surreal Archives

AppWizard

June 24, 2025

Türkiye’s answer to Disco Elysium just broke cover, featuring more lawyers, fewer cops, an indeterminate amount of communism and twin fistfuls of guilt and regret

Elyzio, a Turkish game studio, is set to release Pera Coda, a narrative-driven game inspired by Disco Elysium. Players will assume the role of Deniz, an attorney in a metaphysical struggle between life and death, exploring themes of guilt, regret, and inner peace. The game features an isometric camera and a painterly art style that reflects Istanbul's working-class life. The announcement trailer suggests a haunting and beautiful narrative guided by an unseen narrator.

AppWizard

June 24, 2025

Isometric narrative mystery adventure game Pera Coda announced for consoles, PC

Turkish game developer Elyzio and its subsidiary Falan have announced Pera Coda, an isometric narrative mystery adventure set in a surreal reimagining of Istanbul. The game features a protagonist named Deniz, an attorney navigating a subconscious limbo between life and death, focusing on themes of guilt, regret, and the search for peace. Players will engage in impactful dialogue choices and solve layered environmental puzzles, exploring Deniz’s traumatic memories. The game draws inspiration from titles like Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds, and emphasizes a rich psychological narrative with branching dialogue and puzzle integration. Pera Coda utilizes an accessible point-and-click mechanic and is designed with visually striking environments that reflect the emotional depth of the story. Specific console and PC platforms have not yet been disclosed, nor has a release date been confirmed.

AppWizard

June 23, 2025

Five new Steam games you probably missed (June 23, 2025)

On any given day, Steam releases about a dozen new games. The following are details of specific games: - Korter 1996 - Release Date: June 20 - Developers: Mari-Anna Lepasson, James Flannery - Gameplay: Players explore a '90s arcade setting as a nine-year-old in an abandoned gaming haven, combining first-person exploration and 2D pixel platforming with a gameplay duration of around two hours. - Tower Wizard - Release Date: June 20 - Developer: Barribob - Gameplay: An incremental idle game where players build a wizard tower, featuring satisfying mechanics and numerous upgrades. It received over 900 "overwhelmingly positive" reviews shortly after release. - Chronicles of the Wolf - Release Date: June 19 - Developer: Migami Games - Gameplay: An exploration platformer that pays homage to the Castlevania series, featuring gothic pixel art and RPG mechanics, including characters from the Bloodstained series. - Blessed Burden - Release Date: June 19 - Developer: Podoba Interactive - Gameplay: A first-person parkour game where players, as a priest, descend into hell to confront evil, with a focus on speed and agility, and gameplay priced under ten dollars.

AppWizard

June 18, 2025

New Surreal Horror Game Concierge Announced For PC

Indie game developer Kodino Artee, in collaboration with publisher Digital Tribe, has announced a new project titled Concierge, set to launch on PC via Steam in September. This surreal horror puzzle game features an elderly man navigating a desolate hotel while grappling with his identity. Players awaken without memory or voice, guided by a cryptic concierge and an antiquated camcorder called the Parasonik. The game offers a nonlinear narrative with six distinct game worlds, each presenting unique mechanics and unsettling puzzles. Players must uncover secrets without guidance, using the Parasonik to reveal phantoms and solve illusions. The game's aesthetic blends melancholy with lo-fi analog horror, creating a sense of psychological decay. Players are encouraged to learn mechanics intuitively, as mastery leads to deeper understanding within its complex environment.

AppWizard

June 17, 2025

FBC: Firebreak review

Firebreak is a cooperative shooter set to be released on June 17, 2025, priced at £33, developed and published by Remedy Entertainment. The game features players as 'Firebreakers,' janitors in rubber suits tasked with resolving maintenance challenges while battling the Hiss, a hostile force. It is set within The Oldest House, the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, and consists of five distinct jobs with various objectives. The gameplay emphasizes trial and error, with a mix of chaotic encounters and peculiar tasks, such as repairing air conditioning units and collecting sticky notes. Firebreak has been reviewed on an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with an Nvidia 2080 Super and 32 GB RAM, and is verified for Steam Deck. The game lacks extensive tutorials, potentially disadvantaging newcomers. Balancing issues affect gameplay, with fluctuating difficulty levels and some jobs being less successful than others. A clearance system intended to enhance replayability may lead to player fatigue. Despite its current challenges, there is potential for improvement with future updates.

