Pushing Buttons: Autumn’s gaming gems

From a creeping horror to a funny alien shooter, here are unexpected finds to play before the onslaught of big-name titles

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Games follow a seasonal rhythm, and perhaps because I have spent my entire adult life writing about them for a living (take that, school careers advisor!), I'm especially attuned to it. Absolutely nothing happens in winter, ever. Spring is often when the most interesting games appear - the slightly offbeat big releases or ambitious indie games that want to make a splash after the Christmas rush. In summer, E3 and Gamescom and all of the other showcases look ahead to the future.

Autumn is truly the season of games, when the Fifas and Call of Dutys and Assassin's Creeds come out, and everything else either competes with them for attention, or scrambles to get away.