Obviously there should be a city-builder about penguins, so try the demo for this one

The solo developer of the most anticipated city builder on Steam says his girlfriend expected him to get around 7,000 wishlists - but now he's crossed two million.

The Tribe Must Survive, a "tribe-builder" with a survival roguelike twist, is the first management sim of its kind to really pique my curiosity in, well, I can't remember how long it's been, and it's launching into Steam Early Access on February 22. 

I mentioned this in a What Are We Playing? and the podcast last week, but I've been playing a point and click puzzle game called Twilight Oracle, which is out at the end of the month. It's cool! It reminds me a lot of Legends Of Kyrandia, in that it doesn't need to explain why stuff in the world is like it is, it just is. Big talking fish? Sure. Skull floating in space? You betcha.

Given the sheer quantity of games releasing on Steam these days, having a neat little elevator pitch for your game can be vital in helping it stand out. For example, if I get an email saying a game is like "Obra Dinn meets such and such" or "Into The Breach but a deckbuilder", that's like personal catnip to me, and can be a handy indicator of whether I should investigate further - maybe watch a gameplay trailer for it, say, or see if it's got a demo. Case in point: this is exactly how I stumbled upon the upcoming Donkey Kong Country-esque platformer Windswept last week, although instead of an email, I saw it on the growing "Your game is too much like..." thread over on Xwitter - which is definitely worth a browse if you have very niche interests in need of a good scratch.

VVVVVV was part of the initial wave of indie platformers, which means it was released in 2010 and is now a certified classic. To celebrate its 14th birthday, developer Terry Cavanagh has dropped an update which makes it Steam Deck verified and professionally translates it into 21 new languages.

I knew I was in for a stomach-churning time with Divine Frequency's demo after I finally acquired my first weapon. I came up to a fenced hallway in the game's vast industrial underbelly and spied an ominous figure looming way down the hall. The light above it cut out, I turned around, and there it was: a horrible faceless mannequin an eyelash's length away.

Had things gone differently, Frogwares’ The Sinking City would’ve trucked neatly along as one of the many decent but imperfect gaming renditions of Lovecraft’s works. Though this wasn’t meant to be, the developer is now finally in control of the game, with good news for its immediate future.

Final Fantasy 14 has only just revealed the new Pictomancer job, and players are already loving it.

Activision-Blizzard has been the centre of a lot of controversy over these past few years. After a lawsuit went public, detailing «numerous complaints about unlawful harassment, discrimination, and retaliation» and a «frat boy» culture, plus claims from former CEO Bobby Kotick that the whole thing was just an «aggressive labour movement,»  the company finally settled last year.

Microsoft is planning to bring one of its “more acclaimed” first-party games to competing platforms this year, it’s claimed.

InfoWars host Alex Jones now has a game on Steam⁠—the same Alex Jones who fundraised for and attended the January 6 protests that led to the storming of the US Capitol building and who owes $1.5 billion to the families of murdered children over defamation.

The Quinfall team continues to push its closed beta, which is supposed to open on January 30th. The team had confirmed the beta and said there would be no delays, but then quietly changed the date on Steam to “coming soon” amid lots of criticism and skepticism.