We don’t normally do a rundown of games for the coming month, but March is an unusually packed period, including everything from intriguing indies to sprawling open world AAA action adventures. There are brand new projects from well-regarded devs, spiritual successors, and high-profile franchise extensions.

The big question, of course, is where you’re going to find the time to play all these (with even more listed here and here), but below is what should be on your radar this March.

Split Fiction (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) – March 6

First out the gate is a new split-screen co-op adventure from Hazelight, the makers of A Way Out and 2021 Game of the Year winner It Takes Two. Whether you’re playing together on the couch, or online, you’ll be plunged into Split Fiction’s genre mash-up of science fiction and high fantasy as two very different writers, Mio and Zoe, find themselves trapped in their stories via a machine (and evil tech company) out to steal their ideas. Expect every stage to have a different co-operative puzzle mechanic.

Good news with Split Fiction is that if you own the game, you can play with a friend online for free using EA’s Friends Pass system. Said buddy doesn’t need their own copy. Cross-platform play is also supported from release.

Wanderstop (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) – March 11

Cosy life sim games are a dime a dozen these days, but Wanderstop looks to be something different, especially since it comes from the creator of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide, and co-creator of Gone Home and Tacoma, with Annapurna Interactive publishing. So you man a tea house in a magical forest, growing plants, cleaning up, brewing tea and serving customers. Except, your character, disgraced pit fighter Alta, is straining against the mindfulness of her tasks. Unable to relax, and battered by beliefs she is a failure unless she is constantly working to be the best, she views her new job as a distraction from meaningful productivity. Ouch, the personal attack of this narrative.

As a sidenote, you can play the PC demo for Wanderstop right now as part of the Steam Next Fest.

Expelled! (Switch, iOS, Android) – March 12

With titles like 80 Days, Sorcery!, Heaven’s Vault and 2023’s A Highland Song under their belt, inkle is back with a new narrative game designed to be compellingly replayable. Expelled! takes players to an English girls boarding school in 1922 and gives them an in-game day to clear the name of scholarship student Verity Amersham after the school’s hockey team captain and head girl is shoved out the library window. Expelled! is subtitled “An Overboard! game” as it follows a similar format to inkle’s 2021 historical whodunnit. There, as now, you have digestible 15 to 40-minute runs to be as nice and naughty as you like, repeating the day with the knowledge gained as you strive to achieve the best outcome for Verity.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Mac, Ubisoft+) – March 20

Two release date shifts later, the latest entry in Ubisoft’s signature franchise Assassin’s Creed is finally out. Led by Ubisoft Quebec, the same team behind Syndicate and Odyssey, this instalment in the historical action adventure series is set in 16th Century Feudal Japan, with the combined threat of war and foreign influence. What’s probably most notable about Shadows is that, with is duel protagonists, shinobi Naoe and samurai Yasuke (yes, that Yasuke!), it caters to fans whether they prefer the stealth combat of the original games, or the frontal assault fights that Origins-Odyssey-Valhalla enabled. You decide who you want to complete missions with. Expect the game’s main storyline to devour somewhere between 30 – 60 hours of your life… apparently.

Atomfall (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Game Pass) – March 27

“Mom, can we get S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?”
“But we already have S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at home.”

Jokes aside, while Rebellion’s survival actioner Atomfall looks like a British cousin to the likes of Ukranian S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and American Fallout, its regional flavour feels like a real strength. Hell, you can even wield a cricket bat as a weapon, and use tea and Cornish pasties to replenish yourself. Drawing inspiration from classic English films and series like The Wicker Man, The Day of the Triffids and Doctor Who, the alternate history action takes place in a portion of the Lake District, quarantined after the real-life 1957 Windscale fire. Your amnesiac character must deal with suspicious locals, military patrols (including hulking robots), cultists in the woods and the requisite irradiated zombies. Atomfall could be a potential sleeper hit for the first quarter of 2025.