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 2022 games that are launching this year.
Bail or Jail
Steam page
Release: July 21
Developer: Free Style, Inc., Konami
Launch price: $16 | £12.39 | AU$23.16
Bail or Jail is an asymmetrical 3v1 game of tag, where a single monster chases down three humans in order to secure them in a holding cell, because that's what monsters do. It looks like a family-friendly, isometric take on Dead by Daylight, and while the concept is simple, each team's special abilities complicate things a tad. For example, the monster can track footprints and even clip through walls, among other things, while the human team has a lantern they can use to stun the monster if it gets too close. While it has a singleplayer component, Bail or Jail is probably better played with friends, either online or locally.
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms
Steam page
Release: July 21
Developer: Arc System Works
Launch price: $30 | £25 | AU$46.95
This retro-styled beat 'em up is loosely based on the 14th century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but don't expect a blow-by-blow retelling of that age old masterpiece. No, River City Saga inherits the comedic tone of earlier River City games, like River City Girls, while adding some RPG elements, and quite a bit of freedom when it comes to your play style. Adding character advancement and a complex narrative to a beat 'em up might sound dangerous, but the pixel art style is charming, and if nothing else, the music will keep you hooked.
Hell Pie
Steam page
Release: July 22
Developer: Sluggerfly
Launch price: $22.49 | £18 | AU$32.25
If your problem with 3D platformers is that they're not filled with toilet humour, Hell Pie has come to the rescue. Publisher Headup is very eager to let it be known that bad taste is the order of the day here—you play as the 'Demon of Bad Taste'—but whatever your feelings about its tone, this definitely looks like a competent modern 3D platformer in the vein of A Hat in Time or the recent Kao the Kangaroo revival. Expect vomit, gratuitous cartoon violence, nudity, and some running and jumping too, I guess.
Hazel Sky
Steam page
Release: July 20
Developer: Coffee Addict Studio
Launch price: $22.49 | £22.49 | AU$32.35
Hazel Sky is a narrative-driven adventure game about Shane, a young man sent to a distant island to train up as an engineer. If he fails to qualify as an engineer he'll be banished from his homeland, which seems pretty harsh, but it makes grim sense in this videogame context. You see, Shane's home is on a floating airborne island, so he'll have to use his engineering smarts to get back. On paper it sounds quite miserable, but Hazel Sky is shooting for something more meditative, as Shane struggles with his desire to pursue more personal goals in the face of an understandable fear of never returning home.
Realms of Magic
Steam page
Release: July 21
Developer: Polished Games
Launch price: $14 | £10.84 | AU$20.26
Realms of Magic has been in Early Access for a few years, but the 2D action RPG has just launched into 1.0. It's a fantasy take on Terraria and Starbound, basically, with more than a whiff of It Lurks Below about it too. Set in a pixelated open world, you'll choose your race and then the choice is yours: do you want to kill a bunch of stuff and watch numbers go up, just like Diablo? Or would you prefer to build and nurture a farm, gather resources, and make friends with imps? It's fairly open ended, in other words, and looks like the kind of game you could accidentally sink hundreds of hours into.
