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 new games of 2020.
Hellbound
Steam page
Release: August 4
Developer: Saibot Studios
Price: $14.99 | £11.39 | AU$21.50
If the wait for Serious Sam 4 is getting to you, Hellbound looks a treat: it's a speed-oriented first-person shooter with some pretty obvious nods to Doom and Quake. In other words, it's all about lightning-quick reflexes and gratuitous gibs, as the protagonist (who's name by the way is 'Hellgore') shoots his muscular way through lava-strewn levels. It looks really good in action, and it definitely worth a look if you consider even Doom Eternal to be a too-impure take on the genre.
UnderMine
Steam page
Release: August 6
Developer: Thorium
Price: $19.99 | £15.49 | AU$28.95
The most noteworthy retro-styled roguelike this week is UnderMine: a top-down dungeon crawler with gorgeously crisp pixel-art. Of course, it's a modern roguelike so you won't lose everything upon death: some progress is saved, most notably in the form of characters you can rescue who will then set up shop in the game's hub area. While UnderMine doesn't bring anything breathtakingly new to the genre, it definitely looks above-average when it comes to presentation.
Scrutinized
Steam page
Release: August 5
Developer: Reflect Studios
Price: $9.99 | £7.89 | AU$14.50
Scrutinized is a fascinating hybrid: criminal investigation? Check. Voyeurism? Yep. First-person survival horror? It's got that too. You play as a criminal analyst who spends the bulk of their time thoroughly invading the privacy of various suspects in a suspect small town. Every day you'll need to file reports based on information you've gathered from suspects' social media, email and phone calls. By night, you'll need to make sure no one kills you. If that sounds too intense, there's also a casual mode that seems to do away with some of the heart-pounding horror elements, allowing you to rifle through people's private info without too much tension.
There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
Steam page
Release: August 7
Developer: Draw Me A Pixel
Price: $12.99 | £10.29 | AU$18.50
There Is No Game is a zany point-and-click adventure game that could very well not be a game at all, for all I can tell. At least, it appears to be a comedic piece of software about videogames themselves. It's apparently a decently funny experience, so say the 400+ reviews it has already amassed on Steam. If the likes of The Stanley Parable and Pony Island grab you, this feels like something you should play.
The Henry Stickmin Collection
Steam page
Release: August 8
Developer: PuffballsUnited
Price: $14.99 | £11.39 | AU$21.50
If you ever played the Henry Stickmin games on Newgrounds, you probably already own this: it collects all of the previous five browser-based adventures, applies a conspicuous layer of polish, and adds an entirely new sixth game to the series. It's basically a choose your own adventure affair, and if you don't already have a fondness for the Henry Stickmin games, it's hard to say how much mileage you'll get here. Still, these are widely beloved games with a jolly self of humour that are definitely worth further investigation.
These games were released between August 3 and 10 2020. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.
