Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will debut on Xbox, but the adventure game will also make its way to PlayStation 5. Bethesda confirmed at Gamescom 2024 that the game is set to launch on Dec. 9 for Xbox and PC, followed by a PlayStation 5 release in spring.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle looks like a faithful tribute to the classic movies, while still managing to have its own distinct identity as a game. While the Gamescom trailer shows off lots of dialogue, there’s still a good look at the game’s hand-to-hand combat system, and classic tools like Jones’ whip and revolver.

The Verge reported that Bethesda and Microsoft were considering a PlayStation 5 port of the game in February. The Indiana Jones movies famously inspired the Uncharted franchise, one of the most successful of PlayStation’s original intellectual properties. It seems appropriate to have an Indiana Jones game come to PlayStation to serve as a stand-in for fans who are yearning for a new Uncharted adventure.

This isn’t the first game to make its way from a first-party Xbox developer over to PlayStation 5. Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush all began as Xbox exclusives, but were released on Sony’s console. Doom: The Dark Ages, another upcoming Bethesda title, will also be ported to PlayStation 5. Exclusivity on consoles was one of the sticking points in Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard in 2023, with exclusivity over games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and the Call of Duty franchise being a point of contention.

Watching world reveals and announcement trailers at an event like Gamescom 2024 is always interesting; I enjoy seeing what titles are on the horizon that I might enjoy. One of these trailers, however, is stuck in my mind like a bit of steak might get caught in your teeth. I’m immediately obsessed with Masters of Albion’s god hand, which hovers above the inhabitants of a city as both protector and threat.

Masters of Albion is the next game from 22cans, the game studio headed by Peter Molyneux. Molyneux is known for his work on titles like Black & White and the Fable series, and Masters of Albion seems to pull from this familiar territory. The announcement trailer shows one of the most important aspects of Masters of Albion: the god hand, the player’s avatar in the world.

The god hand can do all sorts of things, like pick out the ingredients for a meal, move building blocks about, or pick villagers up. The poor pawns seem utterly helpless once the hand picks them up; they simply dangle, like a cat who is resigned to receiving affectionate cuddles, until the player puts them down somewhere else. The giant hand can also reach out and take control of one of the village’s heroes, turning him into essentially a vessel to be puppeted by a divine force.

This isn’t unprecedented territory for a Molyneux-led game; the developer is known for similar franchises where the player has god-like control, including Black & White and Populous. But the hand in Masters of Albion benefits from modern visuals. While the game’s graphics are relatively simple and stylized, they’re just realistic enough to put the hand in an unsettling uncanny valley. Being able to inflict evil acts upon the villagers is just more unsettling when you’re watching that big paw hovering overhead, the tendons moving as the fingers flex and roll.

I can see the appeal of Masters of Albion, as someone who enjoys other colony simulators. I just find the big hand to be a little unnerving; it has a real sense of weight and meatiness. There is no release date yet, but Masters of Albion can be wishlisted on Steam.

The Anti-Tank Mines Stratagem is finally in sight

In Helldivers 2, the player base eagerly awaits Major Orders, military commands from Super Earth. The entire community then bands together to complete these goals. Since February, the leadership of Super Earth has asked us to do lots of wild things, like open up a black hole or storm Automaton space to cleanse the galaxy of murder robots. But one recent Major Order is quite unusual, as it actively discourages murder.

Developer Arrowhead Game Studios are dangling the Anti-Tank Mine upgrade in front of players, a Strategem that has evaded Helldivers again and again. The only catch? Players have to not hit a certain kill count.

Major Orders can award new toys called Stratagems, which are tactical tools such as weapons, backpacks, resupplies, or orbital bombardments for use in-game. But so far Anti-Tank Mines have remained elusive.

In point of fact, this is player’s fourth shot at unlocking Anti-Tank Mines. The first Major Order that offered them as a potential reward yielded Airburst Rocket Launchers instead, which players chose en masse due to its strength against pernicious Automaton ships. A second Major Order asked players to turn a certain amount of Automatons into scrap to earn the mines; the community failed that Order.

Next, players were asked to choose between the Anti-Tank Mines and a hospital full of very sick children in the appropriately named Operation Trolley Problem. The Helldivers community showed its mettle by choosing to save the children. This was incredibly wholesome, but it did mean they had to go without those powerful explosive delights.

Image: Arrowhead Game Studios/PlayStation PC LLC

Enter the newest Major Order, Operation Vengeful Cleansing. High Command has ordered an Efficacy Review. To whit, if players can kill a certain number of enemies as a collective, then clearly we’re doing just fine and don’t need those mines. If we can’t kill those enemies, then Super Earth will finally distribute those mines to Helldivers in the virtual field. It’s a fairly high target to hit — over 1.5 billion enemies — and players are only around halfway through with just under a day to go. So, as long as everything goes according to plan, we will finally get those mines.

The mines that currently exist in the game are not an incredibly popular class of Stratagem. They’re mostly unreliable for taking out big hordes of enemies — unless you can set the ambush up just right — yet very reliable for taking out your allies in bursts of friendly fire. Call it mismanaged Democracy, if you will. This is likely why players have taken other choices when offered.

But Anti-Tank Mines, it seems, aren’t nearly as deadly for individual Helldivers as the current in-game offering. Rather than putting holes in soldiers, they’re designed for much bigger targets and won’t trigger when infantry units move over them. We know the Escalation of Freedom update, which is currently set to release on August 6, will include both a new Rocket Tank enemy and a new Spore Charger that cloaks itself with fog. Some new, high-test mines just might be just the thing to counter these new enemies, so I for one will thank Super Earth High Command for their generosity should they appear.

