Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A land of gnashing gators, angry Karens and spring breakersIt doesn’t get bigger than Rockstar’s sequel to GTA V, the open-world crime adventure which ranks as the second best-selling game ever, shifting more than 200mn copies since its 2013 release. Over a decade later, the follow-up takes the action to modern-day Miami, depicted with characteristic blunt humour as a land of gnashing gators, angry Karens and spring breakers, all seen through a gauzy social media filter. Telling a modern-day “Bonnie and Clyde” story with the series’ first female protagonist, Rockstar has a sterling reputation to uphold, and it knows this one is too big to fail.Globetrotting assassination series reaches feudal JapanThe next instalment in the globetrotting assassination series takes the action to feudal Japan, a historical setting that fans have long awaited. Slowly, the series has been leaving behind its stealth action roots and transforming into an open-world RPG, most fully realised in 2020’s Valhalla. This game looks set to continue the trend. Players will control two protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke, the latter based on a real character from Japanese history. After a three-month delay so developers could give the game some extra love, players should expect it to come out polished and ready for the kill.Will Inzoi take The Sims’ crown?Almost every gaming genre contains several popular titles vying for dominance — except life simulators, where EA’s The Sims has reigned unchallenged for years. But The Sims 4 is showing its age, which makes Korean competitor Inzoi look very interesting indeed. The dollhouse gameplay is as appealingly freeform as ever, but this title boasts gorgeous graphics and plans to allow players to create their own in-game assets, hoping to foster a Sims-like community around the game.What if Benjamin Franklin led the Ancient Egyptians?Sid Meier’s venerable strategy series returns for another round. These globe-spanning strategy games entertain some players for thousands of hours with smart mechanics that constantly present them with interesting choices. Thirty years into the franchise, they’re not planning to reinvent the wheel, but a new gameplay feature divides history into three ages — Antiquity, Exploration and Modern — which will shake up proceedings. You can also now use any historical leader for any civilisation, meaning you might finally settle once and for all what would have happened if it was Benjamin Franklin who had led the Ancient Egyptians.Fantasy landscape teems with huge monstersCapcom’s Monster Hunter series has gone from being a geeky action game on the periphery to a global megahit, largely thanks to its last instalment, World. This follow-up looks to capitalise on that newfound success, offering a series of fantasy landscapes teeming with huge monsters and adding new mechanics, including cooking, rideable mounts and weather conditions that change while you’re out on the hunt.Magical realism meets Southern gothicIn a world of familiar settings and rote storylines, South of Midnight stands out. This third-person action adventure game follows the story of Hazel, who lives in a fantasy version of the US South where magical realism meets Southern gothic. She and her companion Catfish use magic powers to take on a series of powerful monsters inhabiting the swamplands in a quest for Hazel’s mother. The game boasts a gorgeous art style, a striking sense of place and a promise to tell a story rooted in the Southern states’ Black history, so it truly looks like something different.Gorgeous-looking, katana-armed quest for revengeIf Ghost of Tsushima was not the best open-world game of all time, it was certainly the most beautiful, telling a gorgeous samurai fable steeped in the visual language of Kurosawa, where the katana gleams in the moonlight under gently falling autumn leaves. Set more than 300 years after the original game, the follow-up casts you as new female protagonist Atsu, who is, perhaps unsurprisingly, on a quest for revenge. Atsu has new abilities, such as dual-wielding her katanas, while a fresh mountain setting and the increased firepower of the PS5 is sure to inspire new levels of onscreen splendour.Léa Seydoux and Elle Fanning star in gaming’s answer to David LynchAuteur developer Hideo Kojima might be gaming’s answer to David Lynch: a beloved, outspoken eccentric with a cosmic bent who never does what you expect. After years expanding his stealth opus Metal Gear Solid, the first Death Stranding was a huge curveball, a mystifying work of sci-fi genius where you play a delivery man trudging across a post-apocalyptic America. The sequel expands the map to a new continent, with more packages to deliver, bridges to build and a continuation of the high-concept plot. Kojima loves working with big-name actors, and the sequel will see the return of Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux and Troy Baker, plus new cast members Elle Fanning and, curiously, Mad Max director George Miller.Inhabit a synthetic body imbued with a real human’s consciousnessThe first Citizen Sleeper came like a bolt from the RPG blue — a new series with fantastic world-building and some of the best writing in gaming, essential for fans of literary-minded titles such as Kentucky Route Zero and Disco Elysium. Here you play a “sleeper”, a synthetic body imbued with a real human’s consciousness, forced to become indentured labour. After running away to a remote spaceship, your body starts to deteriorate, and life becomes a race against time that pushes you to make painful choices. Most likely this sequel will grapple with personal and existential ideas in the tradition of the very best sci-fi.Is this the next Skyrim?Could this be the next Skyrim? Veteran RPG developer Obsidian doesn’t welcome the comparison, but the parallels in this first-person fantasy RPG are obvious. Following its last sci-fi outing (2019’s whipsmart Outer Worlds), the team brings its narrative-crafting skills to the world of Eora, which some may recall from the Pillars of Eternity series. It looks defiantly gorgeous and colourful compared with the endless drab caves of many fantasy games. The past year has provided a bounty of role-playing epics, and Avowed looks set to continue the trend.Introducing . . . the Nintendo Switch successor The Nintendo Switch is the third best-selling console of all time, but it has a claim to be the greatest. With the Switch, Nintendo doubled down on its belief that inventive design trumps computing firepower and that games should provide joy above all else. Its gamble more than paid off. Still, the original Switch hardware now seems long in the tooth, and we’re expecting an announcement on its successor by the end of this fiscal year. The company is famously tight-lipped, so details are thin on the ground, but players can expect the hardware to have a similar form factor, perhaps a larger screen, and it’ll probably launch with the sci-fi shooter Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Given Nintendo has never named its consoles by numerical sequence before, we can assume it’s unlikely to be called the Switch 2.
