New(ish) releases worth trying out

Once every week or so, I actively look for new releases. I have a number of places I look, the best method is probably sorting the games section on pirate bay by new, wading through the shit and looking stuff up on Steam if it sounds interesting. Looking at Steam directly to find new games takes ages and I haven't found many good ones doing that. Sometimes I will play things I see on Youtube or Twitch, though I mostly use Youtube in the same way as Steam - to verify games rather than find them. The Co-Optional podcast is also a decent way of sorting through the shit on Steam. Due to the volume of game releases now, it is becoming quite difficult and time consuming to find good stuff, so I think I might make this a semi-regular thing. ##Avorion Genre: Space sim, early access [Steam link](http://store.steampowered.com/app/445220/Avorion/) I played the alpha alpha alpha version of this game before it even popped up on Steam. Although there is still a long way to go, it looks fairly promising, and the horrific HUD has been improved a bit since the last time I looked at it. It is basically everything that No Man's Sky was not, minus the creatures and planet exploration. You can build your own ships and hangars, mine stuff, fight in battles etc. There are also options to automate things with the AI in the game too, so you can build fleets that will go off and mine for you and collect resources. I haven't checked out Space Engineers for some time, but Avorion looks as though it will have tons more features when it gets a full release (which will be in 3-4 months). Here is a list of current features: - Procedural Galaxy, Factions, Ships and Space Stations - Co-op Multiplayer - Ship Building with various Materials and Blocks - Space Combat with large Battles, fully destructible Ships, Loot and Boss Fights - Dozens of different Weapons and Upgrades - Dynamic Trade System including Smuggling - Storyline serving as a driving factor to discover the game - Day 1 Modding Support ##Kingsway Genre: RPG, Roguelike [Steam link](http://store.steampowered.com/app/588950/Kingsway/) This one caught my eye because it has a strange design. It has a mock OS with a Windows 95 aesthetic, with windows containing the game itself, item windows, quest windows etc. I only came across it today so I don't know much about it, but it seems that the gameplay is fairly average. I like stuff with a unique design though and I think that this genre is over-saturated with really bland games, so it's nice to see a different take on it for once. It probably isn't worth the ten dollars on Steam though. ##The End Is Nigh Genre: Platformer [Steam link](http://store.steampowered.com/app/583470/The_End_Is_Nigh/) It probably isn't possible to talk about this game without comparing it in some way to Super Meat Boy, because that is pretty much what it looks like. I think it has a better design though. If you liked Super Meat Boy, you should probably play this because it looks pretty solid, and it was also made by the same guy who did Binding of Isaac. There isn't really much else to be said about this game. It is worth it for the price, the game has over 600 levels. ##Hyperun Genre: Racing [Steam link](http://store.steampowered.com/app/565390/Hyperun/) At first glance Hyperun kind of looks like Rad Racer, Wipeout and Jazzpunk fused into one. It definitely has some of that 2D racer aesthetic going on, which I like. The controls will likely play a huge part in determining whether the game works or not, because it looks as though it could be unplayable if they didn't get them right. Sounds like it has a nice soundtrack, looks fast as shit and it has procedurally generated tracks so you're not going to play the same shit over and over again. ##The Church in the Darkness Genre: Action/Adventure [Steam link](http://store.steampowered.com/app/339830/The_Church_in_the_Darkness/) This game isn't out yet, but it looks like it could be good. Just read the Steam description, it sounds fucking weird. ##Whip The Vote Genre: Sim [Itch.io link](https://googumproduce.itch.io/whipthevote) A Congress simulator inspired by House of Cards. The creators of this game pulled it from Steam just before release due to some disagreements, I'm not sure what happened, but it is available elsewhere. It looks like it has a bit of humour, and I think I'm going to try this one out because it has a similar feel to Democracy but with a bit more interaction involved.