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(Image credit: FakeFish) Quick story about the most nightmarish death I've ever experienced in a videogame: I was playing Barotrauma, the submarine survival simulator where you explore oceans on alien worlds. I'd left the sub and was swimming around in the inky black waters to investigate some sunken ruins, when I noticed I was out of air. Frantically, I swapped my empty oxygen tank with a full one. At least I meant to do that. What I actually slotted into my oxygen supply was a fuel tank for my welding torch. Just imagine being submerged in the dark, freezing cold waters of a pitch-black ocean on an alien planet, and taking a big panicky lungful of what you expect will be air but is actually welding fuel. Horrible. Horrible. But pretty funny, too, and a teaching moment. I never mixed up my tanks again. You may like 'It’s about to get even darker, more disturbed, and violent': Barotrauma's Calm Before the Storm update introduces new PVP outpost and alien ruins Barotrauma developer unveils its next co-op survival game: a dieselpunk FPS where your mobile fortress is a train That's my sales pitch for trying Barotrauma, the always spooky but frequently hilarious 2D survival game that's currently hosting a free weekend on Steam. Dive in and play from now until Monday, completely for free. There's a bonus, too: if you like it (I suspect you will) it's on sale for 50% off until April 26. It's great timing because Barotrauma recently introduced a bunch of new stuff in its Calm Before the Storm update, like a new mission spanning three undersea ruins and an outpost that's perfect for PvP deathmatch, making the grim chaos of the game "even darker, more disturbed, and violent," according to developer FakeFish. It's already pretty darn disturbed, if you ask me. Along with inhaling welding fuel, I was also beaten up and imprisoned in the sub's airlock by a co-op teammate, though to be fair, I had put on a clown mask and tried injecting him with a bunch of random syringes from the med bay. (Barotrauma isn't strictly co-op, there's a "traitor" mode where you can sabotage your team, something I wasn't very good at.) The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. I was also eaten by an enormous sea monster while swimming, mistook a plasma cutter for a welding torch while trying to repair holes in the hull (naturally, the cutter just made the holes bigger), got beaten to death by an alien hermit crab, and got cut in half by a rapidly closing submarine door. All horrible ways to go, but all pretty funny, too. In related news, FakeFish announced its next co-op survival game just last week, though this one swaps out the submarine for a train and 2D sidescrolling for FPS action. It's called Frostrail—but it won't be along until sometime next year, so checking out Barotrauma for the free weekend is your best bet for some chilling but silly co-op fun. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releases Best PC games: Our all-time favorites Free PC games: Freebie fest Best FPS games: Finest gunplay Best RPGs: Grand adventures Best co-op games: Better together Christopher Livingston Social Links Navigation Senior Editor Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own. 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'It’s about to get even darker, more disturbed, and violent': Barotrauma's Calm Before the Storm update introduces new PVP outpost and alien ruins Barotrauma developer unveils its next co-op survival game: a dieselpunk FPS where your mobile fortress is a train An $8 cooperative horror game is rocketing up Steam's top sellers list: 'Never occurred to me Lethal Company was missing physics until I played this' I missed this co-op open world base-builder when it first came out, but it's got over 10,000 positive Steam reviews and it's free to play all weekend 'The point is to be generous': This $20 FPS releasing next month is trying something new—giving away a full version of the game The Forever Winter, my favourite extraction shooter, just overhauled its most contentious feature for the second time: 'It was a hell of a rollercoaster to make the adjustment' Latest in Survival & Crafting Co-op submarine survival simulator Barotrauma has a free weekend on Steam, so dive in with friends and experience the most comically horrifying deaths you can imagine You should buy our favorite co-op survival game of 2024 on sale now for $20—because the price goes up to $35 in May RuneScape: Dragonwilds has fixed the classic survival crafting trope of endlessly chopping down trees thanks to an excellent spell system that does the hard work for you RuneScape: Dragonwilds skill trees and levelling guide How to fast travel in RuneScape: Dragonwilds The RuneScape: Dragonwilds early access roadmap lays plans for a new biome, dragon fight, and even more skills to grind Latest in News Co-op submarine survival simulator Barotrauma has a free weekend on Steam, so dive in with friends and experience the most comically horrifying deaths you can imagine Rematch, the soccer game from the maker of Sifu and Absolver, is holding an open beta this weekend Thanks to Baldur's Gate 3's new Swashbuckler subclass, it no longer sucks to be a pure Rogue 22-year-old MMO MapleStory is getting the 'old school' treatment with the original lead game designer in charge of new classic servers Forget Baldur's Gate 3's new subclasses: Patch 8's most disgusting power gamer combo is the Rock That Makes You Stupid paired with a sneakily revamped level 2 spell You should buy our favorite co-op survival game of 2024 on sale now for $20—because the price goes up to $35 in May HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested MSI RTX 5060 Ti 16G Gaming Trio OC review Tempopo review Tempest Rising review Corsair Void Wireless V2 review Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB review (Palit Infinity 3) PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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