The Maw 22nd-27th January 2024
Our weekly news liveblog, with this week's top videogame releases
As W.H. Auden once wrote: "our apparatniks will continue making the usual squalid mess called History: all we can pray for is that Videogame News Writers may still appear to blithe it." Welcome one and all to another week of addled product journalism care of your ever-salivating host, the Maw, ravenous hype god and certainly not a silly metaphor I’ve come up with to make my job sound grander than it should be.
This week's menu of new videogame releases: world-jumping squad tactics adaptation Stargate: Timekeepers (23rd Jan); wild-eyed Soviet job sim Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator: Prologue (23rd Jan); Valheim-ish fantasy survival game Enshrouded (24th Jan, early access); fugitive Asgardian town-builder Roots Of Yggdrasil (24th Jan, early access); moody anime fighter Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes (24th Jan); rolly-polly shooter Go Mecha Ball (25th Jan); asymmetrical multiplayer dungeon romp Phantom Abyss (25th Jan); finger-jabbing courtroom drama Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (25th Jan); jaunty yakuza RPG Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (25th Jan); infant witch adventure The Cauldron Kids: The Summoning of Mr. Vermicelli (25th Jan); hand-drawn horror MMORPG Mad World - Age of Darkness (25th Jan); high-kicking octa-quel (is it a word?) Tekken 8 (26th Jan).
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
IT IS MAWNDAY. Lock S-Foils in attack position! If you don't have any S-Foils, flapping your arms will do. FEED THE MAW.
I suspect we're going to spend a fair bit of this week writing about a game that came out last week - Palworld, which exceeded one million concurrent players on Steam over the weekend. At the time of writing it's still comfortably ahead of perennial Steam chart-topper Counter-Strike 2.
The just-announced Deviator looks a heck of a lot like Hollow Knight.
Old School RuneScape is getting an (optional) HD mode, Jagex have announced. It'll support fully dynamic lighting and new fog effects, and is the first of several enhancements detailed on the developer's blog.
If you're thinking about picking up that there Palworld, know that there are currently some differences between the Steam and Microsoft Store/Game Pass versions due to their different certification processes for updates, as reported by Windows Central.
This vaguely Llamasoft-looking thing came out over the weekend. Titled Kitten Burst, it casts you as a vapourwave cat surfing the cosmic wilds and doing bullet hells. It's got a demo and initial reactions seem positive.
An RPS piece from James about a new Steam Deck update that tells you what the performance settings actually do.
Arren says: Great job on the pithy new-release game descriptions, Edwin!
I'm all about being pithy! Unless I'm being horribly long-winded.
Balkanbear says: Graven 1.0 is also coming out this week (23rd) after being in early access for almost three years. It’s described as first person action adventure puzzler and has a great retro aesthetic.
It certainly has style.
All is not well at Gothic and Risen developers Piranha Bytes. The below follows a report from last week that the company is "on the verge of closure".
No Case Should Remain Unsolved came out last week, and appears to be a pretty decent detective game with a novel join-up-the-memories mechanic.
Watch out, on-the-go Monster Hunters. According to Overclock3D, Capcom's latest DRM update has broken Monster Hunter Rise on Steam Deck.
Colossal Order have shared plans for Cities: Skylines 2's modding features, which will now launch feature by feature, as detailed on Steam. "The modding support will roll out gradually as the features enter beta and we won’t wait for all of them to be fully completed before setting them live," the developers write.
Reuters reports that CD Projekt's next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, will enter the "production phase" this year, with "around 400 people working on the project by the middle of the year" according to CEO Adam Badowski.
The developers of renovation sim House Flipper have promised they're not done with the original game just yet, with at least two big content drops and more DLC - plus bug fixes - on the way in 2024 despite recently putting out a sequel (which needs its own content additions, by all regards).
The Joker - but not that Joker - will be Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's first free DLC character, arriving in March, as Rocksteady detail their plans for the multiplayer Arkham follow-up's post-launch seasons.
Surprise, surprise, someone’s already modded actual Pokémon into Palworld. If you've ever wanted to see Misty wield a shotgun or set Pikachu to hard labour mining rocks, wish granted I guess.