The new Freedom’s Flame Warbond is also set to release on August 8, which will include fire resistance armor and new flamethrowers. Warbonds include new weapons, cosmetics, and armor sets for players to unlock with Medals earned in combat. We’ll have to see what other missions Super Earth tasks us with after we pass the goal of an insufficient amount of bot and bug murders.

The Anti-Tank Mines Stratagem is finally in sight

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Awkward moments, bad dates, and more nuanced relationships

The Sims 4’s new expansion pack Lovestruck has piqued my interest, and I’ve started a new run in the life simulator game. I thought that the added polyamory options would appear later into a run, after I had settled in and found a sweetheart of my own, but to my surprise the dynamic of the game had immediately changed. If you have other expansion packs installed, like the supernatural or fame-related updates, the events and interactions from these packs can make dating even more complex. My new sim, Elise, moved into a crappy apartment in the big city and immediately became embroiled in non-stop drama.

I started with the usual tasks: decorating Elise’s new apartment as well as getting her a job as a barista and having her make a few friends. Immediately, the next-door neighbors, a married couple, dropped by. Elise had a great time speaking with them, but I became alarmed when the mood immediately became flirty. This man and his pregnant wife weren’t just welcoming Elise to the building; they wanted her to know they had seen her moving in and really liked her vibes.

Luckily, other neighbors came by, and Elise ended up chatting with a lovely young man named Raj. The mood turned a little flirtatious, and I quickly forgot about Elise’s salacious, married admirers.

Image: Maxis/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Just when I thought things were coming up Milhouse, Raj’s mother called Elise and asked if she could crash at Elise’s place in case of an emergency. Sure, Elise said, always eager to be a helpful host. To my horror, she arrived with Raj. The guy Elise had flirted with at a housewarming party was now her roommate, along with his mom. The two of them lived in the same building, just a floor away! What could have possibly befallen them that made Elise’s one-bedroom apartment an ideal place to crash?

In retrospect, I can only assume this was an extreme courting measure. Perhaps Raj is an adherent to the DENNIS system, or maybe he decided the best way to sell himself as a romantic partner was to be in Elise’s personal space as often as possible. Perhaps it would have worked better if Raj wasn’t such a slob, whereas Elise is hardwired to be neat. Before long, Elise’s pristine but eclectic apartment was a total pigsty.

The household dynamic was rough. Elise slept on the couch, while Raj and his mom shared the only bedroom. Raj’s mom was also fascinated with Elise’s DJ equipment, turning the stereo and booth on at all hours. Elise missed her first day of work as a barista because she was so sleepy. She woke up late, enraged, and then began to fistfight Raj’s mom in the living room.

Lovestruck has introduced lots of romantic options, even when my character was trapped in a Cinderella-esque situation where she cleaned after an ungrateful mother-son duo. After missing work, Elise’s friend invited her to the Romance Festival downtown. Nice! Elise ended up painting a lovely portrait, eating some expensive food, singing karaoke, and meeting a handsome young DJ called Jacques Le Chien.

Just when Elise was getting into a groove and flirting with Jacques, another Sim turned into a feral werewolf and charged the dancefloor. Another romantic moment, foiled by circumstances outside my control! Frustrated, Elise arrived home, immediately fist-fought Raj’s mom again, and then booted them both out.

I thought that was the end of it, until a couple of days later. Elise started cooking a little meal, only for Raj to show up at her door and ask if he could get in on that dinner. I reluctantly let him in, and to my surprise, Elise was still amenable to his romantic advances. I like to use the ant farm approach to playing The Sims 4; I make the broad decisions, but I let the Sim act as they will in the moment. Personally, I wouldn’t want to cuddle on the couch and kiss a guy who had, together with his mother, moved in and conquered my apartment, but I guess Elise is more forgiving.

Image: Maxis/Electronic Arts via Polygon

After a romantic evening with Elise’s new sweetheart, I started to feel like things were looking up. But then Raj called Elise the next evening and confessed that he had a crush on another Sim, and asked for advice on their next date. Another cruel barrier between Elise and happiness!

Both Lovestruck and the base game update that accompanied it make romance and dating feel more nuanced. Sims have turn-ons and turn-offs, as well as jealousy triggers and personal boundaries. Jacques Le Chien was super happy to flirt at a music festival, but in broad daylight, in front of his friends, he turned Elise down. Before, romance could be a little awkward — you’d find a target, establish some basic chemistry, and then flirt, flirt, flirt, flirt, confess attraction, first kiss, embrace, flirt, flirt, flirt your way into a partnership. Now, everything’s much trickier.

So far, I’m really enjoying the nuance this gives to the early game of a new The Sims 4 run. I intend to keep pursuing Elise’s professional success and personal happiness — I just hope I can find Elise a more compatible partner than the slobbish, mama’s boy, unmotivated Raj, since his terrible mother continues to hover outside Elise’s apartment and shout abuse at her every time they interact.

Vessel of Hatred pre-orders include more pet options

The setting of Diablo 4 is a particularly grim one; as far as I can tell from my adventures through Sanctuary, everyone is eating boiled beets and waiting to be skinned alive by demons. There’s one thing that Blizzard is adding to the game that’s downright adorable: pets.

