The best video games of 2021 so far

Hostile alien planets, giant vampire women and a jazz age murder mystery - plus some old favourites, rebooted - are among the best games released this year

PC
A gentle, board game style town building sim, which has you matching hexagonal landscape tiles to craft unique locations, laying on further puzzles and pleasures as you go.
What we said: This is game-playing at its most thoughtfully relaxing, with that rare chance, in video games, to be the architect of a world, rather than its conqueror." Read the full review.