If you're looking for a bit of spookiness as the nights draw in and Halloween approaches, developer The Chinese Room's Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is currently free on the Epic Store; and if you're not looking for a bit of spookiness, well, there's some good news on that front too: Kingdom New Lands is also currently free on the Epic Store.

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is, of course, the follow-up to Frictional Games' seminal horror effort, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. However, while it retains its predecessors focus on gloomy chills, its story of a Oswald Mandus - a wealthy industrialist in the last days of the 19th century - and his vast underground factory, swaps clever systems for a more guided narrative experience.

Its scares aren't anywhere near as effectively orchestrated as those in The Dark Descent, but it's still a deliciously atmospheric tale of societal horror, with some truly unforgettable imagery.

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Sumo has bought The Chinese Room.

The Crackdown 3 developer said it had acquired The Chinese Room, the studio behind Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther, from founders Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry.

Brighton-based Pinchbeck is on board as creative director of The Chinese Room, while Curry will continue her career independently as a composer, Sumo said. Pinchbeck added he's now working on new concepts. In a blog post, he said The Chinese Room is talking to potential partners about a new game, "something bigger"... "something that takes a more traditional game genre - no, you don't get to know what just yet - and lets us spin our worlds and stories on top of that. It's going to be very, very exciting."

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Those with a love of the macabre and a steely constitution are in for a treat; Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its follow-up A Machine for Pigs are currently free on the Humble Store.

Developed by Frictional Games (the studio responsible for the terrifying SOMA), Amnesia: The Dark Descent unfurls among the tenebrous stones of a vast and loathsome castle. It's as much a masterclass in psychological manipulation and suffocating atmosphere as it is in jump-scares, and is generally considered to be one of the finest horror experiences a person can have in front of their video game machine. I can personally only vouch for the excellent first few hours however, because it all got a bit too much for me after that.

A Machine for Pigs, meanwhile, continues on with the series' Lovecraftian stylings, albeit with a touch more political subtext as you battle your way through a terrible, subterranean factory in search of your children, somewhere beneath the deserted streets of Victorian London.

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