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 2024 games that are launching this year.
Troma Presents Poultrygeist
Steam page
Release: June 11
Developer: Big Weasel Lil Weasel LLC, Mike Fallek
Troma is a cult film company specialising in schlocky comedy horror, and Poultrygeist (the game) is a sequel of sorts to the 2006 film Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. As you have probably gathered by now, the satire here is far from sophisticated. In fact, it’s dumb as shit! That’s the Troma way. This sequel-as-game is a visual novel about “the murder of a chicken and destruction of a lawn mower that teeters the city closer to a riot and an even more powerful looming magical threat.” Notwithstanding any aversion to the visual novel as a genre, I cannot imagine why fans of narrative-driven computer adventures would not want to see how this one plays out. Or else, wait for the forthcoming Toxic Crusaders beat ’em up.
SunnySide
Steam page
Release: June 15
Developer: RainyGames
SunnySide takes the core rhythms of cosy life games and drapes it in anime cloth. Set in a quiet town in the Japanese countryside, there’s the obligatory farming, resource gathering, homemaking and socialising (yes, there’s romance). Some aspects of your routine can eventually be automated, chiefly gardening: it may come as a relief to hear that watering systems exist in the SunnySide universe. Indeed, offering a modern spin on these chore aspects of life games is part of SunnySide’s sales pitch, with the Steam page warning that “SunnySide is a Farm Sim with no watering cans, shipping containers, gift based socializing, mayonnaise machines, or endless walking”. It also places a greater emphasis on a slowly unfolding narrative concerning the citizens of the town.
Messy Up
Steam page
Release: June 14
Developers: Liquid Meow
Here’s another one of those pastel-hued local multiplayer games that have become very popular in the wake of Overcooked. This one has a premise that appeals to me: one team plays as pets, the other as humans. The pets’ objective is to destroy the world, chiefly because their human owners aren’t giving them enough attention, while the human team needs to put a stop to their pets’ nefarious ways. There are various game modes, lots of pets to unlock, and the levels take place in varied locales such as home, the beach, the office, and a castle. Watching cats destroy things (that don’t belong to me) never gets old.
Psychroma
Steam page
Release: June 12
Developer: Rocket Adrift
Psychroma is a neon-hued psychological horror sidescroller with some of the most meticulously detailed pixel art I’ve seen in a while. Set in a “haunted cybernetic house” somewhere in an unrecognisable future Toronto, you take the role of a drifter who has the peculiar skill of being able to experience time out of order. This strange house is a refuge of sorts for people rendered homeless by a ruthless housing crisis, and part of the appeal of Psychroma is the ability to absorb other inhabitants’ “digital ghosts” to access their stories. This looks like a richly atmospheric experience, and there’s a demo if you’d like to try it out first.
The Powder Toy
Steam page
Release: June 15
Developer: The Powder Toy Team
The Powder Toy has been around since 2008, but last week marks its first appearance on Steam. It’s basically a particle physics sandbox with a huge emphasis on user-generated content, and with it you can simulate explosions, construct “miniaturized” power plants, and even build your own CPUs. Those are just the examples taken from Steam; the possibilities are limited only by your own curiosity. It’s a weirdly powerful simulator, and a real labour of love, especially since it’s completely free to download.