The Maw: what's new in PC games this week?
Space Engineers 2, The Stone Of Madness, Spider-Man 2 and maw
LiveContinuing last week's Maw merchandising roll-out, may I introduce by popular demand the first official Maw-endorsed letter opener. Now now, don't act coy! I know some of you are old enough to know what a letter opener is, or even to own one. Statistically, most of the RPS readership are Lich Lords. The Maw letter opener differs from regular letter openers in that when you open a letter with it, you will encounter not a letter but a perfect copy of yourself opening a letter in the opposite direction. The two of you must now fight to the death to decide who is the letter-opener and who is the letter. It's yours for a piffling three pints of any available body fluid, but if you don't want to buy a letter opener you can always buy one of this week's new PC games instead.
On Monday 27th January, a properly asymmetrical pairing: the 4K puncheroos of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. versus the wanton bulkhead husbandry of Space Engineers 2. On Tuesday 28th January, there's occult monastery escape sim The Stone Of Madness (pictured), cuddly critter murderer Tails Of Iron 2: Whiskers Of Winter, and the acrobatic wizardry of Eternal Strands. On Wednesday 29th January, we've got manky twilight zone shop sim Kiosk, "the first rogue builder" Cryptical Path, and one of the few, if not the first, JRPG worldmap builders, KAMiBAKO: Mythology of Cube. Oh, and Slavic village mystery The End Of The Sun, which reminds me of Everybody's Gone To The Rapture. On Thursday 30th January, there's the PC release of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 together with Sniper Elite: Resistance, Rebellion's latest WW2 headshotter, but perhaps you'd rather play Cloverfield cameraman in co-op horror frolic Headliners, or grow an underground cult in Whispers Of The Eyeless. And on Friday 31st January, it's time for dicey sci-fi RPG Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector.
Assuming you haven't been slain by some letter-opening doppelganger, you may read this list and feel the delicate vertigo of disappointment. Fine, do your own round-up. I'm not Santa Claus and it's the wrong time of year for that guy anyway. Look out for our latest live newsblog below and have a joyous week, whether it involves video games or letter openers or simply a nice walk in the park. Walks are underrated!
RAINY FRIDAY
There's a gutter somewhere in my block that goes tap-tap-tap-tap when it rains and no, it isn't irritating at all. FEED THE MAW.The Video Game History Foundation have launched their digital library - "more than 30,000 curated files (with lots more to come) of industry ephemera" including magazines, assets and more.
Mandragora: Whispers Of The Witch Tree is a side-scrolling metroidvania that looks appealingly unholy, and is out 17th April.
cpt_freakout says: Oh and I saw the announcement of this in the wild on Xitter: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3139120/THREE_VERSES/. Looks like something the tree would be into!
"Having shed your corporeal form, you must now escape purgatory by completing the simple task of delivering verses from deities to struggling poets." I'M. VIBRATING.
Come get your airships: it's an overview trailer for Lost Skies, successor to Worlds Adrift.
CLEAR THURSDAY
If only it felt as warm as it looks. FEED THE MAW.Some midweek listening for Coen fans.
Creepy monochrome dungeon crawler Repose has found a publisher in Akupara.
Here's Sniper At Work, which looks a bit like Commandos, a bit like Hitman.
SeekerX says: RPGFan tells me that on Wednesday 1/29, the "Oops all druids" Diablo-like about shape-shifting and becoming a mount for your party members Coridden will be out. After playing the demo last year, Edwin liked the idea of bringing Horsey to a co-op experience. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/coridden-is-an-action-rpg-with-shapeshifters-in-which-you-can-ride-your-friends
This was a contender for the round-up. Sadly, it's getting trickier and trickier to muster a full RPS RPG party :(
Titus Groen says: https://danielben.itch.io/dragonsweeper Dragonsweeper, a free minesweeper variant on itchio (sadly on works on desktop browsers ATM), has been eating both my time and lunch for the past week. I played for 3 hours tonight and never even realized it. Do yourself a favor and don't look up hints about the logic behind the layout of the monsters, it feels so much more rewarding when you start figuring things out! Last note: the music has no right being such a BANGER.
Got this on the go in a browser tab. "Fear the Mimic", eh? Will report back.
SUNNY WEDNESDAY
Summer surprised us, coming over Lac Célavy in a shower of rain. FEED THE MAW.Someone's already modded Doom: The Dark Ages weapons into classic Doom, via PCGN.
MARSHY TUESDAY
Aren't they always? Tuesday is the working week's Blighttown. FEED THE MAW.Invariant is a first-person shooter from Croatian team Faros Interactive in which you explore an Antarctic drilling site for munsters. Definite Thing energy, but the trailer is oddly light-hearted.
As passed on by PCGamer, Heart Machine are trying to patch Hyper Light Breaker back to goodness after some dismal early access verdicts. The latest patch takes particular aim at community feedback.
Noticed over the weekend: Hotel Galactic is a Ghibli hotel builder, out this year.
WINDY MONDAY
It's absolutely howling through the treetops round these parts. What's the weather like there? FEED THE MAW.