Steam Next Fest is the all-digital event where you can play literally hundreds of demos on Steam for free, so you can find your next favorite game. But with so many demos to play and the event lasting only a week – it ends 3 March at 10am PT – it can be daunting to know where to start.

IGN’s team has been downloading and trying out the best and most interesting demos, which we’ve compiled below. It’s not a comprehensive list of everything to check out, more a starter list of demos you should definitely go to first and, if you want more, well, there’s hundreds of others to choose from.

Monster Train 2

I still play the Monster Train daily challenges on my phone to this day, and I’d just finished one when the announcement of Monster Train 2 and the demo popped up. So I was pre-grabbed on the roguelike, deck-building fantasy game series. But so far I like what I’m seeing of the sequel. It’s not a radical reinvention of the idea, but it’s layering on some new stuff like equipment and room cards where you have to upgrade on the fly moore, and building resources like Dragon’s Hoard and Valor are different enough from the original that it’s refreshing – Dan Stapleton

Dark Deity 2

If you like Fire Emblem, you’ll like Dark Deity 2. As somebody who enjoyed the first game despite its rough edges, the second game is shaping up to be a significant improvement with even more room for player creativity. The standout feature is build flexibility, as each unit has four mid-tier classes and an additional four high-level classes. My personal favorite unit is the hunter who is given the choice of an orangutan, toad, lion, or hyena to fight with them. The story has you playing as the children of the first game’s protagonist. I really enjoyed the sibling dynamic, along with Alden, a returning character acting as the chill uncle. The demo also showed off some early choices with branching paths which is promising for a more memorable and replayable adventure. – Eric Zalewski

Out of Sight

In Out of Sight you play as Sophie, a blind girl who’s trapped in a mansion and trying to escape. You see through the eyes of her teddy bear and you have to guide her through environmental puzzles to help her escape the building, while avoiding the adults who want to keep her there. Sophie carries the teddy (you) much of the time, giving you a first-person perspective as you play. But in order to climb or manipulate items in the environment, she has to set you down, shifting the perspective to third-person. It’s a clever trick that adds to the off-kilter vibes of this creepy puzzle game that reminds me of parts of Resident Evil 7, but with enough new ideas to make it worth a look. – Chris Reed

Monaco 2

You can never rely on your friends, but sometimes that’s what makes hanging out with them so fun and funny. That’s a big reason why Monaco 2 is so much fun. It’s a co-op stealth experience where you’ll have to rely on your teammates to not get caught, and react accordingly when they inevitably do. Monaco 2 isn’t the next live service phenomenon, but when you’re itching for a new game to get deep into with your friends, it’ll be there for you. It’s got fun and often hilarious stealth mechanics, tons of ways to strategize, and an aesthetic that brings everything together. It’s definitely not one you’ll be able to enjoy on your own though, but who’d want to do a heist on their own anyway? – Tyler Robertson

Note: Humble Games is the publisher of Monaco 2 and shares a parent company with IGN.

Everhood 2

Everhood, released in 2021, was an incredible indie mashup of Undertale, Yume Nikki, and Guitar Hero that asked players to meditate on life, death, and existence in a trippy, mushroom-filled world. I loved it, and it had absolutely no business getting a sequel. Yet here we are, and I’m already hooked by whatever the heck is going on in Everhood 2. The dance battles are better than ever, its wacky cast has me constantly on my toes, and I have no idea where this wild story about soul weapons and mind dragons is going but I am absolutely buckled up for the ride. – Rebekah Valentine

Haste: Broken Worlds

If you’re looking for the speed of a 3D Sonic game with stylings that seem to have come out of a Dreamcast launch title, Haste: Broken Worlds might just be it. The main gameplay mechanic revolves around landing perfectly on the back edge of slopes in order to fill a meter that lets you give yourself more hangtime. From the short amount of time I’ve spent with it, it seems to nail the “just barely hanging on” nature of the good “Fast Games.” The soundtrack is also a bop. – Aaron Barrier