VR studio Wimo Games, developers behind Battle Bows and Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem, have closed their doors.
For the Final Fantasy XIV fans out there, FF11 crossover event The Maidens' Rhapsody is back until February 5th. It's the same event run in past years, with the same gear up for grabs, but if you've missed it in the past, now's a good time to nab it.
Black Mesa: Classic is a Half-Life 1 engine demake of the Half-Life 2 engine remake of Half-Life 1, and it has a new demo.
IT IS TUESDAY. Today the Maw is only manifest in shades of green, so if your veggie soup starts bubbling oddly, step back from the table and contact your local Videogame News Exorcist. Anyway, let's all FEED THE MAW.
Riot Games have laid off 530 people - "11% of our workforce, with the biggest impact to teams outside of core development", according to CEO Dylan Jadeja. As part of that, the company are cutting back the Legends of Runeterra team, and are shutting down their Riot Forge publishing label.
Pocketpair have patched the Microsoft Store PC version of Palworld. "Numerous bugs have been fixed, including sound issues," the developer wrote on Xitter. There are still some sizeable bugs to address, however - black screens on start-up, controllers not being recognised, and the option to quit the game not appearing (is it a bug or a feature, etc, etc).
As teased a week or two back, Teyon have added a New Game+ mode to Robocop: Rogue City together with a new difficulty setting, "There Will Be Trouble".
Speaking to IGN, Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno has offered a spirited defence of the game's lack of a traditional fast travel feature. Like its predecessor, the game lets you warp around by spending pricey Ferrystones at Port Crystals, but you can also now buy passage between cities by ox cart, with the caveat that you might be ambushed enroute.
Open world RPG Dread Delusion's Clockwork Kingdom update is releasing on January 25th.
4X-adjacent god game The Universim has launched out of early access, in case you've already had your fill of Dominions 6.
There's a smidge more info about Avowed's combat, ability and area design on Xbox Wire. Sounds like it'll be quite freeform in terms of how you progress/customise your character.
Circus horror game Reveil is out March 6th.
Announced many years ago with a new gameplay trailer out this week, AI Limit is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi action-RPG in the "Bloodborne with anime girls" tradition.
I'm in the mood for some lobby music. You ever really fall in love with some lobby music?
Palworld had a million concurrent players this weekend, but earlier today it cleared 1.8 million concurrent players. That's the second highest ever, knocking Counter-Strike 2 out of position, with only PUBG now ahead of it.
Lil' Guardsman is a Papers, Pleaselike in which you play as a 12-year-old substitute guard at the castle gates in a fantasy kingdom, and must decide who to admit and who to deny entry from the cast of warriors, goblins and dragon-owners who appear before you. It's out now.
IT IS WEDNESDAY. I've fled my flat in tears to avoid all the building noise upstairs. Today's updates are officially brought to you by Cafe Neros. Please let there be no invading packs of schoolchildren. FEED THE MAW.
Data-miner billbil-kun, whom various games journalism sages are calling "highly reliable", says that Death Stranding 2's official title is Death Stranding 2 - On The Beach and that an announcement is coming in the next two weeks or so.
Right, enough faffing around. It's time to post some Fatboy Slim.
Sea of Thieves Season 11 is live wih a revamp of the game's core voyaging loop, amongst other things.
Here's a Diablo 4 Season of the Construct gameplay trailer.
Aftermath's Gita Jackson has written about working conditions during their time at Kotaku and VICE. Little excerpt: "The key to being a daily video game blogger - or a daily blogger of any kind, but especially one in an industry as small as video games - is that you both have to be constantly producing and constantly consuming."
I've been digging back into Automaton's Pocketpair interview, which we shared earlier in the week as part of our Palworld coverage. There's some moderately interesting chat about the dos and don'ts of making a survival game, with thoughts on Enshrouded, the developer's previous Craftopia and, of course, Pokemon.
Pocketpair have shared their early access roadmap for Palworld (this is our full RPS write-up). It's got arena PvP in it.
Riot-owned Hypixel Studios are not affected by this week's mass layoffs.
Here's a little Exputer interview with Remedy about Alan Wake 2's forthcoming DLCs, and whether they will tee up the plot of Control 2.
