’ll be figuring it out quickly enough.

Where it wobbles is the hazard system. Oil slicks, temperature swings, lionfish infestations, and the dreaded garbage patch roll in periodically to test your reef, and in principle that’s fine, a bit of jeopardy stops the whole thing turning into a screensaver. In practice, some of these events hit like they’ve wandered in from a much harder game, and it’s a well-worn complaint among players that an early garbage patch can wipe out a reef before you’ve unlocked anything that can actually deal with it. It’s a proper drifting-along-em-up that occasionally turns into a getting-flattened-by-a-truck-em-up (it’ll catch on). The early hours don’t do a brilliant job of signposting what’s coming either, so you can end up scrambling to counter a threat the game hasn’t really explained yet, which sits awkwardly against how gentle everything else feels. It’s worth saying though that Megapop have been actively patching this since launch, tying hazards to how developed a zone actually is so they shouldn’t blindside you quite as early, and there’s now a proper “easy” Calmer Waters mode that stretches the gaps between events and keeps them at their gentlest. It’s the right instinct for offering the kind of game any would want from this, and it’s the kind of post-launch care that’s easy to take for granted.

None of that sinks it, though. Once you’ve got a few zones established and a rough handle on what each hazard wants from you, Life Below settles into a lovely rhythm, more about nurturing than min-maxing, more about watching things grow than chasing a perfect layout. It’s not going to satisfy anyone after the deep systemic crunch of a proper strategy game, but it doesn’t pretend to. What it does instead, better than almost anything else out there, is make you care about a coral reef.

The slow pace and quietly judgy context won’t be for everyone, but if you want a management game that’s actually about looking after something rather than squeezing it dry and rinsing the population for everything its got, this is a lovely one to sink into.

Reviewed on PC

You play as a private investigator who receives a letter from one Brás Cubas, a wealthy, arrogant and deeply unpopular Rio tycoon, informing you that he’s been murdered and would very much like you to find out who did it. Fourteen suspects, one day, and a time loop that resets at midnight each time you run out of road. It’s a brilliant setup, and for the first several hours, The Posthumous Investigation absolutely earns it.

Mother Gaia Studio, the Brazilian indie team behind it, have done something remarkable with the world. The hand-drawn black and white art is immediately striking, the noir atmosphere of 1930s high-society Rio is beautifully realised, and the writing weaves in characters and details drawn from Machado’s other works, like Dom Casmurro and The Alienist, in a way that makes you want to actually go and read them afterwards. You’re piecing together a proper web of grudges, secrets and motives, and for a while it feels like a genuinely brilliant clue-chasing-and-gradually-crumbling-em-up (it’ll catch on).

There are a couple of grumbles. The game markets itself as light on hand-holding, which isn’t entirely honest. Every time you reset your loop, Brás Cubas pulls you into a debrief and walks you through your evidence, more or less telling you what to do next. Your clue tooltips chip in too, as do your suspect profiles. I ended up deliberately ignoring Cubas and skipping my own notes just to preserve a bit of detective agency, which is a mildly odd thing to have to do in a mystery game.

The back half also leans into repetition more than it needs to. What starts as an atmospheric whodunnit gradually becomes a run-across-town-and-show-someone-a-piece-of-paper-em-up (it’ll catch on, probably). There’s one particular alley you’ll visit so many times you’ll start mentally furnishing it. The time loop is a genuinely clever mechanic, and the game mostly uses it well, but by the final few hours it starts to feel a little more like a commute than a puzzle.

Neither of those things undoes what The Posthumous Investigation gets right, and it gets a lot right. The setting is wonderful, the premise is one of the most original in the genre in years, and the literary angle gives it a flavour you won’t find anywhere else. There’s real craft here, and a genuine passion for the source material that comes through in every scene.

If the idea of a noir mystery set in 1930s Brazil, built on books you’ve probably never read, sounds like exactly your kind of evening, it almost certainly is.

Reviewed on PC

EA Sports UFC 6 is a significant step forward for the franchise, delivering the most polished and immersive mixed martial arts experience that EA has created to date. While previous entries laid a solid foundation, UFC 6 builds on those mechanics with smoother gameplay, improved visuals, more realistic fighter movement, and a deeper career mode. Although there are still areas that could be improved, the game succeeds in capturing the excitement, strategy, and unpredictability of the UFC better than any previous instalment.