There are other benefits to pre-ordering, like a new mount, armor sets for each class, cosmetic wings, and so on — but forget all that, we’re here for the pets. The pets are actually downright adorable. You might expect animals in the world of Sanctuary to have blood-soaked jaws or vicious faces, but instead they look like adorable babies. They’re just fierce enough that you don’t have to worry about them, but otherwise quite cuddly.

Pets will faithfully follow the player around, and they have a special utility in that they’ll pick up gold and items like herbs, ores, and crafting materials for you. It’s nice to know that instead of having to run around everywhere, one of these pets will simply do it for you. Players who log in will receive an in-game request that unlocks pets, and upon completion, you can hang out with Asheara the canine.

There are more pets that can be unlocked with a pre-purchase of Vessel of Hatred, the first expansion for Diablo 4. Players can pick between Alkor the Snow Leopard, Natalya the Tiger, and Hlrati the Canine. For those who don’t want to pick between the three, the Ultimate Edition pre-order will grant all three pets.

Keep the good vibes going

“Cozy games” are a huge phenomenon right now, because at the end of the day, who doesn’t like being cozy? While some games focus on visceral combat or thrilling narratives, cozy games often focus on creating a comfortable or fulfilling place for players to hang out. Instead of swinging a sword or slaying foes, players can focus on creating the perfect flower bed, or befriending the kind golem next door.

Coziness is still a subjective experience, and the finer differences in a game can make or break immersion. Some people love to fish, whereas I find it to be one of the most stressful things a game can include. We’ve rounded up a list of the coziest games around beyond Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (we figured you’ve played those, if you’re here), so you can pick your particular flavor of comfort. If you’re looking to relax, unwinding with any of these games is a fine choice.

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A Little to the Left

Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

A Little to the Left is a puzzle game about organizing household items. It’s inherently satisfying while also being low-stakes, making it a perfect game to play when you’re looking for something cozy. The puzzles are stuff like organizing tools, removing labels from fruits, and stacking books — all while keeping an eye on a mischievous cat doing cat things. —Nicole Carpenter

A Short Hike

Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One

Despite its name being an accurate description of its offering — it clocks in at just a few hours before the credits roll — A Short Hike stands as tall as the mountain you’re summiting in the pantheon of cozy gaming classics. This 2017 charmer from developer Adam Robinson-Yu helped ignite the cozy game craze and, for me at least, really “peaked” (haha) my interest in shorter games as a format. You play as a young bird on summer vacation on an island, tasked with reaching the summit to take an important phone call. Over the course of your short hike, you’ll meet friends, take on quests, and generally just hang out. Rendered in big chunky pixels and viewed from an isometric camera, A Short Hike leaves a dreamlike impression of long summer days, childhood anxieties, and the thrill of autonomy. My only criticism is that, like all core memories, I can’t go back and experience it anew. —Chris Grant

Coral Island

Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

Cozy gaming always includes farming sims, and there are very many out there (most chasing the glory that is Stardew Valley). Coral Island doesn’t seek to reinvent the formula, but expands it. The basic gameplay mechanics are familiar: you farm, you fish, you mine. But you also explore an underwater kingdom full of merfolk and the town events all have a Southeast Asian flair to them, like mooncakes at the Harvest Festival. Also, there are so many gorgeous, datable characters. —Petrana Radulovic

Dorfromantik

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Windows PC

“Dorfromantik” is a German word, expressing a kind of aching nostalgia for the countryside, and Toukana Interactive’s game is like a peaced-out Catan — a game about placing hexagonal tiles with no goal other than to make pretty maps of forests, winding rivers, jolly towns, and patchwork fields. There’s no economy or tech tree to worry about, no population making demands of you; it’s just you, searching for harmony in the growing landscape. But as aimlessly cozy as that sounds, and as tasteful as the pastel shades of its seasonal changes are, Dorfromantik is an exquisite, hard-edged design that blends the best of strategy and puzzle gaming, and finds a perfect balance between mental challenge and mindfulness. —Oli Welsh

Dredge

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

If you like your coziness with a little bit of horror, Dredge is for you. The fishing mechanic is a bit of a rhythm game, and generally satisfying when you reel up the fish you want. You play as a fisherman exploring a mysterious cluster of islands. It seems pretty straightforward during the day, but when night falls, creepier and creepier things begin to happen. There are sea monsters, a strange occultist, and corrupted fish. Each area of the map offers different challenges, like navigating windy mangroves and speeding your boat away from vicious creatures, and while each is super beautiful, there’s also an eerie undertone to it all… But fishing is so relaxing! I understand why grandpas love it so much. —PR

Lil Gator Game

Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

I suppose you could describe Lil Gator Game as Baby’s First Zelda, except I’m the baby and I’ve (exhaustively) played every Zelda game since 1986. But Lil Gator Game hits different, unencumbered by the very complexity that makes a Zelda game so satisfying. In its place is a pared down, speedrun version: a concentrated, potent play cocktail that finds you, the titular little gator, in the woods with friends trying to drum up some adventure… if only to relive your memories of playing with your big sister, home from school and too busy to play. This framing — of nostalgia and play — is a perfect mirror for the emotions you’re likely to run through as you explore the island, smash cardboard “enemies,” and take on quests for your friends. Very few games have captured this feeling of play for me, which makes Lil Gator Game an easy recommendation, and a game I return to more often than you’d think. —CG

Palia

Where to play: Free to play on Nintendo Switch, Windows PC

Palia is a game in which humanity has re-emerged into a mysterious and magical world. Each player is given their own homestead near Kilima Valley, a bustling village full of friendly elves and odd golems. As the player settles into their new home, they pick up a variety of skills: bug catching, hunting, gardening, furniture building, cooking, and foraging. It’s easy to fall into a comfortable rhythm with Palia: exploring the world by day and building up the homestead by night.

