New PC games to look out for launching in October

After a few quiet months for major PC releases, things are beginning to warm up again as we tumble inexorably towards GTA6’s schedule-shattering release date next month. October is full to the gunwales with exciting new PC games, and below I’ve pulled together a list of the most notable ones. Forgive me in advance for quoting myself in a few of these entries, but it just so happens that I’ve had the opportunity to preview a bunch of these recently. Right, onwards!

Diego Arguello recently reviewed this for The Wand Report, finding a characteristically solid but familiar-feeling arcade flight sim, “Up there, in the skies, after completing a successful mission,” he writes. “There’s a specific tone and rhythm that is tempting to seek over and over, even when the accompanying experience is overly familiar.” Read Diego’s full Ace Combat 8 review here.

The proposition of a high-stakes racer that blends the Star Wars universe, roguelike progression, and Burnout-style vehicular tussling is a potent one. Developer Fuse Games, which includes former Need For Speed and Burnout creatives, is perfectly placed to turn this enticing idea into something memorable, and I, for one, am ready to fully embrace a game that makes high-speed cornering potentially fatal.

As I write this, you find me in the process of playing Hellraiser: Revival for review. So far, it has proven confrontational and uniquely harrowing, but it’s the manner in which it deals with the adult themes at its center – healthy BDSM kinks versus self-destructive impulses, the sometimes symbiotic relationship between pleasure and pain, and an attempt to balance male and female nudity and experiences – that makes it such an intriguing release.

Along with Outer Wilds, Into The Breach, and Ico, The Witness is one of a rarefied handful of games that I will insist anyone who will listen to me should play. The kind of game that recontextualises the art form and leaves you desperate for more. Ten years since the release of Thekla’s puzzle masterpiece (and 18 since his first solo project, Braid), Jonathan Blow takes up the director’s reins for a third time with Order of the Sinking Star. A multifaceted, expansive game (it features more than 1000 hand-crafted puzzles), it’s sure to conceal even more below the surface than is apparent in what we’ve seen so far.

It was easy to look down on the (mostly) necessary suffering of individuals in Frostpunk and quickly move on to the next survival-crucial decision without too much handwringing. Permafrost delivers some karmic retribution by making you get up close and personal with your blackening fingertips. The chilly survival sandbox game can be played alone or with three friends, and alongside all the expected scavenging, hunting, and crafting mechanics, tosses in an unforgiving frostbite mechanic. Say adios to your extremities.

Animal lovers will be delighted to learn that Planet Zoo 2 not only expands on every aspect of the first game’s menagerie management, including overhauled aviaries and flying birds, the addition of aquariums, Planet Coaster 2’s pathfinding, and first-person exploration, but also introduces wildlife reserves. You can release your animals into these natural expanses (including the fish!) and manage the rewilding process. There’s even a little golf buggy to get about in.

Set in an alternate 19th-century Eastern Europe, Valor Mortis presents a genuinely fresh take on the increasingly overencumbered Soulslike subgenre, blending first-person melee combat with a grim Napoleonic backdrop. The game, created by the devs behind flow-state first-person slasher Ghostrunner, casts you as a resurrected soldier gifted supernatural powers by their predicament, and casts Vincent Cassel as Napoleon himself.

Some of the most memorable multiplayer experiences I’ve enjoyed have taken place in the Mud and SnowRunner games, but if you don’t have friends prepared to put in the required nerdwork, the barrier to entry can feel a little high. Which is why Over The Hill is such an enticing prospect – a My First ‘Runner that leans into Saber’s series’ obsessive vehicular reverie and revelry, expansive worlds, and tough terrain, but makes it all a bit more cosy.

The first Boltgun was a joyous homage to ‘90s FPS classics, and a quick look at the trailer for its sequel reveals similar ambitions – which is, frankly, exactly what I want. This time protagonist Malum Caedo is joined by a second playable character, Sister of Battle Nyra Veyrath, who introduces a slide move. The soundtrack sports more huge riffs from Doom and Wolfenstein composer Mick Gordon, and the branching campaign has been significantly expanded – hopefully the first game’s slightly vague signposting has been tightened up for this outing.

