New video game highlights for this week – quick links
Halloween: The Game – 8 September
Games Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
‘It’s Halloween night, 1978, the unsuspecting families of the quiet suburban town of Haddonfield are making holiday preparations, and evil has made its way home. Take The Shape of Evil as Michael Myers or save your neighbours as a Hero of Haddonfield in Halloween, the ultimate asymmetrical horror sandbox.’
Note: This game has been banned in Australia as it ‘contains illicit drug use that is linked to an inventive or reward.’ It cannot be sold, hired, advertised or legally imported in the country.
Spawl Zero – 8 September
Games Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
‘Sprawl Zero is a first-person shooter inspired by 2000s console FPS games. Both the aesthetics and design sensibility call back to the Golden Age, where the genre evolved from shooting in corridors to building worlds. You play as FIVE, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier controlled by the Junta. Your directive is to eliminate SILAS, leader of the radical techno-religious group IMAGO-DEI. The city will plunge into chaos as all factions known and unknown grasp for the reins. Reconcile your truths or succumb to the SPRAWL.’
Valheim 1.0 full release – 9 September
Games Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2
‘Slain in battle, you have been carried to the tenth world. Here, in Valheim, you must conquer the realm and slay the monsters which Odin banished here long ago. Explore deep forests and freezing mountains, and build new settlements on the other side of vast seas – and gain the Allfather’s favour to become worthy of Valhalla!’
Dumb Ways to Build – 10 September
Games Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
‘Welcome to Dumbville’s least reputable construction company! Dumb Ways to Build is a physics-based co-op game filled with deadly construction jobs that no sane crew would touch. Safety violations are likely, survival is optional, and your co-workers are the real occupational hazard. It is time to rally your crew and put your building skills (and friendships) to the ultimate test!’
Welcome to Elderfield – 10 September
Games Platform(s): PC
‘Welcome to Elderfield is a cosy horror RPG where the abnormal is normal, the townsfolk are odd, the eldritch beings watch over you and the local news reports seem stranger by the day. Everything in Elderfield is unsettling, from the haunting, horror manga-inspired, hand-drawn visuals to the dark, lofi soundscapes composed by Dated. Despite the strange creatures lurking just outside your home, those who wander into Elderfield rarely find a reason… or option, to leave.’
Shroom and Gloom early access – 10 September
Games Platform(s): PC
‘Shroom and Gloom is a first-person, roguelike double-deckbuilder that brings you mobs of monstrous mushrooms and mountains of mega-combos! Unleash hundreds of cards to hack, slash and roast your way through hand drawn dungeons of fungal foes! Build devastating decks, and grow cards into massive abominations as you fight your way into the heart of The Gloom!’
Wardogs early access – 10 September
Games Platform(s): PC
‘Wardogs is an all-out warefare FPS that combines tactical gunplay and combined arms combat with building and destruction mechanics in a large-scale, up to 100-player militaristic sandbox. The game mode has three teams fight for control of randomised 2x2km ‘Control Zones’ within larger maps. The team with the most players within the Control Zone earns points – the first team to reach 100 points wins the match. The variables in zone location and individual player tactics mean no match ever plays out the same.’
