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.
WrestleQuest
Steam page
Release: August 22
Developer: Mega Cat Studios
Joining Golf Story and Sports Story in the burgeoning micro-genre of sports-themed retro RPGs is WrestleQuest. It's about a rookie wrestler who wants to hit the big time, but you shouldn't expect a realistic rags-to-riches tale: our hero will need to beat the crap out of monsters and robots, among other things. Other wrestlers too, of course, and the turn-based combat is all about flashy wrestling moves which actually look really adorable in this pixel art setting. An adorable wrestling game? Apparently, yes. It's a very colourful adventure with a very arch sense of humor.
Sprawl
Steam page
Release: August 24
Developer: Maeth
Sprawl is a single-player first-person shooter blending Titanfall's wallrunning pilot movement with a grim cyberpunk setting. Call it a boomer shooter if you want (others are) but its retro elements are not as obvious as some of its contemporaries: it actually looks more like a Xbox 360 game running at double speed than something from the '90s. Protagonist Seven is a "disgraced special ops super soldier" stuck in a dense walled city with shady military operatives on her tail. You've got to escape the city, and that will involve shedding lots of blood, quite often from the sky thanks to Sprawl's focus on high speed aerial combat.
King of the Hat
Steam page
Release: August 25
Developers: Hat Games
A ridiculous indie game about high-stakes hat warfare. Not a typo: you use hats to murder your enemies in King of the Hat, which is described as a "2D party platformer". Using your hat to strike bastard opponents comes with risk however, because if your enemies jump on your hat you die. Why do you die? Why ask questions? What's your problem? King of the Hat can be played single-player but is clearly designed as a local multiplayer experience, though online PvP is supported too. This was funded on Kickstarter back in 2017, so a lot of time and effort has gone into it. Especially the washing machine sprites.
Parasocial | パラソーシャル
Steam page
Release: August 26
Developer: Chilla's Art
Chilla's Art has been doling out short and terrifying horror games at a frightening pace for over five years now, with the most popular being The Convenience Store. This latest missive follows the misfortunes of a livestreamer, and like other Chilla's Art games a lot of tension is built through carrying out mundane real world tasks: preparing food, going to the shops, and of course, hosting a stream. It's a first-person affair with a distinctly retro look, though it's not as deliberately obtuse and ugly as other '90s inspired horror games.
Bee Island
Steam page
Release: August 26
Developer: Lemma Arts
A game about building a giant bee hive (that's floating in the ocean, for some reason) and then defending it from well-armed scoundrels. The game is split in two, basically: building and optimising your hive is carried out from a top down point of view, while the defence sections are carried out in first-person. You'll get to build all manner of fixed weaponry (ballistas, missile launchers, etc) and then control them manually when the shit hits the fan. It's a neat idea, and there are bees.