One of Palia’s biggest strengths is developer Singularity 6’s regular update schedule. Since launch, the developer has added a new villager, a regular festival, elemental temples, flowers, and more. It feels like the world is evolving in response to all the humans showing up. While I enjoy the game for its cozy vibes, I also get the sense that Singularity 6 is building up to something bigger, and it’s very cool to see these new changes. —Cass Marshall

Sea of Thieves on Safer Seas mode

Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Sea of Thieves is a pirate sandbox defined by the possibility of chaos. Not only do players have to worry about skeletons and sea creatures, but other pirate ships mark a significant threat. The new Safer Seas mode finally offers a much less stressful Sea of Thieves experience. Safer Seas disables PvP, allowing the player to explore at their own pace. While some regions are inherently dangerous, others are perfectly serene.

I have rarely felt more relaxed than when I set out on a sloop, listening to the sounds of the ocean. Sea of Thieves has some of the best sound design I’ve ever heard, and it’s soothing to listen to the waves and the creaking of the ship. You can also play the hurdy gurdy with your pals, go fishing, and explore a bunch of gorgeous environments. If you’ve ever been turned off on Sea of Thieves due to the betrayal and battles on the high seas, the Safer Seas update should be right up your alley. —CM

Spiritfarer

Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

You might have heard of Spiritfarer before, the game that’s self-described as “a cozy management game about dying.” You might be wondering, How could a game about death be cozy? Spiritfarer takes the topic head-on and confronts fear and the unknown as a way to comfort friends whose time it is to move on. You do this by taking care of them, building up a boat in ways that make everyone comfortable. These acts of labor and kindness are so touching; while it may be emotional, it’s still got a lot of warm feelings. —NC

Strange Horticulture

Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Like Dredge, Strange Horticulture offers a spooky edge to the cozy gaming experience. It’s less of an adrenaline rush, though, and instead the sinister feeling slowly builds up as you uncover more and more. You play as the owner of a plant shop, and identify plants in your care, which are often medicinal in property. Customers come to you for help, and you must figure out which plant they need. It all takes place within your shop, with outside excursions detailed in text. It’s a cozy organizing game that escalates gradually into something more macabre. —PR

Summerhouse

Where to play: Mac, Windows PC

Summerhouse has no rules. You simply build, using a bunch of pre-made, pixelated pieces created by developer Friedemann. You can build big houses or little houses, ones in the country or cityside. Every so often, when placing a door or window or roof, you’ll unlock a character — maybe a dog hanging out by a stoop, or a grandma sitting out front of a café. What makes Summerhouse truly charming is that everything is designed to look lived-in, real; these are no McMansions or prefabricated houses. Summerhouse’s sounds are delightful, too. The satisfying snap of clicking a window into place is made all the sweeter with birdsong in the background. —NC

Unpacking

Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Unpacking follows one young woman’s life through all the places she lives and the objects she owns. You unpack various boxes containing all her items and place them around her living spaces, from her childhood bedroom to her first apartment after college. It’s methodical to fit all these objects in places, and also offers a little bit of freedom and creativity in how you place them (for instance, I always always put her stuffed animals on the bed). The brilliance of Unpacking is how it tells a story without any dialogue or seen characters, and only through these objects and where you’re able to place them. —PR

Venba

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Is there anything more cozy than walking into a kitchen where something fragrant is cooking? Venba is a narrative cooking game that takes the nostalgia for food and uses it to tell a story about a family that immigrated from India to Canada in the 1980s. It’s a moving story about family and food that uses cooking mechanics to explore love and loss. —NC

Keep the good vibes going

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Plus, they recently added date nights!

A new developer stream for Star Wars: The Old Republic showed a surprising feature on the way in Game Update 7.5. Players will be able to earn their own farmstead on the planet of Dantooine after completing a quest chain. The cozy feature will come with a Spring Abundance festival, which includes the surprisingly comfortable activities of “seed collecting, dancing, pie-baking, animal rehabilitation, and a galactic egg hunt,” according to a press release.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has been live for 13 years, and there’s a huge archive of content for players to enjoy. Ten months ago, the MMORPG changed hands from its original developer BioWare to Broadsword, the studio behind Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. While The Old Republic has faded from the spotlight, it’s still a very enjoyable game that’s worth revisiting to scratch a Star Wars itch.

Broadsword is taking the game in an intriguing direction. Patch 7.4.1 included Date Night companion missions, which are exactly what you’d expect from the name. These missions become available if the companion has been romanced, and is available in a player’s story — some circumstances can cause your partner of choice to leave the party. Date Night missions will be released in batches, and they grant a unique title and decoration.

Update 7.5 also includes a new main story chapter where players wrangle with a Hutt, and new single-player Ventures that are meant to provide a challenging experience. Players train up their very own Basilisk Prototype B3-S1 (or Bessie) and prepare them for combat. Eventually, Bessie joins your team as a permanent companion. The release date for Update 7.5 will be announced soon.

