1. Slime Rancher

Slime Rancher is the inaugural game of the small, creatively-minded team known as Monomi Park. It is astoundingly adorable, the poor slimes endearing you with the almost constant giddy look on their faces.

You play the game as pioneer and novice rancher, Beatrix LeBeau, who has travelled to a planet light years away from Earth. Your objective: make it big.

With your "vac-pack" in hand, you scoop up the native wildlife, known as Slimes. Raising them includes feeding them chickens, fruits, and vegetables as they are contained in pens specialised to their specific needs. Careful, though, some of these startlingly sweet blobs can hurt you! Rock Slimes (pictured below), Rad Slimes, and Boom Slimes are just some of the few.

Despite the cute and cuddly exterior, these cheerful critters are not as simple as they may seem. Feed a slime of one variety a plort from a different variety, and it will grow to double its original size, now known as a "largo slime." These largo slimes change their appearance to adopt qualities and colours from both varieties.

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www.slimerancher.com

2. Subnautica

Love alien planets? Love survival games? Love the ocean? Subnautica is the perfect mixture of these three, realistically portraying these fictional creatures in such a way that you can't stop coming back to it.

Created by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, the developers of games like Natural Selection, they more than make use of the well-known Unity engine, they make art.

Underwater base creation is a HUGE plus, with a goal of being self-sustaining in mind. Build aquariums and "alien containment"s to place fish and eggs that you've collected into, and watch the eggs hatch after three days and three nights. Construct plant beds and fight flooding in your base as you explore the world around you in pursuit of blueprints with which you can assemble submersibles.

Explore the wreckage of the Aurora mining vessel, which was sent out into the furthest reaches of space in order to build a super-highway, when it was struck down by a mysterious energy pulse. As far as you know, you are now the only successful survivor.

Watch beautiful biomes unfold in front of you as your journey progresses...

...and defend yourself against alien attacks that can kill.

Subnautica is available for purchase on Steam for $19.99 and is compatible with both Windows and Mac.

http://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/

3. The Long Dark

Developed by video game veterans at Hinterland, The Long Dark is another beautifully stylised survival game, this time, based in a post-apocalyptic Northern territory. Immerse yourself in a survival-of-the-fittest situation, made even more difficult with the advent of winter.

Watch as the Northern Lights crawl across the sky, and hunt for food and water just as you are being hunted by the wildlife.

You have a front-row seat to the end of the world, brought about by a geomagnetic disaster. Monitor your calories, hydration, fatigue, and body temperature as you are forced to make morally difficult decisions in Story Mode. Any survivor you meet could be a friend or a foe, and you get to choose how you throw down.

Or switch over to Sandbox mode and explore over 30 square kilometers of wilderness, with more on the way. Maintain your health in order to survive, or watch yourself slowly wither away into the afterlife.

Exploit buildings, dams, and villages for shelter and supplies, if you're lucky.

The Long Dark is available on Steam and XBox One for $19.99.

http://hinterlandgames.com/the-long-dark/