Hello, and welcome to our new series which picks out interesting things that we'd love someone to make a game about.
This isn't a chance for us to pretend we're game designers, more an opportunity to celebrate the range of subjects games can tackle and the sorts of things that seem filled with glorious gamey promise.
Check out our 'Someone should make a game about' archive for all our pieces so far.
Capcom's unannounced but inevitable Resident Evil 8 will retain the first-person gameplay of predecessor Resident Evil 7, according to a new report on the project from fan site Biohazardcast, via YouTube channel Residence of Evil.
It also tallies with what Eurogamer has heard independently of the game from sources close to publisher Capcom.
Resi 7's first-person viewpoint being kept in Resi 8 is something of a surprise, several years after the former's oddball virtual reality origins. The shift to first-person was a huge departure for the series, and one which Capcom has steered clear of implementing in its recent Resident Evil remakes.
Google has broken its Stadia silence to announce Gylt and Metro Exodus are the free games coming to Stadia Pro in February.
Gylt is a Stadia exclusive (and Stadia's only current exclusive) from Ryme developer Tequila Works. Vikki Blake called it a "genuinely unsettling lite horror" in our Gylt review.
Metro Exodus is 4A Games' excellent post-apocalyptic adventure. Edwin gave it a recommended badge in our Metro Exodus review, calling it "an atmospheric, characterful voyage across a ruined Russia".
Looking for something to occupy you through these cold winter nights? Well, how about 100s of hours of RPG goodness? Better still, what if you had to pay very little for them?
That's exactly what I have for you right here! And while I'm not advocating judging a game's value based on the number of hours of entertainment you get for your money, you've got to admit that there are some spectacular deals on offer.
Let's start with the Nier: Automata Game of the YoRHa Edition for only 13.99. A cult favourite and popular game of the year pick from 2017 (how has it been three years?), it's absolutely something you need to try for yourself.
And so a meandering journey comes to an end. Kentucky Route Zero, "a magical realist adventure game", was funded, modestly, on Kickstarter back in 2012. The first of its five episodes released in early 2013, the second a few months later, the third a year after that, the fourth two years later still. Now, following the almost exponential trend, after a further three-and-a-half years, we get the game's conclusion - alongside a new console edition of the entire series.
If you've been following this game since the start, then, it's been a long road, and perhaps an exasperating one. Not that this wasn't a fitting way to experience Kentucky Route Zero's tale of a band of misfits getting drawn into a truck driver's quixotic quest to deliver his load of antique furniture to an address that seems to get further away with every step. Some made their peace with the open ending of the fourth act being as good a place as any to leave it - and they weren't wrong. But I doubt they will be disappointed in the fifth act that releases this week. Strikingly different in style, it's a gorgeous epilogue that finds resolution while resisting the urge to solve any of the game's many mysteries.
If you've been on this long journey with the game, I envy you. I have played Kentucky Route Zero from start to finish in the space of a week - all five episodes, plus the four interludes that developer Cardboard Computer released for free - and I'm not sure it's the best way to take it in. Essentially a beautifully illustrated and animated text adventure, Kentucky Route Zero is slow, whimsical, interior, elliptical and at times deliberately frustrating. It is as inspired by theatre and installation art as film or video games; it's dense with memory, digression and fragmentary, half-remembered lore. It's not long, but it has too little plot and too much story to be comfortably consumed in one go. Like a meal composed of dozens of dainty side-dishes, it risks leaving you stuffed but unsatisfied. Better to give each portion its space (though three-and-a-half years of space might be overdoing it), to savour the flavours that linger long after you put the game down.
Action role-playing game Torchlight Frontiers launches as Torchlight 3 on Steam this summer, its developer has announced.
This change amounts to Frontiers returning to the premium model of Torchlight 1 and 2 with a new focus on linear progression and the classic act structure.
So, you can play online or offline, with access to all playable content. Torchlight 3 ditches the shared, persistent and dynamically generated world Frontiers was set to offer, as well as the in-game real-money store.
Eddie Marsan was brilliant in the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, playing the conservative magician bringing magic back to 19th century England. He has a fearsome intensity under his mousy appearance. Watch it, you'll like it - or better yet read the book it's based on, it's even better.
I mention Marsan because he's popped up in a video game - he's the star attraction. He's the narrator in Deathtrap Dungeon: The Interactive Video Adventure. He's the guy in a big leather chair who tells you the story. And as this is an adaptation of a Fighting Fantasy, choose your own adventure book, he has everything to do.
He's a great signing! He certainly turned my head. But in motion he's surprisingly underwhelming, careful and measured. It's as if he's sight reading, like he could only be afforded for the day, and, as there was so much text to get through, retakes weren't an option.
Fearsome time-hopping robo-hunter The Terminator is, for reasons, making its way to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint in a new live event later this week.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint - The Terminator Event, for those wishing to refer to it in full, begins this Wednesday, 29th January, and there is, in truth, little else to add at this point.
Everything we know about the event at present can be found in Ubisoft's newly released teaser trailer, which scoots about a moonlit copse, delivers a brief spot of pyrotechnics, and then wraps things up before showing even a glimpse of a Terminator.
It was only last week that Respawn Entertainment unveiled the latest character to be added to Apex Legends' playable roster - pro brawler Jimmie "Forge" McCormick - and now the developer appears to have, um, killed him off before he even got here.
As Respawn initially pitched it, five-time Hyperfighting Federation champion Forge was to be the newest addition to Apex Legends' hero line-up, and was due to arrive as part of the game's fourth season on 4th February.
So all seemed in order when the developer released a new "Stories from the Outlands" trailer earlier today, ostensibly to reveal more about the metal-armed newcomer. But, in a wholly unexpected turn, the video ends up in claret-drenched disaster as our new pal Forge seemingly meets his end at the hands of a very familiar character.
While Hearthstone as we know it is mostly a game spend staring in furrow-browed concentration at a card-strewn digital tabletop, Blizzard, at one point, dabbled with a VR version, enabling players to stand up, stretch their legs, and more.
That's according to Hearthstone's lead effects artist Hadidjah Chamberlain who, in conversation with PowerUp, revealed two Blizzard developers have previously taken a stab at bringing the card battler to VR as part of the company's annual hackathon-like Free Your Mind event.
As Chamberlain recounts, the VR version enabled participants to take a stroll around Hearthstone's cosy tavern and settle down at a table in order to take on fellow players.