Grindstone have announced Preserve, a hexagonal "nature-builder" that seems similar to Townscaper, where you play cards to place terrain tiles that alchemise into beautiful/cosy landscapes.
Iron Gate has shared a little more about Valheim's Ashlands update - here's our write-up.
Roots Of Yggdrasil is out in Steam Early Access.
Supermassive Games' Until Dawn - the PS4 exclusive that set the playable horror-movie template for The Quarry and the Dark Pictures Anthology - will reportedly be the next PlayStation exclusive released on PC. We'll apparently find out more in the next two weeks.
Dungeons & Dragons’ first virtual reality game probably won’t be like Baldur’s Gate 3 in VR, but why not live in hope? Especially as, for now, we don't know anything about the official spin-off from Demeo makers Resolution Games except that it exists.
Balcony gardening sim Pocket Oasis has a beautiful hand-painted look and meditative vibes. It seems lovely, and it'll be out in May - but there's a demo you can check out now.
Planet Zoo and Realms of Ruin developers Frontier Developments will kick off a new regular monthly showcase with a game reveal next week, along with 2024 plans for Elite Dangerous. Expect future Frontier Unlocked streams to drop on the last Wednesday of each month.
Metal Gear Solid 4 may not have escaped the PlayStation 3 just yet - fingers crossed for Master Collection Vol. 2 - but you can still get a taste of Old Man Snake on PC thanks to Fortnite, where MGS1/2's Solid Snake and his aged appearance in MGS4 are now available as free unlockable skins via the battle royale's battle pass. Raiden is rumoured to be on the way - though in his MGS2 form, not Revengeance's Cyborg Ninja. There's a bunch of other cute nods to the whole MGS too, from ! alert emotes to a new cardboard box item.
IT IS THURSDAY. Somebody accidentally drew the wards with strawberry jam instead of blood last night, and now the epicentre of the Maw is 300 metres wider. FEED IT.
The Pokémon Company have issued a press release apparently in response to claims Palworld has breached its copyright. "We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024," it reads, in a translation shared by Game Informer. "We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon. We will continue to cherish and nurture each and every Pokémon and its world, and work to bring the world together through Pokémon in the future." My translation of this translation: "yes, we know, please stop emailing us".
As reported by Kotaku, Outriders dev People Can Fly has laid off over 30 people who were working on Square Enix's Project Gemini.
Reuters reports that Chinese regulators are thinking twice about recently proposed rules to curb in-game spending and rewards.
Here's a Steam demo for a side-on anime girl brawler in which you defeat monsters for materials to... bake bread? Instant GOTY.
Another Kotaku report: Destroy All Humans remake developers Black Forest Games have apparently laid off about 50% of their staff - 50 people.
Bay 12 have shared a bit more about the Dwarf Fortress Steam edition's impending Adventure Mode update. The post includes insight on difficulties creating the sandbox, and the possibility of "proceduralizing" magic. An excerpt: "you can offend the gods and become a giant rat for a week, or offend a mummy and become cursed for the rest of your miserable short life."
According to The Verge, Microsoft are laying off almost 2000 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has left in the process, and Blizzard’s untitled survival game project has been canceled.
Russian civil war RTS Last Train Home is getting some DLC - Legion Tales. Out 1st February, it adds 10 new missions and look at that, we have a teaser trailer.
King's Orders is a medieval strategy game with a twist - all your commands have to be carried to your various underlings by messenger, and messengers can be intercepted.
As mentioned in earlier reporting of layoffs across Microsoft studios, Blizzard have cancelled their in-development survival game. It was first announced in 2022 as part of a recruitment drive, but had seemingly been in development since 2017.
Berserk Boy, a Mega Man-inspired action platformer, now has a release date, a new trailer, and a demo. The game was first announced in 2022 but its Steam page has vanished and re-appeared several times since for unconfirmed reasons. It'll now release on March 6th.
Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition now has a PC release date of March 21st, and a new trailer which details its PC features including an unlocked framerate and ultra widescreen support.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is out now on Steam. Our review went up earlier this week, with Katharine calling it the "lesser trilogy in Capcom's long-standing lawyer 'em up", but one with plenty of highlights.
