The UK Is Melting. Here Are the Games That Feel Appropriate Right Now.
If you've stepped outside this week, you'll know the drill. The Met Office has issued a Red Extreme Heat Warning across central and southern England and Wales, with temperatures forecast to hit 39°C or higher on Wednesday and Thursday. June temperature records that have stood since 1957 are expected to be broken, and forecasters are warning that the heat will be accompanied by unusually high humidity, making conditions feel even more oppressive than the record-breaking summer of 2022.
Nights won't offer much relief either. Forecasters are warning of consecutive Tropical Nights, where temperatures stay above 20°C, meaning the heat stress of the day has nowhere to go.
In short, it is genuinely too hot to function. Which makes this the perfect moment to draw the curtains, crank up the fan, point it directly at your face, and lose yourself in a game.
And if you're going to sweat, you might as well lean into the theme.
Games That Match the Vibes Outside
Returnal
Housemarque's relentless roguelike takes place on a planet that is actively trying to kill you, and the alien biomes pulse with a kind of hostile, fever-dream heat. The oppressive atmosphere, the unending loops, the sense that conditions are beyond your control. This week, that hits a little differently.
Elden Ring
Caelid exists. That crumbling, rust-red wasteland baking under a diseased sky is probably the closest FromSoftware has ever come to accurately representing a British heatwave. Dry, punishing, and deeply unreasonable.
Red Dead Redemption II
Long rides across sun-scorched desert, with nothing but heat shimmer on the horizon and a canteen that never feels full enough. Rockstar built an open world with a genuine sense of climate, and the New Austin region in summer is almost uncomfortably convincing right now.
Fallout: New Vegas
The Mojave Wasteland has been simmering since 2010. Dry heat, bleached rock, and a world that has more or less given up trying to recover. There is something cathartic about roaming a post-apocalyptic desert when the temperature outside is touching 39°C. At least in the Wasteland, nobody expects the trains to run on time.
Hades / Hades II
Literal Hell. Supergiant built one of the best games of the last decade around escaping the Underworld, and between runs you return to a hub that glows with forge-fire and divine heat. Given that returning home from outside this week feels roughly equivalent, the metaphor writes itself.
Dante's Inferno
Perhaps the most on-the-nose choice on this list. A game literally set in the circles of Hell, each one more searing and punishing than the last. Controversial at launch, and perhaps overlooked now, but if there was ever a week to revisit it, this is the one.
Stay Cool, Keep Collecting
If you have been sitting on steelbooks while the country melts outside, this is as good a time as any to actually do something with them.
Frame-A-Game builds display solutions designed specifically for the things collectors care about, and for steelbooks or games there are three options worth knowing about.
The MagFrame Elite is our flagship frame. Big, bold, and built with premium materials, it is designed to make a steelbook or game case feel like the centrepiece it is rather than an afterthought on a shelf. If you have one game that deserves the full treatment, this is where to start.
And then there is MagLevate, which takes a different approach entirely. It uses enclosed magnets and a Command strip to mount your steelbook flush against the wall, appearing to float in mid-air. Use one as a hero display or line up a few to turn a blank wall into something genuinely worth looking at.