(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
2023 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPSes: Finest gunplay
On an average day about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that’s a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So that’s exactly what we’ve done. If nothing catches your fancy this week, we’ve gathered the best PC games you can play right now and a running list of the 2023 games that are launching this year.
Super 56
Steam page
Release: October 12
Developer: Onion Soup Interactive
As the name implies, Super 56 contains 56 mini-games, and the objective is to clear them all before running out of lives. All are designed around one button, and the genres vary wildly: there’s a garish 2.5D platformer, a psychedelic Doom clone, a kart racer, and, uh, even seemingly a flagrant Ace Attorney knock-off. Half the fun is being dished up a new mini-game and guffawing at the never-very-subtle references to games of antiquity. Every run presents the challenges in a different order, and rather diabolically, the speed of all games increases as you progress through a run. Sounds like bullshit! Good bullshit. There are global leaderboards, collectibles that can tweak the rules of each run, and shameless abuse of a CRT shader. Chris enjoyed the demo earlier this year.
The Coffin of Andy and Leyley
Steam page
Release: October 13
Developer: Nemlei
A top down adventure about a sibling cannibal duo. Not sure how much more info you need! This is classed a “walk-n-talk adventure with light puzzling” by the devs, and stars Andrew and Ashley Graves, a brother and sister in their early 20s. This sibling relationship is described as “extremely toxic”, and not just because they kill and eat humans. Look: probably the most important thing to know about The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is that it is not for kids or the faint at heart. It’s an Early Access affair: the first episode is included in this EA build, with more to come in the following months.
Submachine: Legacy
Steam page
Release: October 14
Developers: Mateusz Skutnik
If a point and click adventure about sibling cannibals is too risqué for you, then here’s a more conventional example. Submachine: Legacy is set in an “underground world of submerged machines”, and a lot of the puzzle-solving concerns repairing these bizarre objects. Like Mateusz Skutnik’s earlier adventure Slice of Sea, everything is hand-drawn, and a peacefully melancholy soundtrack glazes the whole thing in a meditative, unrushed mood.
Manny’s
Steam page
Release: October 13
Developer: Bonemeal Productions
This first-person retro-styled horror has a brilliant premise: what appears at first to be a simple castaway narrative undergoes a twist when the deserted island is found to have a fully operational fast food restaurant. Not only that, but the workers in said restaurant do not seem to understand that their situation is out of the ordinary. Oh, and the “manager” is a disembodied voice barking commands from the deep beyond. If you like your horror bleakly funny and surreal, this is probably the best of the half-dozen or so retro-horror games that released last week. It has a fishing mini-game too.
Rungore
Steam page
Release: October 12
Developer: Your_Mom’s_HP, RavenJm
Launched into Early Access last week, Rungore is a card battling rogue-like with a focus on breaking all the rules. Not only is the pace much faster than its peers (think Slay the Spire, Loop Hero) but it lets you do some really dumb stuff, like play 100 cards at once. Why not? There are 15 playable heroes, as many levels, and “meta progression that is not cringe”. Rungore will stay in Early Access for up to five months while the devs add lots of more stuff, including new heroes, levels and NG+.
