The Maw - 3rd-9th June
This week's most auspicious game releases, plus our weekly news liveblog
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This week is the week of Summer Game Fest 2024. Ah, SGF! The Geoffers, as they call it down Los Angeles way. The Not-E3s. The Midsomer Keighleys. Jumping G.K's Game-a-Palooza. The AAAArghs. The Second Fall Of Babel. Trailarmageddon. The Sparkling Stink. SGF is sort of already in motion - last week, Sony kicked off the proceedings with their latest State of Play showcase, but you can expect the majority of new videogame announcements from Friday 7th June with the Summer Game Fest 2024 Opening Showcase, a two-hour livestreamed event which starts at 10pm UK, 5pm ET and 2pm PT. I'll be out there covering the whole sorry affair in LA from Thursday to Monday while the remainder of Rock Paper Shotgun hold the fort on London time.
It's a period of frightful bounty for the Maw, our resident Hadean icon of videogame news consumption. Look forward to trailers, celeb cameos, surprise demo releases, around a million hours of interlude music, and hands-on impressions fresh from the creaking furnace chambers of my jetlagged brain. Still, SGF isn't All She Wrote this week. A few brave developers and publishers are releasing new games alongside the event, like individual rockets plunging into Uncle Geoff's Fervid Fireworks Show. Here are a few that have caught our eyes.
Monday 3rd June sees the release of Elder Scrolls Online's Gold Road expansion, which Katharine (RPS in peace) considers a solid gateway drug to MMOs in general, together with lurid 90s room-escaper Tamarindos Freaking Dinner, in which you deliver pizza to a mansion full of Tim Burton-esque munsters. On Tuesday 4th June, there's Destiny 2's Final Shape expansion, a project whose success or lack thereof will reportedly determine whether Sony mounts a full takeover of Bungie, together with a pair of fairly handsome strategy games, Songs Of Silence (which looks a bit like a deck of Tarot cards) and Field Of Glory: Kingdoms (which looks a bit like a medieval manuscript). There's also asymmetrical horror outing Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, which Nic will be upset if I don't mention. Wednesday 6th June sees the release of Chornobyl Liquidators, which is "not a fantastic tale of exploring the Zone" but "a story about real people facing a real threat", and Kristala, a Soulslike with a touch of Robin Jarvis. And on 7th June, finally, the "deceptively cute" (aren't they always?) factory sim Star Stuff.
As ever, let me know if we've missed anything I would feel deeply embarrassed about missing, and enjoy the week. You can follow our routine news coverage in the liveblog below, which I'm going to extend into Sunday so you can follow the deterioration of my writing abilities in real-time. Onward, to SGF! Keighley & Friends! The Endless June! The Geoffervescent Circus!
Lost And Found Co. is a delightful, animated hidden object adventure in the Where's Wally/Waldo mode, and there's a demo to play now.
The Finals' third season takes players to 16th-century Kyoto and adds katanas, bows and Scorpion-from-Mortal-Kombat's big get-over-here chain on June 13th.
The Wholesome Direct 2024 showcase happened with dozens of delightful, colourful games to peruse.
Opening Summer Geoff Fest, Lego Horizon Adventures follows Forbidden West with a co-op spin-off - and we won’t have to wait for it on PC.
Dusk publisher New Blood have shelled out the big, based bucks for this downtown L.A.billboard tribute to some of the studios shuttered recently:
FOR FRIDAY!
I did it all for the Friday! The Friday! So you can take that tray-tray, and shove it in the Maw! Shove it in the Maw! Shove it in the Maw!Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League failed for all the reasons you guessed it failed, a new report says.
And here's a full post about Dragon Age 4 getting a name that reflects its protagonists, not an antagonist.
Here's a full post on the new games coming to Game Pass in June.
COR, THURSDAY!
Shine your shoes for a Maw-worthy news nugget, guvna?Polyaris might be the first dedicated survival skiing game. Can a polar bear outrun a skier? Can polar bears ski? Pressing questions to which I currently have no answer.
ICYMI: Baldur’s Gate 3 will add official mod tools this September, making it even easier to play dungeon master.
The Last of Us Part II will reportedly follow Part 1 onto PC, but potentially not until next year - development apparently finished months ago, according to reliable leaker Billbil-kun, suggesting it might wait until the next season of the HBO show in 2025.
Fucksweeper is not Minesweeper, not just porn, and not safe for work. "UNEMPLOYED ADULTS ONLY (25+)"
Sony has official unveiled its PlayStation VR2 PC adapter with a release date, price and confirmation of SteamVR compatibility, but a lot of the headset's best features won’t work on PC - raising the question of whether it's worth the price if you don't already own one.
Summer Game Fest may not be abundant in Big New Game Announcements but it will at least give us more of Slitterhead, the horror-me-do from Bokeh and erstwhile Silent Hill, Siren and Gravity Rush developer Keiichiro Toyama.
As Edwin mentioned earlier, Dead by Daylight makers Behaviour are laying off nearly 100 staff - months after cutting almost 50 devs - as part of what they're calling “strategic changes for future growth”.
Warden's Will is a flippy-divey third-person shooter with roguelite and bullet hell elements. It's got a demo live for Steam Next Fest.
Baltic Folk is about managing a pub for forest gods. Forget the brews - what flavours of overpriced gastro-crisp would you serve?
Hades 2 done got patched again. This one's pretty comprehensive - I fear I must summon the dark god Brendy to make sense of it.
Bungie have apologised for connection issues that are preventing Destiny 2 players getting their fill of The Final Shape expansion. The responses to the tweet below dig into a few of the problems they've encountered and fixed.
SORE WEDNESDAY
Good lord, we didn't feed the Maw much yesterday. I guess that explains all the colliding moons directly over my flat. (We are of course a bit understaffed right now and given that we're about to pack the Maw full of SGF announcements, I hope you'll forgive us a quiet spell before the plunge.)Lemming-alike puzzler Humanity is on Game Pass. This ranks pretty highly on my backlog of shame. Backlog of shame? Backlog of ripening in the fullness of time, more like. My backlog is so ripe I'm pretty sure it's alcoholic. Anyway! Humanity is on Game Pass!
Just Cause developers Avalanche have announced 50 layoffs and the closure of two studios, encompassing roughly 9% of their workforce.
LORE TUESDAY
To the archives! I have mislaid the operations manual for the Journaballistic Whisk. FEED THE MAW.Super VHS looks fun.
One we missed from last week: you can now play the original text adventure prototype for Outer Wilds in a browser.
Take-Two are reportedly about to sell off or close their Private Division label, whose publishing projects include Moon Studios' No Rest for the Wicked and Wētā Workshop's Tales of the Shire.
Here's a demo for Hollowbody, "a tech-noir survival horror" from Chasing Static developers Headware Games, whose influences include Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner Silent Hill, Kuon and Haunting Ground.
Baldur's Gate 3's official modding tools land in September alongside the game's next major update.
Megacopter is a satirical sci-fantasy homage to EA's old Desert Strike games. I've played the demo and there's much to like.
MAW MONDAY
Let's get this party started. FEED IT.