One of the biggest improvements is the striking system. Punches, kicks, elbows, and knees feel far more responsive than before, allowing players to chain together combinations naturally. Every strike has weight behind it, making fights feel intense from the opening bell. Timing and precision are rewarded, meaning players cannot simply button mash if they want to succeed against tougher opponents. Counter-striking is especially satisfying, with well-timed punches capable of changing the momentum of a fight in an instant. And momentum is key here – punching while moving is costly, well, if you’re on the receiving end of it. A player moving forward hitting you will do a lot more damage, and my way of playing UFC 5 has seen me lose more than my fair share of games on UFC6.

The fighter animations are significantly improved, and UFC 6 really captures all the movement and atmosphere of a fight. This is helped by the visuals as a whole – they are outstanding. Fighter models are incredibly detailed, with realistic facial expressions, tattoos, and body movements. Damage accumulates naturally throughout each fight, with cuts, bruises, and swelling becoming increasingly visible as the contest progresses. The arenas are faithfully recreated, and the crowd atmosphere helps make every fight feel like a genuine UFC pay-per-view event. The improved lighting and presentation also enhance the realism, making each walkout and fight introduction feel authentic. Even the most recent UFC White House venue is in the game. Very cool.

One of the most controversial mechanics is the grappling system. It has seen improvements, although it remains one of the more challenging aspects for new players. Transitions are smoother, submissions feel more tense, and ground control requires genuine strategy rather than repetitive inputs. Experienced players will appreciate the extra depth and feel at home immediately, whilst newcomers may need time to understand the mechanics. Fortunately, the game’s tutorials do a reasonable job of explaining the fundamentals, making the learning curve less intimidating than previous titles and this is certainly evident online where most players I’ve encountered seem to have a decent idea of how to defend the most simple ground attacks.

Sound is brilliant as well. Like a lot of EA sports games these days, the commentary is excellent and adds excitement without becoming overly repetitive, while the crowd reacts dynamically to big knockdowns, submission attempts, and dramatic finishes. The impact of strikes is accompanied by convincing sound effects that make every punch and kick feel powerful. Together, the visuals and audio create an immersive presentation that closely resembles a televised UFC broadcast. But whilst the fighters and sounds make it feel ‘real’, some visual elements do not.

For a start, every limb health, overall health, stamina and block health are always on screen, so it looks a bit like a 2D fighter with multiple coloured bars. It’s useful, for sure, but takes away some immersion. Then there is Flow Mode. Flow mode is activated by your fighter building up a bar akin to their fighting style. A striker for example might build for clean hits, whereas another fighter may build their bar by defending and dodging. Once full, you can activate for a number of different benefits – extra stamina, less damage etc – and the entire screen except your fighter goes black and white, with exaggerated sound coming from your fighter and enhanced visuals. This is to try and capture the feeling of fighters being ‘in their flow’ – multiple examples of which have been seen in real-life UFC. And it sort of does work

– it highlights the moment, but it feels extremely ‘fighting game’ and not ‘MMA simulation’. The community seems extremely displeased and the developers have promised drastic changes in this place, which could change the game.

Career Mode is one of the strongest parts of the game. Instead of simply progressing through fights, players are given greater control over their fighter’s development. Training camps, skill progression, recovery, and fight preparation all contribute to long-term success. Decisions made outside the octagon have meaningful consequences, encouraging players to think strategically rather than rushing from one fight to the next. The mode offers a satisfying sense of progression as your created fighter develops from an unknown prospect into a championship contender.

There is a story mode too, seeing you take on the role of an up and coming MMA fighter. Cutscenes play out quite a fun story, but once you get to the UFC it becomes essentially the same as the Career Mode.

Customization options are extensive but sadly they are broadly the same as the last few games – even including the same suite of tattoos and hairstyles. It does allow for a personalised experience however, and you can compete online in the Online Career. This mode sees you taking your created fighter and upgrading their stats and abilities through frequently performing moves. I love this mode and it has been my main go-to in previous games, so I’m glad that it remains in UFC 6 and thankfully, the online gameplay is superb. Matchmaking is generally reliable, and victories feel rewarding. Having access to all of the health bars seems to be making strategic gameplay a bit easier to plan and adjust to mid-match, and I’ve had some incredibly competitive matches. Thankfully, fight stoppages due to damage seem a bit less frequent too.

