t1z4l

There will be more ways to play the game Mouthwashing soon, as it will show up on the Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X. There’s no release window for the ports yet, but they are expected in 2025. The title first debuted on PCs in September 2024.

While all three platforms will get digital copies of the game, there are also physical copies planned. However, only those of us with a PS5 or Switch will be able to get one of them. Fangamer is in charge of those copies. Details about what they may contain aren’t available, and we don’t know if there will be any extras with them. However, the company did open a page where we can sign up for notifications about their eventual debut in 2025.

Mouthwashing, like a game such as Doki Doki Literature Club, is one of those titles that is best played without any spoilers. We follow a crew of a ship on a voyage that goes awry, and witness their reactions as they deal with an uncertain future. As they do, they end up dealing with various horrors and unsettling situations.

Mouthwashing is available for PCs now, with the PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X versions of the game expected to launch later in 2025. There’s no word yet on when Fangamer will open physical pre-orders for the PS5 and Switch copies.

The post Mouthwashing Game Being Ported to Switch, PS5, Xbox  appeared first on Siliconera.

Okay! We’ve named our system-specific winners for PlayStation, Switch, Xbox and PC, but it’s all been leading to this: our overall winner. What is the Siliconera Game of the Year 2024? Read on!

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2024 archive.

Balatro 4t2j3h

Balatro is one of those games that hooks you in an instant. The moment you encounter your first Jokers, the appeal of the game and its potential is abundantly clear, and continued play shows that solo developer LocalThunk knew exactly how to see those ideas through. Writers love to bandy about the idea of “setting a new standard for the genre,” but never has that been truer than with Balatro and roguelike deckbuilders: from now on, every new game has to be worth playing instead of another round of Balatro, and that’s a high bar to clear.

Mouthwashing 3o6lq

Mouthwashing is a relatively short experience, clocking in at just a couple of hours. Still, it packs so much psychological horror and body horror into that time to rival its ive-media equivalents. We won’t talk about the game’s twists to avoid spoilers, but you’ll certainly want to! And that’s the hallmark of a successful narrative. (For more on the game, check out Stephanie's review.)

Winner: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth 5a6c4m

Well, we called it. Rebirth revitalized our faith in Final Fantasy with a game that’s fantastic on its own and only enhanced by knowledge of the older releases. And though some titles took a serious run at it, nothing managed to topple Square Enix’s gem off the top of the Siliconera podium. Congratulations to our 2024 Game of the Year!

What is your overall Game of the Year 2024? Let us know in the comments!

The post Siliconera’s Overall Game of the Year 2024 appeared first on Siliconera.

Mouthwashing is a harrowing game with a surreal method of delivery that transcends the whole experience into something more akin to an art form. Through unfolding delusions and self-soothing hallucinations, the story delves into humanity’s darkness in a setting that inspires a deep, primordial fear. It's hard to recommend this to everyone, but if you’re the type who enjoys artsy walking simulators with a tinge of body and psychological horror, then this would be right up your alley.

At only about two hours long, give or take, Mouthwashing is not a long game at all. However, Wrong Organ manages to tell the story with surprising efficiency. It takes place on the Tulpar, a freighter spaceship. Its crew consists of five people: Captain Curly, co-pilot Jimmy, nurse Anya, mechanic Swansea, and intern Daisuke. Almost a hundred and fifty days into the year-long journey, Curly shockingly disengages the autopilot and crashes the spaceship into a massive asteroid, leaving them stranded in space. The story jumps around when it comes to time and perspectives, drip feeding you more information about the crew's predicament. When we get to see what happened prior to the crash, we play as Curly. Then, when it jumps to after the crash, we take control of Jimmy.

As you can imagine, being trapped in space for months while your horribly disfigured captain is moaning in agony in the medical bay doesn’t do wonders for morale. The crew starts to unravel, their flaws becoming more apparent as tensions run high. Jimmy has taken Curly’s place as the captain, and he is not great at boosting anyone’s spirits. In fact, he’s kind of a condescending jerk when it comes to the way he treats the crew, especially Anya and Curly. While I won’t reveal the twist that occurs about halfway through the game as to what in the world happened to the Tulpar in the first place, the game is a master class in how you can push video game writing to its limits.