Take out hordes of zombies almost literally from the comfort of your own home

Infection Free Zone, now in Steam Early Access, has a basic premise: Zombies have taken over the world, driving humanity into underground bunkers to wait the plague out. Eventually, the radio fires up, and a message goes out that the disease is fading. While the surface is still dangerous, it’s time to step up and make an attempt to build a new society.

This isn’t my first rodeo with a game like this, where you have to build a post-apocalyptic society that’s constantly under attack by hordes of zombies. However, this is the first time I’ve done so from the comfort and safety of my own real-world block. Instead of a fictional setting or a careful diorama based on an actual city, Infection Free Zone pulls from map data to create a one-to-one re-creation of cities and towns, using that information to create places for looting and building up a base of operations.

An Infection Free Zone run starts with the player choosing where to begin. The game offers my own region as a starting location, and I even found my own apartment. The map also draws on real-world data to categorize each building. For instance, the walk-in clinic across from my apartment is recognized as a hospital, which made it an ideal starting HQ. My apartment building lacked medical supplies, and its size meant it would be difficult to defend. Meanwhile, I could lock down the clinic easily, and help myself to all that free medicine left behind.

Image: Jutsu Games/Games Operators

The real-world function of each building factors into how it’s interpreted in Infection Free Zone. Learning about the perks — and downsides — of each building in my area would be necessary if I wanted to survive. From there, I started organizing my population into small squads for scavenging the homes in the area for canned food. We found other survivors and started planting food and building infrastructure.

Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out yet how to escape one of two inevitable fates: turtling until I starve to death, or attracting so many infected to my fledgling settlement that we’re overwhelmed. Perhaps it’s because I live in a humble Canadian neighborhood where guns wouldn’t spawn frequently, but I couldn’t find enough firearms to fend off the endless hordes. You can play anywhere in theory, but in practice you’re going to need to pick a major city for more resources.

There are also other little early access issues that are all individually annoying, but build up to make challenges feel insurmountable. Do you want to renovate a building? You’ll need to clear everyone out first. Want to dedicate time to research? The advancement tree has disappointingly few options, so that doesn’t feel very satisfying. I managed to plant lots of crops in the park near my place, but they stopped producing food. By the time I realized they needed fertilizer, my colony was already on the brink of starvation. Many of these problems aren’t broadcast or explained by the game in any way; I figured them out as I went, and usually died for the trouble. These annoyances go beyond the typical faults of zombie games or base builders; they seem much more related to the game’s early access state.

Plus, seemingly everything requires an endless amount of wood to build, upgrade, or advance. At first, I thought that the easiest way to get wood would be to chop down trees, but found it’s actually more productive to break down buildings in order to also get other materials, such as bricks. However, that turns what seems like an impossible barrier into merely a deeply boring and irritating grind. All those extra materials also fill up my storage, requiring lots of micromanagement. It’s all very awkward, and the threat of the roving undead means I didn’t have much time to focus on solving these issues. Add in constant transmissions and radio chatter, and I walked away from Infection Free Zone irritated.

Image: Jutsu Games/Games Operators

Instead of fighting against the zombies and feeling them emerge as a natural threat, I felt like the real enemy was the game itself. A base builder zombie survival game like State of Decay 2 can be difficult and terrifying, but I always felt as though my fate was in my own hands. I’d like more agency as an overseer, and more ways for the game to evolve. Right now, my settlement seems doomed to perish from hunger or get overrun by the inevitable hordes.

There’s a lot to iron out, but this is an early access release, and Infection Free Zone has a lot of potential. The ability to choose a real-world neighborhood or rebuild society literally from the comfort of your own home is very cool. I’m intrigued to see if Jutsu Games can turn things around and clean up all the UI issues, early access bugs, and janky systems. There’s something special about surviving the post-apocalypse in my own neighborhood and using my local knowledge to benefit my community of survivors. Alternatively, it’s neat to start a game at the base of a famous landmark and enjoy a little post-apocalyptic tourism. It’s just a shame the rest of the ride is currently so rough.

Anomaly changes up the game’s rhythm — and I love it

In RimWorld, you play as crash-landed survivors who have to eke out a new existence on a hostile planet, surviving and perhaps thriving between raider attacks, AI uprisings, and swarms of hostile insects. The game has a handful of expansions with new events, and the latest, Anomaly, is the scariest one yet. If you only have the spare scratch to pick up one RimWorld expansion, Anomaly is by far your best choice.

RimWorld is a game about rolling with the punches, which are doled out by the game’s storyteller, who manages the rate at which random events occur. For example, Phoebe Chillax trends toward the Stardew Valley side of the game, allowing the player to build farms, stockpile foods, and focus on the colonists’ day-to-day lives. Cassandra Classic, meanwhile, slowly ramps up the tension with escalating events, only pausing after particularly tough encounters.

A tough colonist might be able to fend off a raider attack only to get a deadly infection. I might stumble upon a temple full of riches only for it to be full of killer robots. A prison warden will get so mad over his girlfriend saying no to a proposal that he punches a turret until it explodes, killing him instantly. It’s this inevitable tragedy that makes RimWorld so compelling.

The game’s other expansions are Ideology, Royalty, and Biotech, each of which adds new ways to build up your colony and alter your colonists. Having to follow a set of religious tenets in Ideology makes for a fascinating social challenge, and I always have fun creating new genetic templates for my colonists in Biotech. But none of the expansions feel like they dramatically change the cadence of the game. I always just build up my base and wait for bots, bugs, or bullies to assault me. Once I win that battle, I put out all the fires (both physical and metaphorical) from the aftermath and build back up — rinse and repeat. It’s certainly fun, but on a long timeline, it makes the game feel a little stale.