Skin Deep

Skin Deep is the perfect marriage of immersive problem solving and slapstick humor that has you protecting a spaceship crew of cats from strange pirates who also want you very dead. Much of Skin Deep’s charm comes from just rolling with the absurdity of it all: Don’t think too hard about why you’re the lone unarmed human insurance agent on a ship of tiny felines, or why the pirates’ heads slowly float back to respawn points when killed. How you defeat the armed pirates while sneaking through the sandbox-like spaceships is entirely up to you, but what really makes Skin Deep stand out is how all of your tools can also be hazards. Pepper can stun foes, but also gives away your position if you sneeze. Windows into space can be broken to create new entry points, but leave glass shards to slice up your feet. The dynamic of what helps you can also hurt you sets the stage for some truly hilarious bouts of unintended consequences that I cannot get enough of. – Brendan Graeber

Teenage Mutant Ninja Tturtles: Tactical Takedown

As someone who LOVES the Turtles, but has never fully fallen in love with a turn-based tactics game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown has the sauce. Fast, fluid actions taking place right as you hit the button make it feel less turn-based than other tactical games, and the potential of its story makes it one of my most anticipated games of the moment. Some fonts and UI elements need some work, but that’s why it’s a demo! That’s what Next Fest is for. – Tyler Robertson

Promise Mascot Agency

Described as an “open-world narrative adventure mascot management simulator, “Promise Mascot Agency feels like a Yakuza side-quest, partly because it kind of is. Playing as an exiled Yakuza member named Michi, your new job is to help a cutesy mascot agency find financial success by hiring different mascots and sending them out to events where they can be as cute as they can be, bring in more fans, and unlock more jobs. It’s a very madcap kind of game combining the numbers go up stonks feeling of a management sim, but with the sense of humor and style of cult-Japanese games like Yakuza and No More Heroes. – Matt Kim

Labyrinth of the Demon King

I’m a sucker for old-school, first-person dungeon crawlers and Labyrinth of the Demon King certainly scratches that itch. Developed by a lone developer, Labyrinth of the Demon King is a throwback to games like King’s Field, but with splashes of J-Horror like Siren thrown in for good measure. As a lowly footsoldier to your lord, you decide to enter the nightmarish realm of the demon king to try and avenge your master. But the hellish monsters and a nightmarish version of feudal Japan might not be worth your honor. Great visuals, classic vibes, and a lot of style makes this one demo to keep an eye on. – Matt Kim

And those are just some of the demos we’re playing at this Steam Next Fest. Check out the games on our list and, again, there are hundreds of game demos currently available to play on Steam Next Fest until March 3. So let us know in the comments which demos you’re playing.

This morning, we got our first lengthy look at Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Game Freak’s futuristic new Pokémon game set in the familiar Pokémon X/Y locale of Lumiose City. But even though we saw a number of features such as running on rooftops, changes to battling, and Mega Evolution, we still have loads of questions about exactly when Pokémon Legends Z-A takes place relative to the other Pokémon games, and which returning characters we might see in Lumiose City.

That’s where the community comes in.

For context, while most Pokémon games tend to be standalone affairs, the first Pokémon Legends game dealt with time travel. It also heavily featured familiar locations from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl set hundreds of years in the past, numerous characters who were clearly ancestors of characters in other Pokémon games…or, in one case, just a Pokémon Black and White character plopped down in the past by Pokémon God themself. With that in mind, fans are eager to know when Pokémon Legends: Z-A is set, if there are any time traveling shenanigans, and if we’ll see any familiar faces in Lumiose City whenever this game takes place.

In the last few hours since the trailer debuted, fans have been combing it for connections to other Pokémon games…and they’ve found a surprising amount. The most obvious connection is the presence of AZ, which is called out directly in the trailer. AZ is a character who was granted immortality 3000 years before the events of Pokémon X and Y, so it makes sense that regardless of when Z-A takes place, he’d be around. In Z-A, he seems to run a hotel in Lumiose City, and he looks a lot happier now that he’s been reunited with his beloved Floette.

But there are far more subtle ties. One of my favorites that fans have discovered is the potential presence of the Looker Bureau in Z-A. Looker is a fan-favorite detective character who first appeared in Pokémon Black and White, but has since made appearances in several other games. Several eagle-eyed fans have noticed that one office shown in the trailer looks nearly identical to the Looker Bureau in past games, which they believe confirms the presence of either Looker or his protege Emma in Z-A’s Lumiose City.

