Tiny Combat Arena is a little simulation with big ambitions, but if you’re looking for something more substantial than a single plane and a single map, it’s probably best to watch it grow from this side of the “add to cart” button for now. Your £15 would be better spent on 30 credits in an After Burner cabinet on the pier. [Early Access Review]

While multiplayer offers a lot of potential for TFC even this early in its early access run, and functions very smoothly in terms of matchmaking and connection, finding an actual opponent is a vanishingly rare event. There are, sadly, very few people on the servers so far, and I’m pretty sure the lion’s share of multiplayer games happening right now are being arranged on Wield’s Discord server. Still, that will hopefully all change if this game gets even half the attention it deserves. On which note, I urge you to grab yourself a pomegranate, sell someone a load of high quality copper, and have a go. [Early Access Review]

If Curious Panda can flesh things out enough on top of the smaller tweaks they already appear to be patching in, and really lean into its unusual details, it could distinguish itself well in an increasingly competitive division. [Early Access Review]

While its tone may be a little uneven, its heart is definitely in the right place. Gibbon: Beyond The Trees deals with a lot of hefty topics in 60 minutes, but it also knows when to let its hair down, too, giving you everything you need to enjoy and celebrate these creatures while they're still with us.

OWW is all about showing your own artistic vision through curation and building architecture. Its approach to the somewhat stuffy art world is playful while also giving a middle finger to those who wish to keep the enjoyment of art to a certain elite. It's an incredible niche game but has the uncanny ability to suck you in with its breezy building and incredibly creative community, even if you can't tell your Monet from your Manet. [Early Access Review]

Ultimately, a fresh theme isn't enough to get me invested in re-living the early access journey of a pawn management game, no matter how many Scottish highlanders muck themselves in front of their horrified children. I enjoy wallowing in failure, sure. Losing is, as always, fun. But I've already played a more complete, and more colourful version of this game to death. [Early Access Review]

If you’re looking for a detective tale to sink your teeth into, you won’t find that here. Instead, I'd suggest one of Frogwares' actual Sherlock Holmes games. But if you're more of a Sherlockian vibes kind of person who just wants to enjoy a jolly good romp, then there's still plenty to admire here. Lord Winklebottom Investigates is a delightfully light snack with a sweet crunch, something that many players will be more than satisfied with. You’ll never feel like you’re solving an actual mystery, but it will certainly chuckle and charm the heck outta you, old boy.

I didn't really mind having to a campaign four times over just to get to the end of it, as the thrill of the draw meant each successive run was just as gripping as the last. It's why I've kept coming back to ORX ever since I first clapped eyes on it earlier in the year, and why I'm confident this roguelike-deckbuilding-tower-defence 'em up has a strong future ahead of it. Whatever luck throws its way, I have a feeling ORX is going to come up trumps every time. [Early Access Review]

Aside from these late-game niggles, Railbound is an absolute charmer. While many of its 150+ puzzles could perhaps be better integrated into its mainline puzzle path, this is still a game where you'll want to explore every nook and cranny to see how it's going to test you next. There's a lot to like in what Afterburn have created here, especially if Dorfromantik's high score tables have left you yearning for a more traditional kind of puzzler in a similarly cosy landscape. With a total journey time of roughly three to four hours, Railbound is one departure you won't want to miss.

Moonbreaker really does seem to capture the tabletop experience in digital form, making for bite-sized turn-based battles that are a lot of fun. It's just hard to recommend in its early access state, not because it's a buggy mess (far from it), but more in the sense of units and leaders and maps; it needs some booster packs of its own, I reckon. But once – and if – it gets a steady stream of stuff, I don't see why it can't evolve into a simple, yet surprisingly complex strategy battler. Fingers crossed eh. [Early Access Review]

Lil Gator Game is a short, simple, and sweet adventure about a kid who just wants to play with their sister. That noble quest sends them on an endearing adventure around a truly beautiful island, and it's packed with a bunch of playful NPCs who are simply out to have fun. Their whimsical, comedic nature sucked me in - similar to the Frog Detective series - and pairing that with the simple-yet-engrossing exploration of this gorgeous island perhaps makes the aforementioned A Short Hike the better comparison. It wasn't long before I found myself swinging from trees, skating down mountains, and hunting for more weird toys and funny characters with which to play and chat. Lil Gator Game is all about finding joy, and pairing that goal with the warm tones, joyful music, and natural backdrop made for a surprisingly grounding experience that's sure to stick with me as a favourite of 2022. [RPS Bestest Bests]

As it stands you’ll need not only a wealth of city building experience, but also - more importantly - a bottomless well of patience in order to fully enjoy this space colony sim.

That's the fundamental problem with Industries of Titan. It's a beautifully animated and scored game with the bones of a great city builder/slower-paced RTS, and the flesh of a management game full of dystopian satire and cheerfully amoral characters, but no tendons. Everything flopping about in a kind of cool but dissatisfying pile. I could complain about UI niggles, the excessive time spent waiting around, and the predictability of every map (discounting the visuals, which make it probably the prettiest strategy game ever). But none of those things undermine it so critically as the persistent feeling that it's far less than the sum of its parts.

And like Landlord Of The Woods, Birth is a short, sweet game that feels incredibly human, even though it features a world that, at first sight, couldn’t be further from our own.

