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.BalatroThe biggest surprise of this year’s Game Awards nominations was Balatro, an idiosyncratic spin on poker with no storyline made by a single anonymous developer. And yet, anyone who has spent an hour with this game will understand its genius and dangerously addictive allure. This is a card-based roguelike in which you can acquire jokers that change the rules of the game. What if clubs and spades were treated as the same suit, or you could make your high-card hands so powerful that they beat even the mightiest royal flush? Balatro is bottled-lightning: captivating strategy with a delightfully warped aesthetic and impossible to put down. Approach with caution.Astro BotThe gaming world has a lot of everything bagels: games that try to be all things to all people, giving you huge open worlds, mountains of side quests, RPG progression mechanics and a few stealth assassination takedowns for good measure. Into this exhausting milieu arrives something far rarer — a colourful 3D platformer that knows exactly what it wants to be, and nails the assignment. For the first time after 30 years of trying, PlayStation finally has a series that can give Mario a run for his gold coins (sorry, Crash Bandicoot), offering an exercise in pure delight that supplies iridescent joy in every instant.Elden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeShadow of the Erdtree is not technically a game — it’s downloadable content that adds new material to 2022’s Elden Ring. With most games you wouldn’t consider this kind of thing worth mentioning, but most games aren’t Elden Ring. Here is a title that bewitched gamers with its strangeness, its difficulty, its unwillingness to hold players’ hands or compromise its esoteric vision. Shadow of the Erdtree is simply more — more bosses, more puzzles, more beautiful and ghastly environments to explore. Ask any fan and they’ll tell you: why would you want a new game when you could just have more Elden Ring?Tactical Breach WizardsOne of the year’s most delightful surprises was this turn-based strategy game in which you play a magical version of a rogue SWAT team. There’s a wizard who can rewind time (though only by a few seconds) and a doctor who can resurrect the dead (only after she’s shot them in the head). Tactical Breach Wizards offers a series of smart puzzles with creative solutions, but its greatest pleasure is the remarkably strong writing, with gripping plot twists and laugh-out-loud jokes. To create a game this mechanically satisfying is one thing. To garnish it with such a brilliant script? That’s just showing off.Final Fantasy VII RebirthAfter 2023 offered more blockbusters than any one person could reasonably play, 2024 was lighter on banner releases. One exception was the second act in Square Enix’s expansive reimagining of its role-playing classic Final Fantasy VII, which deviates from the original plot in postmodern fashion. The production values are unapologetically lavish, and there is too much of everything, but that abundance is precisely the appeal: there is lots to do and great depth added to some of gaming’s all-time greatest characters. It’s sure to please series regulars and newcomers curious to witness the audiovisual splendour of which games are now capable.The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomHow do you follow up two of the greatest games of all time — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom? Always one to subvert expectations, Nintendo aims small but introduces two crucial innovations. One is that, for practically the first time in the series’ 38 years of history, you finally play as Zelda herself, rather than her green-clad rescuer, Link. The second is that instead of swinging a sword, you use a magic wand to conjure “echoes”, all manner of objects and monsters to help you fight and solve puzzles. It showcases the series’ new dedication to player creativity, and plugs the gap while we wait for the next major Zelda instalment.Dragon Age: The VeilguardThis game had a lot riding on it, as both a sequel 10 years in the making and a release from BioWare, a once-exalted developer whose past few games were high-profile flops. The team wisely focused on the core qualities that bring players to the beloved fantasy series Dragon Age, prioritising charismatic companions and a high-stakes narrative that asks players to make tough decisions on the way to a dramatic crescendo. There are also changes: the cartoonish graphical style and Marvel-esque quipping of your party might divide players, but there is no critiquing the wonderfully kinetic new combat system and stunning environmental design that constantly gives you something new to gawp at.1000xResistWhile this sci-fi adventure forgoes combat to focus on storytelling and character development, it remains absolutely riveting from start to finish. A debut project from an indie team in Vancouver whose background is in theatre, dance and performance art, 1000xResist uses its high-concept story about clones and alien invasions to probe deeply questions around migration, belonging and enacting social change. Real-world references range from the Covid-19 pandemic to Hong Kong’s umbrella protests. With loveable characters, a real philosophical rigour and a series of brilliant plot twists, 1000xResist sets a new standard for storytelling ambition in gaming.Metaphor: ReFantazioThe first rule of Japanese role-playing games is: don’t ask what the title means. Nobody knows. Here’s what matters: this is a new RPG from Atlus, creators of the popular Persona series. From those games it plucks the signature combo of turn-based dungeon-crawling combat and time spent kicking back with your companions. But here they transposed from a contemporary high school to a rich fantasy setting. It’s rare to see a wholly new fantasy world that isn’t built on pre-existing IP, but Atlus nails it with Metaphor: ReFantazio, offering an epic and expansive adventure whose political themes (class, race, disability) hit surprisingly close to home.Animal Well How often in modern life do you feel a tingle of genuine mystery? Even in true crime stories and whodunits, any surprise is usually mechanical — you don’t experience those stunning discoveries as truly your own. Animal Well is the antidote, a Metroidvania platformer in which you play a little blob blessed with a repertoire of elastic movements, navigating a two-dimensional world bristling with mysterious life and dangerous animals. This is a world of deep secrets, and even deeper secrets beneath those, rekindling the sense of exhilarating discovery that many players associate with their earliest, purest gaming memories.
