Ark: Survival Evolved

Running from October 22 to November 5 on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, Ark's Halloween event is scarier than a velociraptor opening a door. Fear Evolved 3 brings a ton of ghoulish surprises to the survival game, including pumpkins, skeletal dinos, and more. 

There are "new items to collect, cool skin costumes to try out, and a Blood Moon casting a pale shadow over it all." Players will be treated with increased XP, harvesting, and breeding rates. Here's a list of everything you can expect: 

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• New cosmetic items: Jack O' Lantern Mask, Hockey Mask, Headless Neck Stump, Halloween-inspired Dino Colorization Candy and event-themed undergarments (tops and bottoms)
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• New emotes: Panic, Spooky Dance and Zombie
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• Event-themed wild dinosaur spawns
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• Randomly spawning gravestones, scarecrows and pumpkin patches
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• A candy corn-themed supply drop brings an abundance of useful Halloween treats for players, surprises like berries, cooked meats, heal brews, veggie cakes, consumable buffing soups, dino Halloween candy and dino skins from past Halloween events.
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• The environment and trees to be Halloween themed
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Two Point Hospital

Not to be outdone by Tropico 6, Two Point Hospital also has a Halloween event going on right now. Of course, the hospital sim was already kinda' spooky with ghosts floating about, but things are even more terrifying with the "boo-tiful update."

From now until November 1, players can decorate hospitals with Halloween bits and bobs, listening to scary music over the hospital PA, and duck boisterous bats in the hallways. 

Certain illnesses will even get Halloween-themed updates, such as Lightheadedness getting renamed Firghtheadedness, with patients sprouting pumpkins for heads instead of lightbulbs. 

those who don't already own the game can grab it for 66% off on Steam until November 1. 

Tropico 6

Even city-builder Tropico 6 is getting in on the Halloween festivities. From now until November 7, players will see new content updates bringing Autumn foliage, pumpkins, Halloween palace decorations, and a themed main menu to the game. 

The update is live across all platforms, including PS4, Xbox One, and PC. El Presidente is in the spirit. 

Elder Scrolls Blades

The Elder Scrolls Blades is celebrating the spooky season with the Witches Festival. New quests have been added to the game alongside a spell overhaul, new Nightmare Town, and brand-new decorations. 

The 1.4 update includes myriad fixes to combat, weapons, armor, items, and more. It even squashes a few pesky bugs. But(!), it doesn't squash spiders, which feature heavily in because Halloween. 

Creatures lurk in dark caves and mysteriously abandoned villages dot the land. Are you brave enough to venture out into the land of the living dead? 

Mortal Kombat 11

Fighting game fans can celebrate Halloween with one of the most macabre fighting games around: Mortal Kombat. 

The free Halloween-themed event starts on October 25 and runs through November 1. There will be four new boss fights, all with spoopy modifiers such as witches and bats and pumpkins. There are even new terrifying Brutalities to be had. 

The Masquerade Skin pack will retail for $5.99 and include skins for Jade, Kabal, and Liu Kang. 

Hitman 2 Halloween Escalation Contract

Hitman 2 is even getting in on the Halloween shenanigans with a special, Halloween-themed Escalation Contract. This new contract is included as part of October's free content update for those who downloaded the Hitman 2 Starter Pack, and it takes place in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

Along with the obligatory skeletons, pumpkins, and other spooky accouterments, the Contract includes special rewards for those who manage to survive the horror-filled wasteland that awaits them: the Tactical Wetsuit and Bat Shuriken.

The Contract is live now, and you can check out the event's official trailer here.

Gears 5: Pumpkin Ball and More

Gears 5 is bringing Pumpkin Ball back for Halloween this year, which is basically a pumpkin version of dodgeball, and it's also giving you the chance to earn a special Frankenstein skin by winning 13 matches of Pumpkin Ball before the event ends on November 4.

This isn't your typical game of dodge, er, Pumpkin Ball, though. Players automatically revive unless you target specific, zombie-like weak points, including the head or the universal weakness to massive explosions.

The event started on October 22, with more planned sometime this week as well, so stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.

Elder Scrolls Online: The Witches Festival

The Witches Festival returns once more in Elder Scrolls Online, bringing with it a gaggle of ghoulish goodies for your Halloween pleasure. The event starts October 24 at 10am EST and ends November 4 at the same time.

One way to get the party started is earning tons more XP, and to do that, you'll need to complete "The Witchmother's Bargain" quest from the Crown store then use the Whistle you get as a reward.

The Witches Festival has plenty more on offer as well, including Festival-themed collectibles and costumes, Dremora Plunder Skulls (complete with new items) earned through defeating special bosses once per day, and the Glenmoril Armor set.

See the set in all its glory, and find out all the details about The Witches Festival here.

Mario Kart Tour Halloween Event

Mario Kart Tour is joining in the spooky fun this season, with some sort of Halloween event centered around a Luigi's Mansion course. The official tweet announcing the event only said we can get tricks and treats out of it.

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Do you feel a chill in the air and hear a howl in the wind? That must mean the Halloween tour is creeping closer in #MarioKartTour! Land some tricks on the course and treat yourself to a high score from 10/22, 11:00pm PT - 11/5, 9:59pm PT. pic.twitter.com/Q5RHuFTCLJ

\n— Mario Kart Tour (@mariokarttourEN) October 19, 2019

Sort of unrelated to the event, but not really because it is Luigi's Mansion after all, is the announcement that Luigi is coming to Mario Kart Tour as of now. (Apparently, he lost his keys and couldn't get there when the game first launched).

Much to Luigi's undoubted dismay, the Halloween event is adding King Boo as a playable character too.

Don't Starve: Hallowed Nights 2019

Klei Entertainment's lovable death simulator Don't Starve Together's Halloween 2019 event is the return of Hallowed Nights, starting October 24. The Klei blog post announcing the event's return said it'll largely include the same things as last year, with a few new treats and tricks.

That means Candy items, Halloween Decorations, and Trinkets you can give to the Pig King for Candy. Candy is good in Don't Starve, because unlike other food items, it never spoils.

Last year's Hallowed Nights also introduced the Mad Science Lab, where you could engineer a number of potions with a variety of positive effects — but at the expense of your sanity.

Though not technically part of Hallowed Nights, October 24 is when we'll see Wurt the Merm make her debut in Don't Starve as well.

Dragalia Lost: Halloween Fantasia 2

Dragalia Lost's popular Halloween Fantasia event returns as the game's big Spooktober event, bringing with it new items, quests, and summons. It all kicks off at 2am October 18.

First is the Trick or Treasure! Facility Event, which introduces Nightmare difficulty, new items to obtain, and more. It's accompanied by a new set of Daily and Live Endeavors that'll run through October 31 as well.

Thanks to Perfectly-Nintendo distilling the patch notes, we also know the special Halloween Fantasia summoning event will include the following:

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• Halloween Mym (Adventurer)
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• Halloween Maritimus (Dragon)
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• Halloween Lowen (Adventurer)
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• Halloween Odetta (Adventurer)
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and a few more, all of which will be available until the end of Halloween.

Sea of Thieves: Fort of the Damned

Things are taking a decidedly spooky turn for Xbox One and Windows 10 players this month in Sea of Thieves. The game's monthly content update this time around is, naturally, Halloween related, and it's no barebones update either.

Old Boot Fort has been overrun by the forces of evil, turning it into the Fort of the Damned, managed by the Shadow of Fate Skeletons.

This fort can be activated as long as the requirements are met, and it brings with it new Voyages, new Contracts from Duke, and some big rewards. More importantly, these additions aren't just for October; they'll continue on as a permanent part of the game.

There'll also be new arena rules, new items and pets from the Emporium, and even a new way to play Shanties. The full details are here.

Fallout '76 Mischief Night

Fallout '76's Halloween event this year is Mischief Night, letting you take full advantage of the day to wreak utter havoc on Whitespring. Mischief Night kicks off at noon EST on October 26 and runs until the same time on November 5, and it begins "every hour, on the hour." It's a public event, which means free fast travel too.

You'll start off at the Mischief Pyre near the Springhouse Gazebo, and after hearing about the rogue Eyebot JES-2R's dark plans, you're in for a quick tour of the resort area.

From there, you can destroy property and vehicles, vandalize buildings, risk getting tricked at one of the treat bowls, and basically do whatever your little black heart desires — as long as the Whitespring Elite Security Force doesn't catch you.

Complete JES-2R's missions to earn rewards, and wearing or crafting your own costume helps further your progress towards unlockables.

Check out the full details here.

For Honor's Otherworld 2019 Event

For the past two years, Ubisoft's For Honor has hosted an event centering around the Otherworld concept, with plenty of spooky challenges, quests, special rewards, Halloween versions of familiar characters, and of course, loads of lootable gear.

The event usually runs well beyond Halloween too. As yet, like with many others, there aren't any concrete details about For Honor's Halloween event, but we'll update as soon as we find out more.

Hearthstone Hallow's End: Doom in the Tomb

Blizzard finally lifted the lid on Hearthstone's Hallow's End 2019 event. This year's special Halloween event is Doom in the Tomb; it starts October 8 at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT and runs for three weeks until October 30 at 9 a.m. PDT/12 p.m. EDT.

As always, there'll be unique Tavern Brawls with rewards for completing missions under a certain time, plus trials in the Haunted Temple for both good and E.V.I.L. to overcome. Naturally, the Headless Horseman will be making his appearance as well.

Some of the Tomb's treasures might seem familiar to longtime players as well, with classic cards like the Druid, Imp Gang Boss, and Imp Burglard making a return.

There's a lot more involved, and you can read about it plus all the rewards on offer here.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Dark Arts Month

While Harry Potter: Wizards Unite might not generate quite the same levels of interest as Niantic's other AR mobile game, it's still got plenty to offer for Dark Arts month.