AppWizard

June 14, 2025

The 10 Best Steam Next Fest Games You Need to Wishlist

The Steam summer sale is approaching, and Valve is hosting the Summer 2025 Next Fest, showcasing various indie games. Notable titles include: - Dead as Disco: A beat 'em up game where players control Charlie Disco in a rhythmic combat system. Release date is not announced. Platforms: PC. - Voidbreaker: A first-person shooter focused on environmental destruction, set to launch on August 20. Platforms: PC. - Morsels: A twin-stick shooter roguelike featuring magical cards and strategic combat, set to release in 2025. Platforms: PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch. - Dragon March: An arcade adventure with a mecha-dragon protagonist, release date unconfirmed. Platforms: PC. - House of Necrosis: A survival horror game with a turn-based system, release date not revealed. Platforms: PC, Linux. - DuneCrawl: A cooperative hack-and-slash game for up to four players, set for release in 2025. Platforms: PC. - Hell Clock: An action RPG based on Brazil's War of Canudos, launching on July 22. Platforms: PC. - 1000 Deaths: A platforming game exploring pivotal life moments, set to release on August 7. Platforms: PC. - Passant: A chess roguelike with unique mechanics, available on August 11. Platforms: PC. - Under The Island: A 2D RPG hack-and-slash game inspired by Zelda, release date unannounced. Platforms: PC.

AppWizard

June 14, 2025

Stellar Blade’s PC Mods Do More Than Remove Eve’s Nanosuit

The modding community for Stellar Blade has rapidly grown following its successful PC launch, offering hundreds of fan-made modifications. These mods include aesthetic changes, such as reimagined title screens and character appearances, as well as more whimsical alterations like a pregnant main character and surreal gameplay elements. Developer Shift Up has acknowledged this trend, and the volume of available mods shortly after launch is notable. The Nexus Mods repository features a variety of outfit inspirations from popular culture, but users may encounter unconventional content.

AppWizard

June 9, 2025

PC Gaming Show: Cloverpit

Eclipsium is a game developed by Housefire that draws inspiration from horror classics, offering a retro yet psychedelic experience. Players navigate bizarre landscapes with non-euclidean design that challenges their perception of space and time. A demo is currently available on Steam, allowing players to explore the game and add it to their wishlist for updates on its full release.

AppWizard

June 8, 2025

I defeated a bird by talking to it about the Bible in this lo-fi first-person RPG where you’re a 19th century daemon summoner

During the Frosty Games Fest, a trailer for the first-person RPG Your Holy & Virtuous Heretic was showcased, drawing comparisons to indie games like Dread Delusion and Felvidek. The game is set in the year 18XX, where players assume the role of an occultist who inadvertently enters a bizarre alternate reality after a failed ritual to summon Asmodeus. This realm features supernatural entities, magical crystals, and even computers, including a talking computer called the Statistics and Attributes Virtualization Engine. The game includes characters known as arm daemons that provide advice on attributes. It will be available on platforms like Steam and itch.io.

AppWizard

June 6, 2025

Psychological adventure game On Donuts and Holes announced for PC

Publisher room6, in collaboration with developers Atsuki Miyamura and Kako no Nikomi, has announced the psychological adventure game On Donuts and Holes, set to launch on PC via Steam in 2026. The game explores existential questions about identity and personal choices in a dreamlike realm. Players engage with two characters, You and I, where I poses thought-provoking questions and You represents the player's choices. Key features include over a hundred new questions, an expanded narrative, complex interactions, enhanced graphics, and support for multiple languages. An announcement trailer is available to showcase the game's artistic vision and themes.