PC Gaming This Week: The Latest Ace Combat, Transport Fever 3, and a System Shock-Inspired Disco Space Station Shooter

Background: The Holiday Ended, the Release List Did Not

The original PC release list is framed as a return from holiday. Its consolation is that people are still making new PC games, and that EIC Julian’s many encouraging facial expressions and hand gestures remain. For readers, the useful output is a date-stamped week of releases spanning horror, office simulation, extraction, mech strategy, restaurant management, photography puzzles, transport building, VR, genAI translation, strategy expansion, remastered action, immersive simulation, aerial combat, and a free tactical prologue. The notes below stay on premise, systems, and release dates rather than major plot turns or endings.

Monday 28th September: Camping Horror, Hell Admin, and 1930s-Style Extraction

Monday 28th September begins with Camp Whittlewood, a pixelart horror RPG about cub scouts going camping in the deep forest. The roundup stresses that it features absolutely no serial killers. It also notes that, aside from Camp Whittlewood, the list has precious few holiday-themed games.

HR: Human Remains shifts from forest camping to bureaucratic survival in Hell. The player is an office clerk after humans lost a war with the demons, and the task is to get through a to-do list before being fed to the Maw, with the roundup adding that it has no relation.

Yots is a PS1-ified co-op extraction game in which players repeatedly pillage a procgen city that looks like Silent Hill, assuming Silent Hill existed in the 1930s. The description jokes that Pyramid Head technology was not available then, but fog certainly was.

Drop Command is aimed at 90s Mechwarrior enjoyers. It mixes cockpit combat with overarching 4X elements, placing it between direct mech action and broader strategic management.

Tuesday 29th September: Cyberpunk Dining, Gentle Puzzling, Shiny Trains, and VR Shepherding

Tuesday 29th September opens with Nivalis Nights, a cyberpunk restaurant management game and life sim from the makers of Cloudpunk. The roundup suggests the views should be pretty lush, whatever readers make of the jobbing element.

Toem 2 is the new toem’ up from John Toem, developer of Toem. The actual studio name is Something We Made, and the actual game description is a gentle diorama platformer and photography puzzler.

Transport Fever 3 is the latest infrastructure meddler from Paradox, with the shiniest trains the roundup says players ever did see. For readers, it continues the management and construction thread after the Monday entries.

Tiny Flock comes from the makers of Human Fall Flat and is a VR shepherding sim. Its listed elements include more seesaws, circus machines and great white sharks than the original roundup believes is traditional in real-life shepherding.

Wednesday 30th September: Mechanical Spider Translation, Horned Side-Scrolling, Witch Music, and Vatican Play

Wednesday 30th September starts with Radiosol. The game casts the player as a mechanical spider exploring a fallen world of attractively dusty and dessicated megastructures. It uses genAI to translate the game into Spanish, Japanese, German, French, and Chinese. The original roundup underlines a reminder to write or commission a piece on genAI translation in gamedev.

Okko The Exiled is a pretty gorgeous 2D sidescroller about a diminutive fellow with horns and a massive club. The focus is on movement and presentation rather than complex systems.

Songs of Glimmerwick is a witch school RPG in which magic and music are closely allied. The developers are promising hijinks, framing the game around playful school-age spellcraft.

Crusader Kings 3: By God Alone is the CK3 expansion in which players can run the Vatican and do all kinds of notionally un-Christian things. The roundup ties this to Julian, telling readers to just ask him.

Thursday 1st October: Unreal Remaster, Janitor Survival, and Planes

Thursday 1st October brings Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered, described as an Unreal Engineered revamp of the early noughties musou masher and its Xtreme Legends expandalone. The original comparison calls such games lawnmower simulators in which the grass consists of shrieking spear guys. The concrete facts are the remaster, the engine, and the included Xtreme Legends content.

RetroSpace is the immersive sim with Saturday Night Fever vibes in which a janitor tries to survive inside a space station that has been yoinked into a blackhole.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve has planes and is described as Bamco’s latest Hot Shots-alike.

Friday 2nd October: Plaything Driving and a Loud or Quiet Prologue

Friday 2nd October closes the week with a serious test driving simulator in which the cars are exchanged for children’s playthings.

Intravenous 3: Borderline is a free standalone prologue for a top-down tactical shooter. The roundup says it is purportedly as sneaky or LOUD as you want it to be.

Current Stage: The Week Closes on a Broad PC Slate

The week reaches its current stage on Friday 2nd October. It starts with Camp Whittlewood, HR: Human Remains, Yots, and Drop Command on Monday 28th September; moves through Nivalis Nights, Toem 2, Transport Fever 3, and Tiny Flock on Tuesday 29th September; continues with Radiosol, Okko The Exiled, Songs of Glimmerwick, and Crusader Kings 3: By God Alone on Wednesday 30th September; presents Dynasty Warriors 3: Complete Edition Remastered, RetroSpace, and Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve on Thursday 1st October; and ends with a children’s plaything test driving simulator and Intravenous 3: Borderline on Friday 2nd October.

The original list also notes the on-going UK drought and the turn into a golden season, where a few immaculate summer skies merge with the crispness and enchantment of autumn. It also says the writers remain interested in reader-recommended new releases.