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 2019.
Death Crown
Steam page
Release: August 23
Developer: C05MONAUT
Price: $9.99 | £9.19 | AU$14.50
Death Crown is a real time strategy game with a striking 1-bit aesthetic similar to last year's acclaimed Return of the Obra Dinn. It has a pretty cool premise as well: you play as Death, tasked with punishing humanity for "its overconfidence". The developer describes Death Crown as having "clear strategic gameplay", which is a relief, given the graphical style. Best of all, it boasts local cooperative and PvP modes. If the idea of traipsing through the kingdom of humanity "sowing death and destruction" sounds appealing to you, then, well, that's scary. And this game is for you.
Hobs
Steam page
Release: August 20
Developer: tenekekafalarstudios
Price: Free
Hobs (not to be mistaken for Runic Games' Hob – Google is certainly confused) is a free-to-play turn-based card game that's played entirely online. Launched into Early Access last week, it's already amassed over 700 reviews and a "Very Positive" rating, though if some user reviews are to be believed, there's only a single ranked playlist and the learning curve is quite steep. That's likely to appeal to a lot of you, though. All of the game's core features are already there, with the game expected to launch into 1.0 about this time next year.
Trollskog
Steam page
Release: August 20
Developer: Andreas Carlson
Price: $11.99 | £9.29 | AU$16.95
Here's another real-time strategy, this time with a settlement building flavour. Apart from looking very nice, Trollskog also has the distinction of being the only RTS I know of that's steeped in Swedish folklore. You'll be settling and protecting villages in verdant Scandinavian forests which are "teeming with magical creatures and their cities". The current build has around three hours worth of quest content, with the final version of the game set to get more units, structures and quests. Version 1.0 is expected in about eight months.
Plunge
Steam page
Release: August 23
Developer: Spooky Buns
Price: $7.99 | £5.79 | AU$11.50
Plunge is a bizarre roguelike puzzle game about escaping a "wacky medieval mega-prison". As you'll see, simply climbing out of a window, or prancing lightly over the perimeter fence, is not on the cards: the protagonist Billie must "plunge" downwards through increasingly hairy subterranean platforms. Billie will keep sliding in any direction until she hits an edge or an enemy, so tactical positioning is important. There are over 400 levels, selected at random (hence the roguelike tag), across three different "sections".
A Summer with the Shibu Inu
Steam page
Release: August 23
Developer: Quill Game Studios
Price: $8.99 | £6.19 | AU$12.95
It's a visual novel starring some very nice looking dogs. The menus have random facts about dogs, there's a "dog bark button" in the options menu, and I don't really know what else you need to know about this.
These games were released between August 19 and August 26 2019. Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.
