Gaming has long suffered a reputation as something of a niche interest, the general assumption being that gamers are just a bunch of pimple-faced teenage boys playing Call Of Duty in their parents’ basements. Lately, though, that hackneyed stereotype has begun to show its age.

While it’s true that certain game companies still cater to that narrow demographic, the market has expanded greatly over the past five to 10 years and now offers entertainment for a much broader range of tastes. With mobile gaming putting games into far more people’s hands (literally), and free-to-play titles such as Fortnite and League Of Legends removing the usual $60 barrier to entry, it’s never been easier to get started.

And, of course, there’s Covid-19, which has played an unexpected role in bringing video games to a wider audience. A common argument against gaming is that it’s a sedentary hobby; now that we’re no longer allowed to leave the house, that very same argument is being used to promote it.

But if you’re new to gaming, or just haven’t played since you were young, where on Earth should you start? With a choice of three major current-generation consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, next-generation consoles arriving at the end of the year, new streaming platforms such as Google’s Stadia service, and of course, the ever-evolving PC, it can be a daunting place – and that’s before you even get started on the games. 

To give you a taster, then, we’ve picked out five of our favourite current and upcoming titles. Think of them as your gateway drug to an all-consuming new addiction.

Available on: Xbox One, PC

For a preview of what a post-pandemic workplace might be like, look no further than Moon Studios, a “distributed development house” formally headquartered in Vienna, but actually made up of developers working remotely from all around the world. Its first major title, 2015’s Ori And The Blind Forest, was a revelation, combining precise platforming with the heartwarming story and lush, painterly visuals of a Pixar movie. 

Given the acclaim with which it was received, it should hardly come as a surprise that this year’s sequel, Ori And The Will Of The Wisps, sticks largely to the established formula. Like its predecessor, it’s a “Metroidvania”: a game set across a sprawling, two-dimensional map with certain areas that only become accessible once your character has mastered new abilities. (It’s a genre that was pioneered by two seminal video game series of the 1990s, Metroid and Castlevania, hence the portmanteau.) Players once again assume the role of Ori, a glowing white guardian spirit who must track down their friend, an owlet with a broken wing named Ku. As before, this means navigating a strange world, collecting artefacts, bashing up enemies and running away from giant monsters in thrilling escape sequences.

Minor tweaks to the core gameplay mechanics aside, what really sets this sequel apart is the production value. This may be an indie game at heart, but there’s no mistaking the newly enhanced budget. Playing Ori And The Will Of The Wisps feels at times like walking through an animated storybook, each page lovelier and more colourful than the last. If you want to see just how far artistic direction in video games has come since the days of Mario versus Sonic, this should be your first port of call.

**Available on: **Nintendo Switch

Has there been a more timely video game release than the latest edition of Nintendo’s much-loved Animal Crossing series? New Horizons dropped into our laps on 20 March this year, the very same day that New York governor Mr Andrew Cuomo announced a statewide stay-at-home order and British prime minister Mr Boris Johnson ordered the closure of all pubs, bars and restaurants. It was as if the universe was telling us in no uncertain terms to lock the door, draw the curtains and play video games until the sun comes up.

Timing isn’t everything, though, and Animal Crossing also happened to be exactly the kind of game that people needed. The gameplay, which revolves around fishing, hunting for bugs and fossils, collecting seashells and so on, all within the broader objective of building a thriving island community, feels like a salve for these troubled times. What’s more, by giving you the ability to visit the islands of other players, it functions as a proxy for real-life social interactions. 

Compare this to March’s other high-profile release, Doom Eternal, in which players take control of a demon-slaying super-soldier armed with a double-barrelled shotgun. A tremendously fun but hugely anxiety-inducing experience, it was well-received by hardcore gamers – a crowd who probably would have played it whether Covid-19 had happened or not – but failed to capture the public imagination in quite the same way.

Available on: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Stadia, PC (due in September)

When it comes to building immersive open-world video games, two names stand head and shoulders above the rest: Rockstar Studios, creator of the all-conquering Grand Theft Auto series, and CD Projekt Red, the Warsaw-based developer behind 2020’s most eagerly anticipated game, Cyberpunk 2077.

Originally slated for an April release date, but pushed back to September for – surprisingly – non-coronavirus related reasons, Cyberpunk 2077 is a sci-fi role-playing game based in Night City, a sprawling urban dystopia where cybernetic body modifications have become the norm. (This detail adds a dose of realism to one of the core mechanics of any role-playing game, in which you personalise your character at the start of the game by assigning “skill points” to various attributes such as strength and intelligence.)

Developed over a period of more than six years, and featuring a cast that includes Mr Keanu Reeves, who sent the hype machine into overdrive when he made a surprise on-stage appearance at last year’s E3 games expo to reveal new details of the game, Cyberpunk 2077 appears to have all of the necessary ingredients to be a major crossover hit. While we’re all hoping that lockdown will be a distant memory by September, this is one thing that might just coax us back indoors.

**Available on: **PlayStation 4

Dreams – or, at least, the kernel of an idea that would go on to become Dreams – was first announced in 2013 at an event for Sony’s then-unreleased PlayStation 4. It finally emerged from its chrysalis fully formed this February, less than a year before the expected arrival of the PlayStation 5. So, was it worth the seven-year wait? Let’s put it this way: it’s complicated.

Dreams is a unique entry on this list in the sense that it’s not really a game at all, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. It’s more like a digital sandbox and a set of tools – a place to paint, sculpt, animate, compose music and even design rudimentary video games of your own. There’s a main storyline called “Art’s Dream”, but it only lasts a couple of hours and it acts more as a showcase for what’s possible within the game itself, which, as we just mentioned, isn’t really a game at all.

Along with giving you the power to create your own games, Dreams also allows you to upload your creations to the “Dreamiverse”, where they can be sampled and tinkered with by anyone else who chooses to do so. You can sample theirs, too, and it’s here that the game’s limitless potential becomes apparent. Look out for the range of surprisingly accurate recreations of classic games such as Final Fantasy, Sonic The Hedgehog, Metal Gear Solid and more, all made by players from around the world using nothing but the game’s intuitive toolkit. (Nobody has managed to recreate Dreams within Dreams yet, perhaps because doing so would open up a rift in the space-time continuum, but we expect someone to give it a go.)

**Available on: **Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC

Back in the good old days of physical media, when you bought a video game, you were buying the finished product. Not so today. With the miracles of digital distribution making it possible for developers to remotely apply software updates, games are now expected to evolve over time. There are few better examples of this than No Man’s Sky, which has been patched and updated so many times since its release in 2016 that it now feels like a radically different game. 

That’s a good thing because, frankly, it needed some work. Intended as a survival game in the style of Minecraft, but with the addition of space travel through a procedurally generated galaxy with a possible 18 quintillion (!) planets, No Man’s Sky failed to deliver on its promise at launch, offering an impossibly huge world to explore, but very little to see or do.

The contemporary version of the game feels smaller, yet fuller by contrast, and as a result comes much closer to fulfilling the lofty ambitions set out by the developers all those years ago. In this sense, No Man’s Sky is a very modern video game: a constant work in progress, as much a service as a product, and with no discernible end. (If you like this, don’t miss Subnautica, a similar game set in the ocean of an alien planet.)