This fall, we’re in for a very busy three months of new video games. As soon as September rolls around, we’ll be drowning in exciting games like Onimusha: Way of the Sword, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Orbitals. But it turns out that the busy season started a little earlier than planned this year: This week has been shockingly excellent for new video games. That’s especially true for PC players, who have no shortage of great games to check out this weekend.
Head over to Steam and you can pick up a handful of solid new games right now. That includes a sequel to a GOTY-nominated adventure game, the best Star Wars game in years, and a wonderfully crude riff on Vampire Survivors. Here are our five game recommendations for your weekend.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
Asobo Studio established itself as a power player in 2022 with A Plague Tale: Requiem, a cinematic stealth game that would go on to land a Game of the Year nomination at The Game Awards. Four years later, it followed that success with Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. The new prequel continues the series’ knack for emotional storytelling, but it trades in stealth for more traditional action. While that idea has its pros and cons, gamexplore’s Willa Rowe still praised Resonance for its excellent character work and detailed environments.
Star Wars: Zero Company
“Star Wars meets XCOM” is one of those elevator pitches that makes perfect sense the first time you hear it. Bit Reactor’s tactics game delivers on that promise with a systems-heavy tactics game that gives players lots of room to build out their squad of ragtag heroes. Critics, including gamexplore’s own Elijah Gonzalez, are singing its praises, saying that it lives up to XCOM’s legacy while expanding the Star Wars universe in a fresh way. Just how much are people digging it? It’s currently floating around the top five all-time Star Wars games, according to Metacritic. That’s quite a feat.
If you’ve never played Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, now’s your moment to rectify that. The PS3 classic is now available on PC for the first time ever as part of Metal Gear Solid Master Collection: Vol. 2, alongside Peace Walker and Ghost Babel. All three of those games are worth playing, but Metal Gear Solid 4 is the one you really need to play at some point in your life. The stealth-action game is hauntingly timely, taking the military industrial complex to task while reflecting on the role video games take in propping it up. Its gameplay hasn’t aged quite as well, but that’s not enough to ruin what might be the most topical video game available right now.
Blood Dungeon
If you’re looking for something lighter, Blood Dungeon could become your weekend obsession. The latest game from Wheel World developer Messhof is a lo-fi riff on Vampire Survivors that turns it into a 2D platformer. It’s not reinventing Poncle’s “bullet heaven” formula by any means, but it’s a well-executed treat that puts its emphasis on high score chasing over pure survival. It quickly became one of my favorite indies of the year when I played it earlier this month, and I have a feeling a lot of people will feel the same once they get hands on with it.
Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder
For those looking for something a bit more strategic, Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder might be this week’s best hidden gem. The title tells you just about everything you need to know: it’s a minimalistic citybuilding roguelike where you build small towns and discover synergies between your buildings. gamexplore’s Josh Broadwell called it a cross between Cities: Skylines and Balatro, which is a perfect way to describe a strategy game where you can rack up unexpectedly huge combos by playing your cards just right.
