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XCOM and Hunt Showdown inspire new strategy game and extraction shooter hybrid

Ice Code Games, creator of Hard West 2 and last year’s Rogue Waters, has made a niche for itself in mashing up tactical combat design with supernaturally-infused historical settings. Hard West and its sequel take place in a 19th-century American West haunted by demonic creatures whereas Rogue Waters offers strategic pirate swashbuckling in monster-filled seas. Now, the studio is continuing in a similar vein with the announcement of its latest project, a blend of Hunt Showdown and XCOM 2 called Nightmare Frontier.

Nightmare Frontier looks, at first blush, like a spiritual successor to the Hard West games. It, too, is a kind of strategy game set in the American West, where players have to contend with bloodthirsty monsters. From this foundation on up, though, it takes a pretty different approach, adding a risk-reward focused style of design to Hard West’s formula.

In Nightmare Frontier, players control a group of desperate scavengers in a mission to find and collect loot in a town regularly attacked by creatures called Dreadweavers. As in extraction shooters like Hunt Showdown, the scavengers have to decide how long to fight off enemies, gathering increasing rewards as the danger grows, before it’s time to escape or risk losing what they’ve gained. When the player isn’t fighting, they’ll need to craft and upgrade their gear from the resources they’ve gathered and unlock new skills in preparation for their next round of combat.

Nightmare Frontier is set to launch in Early Access on Steam this summer. Wishlist it or find more information on its Steam page right here.

Otherwise, you can bide the time between now and Nightmare Frontier’s launch by taking a look at our picks for the best horror games and best action-adventure games already out on PC.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

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07/05/2025
New automation sandbox game Icaria fuses Minecraft and Factorio together

Back in the early heyday of Minecraft, what really kept me coming back were the mods that dramatically opened up the sandbox game’s building potential. Tekkit, and later Feed the Beast, introduced me to a world of pipe networks and automation long before I ever got into the likes of Satisfactory and Factorio. Now, new indie game Icaria combines the iconic blocky look of Minecraft with the ability to lay out intricate factory networks and program helpers to handle all your tasks, and it’s out now on Steam with a playable demo.

Much like Minecraft, starting a new game of Icaria drops you into a small section of a procedurally generated alien world, although developer Blindsight Games’ creations are more alien in nature than those of Mojang. From your initial spawn, you’ll gradually explore outwards, building out a radio network to give you a better perspective of the world around you.

Like all the best sandbox games, you must gather materials to start constructing, upgrading, and expanding your base, but your labor is just the beginning. Described by Blindsight as a “single-player colony builder,” Icaria really comes into its own as you learn to automate your factories and program robotic helpers. Anything you can do yourself can also be accomplished by your workers, and the bigger your base grows, the more important that becomes.

Using a clean set of visual tools to make programming approachable to anyone, and ways to quickly share your scripts with other players, you’ll be able to set up your workers and facilities to act exactly how you wish. Terraform the landscape, lay down power networks, assign trucks to transport materials across your ever-expanding colony, and unlock more ways to engage with the world.

Icaria is out now on Steam in early access, with a 15% launch discount meaning you’ll pay $21.24 / £17.84 if you buy it by Monday May 12. There’s also a free demo you can download and try before you commit. Blindsight Games is aiming for the early access period to last for “around a year,” but says it will extend that “if that seems like the best way to deliver a satisfying and complete game.”

Can’t get enough construction in your day? Here are the best building games on PC. If it’s the organization aspects that appeal most, we’ve picked out the best management games to play in 2025 as well.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

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04/05/2025
God Save Birmingham just became my most anticipated new zombie game

If you know the British Isles as well as I do, you’ll know that the fine city of Birmingham doesn’t exactly scream ‘potential videogame location.’ But what about if you take things back to the 14th century? And fill it with zombies. Now it’s got a chance. That’s exactly what God Save Birmingham is looking to do, and after watching around eight minutes of new gameplay footage, it’s just shot to the top of my ‘most anticipated zombie games’ list.

