The Maw - 28th May-1st June 2024
This week's least discouraging game releases, plus our weekly newsblog
Live
At intervals in our relentless battles with the Maw, we lose people. Sometimes, it's because those people have succeeded in levelling up out of games journalism, or found their way into another echelon of the craft. Other times, the losses are more abrupt and arbitrary. In each case, one short term response is intensification. Those of us who remain must be rockier, paperier and more shotgun than ever before. With that in mind, here are this (four-day) week's new PC games of note.
28th May brings a welcome dose of calm in the shape of Populousy god sim Reus 2, in which you are a bunch of feelgood chthonic monsters tending to a 2D planet. On the 29th May, there's a couple of turn-based tactics games - Capes, which features superheroes, and Trash Of The Titans, which features racoons (Nic: "pop this in ur maw roundup it looks exquisite"). They're joined by Nine Sols, a Sekiro-inspired metroidvania from the developers of horror game all-timer Devotion.
On the 30th, we've got Skald: Against The Black Priory, a party-based CRPG which has been recommended to me by both journalists and developers, and [ECHOSTASIS], a mind-diving sci-fi FPS puzzle extravaganza with a corroded CRT aesthetic so swish I'm willing to forgive the dizzy parenthetical all-caps title. Closing us out on the 31st, there's the early access release of Selaco, an original shooter created in GZDoom, which has won the enthusiasm of no less a sinful icon than John Romero.
As ever, you can follow our efforts to report the news and appease the Maw in the below weeklong liveblog, and recommend games or topics for coverage in the comments thread that dangles from this post like a Barnacle's tongue. Have a good week all and best of luck to James Gournalists everywhere.
Manor Lords first major patch is out now on the main branch. Edwin wrote about what it contains earlier this month when it entered beta.
IGN report that Take-Two are planning on killing or selling Private Division. Private Division is their indie publishing label, and the umbrella underwhich Kerbal 2 developers Intercept Games and OlliOlli developers Roll7 sit under. Both of those studios are reportedly experiencing layoffs and expected closure.
Wildermyth's developers say they're done with the project after the release of the Omenroad DLC earlier this month, and have no plans for a sequel or new project. As such, they're putting the company into hibernation.
Wolcen: Lords Of Mayhem, an action RPG which was a brief hit back in 2020, will no longer be updated and its multiplayer will cease functioning this September.
Nightmare Kart, the freeware PSX demake racing game formerly known as Bloodborne Kart, is out now after its lawyer-prompted delay.
I haven't embedded any music in a while. Let's finish the day with a banger.
Just a quick Friday night note to say thanks everybody for sticking with us during a rough-and-tumble week of On-going Business Developments and associated absences. A couple of us are taking much-needed holiday next week but I'll be around stinking the place up till Thursday, when (eek) I get on a plane to Summer Games Fest.
Little Nightmares 3 has been shoved back to 2025, as announced by Supermassive Games on the Xitterweb. Watch out, GTA 6.
Playdate recently recovered over $400,000 worth of stolen handhelds, "hastily dumped at a random restaurant this morning."
Mech sequel Daemon X Machina Titanic Scion got announced
A couple of new trailers for Bloober's Silent Hill 2 remake, which launches on 8th October. Here's the Steam link
God of War Ragnarök has been announced for PC - here's the Steam link, which amusingly abbreviates it to Ragnark. Kratos certainly looks pretty ragnarked in the screens.
WE HAVEN'T ACTUALLY WRITTEN RULES FOR FRIDAY YET. UH, PLAY SNAP FOR THE WINNER?
Feel free to design them in the commentsIf you've still got enough faith in the future of the Silent Hill series to stay up around midnight UK time for a reveal, you can find Konami's Silent Hill transmission stream below. It goes live in about nine hours
EDIT: Sure hope there's some sweet tray-trays! We love a good tray-tray here at the Maw!
If you need something cosy, Dear Villagers has just signed Caravan SandWitch, a "hopeful post-apocalypse" game set in a "Florence-like world" in which you are a bright-eyed sort who drives a chubby yellow minivan and is looking for their lost sister. Here's the tray-tray (© Nic Reuben).
We're late to the party with Master Key, but if you like Zelda puzzles and hate colours, this seems like it'll appeal.
SNAKE EYES - DRAW A LOATHING CARD, MOVE TO THURSDAY
MAW THE FEED. WAIT. NO. FEED THE MAW!No Man’s Sky Adrift update leaves you completely alone in its universe, except for sandworms and ghost ships. No shops or shortcuts means it’ll be a new survival challenge, too.
Theme Hospital-like inn sim Tavern Keeper puts you in charge of a pub for fantasy adventurers straight out of D&D. It looks extremely charming, and it'll hit early access later this year after a decade (!) in the works.
PlayStation VR2 PC adapter certification has surfaced in South Korea, marking one more step towards official support for the PS5 headset after Sony revealed they were testing compatibility for “accessing additional games on PC” earlier this year.
Ex-Forza Horizon devs and Skins co-creator want you to ‘fall in love with’ the characters in their story-led open-world driving game, newly announced to have Amazon in the driving seat (passenger seat? backseat? boot? apply the most suitable car metaphor as required) as publisher.
Amnesia devs Frictional are hosting an escape room mod jam using their HPL engine, running from June 28th until August 28th. Pls can somebody make me a mod that turns the Bunker into a chatroom?
Blackbird have shared more plans for updating Homeworld 3 - they include less "claustrophobic" maps (apparently some players have been finding the new emphasis on astral terrain a bit stifling), mod tools and hyperspace jumping in Skirmish, which will allow you to dunk your fleet right in the middle of the other side's resourcing operation."
Steam may soon get video clip recording, according to the creator of SteamDB.
ROLL A ONE, ADVANCE TO WEDNESDAY
Today a few of us are meeting the New Bosses to discuss how we might in future FEED THE MAW. As such, there'll be fewer updates, but you'd best believe if somebody surprise-reveals (e.g.) a Warzone 2100 homage or a G-Police reboot there is no power under heaven or earth that will keep me from firing up the CMS.Theme park toolkit Planet Coaster is 95% off on Steam right now - that's one pound entire fifty in britnuggets. You'll likely never create anything as wonderful as the below ALIENS ride, but at that price, not much harm in trying
Halfbeliever says: Rogue Prince of Persia released in early access yesterday. It looks rad, I will probably buy itAck, we were too busy bank-holidaying in the UK to write it up!
PCGamesN points us toward a free prologue for Strong Fortress, a jolly-looking wave-defence top-down shooter that reminds me of the posher Flash games I used to write about in the late noughties.
"Quad-A" galleon-smasher Skull And Bones is going free for a week from 30th May to 6th June via Ubisoft Connect and Epic. Our reviewer Ed Thorn was less than wowed, and I'm not sure I'll be taking the plunge even at those seabottom-prices, but I did find the opening area oddly captivating.
Konami are doing a Silent Hill livestream on 30th May, replete with both "game updates" and "new merch".
Black Ops 6 is very much a Black Ops game, going by this hectic conspiracy theorist trailer, which lends credence to the rumour that the new shooter is set during the first Gulf War. CW for Thatcher cameo.
Repose is a first-person dungeon-crawler made up of static, black-and-white backdrops which looks exceedingly Mood. Alice0 mentioned it in a Screenshot Saturday Mondays round-up a little while back, but it's news to me.
ROLL A SIX, JUMP ONE SQUARE TO TUESDAY
The creature froths and fulminates! FEED THE MAW.