October is almost in the rearview, meaning it’s nearly time to put the spooky games away and look toward the new month ahead.
Except we have a game from the director of the original Silent Hill, a PC release of a console classic with a beloved zombie-themed expansion, a puzzle game about murder, and a bleak post-apocalyptic sci-fi game for you this month.
So maybe we’ll just keep up with the spooky games. Don’t worry, though—the list also features Mario, Tetris, LEGOs, and a 2D platformer too. Here’s the most exciting stuff coming to game storefronts and shelves in the month ahead.
Editor’s note: All of the games on this month’s list are traditional “Web2” video games with no known crypto or blockchain elements. But you might like ’em anyway.
Red Dead Redemption
Release Date: October 29
Platforms: PC (Epic Games, Steam)
Sure, this is mostly the November games list, but Rockstar didn’t announce this until October 8. Red Dead Redemption, the beloved western from the days of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 5, is finally coming to PC more than 14 years after its console release. This PC version brings modern features like 4K resolution, ultrawide and super ultrawide monitor support, and keyboard and mouse controls, and the port comes with the base game and the Undead Nightmare expansion. This game was just too big to leave off the list, despite it being a (surprise) late October release.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership
Release Date: November 7
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Brothership is the latest game in the Mario & Luigi series of games. If you follow the series, then you’ll know this one stands out as a number of firsts: the first with fully 3D gameplay, the first on a home console rather than a dedicated handheld, and the first new title not developed by the previous (now shuttered) studio, AlphaDream. Brothership carries the typical tenets of the game forward as a single-player role-playing game. The brothers traverse the game world on a “part ship, part island” vessel called Shipshape Island.
Slitterhead
Release Date: November 8
Platforms: PC (Epic Games, Steam), PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
The remake of Silent Hill 2 was released in October to largely positive reviews, finally giving Silent Hill fans something to unite around as a positive for the series. It’s wild, then, that there’s already something else for them to focus on. Slitterhead is a new survival horror game from Keiichiro Toyama, the director of the original Silent Hill, and features music by Silent Hill 1-3 composer Akira Yamaoka. The game is set in the 1990s in the infamous Kowloon walled city, and features gameplay inspired by two of Toyama’s previous games, Siren and Gravity Rush.
The Rise of the Golden Idol
Release Date: November 12
Platforms: MacOS, iOS, Android, Switch, PC (Steam), PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One + Series X/S
Get out your notebook, puzzle-heads, because the Golden Idol is back. The Case of the Golden Idol, released in 2022, was lauded for its clever puzzle design and unique visual style. Color Gray Games is back with Rise of the Golden Idol, which features 20 cases and is set in the 1970s. If the team can meet the expectations from the original, then this is going to be a puzzle game to remember.
Tetris Forever
Release Date: November 12
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC (Steam), PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One + Series X/S
There’s a strong argument for the idea that Tetris is the best game of all time, and Tetris Forever might be one of the best ways to experience it. This is the third release from Digital Eclipse in its Gold Master Series, following The Making of Karateka and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. This release is similarly formatted as a digital museum, featuring not only Tetris games but a ton of historical information.
This includes things like 90 minutes of documentary footage, scans of advertisements and photographs, and plenty more. The Tetris titles included are a recreation of the original Electronika 60 release of the game, as well as Hatris, Tetris 2, Super Tetris 2, Tetris Battle Gaiden, Super Tetris 3, Super Bombliss, Super Bombliss DX, and Tetris Time Warp.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
Release Date: November 14
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a mouthful of a title, but it’s informative if you know what it means. HD-2D is a visual style used by Square Enix on games like Octopath Traveler and Live-A-Live that retains the classic pixel art style but offers detailed backdrops, lighting, and other visual flourishes. Dragon Quest III is, chronologically speaking, the first game in the first Dragon Quest trilogy, followed by Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II—both of which are getting their own 2D-HD remakes after this one. If you’re itching for a truly old-school role-playing experience, here it is.
LEGO Horizon Adventures
Release Date: November 14
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5
We’re not sure who asked for a LEGO version of Sony’s Horizon series, since LEGO games are usually based on truly mainstream, beloved licenses like Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Batman. Longtime LEGO game developer TT Games is not even involved in this title, with Guerilla Games instead developing it in cooperation with LEGO and Studio Gobo.
One standout feature in Horizon Adventures is that, for the first time, everything in the game is built from LEGO bricks. The previous games featured toy-style buildings, but most of the objects in the game weren’t actually things you could build in real life. We’re curious to see how the developers combine the kid-friendly nature of LEGO with the decidedly adult post-post-apocalyptic (that’s two posts) story of Horizon Zero Dawn.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Release Date: November 20
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S
The developers behind S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl have a tall order set up for them. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is based on the Russian sci-fi film of the same, which is in turn based on the landmark Russian sci-fi novel Roadside Picnic, in which people smuggle unidentified anomalies out of an area called the Exclusion Zone. The first Stalker is still beloved by fans for its uniquely harsh take on first-person apocalypse survival. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has 17 years of fan hype to live up to—not to mention some lingering bad buzz from its short-lived plan to use NFTs, which was axed in 2021 following massive backlash.
Nine Sols
Release Date: November 26
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Nine Sols is already out on PC. Created by Red Candle Games, the developer of atmospheric horror game Devotion, Nine Sols steps away from 3D horror and into 2D platforming. The art combines influences of Taoism and cyberpunk, the developer says, while the gameplay centers heavily on deflection, taking inspiration from From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. That unique blend makes this an incredibly demanding action game worth checking out.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
