While the studio has expanded far beyond its trivia roots over the last three decades, Jackbox Games still has a special knack for drawing players in with clever hooks, sharp writing, and low-barrier party chaos. The Jackbox Party Pack 12 marks the second numbered installment in a row with zero sequels, ports, or remakes. Instead, it delivers five completely original games—We Forgot a Card, MegaPals, Idol Factions, Debate and Switch, and Hyperface—each its own style of par

Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun 2 For the Emprah! As part of my ongoing midlife crisis, I’ve been playing a lot of games from my childhood.That includes a lot of “Doom clones” and other seminal titles, and I think Boltgun 2 would fit right in. While I felt like the original Boltgun was missing a few factors to make it a classic, Boltgun 2 goes a long way toward addressing my gripes while adding a whole new character, new weapons, and a branching narrative to encourage re

Theos: Cities of Myth looks poised to deliver the modernized Zeus successor fans have wanted for years, striking a smart balance between classic isometric charm and much-needed quality-of-life overhauls. The three-chapter Athens demo is live on Steam now, with the full game launching on PC on November 4

But where a game like ARC Raiders pits you against towering, militarized industrial mechs, Gravebound asks a much sillier question: what if humanity was wiped out because we gave our home appliances Wi-Fi?

Screenshot: Soggy Froggy Playdate Season 3 is here. And even though the console and all of its accessories are currently sold out on the Playdate store—which is a bummer; I went to buy a pizza box cover just to discover that the entire storefront is empty—Panic plans to have more hardware available later this year. In the meantime, current owners can look forward to their weekly Season 3 deliveries, with the first two games dropping just yesterday. One of those launch titles

I’ll be keeping a close eye on Beat, Heart, Beat as it heads toward the finish line. It’s an incredibly fascinating intersection of midwest emo grunge, rhythm mechanics, and avant-garde art. The highly specific—and punishingly addictive—gameplay loop makes it a unique standout in the indie rhythm space.

Despite its heavy origins, Dancing with Ghosts remains an uplifting and deeply cozy experience. You follow Mai, a 15-year-old girl struggling with severe depression after the death of her parents. She befriends Pim, an 11-year-old ghost visible only to her. The narrative boldly tackles complex concepts like loss, depression, and suicide, but it juxtaposes these difficult themes with gentle gameplay designed around a singular, hopeful message: the best way to heal yourself is

If you’re a fan of retro game content, video game history, or just curious about Alien Breed, you should definitely check out this title. I don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side, but I never thought the Alien Breed games were great even for their time, so you sort of have to go into the whole thing with academic curiosity or some thick nostalgia goggles.

Insomniac aimed for a prestige, character-driven blockbuster, but missed the mark, leaving players with a flawed brawler that never quite figures out who its hero is supposed to be.

Like its predecessor, Toem 2 highly encourages thorough exploration. While you don’t have to complete every quest in an area to move on, you’ll probably want to. After all, who wants to leave a startled bear without his jam, or refuse to help a worm control the growth of strange vines that make her sneeze? The sequel includes larger areas with different themes than the original, making for even more joy in discovery.

I would love more than anything to come in and say that the reviews have it all wrong. That the Steam Early Access reviewers don’t know what they’re talking about. But the “Mixed” average review score for the Early Access product tells a lot of what you need to know about the game itself. My friends were right to pass on crewing this vessel.

I’m going to be keeping an eye on anything Torchlight Games does in the future, because False Hero is a brilliant game. It’s easily in my top games of the year list, and made me feel that sense of wonder that Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls did all those years ago.

Screenshot: Train Sim World 7 Dovetail Games has released its latest Train Sim World, already onto the seventh iteration in the long running train sim series. If you’re not familiar with it (and how could you not be, at this point?) Train Sim World is basically a train playground. You are the conductor, and you can play with all sorts of trains–from steam locomotives to modern diesel giants. If you’d rather drive around an electric commuter train getting passengers to their s

Therefore, the IGS Classic Arcade collection is a rare opportunity to play these Taiwanese arcade games that you might not have ever heard of. Which makes sense, because a lot of these games were released around the time when games–and arcades especially–were transitioning to 3D graphics.

This exact type of browser-based, room-code casualness makes Jackbox Party Pack games so accessible and alluring for casual audiences—and Trivia Murder Party 3 continues that. Just now in a standalone format. But there are some extras that make this not only a standout title for Jackbox Studios, but also make playing with strangers even easier.

Screenshot: Cosmic Fear While I’ve played a few great games that could be classified as “walking simulators,” the vast majority of these types of games aren’t great. Sometimes it's the indulgence in the surreal, or the lack of meaningful progression or meaningful impetus to see what’s behind the next door, et that kills it. Cosmic Fear isn’t the best of the genre, but it’s a rare example of a game that sits in the middle ground. It doesn’t fall victim to the worst of the over

Because Brazilian Drug Dealer 4 just reskins a lot of weapons and enemies to function like their Quake counterparts, I felt right at home running around and blasting… okay, whatever the hell it is I’m blasting. Honestly, I have only a vague clue as to what’s happening here. While I think being Brazilian might help a bit with the context, even then the entire thing feels like an inside joke I’m not a part of.

Ultimately, Monowave feels like one of those indie games I would cover years ago in an attempt to prove that video games were art, showcasing titles that highlight the visuals while ignoring the fact that they are barely games at all. For the record: all video games are art. I don’t need to validate that anymore. But not all art is good, and as a game, Monowave is not good. (I’m so sorry.)

Sometimes it feels like you can’t open Steam without seeing a new roguelike deckbuilder for sale. Don’t get me wrong: I love the genre, but it gets a bit stale after a while. That’s why a game like Shroom and Gloom feels so fresh.

The one thing from the playthrough that really stood out was that voice made a lot of difference. At one point when the kids were being swamped by monsters, someone yelled “it’s because they can hear you!” “I’m sorry, I’m just scared!” was the reply “Be scared quietly!” That should be the game’s tagline.