Image: Ludeon Studios

Enter Anomaly, an expansion inspired by The Thing, The Cabin in the Woods, and other horror media. New settlements are always filled with ruins and resources, but now there’s a new feature: an ominous monolith. Attuning a colonist to the monolith triggers Anomaly events. This includes new enemies, of course, like stealthy shadow figures and giant slugs that can gobble down my poor settlers in one gulp. If I want to overcome these new challenges, I need to build containment fields, capture these baddies, and then study them for new technologies and rituals.

As anyone who has ever watched a single horror movie knows, this is a situation that’s absolutely ripe to go wrong. But there are tons of new, non-monster-related events that dramatically change the game and force me to play in a whole new way. I control the escalation of events by studying the monolith; the more I poke at it, the bigger a problem it becomes. This means I can’t get too overwhelmed by new events, and I have to take my time studying test subjects and preparing for the next step of escalation.

Take, for instance, the troubling instance of the golden cube. I got a call from a trusted ally asking me to take something off their hands. They’d even give me a whole bunch of extra supplies and military gear as a thank-you. Perhaps I should’ve been suspicious, but I’m a giver at heart, so I agreed. They sent a cargo pod, and inside was a fist-sized golden cube.

At first, everything was great. My villagers liked to look at it, and it put them in a good mood. I had my lead researcher take a gander at it, but she didn’t see anything alarming at first glance. But things quickly got complicated. My settlement’s cleric began to stop doing her regular duties in favor of wandering around and thinking absentmindedly about the cube. Then, she started building little cube statues from dirt and metal scrap. Finally, she stopped working on things altogether. Other colonists started to join her, and before long, you couldn’t walk a few steps in my settlement without tripping over a cube.

Image: Ludeon Studios

Afflicted colonists weren’t doing anything productive because they were too focused on the cube. They couldn’t leave the colony, either, or they’d get too upset about leaving the glorious cube behind. By the time my researcher realized there was a way to break the bond, a good chunk of my population was afflicted. Breaking the bond made them all go berserk, and a civil war broke out in my colony between the cube-afflicted and the cube-immune. I lost my cleric and a couple of other guys, but I made sure the funeral was nice.

You would think that’d be the end of my troubles, but shortly after, another faction offered me a nonspecific gift. This time it was a mysterious obelisk that duplicated my best miner, Paul. I now had two identical miners, both of whom claimed to be the real Paul. This seemed like a great resource, and I started harnessing the power to pump out a multitude of Pauls. But then I learned each clone would inevitably get organ failure. Luckily, RimWorld allows you to harvest organs from your enemies, and raiders still occasionally showed up at my base. So I managed to improvise a solution for Pauls’ various failing organs, and all it required was for me to set up a shady harvesting room.

This wild variety of events in Anomaly means that RimWorld feels much more fresh. The other expansions will affect what happens in your downtime, but the regular flow of combat and conflict feels the same. Anomaly adds so many weird and absurd events, and few of them can be boiled down to “a bunch of bad guys are running at your base.” These new forms of conflict can come from within, as a The Thing-style entity takes over your cultists’ bodies, or they can come from below, as a giant pit full of fleshbeasts opens up in the ground. Either way, I love these new and terrible stories that emerge from Anomaly, and it feels essential for shaking up a well-worn RimWorld experience.

RimWorld Anomaly was released on April 11 on Windows PC. The expansion was reviewed on Windows PC on a Steam Deck using a version bought by the writer. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.

Rare’s pirate sandbox stands triumphant

After Skull and Bones failed to scratch my pirate itch, I recently returned to an old, familiar friend. Sea of Thieves is sailing into a new year, with a new slate of content planned. Rare has experimented with how to update and enhance the pirate sandbox game since its launch in 2018. The game has also left the Microsoft ecosystem and will be available to PlayStation players in April — which, of course, means there are a lot of new pirates on the high seas for the first time. That’s why now might be the best time to get into Sea of Thieves, even if you’ve never played it before.

Over the last five years, Rare has dabbled with various kinds of updates, including narrative content, time-limited campaigns, and Fortnite-like crossovers with other pirate franchises, like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Curse of Monkey Island. But over 2024, after reducing the barrier to entry for new players, Rare wants to focus on emergent and organic encounters.

“There are a lot of people out there that, I think, are intrigued by Sea of Thieves,” says Mike Chapman, creative director on Sea of Thieves, in a call to Polygon. “They hear the stories of the gameplay from that shared world and unique occurrences, but the one thing holding them back is they don’t have a crew to sail with.”

“The more players you’ve got from different places, the more variety of stories and encounters you’re going to have,” says Joe Neate, executive producer on Sea of Thieves, adds.

Expanding the reach of the game is a good cure for the new player problem — and the recent addition of the Safer Seas mode means that the harsh learning curve is sanded down. It removes the threat of other pirates, allowing someone to pick up the ins and outs of the game without being barraged by a sudden hail of cannonballs.

There’s a delicate balancing act between making Sea of Thieves entirely safe so that players can enjoy the narrative content added to the game, while also retaining the DayZ-like feeling of seeing another player and not knowing whether they’re friend or foe. Safer Seas is a great option for new players or parents with kids who don’t want to deal with the risk of random strangers, and Rare intends to expand on that avenue of play.

