Skip to main content PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES Search PC Gamer View Profile Movies & TV Gaming Industry PC Gaming Show Newsletter Signup Community Guidelines Affiliate Links Meet the team About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine Subscription Why subscribe? Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99View Spring Prime Day Monster Hunter Wilds Marvel Rivals The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel Christopher Livingston 25 March 2025 The ducks are back, and they've brought friends. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: turblento games) When you think of the best games of 2022, what springs to mind? Elden Ring. Vampire Survivors. Persona 5 Royal. Marvel's Midnight Suns, Teardown, Card Shark, Monster Hunter Rise, the list goes on. But the list is wrong. You're wrong. Our Game of the Year Awards were wrong. All wrong. It's Placid Plastic Duck Simulator, which was the one of the five best-reviewed games on Steam in 2022, which still has a 95.36% rating, and which was a game about plastic ducks floating around while you watch. You may like 6 games that could be bigger hits than you're expecting in 2025 18 games the PC Gamer team can't wait to play in 2025 And yeah, all you did in Placid Plastic Duck Simulator is watch. Back in 2022, that was plenty. But times change, and so do games about ducks. That's why Placid Plastic Duck Simulator has a sequel called Slowly Sliding Ducks, and not only are those beautifully rendered ducks back but they're brought online PvP with them. Take a quack at the trailer: Slowly Sliding Ducks - Announcement Trailer 2025 - YouTube As you can see, this ain't your grandma's game about ducks! (Your grandma's game about ducks was probably Duck Hunt for the NES.) There are bombs. There is ice. There is football (or soccer, if you prefer). There are slides. There are puffer fish. It's basically Fall Guys, but with 8 to 16 ducks at a time. 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. There are also hats and other cosmetics, and if you're worried about the slippery slope of microtransactions bringing imbalance to the world of competitive duck battles, worry no more: "Slowly Sliding Ducks contains in-game items that can be purchased with real money. About this, we want to make things clear," developer Turbolento Games says. "All cosmetics can be unlocked through gameplay. No item is exclusively obtainable through monetary purchase." The little duck hats and necklaces and accessories also do not provide any gameplay advantages. They are purely cosmetic. No release date has been announced yet, but if we're ducky it won't be too long to wait. 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. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. 6 games that could be bigger hits than you're expecting in 2025 18 games the PC Gamer team can't wait to play in 2025 8 bold gaming predictions for 2025 Balatro developer bestows the 'very prestigious Golden Thunk award' on Animal Well, says it's so good it makes him 'feel like an imposter' Five new Steam games you probably missed (January 6, 2025) Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 24, 2025) Latest in Action The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel After punishing my graphics card with Monster Hunter Wilds, I've returned to the rock-solid frame rates of my old hunting grounds: Windows XP A unique aspect of Japanese architecture turned out to be a key reason the Like a Dragon games can reuse assets so effectively—and deliver more compact, memorable open worlds than western cities Ubisoft says don't compare Assassin's Creed Shadows' success to Valhalla: The latter launched in Covid's 'perfect storm' and feedback on platforms 'less affected by review bombing' is stellar Oh my God, it's happening: Monster Hunter Wilds is finally bringing a fan-favorite sea snake home from the war 'Never thought I'd go back' Helldivers 2 players steel themselves to return to the site of its most infamous battle, Malevelon Creek Latest in News CD Projekt says it's not using generative AI on The Witcher 4 because it's 'quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership' The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel Game Informer is back from the dead: 'The whole team has returned' From Palworld movies to Palworld TV shows: 'Everyone under the sun pitched us every idea you can imagine,' says Pocketpair's communications director The Witcher 4 won't be out until sometime in 2027 at the soonest, CD Projekt says After 23 years of making Dwarf Fortress, even its creator is still 'terrified' of drowning all his dwarves with aquifers: 'Part of the problem is we are just not good at videogames' More about action After punishing my graphics card with Monster Hunter Wilds, I've returned to the rock-solid frame rates of my old hunting grounds: Windows XP A unique aspect of Japanese architecture turned out to be a key reason the Like a Dragon games can reuse assets so effectively—and deliver more compact, memorable open worlds than western cities CD Projekt says it's not using generative AI on The Witcher 4 because it's 'quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership' See more latest Most Popular CD Projekt says it's not using generative AI on The Witcher 4 because it's 'quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership' Game Informer is back from the dead: 'The whole team has returned' From Palworld movies to Palworld TV shows: 'Everyone under the sun pitched us every idea you can imagine,' says Pocketpair's communications director The Witcher 4 won't be out until sometime in 2027 at the soonest, CD Projekt says After 23 years of making Dwarf Fortress, even its creator is still 'terrified' of drowning all his dwarves with aquifers: 'Part of the problem is we are just not good at videogames' A unique aspect of Japanese architecture turned out to be a key reason the Like a Dragon games can reuse assets so effectively—and deliver more compact, memorable open worlds than western cities Pacific Drive developers change their mind: A year after refusing to give it mid-run saves, it's getting mid-run saves Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter Here's that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 mod that turns everyone into skeletons you asked for Forget REPO, Monster Hunter Wilds and Assassin's Creed Shadows, Steam's current global top seller is an early access game about managing a drug empire 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 Thunder X3 Lab-X review The First Berserker: Khazan review – Smart soulslike combat and boss design despite somewhat samey missions Logitech G PowerPlay 2 review Colorful iGame RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan OC review Atomfall review: A muddled sci-fi misadventure in need of a stronger identity PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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