Rogue Legacy 2 screenshot of a broken throne

[Update]: After two years in Early Access, Rogue Legacy 2 is set to be unleashed on April 28th, 2022.

After being pushed back a couple of weeks in order to get everything nice and polished up, the roguelike action game Rogue Legacy 2 has now landed onto Steam Early Access. Much like its predecessor, Rogue Legacy 2 will have you explore a large and randomly generated world with a variety of equally random characters, each of which will have some sort of strange or interesting quirk for you to contend with.

Since this is a concept that's far easier to explain through actual gameplay, allow me to share the recently posted launch trailer. Have a gander, it's a rather informative one:

Dwarf Fortress screenshot of the improved UI

[Update #2]: Dwarf Fortress' new and improved version has now landed onto Steam, and I'm happy to say that it has done so alongside overwhelmingly positive reviews!.

[Update]: Dwarf Fortress devs have revealed their roadmap and plans for the upcoming Steam release.

While Dwarf Fortress is a brilliant game with a genuinely stunning amount of depth, its archaic UI and rather bland art style can make it nearly impenetrable to new players. If you're starting out you pretty much need to play it alongside a step-by-step guide, and even then, figuring out how to navigate all of the menus is a rather herculean task.

As such, I'm very happy to say that the upcoming Steam version will not only have actual visuals that clearly represent what's happening on screen, but also a much more clean and usable UI! Best of all, the freshly reworked UI will have mouse support, so the days of having to memorize a myriad of hotkeys in order to quickly advance through menus are now finally coming to an end!

Factorio official artwork and logo

[Update]: Factorio devs have started working on a sizable expansion pack!

Factorio has been in Early Access for quite a while now, during which the developers have released update after update, constantly expanding and polishing up the various bits of content. Because of this, Factorio has felt like a genuinely finished game for at least a few years at this point.

However, the developers were never happy with its various small flaws, and so they opted to put in even more effort into getting Factorio polished up to a mirror sheen. Thankfully, all that hard work has definitely paid off as Factorio's version 1.0 is downright brilliant, as evidenced by even the fickle Steam reviews giving it a 99% positive rating!

Monster Crown official artwork and logo

While Pokemon inspired games have become a fairly common sight these days, Monster Crown stands completely apart from the rest by choosing to take things in a darker direction. Unlike the usual situation where you cheerfully roam the land and jam wild animals into your pockets, in Monster Crown it is the monsters themselves that rule over all, and it is you that will need to make pacts with them in order to receive any sort of aid.

From there you can either use your powers to help those around you and thwart the constantly looming threat, or simply become an even greater one yourself! As for how exactly this translates into gameplay terms, that you can find out through the recent launch trailer. Have a gander:

Fae Tactics screenshot of the combat and a crit

If you're a fan of oldschool strategy games, especially things like Final Fantasy Tactics, you might want to check out the newly launched Fae Tactics. To put it simply, Fae Tactics will have you explore the world while befriending a wide variety of characters, battle and capture a myriad of Fae creatures, and naturally, manage both your equipment and magical elements in order to best counter whatever challenge gets thrown right at you.

You can get a pretty good idea of how all of this translates into actual gameplay, as well as what sort of visual style Fae Tactics is going for, through the recently posted launch trailer. Have a peek:

Fall Guys screenshot of multiplayer shenanigans

[Update]: Fall Guys Season 2 is bringing in a bunch of medieval-themed maps and cosmetics!

If you've somehow managed to avoid seeing any mention of it, Fall Guys is a Takeshi's Castle inspired party game for up to 60 players that's all about competing in a variety of wacky and physics based challenges. It's simple to learn, extremely fun in short bursts, absolutely adorable, and unsurprisingly, pretty darn popular at the moment.

However, Fall Guys does have one rather major problem - after a while, the levels do tend to get a bit samey given that there's only a small amount of them. As such, I am very happy to say that the developers are already working on solving this little issue, and will be releasing a fan-favorite from the beta later today.

Risk of Rain 2 official artwork and logo

[Update #2]: The original Risk of Rain is getting a remaster with new content, improved multiplayer and smoother gameplay.

[Update]: Risk of Rain 2's Anniversary update has brought in a whole bunch of exciting new content. 

After an extremely successful stay in Early Access, Risk of Rain 2 has now finally been deemed ready and released in full. All of this has been accompanied by the rather hefty Update 1.0 which brings with it the Captain as a brand new survivor to shotgun-blast baddies with, a new stage and enemies to mess around with, as well as a couple of new challenges and items to discover.

What exactly this might look like in gameplay terms, that you can find out through the recently posted trailer. Have a gander, it's a rather brief one:

Hollow Knight official artwork and logo

As the name would imply, the newly launched Tiny Teams Festival is here to celebrate games crated by small studios, or even a single person! Besides highlighting a variety of current and upcoming games made by such small teams, there's also a bunch of nifty discounts and demos to check out. You can check out the full list of games, as well as a stream showing them off in action, over at Steam.

As for me, allow me to share with you a couple of my favorites while they're still on a discount. Every single one of them is brilliant, so if you're even remotely curious about what they have to offer, I'd definitely recommend looking into them further. Anyway, here's the brief list:

RimWorld screenshot of a base on fire from a mechanoid attack

[Update]: RimWorld is getting the massive free Update 1.3 and Ideology expansion in July 2021.

While perhaps not as big as the Royalty expansion, the newest Rimworld 1.2 update has brought in a whole host of improvements and additions. The most important of these are the new options that allow you to toggle an assortment of threats and disasters, adjust quest rewards and harvesting yields, and even offer the ability to disallow things like traps, turrets or mortars!

So if you're like me and you like to create interesting challenges for your poor colonists to suffer through, this update should come in quite handy! Not only can you now make your experience absolutely brutal in every respect, but you can also remove some features you might find irritating in order to make it a more compelling experience overall.

Hellbound screenshot of a demon roaring at the player

If you're in a bit of a demon-slaying mood, and you've already played through all of the Doom games a million times over, you might want to give the newly launched Hellbound a look. To put it's simply, Hellbound is a fast-paced FPS inspired by the 90s’ classics and absolutely riddled with all sorts of nasties for you to blow up as you rush ever-forward.

Since the gameplay is king for these types of games, allow me to share with you the recently posted launch trailer. It should give you a pretty good idea of what Hellbound looks and sounds like in action. Have a peek: