Welcome to the opening week of the gaming event season. There are many parties to look forward to, but few manage to stuff quite as much content into so brief a space. It’s Steam Next Fest time. If you’re looking to fill your week with promising indies, let your eyes dance over the list below. Happy demo playing!

Wax Heads

Wax Heads is a cozy-punk narrative sim about managing a struggling record store. Chat to quirky customers with unique tastes, explore a handcrafted record collection, fall in love with bands (and their drama!), or just slack off with your colleagues – whatever gets everyone’s groove back!

LUCID

Discover your own legend in LUCID. Platform through a crystalline world torn apart by calamity, absorb powerful abilities that expand movement and enhance combat against a diverse cast of enemies and bosses, all in gorgeous pixel art inspired by the golden age of 2D sidescrollers.

Enter the Chronosphere

Everything moves when you do in Enter the Chronosphere, the turn-based bullet hell roguelike. Each chronosphere is procedurally generated with defenders and biomes from the worlds it has consumed. Break in, find exotic weaponry and gadgets, outsmart hostile aliens, and fight your way to the core.

Tombwater

A Souls-Like Western full of Eldritch horrors. Explore the accursed Wild West town of Tombwater and lay bare the darkness that lies beneath. Survive blood-spilling combat in this gruesome 2D action-RPG that may just drive you to madness.

Ourlands

Ourlands is a cozy island builder where you handcraft and play around in bespoke little lands and truly explore your creativity. No goals, no management, just vibes.

Titanium Court

A surreal strategy game for clowns and criminals.

The Eternal Life of Goldman

In this breathtaking platformer adventure, explore a vast hand-drawn Archipelago, inspired by ancient fables and depicted in classic frame-by-frame animation, and defeat a mysterious Deity.

Deep Dish Dungeon

A survival exploration game where you navigate through a puzzly hand-crafted dungeon, with metroidvania and crafting elements. Unravel the enigmas of the dungeon’s depths solo or online co-op multiplayer.

Fishbowl

Fishbowl is a narrative game about dreams, grief, and hope. Rediscover your memories and find your way into the present in this intimate experience where slice-of-life meets surreal.

The Wide Open Sky is Running out of Catfish

A story-driven photography game… on the back of a giant, flying catfish! Transform clouds into sea creatures and bring abundance back to an empty sky!

1348 Ex Voto

Journey through a tumultuous Medieval Italy as Aeta, a young knight errant who sets off on a brutal quest to find and save her closest one. 1348 Ex Voto is a cinematic action-adventure game inspired by chivalric tales.

Map Map

In this game YOU make the maps! Become the cartographer of a small adventure crew and use proper navigation tools like a real explorer. Map the environment to turn unknown islands into a hand-drawn journey toward a legendary treasure.

868-BACK

868-BACK is a computer-hacking strategy game. Sneak into servers, steal glittering data, fight hostile tasks, expose the megacorps, and find the Mainframe.

Croak

Tongue-grapple and bounce as a gluttonous frog prince. Munch your way through the Witch’s Feast Fair in this whimsical, fast-paced platformer. How far will you go to feed your frog’s endless appetite?

Truckful

Drive your pickup truck through seemingly peaceful countryside valleys, deliver much-needed goods to local townsfolk and unravel the small town mystery. Beware, the old forest is watching.

Less than two years after first purchasing the site (along with Rock Paper Shotgun, GamesIndustry.biz and VG247) from Reedpop, media company Ziff Davis (owners of IGN) have conducted a number of layoffs at games media site Eurogamer, affecting both editorial and video roles.

As VGC report, "the brand’s most experienced editors and its entire four-person video team" are among those impacted, while "behind-the-camera cuts" have also been made at another Ziff-owned property, the YouTube channel Outside Xbox. VGC also say this is "at least its second round of editorial layoffs" to hit Eurogamer since 2024.