Fighting Forces Brilliant Event Part 1: October 8-14

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• A new quest featuring the spine-chilling Brilliant Death Eater and an Azkaban Escapee
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October Community Day: October 19

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• Expect more uncanny creatures including Vampire, Werewolf and Doxy oddities appearing more frequently in the game
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Fighting Forces Brilliant Event Part 2: October 22-28

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• A new sinister quest featuring the Brilliant Sirius Black and a Dementor
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Exclusive Halloween Quest: October 31

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• Get ready for an exciting and exclusive Dark Arts-themed Wizarding Challenge Fortress Chamber and quest with limited-time rewards.
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More details will be announced on the game's Twitter and Facebook pages throughout the month.

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Those are most of the games hosting Halloween events this year. Be sure to bookmark this article and check back throughout the month for updates and new games. 

Killing Floor 2: Grim Treatments

Tripwire Studios' Killing Floor 2 Halloween event is already underway, with the launch of Grim Treatments earlier this month.

Grim Treatment is a free update that brings in a variety of Halloween Zeds, up to their ears (or whatevers) in blood and gore, a brand-new map in the form of Ashwood Asylum, special cosmetic items, and Nuked Objective Mode.

Nuked has special quests and cutscenes, but the main objective centers around the attempt to rescue a small child in the aftermath of nuclear fallout, and of course, there are plenty of Zeds trying to stop you.

League of Legends The Harrowing 2019

The Harrowing is basically an institution in League of Legends. It's a yearly fright-fest that ties in with the game's lore, focusing on the Black Mist and, well, death. Because it's Halloween.

The big draw in The Harrowing tends to be the special Champion skins on offer, plus various ranks of gear, and plenty of other additions to get you in the Halloween spirit.

So far, there's absolutely nothing about this year's Harrowing, but since we're well into October now, that'll likely change soon.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Halloween Event

There will, in fact, be a Star Wars Battlefront 2 Halloween event this year. Shared on EA Star Wars' official Twitter account, the event will begin on October 23 and end on October 31. 

The event might not feature ghouls and ghosts, but it will allow players to earn 2X experience for the entire period. That includes all game modes. 

The event will center around the Ewok hunt on Endor, which, unsurprisingly, will be at night. 

It's worth mentioning that Battlefront 2 will have events the entire month of October, even though there is only one Halloween-themed event. 

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• October 4-6: Battle Point Event
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• October 11-18: Community Quests
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• October 18-20: Battle Point Event
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Dead by Daylight Withering Blight Event

This year's Dead by Daylight Hallowed Blight event, called Withering Blight, was leaked during the Stranger Things event over the summer. That said, only the existence of the Halloween event was leaked. Since then, we've learned a little bit more. 

The event will run from October 22 to November 1. Not only will it bring "spooky decorations" to the world of Dead by Daylight, but items from Halloweens past, including: 

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• The Will O' Wisp flashlight
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• The All Hallows' Eve lunchbox
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• The Pustula Petals offering
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Per the game's official blog: 

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You can find these limited-time items scattered throughout newly generated Bloodwebs and in chests for the duration of the event. You will keep any leftover items and be able to use them year round, but be warned: Any unused Pustula Petals will stay in your inventory, but will not be useable after the event period. 

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Following feedback from the Hallowed Blight event last year, Pustula Petals will instead create a pair of event Hooks and Generators for each Offering used. Survivors who burn one of these Offerings will receive bonus Bloodpoints whenever an event Generator is powered, and Killers receive a bonus each time a Survivor is hooked on a special event Hook. If you don’t burn an Offering, you’ll still receive some bonus Bloodpoints, but not as many as those who do. 

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The event will also bring new challenges and rewards to Dead by Daylight. Putrid Serum will be a new currency for the event, which can be used to acquire cosmetics. Though there are a finite number of these items in the event, finding them all will net you "six hallowed cosmetics."

Last year's event featured an adrenaline-filled rush to gather antitoxins to fend off an army of mutated creatures bent on destroying everything in sight, plus the slightly less tense inclusion of new items and gear.

Rainbow Six Siege Halloween Event

Last year, Ubisoft treated us to the Mad House Halloween event in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, and while the company's been silent so far about this year's Halloween event, a set of rather frightening looking skins was recently leaked.

obutu3_ posted a video on YouTube showing off new skins for Doc, Ela, and Vigil, among others, all of which are pretty obviously meant for Halloween.

If it's anything like last year, expect to see plenty of Halloween decorations around the Rainbow Six Siege world and, hopefully, see the previous year's skins available again as well.

Call of Duty Halloween 2019

Just like we can count on a new Call of Duty game every year, we can count on a Call of Duty Halloween event, too. Only — Activision hasn't announced one yet.

Last year's was all about Black Ops, and the year before focused on Infinite Warfare. This year saw Call of Duty Mobile finally launch, so it's possible any new event could center around that since Modern Warfare won't release until October 25. Of course, we could also see something in Black Ops 4 ... 

Either way, these usually involve the same thing: new skins, stickers, and gear, all won through reaching specific tier levels and completing certain missions.

Stay tuned for more.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery Halloween Event

Harry Potter and Halloween are perfect matches for each other, not least because something interesting — or deadly — always happens on Halloween.

Hogwarts Mystery will be no different this year. The game's official Twitter account teased the game's Dark Arts Month earlier this month on Twitter.

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It's #DarkArts month. Wonder what's going to happen... pic.twitter.com/9fZmGTTMCk

\n— Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (@HogwartsMystery) October 1, 2019

We know what's going on with Wizards Unite, but we're still in the dark about Hogwarts. 

PUBG Mobile and The Walking Dead

PUBG Mobile is getting its own Halloween crossover event with The Walking Dead in the form of daily boardgame missions.

Players can log in every day to complete special The Walking Dead-themed missions to unlock a special version of Daryl Dixon's motorcycle, plus enter for a chance to win a new iPhone 11.

More details about the events and giveaways are going to be shared on Twitter through the month.

PUBG Halloween 2019

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting a special set of Halloween skins this year. They're pretty much what you'd expect from Halloween costumes, too, ranging from The Wizard of Oz-themed Kansas and Scarecrow sets to pirate gear, and more, though the, er, happy Lion costume has received some changes since it first launched.

These costumes will all be sold individually and can be bought as sets for a discount.

Crash Team Racing Halloween Grand Prix

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled has made a name for itself by offering regular Grand Prix events, and it's a theme Beenox is continuing with a special Halloween-themed event: the Nitro-Fueld Spooky Grand Prix.

Top on the list is the return of Nina Cortex as a new playable character, complete with new karts and a brand-new track. There'll be missions and challenges to complete, tiered rewards to earn, skins, items, and lots more.

The Spooky Grand Prix kicked off on October 4 and runs through November 3, and you can find out all the specifics here.

MapleStory Hallowkitty Event

MapleStory's usual Hallowkitty event is back in full force this year as part of the Fabled Melody content update, but it won't start until October 23 at 7 p.m. EST.

It's a big event, too. There's a disco-themed set of Halloween items to purchase:

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• Hallows Disco Chair: Ghost: 1,500 Mesos. Untradeable.
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• Hallows Disco Chair: Mummy: 15 Million Mesos. Untradeable.
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• Hallows Disco Chair: Frankenstein: 15 Million Mesos. Untradeable.
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• Hallows Disco Chair: Vampire: 150 Million Mesos. Untradeable.
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• Hallows Disco Chair: Skull: 150 Million Mesos. Untradeable.
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• Hallows Disco Chair: Master
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  • Non-Reboot worlds: You can obtain the Master chair through the Ghoulish Meso Cascade Mount event.
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  • Reboot world: 1,500,000,000 Mesos. Untradeable.
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And there are plenty of disco activities, too, with stat growth rewards for hanging out and greeting friends, plus costumes you can earn.

Finally, there is a Halloween-themed monster hunt event, complete with daily missions and plenty of rewards. You can check out the full details here.

Destiny 2: Festival of the Lost 2019

Festival of the Lost is back once more as Destiny 2's Halloween event in 2019. What's more, New Light players — those playing the new free-to-play Destiny 2 version —can take part in Festival of the Lost, so long as their power level is at least 770.

As always, Eva Levante is your host, and she brings with her all manner of Halloween decorations and costumes. And candy. Lots of candy, which you'll earn and can use towards rewards like the Braytech Werewolf Legendary Auto Rifle.

Weapons will serve you well in the Forest trials, 15 minutes of terror fighting against monsters galore, but there's plenty of Halloween customization for those who just want to make some haunting memories for the future too.

You can see all the details here.

Borderlands 3: Bloody Harvest

Borderlands 3's Halloween event is part of a brand-new content update, and, as always, it's called Bloody Harvest. Bloody Harvest starts October 24 and lets you take on haunted enemies, challenge a new boss, earn rewards by completing challenges, and, of course, don new skins for your Vault Hunters. What kind of Halloween would it be without dressing up, after all?

You can see the full details in the event's announcement video below.

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Do you feel that chill running up your spine? It must be the call of Bloody Harvest, a supremely spooky free event for #Borderlands3 that starts October 24! 💀

Learn more: https://t.co/oisW3OMZsh pic.twitter.com/9JXJfF06DJ

\n— Borderlands 3 (@Borderlands) October 21, 2019

Overwatch Halloween Terror 2019

Now that it's actually begun, Blizzard released details about this year's Overwatch Halloween event. Dr Junkenstein makes his return, changing all the heroes into spooky Halloween versions of their usual selves and bringing along new weekly challenges as well as the usual Junkenstein's Revenge seasonal brawl.

Here are the full details:

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• Weekly Challenges are back for Halloween Terror, allowing you to unlock limited-time rewards by winning nine games.
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• Rewards include the Legendary Demon Hunter Sombra skin, as the final earnable skin in the 3rd Weekly Challenge.
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• Emotes
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• Player Icons
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• Sprays
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• Voicelines
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5 Legendary Skins 

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• Pharoah Ana
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• Warlock Ashe
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• Demon Orisa
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• Will-o’-Wisp
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• Scorpion Widowmaker
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3 Epic Skins

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• Inferno Junkrat
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• Vampire Baptiste
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• Gorgon Lucio
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Final Fantasy XIV: All Saints' Wake 2019

All Saints' Wake returns for Final Fantasy XIV's Halloween 2019 event, and yes, the spoopy Moogle carriage is included.

If you're looking for some Final Fantasy Halloween fun, head to Gridania Woods from October 17 to November 1 to check out the Continental Circus and its special Ahriman attraction, which is something you'll have to see to believe, or so they say.

As always, there's a bevy of in-game items to earn during the event, but here are some of the highlights:

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• \n

  Circus Resonator mount - this unique voidsent was bred by the Continental Circus

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• \n

  Pumpkin Carriage - embrace the spirit of the season with this spooky - but regal - outdoor furnishing item

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• \n

  Fantastical All Saints’ Wake Advertisement - a notice that will be a welcome reminder about this year’s spooktacular event.

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If you didn't get around to last year's event, you'll get the chance to purchase some of the special themed items you missed out on.

The full announcement is here.

Rocket League Haunted Hallows

Psyonix has revealed new information regarding Rocket League's Halloween 2019 event. This year, things get a little peculiar with the game's Stranger Things crossover during the Haunted Hallows event. 

The Farmstead map gets transformed into the Upside-Down, reminiscent of the opening portions from Stranger Things Season 2. The map is now steeped in red with the Mind Flayer lurking in the background. 

The event runs from October 14 to November 11. During that time, players can earn unique toppers, banners, titles, decals, avatar borders and more. These fiendish flourishes will be available for a certain number of Candy Corn, which players can earn by playing matches. 

There are even golden pumpkins that hold special surprises. 

Pokemon GO Halloween 2019

Pokemon GO's 2019 Halloween event kicks off soon, on October 17 at 4pm EST/1pm PST and runs through November 1 at the same time.

The first big feature of the event is adding Darkrai to five-star raid events, which you can find out more about here. 

There's going to be more Shadow Pokemon at your local PokeStop. Specifically, you'll have a chance to see

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• Weedle
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• Kakuna
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• Beedrill
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• Electabuzz
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• Magmar
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• Lapras
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• Mareep
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• Seedot
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• Nuzleaf
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• Sableye
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• Trapinch
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• Cacnea
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• Shuppet
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• Duskull
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If you're not quite sure what to do with these Shadow Pokemon once you catch them, check out our Shadow Pokemon and Purifying guide.

Additionally, Yamask will make its debut, along with its shiny variant (if you're lucky), amidst a slew of other Ghost types that will be more common, like Gastly and Murkrow.

Other Pokemon, including Cubone, Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur, might appear in raid battles donning special Halloween costumes.

And on top of that, there's a range of Halloween-themed avatar items is coming to the Style Shop, including a Pikachu onesie, Litwick cap, and Mimikyu bag.

You can see the full details here.

Apex Legends Fight or Fright

Respawn Entertainment will be adding a bevy of Halloween goodies and tweaks to Apex Legends with the first ever Fight or Fright event, starting October 15 and running through until November 5.

Fight or Fright introduces new cosmetic items for weapons and Legends, some of which can be obtained through completing special, limited-time challenge missions.

King's Canyon is getting a spooky, night-themed makeover, but it's the new mode Shadowfall that brings the biggest change.

Legends who fall in battle will be reborn as zombies and receive new abilities, like a vicious melee attack and, in true Titanfall fashion, the ability to run up walls.

Once the field only has 10 living Legends left, the game changes to an escape mode. It's a race for the 10 Legends to make it to the evacuation ship while the undead zombie Legends do all they can to stop the evacuation from happening.

You can head over here to check out the full details and get a glimpse at some of the skins.

Fortnite Halloween 2019

Epic Games hasn't yet announced any Halloween events for Fortnite, but fans are expecting something soon. Expectations were heightened when Twitter user HYPEX posted information gleaned from datamining, reportedly showing at least part of the Halloween skins that might be added to Fortnite sometime this month. 

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*REMINDER* Here are some upcoming Halloween skins code names:

"Skull Trooper Neon - Male"
"Gangster Monster - Male"
"Ghoul Trooper - Male"
"Cuddle Team Dark - Female"
"The Dark One - Male"
"Slurp Creature - Male"
"Wraith - Female"
"Pale spooky - Female"
"Modern Witch - Female"

\n— HYPEX - Fortnite Leaks & News (@HYPEX) September 27, 2019

HYPEX is a well-known dataminer in the Fortnite community, but as always, it's just a rumor until Epic confirms the information.

Bloodborne: The Official Return to Yharnam

Bloodborne's Halloween event is fully organized by the Bloodborne fan community. It's an unofficial official event (just go with it), and rules are determined on the Bloodborne sub-reddit based on which suggestions get the most upvotes.

Currently, the rules include choosing and creating a specific costume, like the Grim Reaper or Masked Hoonter, and using the invasion and resonance bells as often as possible.

The event started on October 5 at midnight and runs all the way through November 5. This is still very much an event in the making, so it's bound to change as more rules develop.

This is Halloween — well, almost.

This is early October, which means it's time to get ready for all your favorite games to kick off their spooktacular Halloween events.

From Fortnite and Apex Legends to Call of Duty, Hearthstone, and even Star Wars Battlefront II, there's a lot going on this Halloween.

We've gathered together a sampling of some of the biggest Halloween events set to start sometime this month. While not every game has begun its festive happenings yet, we will continue updating this piece all month, so check back regularly for more information as it pops up.

If your group of friends is anything like mine, getting them all to both agree to and pay for a particular game is harder than herding feral cats. Maybe you're in a similar situation or maybe you're just on the prowl for some good multiplayer games to play in Steam Remote Play. Whatever the case, we've compiled a sizable list to help you out.

The good thing about Remote Play is that only one player in the group needs to own the game; the rest can try it out for free — at least in its current beta period. 

Let's choo choo on through, and hopefully, find you and your friend(s) a game you can play.

Terraria

Price: $9.99
Steam Store link

You'll see this game mentioned on just about every list of co-op games. This co-op sandbox-adventure has loads of content for any group of friends to go to town on. Terraria has stayed on the top played Steam games for 7 years for good reason.

Grim Dawn

Price: $24.99
Steam Store link

If you're looking to scratch your ARPG itch, you could do a lot worse than Grim Dawn. Even without the expansion, you can find dozens of hours of whackin' and lootin' in Grim Dawn. If you're not too keen on its darker aesthetic but do want an ARPG, the next option may be more down your alley.

Torchlight 2

Price: $19.99
Steam Store link

It may be older than Grim Dawn, but Torchlight 2 still has a lot of staying power if you've never given the game a chance. There is more content to be found in Grim Dawn but Torchlight 2 has a robust array of mods available, including content, quality of life, and classes. This is still a solid buy today in 2018, and it can be modded for up to 8-player multiplayer.

Castle Crashers

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

Another staple co-op game sure to be on pretty much every co-op list, Castle Crashers is the poster boy for co-op beat'em ups. This is an easy one for all ages and kill levels to get into and have fun with.

BattleBlock Theater

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

Another game from The Behemoth, the same studio behind Castle Crashers. BattleBlock Theater's campaign is completely co-op and it also features a healthy selection of hectic PvP modes, for when you want to prove your better than your friends once and for all.

Rocket League

Price: $19.99
Steam Store link

Before you say, "Ugh, no. Too mainstream," take a breath and consider Rocket League as a co-op game with a low barrier of entry and a whole lot of speed. Rocket League may not be your first choice, but it's an easy game to get a group of people to agree to hop onto for a quick round.

Risk of Rain

Price: $9.99
Steam Store link

Risk of Rain is a co-op game with an unquenchable bloodlust. Though not for everyone due to its extreme difficulty, Risk of Rain is an easy buy for roguelite fans or groups of friends who hate life. It's a hard game and it will knock you down a peg with ease, whether you've got 1 hour or 300 hours worth of gameplay logged.

Risk of Rain 2 is pretty good, too. It's currently $19.99 on Steam. 

Beat Hazard

Price: $9.99
Steam Store link

This one always seems to slip through the cracks since it's been blessing Steam with its presence for eight years now, but despite its age, Beat Hazard continues to be a recommended purchase for co-op play, providing you and your friend(s) are good at shmups. Beat Hazard lets you use your own music or one of many radio stations to generate enemies, which is what makes this one so unique.

Ultimate Chicken Horse

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

Playing this game with a group of friends is an exercise in sadism. You and up to three other friends will be tasked with creating and completing the stages in Ultimate Chicken Horse, and you can bet at least one (or even all) of you will make them nearly impossible to beat, in the name of being the better platformer player. Ridiculously fun and honestly not as enraging as it sounds.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

An outlier among the other games in this collection, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes only requires one person to buy the game. There's a reason for that: Only one player is allowed to see the screen at a time, so only one can directly defuse the bomb. The other players must tell the defuser what to do based on the instructions in the manual.

If it sounds a little convoluted, that's because it is by design. Can you and your friends defuse a bomb? Maybe, maybe not. But you can certainly yell at each other trying.

Don't Starve Together

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

Don't Starve has stood as one of the more accessible survival games over the years, and the multiplayer expansion Don't Starve Together may be an even more enjoyable game than the base with the Reign of Giants expansion. Together contains both, plus the ability to die in the forest with your friends. If — as in my case — you tried the original game but didn't enjoy it much, you may still find this fun.

Left 4 Dead 2

Price: $9.99
Steam Store link

You may be dissuaded from picking Left 4 Dead 2 up based on its age. It's been out for 11 years now, it seems like everyone's been through the game. Why bother? If you haven't played it yet, this is your reminder to pick up L4D2 to play with your friends. It's still fun to this day, but it's best played with friends. Any community for a decade-old game is bound to be elitist and this game is no exception.

PAYDAY 2

Price: $9.99
Steam Store link

If you don't play PAYDAY 2, it's possible the only thing you've heard about it was the hubbub about microtransactions a few years back. It's been a long time since then though, and the game is a solid heister. You don't need to play the first game to dive right into this one and, provided your group can cooperate, there are hours upon hours of heists for you to tackle.

Dungeon of The Endless

Price: $11.99
Steam Store link

How about something a little different? Amplitude's Endless universe has expanded this way and that, with "that" being Dungeon of the Endless, a pseudo-tower defense roguelike. In this, players must hoard resources and expand based on the ever-increasing threats of the depth of the dungeon. A single round in this game can take several hours and it is very hard, but if your group's into roguelikes you could do a lot worse.

