PC Gamer
There are slew of big games still to come.
We’re more than halfway through 2017, but the fresh games keep on coming. Our guide to the fresh games of two thousand seventeen is cracked down by genre, and we’ve updated it with the most latest release date info we have, for promising indie games on up to the fattest PC series. Of course, with dozens of games hitting Steam every day, we can’t hit everything. But this list of fresh PC games are the ones we think you should keep an eye on.
For the surprise releases, check out our weekly guide to five fresh Steam games you very likely missed this week. There’s even more goodness in there that you won’t find on this massive list.
Now it’s time to buckle in. There’s a lot to cover.
We’ll update this post across the year to keep up with fresh announcements and game releases.
Act and FPS
Wolfenstein Two: The Fresh Colossus
Release date: October 27, 2017
It`s a game about shooting Nazis, of course. Some people say there are too many games about shooting Nazis, but we say: nope. This sequel to the two thousand fourteen reboot sees BJ Blazkowicz taking the fight to the United States, and will feature more ludicrous, unrealistic weaponry compared to its predecessor. MachineGames doesn`t seem to be departing from the relatively linear, narrative focused template it established with The Fresh Order, but the studio has also proven it doesn`t truly need to.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
Release date: October 27, 2017
An open secret for months, E3 two thousand seventeen eventually confirmed that Assassin’s Creed is headed to Egypt. It also looks to be making the largest switches to the series formula since it embarked. There’s an RPG-style skill tree, Far Cry-style time and nature systems at work, and a lot more. Ubisoft has (rather symbolically) done away with the icon-strewn mini map. Oh, and you have an eagle companion–a very promising feature for eagle enthusiasts worldwide.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Release date: October Ten, 2017
Developer: Monolith Productions
A sequel to the remarkably good two thousand fourteen orc slayer Shadow of Mordor that so far looks to be gravely expanding on the Nemesis system with a big diversity of stories and personalities for enemies and allies, with a fresh strategy layer on top of the open world combat and adventuring. The environments look a bit more colourful and diverse this time (thanks to no longer being set exclusively in Mordor). Also check out the fresh cinematic trailer which debuted at the PC Gaming Display.
Fate Two
Release date: October 24, 2017
PC’s not missing out this time around: Bungie’s MMO shooter is making its grand debut on PC this fall with the sequel, which the Fate faithful are already head over high-heeled shoes for. It’s out on September eight on consoles, but we don’t know when it’ll hit the PC just yet. As Tim wrote in our hands-on: “I sank an ungodly amount of time into the original, but having played Fate Two`s very first campaign mission and Strike through numerous times, and dabbled in some PvP, there`s absolutely no question in my mind now that the PC version is going to be the definitive one. Yes it deepthroats that we`re getting it later, and doubly so that we don`t how much later, but if the final version retains the grind we eyed today, it`ll be worth the wait.”
Call of Duty: WWII
Release date: November Three, 2017
Developer: Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software
We’re going back to World War Two. This Call of Duty’s revolutionary introduction? Health packs. The CoD:WWII multiplayer expose trailer is directed like any other free-camera gameplay montage, but despite masking the real look of it, we do learn a lot: there are paratroopers, objectives like bomb planting and vehicle escorts, and what show up to be bombing and strafing killstreaks. After Sony`s showcase, we learned a bit more from Activision about how the replacement for create-a-class works, and what sort of weapons to expect. Evan got some hands-on time in, and was pleased to find that the fresh War Mode brings real switch to the series.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Release date: September 15, 2017
This is not an expansion: it`s a standalone, budget-priced Dishonored game starring ex-Whalers lieutenant Billie Hide. The best thing about playing as a fresh protagonist will be, of course, the fresh powers, and Billie shows up to have some cool ones: for example the ‘displace` capability which permits movement through walls. We don`t know how substantial this outing will be compared to the main Dishonored games, but more time spent in this universe is welcome.
Developer: David Szymanski
An ode to southern gothic horror and Quake-era FPS design, Dusk is aiming for the low-poly scares and hectic precision shooter activity a good chunk of PC gamers grew up on. So far, it`s pitch ideal, throwing chainsaw-wielding maniacs, witches, and all sorts of occult enemies your way in massive levels hiding secrets rooms, weapons, and bosses in every corner.
