Take a look at the tiny, deadly, bug-filled world of Grounded

We enjoyed (and were terrified) by the build of Grounded we played in June. The game imagines Honey I Shrunk the Kids as a four-player co-op survival game. As you make your way through the grass forest, you have to work your way around enormous insects. Not all are hostile, but spiders really, really are.

Fraser describes it like this: "Navigating the garden means learning the rules of a whole new ecosystem where the familiar becomes alien. Every first contact is risky because who knows if the bug is going to eat you, ignore you, or create a big toxic cloud that chokes you. Even grass creates complications. It's so tall that it obscures everything, so you need to climb if you want to see where you're going, and each blade is as thick as a tree."

The new trailer from today's Xbox game show showed what looked like some base building, as well as encounters with ants, spiders, and a particularly aggressive ladybird.

So yeah, This all sounds horrible for arachnophobia, but it's a great idea for co-op teamwork. Grounded is due to arrive in Steam Early Access on July 28 this month.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.