A nice addition is the UFC museum mode. This has you walking round one of three museums each dedicated to a UFC star, with video walls playing which talk about their past, and classic matches, as well as giving you an option to replay certain ones. This is an amazing addition, and the care taken to showcase the likes of Max Holloway is fantastic – I can see EA adding this feature into other sports games to celebrate stars in the future.

It’s not all glowing though. Minor niggles exist – for some reason, the game has a sort of metagame where you can ‘coach’ players when you’re away from playing, which upgrade them. I don’t know what the point of this is, but the menu system for it is so excruciatingly slow, I’ve avoided it aside from the first few hours of gameplay.  The grapple system will also come under fire I suspect from returning players – personally, I quite enjoy it, but can see that a return to the system from UFC 4 and earlier is favoured by many, so folks may be disappointed that the system is largely unchanged for UFC 6.

Overall, EA Sports UFC 6 is an excellent sports game that successfully captures the intensity, technical skill, and drama of professional mixed martial arts. The improved striking, refined grappling, impressive graphics, engaging Career Mode, and competitive online play combine to create the strongest UFC game released so far. I’m really excited to see what changes come down the line – in past additions there have been many gameplay tweaks, with new fighters and arenas added, as well as the expected changes to flow mode.

Whether you are a long-time fan of the UFC franchise, an avid MMA enthusiast, or someone looking for a challenging and rewarding fighting game, EA Sports UFC 6 is well worth playing.

Reviewed on PS5

Schrödinger’s Call comes from Japanese studio Acrobatic Chirimenjako, and it sets out its stall almost immediately: the moon is about to crash into Earth, and in the 21 nanoseconds before everything ends, Mary becomes humanity’s last confidant. Guided by a cat called Hamlet (let’s face it, more cats should be guiding lost souls through the apocalypse), she answers calls from spirits stuck between life and death, each carrying some unresolved grievance they can’t quite let go of. Your job is to listen. Properly listen.

That opening hour is rough in the best possible way. You’re thrown in with no real idea what you’re doing, fumbling through your first calls and watching people slip away because you didn’t say the right thing, didn’t ask the right question, didn’t notice the detail that mattered. It feels less like a tutorial and more like genuine failure, and that’s exactly the point. By the time you start understanding the rhythm of it, you’ve already felt the cost of getting it wrong, and that makes you want to get it right for everyone who calls after. It’s a clever bit of design dressed up as despair.

The notebook becomes your best friend here, scribbling down names, dates, throwaway comments that turn out to matter three calls later. Conversations overlap and double back on themselves, and there were several points where I genuinely couldn’t tell if I was talking to a spirit or just Mary’s own fractured memory talking back to her. That ambiguity is doing a lot of heavy lifting and it works. If there’s a phrase for what this is, it’s probably a grief-counselling-em-up (it’ll catch on), and I mean that with total sincerity. Every call is somebody’s unfinished business, and the writing trusts you to sit with that rather than rushing you towards a tidy resolution.

The music deserves its own paragraph, frankly. It shifts from unsettling, almost glitchy tones during the more uncomfortable conversations to something genuinely soothing once a soul finds peace, and it does more emotional work than half the dialogue. I’ve had bits of it stuck in my head for days. Do yourself a favour and play this one with headphones on. Through speakers it’s good, through headphones it’s a completely different experience, every glitch and soft piano note suddenly sat right inside my head where it belonged.

It’s not flawless. Quit out at any point and you get a “you will lose unsaved progress” warning with zero indication of how much progress that actually is. Five minutes? Forty? No idea, and that uncertainty sat awkwardly against a game that’s otherwise so careful about how it treats your time and attention. A simple “your game was last saved 3 minutes ago” would’ve sorted it.

But that’s about the only real complaint I’ve got. The pacing dips occasionally when flashbacks repeat themselves, and this is absolutely not a game for anyone wanting mechanics, action or a quick fix. But if you’re willing to slow down and actually listen to what these lost souls have to say, Schrödinger’s Call rewards you with something that’s stuck with me more than most games manage in twenty times the runtime.

It’s not for everyone. It might be exactly what you need.

