Gaming

Anno 117: Pax Romana helps you get into strategy games

However, the campaign lacks a conclusive ending.

Published

December 1, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

People often ask me why I like playing strategy games. The answer lies in the beauty of creating a well-oiled machine. Though the genre hardly fulfills the quick shots of adrenaline from playing competitive shooters or sports games, there’s still a palpable satisfaction in creating something that works. If you’re still on the fence, Anno 117: Pax Romana serves up an easily digestible experience even for those who are new to the genre.

What’s in a strategy game?

Have you ever built a Lego Technic set, tried knitting, or did a home improvement project on your own? A proper strategy game scratches the same itch: the desire to cobble together smaller into a beautiful product.

In Anno 117, you find yourself beginning a new life as a fledgling governor of a Roman province during a time of relative peace. The game begins, as they all do, with a blank slate. You land on your chosen island, build a few houses to start a small town, and send your villagers off chopping wood and gathering food. When you’ve gathered enough materials, you unlock a new tier of buildings and requirements. Grow big enough again, and you expand to more islands. Then, it’s all rinse and repeat.

The goal, of course, is to build a thriving Roman city that will make neighboring governors jealous. And jealous, they will be. When you butt heads enough, rival leaders can send sorties against you, necessitating you to build an army of your own.

In this way, Anno 117 is all about balancing resources and managing problems across your territories.

The interface is your friend

When you begin your first game, you might get overwhelmed with how little Anno 117 holds your hand. Besides a small introductory pop-up, you’re mostly left to fend for yourself. At first, I thought that this system was oppressive. I just wanted to play the game, not pore over menus.

But that was before I figured out the other element of the game’s magic. Besides managing resources, it’s all about discovering what’s next. The game cleverly hides your next goal by keeping it hidden from view, as opposed to just locking everything with gray locks. When you first start a game, you will have access to buildings corresponding to the first tier of citizens. To even see what the next tier of citizen is, you need to make the preceding tier happy enough with their respective set of needs and luxuries.

This is such an impressive system. While all the different problems keep me busy short-term, the desire to see what else I can unlock keeps me engaged for the long haul.

And it’s not just the different tiers of citizens and buildings, either. Anno 117 also has one of the most extensive tech trees I’ve seen in a game. Calling it a tree or a web is an understatement. There are dozens of technologies you can unlock, and it will take dozens of hours to complete.

Likewise, there’s a religion system that unlocks new benefits based on how many patrons your chosen god has.

In Anno 117, there’s always something new to unlock. Don’t let the starting interface fool you; the game is surprisingly robust and expansive.

Two regions push the boundaries of difficulty

As with other Anno games, Anno 117 features more than one region to develop. To begin with, players have a choice between Latium and Albion. Latium is the Roman-centric region of abundance where most of the neighboring governors are friendly. Albion, on the other hand, is harsher and filled with Celts who don’t always agree with the encroachment of Romans.

Each region has its own challenges, even if Latium is generally a relaxing experience. Personally, I prefer how laidback Latium is, but Albion’s challenges are still just as tantalizing.

The challenge, however, is balancing the two regions together. You can build both regions at the same time. Naturally, the goal is to create a self-running engine that you don’t need to supervise the entire time. The journey is excruciating, though. Often, while you’re in the zone building on Latium, an emergency in Albion ruins your concentration and demands your attention. It doesn’t help that there’s a lengthy loading screen when switching regions.

Thankfully, maintaining colonies in both regions isn’t a requirement. You can easily stay in Latium exclusively without disappointing your citizens.

Also, this won’t be the final lineup. Like the previous Anno 1800, Ubisoft already has a roadmap in place for more content and, presumably, more regions.

An incomplete campaign ruins the story

To be transparent, this is my first Anno game. My natural inclination is to start the campaign. It starts off with a fairly compelling premise. First, you can pick between two characters: Marcus and Marcia. While the broad strokes of their respective campaigns remain the same, there’s just enough difference to differentiate between the two.

For example, Marcus is tasked with proving his worth as a governor to his politician father. He helps build the city of Julianus and ingratiates himself with Emperor Lucius and his family. However, a tragedy forces him to the hostile lands of Albion.

