Steam sales, new games announced, and updates to older favorites. Here’s what we’re playing this weekend

It’s Friday, it’s the end of the day, so if you’re looking for a game to dive into this weekend, we’ve got your back. This week we’re talking new releases, old favorites, and a Steam sale worth exploring both in terms of theme and in terms of discounts.

A Steam sale to watch

• Women-Led Games Steam Sale, March 2-10, on Steam

If you’ve been around for a while, especially in our fabulous Discord, you may know that I have a tendency to hoard games like a dragon, while also trying to hold on to as much of my money as possible, also like a dragon. As such, Steam sales tend to pique my interest. The Womens’ Day Sale, in addition to leaning into my dragonish nature, is also bizarrely tailored to my interests in terms of genre, gameplay, and theme, which is weird, because these games are pretty different from one another. In this sale highlighting women-led indie studios, there are instant classics like the shredding high-energy Skatebird, chill puzzlers like Sticky Business and Unpacking, mystery games like the Frog Detective series and Call of the Sea, and lots of others that defy definition, like whatever the heck Spinch is.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by how many women-led studios made games featuring cats, from cozy companions to puzzle pieces, but if that’s what you’re into you should definitely browse this sale if you’re looking for a game to play this weekend.

Updates to old favorites

• Dorfromanik, MSRP $13.99, available for Nintendo Switch, and PC on Steam and GOG
• House Flipper 2, MSRP $39.99, available for PC on Steam

While most of the team is raving about the new release Unicorn Overlord, personally, rather than something new I’ve been playing a bunch of updates and seasonal content from old favorites. Dorfromanik is a relaxing puzzle game, where you put hexes on a field and try to match up biome types — meadow to meadow, forest to forest. If you don’t match, you can still place (most) tiles, but you get fewer points, and the more points you get the more additional hex pieces you get. Every month they have a new themed leaderboard map to play on, so I’ve been trying to beat my high score, but this month’s is tough. It’s themed around transport, with lots of hexes featuring rail lines and waterways, which have unique rules for placement. Also, House Flipper 2 pushed its first major update, including lots of new items and the ability to scale certain pieces, plus some new quests, so I’m going to explore that a lot this weekend.

And yes, I’m still unhealthily obsessed with my Pacific Drive remnant, thanks for asking.

New Announcements we’re excited about

• Merchants of Rosewall, coming to Steam Q3 2024
• Sleight of Hand, coming to Steam and Xbox 2025

Before we close, a couple new games were announced this week which aren’t quite playable yet, but lots of us are keeping an eye on for the future. One is Merchants of Rosewall, and we’re so excited about that one we’ve already written a whole article about it. The other is Sleight of Hand, which is a noir-themed stealth action deckbuilding game. That description is so wild I’m not sure I’ll be too into the gameplay, but the vibes from the Steam page alone are impeccable. Wishlisting helps developers get more visibility so if it piques your interest like it did mine, you may as well wishlist.

Let us know what you’re playing this weekend — and what games you’re waiting impatiently to launch.