I’m amazed at how Mouthwashing feels like a short story that I would’ve read and studied in my university literature classes. Yet Wrong Organ presents the story in a way that could only work in a visual medium. It runs a really tight ship with the storytelling, and no scene feels unnecessary, no matter how trippy or bizarre it is in the moment. The way it presents the characters’ psyches and how they start to devolve is so atmospheric and gripping. It instantly pulls you into the story.

Despite relatively short game time, there are so many memorable scenes in Mouthwashing. This is true both with context, framing, and sheer levels of “What in the world am I looking at?” value. To be honest, I decided to play and review it after I saw my friend talk about the title on social media. She said, and I quote, “I can’t get Mouthwashing out of my mind.” And you know what? My mind is still there in the foam-filled, bloody corridors of the Tulpar as well.

Outside of the disgusting and claustrophobic visuals, the game occupies a really interesting time space. It’s futuristic enough that there’s an entire company hauling cargo across space. However, there’s a retro filter over everything, the characters look like they migrated from the PS1, and the TVs that appear in Jimmy’s delusions all show old-timey cartoons or video. Most of the game consists of walking around based on what the crew needs you to do, or what Jimmy or Curly need to do in the moment.

The game's objectives are fairly clear, but what's really cool about Mouthwashing is how it uses objectives to heighten tension. A memorable one was "Find the gun," which was a surprise considering in all of my journeys through the Tulpar, I didn't see anything resembling a gun. Why would I need a gun anyway? Did something happen? Will something happen? Showing your objective first and forcing you to uncover the context later is an interesting way to raise anticipation. Since the majority of the game jumps around the timeline, it can take some time to reorient yourself in the current situation. So having to do something while also trying to figure out why you're doing something really adds to the general sense of confusion and discombobulation until the truth of the Tulpar crash comes out.

Because the crash caused the crew to use foam to patch up the ship and prevent certain death from the vacuum of space, the Tulpar from Jimmy’s perspective differs from Curly’s. I don’t believe that Wrong Organ intended this, but between the oppressive atmosphere and my own terrible sense of direction, I thought I was legitimately losing my mind while playing this. I’d go into a room, walk out, and the corridor looks different from what I ed. Thankfully, I figured out that this was due to my shoddy short-term memory and unfamiliarity with the ship. This feeling went away after I became accustomed to navigating the Tulpar. Granted, there are some times when the game uses hallucinations or metaphors to shake up the ship's layout. So you can’t blame me for thinking this was happening in more mundane moments!

If there's one thing that kind of takes away from the experience, it's the combat and stealth segments. They felt unnecessary and clunky, and it really messes up the pacing in a game that's otherwise so good with that. The stealth segment in particular feels like it goes on for way too long. I understand that there's a metaphorical meaning behind it all, and I have my own theories for what it represents. But man, it really could've been a lot shorter. I'm not sure if Wrong Organ added these gameplay change-ups to avoid the walking simulator stigma or what. But it's the one dead pixel in an otherwise perfect experience.

It’s hard to talk about Mouthwashing without giving away some of its more disturbing revelations and scenes. Yet those are the ones that stayed with me the most. The refrain in the game—that a person’s worst moments don’t define them or make them a monster—is something to keep in mind as the truth of what happened, along with the frayed mental states of the Tulpar crew, unravel over the course of the story.

Mouthwashing is readily available on PCs.

The post Review: Mouthwashing Is a Master Class in Horror appeared first on Siliconera.

2024 has been a decent year for indie horror games. From abandoned theme parks full of monsters to Eldritch beings at sea, there has been something for everyone’s tastes. So if you’re looking for a smaller horror game to sink your teeth into this Halloween, these six games have you covered.

Hollowbody 24d5g

While the Silent Hill 2 remake has proven to be remarkably successful at capturing the feeling of the PS2 original, for those looking for a more accurate gameplay experience it may be a letdown. This is where Hollowbody comes in, which sticks more closely to the fixed camera angles and awkward combat of PS2-era survival horror.