Games media set for more layoffs, as IGN-owned Eurogamer cuts editorial staff | VGC

Gamer Network brands including Outside Xbox are facing another wave of cuts…

Video Games ChronicleAndy Robinson

It's just the latest in a succession of devastating blows to games media over the last few years, as publishers struggle with both a collapsing ad market and their own bone-headed decisions, like Ziff buying a bunch of video games websites when they already owned the biggest one in the world.

Eurogamer's time under Ziff has been rocky; this is not the first round of layoffs the site has endured since 2024. Last year much of their masthead was overhauled when a number of editors and writers from VG247 were shuffled over to Eurogamer following the departure of veteran EiC Tom Phillips.

The network also lost performance and technical experts Digital Foundry last year, when the team--who had been with Eurogamer since 2007--bought their way out from Ziff ownership and went independent.

Today self-admitted minor-messager Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm tried to pretend he was part of an event for a major multiplayer game launch, only to be slapped down by the game’s developers. This is not even the first time this has happened this year. 

Beahm, a 43-year-old man who despite his age dresses like a clown and yells at video games for a living, posted on X The Everything App that he “just finished our photoshoot for tomorrow” and that the ensuing promotional stunt would be “CINEMA,” tagging himself as a #marathonpartner and claiming that he’ll be offering drops during his stream.

Roughly an hour later, the official Marathon Development Team account swatted him away like a frail, irrelevant gnat, responding to a question about the veracity of Beahm’s claims by saying, “He’s not partnered.”

The rampant suspicion that met Beahm’s initial post was correct, considering that he attempted to pull a similar – and frankly more brazen – stunt last month ahead of notoriously doomed shooter Highguard’s launch, going so far as to post an image of a fake badge for an in-person event he was not invited to. In that case, too, a developer ultimately set the record straight, though not before some took Beahm’s words at face value and lamented what they considered to be questionable choices on the part of the Highguard studio.

Now Beahm is acting like getting caught somehow means he pulled a fast one on everybody. 

“This is the industry in 2026,” he wrote, posting images of Marathon devs and publications calling him on his lie. “These people are actually real and dead serious too. I love it.”

Understandably perplexed responses from followers only yielded further declarations that, actually, Beahm was the winner in a game of 12-dimensional chess no one else had any interest in playing.

It’s clear, of course, that Beahm is attempting to reinsert himself into the headlines, because he has literally nothing else going for him as the clock rapidly ticks down on his empty shell of a life. But even the edgelord crowd that would’ve once appreciated his stunts has moved on to more overtly political (not to mention heinously noxious) figures like Asmongold and Nick Fuentes or the nihilistically vapid yet bizarrely compelling antics of (still very much right-leaning) looksmaxxers like Clavicular. Beahm no longer represents an extreme; on today’s internet, he’s bog standard. 

Bereft of the mainstream clout he managed to amass before the scandal that sunk him, all he can do now is flail and wail like a lonely child and hope that someone cares. But they won’t – at least, not in any lasting sense. To the extent that it ever wasn’t, public embarrassment is the only tool Beahm has left. It’s 2026, and the world he helped create by being a massive piece of shit has passed him by. Soon, it will forget him entirely.

Recommended

He’s (Probably Not) Cooked - Aftermath

Dr Disrespect confessed to exchanging inappropriate messages with a minor, but where there’s an audience, there’s a way

AftermathNathan Grayson

The first couple hours of Romeo Is A Dead Man are a litmus test. The game throws a metric ton of information at you pretty quickly, relayed through a series of infodumps, cutscenes, and menus with clashing aesthetics and sensory overload. In a way, this is a kindness from auteur game designer Suda51, which is to say, “if this game ain’t for you, we’re gonna make it real clear right away.” But if you’re at all captivated by the many bold choices on display, you’ll be rewarded with an experience like no other in the modern gaming landscape.

What’s In A Name

You play through the game as Romeo Stargazer, a sheriff’s deputy who suffers an attack by a “white devil” while out on patrol, gets his face ripped off, and is brought back from the brink of death by his time travelling grandfather Benjamin Stargazer, a legally distinct Doc Brown.

