Scary PC games to play on the spookiest day of the year

Concept art from Guild Wars 2's Halloween event, Shadow of the Mad King. (Image credit: ArenaNet)

It's Friday the 13th. It's also a full moon. That makes today double spooky.

According to our friends at Space.com, this full moon will be exceptionally small, which doesn't really add to the spookiness, but doesn't detract from it. A full moon is a full moon. Also, this full moon is known as the 'Harvest Moon,' which in my opinion slightly adds to its spookiness.

It isn't October yet, but we all know Halloween lasts for over a month, so I'm counting this as a Halloween-adjacent Friday the 13th Harvest Moon, which makes today the spookiest day of the year, if you ask me.

I'm going to push back on anyone who says that Halloween itself is the de facto spookiest day of the year. A day when people dress up like The Joker is definitely not spooky, unless you consider the frequency of Joker-centric movies to be spooky. (He's not that good of a character and yet he keeps showing up for some reason. I believe that it's a conspiracy to sell clown makeup to adults who would otherwise not purchase any clown makeup—that is, non-clowns.)

My point is that if you've been thinking you have to wait until the middle of October to break out the spooky game you've been meaning to play, that is absolutely not the case. Today marks the beginning of spooky season.

A game I recommend every year is Lone Survivor, a rare horror game where the payoff at the end is one of the best parts. For something newer, Andy C tells me that Darkwood is a "hell of a thing." Tim, who will probably spend the evening playing Destiny 2 or Hearthstone, neither of which are spooky, has thrown out Limbo and Inside as good candidates for tonight. Dusk also feels appropriate.

Technically, if you live on the east coast of the US or in the UK or Australia, the moon won't turn full until sometime after midnight, on the 14th, but technicalities aren't spooky, so let's not make a big deal about it.

Space.com has an up-to-date full moon calendar if, like me, you're interested in the moon, and how much of it we'll be seeing at any given time. The next full moon lands on October 13—not a Friday, sadly, but a Sunday—and is called the Hunter's Moon. I'll mark that down now as a good day to play The Hunter: Call of the Wild.

Have a spooky game recommendation for today, the spookiest day? Share it in the comments if you like.

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.