If you are in the mood to play Skyrim or the recent Oblivion remaster, but you don't want to play a Microsoft-backed game for, oh, any number of reasons, the word on the grapevine is that open world RPG Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is pretty decent. We don't have a review as yet, but Khee Hoon Chan called Questline's previous Tainted Grail: Conquest one of the best games you missed in 2021, and The Fall Of Avalon is currently humming along with an Overwhelmingly Positive Steam user consensus as it prepares to leave early access today. The Steam page also harbours a demo, plus the below, moderately thunderous trailer's worth of first-person spellcraft, shattered cosmic castles and fishing mechanics.

The Fall Of Avalon is set in another dark reimagining of Arthurian myth, one less abundant in beauty influencers than Tides Of Annihilation. It takes place about 600 years after King Arthur's fall, in a realm of "unending strife" and plague that is divided into three zones.

The game is said to span 50-70 hours, with over 200 sidequests and an assortment of miscellaneous activities such as decorating your house, farming and "sketchbook journaling". I sincerely hope that last one is a fully fleshed-out illustration subgame, or at least some kind of fantasy photography mechanic. We need more virtual idylls like Eastshade.