Reviewed on PC

Awakening as ‘Consciousness’, you have no memory or understanding of the fairly grim world you find yourself in. What begins from this point is your journey around a very large amount of bloody, fleshy hallways and environments as you start to unpick what is going on.

Visually, it’s a standout. It’s striking, from the sheer amount of tiny decals like bones sticking out of walls to protruding ‘bloody’ things and all sorts of bio-horror landscapes. If there is body horror, this is world-horror. I found myself wanting to explore in part just to get out of there, and make it end – but in a good way! It’s uncomfortable, and it’s supposed to be. This is really the point – at its core, Necrophosis is a walking-simulator. There are no weapons or combat systems to wrestle with, and instead, you spend your time solving puzzles and interacting with objects whilst reading dialogue.

This won’t be for everyone, and personally, I needed a little bit more to get me through rather than just ‘get out of the uncomfortable’. The gameplay loop of read, look around and explore, solve puzzle and repeat does become tiresome over time, sadly. But then, it’s perhaps more of an experience than a game, as walking-simulators often are. There’s plenty to look at, that’s for sure, and the sound design is superb. Ambient noises, groans and whipsers create tension, with the use of headphones highly recommended – just check no one else is in the house or if they are, they’re not going to burst in and surprise you.

At about four to five hours in length, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and probably benefits the game really. It may be too shallow for some, but as a budget title that’s done well, if you’re into your horror and want a break from shooty guns action, check it out.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X

But here’s the thing – we know enough now. Two trailers, a pile of confirmed details, and a world that’s shaping up to be nearly twice the size of GTA 5. It’s a steal-everything-punch-everyone-and-also-go-fishing-em-up (it’ll catch on), set across Vice City and the surrounding state of Leonida, following Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos doing crimes together in the sunshine. Lucia is the first playable female lead in a mainline GTA game, which… yes, finally, thank you.

But around all the hype, here’s what I’m actually here for:

1) Watching an NPC film me mid-crime and immediately post it

The trailers are full of people doing exactly this – road rage incidents, someone twerking on a moving car, animal control dragging an alligator out of a swimming pool while a man films it on his phone. Rockstar has built what looks like a functioning in-game social media ecosystem that reacts to what you do in the world. The idea of being six stars deep into a chase while somewhere behind me a bloke in a hawaiian shirt uploads the whole thing with a caption is, genuinely, everything.

2) Fishing in the Everglades until something in the Everglades objects

Hunting and fishing both return from Red Dead Redemption 2, and the Grassrivers – Rockstar’s take on the Everglades – is confirmed on the map, with alligators moving through it and sharks under the ocean. I’m going in with a rod. This will not end well.

3) Attempting to hide a gun in a crowd and making it considerably worse

NPCs react if you walk around with a weapon out, and Jason or Lucia will apparently try to conceal it automatically in busy areas. I have questions about exactly how many weapons need to be visible before a Vice City beach fully unravels, and I intend to find out.

4) Playing pool while outside everything goes wrong

Pool, boxing, basketball, tennis, mini golf, gym – all confirmed. I just want twenty minutes of quiet bar games while Leonida does whatever it wants through the window.

5) Becoming the part of the incident nobody can explain

At some point this game is going to generate a completely spontaneous world event, something weird and specific and entirely its own fault, and I want to find it already mid-chaos, walk in, and become the part nobody can explain. Not start it. Just arrive. “Florida Man Interferes With Ongoing Situation For Unclear Reasons.” That’s not satire, that’s a Tuesday. Rockstar built a whole state for this energy and I plan to be its most dedicated resident.

November 19th. Don’t move it again.

GTA 6 releases November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. No PC release date announced.

Gambonanza comes from solo developer Blukulélé, published by Sidekick Publishing and Stray Fawn Studio, and the elevator pitch is essentially: what if Balatro, but chess? You start each run rolling for three pieces on a slot machine, place them on a tiny board, and then go about capturing every single one of your opponent’s pieces. Not just the king. All of them. It’s a small but crucial twist that changes the entire texture of how you think about the board, and it works a treat.

In between matches sits the shop, where you spend your winnings on more pieces, upgraded tiles, and most importantly, Gambits. There are over 150 of these, each one bending a rule in some daft or devastating direction. Some force enemies to skip turns. Some supercharge specific pieces. Some make pawns promote the moment they get near a king. The combinations you stumble into are what make each run feel distinct, and stumble is the right word; half the fun is discovering something accidentally brilliant. It’s a proper it’s-chess-but-not-chess-em-up (it’ll catch on).

