In London last night, the 20th Bafta games awards celebrated a year that was stacked with critically acclaimed games. Taking place against the backdrop of an unprecedented year of layoffs and studio closures in the gaming industry, acknowledged by Bafta chair Sara Putt in her speech at the beginning of the evening, it was a much-needed night of recognition of the creative efforts of the video game development community. The sprawling Dungeons & Dragons-inspired role-playing game Baldur's Gate 3 won five awards, including the public voted EE players' choice award and best game, alongside music, narrative and best performer in a supporting role (won by Andrew Wincott for his role at the devilish Raphael). Nintendo picked up the family and multiplayer awards for the exuberant Super Mario Bros Wonder, and technical achievement for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Alan Wake 2, the arresting, idiosyncratic horror game from Finnish studio Remedy, won artistic achievement and audio achievement.

Spider-Man is easily one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the last 50-plus years, appearing in countless iterations across comics, movies, cartoons, video games and other media I am surely forgetting. Fans will argue about the best iteration -- but for my money, the Spider-universe Insomniac Games introduced in 2018 on the PS4 with Marvel's Spider-Man is an all-time great. It spent no time rehashing Peter Parker's origins, throwing the player into a vibrant and massive rendering of Manhattan. The city felt alive, with tons to do investigate and a horde of Spider-Man's most famous villains to contend with. It also skillfully introduced a world in which Parker would eventually fight side-by-side with a second Spider-Man, Miles Morales.

Spider-Man is easily one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the last 50-plus years, appearing in countless iterations across comics, movies, cartoons, video games and other media I am surely forgetting. Fans will argue about the best iteration -- but for my money, the Spider-universe Insomniac Games introduced in 2018 on the PS4 with Marvel's Spider-Man is an all-time great. It spent no time rehashing Peter Parker's origins, throwing the player into a vibrant and massive rendering of Manhattan. The city felt alive, with tons to do investigate and a horde of Spider-Man's most famous villains to contend with. It also skillfully introduced a world in which Parker would eventually fight side-by-side with a second Spider-Man, Miles Morales.

It's been six months since the PlayStation 5 launched, and they still fly out of stock minutes after appearing in stores. But anyone still waiting to pick one up can be comforted by the knowledge that as yet, there haven't been many games to show off what it can do. The only one that has felt strikingly next-generation is the superb horror-sci-fi-shooter Returnal, which is like Groundhog Day on an alien planet where everything is trying to kill you. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, out 11 June, is also science-fiction, but unlike Returnal, it is more cuddly and approachable. Part of a long-running series about a furry big-eared alien and his unflappable robot companion having adventures in space with a wacky arsenal of weapons, it's made by Insomniac Games in California, the developer behind PS5 launch game Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales received a new update this week that added a new "Advanced Tech" suit and realistic simulated muscle deformation. Now a developer from Insomniac Games has revealed technical details on how the muscle deformation works. Even though Spider-Man: Miles Morales released last November in a complete, well-running, and well-polished state, Insomniac appears to be committed to adding new features and technical improvements to the game after launch. One of the largest updates came in December, when Insomniac released a new "Performance RT" mode that combined Ray Tracing and 60FPS, two features that had previously been separate options. This new PS5-exclusive update for Miles Morales adds realistic simulations for Miles' muscles deforming, as well as cloth simulations for the suit on top.

I'm not sure why I keep going back to Cloudpunk (PS4, Xbox, PC, Switch). The sprawling, dystopian city of Nivalis is every bit the future imagined by the cyberpunk fiction of the 1980s, a technocracy full of staggering inequality and endless skyscrapers rising into the clouds, embroidered with neon. I finished the game, in which you play a driver delivering packages in a flying car, months ago. And yet I keep returning to race aimlessly across its gleaming airborne highways and luxe high-rises, soothed by the hum of my engine. It's oddly comforting to be here in the middle of a pandemic, in a place of obscene wealth, crushing poverty and technology that does little to change either.

It's that special time of year when the air is crisp, the holiday cheer is overwhelming and the only thing that sounds appealing is curling up on the couch with a big blanket and a brand new video game console. Luckily, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launched just over a month ago, and both of them are welcome living-room upgrades, offering more power, larger game worlds, and more seamless gameplay than the previous generation. In particular, the PS5 features a lineup of launch games worth your time. Here, we've collected five of the best titles available to play right now on PS5, just in time for your couch-based holiday plans. If you only play one game on PS5, make sure it's Miles Morales.

While some forms of entertainment like movies and sports were hit hard by the pandemic, gaming actually thrived in 2020. Since we were all stuck indoors, we spent a lot more time in front of screens, discovering new experiences, replaying older classics and a few of us even made a dent in our backlogs, aka the "pile of shame." To that end, the Engadget staff presents a slightly different list of our favorite games of 2020: not just the most impactful titles that came out this year, but also the older games that kept us company during this crazy time. I have already spilled so much digital ink on this game this year that, had you asked me to pick my best of 2020 a month ago, I would have picked something different like Miles Morales or Fall Guys. Animal Crossing is fun, I thought, but I've done everything I want to do in the game and I really should be focusing my critical eye on the fancier, flashier titles from more powerful systems. But then the winter update arrived, bringing with it new holidays and reactions and hairstyles, oh my!

Once again, Spider-Man will have video game players caught in his web. On Thursday, Sony launched Marvel's "Spider-Man: Miles Morales along with its highly-anticipated PlayStation 5 video game console. It features everything you could want from a Spider-Man game: high-flying through downtown New York, breaking up crimes and pummeling villains with a wide array of tricks. In this Spiderverse, Peter Parker is Spider-Man, with Miles as his protégé after he, too, gets bit by a spider and develops superhuman powers. An older Peter needs to leave the city to travel overseas, and he wants high schooler Miles to serve as Spider-Man while he's away. Xbox, PS5 or Switch?:How to pick the right video game console If you're new to Miles Morales as Spidey, a quick explainer: He's got all the abilities of Parker's version but also boasts bioelectric powers and the ability to turn invisible to evade threats.

The sights and sounds likewise make "Miles Morales" more immersive on the PS5. At a family dinner in Miles's apartment the voices of those gathered diminish as you meander further away or dip into a side room. Even in the middle of a melee, you'll hear the bad guys firing off one-liners from all around you. If they're behind you, it sounds like they're standing behind you. The closer they are, the louder the quip.