Borderlands 2

Price: $19.99
Steam Store link

Borderlands 2 is another old staple that still holds up today, especially multiplayer. Pushing through this game with friends is satisfying as firefights are intense and the weapon system is a ARPG-style lootfest. Not many games age as well as this one -- you can come back years later and still have a ton of fun.

Golf With Your Friends

Price: $7.99
Steam Store link

If you just want a game to pay a little attention to while chatting, this is an easy choice. Golf With Your Friends isn't exactly rolling in content variety and only contains 7 levels with 18 holes, but things are kept fresh through golf ball shapes and game modes. A very easy game to just sit back and play while having a couple beers and a laugh.

Human: Fall Flat

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

How about something a little less-in-your-face about its silliness? We've got some pretty quirky games listed here, but they're all a bit more obvious about it than the cooperative physics-based puzzle solving found in Human: Fall Flat. The one downside here is that there are not a lot of stages, but it's a good deal at this price. 

Project Zomboid

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

Don't let this game's graphics and the year it entered Steam Early Access fool you: Project Zomboid is a fleshed-out survival sandbox with hundreds of potential hours of gameplay, with continued support from its developer as it slowly shambles toward full release. If you and your group can accept the high learning curve, you can have a great time with this game.

Portal 2

Price: $9.99
Steam Store link

The Portal games are famous for a lot of reasons and one of those reasons is (Spoilers!) the stellar co-op campaign. If you haven't played Portal 2 and you want a game to play with a friend, you may as well throw the $2 at Valve and see what all the hubbub is about.

Barony

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

An other roguelike to add to the pile, Barony is the closest to a traditional roguelike of any of the games listed here. It looks old, it feels old, and it plays like an old game. That's perfectly fine: You'll be hard-pressed to find another game that takes the classic roguelike formula, turns it 3D and realtime, and allows for online co-op. This one's pretty niche but you're in for a good time if you're comfortable with classic roguelikes.

Endless Legend

Price: $29.99
Steam Store link

Though Endless Space is currently also on sale, I would recommend Endless Legend over it for its similarities to the Civilization series and its overall fun factor. This is a more traditional-style 4X game. Expand, form alliances, wage wars -- it's up to you. A worthy strategy addition to most gaming groups on a budget.

Resident Evil 5

Price: $19.99
Steam Store link

You don't hear much about Resident Evil 5 or 6 for a few reasons, but none of those reasons equate to them not being fun with friends. Resident Evil 5 is often overlooked in favor of 6 for co-op play because it retains the semi-tank controls found in its predecessor, but if you and a friend can adjust to that control style this is an intense and worthwhile co-op action game.

Resident Evil 6

Price: $29.99
Steam Store link

Like its predecessor, Resident Evil 6 is best played with a friend. Unlike its predecessor, it's got more modern, fluid controls and a whole lot of QTEs. This one is over-the-top in about every regard, to the extent I can't help but find it silly each playthrough. If you like classic Resi games, go with 5. If you can't deal with the antiquated controls, go with 6. The decision is as simple as that.

7 Days to Die

Price: $24.99
Steam Store link

One of the first titles in the survival game wave that paved the way for games such as Rust and ARK: Survival Evolved, 7 Days to Die still stands as one of the most played games on Steam and is just as fun now as when it came out. As with the two mentioned, 7 Days to Die allows you a great deal of freedom in your efforts to survive. Break, use, and do whatever you want to ensure your survival in a world overrun by over 50 types of zombies.

Orcs Must Die! 2

Price: $14.99
Steam Store link

The original Orcs Must Die! set off a chain reaction of action-tower defense clones, some good and some bad, but none really hold up to the sequel. Orcs Must Die! 2 is an improvement over the first game in almost every way, and has the added bonus of online multiplayer. It's easy to get into, easy to wrap your head around, and easy to spend too many hours in.

Tabletop Simulator

Price: $19.99
Steam Store link

This is a bit of a strange one since Tabletop Simulator itself isn't a game, but a mini-platform for tabletop gaming. The amount of games available via Tabletop Simulator are nearly endless, making this a fantastic purchase for any static group of friends who have trouble deciding on what to play or want to play board games without having to pick up after themselves.

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These are definitely not all of the co-op games you can get for relatively cheap on Steam, but these are some I can personally recommend. I hope you've found at least one game you find worthy of your Steam library.

Last week, indie-game developers Klei announced the first of several new Don't Starve Together servers called "Event Servers". The beta for the first Event, The Forge, went live this week for developer stress testing before the official release sometime in November. 

These Event Servers, Klei explains, host limited-time special events for owners of Don't Starve Together, giving them a chance to nab in-game items and apparel. These events are free to anyone who owns Don't Starve Together, and most of the items included in the special events will be free, randomly encountered items -- except for skins, which players can buy at $2.99 for one character or $12.99 for all characters.

Exclusive to The Forge, players can expect up to 200 new items, along with a few tweaks to the Don't Starve Together formula, such as how many drop items are in a chest and UI additions to the main menu. 

If you play the beta -- which ends October 30 -- the developers are looking for feedback on usability and general playability. However, be advised that any items you receive in the beta will not carry over when The Forge officially releases.

Klei anticipates a live drop of The Forge about two weeks into November, though no date has been officially announced, and the event will be available to play for three weeks. 

So grab your anvils, paint your faces red, and find some friends, because you're gonna need them to help you survive The Forge. 

Don't Starve is essentially the ultimate survival game where you'll have loads of fun freezing, starving, and getting beaten to death with your friends -- and the graphics are adorable to boot.

The Mega Pack is now here and players across all platforms have access to the complete Don't Starve Together experience, from the base game to the multiplayer addition and the two major expansions.

We've previously explored plenty of awesome tips for surviving your first night in the base game, so below we're focusing on the Shipwrecked portion of the Mega Pack, which is the most different from the base Don't Starve experience.

Surviving The First Few Shipwrecked Days in Don't Starve

On the Shipwrecked side of the Mega Pack, the island you spawn on could have few to no critical resources needed in the early to mid-game. Oh well, guess you starve and try again -- or instead rush to build that first raft and hope you fare better on the next island.

The first order of business is to scout the island to see how dire the situation has become right from the start. There should be enough resources to build a Thatch Pack (4x Palm Leaves) for expanding your starting inventory space.

By the second day, you absolutely need to craft a Machete (1x Twig, 3x Flint) to make both fighting and harvesting resources easier. Don't forget -- it breaks after 100 whacks against trees or animals!

Before leaving our first island home, its time to build a raft (4x Bamboo, 3x Vines). If you're playing as Walani, you can use the starting surf board instead, but eventually you will still want to build a better sea craft.

 Building A Raft

Exploring The High Seas

While out on the open ocean, you should look for a medium-to-large sized island to fortify as your main defensive base of operations while exploring other areas. Be on the lookout for lots of resources to exploit over time -- and if there's water beefalo, even better!

Once you've hit another suitable island, look for gold to mine so you can build a Science Machine (1x Gold Nugget, 4x Logs, 4x Rocks) for crafting and prototyping new recipes.

From there, mine more gold to upgrade to an Alchemy Engine (4x Boards, 2x Cut Boards, 6x Gold Nuggets) as soon as you are able.

Along the way to building an Alchemy Engine, you should procure enough resources to put together a Crock Pot (3x Cut Stone, 6x Charcoal, 6x Twigs), which is a must for not starving.

 Mining Gold

Preparing For Hurricane Season

Explore as much as you can in the first 15 - 20 days before hurricane season arrives, as you have more day time and no constant hazards, like high winds and lightning strikes.

Before the hurricane season starts, make sure to build a Chiminea (2x Limestone, 2x Sand, 2x Logs), which is a better option than the standard Firepit, because it won't get flooded during hurricane season or blown out by strong winds.

Make sure you don't build any of your structures or objects near the ocean line. Your objects will eventually be flooded during hurricane season and that's a lot of wasted resources.

Lightning also strikes constantly during hurricane season, so craft a Lightning Rod (3x Gold Nuggets, 1x Cut Stone) sometime after building your Science Machine to prevent out of control fires and provide more light.

Final Parting Tips

With those basic structures and objects crafted, it's up to you to decide where you want to go and how you will survive! But there's just a few other Don't Starve Mega Pack tips you need to know to have an edge:

• Monkeys will try to steal items from you -- keep those little rascals away from you!
• Crabbits will eat food left on the ground, so snatch it up first!
• Need poop but can't find water beefalo? Go attack a monkey -- his buddies will show up and fling manure at you at for free!

 Monkeys Flinging Manure

Those are all the basics you need to know to survive your first trip to the Shipwrecked islands. Have any other survival strategies we should try out? Let us know in the comments section below!

A video game date night can either strengthen a relationship or leave it shattered and abandoned. Choose your game wisely and count yourself lucky you have someone to play with. 

What are your favorite date night games? Will you be having a game date on Valentine's Day? Let us know in the comment section below. 

Salt and Sanctuary

Consoles: PC & PS4

Couch Co-Op: Yes

Skill Level: You both better be MLG

Budget: Console version and a giant stuffed animal to cry into ~$30

If you both thought the Dark Souls games were just a little too easy, check out this side scroller homage that you suffer in together! The difficulty is significantly amped up when co-op is turned on, so no weak links on this date night. 

Rock Band 4

Platforms: PS4 and Xbox One

Couch Co-Op: Of course

Skill Level: As a gamer? Not required. Musically? Appreciated. 

Budget: Band in a box & bottle of stage whiskey ~$200

Get ready to take your relationship to the next level -- start a band. Be prepared for fights over the drum kit, spending way too much cash picking up new songs, and listening to your partner slaughter Florence and the Machine at least 5 times. 

Goat Simulator

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One and PC ( there are versions for older gens as well)

Couch Co-Op: Yes

Skill Level: Best to not have any

Budget: Console version and a mid-range bottle of tequila ~$35

Get your goat on and laugh until you cry. There's nothing better than that feeling on a first or 50th date. You'll also find out whether the person you love most (or are tryna chill with tonight) is an evil goat mastermind or a saint among goats...  

