As New Year's Day dawns, the bells ring out from the steeples of old London town. The peals of celebration travel outward through our atmosphere, exiting the realm of Earthly sound and resonating with interstellar plasma and detritus to form a delicate ripple of comet flakes and stray photons, expanding far beyond our solar system. Where the ripple encounters larger masses, such as planets, suns and... other things, it rebounds, riding the weft of stardust back down to Earth. As it returns home, the signal is modified. Tinkered with. It acquires unsettling harmonics and a guttural undertow. By the time it re-enters our atmosphere, it has condensed to three words, which descend and shrink and spiral into your ear like an octopus entering a crevice: FEED THE MAW.
We start Monday 6th January with the release of Project Tower, a third-person shooter with a transformation mechanic and probably some towers. Tuesday 7th January brings Pinball Storm: Lokanta, which is one of those Vampire Survivory roguelikes 'with a twist' - in this case, all the abilities are pinball-based. It's accompanied by Chocolate Factory Simulator, which isn't just a chocolate factory simulator, but a steampunk chocolate factory simulator. On Wednesday 8th January - well, what do you think you do in Builders Of Egypt? On Thursday 9th January, there's Reviver, a hand-drawn "narrative puzzle game with themes of love, fate and time", and S4U: CITYPUNK 2011 AND LOVE PUNCH, "a modern adventure of young adults seeking love and meaning", partly told through a desktop interface. Too much love? Play Cruel instead. It's a throwback Nuke Duker with chainsaws, vending machines and door-kicking.
This is still the quiet time of year, but there are a few events of note this week. One is the Consumer Electronics Show, aka CES, which kicks off tonight in Las Vegas. A quick glance at the web page reveals an eldritch specimen of air purifier. Perhaps it plays Crysis. There's also Awesome Games Done Quick, the annual speedrunning tournament - here's Brendy's rundown of the saxophone-based wonderment in store. Find our first weekly newsblog of 2025 below, served in the traditional style with a comments thread garnish for your news tips and game recommendations. Hope it's a good week, wherever you are!
As reported by Gamesradar, Remedy are aiming for a lower minimum spec with multiplayer spin-off FBC: Firebreak than with Control and Alan Wake 2, to ensure more people can play it.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As announced on consimworld and passed on by PCGamer, Alan Emrich, the game designer and writer who is credited with coining the term "4X", has died.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
OMEGA 6 The Triangle Stars is a 16-bit-styled adventure with RPG elements based on a manga by former Nintendo art director Takaya Imamura.
— Transformers: Reactivate | DpzLuna (@DpzLuna) January 8, 2025
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– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Continuing today's apparent anime game fixation, False Princess Iruruu is a 2D pixelart action game with a heavy emphasis on deflection, which takes inspiration from Sekiro.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Spell Fragments is a wizardly third-person blaster in which, as the name suggests, you combine bits of magic to make your own spells as you explore dungeons.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Doloc Town is a side-scrolling pixelart farm builder with combat, set in a post-apocalyptic world. Think Rune Factory meets Scrapyard Zone. It's got a nice converted shipping container aesthetic. There's a demo.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
FIE-DAY
May your cup be as unto a sieve, you ale-soused apple john! FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Chocolate Factory Simulator is out on Steam. It's all Steampunky. I worked in an actual chocolate factory once. It was less magical than I'd anticipated.
As reported by Eurogamer, there's an Xbox Developer Direct coming on 23rd January with details of Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and an unknown fourth game.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here's a comprehensive interview with Ken Levine about all his big games in sequence. It's a predictably classy Jeremy Peel endeavour, taken from Edge's Collected Works series, via Gamesradar. I wrote a couple of these as an Edge freelancer. Given a talkative interviewee, they are very relaxing to do, because the only question you ask is "what about [next game on creator's Wikipedia page]?"
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As expected, I discovered a bunch of intriguing games by reading your comments on yesterday's 2025 most anticipated list. Thanks to TheGreatOneSea for mentioning Era One, a lustrous Homeworld homage in which you can clip together spaceships in flight, out February 2025.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Open world pixelart fishing RPG Sea Fantasy is out now and seems quite zesty. It's somehow both "peaceful" and apocalyptic.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Did you play the Witcher 3 quest "In the Eternal Fire's Shadow" added by the 2022 "next gen" update? Apparently it was the perfect prep for working on Witcher 4. Thank you, Percy Gamer.
2 years ago we released a new quest for The Witcher 3. New designers and writers worked on it preparing for the Witcher 4, together with one of our most senior quest designers, who is with us since the Witcher 1. All in all, it was the perfect start to getting back into the vibe. pic.twitter.com/VCpQ5UpLjZ
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– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Minecraft's forest biomes are getting falling leaves and leaf litter, together with wildflowers and new, warm and cold varieties of pig. Genuinely, I consider leaf litter a game-changer. Please let us kick up big cascades of leaves next.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Dwarf Fortress Steam Edition's Adventure Mode will launch out of beta on 23rd January. Here's the launch changelog.