On the other hand, as if in a different universe, Marcia’s campaign started off with herself betrothed to the actual governor of Julianus. However, before she can meet with her new husband, Emperor Lucius warns her that her husband is ill and whisks her away to govern on her own. Regardless, the same tragedy strikes and forces her to Albion.

These stories are compelling enough to see the story to its completion. Unfortunately, it’s a disappointing conclusion.

When Marcus and Marcia are shipped to Albion, a potential usurper, Calidus, ascends and claims himself as Emperor. Regardless of whether you follow or oppose Calidus’s instructions for Albion, the new Emperor will celebrate your success either way. He then leaves you in charge of Latium once again before leaving for parts unknown.

And unknown, they will remain. After settling on Albion, the campaign transitions into a sandbox mode with no limits. There is no conclusion to the story; there is no grand confrontation. It’s a sore disappointment if you’ve invested quite a lot of time in the campaign. Hopefully, future DLC patches this up.

Is Anno 117 your GameMatch?

Lackluster campaign endings aside, Anno 117 is one of the most approachable strategy games today. It doesn’t hold your hand, so you can learn the ropes and get acclimated on your own. There’s a wealth of content to discover, so you can easily spend hours just figuring out what comes next.

In a gaming climate where the Roman empire is often associated with warfare, Anno 117 is a peaceful exploration of Roman culture that leaves a more lasting memory for fans of the genre. What’s more, this is just the beginning; the upcoming roadmap looks exciting enough to keep fans playing for a long time.

With all that said, it gets a Super Swipe from me.

Gaming

HoYoverse’s first life sim, Petit Planet, opens Stardrift Test sign-ups

Closed beta begins April 21st, introduces more features

Published

April 10, 2026

GadgetMatch

HoYoverse is expanding to the life sim genre with Petit Planet, and sign-ups for their Stardrift Test are now open.

This new round of closed beta testing is available on PC, iOS, and Android. It will start on April 21, and will introduce new Neighbors, enhanced Starsea Voyage experiences, and additional Galactic Bazaar activities.

The title blends the joy of creation, companionship, and community-driven experiences, transforming the universe into a canvas of infinite possibilities. To sign up, simply visit the website here.

HoYoverse has also dropped Petit Planet’s latest trailer:

In the game, players take on the role of Planet Tender, stepping into the vast Starsea with a planet to call their own.

As planets connect to form galaxies, new stories begin to unfold. Here, you can live however you like. There’s farming, fishing, beachcombing, cooking, and more activities.

You can spend relaxed and fulfilling days on your planet alongside fuzzy Neighbors, and let your imagination run wild by decorating your home and shaping your landscapes.

Moreover, you can explore the Starsea to forge connections with people and things at the Galactic Bazaar.

Each bond formed weaves into an ever-growing web of connections that keeps the universe flourishing. Luca, the vitality that flows through all things, also shapes new landscapes and brings wondrous changes to the world as the bonds deepen and the planets thrive.

In the new closed beta, new Neighbors make their debut. Players can hop on their vehicles at the Starsea Map and set off to explore a variety of vibrant Islets.

Beyond the exploration remains a lively social hub where players can gather for coffee, relax by the bonfire, or even try fortune-telling or dancing with friends.

Gaming

Forza Horizon 6 already hits the mark

And it’s only just the preview build in the Tokyo area

Published

April 9, 2026

Gab Orlina

Up next on the Forza Horizon World Tour is a place filled with rich history. And an even richer cultural background. Tradition blends exceptionally well with the modern worldview, whether it’s the environment or the cars available on the terrain. For the first timers, it sounds like a riveting experience. For the returning players, it feels like a trip down a familiar path even if they’ve never been to the place at all.

When Playground Games announced Forza Horizon 6, I just knew that I needed to play it for a variety of reasons. From the trailer alone, there are things to be excited about, especially with how they will carry over the Horizon system of gameplay to a more car-centric cultural location in Tokyo. The driving, the cars, the sights, and even a preview of the Horizon events — all these are gearing up for a grand release on May 19.

And the special preview from Xbox alone has already surpassed initial expectations in my book!

Hot like rising sun

Right off the bat, the game wows you with the breathtaking scenery and the equally cool-looking cars to match. Even as someone who has never been to Japan in this life, I felt that they perfectly captured the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. Including highly visited tourist spots. The developers wanted to reflect a more realistic feel of the city. And I appreciate that a lot.

