We already said 10 Dead Doves was great a few years back, but it’s really great so I’m saying it again

Coo-dn’t believe it

Image credit:Duonix Studios

Rebecca Jones (RPS in peace) really liked 10 Dead Doves when she wrote about it back in 2022, saying it reminded her of why she “loves weird low-budget spooks so much”. Discovering such an interesting project speaks to curiosity and taste on her part, but me? I am simply a pun enjoying buffon who got an email promising that “Dovecraftian horrors await”. The thrust of said electronic mail was that the game now has a release date of this December, but it looked neat, so I doved right in. I coo-dn’t resist. I too love weird low-budget horror . I have been pigeonholed.

Distinct from the implied narrative conceit mainly revolving around poisoned chips, 10 Dead Doves opens with Marcus - “the Most Pathetic Man on Earth” - going backpacking on the Appalachian Trail with his buddy Sean, searching for an urban-legendary place called “The Ant Farm”. Presentation is all medium poly papercraft and fixed angles, tank controls and all. It’s very odd and very fun. You can grab the demo here , by the way.

This is likely part cop-out and part time constraints, but I feel the highest praise I can give what I’ve played of 10 Dead Doves is that I don’t feel I could adequately do it word-justice in anything less than a much longer article. I will say this: while I do not feel it’s attempting to be the indie game equivalent of an A24 film in any way, I do feel that my fellow A24 wankers will likely appreciate it. I’d compare it to Indika , almost, in the way it uses the sort of camera techniques, spatial tricks and disorientating artistry that feel like they’re film specific, but are actually implemented in ways only a game could pull off.

If this sounds overly worthy or highfalutin, I should say that it’s also just very funny. Nothing sums up the scrappy avant-garde approach better than the devs singing the game title acapella over the splash screen. Some of the language used in the more eldritch sections is winkingly baroque, and the way the character’s faces dart jarringly between distinct expressions is brilliant. I actually didn’t finish the entire demo since I plan to grab this on release, but it’s shot right up for me as a must-play for the year. It’s a Columbidae-te, then. One for the massive cross section of ornithology enthusiasts and indie horror fans, that.

10 Dead Doves

PC

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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13 great Steam Next Fest demos to get you started this October

We’ll have more recs on the way later this week

In case September didn’t add enough new indie games to your burgeoning Steam wishlists, Valve are back today with another edition of their demo-packed Steam Next Fest , and we’ve been playing some of its many, many, many demos to help give you a few pointers on where to start. You can view the whole of October’s Steam Next Fest right here if you’d rather just dive in headfirst, but below you’ll find some hand-picked highlights we’ve been enjoying ahead of time - including a new Return Of The Obra Dinn-alike, a first-person skeleton shooter, an underwater citybuilders and a platformer where your gun is also an umbrella.

As usual, we’ve only had access to a small sliver of what’s available to play during October’s Next Fest, so we’ll be following up this list of initial recommendations with more of our personal highlights in the days to come. This month’s Next Fest runs from today, October 3rd, until next Monday, October 10th, so keep an eye out later this week for more Next Fest-shaped goodness.

Gunbrella

Rachel: I played the Gunbrella demo at PAX West and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it again as I immediately fell in love with its slick, umbrella parkour platforming and the scrappy, gritty feel of the world. The demo follows the nameless gruff protagonist - the wielder of the gunbrella - as they investigate a local cult who have kidnapped the mayor and a local lass. All is not what it seems and there’s an uneasy feeling in the air, but none of the characters are willing to address it, not to a stranger like you anyway.

The gunbrella itself is a slick platforming tool, letting you zipline, glide and dash through the brown smudge of a world. It’s also a powerful shotgun, turning cultists and gangsters into a smear of bright red pixels. Gracefully drifting down a mineshaft Mary Poppins-style and dropping to the bottom to blow some masked goon’s brains out is a certain kind of satisfaction.

One of my favourite games is Lisa: The Painful and I’ve never found a game that could match it in the atmosphere, but Gunbrella is the closest. If you’ve ever had the horrible pleasure of playing that then please please please check out Gunbrella. If you haven’t, play it anyway it’s great.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Capes

CJ: At no point during the Capes demo did any swishy back-curtains appear, which was slightly disappointing. Snazzy eye catching uniforms aren’t really what the game’s about though. The titular capes refer to persecuted super-powered individuals who are being hunted down in a near-future totalitarian system, trying to stay one step ahead of the very dubious law.