UK studio Splash Damage are bracing to lay off staff after cancelling a game project, Transformers: Reactivate. No reason for the cancellation is given in the post, beyond this being a "difficult time" for the Gears Tactics developers.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
THURSDAY AND TOM WALKER
Ooft, bit on the obscure side. FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
jamhandy says: The Maw might be briefly appeased by the latest from Neal Agrawal over at neal.fun (creator of Infitine Craft, I believe), Stimulation Clicker. I just played it through to the end - always nice when a clicker game actually ends - and now I think I need to spend a day or so in a sensory deprivation tank.
Uncle Ubisoft have blogged about the Assassin's Creed Shadows control scheme and movesets, exploring the addition of dodge mechanics and prone to the parkour system. Ta, Eurogamer.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Jar of Sparks, the studio founded in 2022 by former Halo Infinite lead Jerry Hook with backing from NetEase, are suspending development of their debut game while they look for new funding. "As we prepare for this next step, our talented team members will be exploring new opportunities," reads a post on LinkedIn. I'm not clear whether this means people are leaving or they're laying people off, with all that entails in terms of severance and so forth.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
HOLY WEDNESDAYS, BATMAN
Do we look like page one dumbbells! FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here's a trailer for a documentary about the George Romero Resident Evil film that never was.
Eurogamer are reporting a small round of layoffs at Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League developers Rocksteady. They took place right at the end of 2024, apparently.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here's some older Exodus concept art from 2019, showing how time dilation and the passage of history might work in the sci-fi RPG, with players able to visit the same places in different eras.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Threefold Recital is a 2D adventure with platforming elements, set in "a fantastical Eastern world where humans, monsters, and dragons coexist". Expect furries, Taoism, ancient technology, and references to the likes of Ace Attorney. It's out 14th January.
The next Like a Dragon Direct from RGG will air on January 9, 2025 at 5PM GMT / 6PM CEST on YouTube, and it'll have some more details about Majima's pirate escapades.
– Nic Reuben
I have a sneaking suspicion one of us has covered, or at least mentioned this before, but Syntaxia is a side-scrolling horror puzzler where you can literally rewrite reality as in Baba Is You.
The developer of promising horror strategy game Anoxia Station has blogged about their efforts. "Honestly, sometimes I think I've gone mad for deciding to make a strategy game in Game Maker," it reads. "Although I love this engine for its flexibility and the ability to implement almost any idea, there are almost no examples of successful strategy games. The only one that comes to mind is Norland. But our games and teams are completely different. Anoxia Station is much more chamber-focused."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Marvel Rivals season 1 is underway. Here's what's in store. Spoilers: Dracula being naughty.
NVIDIA have announced the GeForce RTX 50 series of graphics cards and laptops, alongside DLSS 4 upscaling, Reflex 2 latency-reducing tech, and a whole lot of "AI" gubbins. Click here for some VERY EXCITING GRAPHICSABILITY and screenshot comparisons.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Acer have revealed a new handheld gaming PC, the Nitro Blaze 11, which has a 10.95-inch screen. Makes the Steam Deck look like a postage stamp.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
TUESDARNATION
Thanks, I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze. FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Just heard about The Deadly Path, a card game dungeon-builder that's an absolute feast of production timers. I like the cut of its giblets, though I'm not sure about the comedic tone of the trailers.
Tackle For Loss is Hotline Miami, but you're an American football player subject to violent delusions.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Weirdo RPG Off from Belgian developer Mortis Ghost is getting a Steam revamp, which includes an English translation. The original was a big influence on Undertale, I understand. "This definitive version features an all-new battle system, balancing improvements, as well as new areas and hidden bosses," explains the press release.
Sonic Galactic is a splendiferous Sonic fangame that could easily be an official Mega Drive or Sega CD outing.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Also as reported by PCGamer, Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt recently posted on X that games shouldn't make "contemporary political statements", later clarifying that he meant anything "outside the theme of the game", and adding that Helldivers 2 is inspired by "cold war/Bush-era politics". Notwithstanding the follow-up posts, it's all a bit "keep politics out of games".
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As passed on by PCGamer, Zach-like automation puzzler ABI-DOS is now free. It's about building an operating system using a fictional computing language. It's apparently packing 50 hours of play.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
We are experimenting with less labour-intensive kinds of image header for the Maw. There's only so many times I can type words like "chimera" into the Wikicommons search field and come away with a usable result.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
MONDAGNABIT
This week's daily puns are all about curious oaths and exclamations. FEED THE MAW.
