Chaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a part of why we keep coming back for another go. Next time everything will go right. Next time you'll find the right pair of poison-proof loafers, the perfect co-pilot for your spaceship, a stash of stronger, better ropes. Next time.

Here's our list of the 19 best roguelikes on PC you can play in 2024.

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Chaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a part of why we keep coming back for another go. Next time everything will go right. Next time you'll find the right pair of poison-proof loafers, the perfect co-pilot for your spaceship, a stash of stronger, better ropes. Next time.

Here's our list of the 19 best roguelikes on PC you can play in 2024.

Read more

Hello and welcome back to What To Play! We've returned from a little hiatus, which you definitely noticed and have been very sad about, of course. It's finally edging towards spring here in the UK, but don't let that tempt you into going outside, there's video games to be a-playin'!

As ever, this is where we'll round up the best games from the month gone by, and the things we're most excited to play from the month ahead - plus, any other suggestions for what might complement it. Here's What To Play This May 2024.

Availability: Out now on PC, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week: twin-stick shooters, caving, and ink.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

On a whim I did the Daily Challenge in Spelunky the other day. It has been years since this was a regular feature of my life. I had lots of Spelunky nerves, a reminder I hadn't played in a while: the toothy plants made me shiver, and a door in Jungle with spike traps on either side was enough to make me doubt my abilities.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week: twin-stick shooters, caving, and ink.

If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.

On a whim I did the Daily Challenge in Spelunky the other day. It has been years since this was a regular feature of my life. I had lots of Spelunky nerves, a reminder I hadn't played in a while: the toothy plants made me shiver, and a door in Jungle with spike traps on either side was enough to make me doubt my abilities.

Read more

Almost a year after it launched into early access, Inkbound will release its full 1.0 offering this April. The cooperative mixture of tight turn-based combat and roguelike progression from the folks behind Slay the Spire-rivalling deckbuilder Monster Train will mark its full release with a new questline and final boss for its story, as well as a bunch of other additions and improvements.

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