Just remember -- there's no turning back. 

Don't Starve Together

Platforms: PC & PS4

Couch Co-Op: Yes (Lan also available)

Skill Level: Medium and Medium, or High and Low

Budget: Bundled version (if you don't already own the single player game) and a really full bodied red wine ~$50

For the couple that enjoys a more macabre atmosphere, Don't Starve's multiplayer expansion is just perfect. The game is simple to begin with, but can get really complex if it grabs your attention. Its co-op mechanic allows even the most button-smashy partner plenty of activities to keep them busy.  

Child of Light

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, and PC (there are versions for older gens as well)

Couch Co-Op: Yes

Skill Level: Medium for Player One, Very low for Player Two 

Budget: Console version and giant ice cream cake or equivalent  ~$25

Crank up the romance with this literal bit of digital poetry. Meant to feel like a children's book, this game is thoughtful and beautiful. You'll definitely score some cute points, but remember that this is a turn-based RPG. Some people will just never ever, under no circumstance, be able to sit through a strategy RPG like this. But it doesn't hurt to try.   

Minecraft

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, and just about everything else. 

Couch Co-Op: Yes on consoles; LAN available on PC

Skill Level: Not Required (It's actually very easy)

Budget: Console version and some flowers to match your in-game garden: ~$30

All of us have (probably) dabbled with the sandbox survival top dog, but have you considered playing it with that special someone? Building a house, setting up a farm, or digging into the earth only gets better when you can bicker about it with your partner. 

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it seems like an appropriate time to compile a list of the best video games to play with your significant other on date night. 

Whether both you and your partner are master gamers, one of you is a little new, or you're both hopeless, there is always a game to play together. Here's a varied selection to get you on track for the best date night ever! 

Minecraft

Average Singleplayer Playthrough: 98-125 hours
Co-op: 204

This list just wouldn’t be complete without Minecraft. This is the game that incites a cycle. Start up casually, find an amazing spot to build, don’t quit for a billion hours, leave the game, forget about for a few months, start up again, repeat.

Are there any games that you just can't stay away from? I would love to know so I can add to my collection. Let me know in the comments below!

Pokémon

Average Playthrough: 55.1 hours
Completionists: 144

(Data average from Sun and Moon, X and Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Black and White and Red and Blue)

The games within the Pokémon series are the only ones on this list that aren’t indie and sandbox. What makes them have the addiction factor, however, is the ability you have as the player to explore. You can rush through the story, sure, but that’s not where the fun of Pokémon comes from. Finding the perfect team of pocket monsters and training them to their best is what makes all other games in your digital libraries slowly fade away.

Plus, gotta catch ‘em all right?

The Long Dark

Average Playthrough: 54 hours
Completionists: N/A

The Long Dark might be the most dedicated-to-realism game on the market right now. Everything from the clothes on your back to when and if you decide to sleep affects your survival probability in the Canadian wilderness. This game is still in Early Access, but has so many features and worlds to explore that it just sucks players back in.

Stardew Valley

Average Playthrough: 74.5 hours
Completionists: 123

This game was the indie darling of 2016 for a good reason. It’s a farming sim, which is a recipe for addiction alone. But combine that with mining, crafting, sandbox and genuinely endearing NPC interactions, and you have a game that is going to slowly but surely take over your waking hours.

Don’t Starve

Average Playthrough: 87 hours
Completionists: 177 hours

Don’t Starve is equal parts engaging and punishing. The objective is right there in the title, but there are enough additional features in the game to keep players engaged past basic survival.

The multiplayer version, Don’t Starve Together, only adds to the addiction by adding friends into the mix. Then when the vanilla world gets dull, you can load up the “Reign of Giants” or “Shipwrecked” DLC.

Every gamer seems to have that go-to game (or games) to play when they just don’t have anything else to get into. Whether you're broke, or don't see any enticing new releases, or simply have a game hangover, we all tend to fall back on that one game at some point or another.

These games are kept on the back burner because they are reliably fun...and addicting. Most of the time, these titles are in the 100+ hours club and usually have already been beaten (or completed to their fullest extent) at least once.

But that go-to game isn't just any major release. Games like The Witcher 3 might be addicting and deserving of many playthroughs, but oftentimes are lacking a certain open-ended element that other games use to suck you in. 

So what games do most gamers default to when they're between games or just looking to spend time in a world they know and love? Let's take a look! For curiosity's sake, we've also included stats from HowLongToBeat which show the average playthrough time for each game, plus the amount of time needed for "completionists" to do everything there is to do. 

Don't Starve Together

Is this one of the biggest indies on PC? Yeah, probably. Is it also one of the biggest indies on PlayStation 4? Also probable!

Don't Starve Together is a survival adventure, where up to two local players can ruin each other's good time while trying to stick it out in the unforgiving wilderness. You both must stay alive and try your best to retain your sanity and health, and of course not starve.

There is so much to this game that there is not enough room for me to even begin here. This is a very different game from the rest mentioned in this list, and it's packed with so many hours of content its $14.99 PlayStation Store price tag is a total steal if you and your local bud(s) get addicted just like so many have on PC.

There are many secrets in Don't Starve Together, but it's going to take dying over a dozen times to even begin to scratch the surface. With another player in co-op you have to share food and other resources, making this a true cooperative local co-op game... provided the person you're playing with isn't being a jerk.

Don't Starve Together is flexible and allows for long play sessions should you get lucky -- just don't get mauled, don't go insane, don't freeze to death, don't starve, and don't let your co-op partner hoard resources.

As mentioned at the start of this article, 2016 has been a fantastic year for indies on the PlayStation 4. Both single and multiplayer indie games are more abundant than ever and 2017 is bound to be even better -- but if not, at least there are plenty of amazing couch co-op run-offs from 2015 and 2016 to sink your teeth into on the console.

Super Mutant Alien Assault

So many games on this list are going to kill you a million times, what am I even thinking? I'm thinking, "Dealing with a bunch of bull with friends is way better than on your own," and that's very much the case with Super Mutant Alien Assault.

An arcade-style meatgrinder roguelite that allows for up to two local players, Super Mutant Alien Assault's gameplay is just as blood-pumping as its music. Each stage you push through is a trial thanks to the random weaponry you're given and the variety of goals the game may throw your way, and it's absolutely packed to the brim with unlocks.

Some may overlook this game because of its generic title, but it's definitely up there among the best local co-op roguelites on the PlayStation 4. A run generally won't last as long as one would in the previously listed Enter the Gungeon or Risk of Rain. The ship's radiation mutating your enemies should they be alive too long will make sure of that.

It's fast, it's fun and it's only $9.99 at its standard price on the PlayStation Store. There isn't much else to say -- in this case, if this game looks like a good time to you, it definitely will be.

Risk of Rain

I'm going to recommend this game any chance I get and there's nothing GameSkinny can do to stop me.

Risk of Rain is one of the better-known indies on PC due to all the media coverage when it came out in 2013 -- and it's still one of the best. It's pretty much just as good on PlayStation 4 as it is on PC, and is probably the second least forgiving game on this list.

Boy, is it worth it.

The game launched on PS4 in 2016, complete with the whole PC experience, as well as online matchmaking. But the focus here is local co-op, and it's got that, too. Up to two local players can play locally on console.

Risk of Rain is a frantic action platformer that is absolutely brutal, and even (especially?) when playing with another person in local co-op on console, it becomes an even more trying effort as you must portion out items and share the same screen.

This game takes dozens of hours to get good at, and there are a good number of unlocks, but even the best player can get murdered in a split second with a misplay. It takes both skill and luck to push forward, and a run can either be a few minutes or well over an hour, depending on both factors.

Risk of Rain can be grabbed up on the PlayStation Store for a paltry $9.99, which is a tiny sum considering how easy it is to rack up hours both solo and in multiplayer.

The Bug Butcher

This one may be a hard sell if you're not inclined toward shoot'em ups, but between The Bug Butcher's manageable difficulty, bangin' soundtrack and satisfying pew-pewing, it's really difficult not to recommend this game to someone looking for a quick pick up and play co-op game on PS4.

The Bug Butcher is a vertical shoot'em up... kind of. While you certainly shoot upward and clear out waves of enemies while dodging their attacks and bouncing bodies, it's a different sort of animal from what one traditionally expects from the genre. And that animal is good.

The game allows up to two local players to cooperate and shoot their way through countless enemies as the clock ticks down. You can stave off the timer and stave off your enemies, but if one of you has died enough and can't be resurrected by the other play fast enough, it's game over.

The Bug Butcher is great to play with other people in short bursts. You pick it up, push as far as you can until one of you dies for good, and either go at it again on the same or different map or put it down. It's very easy to play a (hopefully not too) quick round and accidentally turn that into five or more in a casual play sitting.

The game's singleplayer Mission mode has progression, but multiplayer Panic mode is where it's at for quick and totally fun gameplay sessions with a friend.

Unlike the other games on the list, no one has paid much attention to The Bug Butcher, despite it being both fun and affordable. If a more arcade-style co-op game sounds down your alley, you may want to grab this up on the PlayStation Store for its standard price of $9.99.

Enter the Gungeon

Another popular indie title this year, Enter the Gungeon is a far cry from the four-player frantic struggle of Overcooked but not all that far off from the other games on this list.

Enter the Gungeon allows up to two local players to cooperate as they shoot and dodge-roll their way through the perilous Gungeon, a dungeon both made of and filled with guns of unimaginable types. Well, unimaginable as a player. The devs certainly thought of them. But anyway ... 

Despite its labeling as a bullet hell, the game is much more accessible than actual shoot'em ups and hardcore bullet hells. Bullet speed is generally on the slower side, and enemies have patterns for you and your gameplay partner to learn and eventually overcome completely. It may seem impossible the first couple hours, but in time you'll be a dodging and shooting machine.