Every five matches you get a boss fight, and Blukulélé has had a lot of fun here. The bosses are exaggerated chess grandmaster parodies, the kind of thing you’d find scrawled in a margin, and they hit hard. The board itself is an enemy too. Stall for too long between captures and tiles start crumbling beneath your pieces, which is an elegant way of punishing passive play and keeping things snappy.

The AI can be a bit inconsistent, mind. There are moments where an opponent plays a sharp, punishing move that makes you sit back in your chair, and others where they do something so inexplicably bad you wonder if they’ve forgotten what game they’re in. It can occasionally make a late run feel like it’s been decided more by fortune than skill, and that’s a touch frustrating when you’ve carefully assembled something wonderful.

But here’s the thing: it barely matters. Gambonanza is the kind of game where you lose a run, immediately think “right, this time I’m going knights only,” and you’re back in the slot machine screen before you’ve even registered starting a new one. The loop is tight, the matches are short enough that nothing overstays its welcome, and the sheer variety of Gambits means you’re always chasing the next ridiculous synergy.

You don’t need to know chess, either. The UI tells you where any piece can move, friend or foe, which makes it genuinely accessible without dumbing anything down. People who do know their chess theory will find extra texture in it. People who don’t will be fine. It’s smart design.

Gambonanza is a proper little gem. Addictive, inventive, and very hard to put down.

Reviewed on PC

Miss your braking point by half a second and you’re either in the gravel, or being launched into the sky. This feeling of living (or riding) on the edge has become something of a synonymous feeling with the MotoGP games and in MotoGP 26, realism (and therefore the punishing lows and highs) is more prevalent than ever.

What is then the most authentic and demanding MotoGP game might also be the most rewarding, as well as the most accessible. For every nuance that’s available there letting you feel the delicate balance between skill, power and speed, there’s an assist to support you so you can race with the best and not feel out of place – or at least you need to commit every waking moment towards mastering the game.

One of the key changes in 26 versus previous version is the introduction of a revised physics system. Heavily focused on rider movement and weight transfer, you can no longer just brake into a corner and throw it in whilst leaning. It’s less forgiving with throttle control being extremely important, as well as having to master trail braking (braking hard, then easing off to get more control of the bike into a turn). The control this gives you as a player is fantastic, but it leaves you extremely open to errors and mistakes.

Despite the various accessibility benefits, it can still feel like an extremely difficult game. Rewinding helps (push a button to dial gameplay back a few seconds then try again) but even on ‘Arcade’ mode, it can be too hard for some I feel.

Visually, MotoGP 26 is slick without being revolutionary. The bikes look superb, rider animations are smoother, and the broadcast-style presentation still does a great job of making races feel like a Sunday afternoon on the TV. Rain races in particular look excellent, with reflections and spray adding genuine tension to close battles. Sadly, I did notice some stuttering despite the game being mostly silky smooth, but it openly seems to happen in a few places (such as the big hairpin on Mugello) but the game has had frequent patches in the last few weeks so hopefully this can be improved.

Few racing games however capture speed quite like this. Flying down Mugello’s straight at over 220mph then hammering the brakes into turn one is pure adrenaline every time. Clean laps feel almost like poetry, and this delicate balance persists through the entire experience in MotoGP 26.

Few racing games capture speed quite like this. Flying down Mugello’s straight at over 220mph while desperately trying not to outbrake yourself into Turn 1 creates genuine adrenaline. Clean laps feel earned in a way most racers can’t replicate. The sensation of balancing aggression with survival is where MotoGP 26 absolutely shines.

Career mode has been improved since the last iteration as well. Rider ratings are apparently dynamic now, although not sure I really got this but the inclusion of the paddock atmosphere across visual backdrops and racing debriefing is welcome. However the light team management aspect carries over from previous entries and is broadly very similar to previous years. I can’t really decide what I want from a career mode in racing games, as story versions feel ‘must-win’ but a classic ‘race after race’ can feel a bit dull. I guess it’s open for someone to innovate here. Still, it’s functional.