Take one look at Capes and you’d think it’s just another XCOM wannabe, but this squad-based strategy game seems to have more in common with something like Into The Breach . There’s a lot of special moves, shoving, being blocked by other units or environmental hazards, and not much in the way of cover to cower behind. That makes sense considering you’re managing a growing team of budding superheroes, but it takes some time to adjust your expectations. Once that’s out of the way, though, Capes improves by leaps and bounds.

Capes’ story is told through comic book style speech bubbles during cutscenes. It’s camp, and put me off at first despite being a lifelong comics fan. Yet they draw you in and make the turn-based combat missions really feel like you’re playing a funny book. I’m already itching to play more of this one when it lands next year.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

10 Dead Doves

Image credit:Duonix Studios

Rebecca: I’ve been going through a bit of a dry spell with horror games lately, but 10 Dead Doves reminded me of why I love weird low-budget spooks so damned much. In one of the most ambitiously cinematic indie narratives I’ve seen in a while, two pals travel deep into the Appalachian wilderness only to get stranded when their car runs out of gas. It’s a familiar set-up, for sure, but it’s impossible not to be charmed by the back-and-forth between leads Mark and Sean (portrayed by and loosely based on the game’s co-developers, Mark Byram II and Sean-Michael Millard), or indeed by the uncanny yet whimsical way the characters are animated. There are survival horror aspects for sure, but it all takes a backseat to letting the narrative unfold at a generously unhurried pace, allowing a creeping dread to build up long before anything actually scary happens. In other words, the exact slow-burn spook factor I’ve been missing.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

The Case Of The Golden Idol

Katharine: How has it been four years already since Lucas Pope’s Return Of The Obra Dinn up-ended the entire detective game genre and left us all scratching our heads at its sheer ingenuity? That’s the greatest mystery of our modern era: where in the heck did time go? Happily, The Case Of The Golden Idol is here to close the gap. It’s perhaps the closest thing I’ve seen to a spiritual successor of Obra Dinn, and as far as I’m concerned its special extended Next Fest demo isn’t nearly extended enough. I just want more of it (which is thankfully about to be quickly remedied, as it’s out in full on October 13th).

At first, The Case Of The Golden Idol’s little detective vignettes seem entirely unrelated, but the more you play, the more its overarching story begins to emerge. In each scene, your main task is to collect information – names, locations, certain adjectives etc (which can either be highlighted for ease or left for you to discover more naturally, pixel-hunting-style) – which you can then use to fill in the gaps on your ‘Thinking’ menu to solve each murder. It’s very much in the same vein as piecing together Obra Dinn’s crew manifest, using the snippets of information available to you to fill in the larger picture, and it’s absolutely riveting. I also can’t get enough of its mildly grotesque, but mesmerising pixel art. There’s just something about those gurning faces that won’t let me look away.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Enchain

Alice0: I’ve enjoyed seeing Enchain on Screenshot Saturday across the months, its many GIFs and clips of a skeleton stunting around with grappling hook, slide-kicks, wall-running, and such. I was very up for that, hoping to launch immediately into ludicrous noughties violence. This demo is not that.

Enchain is more fiddly than I expected, and the demo starts with a long sequence of tutorial rooms. Lots to learn about how to grapple, grab, and so on. Even murder isn’t straightforward, with enemies needing to be finished off with dramatic violence once weakened. Even running and jumping around has lots of little bits to get a grip on. I almost stopped, disappointed that it wasn’t the ridiculous high-speed ultraviolence I’d wanted. But… it starts to open up and head in that direction. When my fingers got the hang of its intricacies, it became satisfying. It looks to start opening up into a Dark Souls -ish form.