Set in a dilapidated Britain in a vaguely cyberpunk near-future, you play as a black-market smuggler whose partner has disappeared into an exclusion zone. You’ll be exploring the ruins of an abandoned town, complete with monsters around every corner. However, there’s a creeping dread that even beyond the beasts, this is not a pleasant place to be. Hollowbody does have some noticeable flaws, but it’s one of the best indie horror games to recreate that early 2000s feel.

Hollowbody is available for PC.

Conscript 673o4j

War is a common setting for video games. Whether it’s dense strategy games recreating historical battles or gung-ho shooters about fighting for freedom, it’s been heavily covered. Where war doesn’t feature that often is horror, which is a surprise when the setting is so ripe for it. War is a miserable, terrifying experience for those who fight in it, after all.

This is where Conscript comes in. It uses the damp, rat-infested trenches of World War I as its setting and it’s incredibly effective. The tight spaces and poor lighting make it hard to see threats around each corner, while damaged supply lines force item management to the forefront. It’s very Resident Evil in its structure, but the horrors here are much more human. By marrying the mechanics of horror games to the harsh realities of combat, Conscript is an effective reminder that war is hell.

Conscript is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Pacific Drive 48591e

While not strictly a horror game in many people’s definitions, Pacific Drive meets the criteria of being one of the best indie horror games of 2024 in many ways. Supernatural threats you’re mostly powerless against? Check. A tense, foreboding atmosphere that persists everywhere you explore? Check. Jump scares? If mannequins appearing ominously behind you without you noticing count, then absolutely check.

Pacific Drive sends you out into an exclusion zone in America’s spookiest region (the Pacific Northwest) where science has unleashed horrors upon the landscape. Also your only protection is a beaten-up 1970s station wagon. Half survival roguelike, half car maintenance simulator, Pacific Drive manages to evoke horror through the random nature of its anomalous threats and with a landscape that becomes increasingly alien as you progress through the game.

Pacific Drive is available for PC and PS5.

Still Wakes the Deep 1x1019

Isolated locations are the perfect locations for horror, and where is more isolated than an oil rig in the middle of the ocean? Still Wakes the Deep sees you playing as a rig worker as the crew drills into something terrible in the ocean that should have been left alone. The game that follows is a desperate rush to escape from this unknowable horror while trapped by your surroundings.

Developed by The Chinese Room, Still Wakes the Deep evokes the same horror as their previous work Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Plenty of tense atmosphere, a monster that could be anywhere as it cracks and breaks the rig around itself, and a cast of excellent voice actors that sell the terror make the game one of the best indie horror games of 2024.

Still Wakes the Deep is available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Mouthwashing 3o6lq

Mouthwashing is a game that seemingly came out of nowhere this year, and quickly shot right to the top of many players’ lists. The premise is that a spaceship crew is stranded following a crash that may have been caused by the captain. As the game progresses, the truth is revealed through a series of surreal flashbacks told out of order, revealing a rapid decline in sanity across the whole crew.

Mouthwashing uses low poly aesthetics to great effect, crafting a cast of characters who are generally unpleasant to look at and an environment that’s oppressive even before things begin to collapse. It’s a game that’s left a huge impression on its players, one that’s unlikely to be shaken any time soon.

Mouthwashing is available for PC.

Crow Country 354t6d

The low-poly PS1 aesthetic works wonders for horror. The shifting textures, static faces and awkward shapes and movements add an uncanny pleasantness that can be put to great work when it comes to making people uneasy. Crow Country embraces the PS1 horror aesthetic to its fullest, in a way you’d likely not expect from the developers of Snipperclips.

You play as Mara Forest, a special agent investigating Crow Country, an abandoned theme park, whose owner has disappeared. The game is a classic survival horror game, with limited resources, obtuse puzzles and an array of creepy monsters wandering around. However, while the gameplay evokes Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the visuals owe a greater debt to Final Fantasy VII, right down to the chibi character models.

Crow Country is a fantastic horror game all round. The story is a true mystery, full of twists and turns. The gameplay is full of inventive puzzles. And the theme park is dripping with atmosphere, with the feeling that more horrors are lurking around the corners you can’t see. It’s an essential game for any horror fan, and easily one of the best indie horrors of 2024.

Crow Country is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

Let us know what your favorite indie horror game of 2024 is in the comments below!

The post Best Indie Horror Games of 2024 appeared first on Siliconera.