The turn-based tactics of Mordheim: City Of The Damned are currently free to keep from GOG. You can't knock the price, but be warned that it might not be worth your time given Paul Dean's review back in 2015:
...if you were hoping for a new squad-based game with the finesse of XCOM, or the many tactical choices of Jagged Alliance 2, this is not it. Mordheim is dumb. Mordheim is flawed. Mordheim tries hard and doesn’t succeed. This is not a happy Christmas, everyone, but the misshapen horror of Faschnat. It’s your present from Krampus.
Double Eleven have released more information on building in the newly 3D Prison Architect 2, with a video to go along with:
Skull And Bones, Ubisoft's much-delayed pirate live service game, will run an open beta from February 8th until the 11th. The beta will be available via the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store and progress will carry over to the full game when it finally sets sail on February 16th.
Everyone has saved their release date news for today, it seems. Abiotic Factor looks like Half-Life, if Half-Life were designed for co-op japes. It's got a demo out now on Steam and the full game is coming on May 2nd:
Dwarf Fortress's Adventure mode is coming to the Steam version soon, and it'll include several revisions for Demigod players (that's easy mode) to add tutorials and provide more player direction.
IT'S FRIDAY. All Videogame News Writers gain +5 Second Wind. Let's get it done. FEED THE MAW.
Nexon's live service multiplayer melee game Warhaven is shutting down after just seven months in early access. Did you play this one?
It's 9.05am, I'm sitting at a computer and I'm conscious, so it must be time to write another videogame industry layoff story. Ruiner studio Reikon Games has reportedly laid off around 80% off its staff - 60-70 people. Sources called the move "sudden and shocking".
Some cheery morning music: Bump Of Chicken's Sleep Walking Orchestra, which you might recognise as the OP for wholesome fantasy gourmet anime Delicious In Dungeon.
Sand Door Studio's highly Hades-esque Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior launches February 13th, with a demo coming on February 5th, publishers Quantic Dream have announced.
Here's a game announcement from earlier in the month we managed to overlook: Sunkissed City, a new life sim from one of the Stardew Valley devs, out Q4 2024.
Bloomberg has some additional details on Blizzard's now-abandoned survival game, which was codenamed Odyssey. Amongst other things, the developers once envisaged multiplayer maps that could support 100 players at once. To achieve this, Blizzard decided to switch development from Unreal Engine to their in-house Synapse engine, but this caused "significant problems" and appears to have contributed to the project's eventual cancellation.
The Enshrouded devs have written a little post about the game's launch bugs and issues, which range from dodgy frame rates through server access difficulties to the timer for world chunk resets being a bit too leisurely. They're also working on a feature that lets you snap building parts to pre-existing structures.
As reported by Gamesradar, somebody's put together an unofficial Pokedex-style Palpedia for Palworld, offering guides to all the monsters in the game.
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic - a game I know only through Sin's excellent write-ups - is getting a big new update which introduces the first two missions of the campaign, new maps and various other new features and quality-of-life tweaks.
As Edwin noted this morning, Ruiner devs Reikon Games have reportedly laid off over half of the studio, with dozens of staff across "all possible departments" said to be affected.
Palworld developers Pocketpair are battling multiplayer cheaters plaguing their official servers, but admit it’s a “difficult” problem to solve straight away.
Final Fantasy XIV won’t follow The Last of Us and Fallout with its own live-action TV series, as The Witcher producers confirm their ambitious adaptation - announced five years ago - is now “dead”.
Honkai: Star Rail version 2.0 has a release date, adding dreamy new realm Penacony to the space RPG in early February - plus some gravity-flipping traversal puzzles.
Stardew Valley update 1.6 now has all major new content in place and is in the bug-fixing and polish phase, according to developer Eric Barone.
Meme-made-real fangame Bloodborne Kart has been contacted by Sony and consequently won't be called Bloodborne Kart anymore. It's going to be delayed while its makers scrub the branding off, but it is still coming.
Dungeonborne is a dark fantasy extraction dungeon crawler in which players delve underground, fight skeletons, grab loot, and try to escape alive - or risk it all by delving deeper. It'll run an open alpha during Steam Next Fest from February 2nd until the 12th.