Which is more than can be said for online multiplayer. There is a lot of crashing, not just from other players but in the game application sending me back to the dashboard. This has reduced with recent patches, but still there. I’ve also had a number of races be stopped and restarted due to red flags – which is a cool feature but I’ve seen more than few never get going as there were too many red flags.

As you’d expect, every official rider, team and circuit from the 2026 season is here, as well as some motard and flat track racing which, honestly, add a little but not a whole lot. For hardcore fans this feels like the definitive edition of MotoGP to date, and the new handling model probably does enough to justify the upgrade even if the core gameplay loop is similar to previous outings. A few more patches should iron out the bugs and then this is a serious winner. Today though, it’s probably just clinching a podium.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X

This is a proper origin story, following a 26-year-old James Bond (voiced and likened by Patrick Gibson, of Dexter: Original Sin fame) as he claws his way from naval air crewman through to earning his 00 status. It’s an entirely original narrative, developed in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios, and crucially, Bond’s appearance isn’t lifted from any previous film actor — the first time that’s happened since Agent Under Fire back in 2001. The supporting cast is rather tasty too: Lennie James as Bond’s reluctant mentor Greenway, Priyanga Burford as M, and Lenny Kravitz as the gloriously named villain Bawma, who the official materials cheerfully describe as a “Pirate King.” Sure. Fine. Absolutely.

IO Interactive’s Hitman DNA is all over the gameplay, which is very much a good thing. You’ll approach missions as a classic sneak-past-everyone-using-a-dart-phone-em-up (it’ll catch on), but you can go loud whenever the mood takes you. Bond can bluff his way past guards in a way Agent 47 never really could, and the levels are apparently designed to show off opportunities naturally rather than having you squint at a minimap. There’s hand-to-hand combat, car chases, gadgets and explosive set-pieces too. It looks, frankly, like the Bond game we’ve been pestering the universe for.

So in brief, here’s what we can’t wait to do:

• Bluff our way past an entire room of armed guards with nothing but a dubious cover story and a straight face
• Find out exactly what made Lenny Kravitz suitable casting for an arms-dealing Pirate King (and not question it further)
• Tear through the countryside in a DB5 on the wrong side of a high-speed chase
• Knock out a guard with the Dart Phone and feel unbearably smug about it
• Find out whether young Bond is actually likeable before he becomes… well, Bond

Can’t wait.

007 First Light releases May 27, 2026, on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Nintendo Switch 2 version to follow later in the summer.

It still does really, of course things have moved on. And yet, when I’ve played those newer games in full 3D and aside from being able to ‘ride’ the rides, it’s missing something. Can’t beat the classics I guess.

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic combines both the first Rollercoaster Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 together. By and large, they are as per the original, adjusted slightly to be able to fill your TV screen.

The core loop – build a theme park on a big plot of land, tweak it, put too much salt on the chips so people get thirsty and buy overpriced drinks – is still here, and is brilliant. It’s kind of amazing how well it all still holds up. Guests have individual thoughts and needs, layout matters as to where things go. Pricing is key – the depth of management is astounding.

The depth in terms of things to do is also huge. With two games, and all of the scenarios, things keep changing and require new thoughts of approach and ways to play. And when you’ve done it all, you can still build your own coaster. It’s so detailed, and fantastic to concoct a machine of such visceral pleasure (or destruction of your guests lunches) that you can easily spend hours whiling away just simple designs. Well simple in your mind, anyway…

There are two main obstructions to this. First; the graphics. Ok, well this can be forgiven really. You can’t be too mad about an old game being re-released and the graphics not being ‘good’. It’s ’as was’ despite some HD upscaling, and honestly whilst looking dated, I feel like this is all part of the charm.

The other is the control scheme. For a game that was designed for a mouse and keyboard, moving to a controller was always going to be a slight challenge. It’s not terrible of course, but it’s not as good as it could be. Once you get used to it, you’re fine, but it’s a bit jarring initially although I think it’s probably par for the course for any of these types of games on a console. To be fair, the classic isometric style means you’re a bit more limited than some of the fully 3D games, and therefore the controls aren’t as needlessly complex as some modern interpretations.

Whilst I wish for some slightly larger text, there’s no denying that Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic is the ultimate edition of the franchise for modern systems. It takes me back to that first time I played it, and surely that’s what it’s all about?

Reviewed on PS5