Lawbreakers
Boss Key’s frenetic multiplayer FPS will arrive this August following its final closed beta in early July, as announced during the PC Gaming Display. Cliff Bleszinski has says he’s not attempting to take on Overwatch, but we’ll soon see if Lawbreakers manages to stand out–our hands-on time with the shooter has proved pleasurable, and the $30 price tag should help.
Vanquish
The fantasy Sega port from last generation. Shinji Mikami’s take on Gears of War eventually gets its chance to shine on PC with unlocked framerate and resolution support. Combo a slide into a slow-mo shotgun blast to the face. Dodge a hundred missiles and punch a giant robot in the face. Defeat evil Space Russians. This is one hell of a third person shooter.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Release date: March 23, two thousand seventeen (Out now in Early Access)
Developer: Bluehole, Inc.
The hit of the year, a refined version of the now-booming battle royale genre that embarked with Arma and continued in H1Z1. One hundred players parachute into an expansive map and scramble for weapons as a killzone leisurely constricts around them, narrowing the playfield until only one remains. As we wrote around release, “Battlegrounds isn’t a simulation, but it retains slew of Arma’s spirit. Using your eyes to spot and track enemies is an essential skill, for example. When you see someone running across a field, there’s this ‘I know something you don’t know’ sensation–I can totally shoot this fellow, he doesn’t see me, you’ll think. But like Arma and DayZ, it’s usually not a matter of putting them under your crosshairs and jabbing the left mouse button. You want to wait until they’re out in the open, when they’re checking their inventory, when they’re preoccupied and aloof. In these moments, I love the way Battlegrounds asks me to think critically and examine an enemy’s bod language, check which towns are nearby, or guess based on the state of the ever-changing safe zone what that enemy might do next.”
Friday the 13th: The Game
Delayed a few months so the devs could include a single-player mode with bots, this asymmetrical multiplayer game pits one player–as the unstoppable movie slasher Jason Voorhees–against the rest, who play as campers at Crystal Lake, the one place everyone should know by now is not a fine place to camp. Jason will love all manner of brutal means to dispatch his prey, be it smashing their faces into a tree, impaling them on spikes, or just going hog-wild with a machete. Campers won`t be entirely defenseless, however, and we`re promised that by working together it is in fact possible not to simply elude and sustain, but to actually take Jason down.
We scored Friday the 13th a seventy five in our review, telling “it needs more maps, but right now Friday the 13th is a gory game of hide-and-go-seek that`s joy with funny people.”
The Signal From Tolva
A very first person shooter that’s more about mystery and nuance than blasting away, as you take control of a robot on an alien planet and explore a smartly compact open world. As we said in our review, Tolva is “a lean, intelligent sci-fi shooter with a watchmaker`s eye for detail that knows its strengths and plays to them beautifully.”
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Take a big open world, stuff it with one hundred Far Cry-type outpost missions, and leap in with some co-op playmates. Ghost Recon: Wildlands takes place in a Bolivian landmass where four players comprise a military taskforce sent to disrupt a drug cartel and the government it`s aligned with. While players may have a specific missions–whether it`s to steal some intel or kidnap an informant–how they choose to tackle it is up to them. Guns blazing? Stealth? Or, as often happens, failed stealth that leads to guns blazing?
The open world–the very first in Ghost Recon`s ten-game history–promises diverse environments like mountains, forests, and deserts, explorable by ground vehicles, helicopters, and parachutes. The setting is close to modern day, so weapons and gear aren`t as futuristic as they have been in earlier Recon games.
We had some joy with Wildlands, but as we wrote in our review, it’s “not worth it as a solo escapade. In co-op, Wildlands is an pleasant stealth romp that too often gets in its own way.”
Fresh Prey has nothing to do with the old Prey, or Prey Two, which was cancelled back in 2014. Now in the mitts of Arkane`s Austin studio, Prey is only familiar in name. Set in an alternate history where President Kennedy was never assassinated, the Soviets and the States continued their rivalry, until one took control of the Kletka Program, a space installation meant to control an alien threat. The project is eventually abandoned, and a corporation takes over (uh-oh), turning the station into «a cutting edge innovation center» called Talos 1. Big surprise, things don`t go well.
In our review, we found that “it’s let down by lacklustre combat and some annoying enemy design, but Prey is still a compelling, beautiful immersive sim.”
