// PC GAMER — GAMING
July is a little light on the big new game releases, but your co-op horror Discord gang will be feastin'
If you've ever wanted to run a haunted business into the ground with your friends, I have good news.
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I won't lie to you, I initially looked at July's game releases and drew a blank trying to name any bigish new games I'm looking forward to. It's definitely quiet this month, but take the lull as a chance to catch up. New game releases for 2026 ramp up again in the final stretch of the year—so much so that I'm already trying to carve out vacation days in my schedule.
And this month is far from a total bust. Two big remakes, Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced and Halo: Campaign Evolved, are joined by a bunch of co-op indie horror games that are right up my alley.
It's good timing: We're trying something a little new with our monthly release date calendar in July, highlighting a handful of personal picks before getting to the general highlights—so you know where this is going. I hope you love terrorizing your friends with new co-op horror finds as much as I do.
I don't know who or what started the 'friend slop' trend, but I'm owning it as a term of endearment and kicking off PC Gamer's first round of monthly staff picks with games you can play with your Discord pals. Absurd co-op horror games make for some of my favorite digital campfires to gather around, giving me yet another outlet for uniting my faraway friends to laugh and scream together one more night. That's why my picks for July go to the genre, and why I've got Storebound, Happy's Humble Burgatory, Carnival Hunt, and Shift at Midnight all wishlisted. I'll be there on day one—reluctant, terrified friends in tow.
Steam | 4-player co-op There's definitely a recurring theme here of running a business into the ground with your friends. In Happy's Humble Burgatory, your crew will grind out burger orders as fast as you can make them before the restaurant's blood-thirsty mascot begins her hunt. I've heard Grimace does this at McDonald's.
Steam | 3-player co-op I was the kid always turning the local Sears into a panicked search for a missing child, but it turns out I'd just gone to sleep in a clothing rack. Storebound looks kind of like that—except my mom isn't coming to save me, it's full of puzzles, and there's a demon in the shoe department.
Steam | 5 players I may not play Tag much as an adult, but my fondness for asymmetrical chases fill the void recess left behind. In Carnival Hunt, one person is a monstrous puppeteer while the remaining players are a bunch of innocent bunny puppets. My advice? Put your friends between you and the threat.
Steam | 3-player co-op Shift at Midnight finally lets me live out my childhood dream of running a questionable-looking gas station with two of my closest friends. It's kind of like Quarantine Zone, but with customers: shoot the body-snatched guys, then it's business as usual with the normal ones.