Thursday's roundup is short on freebies but long on everything else: a big PlayStation sale, three horror games timed for Halloween on Xbox, a handful of new arrivals on GOG, and eleven trailers to get through.
Deals and sales
PlayStation's Planet of the Deals sale is live
PlayStation Store's Planet of the Deals promotion started Wednesday and runs through November 4. There's a few hundred PS5 and PS4 games marked down, including Cyberpunk 2077, Persona 5 Royal, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Madden NFL 27. Sony hasn't put out a flat discount figure, so you'll need to check your own region's pricing in the Store.
Source: PlayStation Blog
An OLED monitor's going for $269 US
PC Gamer's hardware desk picked out an OLED gaming monitor on sale for $269 US, calling it one of the best gaming hardware deals around at the moment. No brand or model given in what they published, just that the price is unusually low for an OLED panel.
Source: PC Gamer
News
Critical Reflex brings three horror games to Xbox for Halloween
Xbox's Critical Reflex banner landed three games this week with Halloween timing in mind. Arctic Eggs is out now on Xbox Series X|S, a surreal cooking game set in Antarctica where you cook with eggs, beer bottles, bullets and whatever else is lying around. Mouthwashing follows on October 29, day one on Game Pass, a psychological horror game set aboard a doomed spaceship that's already sold more than 800,000 copies on PC. No, I'm Not a Human rounds it out in 2027, a paranoia horror game about surviving an apocalypse that's passed a million copies on PC.
Source: Xbox Wire
A fresh wave of games is joining Xbox Game Pass
The next Game Pass wave runs from now through early November. Sandustry, Dodo Duckie, Scramble Knights Online, The Séance of Blake Manor, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Mouthwashing, Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted and Terrible Lizards all land by October 29, with Pit of Goblin following on November 3. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is the big one, retelling the story up to the escape from Midgar with some extra story content on top.
Source: Xbox Wire
Fountains: Extended Edition gets a Gauntlet mode on Xbox
Crunching Koalas' souls-like just picked up a new Gauntlet mode on Xbox, arriving not long after the console version itself launched. It throws all ten bosses at you back to back, with rest stops after the third, sixth and ninth fights and your consumables topped up once the run's done. The game's currently 20% off.
Source: Xbox Wire
Drill Keeper is coming soon to GOG
Drill Keeper is a roguelike deckbuilding siege-defense game, coming soon to GOG with no date set yet. You play the Drill Keeper, building fortresses around a mining operation and laying out defences to stop whatever's coming for it.
Source: GOG
Hungry Horrors is coming soon to GOG
Hungry Horrors is a strategy roguelike card game, also coming soon with no date confirmed. You play a princess who has to cook her way through a curse that's turned the creatures of British and Irish folklore into monsters, using seasoning cards, cookware and potions along the way.
Source: GOG
Servant of the Lake is out now on GOG
Servant of the Lake is a point-and-click adventure, out now on GOG. You take on the housekeeping at the Vanderboom house, solving puzzles to get your daily chores done, welcome a visitor and help the family with their alchemy on the side.
Source: GOG
DMZ is back in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
DMZ went into early access on October 20 and launches properly on October 23, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam and Battle.net. You drop into the Hajin map, grab what you can and extract before the enemy gets you first. Operators level up through successful extractions, earning Trait Points across three trees (Warfighter, Scout and Survivalist), and can eventually Prestige for a permanent Trait once they've put in the work.
Source: Xbox Wire
Sector Unknown is out now on GOG
Sector Unknown is an isometric RPG, out now on GOG. You start on a barren world, build up a base, push out across the sector and either negotiate with or fight the factions you run into, including one bent on exploiting the sector's resources.
Source: GOG
A new PS5 update might be tightening security ahead of GTA 6
PS5 Update 26.07-14.20.00 is out now. Sony's official line is that it's "improved the messages and usability on some screens," but GameSpot reckons the patch could also be quietly closing off a few jailbreak methods. Nothing's confirmed on that front, just murmurs.
