Silver Pines is the talk of the town, and rightly so. It's a creepy, tense, survival horror metroidvania game set in a typically grim looking small American town around the mid-90s. You'll hunt about, backtrack, search for a missing person and hunt down resources, solving puzzles and fighting off what lurks in the shadows.

We're gonna focus on the lesser known games here, so you won't see any Castlevania, Ori or Hollow Knight - and we aren't just sticking to the spooky horror vibe that Silver Pines rocks - cus there's *plenty* of games with that tone. And hey, feel free to chime off in the comments if we missed something you think should be there!

So, post-Gamescom, and there's been a BUNCH of games making the headlines... Nodusfall, a The Witcher 3 extension, Metro 2039, ANANTA, yet *another* Call of Duty - the lists go on.

We got served some old timers, like a new Rayman, Megaman, and Crazy Taxi - plus, a few others like The Witcher 3 getting an extension, and Gears of War making a comeback.

Here's *my* take on some of the games coming out, or are already out by the time we post this, that I'd actually play (but probably won't find time to).

There's something special about a game that you don't just play, but one that delivers a whole new experience and swallows you whole. One that makes you forget about everything around you, that you lose hours to.

Small decisions can mean big upgrades to your setup, performance, and overall gaming experience. We all know that gaming moment, where you tweak a few settings here and there and suddenly your setup feels like you've just unlocked God Mode! No new GPU, no rebuild, just a little "why didn't I think of this sooner?"... 

Those are the "Big Brain Gamer Moves". They won't show up in benchmarks, and probably won't get flashy YouTube thumbnails, but they can make your day-to-day experience feel a little smoother, and maybe even less cursed. And thankfully, these aren't like those questionable TikTok ones you may have seen...

Sometimes, a really special game comes along that doesn’t just challenge our setup, it makes GPUs weep & CPUs cry for their mummy - and makes us realise that maybe our PC *does* need that upgrade.

Categorising these games as “popular” doesn’t really cut it, it becomes a benchmark & even a meme in some cases - it’s the kind of game that dominates hardware forums, discord channels, Reddit threads, and sparks the ol’ “Yeah but can it run Crysis” debate (obvious foreshadowing)…

These aren’t games that pushed your PC to the edge, these are games that watched it fall & smiled.