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The spooks came early in 2017, with a first-person Resident Evil that we loved. “It`s a comeback to the atmospheric, slow-burning horror of the original, with a few nods to contemporary games like Alien: Isolation and Amnesia,” wrote Andy in our review. Later, he elaborated on how the game saved a troubled series.
Unnecessary to say, Andy’s a fan, as is the rest of PC Gamer. James also attempted RE7 on PSVR and lamented the exclusivity deal that’s presently preventing us from such a good (horrifying) VR practice on PC. It’s a damn shame, as he said, but otherwise the PC version is in good form–outside of its ninety fps cap and lack of ultrawide support.
Bulletstorm: Total Clip Edition
A remaster of a frantically over-the-top, inventive FPS that asks you to electro-whip enemies into spike traps and explosions and your big-ass boot as often as you shoot them. It’s still a blast if you missed it the very first time around. The old version’s cheap on Steam, while the fresh Total Clip edition includes remastered graphics and audio, a campaign mode that gives you every weapon from the embark, and more levels for the score attack Echo mode. Oh, and you can play the entire campaign as Duke Nukem, with fresh dialogue that most likely includes a lot of cuss words. We love Bulletstorm, but found this to be a pricey remaster.
Sniper Elite Four
Developer: Rebellion Developments
If you don`t have a date for Valentine`s Day, no worries: you can spend your the romantic holiday shooting Nazis in the nuts . We got a look at Sniper Elite four during 2016`s GDC , and the World War II third-person sandbox shooter featured stealth, melee kills, and a entire lot of disturbingly graphic slow-motion x-ray sniper shots the series is famous for. Turns out it’s “a hearty improvement on Sniper Elite three that embraces freeform play, gets better in co-op, and most importantly lets us shoot things from very far away,” according to our review.
Strafe
Desync
Developer: The Foregone Syndicate
Glazed in the neon colour schemes of 1980s cyberpunk, Desync is among the most visually striking shooters you`re likely to see in 2017. Developed by Melbourne studio The Foregone Syndicate, Desync is a precision-oriented twitch shooter with a concentrate on performative gameplay: basically, it prizes you for pulling off kills in the most spectacular ways possible. The studio is also working on a bafflingly granular leaderboard system, incentivising stylish play. If you can imagine a strange meeting of Hotline Miami, Lovely Planet, and Quake, you`re close to how Desync plays out. Sadly, we thought it was a shooter with no heart.
Rising Storm Two: Vietnam
We loved the asymmetry of Rising Storm, the authenticity-focused WWII shooter we named our Multiplayer Game of the Year in 2013, and it’s even more dramatic in the Vietnam-set sequel. The Americans are noisy and swift, skimming the treetops with helicopters, while the Viet Cong spawn in squad tunnels, appearing behind capture points and ambushing LZs. More than being a good shot, stringently managed teamwork remains the key to success. Tyler attempted his forearm at both piloting helicopters and manning their guns, and found it nigh on unlikely to hit anything without spotters and direction over comms.
The addition of modern, automatic weapons might be an even fatter shift for the series than helicopters, however, as part of the Crimson Orchestra and Rising Storm identity has been their request for precision aiming with bolt-action and semi-auto weapons. But the quest for authenticity hasn`t switched here. Rising Storm Two: Vietnam`s guns aren`t effortless to treat by any means, and scoring kills still sometimes means picking out specks on the horizon and taking cautious, well-planned shots. We scored Vietnam an eighty five in our review.
Sea of Thieves
Release date: Delayed to 2018
Uncommon’s ambitious pirating MMO escapade (or, more accurately, massively co-op escapade) aims to let you do whatever you’d expect from the pirate life alongside a team of your best mateys. That means searching for treasure, drinking grog, sailing, and fighting ship battles against other pirate crews, but Infrequent still seems to be working out the exact scope of your activities and how this living pirate world will work. The most interesting choice is the bold lack of UI. You’ll find almost no sign of reticles or health bars or maps or any of the usual clutter in Sea of Thieves.
Metal Gear Get through
Release date: Delayed to 2018
A four-player co-op stealth game with zombies that is also Metal Gear? Well, OK. We expected things would switch at Konami post-Kojima , and this is certainly a switch. After being sucked out of Mother Base by a rogue wormhole, you wake up in an alien landscape that looks suspiciously like the Middle East, and must battle hordes of the undead with your fellow grunts. There`s slew of MGS 5-style stealth, fulton devices, and both base infiltration and defense in the fifteen minutes of gameplay you can see below.
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