In the process of bringing his grandson back to life as Deadman, Benjamin’s soul gets transferred onto a patch on the back of Romeo’s jacket, which answers a question nobody asked: what if the scorpion on the back of Ryan Gosling’s jacket in Drive could talk?

Let’s be honest, though: no one is playing this game for the plot. They are playing it because of the unique sensibilities Suda brings to the table. Think Hideo Kojima but if he were really into wrestling and punk rock instead of arthouse films and synth-pop. Seriously–did I really just play two games in the last year that both have a character named Deadman in them?

Once you get past the intro segment, you are then thrust into a 16-bit area where you board the space ship of the time-travelling FBI. Yes, that FBI. At least I think so? From here, you are safely past the game’s steep learning curve and things start to level out. In my opinion, this is where the fun really kicked off and I stopped feeling so overwhelmed. You’ll go on a series of episodic missions that see you travelling through time and space to stop paradox-causing criminals, half of which are different versions of Romeo’s love interest, named Juliet. Bet you didn’t see that one coming, huh?

Bring In The Bastards

Romeo Is A Dead Man channels the spirit of experimental games of the 2000s, for better and for worse. On one hand, the hack and slash gameplay feels at some points like a relic of the early Xbox 360 era. But when surrounded by a series of colorful creative choices that not only add to the mind-bending aesthetic of the game but also enhance its combat in creative and fun ways, Romeo’s true potential starts to blossom.

I am, of course, speaking about the Bastards.

Throughout the game, you’ll fight enemies called Rotters. They come in different shapes and sizes, and require different methods to be killed succinctly. Some of them will drop Bastard Seeds when defeated, which can be grown and cultivated back on the FBI space-time ship. Different Seeds produce different types of Bastards which come with unique abilities that can assist you when summoned in battle. Some heal you, some deal damage, some can slow down time, and more. The Bastards add a layer of complexity to the game’s combat, and further showcase Suda’s weird and wonderful personality.

A good chunk of my playtime was spent modifying my Bastards to get the right loadout to take on the (honestly pretty challenging) boss fights. Getting your first Epic Bastard and letting them loose in combat to deal some serious AOE damage can make you feel crazy powerful. Mixing and matching them added a sense of freshness to a combat system that, at first glance, felt a bit antiquated.

Creative Liberties

Beyond the Bastards, Suda managed to pack a lot of character into the game’s relatively short runtime. Some of the content is optional, though you’d be doing yourself a disservice to miss out on any of it. There’s a cooking minigame where you make katsu curry with your mom. Be careful not to leave it in the oil too long, or you’ll end up with an embarrassing D-rank dish like I did 90% of the time. There’s even a dating sim minigame where you flirt with the anime girl nurse onboard the ship. I’ll be honest, I didn’t have patience to fully complete the gauntlet of questions and answers myself. But I’m still glad it’s there.

One of my absolute favorite elements, however, was Deadgear Cannonball, an arcade minigame where you use Emerald Flowsion collected throughout the game to power up this little character to go around a maze and collect upgrades for Romeo that will increase your attack power, health bar, reload speed and more. Little flourishes like this go such a long way for me, and are missing in so many modern games that get bogged down in bland, boring UI. It’s a comforting reminder of what video games can uniquely accomplish that other mediums cannot.

Sickos Only

Romeo Is A Dead Man is at its absolute best when you’re there just to enjoy the ride. There is a lot of in-game text that elaborates on the lore further, but for a game that’s all about style over substance, I didn’t care all too much about that. I’m here for the tonal whiplash, the buckets of blood, the punk rock gaming of it all.

Suda doesn’t bother to sand down the rough edges of his games because those edges make them what they are and exactly what they need to be. They aren’t meant to appease and comfort mainstream audiences. They’re meant for a specific type of sick bastard who likes it rough. In that sense, it’s a 7/10 game in the most complimentary way possible. In a sea of games that are vying to sweep nominations for The Game Awards each year, I hope Suda continues to make beautifully imperfect games bursting to the brim with style. The industry will be all the better for it.