As you immediately jump into action, the familiar mechanics start kicking in. Simply put, Forza Horizon 6 didn’t change too much in terms of how you play — from the controls in races to the customization. If anything, they mostly applied clarifications to previous descriptions of existing mechanics. Furthermore, real-world feel for the cars still exists especially when you take cars only meant for city driving off-road and into harsh areas.

Of course, the Forza Horizon experience wouldn’t be complete without the free-driving across an entirely vast area, exploring nooks and crannies and engaging in all the quests. Similar to previous releases, the Horizon events were tailored referencing car culture in the country they roll in, which they nailed even in this preview. Also, they added even more breakable elements to collect and work towards potentially earning more cars, spendable credits, or other cosmetics.

Exploring Tokyo with ease

Even with keeping things roughly the same in game feel, Forza Horizon 6 felt substantially different, catering to both new and returning players. For starters, they divided the entire map of Tokyo into their own regions, each with a designated checklist. Instead of aimlessly wandering about the roads, you actually get an idea of what you should be looking for this time.

Second, remember ANNA, your guide to Horizon? Well, she got several significant upgrades that help out content creators immensely. One of which is adding in a Drone Mode. This allows exploration without driving and can help with video recordings on Xbox. The other is having a dedicated Auto Drive Mode. It takes inspiration from Waymo and Tesla in driving routes for you. Though, I still think that they need to work on the automatic driving just a bit. Sometimes the cars would just take the weirdest routes to get to your destination.

Finally, though there wasn’t access to the Buy and Sell market in the preview, you could get other cars in the overworld called Aftermarket Cars. These basically replaced Forza Horizon 5‘s car barn-hunting by basically just showing you the car, and it’s sold at a much lower rate. I love that some of these cars truly represent some of the more famous brands in Japan, both for casual travel and intense races. Hopefully they add a lot more in the final build, especially vintage Japanese car models!

A furious Tokyo drift over the horizon

So far, Forza Horizon 6 promises to be another exhilarating edition of a franchise that prides itself in celebrating car culture to the fullest. Playground Games kept everything mostly intact for overall gameplay yet fully poured in the effort to perfect the environments and activities well. It’s obvious that they did justice to Tokyo as a whole, to the point that even someone who hasn’t been there will enjoy the experience very much.

Hopefully, they continue to work on some of the wonky mechanics like Auto Drive and apply a deeper integration of the four seasons into accessible events. Also, it would help out immensely if players get better rewards for clearing all the hazards – similar to what was present in previous games. Overall, there are a ton of things to be excited about with Forza Horizon 6 when it finally gets released on May 19 for the Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and as a Day One Release for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

So, time to dust off those racing wheels and, maybe, hold off on booking that flight to Tokyo for now!

Gaming

PlayStation can now scan you and put you inside a game

The limited feature will be available for Gran Turismo 7 for now.

Published

April 8, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

A staple of sports simulation games like the NBA 2K series, one of the most interesting developments in gaming today is the ability to scan faces and import them into an avatar. The feature lets players fully live out the fantasy of being inside their favorite sport. It has since made its way to more genres, such as in Where Winds Meet. Now, PlayStation wants to add its own native face- and body-scanning technology — called The Playerbase — into its repertoire.

Announced today, The Playerbase will bring PlayStation’s dedicated fans into cyberspace. It’s more than just uploading a face into a game’s files, too. PlayStation will fully scan a fan and import their entire body into a game.

Being more rigorous than just a facial scan, The Playerbase’s uses are still very limited today. PlayStation will start by importing a selected fan into the world of Gran Turismo 7.

Interested fans from selected markets all over the globe can sign up starting today for a chance to be featured inside the racing game. Once selected, the lucky fan will participate in video interviews before being scanned into the game in Los Angeles.

The player’s avatar will be available in a limited-time basis, but their livery, which they will design, will be a permanent fixture in the game going forward.

Afterwards, PlayStation will look to add more of its studios into the initiative tailored for their specific worlds. As of now, it’s meant as a special thank you for its dedicated fans, rather than an easily available feature for all of their games.