Valve are making a new Half-Life and… what else happened this week? The announcement of Half-Life: Alyx kind of blotted out everything else, including the launch of Google Stadia. That platform launch is less exciting than a game not even out for four months. Read on for more of the week’s PC gaming news. Do also check The Weekly Updates Update for word on patches for Borderlands 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Barotrauma, and more this week.

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The intrepid team of interstellar architects at Hello Games have already announced another update to No Man’s Sky. Anyone hoping for something the size and impact of August’s Beyond will need to ease off the hype-r drive (ugh): Synthesis, as founder Sean Murray called it, looks to be a bundle of “polish and small quality of life improvements” aimed at smoothing your experience traveling among the stars.

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This week, Borderlands 3 added new end-game content, Rockstar have continued work on plugging holes in Red Dead Redemption 2, The Outer Worlds has fixed its small text problem, and Plunkbat overhauled Vikendi. Read on for more of the week’s big PC gaming patches in the Weekly Updates Update.

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Behaviour Interactive ceased development on the brutal survival shooter, Deathgarden: Bloodharvest Friday after nearly half a year of triage. The makers of Dead By Daylight are punting the idea of a dour funeral, though. Instead, every feature the team have been working on was pushed out the door for players to enjoy. It’s Deathgarden: Bloodharvest’s wake, and everyone is invited because the game has now gone free-to-play.

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I am floored by the sheer number of indie games available at the moment. If you look, there’s a game about nearly everything under the sun — multipalyer kissing, packing up an old apartment, baseball lesbians, haunted empty MMO servers, Bitsy poems about the sea, and alien art exhibitions. If you have only ten seconds to spare, five minutes, or two hours, there’s a free game for that. We are spoiled for thoughtful, considered, clever, and weird self-published games.

I consider it a great honour and a privilege to delve into the depths of itch.io (or Steam, or weird flash game aggregate websites, or wherever) to bring you fresh, free indie titles week after week. So, if you were looking for a swatch of indie games to take up your weekend, this post has 20 games tucked away in it.

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I miss daylight. It was nice, wasn’t it? Maybe one day it’ll return.

What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!

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Now here’s an esport I can get behind. Fortnite Chapter 2 brought a pretty decent fishing mini-game to Epic’s battle royale, and now it’s time to prove who’s the best at sitting patiently next to a puddle. Pack your sandwiches and put on those waders. Fishing Frenzy is kicking off a high-stakes weekend of baiting and waiting, with some real-life loot up for grabs if you snag the most fish.

Now, isn’t that much nicer than shooting each other up?

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KillPixel’s Wrath: Aeon Of Ruin launched into early access today, bringing the original 1996 Quake‘s bloody, baroque 3D action screaming into 2019. Medieval castles filled with shotguns, skeletons and a smattering of blood? Chunky low-poly demons and pixel-counts you could track on one hand? Yep, it’s a Quake. With some of the modding greats from the game’s 23-year history, it should be a bloody good one at that, too.

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There’s not long left before the big 20, but those crafty devs continue to release legions of games anyway, surely coveting the grand prize of a spot in the Unknown Pleasures annual finals. Or possibly they want to have enough money to buy food. Who can say?

Five more games join the ranks of the worthy today, for it is, once more, time for a selection of the finest under-appreciated games on Steam.

Doing that lungey thing sprinters do at the finish line this week: socialist revolution, cultist massacres, and pretty flowers.

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It’s 1988. It’s been 1988 for longer than anyone can remember, and you’ve only got minutes to make it to the top of a tower before your heart explodes. Rubbish, that. So begins Black Future ’88, a side-scrolling cyberpunk shooter from developers SuperScarySnakes, released today. You know the drill – there’s a big bad needing a bullet in the skull, backed by nefarious bosses and an army of killer robots. With 18 minutes until catastrophic cardiac failure, taking it slow isn’t really an option.

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