“One of the things we’re doing leading up to the PlayStation 5 release is bringing in something called Solo Seas,” says Neate. Solo Seas is currently slated to launch on March 14. “It’s still online because you’re connecting to servers, but you don’t need a multiplayer subscription to experience that. It’s another avenue to experience the game, potentially fall in love with it, and then graduate to Safer Seas or the shared world.”

While Safer and Solo Seas offer appealing options for conflict-averse players, Rare says the majority of playtime is still being spent in the shared world. Over 2024, it intends to give players more tools to interact with each other and the world. Many online games focus on expanding the game world, introducing new areas and territories to explore. For example, Rare added the Devil’s Roar, a deadly stretch of sea spotted with active volcanoes, in 2018. But otherwise, the team has been committed to overhauling the core map slowly. Outposts have fallen and been rebuilt, new dangers have emerged beneath the seas, and the world is significantly more dense with stories, objectives, and encounters.

Rare has also changed the game’s pacing, which used to require a few hours of commitment for a truly satisfying experience. I remember running around outposts and gathering up supplies, loading them on the ship, and then setting out for four to six hours with pals. There was a lot of sailing between objectives, managing the ship’s inventory, and scheduling treasure drops at outposts. While it was definitely fun, it also required careful scheduling and enough stamina to sit and stare at a screen that long.

Now, voyage time has been significantly cut down, going from around 45 minutes to 10 minutes. “People can come into Sea of Thieves, understand more about what they need to do to progress, but also meaningfully feel like they’ve accomplished something within 10 minutes,” says Chapman. “I mean, emergent occurrences could come their way, and they could choose to opt into that, but the fact that you’re not thinking of Sea of Thieves as this multi-hour play experience every time you play really opens up the game to new players in a way we haven’t with our previous updates.”

When I first started Sea of Thieves, I jumped right onto my ship, sailed to Snake Island, and died to snakes. Now, a new player gets some more tutorials to lead them through the first few hours. It’s a big change, and one that makes the game less difficult to recommend to friends so they can encounter the weird and wild sandbox encounters that I adore.

“This year is all about paying back to that sandbox,” says Neate. “I’d call it a classic Sea of Thieves year in terms of new tools for people that interact with all the different motivations and play styles. One of the words we’ve been using quite a lot is ‘mischief.’” Neate teased an upcoming item called the Horn of Fair Winds. What it actually does is a mystery, but since winds are so critical to chasing — or escaping — from another ship, it seems like it’ll be perfect for enabling hijinx. Rare’s constant refining and reiterations of its core content are a big part of why I keep returning to the game, and I’m excited to see how the seas change over 2024.

The collection looks menacing

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What if League was way more like Stardew Valley?

League of Legends is a competitive game that demands concentration, focus, and knowledge of both the champion and the map. By contrast, Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story is a cheerful crafting RPG that’s equal parts whimsical and satisfying. Bandle Tale stars a Yordle, a furry little fae-style creature who lives in the realm of Bandle City. A party goes haywire, and the portal network connecting the islands of Bandle City falls apart. Luckily, the protagonist has just completed a hundred-year apprenticeship that lends them the ability to magically knit the portals back together — with a little training, elbow grease, and can-do thinking.

Bandle Tale is a heftier game than its fellows in the Riot Forge catalog, the publishing arm for the League of Legends Story games we’ve gotten so far — The Mageseeker, Ruined King, Song of Nunu, and Convergence — as it takes at least 40 hours to complete. It’s also a game that is far more focused on the journey than the destination. The player creates their custom Yordle, attends the fateful party, and sets out to save their home through the power of crafting.

You have a few tools to help you on your way: a handy backpack that when placed down expands into a full home, a talking sock, and a magical book. Every task in Bandle Tale comes down to crafting, completing quests, earning badges, and unlocking new crafting recipes. Stories often unfold in the style of the old lady who swallowed a fly; I set out to complete one seemingly inconsequential task, like claiming my backpack home, only to be obstructed by an unexpected problem — in this case, a nest of snailcats who refused to move unless I found them a new home. I couldn’t move them, as everyone knows that would be 800 years of bad luck. So I had to scout out a new place for the snailcats to settle, and on the way, I encountered a couple of crabs who were having a marital dispute. You know, just normal Yordle things.

Image: Lazy Bear Games/Riot Forge

This whimsical, weird feel carries over through the entire game, and it best manifests in the environments. Bandle City feels comfortable and cozy, but it’s not particularly normal. In Yarnville, the streets are made of wide-knitted scarves that wind and bend around every corner. Other islands have giant hourglasses embedded into the terrain, or Escher-esque geometry that doesn’t make sense to the naked eye. Some islands are soft and pastel, while others are vibrant with coral coloring, but they’re all a little strange.

It’s appropriate, as this is the home of the immortal Yordles. Being immortal has done some weird things to the Yordle psyche — see the villainous Veigar, who constantly cackles about his evil plans, as an example of how that can manifest — but many of the neighbors I’ve met along the way have been oddly mundane. It’s a fun contrast; a nice old lady down the road taught me how to grow beets and gave me compliments… It just so happened that she was complimenting me on my new magical yarn leg, which generated a rainbow trail whenever I sprinted.

