Turbo Overkill screenshot of the environment and one of the TV-faced enemies

[Update]: Turbo Overkill's Version 1.0 has now arrived, and as I've detailed throughout my review, it's a ton of fun!

If you've been enjoying the recent 'boomer shooter' renaissance, you'll be delighted to hear a brand new challenger has just entered the arena. The appropriately titled Turbo Overkill is an upcoming retro cyberpunk shooter with a focus on fast movement, cleaving through hordes of enemies with oversized weaponry, and as is tradition, ridiculously over-the-top violence. Oh, and your leg also doubles as a chainsaw, because why not!

Since words alone are woefully inadequate when it comes to describing these types of games, allow me to share with you the recent gameplay trailer. It should clue you in quite quickly on just what Turbo Overkill is all about. Have a look:

Tyrant's Blessing artwork showing off a dragon attack

While a little bit on the short side of things, Into the Breach was still a brilliant and highly enjoyable strategy game. Mercury Game Studio seem to have thought the same thing as their newly announced Tyrant's Blessing is a turn-based tactical RPG that borrows quite a few elements from Into the Breach.

Enemies always display their next move in advance, all of your heroes are highly specialized and powerful in different ways, the battles take place on small maps where every decision matters, and naturally, each unique biome offers its very own obstacles and hazards. However, unlike Into the Breach where the bugs have the common courtesy to stay dead, any living unit that falls in battle will soon be raised as a part of the titular Tyrant's army and will once again start marching against you.

Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord official artwork and logo

[Update]: After two years in Early Access, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord will be unleashed on October 25th, 2022.

After spending a considerable amount of time in development, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord finally released onto Steam Early Access on March 30, 2020. Since then the TaleWorlds team has launched a whole bunch of content updates and bugfixes, slowly but surely tweaking just about everything from combat to performance.

That long journey might soon be coming to an end, however, as TaleWorlds have now announced that they are planning to release Mount & Blade 2 in Q4 2021. That said, this is only a tentative release date and if it's deemed that Mount & Blade 2 needs a little bit of extra time, they will absolutely push the release date back for as long as necessary.

OpenTTD official screenshot showing off the massive factory

OpenTTD is an open-source business simulator that's heavily based on the 1995 Transport Tycoon Deluxe. As you might imagine from that brief description alone, OpenTTD is all about trying to become ridiculously wealthy by transporting passengers and cargo through a network of railways, roads and rivers, ideally without getting your vehicles stuck sideways on either of them!

While there is a bit of a learning curve, OpenTTD is a highly enjoyable and surprisingly relaxing game once you get into it. So if you're curious about the whole thing, you might be happy to hear that it has just recently made its way to Steam, and much like everywhere else, it's entirely free to check out!

Subnautica: Below Zero artwork of the icy caverns

[Update]: Subnautica: Below Zero has now launched from Early Access, and without any sort of major technical issues!

After going through a rather eventful Early Access campaign that even saw the entire storyline rewritten due to player feedback, Subnautica: Below Zero is now finally nearing completion. So if you were holding off in order to get the full experience, you'll be delighted to hear that Subnautica: Below Zero will be launching this May 14, 2021!

While the details behind the launch version haven't been announced just yet, I think it's safe to say we can expect to see the final few pieces of content to round out the story, a whole bunch of bug fixes, as well as the usual performance improvements. So far things are already looking much more stable than the original Subnautica, so I must admit I have high hopes for the 'final' version of Below Zero!

Risk of Rain 2 official artwork and logo

[Update]: Risk of Rain 2 will be getting its very first expansion in early 2022 - Survivors of the Void.

Even though Risk of Rain 2 was fully completed and released last year, the Hopoo Games team has now decided to release another massive update as a way to say 'thanks!' to all their fans. The appropriately titled Anniversary update brings with it Bandit as a brand new survivor, a variety of new items and skills, as well new monsters and even a boss!

The good news doesn't end there, however, as the update has also brought in some serious improvements to old content alongside numerous quality-of-life changes. As such, the final stage has been redone entirely and now features a more interesting area to play around in, while the AI pathfinding has been greatly improved across the board. The latter will be especially handy for friendly minions as they will now not only effectively stick around players, but thanks to other tweaks will also scale better as the difficulty level rises.

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator official artwork showing the launch factions

After spending a considerable amount of time in Steam Early Access, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator has now finally been released in full. The launch version brings with it two new maps to duke it out on, two new factions and a couple of secret units, both online and local multiplayer, as well as a some good ol' UI improvements.

You can get a pretty good idea of what all of this looks like in action through the recently posted trailer. Have a gander, it's about as ridiculous as you'd expect:

Noita official artwork and logo

If you're a fan of the the highly destructive action-roguelike Noita I'm afraid I bring both good and bad news. The good news is that the massive Epilogue update has just arrived with a whole bunch of new features and quality-of-life changes, including an assortment of sneaky secrets to uncover!

The bad news, as you might guess from the title of the update, is that this is almost certainly the final update for Noita. While the Nolla Games team will still be keeping an eye out for any bugs and potential performance problems, the Epilogue update will indeed be the last batch of official content.

Among Us official artwork for the Airship map

[Update]: Start practicing your swiping as Among Us is getting its very own VR version.

While it may have taken a fair bit of time to get here, I'm happy to say that Among Us has just received a chunky new map. The Airship is not only the biggest map released so far, and by a large margin, but it also brings with it a couple of nifty new features like the ability to choose where you spawn, mobility options such as ladders and moving platforms, as well as a whole bunch of new mini-games to mess around with after you get unceremoniously murdered.

Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the latest trailer. It'll give you a pretty good impression of what the Airship looks like and just how large it truly is. Have a peek:

Amnesia: Rebirth official artwork and logo

[Update]: Frictional Games's next horror game will be a non-linear sandbox set in a desolate WW1 bunker.

In a little experiment with their previous sci-fi horror game SOMA, Frictional Games introduced a Safe Mode that tweaked some of the horror elements and made the monsters non-threatening. While it did somewhat diminish the overall impact of the story, the Safe Mode was still a massive success as it allowed a whole host of new players to explore the world and soak in the atmosphere.

As such, I'm pleased to say that Frictional Games have now done the same for the recently released Amnesia: Rebirth. When playing the new Adventure Mode many of the horror audio and visual elements are noticeably toned down, the environments are slightly more bright in order to allow for easier exploration, while any sort of life-threatening monster encounters are entirely gone.