Another really bonkers theory floating around is the connection between the two main protagonists and some other familiar faces. Now that we’ve got full character art for the protagonists of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, fans have pointed out that the two characters look suspiciously similar to Ethan and Lyra, the two player characters from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. This has led to speculation that Legends: Z-A may feature a time traveling scenario where Ethan and Lyra are pulled out of their version of Johto and sent to a futuristic Lumiose.

But another interesting, protagonist-related theory suggests a different origin story. Fans are also pointing out that the pair look somewhat similar to Kalos Pokémon scientist Professor Sycamore and the mother of the protagonist in Pokémon X and Y, named Grace. This one, especially the bit involving Grace, is a bit more of a stretch, but still a super interesting theory in light of past plays on ancestry in the Legends series:

What’s most curious about all those theories is that some version of them could all be true at the same time. As multiple fans have pointed out, we have absolutely no idea where Pokémon Legends Z-A takes place in the timeline. Pokémon games over the years have had a very loosely sequential timeline that also occasionally involves alternate realities (don’t worry about it, it’s fine) and, again as in the case of Legends: Arceus, time travel back to the past. If AZ is running a hotel, fans are pointing out that this game must take place after the events of Pokémon X and Y.

But it’s possible that could mean hundreds of years after, given AZ’s immortality. The greatest evidence of this is Lumiose City itself, which is ginormous and futuristic in Legends Z-A in a way that would have taken decades to build. If that’s true and this takes place that far into the future, that would mean the two protagonists, as well as whoever is running the Looker Bureau, are descedents several generations down the line of the characters they resemble.

There is one more character that fans are obsessing over, and that’s this creepy woman from the key art:

This woman looks like a Hex Maniac, which was a trainer type that appeared in Pokémon X and Y. While a number of returning trainer types have been spotted in today’s news, this girl is particularly interesting due to an ongoing Pokémon mystery: the Ghost Girl.

In Pokémon X and Y, there’s a scene you can view by entering a building in Lumiose City and heading up to the second floor. When you arrive, the lights will flash, the music will stop, and a Hex Maniac will appear behind you, glide toward the front of the screen, and say, “No, you’re not the one,” before disappearing. It’s a weird, creepy scene that to this day has absolutely no explanation. This girl is never seen again, does not unlock anything, and just appears to be a strange easter egg. So because that Hex Maniac has remained a mystery for years, the sight of one creepily wandering around Lumiose in Legends Z-A has a lot of fans hopeful this thread might finally lead somewhere. After all, if she’s a ghost, she could have continued to haunt that building for hundreds of years…

In the coming days, there will almost certainly be more new discoveries, easter eggs, and connections found throughout all the footage, art, and news we received today about Pokémon Legends: Z-A. We have a bit of a wait for the game’s release, as it’s currently planned for “late 2025.” But in the meantime at least we have lots of new information to obsess over. You can catch up on everything announced at today’s Pokémon Presents, including Legends Z-A news, mobile gaming news, Pokemon Champions, and more, right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

After an announcement last month that Forza Horizon 5 would be coming to PS5 this fall, we now have confirmation of an exact release date: April 25 for those who purchase the Premium Edition for $99.99, and April 29 for everyone else.

This comes from an announcement today on the official website, which also included news of an update arriving to the game on all platforms on April 25. The update, Horizon Realms, will include four new cars, a new racetrack layout at the Horizon Stadium, and a mixture of returning environments selected from past community favorites.

We learned last month that Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 will include all the same content as the Xbox and PC versions, including Car Packs, the Hot Wheels expansion, and the Rally Adventure expansion, will all be included too.

Forza Horizon 5 is just one of several previously Xbox-exclusive games that’s headed to PlayStation, with Sea of Thieves and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle preceding it. While Xbox is the first of the three major platform holders to really push for cross-platform first-party releases like this, there’s been increasing discussion in the industry as to whether or not exclusives really make sense for most major releases given how expensive games have become to make, and how exclusives can limit sales.

We gave Forza Horizon a coveted IGN 10/10 on its Xbox/PC launch, so needless to say we recommend PlayStation owners dig in. At the time, our reviewer said it’s “the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game I’ve ever played.”

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.