The Maw - 18th-23rd March 2024
Our weekly news liveblog, and the week's most appetising game releases
It's GDC week over in San Francisco at the moment, and such a high concentration of video game developers in one place can only mean one thing: The Maw has turned its ever-dribbling gaze to America's west coast, and is preparing to bask in all the fresh learnings being shared about how last year's best video games were made and created. Edwin is one the ground there for us, so we wish him well in his news gathering and interview appointments. Back home, the news cycle still continues apace, with lots of great releases big and small coming up over the next seven days. Here's what we've got our eyes on.
The big release of the week is obviously Dragon's Dogma 2, Capcom's high fantasy action RPG that comes to PC (and consoles) on Friday, March 22nd, but before then there are lots of other tasty releases that are worth keeping an eye on:
There's cosy farming mech sim Lightyear Frontier launching into early access and Game Pass (March 19th); stealth mech action 'em up Raw Metal (March 19th); after much delay, the Jodie Comer and David Harbour-fied Alone In The Dark (March 20th); the PC version of mobile dice-rolling roguelike sensation Slice & Dice (March 20th) (my brother is properly obsessed with this); glossy PlayStation open world sequel Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition (March 21st); glossy Mechano-like car-based open world sequel Terratech Worlds (March 22nd, early access); and Furyu's tactical RPG remake The Legend Of Legacy HD Remastered (March 22nd).
If there are any games we've missed here, do let us know as always in the comments, and may your news week be mawful and good.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
MONDAY LIVES
Hoyoverse's latest RPG Zenless Zone Zero has opened sign-ups for its next closed beta test, and there's a new trailer to celebrate:
Fachewachewa says: Hell yeah Slice and Dice!!! (note that it's only the Steam and 3.0 version, it's already available on itch on PC). Raw Metal had a very cool demo too, very interesting game. As for Maw-related content, Animal Well got an early May release date, that's exciting!
Indeed! I was just in the throes of writing up Animal Well's release date news this morning. Mark your calendars for May 9th, folks!
Fantasy 4X Songs Of Silence is launching into early access on May 23rd. There's also going to be a Kickstarter campaign for it to help fund the rest of development.
Cities Skylines 2 is getting its first post-launch asset pack - Beach Properties - on March 25th, as part of its Waterfronts Expansion Pass. On the same day, there will also be an update to the base game that adds in its long-awaited in-game modding tools, as part of the Cities Skylines 2 Modding Beta.
Top-down rogulike Shadow Of The Depth is heading to early access on April 23rd. Have a watch of its new trailer below, or visit its Steam page to find out more.
TUESDAY RISES
Steam Families has launched into beta today, adding new family sharing features and parental controls.If you're interested in Gearbox's upcoming revival of their once-dead MOBA Gigantic, today they released a hero trailer for Roland, a new shotgun chap with an attack drone:
Lightyear Frontier launches into early access today, and here's a trailer to celebrate. Also give our review a read while you're at it, too:
WEDNESDAY KNEELS
Stardew Valley's 1.6 update has arrived, and here's a rundown of everything in it.Respawn have confirmed that, yes, some professional Apex Legends players were indeed hacked during an event over the weekend. They've now deployed the first of many updates to better protect players going forward.
Sacre Bleu is a new side-scrolling action game that sort of looks like My Friend Pedro meets The Musketeers.
The Callisto Protocol’s action-roguelike spin-off is to Hades what the sci-fi horror shooter was to Dead Space.
Uncharted director’s Black Panther and Captain America game revealed as Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, out next year.
With Bungie’s reboot of their ‘90s FPS a year away, free fan revival Classic Marathon wins the race onto Steam.
THURSDAY MISSED ITS MORNING ALARM AND ONLY WOKE UP JUST NOW
(sorry everyone)Some news in brief for you:
- Catch all of last night's IGF and GDC Award winners right here.
- Broken Roads has a new release date of April 10th.
- Cryptmaster also has a release date, and it's coming on May 9th.
- Dicey dungeon crawler Slice & Dice has arrived on Steam with a big juicy update.
- Riot's League Of Legends MMO has gone back to the drawing board.
I'll be back this evening with some of the main announcements from tonight's Future Games Show too, which starts at 1pm PDT / 4pm EDT / 8pm GMT.
Good news for those who like big hammers. Italian folklore Soulslike Enotria: The Last Song not only got a shiny new trailer, but a release date. It's out on August 21st, and there's a demo due soon, too.
Here's another Hollow Knight-like for you to keep an eye on. Voidwrought is coming to Steam later this year.
New Holstin trailer alert, which is very Pacific Drive all of a sudden. Really looking forward to this one.
Point and click adventure Simon The Sorceror of all things is getting a prequel. Here's the reveal trailer.
A new trailer for The Chinese Room's new oil rig horror Still Wakes The Deep, and a release date. It's coming June 18th!
From the sublime to the ridiculous, Indika has a release date trailer. It's coming May 8th.
And finally, the last announcement from tonight's Future Games Show is a sequel to rat Soulslike adventure Tails Of Iron. Having defeated the frogs, now it's time to vanquish the bats. It's called Tails Of Iron II: Whiskers Of Winter, and it's coming to PC later this year.
Oh wait, there's a 'one more thing'. Of course there is. And it's Industria 2.
FRIDAY SET FIFTEEN ALARMS TODAY
FEED THE MAW.Path Of Exile 2's closed beta has been delayed. It was originally set to start on June 7th, but now it's coming later in the year. There will still be an alpha test in June, the developers say, but there's no date set for it yet.
No More Heroes and Resident Evil devs’ cult shooter Shadows of the Damned finally gets a PC release this year, giving you the chance to blast demons with a gun who is also a motorcycle who is also a demon while shouting “Taste my Big Boner!”
A movie adaptation of The Sims is in the works with Barbie’s Margot Robbie as producer, helmed by the director of Loki and (part of) The Last of Us Season 2.
You'll be able to play Fortnite in first-person later this year, with incoming updates for UEFN also letting creators use in-game trading, proximity chat and a full physics sandbox in their custom modes.