The Wand Report
The latest PC game reviews, previews, interviews, and features. Make Gaming Magical
Penguin Colony Review Review · Oct 16, 2026
Lovecraftian waddling simulator squawks in the face of danger.
On the desk
Everything else our team has been wrestling with. Early-access impressions, deep-dive features, and reviews you might have missed.
stars Review Frosthaven Review
The popular board game gets a digital treatment that's unkind to newcomers.
stars Review Over the Hill Review
Art of Rally developer Funselektor takes its love of classic cars off-road, delivering a cosy exploration game that avoids getting bogged down.
stars Review Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 Review
Auroch Digital pushes every slider up to max in a sequel which finally does justice to the team’s vision.
stars Review Toy Story 3 Complete Edition Review
There’s a snake in my boot – and it’s high-resolution.
stars Review Toy Story: Retro Roundup! Review
A collection of classic movie tie-ins is rightfully overshadowed by its included ephemera.
stars Review ROLLA Review
Actually, there's a case to made for the original Katamari also being evil.
stars Review Valor Mortis Review
Napoleon Blownaparte.
Poly Fighter Early Access Impressions
Ryu, meet RNG. RNG, meet – no Ryu, stop punching for a minute.
Wild West Pioneers Early Access Impressions
This low stakes frontier blends city building with cosiness, but the lack of pace is deeply felt.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival Review
Saber meshes the series’ dark themes with a roll call of gaming’s greatest hits.
Recent verdicts
The reviews our critics have pinned to the cork board in the past 30 days, in score order. Click any row to read the full review.
Napoleon Blownaparte.
9/10 02Neon, noodles and nuanced narrative – Nivalis Nights serves up something entirely special in this cyberpunk sim.
9/10 03Wistful, breezy, and gently engaging, Toem 2 is a worthy sequel and careful diversion.
9/10 04A snacky, riveting, and joyfully chaotic gem of a roguelike racer.
9/10Our critics
The team of writers behind the verdicts. Independent opinions, no scoring algorithms, no sponsored editorial.
Ben's first experience of gaming was at three years old, sat on his dad's lap playing Revs on a BBC Micro. He went on…
Grace's love of both games and writing has been strong since the 90s. Studying journalism at university and then running a gaming YouTube channel…
Geoffrey Bunting is a disabled journalist, author, and recovering book designer. Besides The Wand Report, he is featured in The New York Times, The…
Diego Nicolás Argüello is a freelance journalist and critic from Argentina. Video games helped him to learn English, so now he covers them for…
Nic Reuben is secretly several Skaven in a trench coat that have somehow made a career in freelance writing. A former staff writer for…
Grace is a freelance writer at large and has written for some websites and publications you’ve heard of and others you haven’t. She is…
Khee Hoon Chan is a freelance writer and journalist from the internet, who enjoys investigating the fringes of entertainment, culture and games.
Award-winning writer and journalist Phil made his start in print media, and has subsequently spent the last 15 years un-learning the compulsion to add…
Ben Sledge is a reporter and critic from Liverpool, UK. He likes playing obscure demos and any game that feels like you're reading a…
Nick is a gaming and sports writer who has bylines with Eurogamer, IGN, GameSpot and many others. He's also the author of a book…
Will has been a game journalist, design consultant and industry writer for over 20 years, contributing to the likes of The Guardian, Edge, PC…
Reid McCarter is a writer and editor whose work has appeared at outlets like Wired, Kotaku, The AV Club, GQ, Playboy, The Washington Post,…
Kirk McKeand is a freelance writer and consultant, who really likes immersive sims. He wrote a book called The History of the Stealth Game,…