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A glass fracture splits the black and white face of the demure princess from Slay the Princess, between a horrifying visage and a scared young girl.

Slay the Princess is one of our favourite unexpected hits from this year. It’s a choose-your-own adventure style narrative game about a dutiful mission to (you guessed it) slay a princess.

I’m too much of a wuss myself, but PC Gamer senior editor Robin Valentine highly recommended it back in November, calling it theyear’s most fascinating horror game: “[The game’s] core structure is so compelling and fun, and such a good excuse for the game to throw in every wild, creative, and scary idea it can into a vibrant web of nastiness.”

The devsgo on to write: “you can only play for the first time once, and the experience won’t be the same if you’re looking through the lens of someone else’s choices.” What’s more, they even recommended piracy as an option in case your wallet’s too thin. “If $ is an issue, pirate it and buy a copy later when you have money if you liked it!”

While video game piracy causes plenty of problems—especially for smaller developers—it’s also sort of inevitable. The solodev of Iron Lungshared a similar sentiment, saying that he’s fine with people taking to the high seas if they think his games are too expensive: “That’s completely ok. Don’t buy them, or wait for a deep sale, or go the sneaky route and get them for free or whatever.”

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

More about horrorSure, I’m scared of my own shadow, but that doesn’t stop me from forcing my friends to play The Outlast Trials with meThis year has proved yet again that horror games do best when devs keep it small-scale

More about horror

Sure, I’m scared of my own shadow, but that doesn’t stop me from forcing my friends to play The Outlast Trials with meThis year has proved yet again that horror games do best when devs keep it small-scale

The outlast trials personal pick

Sure, I’m scared of my own shadow, but that doesn’t stop me from forcing my friends to play The Outlast Trials with me

Sure, I’m scared of my own shadow, but that doesn’t stop me from forcing my friends to play The Outlast Trials with me

Close up of Curly post-crash in Mouthwashing, showing his one remaining eye and bandaged body.

This year has proved yet again that horror games do best when devs keep it small-scale

This year has proved yet again that horror games do best when devs keep it small-scale

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Dead By Daylight: The Junji Ito Collection

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Path of Exile 2 numberlord spends 16 straight days killing rare monsters to prove that a stat that makes loot better makes better loot

Palestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 Nakba

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Marvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene

Sorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our fault

Team Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40K

Is the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.

Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anything

If you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off

AMD is now reportedly making all-American Ryzen 9000 CPU dies at TSMC’s Arizona fab

I tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bay

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HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

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A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

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2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

2

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

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3

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

4

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

5

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

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2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

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Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review