In order to rank up skills and unlock new recipes, I’ve had to go out and about in the world. Sometimes that means I’ve had to go solve quests, repairing bridges and forging new pathways through Bandle City. Other times, I’ve had to build up the home fort to host an absolutely banging dance party with plenty of refreshments for my guests. As I complete tasks, I fill up emotion orbs that are visible in the top left of my screen. Once they’re filled, I sleep, and that energy converts into skill points that I can spend in crafting talent trees. In order to unlock the trees, I need to earn badges in that profession.

Image: Lazy Bear Games/Riot Forge

This all creates a loop that’s very similar to a game like Stardew Valley, where I am focused on both maintaining my own home and adventuring out in the world to assist people around me. Bandle Tale is less focused on farming and making money and more on exploration, helping characters in the world solve their issues, and stashing goods to make sure you’re only throwing the freshest and most popular parties. It’s not exactly high-octane action, but that’s the point.

While the pacing is a bit slow, it helps that a lot of the writing is cute and amusing. Even though we’re dealing with a portal network collapse, the Yordles are by and large pretty calm about things. At one point early on, at the disastrous party, a couple of Yordles who think they’re stranded on this small island decide to start planning their new professions on this lonely island, and one of them declares that they’ll be a journalist. It’s a funny, charming moment, and Bandle Tale is full of these silly little interactions that keep a smile on my face.

Bandle Tale is one of the biggest departures in the League of Legends franchise yet, but it’s a hugely welcome respite from the more serious games in my backlog. It does take a bit of a time investment — somewhere between 40 and 60 hours — but it’s enjoyable to amble from objective to objective, taking breaks to host epic parties. It’s a shame that with the end of Riot Forge, we won’t be seeing these experimental titles anymore. While League can be an intimidating prospect, I found myself wholly welcomed by the comfy, silly nature of Bandle Tale.

Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story releases Feb. 19 on PC and Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code on PC provided by Riot Forge. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.

Dwarves and deep, dark places — what could go wrong?

I have spent the last few days delving into the darkness of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, and have only occasionally taken a break to come up for air. This is yet another take on the bullet-hell survival formula established by Vampire Survivors, using the sci-fi setting of the original Deep Rock Galactic. It’s a combination that works as well as chocolate and peanut butter. I’ve spent hours fleeing from bugs and mining valuable ore, and yet every time I step away, I find myself yearning for the mines.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor starts with only one of the four dwarves from the original game available, the Scout. The Scout teaches the player the basics of the game, using his enhanced mobility to flee the bugs while whittling them down with steady automatic arms fire. Each round begins with a drop pod landing deep in the mines, and the dwarf emerges with a starting weapon and a couple of objectives: collect resources from around the map and draw out the elite boss by slaying wave after wave of an unstoppable alien swarm.

The Scout starts with a simple assault rifle, but the longer I played, the more of an arsenal I unlocked. I gained XP from mining and killing bugs; every time I leveled up, I got a small upgrade like movement speed, fire rate on my weapon, or more damage. At certain milestones, I unlocked the option for a new weapon — perhaps a cryo grenade if I’m dealing with swarms, or a high-powered sniper rifle to eliminate tough targets. The weapons automatically fire, but go down while they reload. I needed to keep an eye on my ammo, watch my positioning, and collect all of the goodies on the map without being overwhelmed by monsters.

Image: Funday Games/Ghost Ship Publishing

Occasionally, the Deep Rock Galactic corporation was kind enough to give me a supply drop. I had to find these beacons and clear the area around them, then wait for the drop itself to come down. If I was successful, I got an artifact — something like an ammo clip that gives me a much higher fire rate at the cost of attack speed, or the chance to find gold in any rock I happen to mine. If I had to abandon the supply beacon to save my life, it smarted — and the rest of the run was much tougher as a result.

During my first few rounds, I took the time to find my feet and didn’t worry too much about advancing. This is a game where you will die early and often — and that’s just part of the fun. Every time I died, I returned to the main menu, where I could unlock new permanent upgrades with the resources I earned during my last match. The next time I went down, I was stronger, faster, and wiser. I also eventually earned the ability to play as the other classes: the Gunner, Engineer, and Driller.

While the first few rounds of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor felt a bit samey, the game opened up as I unlocked and played as new classes. Every round, I had some new upgrade to test or a new tool available in the random arsenal. The four classes all play differently as well. While the Scout is a nimble guy who runs and guns, the Gunner is much happier facing down the swarm and allowing his massive minigun to rip through bugs like wet tissue paper; the Engineer drops turrets, creating zones of control; and the Driller is the best miner of the group by far.

Image: Funday Games/Ghost Ship Publishing

Mining was essential, regardless of class. Valuable minerals were wedged in the rock that I needed for upgrades. Secondly, mining allowed me to create new paths that were critical for survival. If I was wedged up against a rock, with every bug in the universe coming at me to munch my bones, I turned and noped out by tunneling through the stone. The trick is that mining can be slow work, especially when trying to get special resources. The best rounds of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor are the ones where I beat the odds by clever use of mining to open up new paths, evading the swarm and feeling like a Big Brain Genius in the process.

I’ve rarely spent time in Deep Rock Galactic itself, simply because it’s not a game on rotation for my friend group. But it’s fun to get to approach that world from another angle, one that is more suited for solo play. There’s an amount of brainless joy to the game — all I have to worry about is pointing my dwarf in the right direction, and he will do the rest. All the while, I get the serotonin boost of leveling up and getting neat new guns. I regret to report that instead of brain, there is Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor was released on Feb. 14 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Ghost Ship Publishing. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.