The major games still due in 2022, including a few potential dark horses
The new PC games we’ll be playing as the year winds down.
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November and December are the prime reminiscing months, a time to give out GOTY awards and think about what the past year meant for PC gaming. They’re also when we start looking more closely at the next year, namely at whichever huge game got delayed into it. This year, that’sStarfield, a pretty huge game.
None of that stops new games from releasing in late fall and early winter, though, and there are some potential bangers still on the 2022 release calendar. I think three of them in particular could turn out to be bigger than the gaming scene as a whole realizes right now:
Those games stick out the most to me, but they’re hardly the only games left to be curious about in 2022. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide could turn out to be one of our favorite games this year, at least once we get throughthis long beta period. And if the holidays get you in the mood for space horror (don’t they always?), you’ll want to note that the Dead Space creator’s new mutant gore crawler is out in December. Below are all the big PC games releasing before the year’s end:
The big PC game release dates remaining in 2022
Evil West| November 22Thissingleplayer and co-op shooter from the studio behind the Shadow Warrior reboots sounds like it was designed by Mad Lib: The setting? Old west. The enemy? Vampiric hordes. Your weapon?Lightning punches.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide| November 30You can play the Vermintide studio’s new Left 4 Dead-ish co-op shooter early if you preorder, but the beta isn’t the full game. The parts of it we have been able to play have been a lot of fun, though—here areour thoughts so far.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns| December 2I hope someone who’s read nothing about the XCOM developer’s new Marvel game plays it, just so I can read their reaction. If you want to know what you’re getting into—it is not just superhero XCOM, far from it—check outour latest impressions.
The Callisto Protocol|December 2This new game from one of Dead Space’s creators is so much like Dead Space I started confusing it with the Dead Space remake after previewing both. It’seven more brutal and gorythan that classic, though.
Ixion| December 7A space station colony builder that kicks off with themoon being blown up. Could be a good one to get wrapped up in over the holidays, replacing nighttime sugar-plum visions with hull breach repair and power management.
Choo-Choo Charles| December 9This train engine is here to choo-choo and chase you around with his horrible spider legs and sharp-toothed grin,and he’s all out of choo. Weinterviewed the creatorof this horror game after it got a ton of attention in 2021.
High on Life|December 13The guns talk, and they sound kind of like Rick and Morty characters, since this game comes from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland. Will it be annoying to have our guns yapping at us? Maybe, but it might be funny and the shooting actually looks pretty fun.
The Settlers| 2022?This reboot of a classic ’90s RTS series was delayed multiple times, but will release just in time to still be considered a 2022 game. Chrisplayed it earlierthis year—when we thought it would release in March—and had a good time. The Epic Store’s December 31 release date is probably a placeholder, so we’ll see if it actually comes out.
More games coming this year
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Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the ’80s and ’90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call “boomer shooters” now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that’s right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he’s focused on the site’s news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.
Crown Gambit, a stylish dark-fantasy card battler where choices matter, now has a demo
Today’s Wordle answer for Thursday, November 7
I chatted to an MIT-built AI version of my future, 60-year-old self and we did NOT get along