One of two monumental series in this list returning to its 2D roots this month, Belmont’s Curse picks up the thread of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse 37 years after that game’s release on the NES (or Famicom, depending on your location). Set 23 years later, Belmont’s Curse hands players control of Trevor Belmont’s and Sypha Belnades’ daughter, Rose Belmont, who turns vampire slaying into an acrobatic art form as she whips ghouls into the afterlife.

Snapshot Games’ digital interpretation of Isaac Childres’s dauntingly complex board game of the same name has been in Early Access since July last year, but it’s going 1.0 this month. I had a very enjoyable chat with Head of Production Hristo Petkov and Snapshot CEO and X-COM creator Julian Gollop in July this year, in which we discussed the benefits and pitfalls of Early Access.

Another Early Access game, I wrote about Ratatan’s impending July 1.0 release back in June, but that date was pushed back to this month. Those extra weeks of polish are unlikely to harm this already brilliant rhythm-action roguelike.

“Protagonist, and recently undead skatepunk mallrat, Davy may be the weakest monster in his post-apocalyptic world, but as a card-carrying zombie he has different concerns to you or I. If you can’t be killed there’s really no need for dodging or blocking – such trivialities are the preserve of the living, and similarly fragile entities. Those genre-mainstay actions have been tossed out with the coffin water and, instead, extreme aggression is fully encouraged in what the studio terms, ‘Funky Zombie Action’.” – read my full Stupid Never Dies preview here.

Like Castlevania, the Final Fantasy series’ roots (and arguably true spirit) lie in its 2D origins. Resonance leans into the path carved out by Octopath Traveler to become the first HD-2D Final Fantasy game, and it’s a looker (although, for my money, not quite on a par with Octopath’s sepia-tinged lustre). The game returns to turn-based combat and, through a rebuilt Visions system, embroils iconic characters – including Cloud – in its far-reaching story

You probably haven’t heard of Call of Duty. The plucky, little-known FPS series has been chipping away at growing an audience since 2003. This latest attempt introduces a new global conflict set in the Korean Peninsula, and splits missions between series vet Captain John Price and private Park Hyun Jun, a South Korean recruit. The extraction-focused DMZ mode returns, there’s a new high-stakes multiplayer mode called Collateral that tips its hat to Counter-Strike, and (for punchy rig owners, at least) ray tracing across everything. Here’s hoping this is the game that finally sees COD break through to the mainstream.

“Demons’ Night Fever turns the genre on its head. There are familiar elements, certainly – the game plays out on a familiar-feeling grid, you can perform a limited number of actions during your turn, and you trade blows with enemy units. But in this roguelike twist, rather than strategically positioning your units and trying to keep them alive or grow their capabilities, here your units (called peons) do whatever they want unbidden and you’re actively encouraged to kill them.” – read my full Demons’ Night Fever preview here.

“Red Nun’s Legacy is shaping up to be a faithful, and loving continuation of a cherished series. Modern tech has given it a layer of glow-up polish which includes some handsome lighting effects, but don’t worry: the game remains just as dark and oppressive as its forebears. The addition of melee weapons should provide players with a wider range of options, too, and allow for more dynamic decision making in stressful situations.” – read my full Red Nun’s Legacy preview here.

There is a new Harvest Moon game out this month (Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea, releasing on Oct 15), but while Natsume’s sequels have strayed increasingly far from what made the original games special, Nippon Ichi’s Village in the Shade feels like a much more convincing spiritual successor to those. Gorgeous 2D visuals, satisfying farming mechanics, homecrafting, and a strong sense of local culture make this feel like a proper Harvest Moon game, even though the established recipe has been seasoned with an after-dark cozy-horror element. You can already play the Japanese version on Steam, but the official Western release with English, French, and Spanish language support will be ready to pull up at the end of the month.

As is befitting of a game about a man with only 66 days to live, Phantom Blade Zero eschews methodical progress for breathless action. Blending Sekiro’s precision parrying and punishing difficulty with the over-the-top spectacle and weapon-swapping of Devil May Cry, S-Game Studio has deftly sidestepped Soulslike comparisons and concocted a fluid and frenetic combat system on which to drape its Wuxia lore.