This is a lot of griping but: I’m excited to see what Enchain has to offer. In a few fights, I’d pull off stunts like swinging around a room to reach a weakened enemy so I could slide-kick them into their air, grapple them to me, then launch them into a foe to burst them. I laughed at the introduction of the rotund little robust skeletons. I pulled off a few call platforming sequences chaining grappling, wall-running, wall-jumping, kick launches, dives, and more. I wish the demo had introduced me to all these in a more exciting way, given me a better sense of what I might it might become, but I’m excited by what I’ve seen. Which I suppose is the purpose of a demo.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Mars First Logistics

Ollie: Mars First Logistics is a physics game about building and driving a rover across Mars to haul various supplies to and from different locations. You can edit your vehicle at any time, and build it from scratch out of pieces that snap together intuitively and offer a surprising wealth of complexity. You might need to create a rover that can safely pick up and haul a crate of oranges from one point to another. In this case you’ll need to design a rover that can clamp both sides of the crate and lift it up, while keeping the rover stable enough that none of the oranges fall out while you’re trundling along the surrounding planitiae.

There are probably more apt comparisons - Space Engineers , Kerbal Space Program - but to me, Mars First Logistics is a cross between Fantastic Contraption and Robot Wars. Fantastic Contraption because of the try-and-see puzzle aspect to each contract you must fulfil. And Robot Wars, because you can make a srimech (self-righting mechanism) that actually works, and it takes me back to those Friday evenings in my childhood spent watching robots like Cassius and Chaos 2 righting themselves in spectacular fashion.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Knuckle Sandwich

Ed: This year’s Steam Next Fest brings us a new and improved Knuckle Sandwich demo. I can’t tell you what’s improved because I never played the original demo, but what I can tell you is that it’s a turn-based RPG where you can catch some bugs and some wobbly bold text pops on screen with the word “BUG” to celebrate your victory.

The demo sees you start your journey as a weary young man who travels to Bright City in search of a new job. It’s got a wonderful linearity to it – in a similar way to Undertale – where being ushered from point A to point B remains forever unpredictable. One minute you’re dancing in a rhythm mini-game, the next you’re taking out the bins in a burger joint. Only a couple of times does the cheery act drop and something sinister slide into view just to unsettle you a bit.

I really can’t say much more, as I don’t want to ruin anything (and “anything”, is largely everything with the game’s demo).

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Simulacra 3

Rebecca: I love indie horror, and Simulacra might be my favourite ongoing series. The first game gave me one of my favourite video game romances, while the second game has one of the worst (best) original songs ever to grace a soundtrack — complete with ultra-cringey music video! Surprising pedigree, I’m sure you’ll agree, but how could I not have high hopes for Simulacra 3 on the back of all that?

Now, from the found phone FMV horror series that brought you Evil Tinder and Evil Instagram, meet Evil Google Maps! If it sounds like I’m mocking the games I just professed to love… I am indeed. Simulacra owns its cheesiness with pride; indeed, the third game leans even further into the vibe with some very obviously ’80s-nostalgia inspired opening credits. After playing the demo, I’m seriously hyped for the latest concept, which sees you chasing leads via a map covered in pins that has both a real-world and a corrupted upside-down version. You see, this game’s demonic body-snatching entity is doing its misdeeds via a sort of NextDoor-inspired social network where people can check into a local business… NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN!

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Rhythm Sprout

Liam: Among the handful of tracks available in the demo for Rhythm Sprout , the standout tune is a lo-fi banger that samples the sinister laugh of a moustachioed villain. Every time you successfully hit a note as it tumbles down the centre of the screen, the spectral visage of your (vegetable?) adversary lets out a tuneful guffaw. It’s absolutely brilliant, and I can’t stop singing “Ho ho ha ha, ho ho ho ha ha” out loud.

A three-button rhythm game where you play as an onion wearing a tracksuit and a knight’s helmet, Rhythm Sprout makes a stellar first impression. Hitting successful notes makes your little onion take confident little stomps towards a goal, swinging his little sword at sentient sweet treats along the way. Everything blends together in a very pleasing way, its original tracks and colourful visuals a delight to behold as you tap buttons in time to the funky beats (or should that be beets?). The demo features a couple of late-game tracks, too, which ramps up the difficulty to the point where it broke my brain. I like that. A good rhythm game should make me feel like a god in its early stages before shattering me completely. I can’t wait for the full release to ruin my day.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

The Entropy Centre

Image credit:Playstack

James: If The Entropy Centre is a Portal pastiche, all that says to me is that maybe the world could use more Portal pastiches. As much as this first-person puzzler borrows from Valve’s masterpieces (especially the overgrown lab environments from Portal 2 ’s opening hour), its demo suggests that it can successfully transplant the thrill of solving a test chamber while using a brain-bending central mechanic of its very own.

