Extremely OK Games, the team behind that Celeste game that Alessandro and Matty never shut up about are back! This time the studio is tackling a new project called Earthblade, which is described as a “2D explor-action” game, complete with the developer’s trademark talent for whipping up really fantastic pixel-art.

Celeste has one more DLC drop on the way, and this one will close the book on the beloved masterpiece.

Much like the games that influenced it, the latest Bloodstained game also has plenty of secrets up its sleeves. Hidden rooms, mystical mysteries and powerful bosses who hide items of great power within the walls of your current locale. Some are obvious, whereas others require you to do a little bit of digging to get to the good stuff. Here’s how you can lay your hands on the keys needed to open these locked rooms, if you’re brave enough to take down the monsters waiting inside that is.

Bow ties. Fancy champagne. Bow ties. What makes the BAFTAs neat, is that the even actually recognises the importance of video games and regularly elevates them to the same level of attention that film and television happens to enjoy, with their own dedicated awards show. This year, the nominations for the best in gaming makes for one heck of a stacked field, albeit one that isn’t exactly surprising.

Celeste is an emotional game, one that uses visuals, writing and music to really invest the player in Madeline’s story. Yet what I think makes it special is that it offers an important message through something that only a video game could achieve: A playstyle. Mechanics are something so unique to the video game medium. Just like great poets experiment and challenge the form of how language is written so too do great developers challenge how we interact with their art and when a developer takes advantage of this, marrying interactivity with conventional storytelling...well, you get something incredibly powerful. Something like Celeste.

Indie games are a vital part of the video game eco system, and 2018 saw more than one such game rise to the top of the food chain. Here’s a look at the best of the best, from the indie darlings that we just cannot get enough of.

Video games may be a visual medium, but without any audio they’d just be a collection of good-looking shells that were hollow inside. Music creates an atmosphere, it tells a story and pushes players in the right direction when a game needs to pick up the pace. They’re the subliminal prods that keep the momentum going, but there are times when a game’s soundtrack can stay with you long after the end credits have rolled. Here’s a look, at the video game soundtracks that defined 2018.

We saw the glory of a war god reborn, we felt the joy of navigating through New York City while spinning webs and we faced stories of a personal nature on a scale that may have been more indie in design but was truly epic in scope. How do you even begin to sum up 2018? How do you condense a year’s worth of gaming into any single rewards category? Well the Game Awards 2018 certainly did just that, with results that probably weren’t surprising.