Enter the Gungeon's crazy tight gameplay is paired with a whole buffet of charm, from the enemies and music down to the gun and equipment descriptions. You'll stay alive longer in this than you will in the similar Nuclear Throne, and pushing to new depths and unlocking new guns is extremely satisfying.

This bad boy can be picked up on the PlayStation Store for a mere $14.99 at regular price, and it makes for an excellent entry point into this intimidating genre.

Overcooked

The only strictly "party" game on the list, Overcooked has gotten a fair amount of attention since its release on both consoles and PC in August for its unique premise and frantic cooking gameplay.

Up to four local players must cooperate to run a kitchen within a time limit, and let me tell you, cooperation is hard when you have to manually do every task from grabbing and chopping ingredients, putting together food orders, serving them and washing the dishes -- and that's not even going into the variety of stages that test your personal and team coordination and timing.

Overcooked is by far the most stressful game on this list, but it is also the most full-on party gaming experience. You won't laugh as you play, but you will cry, scream and wonder why your fellow players can't just get on the efficiency ball. Should you and your fellow players be able to cooperate and coordinate properly, you'll run like a well-oiled machine all the way to the "this is immensely satisfying" bank.

You can pick this baby up for $16.99 on the PlayStation Store when it's at its standard price, and there are two other editions with some extra content for the true gaming gourmet.

2016 has been an absolutely amazing year for indie games on the PlayStation 4. The list of indies that have made their way to the console this year alone is a long one, and anyone looking for easily accessible couch co-op these days need look no further than the PlayStation Store's indie section.

From high-tension pseudo-shoot 'em ups and roguelites to survival and platformers, the PlayStation 4's got some good variety in the co-op department that makes it easy to sit down for a few hours with a friend or loved one and just gnaw on the ol' gaming bone.

This list will touch on six of the console's most gripping co-op indie games that are a lot harder on your fingers than they are on your wallet. They may be ports from the PC or other platforms, but they're well-worth your money on PS4 if you specifically are looking for games to play with other people in real life, the old-fashioned and superior way.

The 2D rogue-like survival adventure game has grown in size and scope since its 2013 debut, adding a multiplayer game that lets you play with friends and strangers alike.

At its core, the game has always dropped players right in the middle of a harsh, uncaring world with only one rule: don’t starve. From a variety of playable characters, each with their own specialties and survival styles, and a number of dangers ready to destroy, you learned how to play by dying… a lot.

2016 has brought us Don’t Starve Together, the standalone multiplayer version of the game that includes the “Reign of Giants” content. The game expands not only the environment, enemies, and items to craft, but also provides an episodic feature. New Reign: Part 1 is the current episode and part of a series of updates planned for the game.

On November 3 2016, a beta update was released that fixed bugs within the game and includes new content like an enemy called Bee Queen, complete with an army of Grumble Bees, to baby pets and fences.

The developers plan on releasing more content, making this fun and difficult survival horror even more irresistible.

Thanks to the help of many fans and supporters, Don't Starve Together has finally left Steam Early Access. 

Its prequel, Don't Starve, was a great game. But one of the biggest complaints was that it lacked multiplayer. People wanted to build bases and play with their friends. Instead of simply adding the game mode in, Klei Entertainment — the company responsible for the game's development — decided to work on a new project: Don't Starve Together.

The game has been in development since late 2015, and since then, the developers have listened closely to community feedback. They've fixed some bugs, hammered down some compatibility issues, and listened to some of the fans' noteworthy suggestions. The result is a well-polished and well-developed game.

And to celebrate its official release, the development team has added a few fun things for fans. 

• Maxwell, the Master of Puppets, is now available to play. Many fans will remember him from the tutorial of the original Don't Starve. He's grown to become a fan-favorite, and now you can play as him.
• Firepit cosmetics have been added. You can now change the look of your fireplace to suit the theme of your base.
• New clothing and survivor heads has been added. You can now live your life as Maxwell by wearing his clothes.
• A ton of bug fixes. 

It seems like this is the development team's way of thanking the fans for all of their continued to support. It's definitely a nice gesture. The game really deserves all the recognition it has received.

You can pick up Don't Starve Together on Steam now. 

Don't Starve Together is such an impressive game, albeit a very hard one for those who don't know what they are doing. That is why we setup a Beginner's Guide to help out the new players. Once you know what you are doing, though, you can begin downloading mods and experiencing the game in a new light.

Minimap HUD

Basically, this game modification adds in a fully functional minimap to the game's HUD; it is capable of being zoomed in, and will update in real-time as you discover new areas and zones. If you prefer not to have it take up so much room, the minimap can be collapsed.

For those who want to know where they are, this is the perfect little mod.

Craftable Gears

Gears are one of the hardest objects to find in the game; mostly because it requires the player killing the more difficult creatures found in the land. For less experienced players, however, this mod ensures you can craft gears with simple-to-find objects in the game like Rocks, Gold Nuggets, and Flint.

Gears are a necessity for further developments and technologies, such as the refrigerator, which is required to keep food fresh for longer periods of time.

Survival Gear

This particular mod has three craftable items: including a Beefalo Coat, which will keep you warm for long periods of time in-game; the Punisher, which is a nice little starting weapon; and the Punisher With Teeth, which upgrades the previously mentioned weapon with hound teeth.

The Beefalo Coat is especially nice, as it calms angered Beefalo to allow easier manure collection for farms. The warmth is definitely a plus, too.

Architectural Geometry

For those players who love the base-building aspect of Don't Starve, this mod allows you to create a far better-looking base than before. You can use an invisible grid to attach each piece, allowing the walls to snap together perfectly.

The best thing about this mod is that it is completely passive, meaning you do not have to do anything to setup it up or use any special commands in-game to make it work.

Deep Freezer

The refrigerator is one of the greatest tools in the game, but you cannot keep food for long-term usage, though it does extend their use. The Deep Freezer allows the player to freeze their food, though it does take up to two days in order to thaw out. If you have more food than you need at the moment, freezing some can be useful for tough times.

Sadly, not everything can be frozen, including cooked food and dried foods.

These are only a select handful of Don't Starve Together mods, but they are almost vital to ensuring your game is far better. The experience you can have surviving in a barren wasteland can be doubled.

Don't Starve Together is an incredibly simple game in terms of mechanics, but most people are going to spend their first few hours dying...a lot. The game is difficult, but thankfully we're here to help makes things a little bit easier.

Track Those Stats!

To start, you truly need to keep an eye on the stats on your HUD. Obviously, some are more important than others, but all of them will need to remain as full as possible to survive for long periods of time.

• Health - Your health bar is the heart, obviously. It can be replenished by eating good foods and avoiding combat.
• Hunger - Your hunger dictates almost everything in the game. The hungrier you are, the more insane you're going to go and the more health you will lose over time.
• Sanity - Believe us, you do not want to go insane. When you let the brain bubble lower too far, evil beings begin creeping onto the screen to take a bite.

Surviving Your First Day!

Your first day is important, as it can set the entire precedent for your survival in the game. There are some things players want to accomplish before the first nightfall hits.

1. Find some Flint and Twigs in order to craft a Pickaxe and an Axe.
2. Collect Grass and Cut Grass, then chop down trees for their Logs. These will be for a campfire when night does reach you.
3. Hunt down Carrots and Berries - as many as humanly possible. You want a small supply of them before the first nightfall, as it will make things easier on you.
4. If night has not yet descended upon you, then continue with the above steps - focus on food as much as possible, but don't ignore the other supplies.

Things You Should Never Do!

There are a few things most people will want to avoid when they play Don't Starve Together, especially right in the beginning of the game when you are weak, have no armor, and no weapons to defend yourself.

• Never attack a Spider or Spider Den. Attacking a Den will turn all of the nearby spiders aggressive, and they will hunt you down for quite some time.
• Do not attack Bees or Bee Hives. A Bee Hive will spawn Killer Bees when attacked, which hurt far worse than normal Bees.
• Do not attack a Tallbird. These are the giant black creatures with a single eye. Also, do not steal their eggs, they absolutely hate that.
• Don't kill Beefalos. Beefalos are a wonderful commodity in the game, as they provide an infinite supply of manure to use in farming later on.

Surviving After Day 1

If you have managed to survive your first night, then you are well on your way to becoming an adept survivor. There are still some things to accomplish, though.

For example, you will want to prototype Rope as soon as possible so you may craft a Log Suit and Spear, both of which you can use to defend yourself.

Next, explore your surrounding area and find Beefalos as soon as possible. Their manure will be used for constructing crops, which you do want growing asap. In fact, these can become your main source of food once you have enough setup. 

You should still avoid facing off against crazed enemies, including Spider Warriors, Tentacles, and Lizard Men. They can seriously damage your health if caught unawares.

Following these simple steps should ensure you survive for at least one week in-game. Of course, there is much to learn in the world of Don't Starve Together.

Don't Starve Together, the stand-alone multiplayer expansion for Don't Starve,  will be making making its console debut on the PlayStation 4 next year.

This expansion will allow you and a friend explore a dangerous world and work together to survive.Three different game modes can be played in this expansion.

There's survival mode, which is a harder version of Don't Starve; endless mode, which is a more relaxed version of the game; and wilderness mode, which spawns the two players at two different locations on the map and doesn't allow them to use any resurrection items. 

Another new mechanic in the expansion is the ability to become a ghost when you die. Player's ghosts can be resurrected if they interact with a Touch Stone, Meat Effigy, Life Giving Amulet, or a Telltate heart.

So are you excited for Don't Starve Together coming to PlayStation 4? Let us know in the comments below.

A common issue that plagues friends across the gaming community is the question what should we play? Video games are great, but sometimes they're even better than friends. Whether you're a fan of survival, RPG, puzzles, or shooters, chances are you'll be able to share this fun with a friend.

Here are some of the best games you can play in co-op with friends on the PC. 

1. Portal 2

This comedic sci-fi puzzle adventure is definitely one that gamers can't overlook. As if the single-player storyline wasn't witty or fun enough, they created a co-op mode to share the fun with a friend. 

Solve puzzles with your portal guns and try not to get each other killed as you "compete" for GLaDOS' approval. It's all in the name of science.

