The System Shock 2 Remaster is free on Epic

Monday: Nothing happened that was worth covering over doing editorials and reviews, and Tuesday we didn’t put out anything because the site was affected by a maintenance period that has now resulted in our Twitter (suck farts, Elon) account being suspended from a site infested with AI and porn for “inauthentic behavior.” Wednesday, Coffee Stain teased the new Satisfactory expansion. Thursday, I had all the good news for me, as Football Manager 27 got a November release date.

Onto the Epic Games Store, and it is one of those weeks where I don’t hate this job so much. We’ll start with one of the three games not on sale on Steam this week, Buried Stars. Released back in 2021 and taking its art style from every anime and JRPG of the last two decades, Buried Stars sees you play out the stories of a few wannabe reality TV stars who were auditioning for Survivor. Trapped like Chilean miners in a copper and gold mine in 2010, the only way of communicating with the outside world is through social media. So Big Brother, if it gave up.

The mobile offering this week – which I am surprised to see is playable in VR on PC – is ClockStone and Headup’s Bridge Constructor Studio. If you need me to explain a Bridge Constructor game to you in the year 2026, then I am afraid that you have been hit in the head with a rather large hammer. Not as old as Pong or Space Invaders, but as basic in concept, you build a bridge… construct it, if you will. Then, when you’re satisfied that the bridge is right, you send a car over it and realize you will never grow up to be a civil engineer.

None of that is why you are here, though, as the “big ticket item” this week is Nightdive Studios, Looking Glass Studios, and Irrational Games’ System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster. Remastered in the sense that it is now the prettiest PS1 game you’ve ever played, System Shock 2 is that one game that Ken Levine keeps remaking. Spoiler for what Judas is supposed to be. Thankfully, like BioShock and particularly like BioShock Infinite, System Shock 2 is a very good and well-told RPG immersive sim, albeit with 90s jank. Could do with UI scaling, if memory serves, though.

All this week, you can pick up System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster, Buried Stars, and Bridge Constructor Studio on the Epic Games Store, the latter of which is only available via mobile. On to next week, and the month starts with an O and ends in a “ber,” so expect to see loads of crap horror games. Very much “We have Little Nightmares at home;” Out of Sight is one of those adventure games, but with the camera a bit too close. If you want something a bit more colorful, then TerraScape is a puzzle-strategy city builder that reminds me of Islanders or Combolands.