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 2024 games that are launching this year.
Copycat
Steam page
Release: September 20
Developer: Spoonful of Wonder
Copycat is a narrative-driven adventure game starring Dawn, a domestic shelter cat with aspirations towards wildness who, as a result, doesn’t want to settle with any human adopter. She changes her mind when she’s adopted by Olive, an elderly woman with whom Dawn establishes a firm bond. She seems set to live the remainder of her life as a peaceful house cat, until a copycat comes along and steals Dawn’s place in the household. What follows is a ruminative story about belonging, family and abandonment, as Dan wanders the neighbourhood, being a cat, doing cat things, and imagining another life. I like it because it stars a cat.
Parking Garage Rally Circuit
Steam page
Release: September 20
Developer: Walaber Entertainment LLC
This racer looks like crap in the best way possible. It’s a precision-oriented affair set in repurposed parking garages, with a focus on mastery of tight circuits. While it’s retro-styled (the studio says it was going for a Sega Saturn look in particular) it is emphatically unchill like other contemporary retro racers like Hotshot Racing, Art of Rally, Horizon Chase Turbo etcetera. Sure, the controls aren’t realistic at all—the feel is definitely that of an arcade racer—but there are few relaxing high-speed straights or gentle curves in Parking Garage Rally Circuit. This is for people who like to get it right.
Toy Tactics
Steam page
Release: September 20
Developers: Kraken Empire
A really cool looking RTS where you spray paint your desired army formation onto the battlefield. Thanks to the bonkers, fully-simulated physics, watching your hapless minifigs stumble into nigh-impossible battles is probably just as satisfying as winning. Oh, and your minifigs are pretty varied: there are skeletons, samurai warriors, Roman legions—they’re “toys” after all. In addition to a handful of campaigns, there’s also a big sandbox mode, among others.
Slackers – Carts of Glory
Steam page
Release: September 19
Developer: Falling Saints
Here’s a game about a bunch of party lovers who realise they’re out of beer and must rush to the shops by the most impractical means possible: the shopping trolley. What follows are 16 bonkers downhill tracks through familiar suburban panoramas strewn with ridiculous obstacles and other vehicles . The shopping trolley has no brakes and no steering wheel, so maneuvering it is a bit of a challenge and the only way to slow down is to crash into stuff. Seems like a stoner take on Descenders.
Voids Vigil
Steam page
Release: September 17
Developer: caiys
Caiys is a prolific indie dev with a very distinctive art style. The creator of Skelly Selest and Straimium Immortaly already released a Vampire Survivors-inspired autobattler last year, in the form of Boneraiser Minions, but Voids Vigil takes another stab at the genre. There are a tonne of these games on Steam, but most of them look pretty shit: Caiys arcade credentials are well established at this point and as always, it looks gorgeous in action.