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.
Webfishing
Steam page
Release: October 12
Developer: lamedeveloper
This is a social fishing game where you wander around a nice, jaggedly retro world, find a place to fish, and then fish. Other people—or animals, as the case is here—also fish, and if you feel like it you can make friends with them. As you fish, you’ll end up finding or earning new cosmetics so that you can stand out in the crowd, all the better to make friends, though you could alternatively make friends by playing guitar uninvited in public (hey, it’s a fantasy world!). If none of this appeals you can punch your friends, but make no mistake, this is a fishing game. It’s sitting on an Overwhelming Positive status with over 600 reviews, so it’s apparently a one.
Last Time I Saw You
Steam page
Release: October 10
Developer: Maboroshi Artworks
A nostalgic coming of age story with magical realism elements, you say? Set in the 1980s? In a small Japanese town? There are some for whom Last Time I Saw You will tick every box, and it definitely looks the part, with gently atmospheric hand drawn art and at least one Shibu Inu. It’s a sidescrolling narrative adventure with some forgiving action and puzzles, drawing its light weirdness from the familiar trove of Japanese folklore. Definitely one to wishlist for a wistful Sunday afternoon.
Bad Parenting 1: Mr. Red Face
Steam page
Release: October 10
Developers: 2OO2
The first in a series, Mr. Red Face is a horror mini that has prompted at least a handful of YouTubers to make exaggerated scared-to-death faces in their video thumbnails (why do they always look like they’re about to crap their pants?). It does look good, albeit very much in the established style of PS1-aping retro schlock, but it’s the narrative set up that appeals to me. Mr. Red Face is a fictional character designed to teach children good behaviour, but his innocent beginnings morph into terrifying urban myth and then, inevitably, he becomes real. Definitely one for those who prefer their horror disturbing rather than gory.
Decline’s Drops
Steam page
Release: October 11
Developer: Moulin aux Bulles Studio
A promising looking platformer with combat inspired by Smash Bros. Make no mistake though, this is a proper platformer, with proper levels inspired by the “level design mastery” demonstrated in Yoshi’s Island and Shovel Knight. There are six worlds hand-drawn with what strikes me as a distinctly French sensibility, and there’s also a Genetically Modified Monkey, for some reason.
Dungeon Antiqua
Steam page
Release: October 10
Developer: Shiromofu Factory
Not much to say about this one: it nails the Game Boy RPG aesthetic so precisely that it could very well be exhumed from the archives of a defunct 1980s studio, UFO 50 style. Though the combat looks pretty standard for an old school JRPG / dungeon crawler hybrid, there’s apparently some hacking elements, and the maps are randomly generated. Combined with the “wide variety of professions” it looks like you’ll be able to suck many, many hours out of this one, assuming you’ve got a Steam Deck: I can’t imagine wanting to play this at a desk.