Ingenious puzzle games, a psychedelic take on poker, an action-packed take on Buddhist legend and a compilation of 50 faux-retro titles – our critics pick the year’s finest
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It starts with a single machine: a landing pod on an untouched planet. Then a drill, built with iron mined by your own hand. Hours later, the planet is covered in neat (or not) arrays of extractors and conveyor belts, machines whirring comfortingly as they create their infinite thingummies. Corporate strip-mining simulator it may be, but it’s just so absorbing.
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