The last time I rounded up demos from one of Steam's seasonal Game Festivals, I observed that it had become one of my favourite parts of my job. Afterwards, Graham observed to me that there are so many indie games now, there was nothing stopping me doing the same thing basically all the time. So we hereby present TFI Friday, which stands for "These Fine Indies" (or the ruder variation of course), some good new indie games I've played, presented to you on a Friday.

I cannot promise I will keep to any kind of regular schedule on this, but I'm going to shoot for every fortnight. And I've got some fun ones to kick off with as well. A good varied spread. A buffet of sandwiches with different indie fillings for different appetites: fast-paced abstract runner game Nerve, atmospheric 2D action platformer Olija, and extremely chill clicky puzzle game Down In Bermuda. Feast your eyes on them in action in the video below.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that ice levels in games are the absolute worst. The only good one there's ever been was in The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and that's because most of the time you got to chill out in a cosy mountain chalet with cute yetis who fed you big hot bowls of soup. The rest need to be fired into the sun, if only so they can un-chill the heck out. Because let's face it, we all know the drill. Oooooooh, look, it's all slippy-slidey over here, and ooohh watch out, there's been a dramatic increase in the number of bottomless cliffs in this area, so you better not fall to your doom, oooooooooh. Give me a break.

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Valorant's new mode, Escalation, is exactly the sort of game I crave inbetween the usual tense shoot-outs the tactical FPS has to offer. It's a new Gun Game-style mode where you cycle through weapons as your team racks up kills, and you gradually get worse weapons as the match progresses. Except, Escalation doesn't just draw from Valorant's gun pool - oh no - it also chucks a few damage-dealing abilities from various agents into the mix, causing brilliant chaos when everyone gets their hands on rocket launchers and grenades that they absolutely should not have.

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Seems like BlizzCon has arrived early for World Of Warcraft fans, thanks to a leak from, err, Blizzard themselves? Turns out that World Of Warcraft Classic is getting an expansion, in the form of Burning Crusade Classic. Plus, we now know World Of Warcraft: Shadowland's upcoming 9.1 patch is called Chains Of Domination, which will bring a new area, mega-dungeon, and raid.

Update: Yep, Burning Crusade Classic and Chains Of Domination are now official.>

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If you wanted all the expansions and content packs for Crusader Kings 2, at MSRP you'd be paying over £200. Alternatively, you now have the option to pay £4 a month to get access to all the dynasty-building RPG's DLC, thanks to a new subscription service Paradox launched yesterday. Given that the base game is free these days, yeah, not a huge surprise. They are still selling DLC separately the old-fashioned way, mind.

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Gamesplanet are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year, and to kick off their birthday bash they're holding a big horror and zombie game sale until February 26th. Everything from Resident Evil, Doom, Metro, Dark Souls and Little Nightmares have been discounted for the next seven days, with savings of up to 90% to be had across a range of titles. You can also nab yourself a free copy of co-op adventure Ultimate Zombie Defense if you use the promo code ZOMFREE at checkout, too.

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The developers behind time-looping adventure game Minit have released a speedy side scrolling spin-off, Minit Fun Racer. Players will jump back into the shoes of the strange bird-creature protagonist from Minit, but rather than wandering around looking for beds to respawn in, this time you'll be scooting your way to victory down some very busy streets. It's out right now, and all the developer and publisher proceeds will go directly to charity.

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Stealth games are rarely just> about sneaking past enemies. Like shooters, they revolve around murder. Sneaky murder. Hitman is about murdering targets, but while wearing a chicken suit. Deus Ex is about murdering, but you have cool robot arms. Metal Gear Solid is about murdering your brother, but also nanomachines and the La Li Lu Le Lo and also Jack and Rose from the Titanic or something and also cardboard boxes and Johnny needs to do a poo.

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The demo has returned! Between the limited-time abundance of the quarterly Steam games festival, the spread of standalone 'Prologue' releases, and just straightforwardly available demos on Steam game pages, it seems clear that it's not a fad. Thank heck?

Here's the latest game to have a demo: Rustler, a topdown medieval action game that frequently refers to itself as 'Grand Theft Horse'. It's out in early access today.

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I've spent the last two months binge watching various action movie franchises, culminating in a still in-progress attempt to watch the entire Fast & The Furious series. Maybe my standards have therefore been irrevocably lowered, but hey, I watched the trailer for the new Mortal Kombat film and thought... it was alright?

Fair warning though, it's about as violent as you'd expect.

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