Sadder still is that this version of KSP2 is so foundationally shaky it actively discourages you from attempting to build anything too ambitious or complex, in case the game vaporises your efforts on a whim. There’s no sense of achievement when the odds you’re up against aren’t to do with mastering the complex physics of interplanetary space flight, but the game’s own half-finished code. A Kerbal Space Program that pours cold water on your ambitions hardly feels like a Kerbal Space Program at all...Shoved out of the Early Access airlock before it could put its EVA suit on, Kerbal Space Program 2 is in need of a rescue mission. [Early Access Review]

Outlanders has a low detail, high impact art style, almost cartoony in how some people have big top heavy shoulders, and how older people become grey and bent over. I love seeing my leader strut around, holding a lantern at night as if checking everyone is in bed. I love the little flute trill that plays when you confirm or cancel an action, swinging up or down like a luxe slide whistle. I love that in this game about settlers building a new life for themselves, you can have a smoothie stand.

As you might expect from the makers of Bury Me, My Love, this is a game that cuts deep, and by the time I got to the end of Junon's journey, I really felt like I'd done some soul-searching of my own. Crucially, though, this isn't a game that mires itself in its own misery. It's not a laugh riot by any means, but there's an enduring dynamism and sense of optimism to be found among its emotional wreckage, and the more Junon discovers about herself, the more enthralling her story becomes. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Much as I loved trading in gossip, it’s just another distraction in a game where ultimately I’m here to find the love of my life, tentacled or not. I’ve greatly enjoyed weaving my own tales and following my nose exploring the Eldritch corners of this world, but I was hoping for more romantic endeavors seeing as it labels itself first and foremost as a dating sim. I’ve left the Neath with an anthology of tales, it’s just a shame that none of them included escapades of romance, flirtatious encounters, or straight-up monster f.cking.

It won't be for everyone for exactly that reason. But like its realistic lasers, it is expertly calibrated to hit those of us in its niche directly in the heart. [RPS Bestest Bests]

Viewed from a certain angle, Lakeburg Legacies is a dystopian tale where the lives of the people of this small town are decided by a remote higher intelligence using algorithms and percentages, but one where the higher intelligence gets bored and hits ultra speed quite often until they have enough wood to build a hospital.

But it also feels like an exploration of themes, a pressure cooker for societies to organically adapt into the form seen in the far future of King Of Dragon Pass, where other games would just say "the empire united against evil the end". Although everything is familiar, it feels like it's developing as a series through a wealth of thoughtful, amusing stories and possibilities. There is, in a word, still nothing quite like it. [RPS Bestest Bests]

But like The Rookie, it kind of doesn't matter if you lose the thread a couple of times, because Lord, some scenes escalate out of all proportion either way. Judith's most reliable sidekick is her brother, a stoner crossed with an encyclopaedia, and he of course gets kidapped, Judith's grandad's journal is taken, there are more explosions. In some respects, this is par for the mystery course. But it's things like Judith musing that she needs to show the mysterious bad guy that she's serious, and the correct response being just to get out a pen-knife and threaten him in a room full of people, that really made me giggle. Like, sure, that's one way to do it, Judith. Hauma is a bit frustrating in its main puzzle process (i.e. smashing thoughts together seemingly at random), but boy howdy, like a Roman watching Russell Crowe behead an opponent in the arena, you will be entertained.

I did have one minor gripe when Urbo first launched, in that it was sometimes hard to discern the exact level of particular buildings, but a recent update has fixed this so you can always see exactly what's in play. So really, I have no complaints about this whatsoever. Neat! If I was being nitpicky, I'd still say that Dorf is probably the more nourishing puzzle game for me, what with its quests and discoveries and near-endless map sizes to play about in, but if you're more of a cerebral Threes-type, then Urbo will fit right into your regular puzzle regimen. It really is a lovely little thing, and a very chill way to while away a dark and rainy afternoon.

Technically, you can just go ahead and unlock everything in the settings menu if you'd rather avoid these kinds of frustrations, but for me at least, that rather deflates any impetus to keep playing Subpar Pool in the first place. Any sense of structure and challenge is instantly lost when you don't have anything to work towards anymore, so I'd recommend playing it as intended if you're keen on giving it a shot. There is certainly a lot to like here, but as time's gone on, I find myself less and less keen to come back to it. The pool tables are all a little too similar to feel truly different in longer game sessions, and the challenges themselves come just a little too slowly to make it feel fresh and exciting. The allure of the googly-eyed cue ball is strong, but for me, it pales in comparison to the soul-hooking stare of Holedown's hypnotic worm lad.

Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master scratches at the Dungeon Keeper itch for a short while, but the problem is that it’s a goofy, comic fantasy story hoping to be carried by a management simulator way too barebones to support it. Parody only works if the underlying offer is interesting enough to be worth investing in, and you can’t ironically play something for any serious length of time before feeling like the joke is on you.

Hopefully, with a bit of rebalancing, Small Saga might yet reach the upper echelons of pint-sized RPGs, joining the likes of Jack Move as another lively reimagining of their Final Fantasy inspirations in miniature. As things currently stand, though, Small Saga gets a much more tepid recommendation - though I'd be half-tempted to say the Adam Curtis battle music (and its excellent score more generally) is almost worth the very reasonable price of entry alone. It's certainly a one-off, I'll give it that, so if you can stomach its lack of challenge, you'll probably still have quite a good time with it.

Time will hopefully grant us concrete evidence as to whether Fntastic genuinely tried to make The Day Before into anything like the survival MMO shown off in the reveal trailer (or subsequent devlog that's been preserved here), or whether it was always destined for the garbage bin. Either way, I'm glad you can't buy it now and I hope people get their refunds. What a tiring mess. [Early Access Review]

Those early frustrations gave way to satisfaction at scraping through a close call, and feeling like I'd won a fight through applying the right skills and plans, and making progress because I'd learned to judge my team's capabilities rather than just make a number go up enough. That's a great spot for any RPG to be in, and if you're less interested in complex or hefty narratives than some chunky tactical combat and tinkering with characters as toolboxes, Kingsvein could be a slightly rough gem.