Portal 2 is available on Steam for $19.99. Or buy the 2-pack and send the other copy to a friend for $34.98

2. Castle Crashers

Optimized for up to 4 players and cross-platform playing, this game is also a great co-op experience. Choose which character you want (by their armor color or their magical perks associated with them) and set off on a beat-em-up indie adventure.

This game can be cute and terrifying all at once, offers some intense bosses, sweet loot, and quirky additional features that will have you and your friends having a great time. 

Get Castle Crashers on Steam for $14.99. Or get a 4-pack for you and your friends at $44.97.

3. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

This game offers standard computer support as well as Virtual Reality console support. The recent release got overwhelmingly positive reviews across the board for its indie puzzle bomb-diffusing simulation.

Have one friend be the bomb diffuser, and the other friend be the "expert" with the answers to solving all the puzzles. Neither side can see what the other has, making simple puzzle solving all about communication.

Before there's an explosion joke, grab it on Steam for $14.99.

4. Don't Starve Together

If the single player wasn't difficult enough, try having to get enough food and supplies to last for more than one person. This game is available to as many players as you can fit in a server, and forces you to face horrible beasts, seasons, and everything in between.

Play as all characters (no need to unlock them) and set off on your adventure. Build bases, get supplies, fight enemies, brave the elements, and ultimately, don't starve. Together.

Get your hands on this Early Access game on Steam, with 2-packs and Bundle packages to get extra copies for friends.

5. Left 4 Dead (and Left 4 Dead 2)

There's nothing more multiplayer or co-op than working together against the zombie apocalypse. Get your hands on some pistols, a grenade launcher, chainsaw, or other weapon of choice (hey, maybe it's an electric guitar, we don't judge). Now, smash to the next safe-room until help arrives.

Enjoy some near-death banter with multiple maps and levels from the southern swamps to theme parks. Even a rock concert. 

Get the Left 4 Dead Bundle (includes both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for all 8 characters and their maps) on Steam for $29.99.

Have a PC game that you and your friends really enjoy playing with multiplayer co-op options? Drop some names in the comments.

This is just a small list of what is a vast library of characters in the Steam Workshop. It doesn't include the number of tweaks, pets, environments and creature mods available, but that's another list for another time. Did I miss out on any great characters? Let me know in the comments below, and I will definitely check them out.

Gabe Newell (co-Founder of Valve)

If there is a god in the world of Don't Starve, it's Gabe Newell. His stats are maxed out from the get-go, he's incredibly fast, and he comes equipped with his own special weapon, The Ban Hammer. I mean, what more can you ask for?

The Ban Hammer is kills anything that gets in your way, and "Gaben" is built to thrive within the rules of the game. It goes without saying that this mod character is severely OP, but that's the point. Anybody who loves Steam acknowledges that the real Gabe Newell is a god among humans and his Don't Starve Together character is simply a reflection of that.

To download the most powerful mod in the game, go here.

Clementine (Telltale's The Walking Dead)

What happened to Clementine between Season 1 and 2 of Telltale's The Walking Dead? Maybe she fell into a jury-rigged portal and ended up in the world of Don't Starve. That's plausible, right?

In any case, the Clementine mod gives fans of The Walking Dead a way to simulate survival life for one of the series' best characters. Clementine comes with two unique items, her hat and walkie-talkie. Clem's hat gives her a small sanity boost while keeping her dry. The walkie-talkie is more of a sentimental object. However, you can trade the walkie-talkie to the Pig King for gold, so there is at least some in-game value to it.

To download the Clementine mod, head over here.

Jack Torrance (The Shining)

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is one of the best horror movies of all-time and Jack Nicholson's performance as psycho dad Jack Torrance is the biggest reason why. In Don't Starve Together, Jack's biggest features are his unbreakable axe and low sanity statistic. When his sanity drops below 45, Jack's blood lust kicks in, giving him an increase in speed and attack power. Perfect for chasing the family around... 

To download the Jack Torrance mod, head over here.

Strong Bad (Homestarrunner)

Oh yeah! Check out all his majesty! Once again, we have another fan service character. Strong Bad functions pretty close to Wilson, but it's his dialog that makes him hilarious. When you inspect a carrot, he mutters "The Earth is making Plantbabies" or a rabbit hole will elicit "Probably leads to some super awesome bunny utopia".

It's clear that the modder captured Strong Bad's offbeat sense of humor, and that's what makes him one of the best Don't Starve Together characters to play as. For fans of the cartoons, you should know that there's also a Homestar Runner mod.  Sadly, there's no Trogdor...yet.

To download the Strong Bad mod, head over here.

Gardevoir (Pokemon)

Gardevoir is another mod character that focuses more on aesthetic than function. She comes with higher base stats than most characters (especially sanity) but that's about as far as it goes with her. She's a pretty good character if you are just learning how to play, as you'll likely survive longer and she doesn't have any discernible weaknesses. Plus, if you are an avid Pokemon fan, Gardevoir is a must have.

To download the Gardevoir mod, go here.   

Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher)

Geralt is a fun and detailed character to take into Don't Starve Together. He gives you a distinct advantage at the outset of the game by the fact that he comes equipped with his trademark Steel and Silver swords, both of which have high damage output (the Silver sword does 3x damage against monsters, the Steel sword does 3x damage against non-monsters). So if you find yourself under attack, he can drive off enemies much more efficiently than most other characters. Plus, if you throw an armor outfit on him, Geralt can be a tank.

In addition to that, Geralt can craft a lot of the potions, each of which drain at least one stat while boosting another. There's a lot to know about Geralt, but if you're a fan of the Witcher series, you can figure it out pretty quickly.

If you wish to download the Geralt mod, go here. 

The Vault Boy (Fallout)

For obvious reasons, Fallout's Vault Boy has made the list as one of Don't Starve Together's best mods. It's not necessarily because of what the Vault Boy can do, it's more about his aesthetic. If you are looking for a balanced experience, Vault Boy is pretty close to Wilson in that he doesn't have any major weaknesses. He comes with a large stomach, and suffers no penalty on eating old food, but that's about it. Vault Boy is more of a love letter character to Fallout fans, and his design is spot on.

If you wish to download the Vault Boy mod, head over here.

Gollum (Lord of the Rings)

Gollum is a great character because of the fiction he derives from and the fact that his traits work well within the confines of Don't Starve's mechanics. He comes with the One Ring in his inventory and if you equip it, he can turn invisible. This is awesome for escaping enemies or stealing items out from under their noses. The ability is supplemented by his added speed, so it's very apparent that Gollum is not much of a fighter. 

In terms of scavenging, Gollum doesn't need a pole to catch fish, as he is more than adept at using his hands. Fish give Gollum a higher boost to hunger and sanity than any other character, but if he eats fruits or vegetables, he will become disgusted and lose sanity. So remember, the best way to survive with Gollum is to run and catch those fish...so juicy sweet.

To download the Gollum mod, head over here.

Dr. Zoidberg (Futurama)

In Don't Starve Together, nobody forgets Zoidberg. Futurama is a modern classic (if I do say so, myself), and Zoidberg is a fan favorite, so it's no surprise that he turned up as a character mod. He comes with his patented "Woop Woop Woop!" noise and in terms of how he plays, Zoidberg has a few unique features.

For one, he gains a slight regen in sanity when it rains, so if you find yourself low on flowers heading into spring time, the rain will boost you back up fairly quickly. He can also craft pet slinkies which also give him a boost to sanity, but they can be dangerous as well. Download this mod, and you'll see why.

Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together are great takes on the survival genre. Their characters are in many ways the backbone of the whole experience. Each one has different innate stats and abilities (or disabilities) so they all play differently, which in turn gives massive amounts of replayability to the player. But if you want to make the make the game even better and add to the madness, try these amazing character mods for something different as well as a good laugh or two.

There will always be a soft spot in my heart for the dear lumberjack Woodie of Don't Starve, but I mentioned Wickerbottom as the perfect match for him in multiplayer and felt the need to explain why.

Upon closer inspection (and likely to the joy of my friend who favors her), I have found that Wickerbottom is an incredibly powerful character, especially early on. Her knowledge is so incomparable that she doesn't even need a science machine.

Like a boss.

Meet Wickerbottom

The librarian works best as a challenge to the lesser established Don't Starve gamer. You need knowledge about her to properly wield hers, as it works as a special power that can get a tad crazy if you start crafting with curiosity. 

Utilize her skills, and it makes the challenges that she can't sleep and only eats fresh food a small obstacle compared to other aspects of survival.

Books

Wickerbottom gets a tab for her super cool magical books. Craft them with Papyrus, a bit of which you receive at the start. Each book she reads causes a drop in sanity, but with sanity items on hand before you read, you'll be good to go.

Her book collection includes:

• Birds of the World - Summon a lot of birds like you're Hitchcock.
  
• Applied Horticulture - Plants and farms advance to the next growth stage.
  
• Sleepytime Stories - Enemies that can sleep suddenly pass out.
  
• On Tentacles - Summon tentacles, because that's not creepy or anything.
  
• The End is Nigh - Summon the power of lightning and smite the unworthy.

One thing that should be mentioned is Sleepytime Stories can easily be avoided if you find yourself able to find and/or craft Pan's Flute. It does the same thing with -10% of durability per use.

Science

As mentioned before, Wickerbottom doesn't need a science machine and from the start of the game can craft items that other characters can't. This is fabulous.

The best things to come out of this ability are the backpack and the spear. You automatically have access to a weapon and a way to expand your inventory. When you're trying to collect resources for winter or building a settlement, this is incredibly helpful.

Insomnia

Wickerbottom suffers from the inability to sleep, so don't even try building those items. A pretty head garland while gazing into the fire is as good as it gets, as sleeping items like tents and lean-tos are unusable. 

Be sure to settle in a forest biome for the sake of being surrounded in an area that will spawn flowers for you. Use the flowers for sanity items and health restoration for early in-game to make up for the creepiness of night.

When you get the hang of everything later on, make sure you level up your gear so you can keep your sanity and health in check more efficiently.

Eating fresh

Based on her character card, Wickerbottom is an elderly little lady and as such has a horrible constitution or something. Her sensitive old stomach can only eat fresh foods.