Instead of shooting portals, your science gun in The Entropy Centre blasts a beam that rewinds targeted objects in time. What starts as fixing up a collapsed doorway soon becomes a series of tricky, twisty time manipulation puzzles that almost invariably gave a satisfying crank to the cogwheels rusting up in my skull. I won’t spoil any of the actual test chambers, nor the surprisingly high-stakes reasoning for why you’re working through them to begin with, but so far they seem pretty well judged in terms of balancing complexity and difficulty.

I’m also looking forward to another Portal influence: the inevitable moment when it all goes off the rails, forcing you to unleash the time rifle in less officious, more desperate settings. Put me on a collapsing bridge I must repair under my own feet, Stubby Games.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Aquatico

Rebecca: Can you even call yourself a BioShock nerd if you wouldn’t jump at the chance to play an underwater city builder? Frankly, dear reader, maybe you can and maybe you can’t, but I couldn’t afford to take that risk, which is why I hopped into the demo for Aquatico with great enthusiasm. It’s been a long time since I’ve really sunk my teeth into a city builder on any theme; it’s a genre I loved back in my carefree youth, but simply one time-sink too many now that I’m an alleged adult. Aquatico seems way more complicated than the games I remember, but nevertheless it has enough charm about it that I’m keen to keep an eye on its progress. Although, Digital Reef Games, if you’re reading this: I know you’re probably planning to anyway, but just please, add an undo button. I’m both out of practice and all thumbs when it comes to placing infrastructure, and it’s already proven to be a worrisome combination for my poor undersea Swiss Family Robinson.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Dredge

Katharine: Dredge is one of those games I’ve heard a lot of good things about over the last few weeks, and I’m pleased to say that the hype is absolutely justified. On the surface, this looks like a lovely, idyllic fishing sim where you potter about chill, cartoon landscapes in your little tugboat before returning to shore to sell your catch, upgrade your boat and take on orders for the swarthy locals. This isn’t just another Moonglow Bay -alike, though, for beneath the waves of this melancholy fishing adventure lies something altogether more horrifying. You never quite glimpse it during the demo, but there are strange goings on in this mysterious archipelago, and you definitely don’t want to be out late after dark, believe me. That’s when the terror starts to seep in, with the darkness placing ruinous rocks in your path, and strange lights start to appear on the horizon.

But while Dredge keeps its eldritch horror close to its chest during its demo, it lays out a very clear (if locked off) path for the rest of its management side of things. With lots of different rod types to buy and upgrade, larger hulls, better equipment and more all on the cards, I can see Dredge becoming increasingly moreish as the game goes on. Alas, it’s not out in full until 2023 at time of writing, but this tiny teaser has hooked me real good.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

Against The Storm

Liam: How have I never played a roguelite citybuilder? After spending two hours (!) with Against The Storm ’s generous Next Fest demo, this particular pairing feels like a match made in heaven, the verbs of the former fitting neatly within the structure of the latter.

Playing as a Viceroy to an enigmatic queen, it’s your job to venture out into an endless forest to establish new settlements. Buildings, resources and maps are all randomised here, your main challenge to create a prosperous village within these fixed parameters. But wait! Just for a laugh, the forest itself is also working against you, an ever-present storm worsening as you cut through its trees in the pursuit of valuable resources. Then there’s the queen herself, who’s patience decreases the longer it takes you to establish a functioning town. It’s all about balance, basically. Can you maintain a steady production line while keeping your townsfolk (a merry bunch of humans, beavers and lizards) happy? Can you expand deeper into the wilderness, uncovering its secret-filled glades, without incurring the wrath of the woods? Personally, I found the pursuit of answering these questions so absorbing I had to tear myself away from the demo just to write these words. Against The Storm is very interesting indeed.

Download the demo on Steam right here .

10 Dead Doves

PC

Against The Storm

PC

Aquatico

Video Game

Capes

PC

Dredge

PC

Enchain

PC

Gunbrella

Video Game

Knuckle Sandwich

Video Game

Mars First Logistics

Video Game

Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats & Bad Sweets

Video Game

Simulacra 3

PC

The Case Of The Golden Idol

Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PC , Nintendo Switch

The Entropy Centre

PC

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