Source: GameSpot
Trailers
Grounded 2 adds a new area and a boss in the Rot and Ruin update
Grounded 2's Rot and Ruin update adds the Woodpile, a new area crawling with Termites, plus a new boss called the Centipede that the community asked for. There's also a Potato Beetle Buggy to ride around on and a fresh coat of paint for your base.
Source: PlayStation (YouTube), also reported by Xbox (YouTube) and Xbox Wire
Dead Space crosses over into Battlefield 6's Convergence event
Dead Space is crossing over into Battlefield 6 and REDSEC for a limited-time Convergence event. The centrepiece is Marker Incursion, a 16-player PvE mode where you fight off Marked Soldiers and wield the Pulse Rifle before trying to destroy the Marker itself.
Source: PlayStation (YouTube), also reported by Xbox (YouTube)
World of Tanks: Heat gets a Halloween event
World of Tanks: Heat, the free-to-play tactical shooter, is running Halloween rewards from October 21 to November 4. Weekly missions earn Intel that unlocks Pumpkin Head outfits, ghost-print tank skins and a camouflage for every vehicle, and the Inferno One map gets dressed up for the occasion too.
Source: PlayStation (YouTube)
Mr Magpie's Harmless Card Game is a Minesweeper-flavoured horror deckbuilder
Mr Magpie's Harmless Card Game mixes Minesweeper with horror deckbuilding: you gamble your life for cash, dodge murderous JERRY cards and climb the company ladder in Mr Magpie's office nightmare. It's coming to PS5 in early 2027, developed by Giant Light Studios and published by Behaviour Interactive.
Source: PlayStation (YouTube)
Metaphor: ReFantazio's prologue demo is out now on Switch 2
A free prologue demo for Metaphor: ReFantazio is up now on Nintendo Switch 2, with save data carrying over to the full game when it launches November 12. It drops you into a royal tournament where you fight for the throne and wake up magical Archetype powers.
Source: Nintendo (YouTube)
Red Kiss sends vampire spies into Cold War Berlin
Red Kiss comes from the team behind Citizen Sleeper and The Pale Beyond, alongside the Herald developers. You run a team of vampire spies through Cold War Berlin's streets in this dark, supernatural narrative RPG.
Source: Xbox (YouTube)
Shrek 2 Remastered is up for pre-order on Xbox
DreamWorks' Shrek 2 Remastered is open for pre-order on Xbox Series X|S now, with up to 10% off until November 9. It's the old button-mashing co-op adventure through Far Far Away, back with the same cast and sharper graphics.
Source: Xbox (YouTube), also reported by PlayStation (YouTube)
Magenta Down is a survival adventure on a hostile exoplanet
From the Unto The End team, Magenta Down drops you on a remote, hostile exoplanet with injury, radiation and not much in the way of supplies. You're searching for a way to save yourself and your crew. It's coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC in 2027.
Source: Xbox (YouTube), also reported by Xbox Wire
The Wolf Among Us Remastered gets a story trailer
Bigby Wolf's first case as Fabletown's sheriff pulls him into a conspiracy that gets harder to walk away from the deeper he goes, and this trailer gives the first look at his redesigned werewolf form. The Wolf Among Us Remastered is the definitive edition of Telltale's original.
Source: PlayStation (YouTube)
NBA 2K27's Season 2 lands on Switch 2
NBA 2K27 Season 2 is now on Nintendo Switch 2, headlined by Tyrese Haliburton and Caitlin Clark. It's the usual mix of building your player and climbing the ladder in MyCareer.
Source: Nintendo (YouTube)
Rideshare gets a free PS5 demo
Rideshare, going by the trailer's "Stimulator" tag, has a free demo up on PS5 now. The trailer doesn't give much away beyond that, just a quick look at the gameplay itself.
Source: PlayStation (YouTube)
Images are used for editorial purposes only and not for profit. If you own an image used here and have any concerns, email contact@playtopia.com.au and we'll happily credit or remove it.