This isn't too big of an issue if everything is in good weather. You simply collect the seeds and berries, farm your food if you've settled, and your food is available so long as you eat it soon and don't stock too much

Winter is the big problem. 

During winter, seeds are harder to come by and berry bushes tend to not grow back. Other characters stock pile their food, keep it for a while, and cook it up either with a fire or a crock pot and they're good to go.

Wickerbottom doesn't get to enjoy this luxury. You're going to want to stock up on resource supplies for weapons and defensive items. Day 1 and 2 of winter is for the leftover berries, but the rest is about the hunt.

Apart from the ability to age plants and farms for a supply to arrive faster by the time winter arrives, it's not too bad. As long as you can make several weapons and a bunch of armor, winter will be your friend for food.

Also, penguins become another food source with both their bodies and their eggs.

Why Wickerbottom?

She's a well-balanced character in terms of advantages and disadvantages. However, if you're not lucky during your usual gameplay with keeping your characters sane, then you may need to weigh the risks. That's why she's a challenge.

That's not to say beginners can't handle her. At a beginner level, I wasn't even beginning to think about sleeping because I was too busy trying to not starve or die by enemy mobs. 

Her sanity is on the higher side, so as long as her magic is used sparingly as a rare "ultimate" attack, then you're better off. Even if you don't decide to play it safe, she's a character with some major perks:

She blinds you with science

Everyone likes early access. Whether it's for a game expansion, an early movie release, or birthday presents. Get it early, and everything in the world is at peace. 

While I highlighted the spear and backpack, here are a few other highlights to not needing a science machine:

• Make special tools like a shovel and hammer.
• Make coveted survival items like a bird trap and fishing rod.
• Crock pots. 
• One step closer to the power of alchemy (Build the engine).
• Craft chests, ropes, and effigies - all super convenient.

The best perk of all is probably just never needing to craft the science machine to begin with. Many times players scout out the whole map for the best place to settle a permanent residence to put down a science machine and expand. 

With Wickerbottom, there's no need. Make residencies everywhere. Have a summer home and a winter home and then a casual autumn villa. Live the librarian life in classy insanity-driven style.

Magical possibilities

One step closer to experiencing Hogwarts with your magical books and special attack powers. With access to alchemy you can expand your magic and advance faster than other characters.

You can be more than a librarian. You can be a mage.

So magical her collectible figure comes with a magic staff.

 There's not too much to say in terms of how great her perks are just because there are so many endless possibilities. She really helps to make the entire survival experience your own.

She's a great asset to a multiplayer game and an incredible single-player adventurer. 

Wickerbottom not doing it for you? Drop your favorite Don't Starve character in the comments.

I've had my fair share of issues adapting to the world of Don't Starve and its multiplayer setup because I'd always manage to die before I could form a technique.

That all changed when a session as Woodie came into the picture. Woodie is a lumberjack with his talking axe Lucy. According to his character information, he has a "terrible secret," of being a Were-Beaver.

He's cute if you squint hard enough.

Meet Woodie

The best thing I found is that Woodie is a pretty good early on character. Whether he's a human or a beaver, he's fast and efficient at looting through an area. Players just need to have a plan or lose him to insanity.

Meet Lucy

So the first thing you notice is his companion fire axe, Lucy, that talks to him. She is part of your inventory at start, has no durability meter, and swings faster than a normal axe.

That's a huge plus for starting out, especially if you pair him with others in Don't Starve Together, like Wickerbottom who doesn't need a science machine and can get you a backpack early on to load up on tons of logs.

Lucy can only be destroyed if using her to attack a Nightmare Throne, so go wild. If dropped, she'll freak out if someone else picks her up. If you happen to lose her during a rampage in Were-Beaver mode, she will show up on the map. 

Very convenient A+ companion. Get yourself a Chester and you're invincible.

The Log Meter

The second thing you notice is the added "Log Meter" to the hub. You will need to keep this up like other meters by eating logs and sticks. Lucy reminds you if it gets too low from chopping too much, and you can watch it deplete on full moons.

This may sound like an extra hassle, but it's not if you manage it right. Eat 2 logs per tree you chop, and you'll likely be fine. That also means you need to look for fully grown trees to get a surplus pile going. 

Your other option is just to chop until Lucy tells you to "chew on a twig or something." That's if you really want to hear her squeaky clarinet voice that much. 

The Were-Beaver

This is a blessing and a curse. You're nearly invincible, but you put your sanity on the line.

Were-Beaver Woodie can chop, destroy, fight, dig, and mine. Use him to clear areas of trees or stumps, fight difficult enemies to get special loot drops, and stock up on supplies.

As for the sanity issue, the primary solution is to plan. You have 3 options to plan for, so make sure you know which route you're taking:

• Eat lots of wood and become a human quickly to save sanity.
• Pillage as a beaver and then quickly become a human again.
• Pillage as a beaver during full moon until you're very insane, then kill Beardlings for Beard Hair, Monster Meat, or Nightmare Fuel.

Make sure you have wood nearby and several helpful sanity items in your inventory for when you change back. Stock up if you know a full moon is approaching.

Why Woodie?

So you get in-game and find out this guy has a permanent talking axe, a simple additional hub meter, and a super cool nearly invincible alternate form. What about all of this makes him so great?

All of the above. 

Wood for days

Wood items are a constantly needed source.Yes, Woodie eats some of the supply, but having fast chopping skills with an almost invincible talking fire axe helps. Think about it:

• Night is approaching, you really need logs for a fire. Bam. Chopped in seconds. 
• Need to eat wood? Check.
• Need to craft things for protection, building structures, or survival? All the logs are now yours.
• Enjoy deforestation in video games? You're set here until that next therapy appointment.

The power of the beaver is yours

• Lucy warns you when you're too close to changing. You barely need to worry about it with a system mechanic that checks for you.
• Early on in-game and surrounded by biomes filled with enemies? Bust down some enemy doors as a giant beaver that already has some super powerful attack power, Day One. 
• The lumberjack look is totally in season right now. And beards? Hipstertopia. Be hip and young with the youth. Cover your entire body in a beard. Become a beaver is what I'm saying.

All of this can be unleashed and used in a variety of different ways. Whether you're new to Don't Starve or know your way around surviving the wilderness, Woodie is definitely a character that no one should overlook.

Have a character you think is better? Let's duke it out in the comments.

A few days ago Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve Together came out for free for vanilla Don't Starve owners, and almost immediately my roommate called and asked if I wanted to try it out. I'm a big fan of dying a lot, so I accepted. Naturally, neither of us bothered playing a lot before we tried it together, and we turned on Reign of Giants DLC right away. 

And yes, we collected the berries, and wove the flower hats, and ran from the bees, and battled the night demons, and slaughtered and were slaughtered by the Beefalo. And there was very little rejoicing.

It is a most perfect survival game.

Welcome to the darkness, Pippi Longstocking.

Note: I played this with only one other guy. I've seen some dedicated servers go up to 64 players. Don't ask me how that went, because I didn't try it.

I'm going to assume most of you who clicked this already knows what Don't Starve is, but I'll give a quick sum-up for those who don't:

It's a survival game made by the same guys who made Shank. You collect resources, you craft items, you eat things you find on the ground, you battle strange monsters and eat those too. You can die quickly, but most of the times your demise is slow and sad and desperate, either from starvation, exposure, or madness. Almost everybody thought this was fun. That includes me.

And now, with this new stand-alone multiplayer version, you can suffer and die with friends.

Klei must have spent a lot of time getting all the balancing right behind the scenes, but on first glance they didn't seem to do much besides allow for more people to play in the same world. You still go around collecting things and eating things like before.

Suddenly this solitary struggle for survival became one that requires task planning, schedules, coordinated efforts.

But the nature of having two or more people surviving in the same space produces new strategies and problems. Two guys with axes can chop down a lot more trees than one. Often times when something complicated needed to be built and required multiple materials, my roommate and I would divide the job between us. Suddenly this solitary struggle for survival became one that requires task planning, schedules, coordinated efforts. When hunting or fighting things, we would plan out our attacks. It was a fine feeling.

But we also had to share resources that were once meant for just one.

With two people scouring the wilds for supplies, useful materials can get scarce a lot faster. Even travelling to other places is a blessing and a challenge with multiple players. Two can carry a lot more than one, but staying together can be a challenge on a long road: outside of a certain radius, your partner(s) will no longer appear on your minimap, and it can be very hard to find them again.

We go to Valhalla, shiny and chrome.

Really, making Don't Starve multiplayer seems like a no-brainer. It's already so balanced and workable that hardly anything needs to change. It's the same quirky, masochistic, survival masterpiece that the original was, but with more people.

The game could always have a greater variety of resources, tools, hats, and everything else. There's no end to the amount of content players want with games like this, so it will never be perfect. But I get to be mauled to death by penguins with a friend now, and that's all I need.

Earlier this week Klei Entertainment updated the steam early access version of Don’t Starve Together with the series’ Reign of Giants expansion freely added in. This bonus addition to the already phenomenally successful base game comes both as a thank you to newcomers who may have gotten one, but not the other.

For those who don’t know, Don’t Starve is an indie title released by Klei Entertainment way back in 2013. It was an early access title that originally spawned from a 48hr game jam 2 years prior. Since then, Don’t Starve has become a mainstay in the open world sandbox genre and released two expansions: Don’t Starve Together and Reign of Giants expansion for free.

As in the base game, Don’t Starve is about being sucked into an alternate world and surviving. In the story mode, the player navigates through several worlds or levels confronting the villain Maxwell and his machinations. During the game the player will be challenged with dangerous creatures, keeping their sanity, and of course avoiding starvation.

The monumental update added in by Reign of Giants comes with several additions to the game that both keep it interesting and appealing for those who still have the base game but have yet to upgrade. Along with several new characters, seasonal giant boss monsters and even more difficult challenges, Don’t Starve Together is now poised to be the quintessential experience in the survival sandbox genre.

Don’t Starve Together & Reign of Giants dropped this Tuesday on Klei Entertainment’s official forums.