Many of us are stuck at home right now as the COVID-19 outbreak continues on. It can be a tad on the maddening side at times, but it’s for the better I suppose. Thankfully, there’s lots of games out there, even for free. Epic is still giving out free games like candy on their Epic Games Stores, and this week we’ve got two new titles to sink our teeth into.

Gone Home is a “walking simulator” where you must navigate through an abandoned house to find clues about what happened to your sister. Hob is a colorful action adventure game where you must solve puzzles in a brutal world and find your place in the natural order of things.

Gone Home and Hob are both now free on the Epic Games Store and will be until April 9th. Beside them is also Totally Reliable Delivery Service and Drawful 2, both of which are currently free.

Layers of Fear

Though not the most innovative horror game by any means, Bloober Team’s Layers of Fear was significant. Following the studio’s failure with Basement Crawl, Layers of Fear presented a complete shift with its mature storyline and macabre atmosphere. As such, the game showcased Unity’s power in twisted settings with excellent fidelity, creating disturbing sights at a decent clip.

The Fullbright Company’s breakout narrative adventure title Gone Home is free to claim on the Humble Bundle Store. PC players can simply head to the website and download it for free without DRM or a separate launcher. You have until May 3rd to do so, and must also have an account on the Humble Store (since the offer is part of the Humble Monthly Trove).

Gone Home is a first person title that first released in 2013. It follows a young woman who returns to her home in Oregon to find her family missing. As she explores the house and investigates the various items strewn about, she begins to piece together what happened.

The title first came to PC, before being ported to Xbox One and PS4 in 2016. It also released in 2018 for Nintendo Switch and iOS. Gone Home was acclaimed for its unconventional narrative and gameplay mechanics, especially since it saw players simply exploring the available space without having too much interaction. Fullbright would subsequently released another adventure title, Tacoma for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

If investing in Origin Access Premier for early access to full-games like BioWare’s Anthem or DICE’s Battlefield 5 doesn’t seem appealing, then don’t worry- there might still be more incentive. Electronic Arts has added several new games to the Origin Access Vault, which is fully accessible to Basic subscribers (at $5 per month, or $30 per year). The biggest is perhaps Madden NFL 19 – it released in August 2018 and made several improvements, while adding a new Longshot story (it has its shortcomings though, so keep that in mind).

Gone Home is the next best option, offering a compelling first person narrative that’s equal parts creepy and insightful. The Fullbright Company’s newest title Tacoma is unfortunately not available in the Vault, but that might change down the line. If you’re a Star Wars fan though, there’s plenty to keep you covered.

LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 and 2 have been added to the Vault. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, a compilation of the first three games, along with LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars and Star Wars TIE Fighter Special Edition are also available. Overall, in addition to the dozens of other titles in the Vault, these are some pretty good offerings overall.

In this feature, we’re going to take a look at what we feel have been the fifteen best adventure games so far this generation. Given how many of these there are to choose from, missing out on a few great ones was unavoidable on our part, so if one (or some) of your favourites got left out, let us know in your comments. With that out of the way, let’s get this started.

DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN

Adventure games are largely the domain of indie developers or studios with smaller budgets, but not exclusively so- David Cage and his team at Quantic Dreams have been making masterful adventure titles for several years now. And with Detroit: Become Human, they truly hit the ball out of the park. With a story that was meaningfully branching, choices and consequences that truly made the player stop of think, and excellent setting, and some of the best visuals we’ve ever seen in any video game, Detroit: Become Human ranks among the best of the best of this genre.

Gone Home is an adventure game that is set in the 1990s; to reflect the time period, many SNES games are scattered around in the game, which in previous versions, have all been fake games (as in, games that never actually existed). For the Switch version, however, there’s a nice, Nintendo-specific touch and homage that Nintendo fans are sure to appreciate- the fake cartridges have been replaced with actual SNES games.

The carts that you can find in the game include Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, and what is in my opinion probably the most perfect game of all time, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Fullbright confirmed on Twitter that they were included in the game with the full blessing of Nintendo- it’s really cool on Nintendo for allowing Fullbright to do that. It’s a neat bit of fan service that will also add more authenticity to the game’s already compelling atmosphere.

Gone Home is available now on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

https://twitter.com/fullbright/status/1039294407327997954?s=21

We had reported earlier that Annapurna Interactive would be releasing the highly praised indie title Gone Home for the Nintendo Switch on August 23. Well, the day is here, but the game isn’t- the publisher has made an announcement on Twitter that the game’s release will be delayed by quite a few days.

Gone Home has been out on other platforms for quite a while now, so it was great news that the game would be coming  to the Switch as well. However, just as the release date arrived, the publisher stated on Twitter that the game’s release date has been delayed to September 6. Additionally, they also stated that they might have more news to share at that point, and as of now we have no way of knowing what exactly they’re referring  to- but it sounds interesting.

For those of you who don’t know, Gone Home is a game in which you play as a girl named Katie, and find that your home is empty upon returning, and it’s up to you to slowly piece together the story of what exactly happened and where everybody’s disappeared off to.

You can check out the tweet from the publisher below. Gone Home will release for the Nintendo Switch on September 6.

FYI: @GoneHomeGame for Nintendo Switch will now launch on September 6th in North America and Europe. We might have some additional news to share then, so stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/RN8LirDuSl

— Annapurna Interactive (@A_i) August 22, 2018

Gone Home had initially released for the PC back in 2013, and it was loved widely for its environmental storytelling and exploration. The game later released for the PS4 and Xbox One three years later in 2016. Now, Nintendo Switch owners will finally be able to enjoy the game on the platform, as it will be releasing for the Switch in a week’s time.

Annapurna Interactive will be publishing the game for the Switch, and they have released a brand new announcement trailer, which showcases the many awards and critical appreciation the game has received since its launch. In the game, you return home as a young woman only to find out that the house is empty. It’s up to you to slowly explore your surroundings and piece together the story of what had really transpired while your character was away from the place.

You can check out the announcement trailer below. Gone Home will be available for the Nintendo Switch on August 23.

Twitch Prime’s latest slate of free games for subscribers in May has been revealed and it includes Psychonauts, Gone Home and Titan Souls. If you sign up for Twitch Prime (or even Amazon Prime), you’ll receive access to these releases along with ClusterTruck, High Hell and I, Hope.

Psychonauts is Double Fine’s classic mind-bending platformer that will be receiving a sequel sometime in the near future. Fullbright’s Gone Home is a first person narrative adventure with thriller elements while Titan Souls is a boss rush title where the player only has one arrow.

Other benefits for Prime members include no ads while watching Twitch and in-game loot. The service itself costs $10.99 per month and $99 per year but on May 11th, it will be raised to $119 per year. Now isn’t the worst time to sign up, especially given the free games provided with Twitch Prime in previous months like Tales From the Borderlands and Tokyo 42. These games are still available for those who sign up today.

Gone Home developer Fullbright’s newest game Tacoma, which launched last year on Xbox One and PC with strong critical acclaim, will be heading to the PlayStation 4. It’s out on May 8th and will feature a new mode called Developer Commentary Mode.

In this mode, players can hear how the different team members brought the experience to life. From how the Tacoma station was built to constructing the different augmented reality scenes and crafting the audio, there’s quite a lot to learn about how the game came to be.

Tacoma is the story of Amy Ferrier who is hired by the Venturis corporation to enter the abandoned station and retrieve the AI within. From there, she learns about the events that took place and what became to the crew. If you pre-order the game for PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store, you’ll receive a 20 percent discount. Check out our official review of the game here or watch the announcement trailer below.