Now, I’ll admit that I usually prefer my zombie games to be co-op affairs that are full of massive, dynamic hordes and ludicrous weapons. Call of Duty Zombies. Dead Island 2. You know the vibe. For that reason, the likes of Killing Floor 3 and the concerningly silent John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando have been way up on my list of upcoming PC games that I’m looking forward to. However, I think God Save Birmingham just surpassed them.

This isn’t some co-op horde blaster where you can smack shamblers with an electrified baseball bat or suck zombies up into a portable jet turbine. I’ve seen snippets of gameplay before, but looking at the new extended trailer posted by IGN, it actually comes across as very The Last of Us-y with its third-person sneaking and meaty takedown animations. I doubt the narrative juice will be quite as potent in God Saves Birmingham, but when it comes to taking down zombs, it’s definitely got that TLOU flavor.

There’s also a big focus on using and reacting to the environment around you. Furniture can be moved to block doorways. Ladders can be repurposed as bridges for crossing gaps. Standing on chairs can help you jump up to ledges that would typically be too high. Everything (including you and the zombies) has realistic and reactive physics, and looks like a really fun sandbox.

The new trailer also shows just how deep its survival game mechanics go. Meters for hunger, thirst, fatigue, and panic can be seen. Trying to replenish these with items in your inventory will require real-time actions and menu scanning – there’s no pausing the action and instantly eating a loaf of bread here. Falling from a height inflicts a leg injury, which then hampers your movement speed. Objects can be disassembled for raw materials. There’s a proper cooking system too.

I think it all looks marvelous, and the medieval setting feels like a novel one for a zombie survival experience. God Save Birmingham is currently without a release date, but an early access launch is on the cards for it.

Be sure to check out our list of the best medieval games if, like me, you’re loving ye olde vibes of God Save Birmingham. Our upcoming PC games list is also on hand to show you what else is on the way in the near and distant future.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

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26/04/2025
New Star Citizen free event is the perfect chance to play big MMO and space game

Star Citizen has taken on almost mythic proportions over the years. Its creator, eager to outdo the visions of outer space offered by games like Eve Online, No Man’s Sky, and Starfield, has been working on fleshing out a wildly ambitious MMO simulation for more than a decade now, even as other projects in its wheelhouse come and go. Given how long the game has been in active production, though, it can be hard for interested players to know when to give Star Citizen a shot. Luckily, there’s no better time than now, since a current ‘free fly’ event makes it easier than ever to give the game a look.

Star Citizen can be a bit daunting to approach, especially given how dense its take on the space game genre has become over time. The ideal way to dip into it is through one of its free trial events, which not only provide missions for new players to situate themselves in its sprawling world, but don’t cost anything to try.

The current free fly event allows anyone to check out Star Citizen by signing up for an account and downloading the game for free. After completing its introductory missions, players can sample some of the activities available in the massively multiplayer space sim, piloting a roster of six different ships or heading out on foot to explore the game’s far future setting. It’s a great opportunity for anyone curious to see what the space sim is all about, or to check in on how it’s been coming along over the many years it’s been available to the public.

Star Citizen’s current free event runs until next Monday April 28. You can sign up to take part in it at the official website right here.

Otherwise, you can find more to play with our lists of the best simulation games and best multiplayer games on PC.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

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22/04/2025
New RPG Erenshor looks like classic MMOs, but there’s no grind and you play solo

What if you could play an MMO completely on your schedule? That’s the central thesis of new RPG Erenshor. It takes the style of Old School Runescape and the lived-in feeling of World of Warcraft, but flips these persistent virtual lands completely on their heads. Erenshor certainly looks like a classic MMORPG, with hundreds of ‘players’ questing and battling alongside you, but they’re not real people. Instead, this is a single-player game made to emulate the joys of ’90s MMOs, and it’s out now.

