Happy New Year to everyone who is sick celebrating their return on Monday. It’s time to experience the despair of the universe once more, sliding irresistibly through the canyons of entropy, scratching the tonsils of hubris in vain. There will also be some new PC games released. It might be a good idea to save some change for Wednesday and Thursday, when there are rare surprises.
Monday, January 26th
It’s time for John Heigard to keep his guard up in Keighley’s anointed sci-fi fantasy raid shooter. The game is a roguelite based on the ever-lovable AA Milne character that’s garnered more attention before release, garnering more critical writing than most games combined, because 1) it’s made by a former Apex Legends and Titanfall developer, and 2) no one has the slightest idea how to play it. Fight your way through the Hundred Acre Wood as Winnie, using a blocky virus to mutate your internals.
Tuesday, January 27th
For years, people have been trying and failing to achieve “Minecraft Survival with Airships.” I don’t understand why it’s not popular. I love airships. Anyway, here we are with Echoes Of Elysium, launching in Early Access with six-player co-op and a “vast procedural clockwork world.” Created by the terrifying borderline behind The Swindle and Lair of the Clockwork God, Earth Must Die is a point-and-click* sci-fi comedy about the alien Emperor Failson, featuring a stellar voice cast. The Spirit Lift is a Buffy-core roguelite deckbuilder in which teens explore a haunted hotel floor by floor.
Wednesday, January 28th
In Roots Devour, you are the absolute worst tree. It spreads vines into the forest, drinks the blood of life forms outside the forest, and decides whether to just witness or prey on humans who are secretly gathering. Don’t let them in unless you really just want to buy pasta and chips at Helmart. A horror game where you play as a supermarket clerk, where smiling customers are looked at with suspicion. Lanesplit is a glossy first-person cycling sim at twilight with a touch of Nicolas Winding Refns. Ghost Keeper (Early Access) appears to be a new version of Ghost Master, a parody of Polterzeitgeisty Sims. Create a house full of ghosts without having to undergo an exorcism. Search for a mysterious signal in the heart of post-apocalyptic Antarctica in the slightly Funko Pop-inspired Survival of Wonder Nova Antarctica. Vanilla Antarctica may already seem apocalyptic, but they had to go another thousand miles.
Thursday, January 29th
Resident Evil has been around for over 30 games, but we still can’t defeat all the zombies in video games. Perhaps finishing the job is The Midnight Walkers (Early Access), a first-person extraction shooter set in a megamall with a timed poison gas system. Calyx (Early Access) is an RTS that pits conventional military forces against a steady stream of ravenous plants. Feastopia is an atypical edible roguelite city-building game inspired by Against The Storm, where you have to feed your infant god increasingly better food or you’ll end up on the menu. Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator is a self-explanatory sequel/advanced version of Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator. Cairn is a thoughtful, intense mountaineering adventure from the creators of Furi and Haven. I Hate This Place is a comic book-inspired survival craft horror in the Darkwood tradition. It follows an 80’s girl as she investigates a mysterious horned man while battling spiders and mutants. Don’t Stop, Girlypop is a Y2K arena shooter with a sherbet vein, a crystal flip phone in one hand and some kind of pink chrome lipstick launcher in the other. Code Vein 2 is Bandai Namco’s latest anime, and it’s a Souls-like anime with a time-traveling, fixing the past and saving NPCs setting, and some great character designs and costumes. There’s an octopus gunship that swings bells, and his buddy’s corset is an X-ray screen. discuss.
Friday, January 30th
Half Sword (Early Access) is a frightening physics-based medieval combat game with mouse movement and swing. Expect quite a bit of crunching and visceral sounds. It’s time for a remake of the turn-based mecha epic Front Mission 3. Oh, I remember briefly playing this on the PS1. In the end, I think Alundra 2 seduced me away from it.
Question in comment thread: How do I stop trailers from autoplaying on my Steam game page when I shuffle the media display at the top? I find myself shitting my pants every day when I have a few tabs open. One day, Gabe Newell will pay for his crimes. In the short term, the RPS team is thinking about Hightail, Deep Rock Galactic, Yakuza, Arknights Endfield, and various other secret things this week.
what are you doing? I don’t think anything good will come of it. Let us know if there are any recommended games that we skipped. I was really appalled by your indifference on this point, so I left some out. Don’t let me tell you what I like. Show us you have some guts and backbone! Although she’s different from the woman in Code Vein 2.