The post ‘Romeo Is A Dead Man’ Is a Game Exclusively For Sick Bastards appeared first on Palette Swap.

At this point, it’s almost a cliche: I am playing Cyberpunk 2077 and I hate River Ward.

Everyone hates River Ward. Hating River Ward is a perennial topic on the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit. Nathan Grayson hates River Ward. Luke Plunkett hates River Ward. This YouTuber hates River Ward. I knew it would never be easy for me to like a cop character, but given that I still enjoy procedurals like 9-1-1, I tried to go into meeting River Ward with an open mind.

But no. I hate this guy. And every time I am forced to hang out with him I get so mad about him being one of Cyberpunk’s romanceable options.

The reasons for hating River Ward are plentiful and also have been pontificated on by players ad nauseum. He’s a cop; he’s weirdly pushy with you; he is actually appealing to gay and bisexual men but he’s not into men and is kind of weird about it. My main thing is that in the mission where you’re introduced to Ward, he comes off as so virtuous, so determined to be the lone good cop in a bad system that he comes off as stupid. He learns that his detective mentor was involved in a cover up and is so offended that he goes to Internal Affairs with it, and it’s like dude, on average my character kills about thirteen people with a katana every time I leave my house. Do you know where you live?

Truly what infuriates me so much about River is that if you play as a female V in Cyberpunk 2077, you are surrounded by fuckable men, and the only one who wants anything to do with you is this gormless loser.

One of the first characters you meet in Cyberpunk is Goro Takemura, a corpo assassin for Arasaka, a corporation that serves as the big bad of the game. Goro is older, with grey hair flecked at his temples, his long hair pulled back into a loose bun. He has cyberware along the column of his neck, which you can always see because he unbuttons like the top three buttons of his crisp white shirt at all times. Both of you know that under normal circumstances, you’d be sworn enemies, but for the purposes of the game you have to work together. And you have chemistry—even a little flirtatious banter. But if you actually try to make this relationship romantic he rejects you, and it makes me want to scream.

There are a lot of characters that Cyberpunk 2077 players would rather date than River Ward. There’s sexy fanart of Takemura, or the old man sexy ripperdoc Victor Vektor, or, obviously, Johnny Silverhand, the character voiced by Keanu Reeves. This fandom truly does not exist for River Ward.

River Ward suffers from the same problem as the male romances in Hades 2. He doesn’t have any texture; he’s just into you and apparently that’s supposed to be good enough. I know that  Cyberpunk is six years old at this point, but it does become all the more frustrating because we have never been in a better era for media that celebrates the desires of people who are attracted to men. If you look around at these pieces of media you’ll find that they have conflict. 

Heated Rivalry is about a heated fucking rivalry. They don’t even like each other much when they start hooking up, but they’re attracted to each other and they want to get off, and learn along the way that they care about each other. In the world of hetero romance, you have books like Assistant to the Villain and The Irresistible Urge To Fall For Your Enemy, books that position conflict at the center of the story—in the case of The Irresistible Urge, it’s quite literally a selling point.

Cyberpunk does seem to understand the appeal of a slow burn or flirtatiousness. At a certain point in Judy’s quest, the female love interest available to female characters, she lets you crash at her place and in the morning leaves breakfast for you. All of a sudden, I had that creeping feeling of, oh my god, all that time I was hanging out with this cute girl we’ve actually been going on dates. If you stick around the apartment, Johnny Silverhand, the jester who lives in your head, will even note it to you. River’s storyline does not have any of this sweetness—just the assumption that you want to bone.

It comes off less like a fantasy for straight or bisexual women, and more like we are the object of River’s fantasy. Here comes V, a sexy merc, here to help River nab a serial killer, and isn’t it crazy that she’s into him too? The idea that V may have their own opinions about River doesn’t come up until River has already decided he’s in love with you. I’ve been that person before in real life, someone who other people project their desires upon. It’s not a fantasy of mine.