As someone who’s spent hundreds of hours in Final Fantasy 14, Erenshor immediately caught my eye. It looks like OSRS at a glance thanks to the vast open world, dungeons, and ostensible players scurrying about, but it couldn’t be more different. Instead of playing with actual people, you’re accompanied by what developer Burgee Media calls ‘Simplayers.’ These NPCs progress independently, persistently exist in the world, and group up alongside you just as MMO players would – but they’re not actual players.

You hunt monsters, complete quests, and earn mountains of gold just like WoW or Guild Wars, but it’s not in service of the grind. Instead, you’ll build a character just as you would in a single-player RPG.

The first day you start up Erenshor and begin the tutorial (a right of passage in any MMO), that’s when the ‘server’ becomes ‘live.’ The NPCs will progress right alongside you, all in pursuit of growth. So if you find some armor or weapons you don’t need, you can give them to the NPCs to help them become more powerful. When you come to a particularly difficult raid or dungeon, you can then recruit these characters to fight alongside you, that gear still slumped over their shoulders or in their hands.

Becoming part of the world in an MMO also means putting your quest to save the world aside, and Erenshor embraces this with open arms. If you want to simply explore, dig into the world’s history, or hunt for loot, you can do that. Burgee Media wants you to reexperience the feeling of playing a classic MMO, but without that same level of commitment.

Burgee Media has launched Erenshor in Steam Early Access now, with a demo also available. You can get involved right here.

If you’re looking for more, we’ve got all the new MMOs to watch out for, alongside the best multiplayer games to dive into with some friends.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.

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15/04/2025
“Shut Up & Sit Down Presents” Incredible New Games with Play to Z

November 27, 2024SU&SD Special Features

Shut Up & Sit Down is delighted to announce a partnership with Play to Z to hunt down the board game treasures that we think belong in every collection.

“SU&SD Presents” is a brand new line of titles that places a spotlight on some of the very best titles in modern board games. We’ve hand selected a fresh crop of exciting designs, helped to polish them to perfection, and P2Z will publish these incredible games for worldwide distribution.

It’s our goal that every game in the line could be your new favourite game.

We’ve got our first two games arriving next year, with a new title releasing annually thereafter!

First up is a brand new design from the king of co-op himself, Matt Leacock (Pandemic, Pandemic: Legacy, Daybreak, Forbidden Island). Matt has teamed up with Lisa Towell – a real world animal rescuer – to create Animal Rescue Team. You and your friends will puzzle out the perfect rescues of creatures big and small. One game might have you arriving just in time to save a coop of distressed chickens, and another may have you fruitlessly trying to rescue a cow with a motorcycle, or cursing yourselves for ‘unfortunate horse logistics’. The game will be crowdfunded in early 2025, and should find its way to your local game shop by October 2025.

The second in the “SU&SD Presents” line is a remastering of one of our all-time favourites, Dogs of War, from legendary designer Paolo Mori (Ethnos, Libertalia, Blitzkrieg!). This game has been out of print for far too long, so it is not only exciting to see it back, but also with a SU&SD spin on it, packing more punch in a smaller box, at a lower price. This will be the definitive version of a certified classic with a sumptuous new lick of paint by Edu Valls (Bitoku, Redwood, 3 Ring Circus). Dogs of War will be coming to retail in late 2025.

About Play To Z:
Play To Z was founded in 2023 by a group of hobby game industry veterans. Zev Shlasinger, a 27 year game industry veteran who founded Z-Man Games in 1999, is President of Play To Z. Zev has published nearly 400 games in his career for Z-Man Games and WizKids, including huge hits such as Pandemic, Agricola, Fantasy Realms, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Merchants & Marauders, Super Skill Pinball, and many more. With its slogan “Games For All Gamers”, Play To Z publishes a wide spectrum of games, including Ascending Empires, YRO, Lynx, King’s Coalition, and more coming soon.

About Shut Up & Sit Down:
Shut Up & Sit Down has been talking about board games since 2011. With our trademark blend of comedy and critical analysis, we have become one of the largest board game YouTube channels and podcasts. Find all of our work on ShutUpAndSitDown.com.

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14/04/2025