From Lake to Metroid Dread: the most exciting video games for autumn 2021

An indie game set in a beautiful lake town with a small cast of locals. Driving around and delivering mail in 1980s Oregon is not exactly the usual video game fantasy, but this looks like a calming, intriguing tale about a woman temporarily escaping urban life to revisit her roots. Alex Chen moves to Colorado to start a new life in an achingly hipster town, but soon finds that this place has its problems, too – and must reckon with the death of her brother. A coming-of-age story in which you can read people's emotions and make choices that influence the interpersonal dramas that unfold. This is a wonderfully surreal party game that caters to the attention span of the internet age, with quickfire challenges that have you racing to squeeze toothpaste or collect gems or tweeze armpit hair from marble sculptures.