Many Japanese role-playing games boast unprecedented realism thanks to modern development tools that are capable of building dragons scale-by-scale. But not everyone thrives on a strict diet of grit and grime. I, for one, occasionally break away and indulge the urge to jump into bright, busy JRPGs that check off every anime cliche ever devised.

These are the JRPGs that actively make me seek battles because it just feels good to leap a metre off the ground and punch an eagle in the face. These are the JRPGs that make me wonder why the protagonist wears a heavy, half-broken mask that probably screws with his peripheral vision. (Then I tell myself that my dumb anime son can do whatever he wants.) These are among my favourite kinds of JRPGs, and Bandai Namco's Tales of Arise keeps good company with them.

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The Diablo 2: Resurrected beta opened its fiery gates to everyone last month, and by Alice B’s account it was quite the enjoyable nostalgia trip. Some players, however, may have been having a little too much fun – specifically though the use of ultrawide monitors, which Blizzard say will no longer receive full 21:9 aspect ratio support in the remaster.

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EA have dropped new gameplay showing off five of Battlefield 2042's specialists doing things like pulling the trigger, laying down turrets, pulling the trigger, and healing friends with a needle gun. They look good, if very, very predictable.

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Last year, Epic Games revealed Unreal Engine 5 with a pretty Tomb Raider-style tech demo, showing a Lara Croft-like lady travelling through some ancient caves and ruins. At the time, I thought: "Ooh, wouldn't it be great to play through that!" Though sadly, it wasn't an actual game. However, you can become the cool, previously unnamed character in Fortnite now, because they've added a skin of her, named Windwalker Echo. Better than her sitting in limbo in a trailer forever, I suppose.

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Nope, despite appearances, Project Downfall isn't like Doom. This is an early access FPS that's got a lot more in common with Hotline Miami than it does with id's big, brash Doom Slayer. In its short demo, available now on Steam, I popped pills, blasted thugs, and wracked up stylish combos, all to some pounding synth beats. And I have to say, it felt really good.

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This is a PSA to all you fans of city-building sims: Surviving Mars is free to keep on Steam right now, and you have until the end of the day to grab it. To be fair, Surviving Mars is less a "city" builder and more a colony builder, where it's your job to set up a home on the little red planet for humans to populate. It's a good time too, we reckon it's one of the best management games and best building games on PC, so you might as well take this opportunity to add it to your library.

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All right folks, hands up: who's ever been excited about that hip new video game, only to find their PC's so old and decrepit that simply trying to turn the camera risks smothering your monitor screen with remnants of your leftover lunch? It's something we've probably all experienced over the years as PC games get ever more demanding, but for me, that game was Alan Wake, Remedy's spooky third-person shooter from the bygone era of 2010, and I'd do it all again to play the newly-announced Alan Wake Remastered, too. Would you?

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Call Of Duty: Warzone is headed to the Pacific for its next map. It'll launch alongside Call Of Duty: Vanguard, and the first footage of the new locale was shown during tonight's Vanguard multiplayer reveal. You can watch the full video below, which has details of new modes and maps that will be included in this weekend's beta.

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Has any game done more for the representation of bridges than Microsoft Flight Simulator? Every new world update brings with it new, realistically rendered points of interest, and this time it's the turn of the viaducts and suspension bridges of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. World Update 6 is live now, and you can find the trailer below.

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Ubisoft's autumn sale is underway, with substantial discounts on recent games. They're also offering Far Cry 3 for the biggest discount, free. That's a fair price for RPS's game of the year 2012.

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