The Guardian: ‘In the game, I knew myself as Hannah’ — the trans gamers finding freedom on Roblox

37m people use the gaming platform every day in search of adventure – and for teenagers exploring their gender identity, it is also a place of liberation.

New York Times: Finding Community, and Freedom, on the Virtual Dance Floor

On any given weekend, there are dozens of parties happening on VRChat, a platform where users assume fantastical avatars of their own design.

Financial Times: Why humans play games

Why have humans kept games in their homes for millennia? Tom Faber dives into the reemergence of board games and the surprising history of why we play.

Huck: The new generation of video game creators taking sex seriously

For decades sex in games has been problematic or conspicuously absent. Tom Faber speaks to the queer creators using games to explore desire, pleasure and consent in an original way.

Financial Times: Do video games encourage violent acts?

Recent mass shootings have put gaming back in the spotlight — though many gamers and game-makers say it is an easy target.

Financial Times: The dating sims that find love in unlikely places

From domestic appliances to KFC’s Colonel Sanders, gamers’ romantic possibilities are almost limitless.

New York Times: Intergalactic Shantytowns Where Dice Dictate Your Future

By placing the randomness of dice rolls center stage, a sci-fi video game subverts the medium’s conventions.

Financial Times: How to survive gaming’s age of superabundance

Today’s gamers face an exhausting torrent of new releases. It’s time to rethink how and what we play.

Financial Times: Is gaming’s graphical arms race over?

The industry seems to have reached a visual plateau, leaving the way open for games that thrive on fun and creativity.

Financial Times: Infinity Nikki and the rise of playing dress-up

With 20mn copies sold in a week, the game shows the value of taking conventionally feminine themes seriously.

Dazed: The wild rise of NPC streamers

From background characters in video games to centre-stage on TikTok, what's behind our obsession with these avatars of the uncanny?

Financial Times: How Ukrainian developers made the game 'Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl' during war with Russia

From fleeing Kyiv bombings and supporting colleagues on the front, the game’s developers have endured the shadow of war.

Financial Times: Games that offer good clean fun

Titles such as ‘PowerWash Simulator’ deliver the satisfaction of a job well done, with none of the physical exertion.

Financial Times: Silent Hill 2 and the best horror games for Halloween

A remake of the 2001 classic still chills, while Slitterhead offers campy slasher action.

Financial Times: The unexpected return of point-and-click adventures

Titles such as ‘Phoenix Springs’ are bringing the genre to a new generation.

Financial Times: Dance with deer at Manhattan game exhibition Group Hug

Artists’ experiments with video games challenge ideas of form, presentation and playability.

Financial Times: Why small games have a big future

As gamers turn their backs on gargantuan adventures, we could be entering a golden age of modest titles.

Financial Times: UFO 50 game review — ingenious compendium of 1980s classics that never existed

Celebration of a fictional developer serves as a reminder of early games’ brilliant simplicity and rapid advance.

Financial Times: ‘No Man’s Sky’ and ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ show there is life after death for video-game flops

Sony recently pulled the plug on ‘Concord’ after two weeks.

Financial Times: Could video games help shape elections?

Politicians are realising that they can reach into game spaces to access new potential voters.

Financial Times: ‘Psychonauts 2’ and what it takes to make a game

The documentary Double Fine PsychOdyssey chronicles emotional exits, police investigations and the rest.

Financial Times: The rise of video games tackling mental health

‘Vampire Therapist’, where you play a bloodsucking counsellor, is one of a wave of titles putting psychology at the centre.

Financial Times: Lo-fi horror video games are turning happy 1990s memories into nightmares

Indie creators are going back to the first PlayStation’s crude 3D graphics to subvert expectations and elicit fright.

Financial Times: Five stars for 1000xResist — indie game tackles pandemic, revolution and heartbreak

Story of teenage children of Hong Kong protesters adjusting to life in Canada has rich storytelling and compelling dialogue.

Financial Times: Why gamers are finding joy in sticking to old favourites

Some of today’s most popular titles were released years ago. Why is this, and what does it mean for the industry?

Financial Times: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II game review — so cinematic that it forgets to be a game

Gorgeous visuals can’t make up for a sequel in which combat and even walking are tedious.

Financial Times: Braid: Anniversary Edition game review — reissue of the indie classic is a game-changer

Puzzle platformer’s ambitious update adds better graphics, creator’s commentary and alternate versions of levels.

Financial Times: God and the devil fight for a nun’s soul in video game Indika

The game’s makers fled Russia because of its critique of the Orthodox church.

Financial Times: Your home console can become a gaming museum

The video game industry has a problem with its heritage: an interactive documentary provides an answer.