The Maw 29th April-4th May
This week's most magnetic game releases, plus our weekly newsblog
Live
New week, new videogames! When will it end, etc. There aren't many obvious headliners out in the next few days, but there are a lot of tantalisingly bleak games. Let's see here, we've got a survival shooter that's essentially set in Black Mesa, a sardonical adventure about questing Russian Orthodox nuns, a game about running the company that starts the zombie apocalypse, and a cosy village grower with an atypical emphasis on disease and death. Lovely!
Here are the games in question, plus a few more we have in our eye: Stardew-with-malaria Echoes Of The Plum Grove (29th April); sidescrolling cyberpunk adventure Let Bions Be Bygones (30th April); Half-Lifey open world survival FPS Abiotic Factor (early access, 2nd May); bioweapons management sim Undead Inc (2nd May); US elect 'em up The Political Machine 2024 (2nd May); alt-Russia theological fantasy Indika (2nd May); Fall-Guys-with-boids Feather Party (3rd May, early access).
As ever, this week's videogames are sponsored by that gluttonous Old One we call the Maw, which we must try eternally to satisfy with helpings of videogame news to stop it breaking into our reality like a chestburster. Will the Maw be happy with the above releases? I'm dubious - the Maw generally prefers sequels and things we can liken to The Witcher. But thankfully, I think it still has its mouth full with last week's Manor Lords, which was explosively popular over the weekend. Anyway, you can follow and, if you must, contribute to our weekly newsgatherings by means of the liveblog below, with its unsightly comments thread appendage.
Dread Delusion - King's Field: Morrowind, sort of - is out of early access on 14th May. The 1.0 build includes a new realm, the Underlands, together with new towns, dungeons, quests and endgame stuff. Here's a trailer.
Deliver Us Mars developers Keoken Interactive have laid off the majority of their staff, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz.
Yesterday's Returnal teaser was for a three-year anniversary artbook and graphic novel, the first part of which has been animated. The books are handsome creations, but I'm sure most of us were hungry for something a bit... gamier, or at least DLCier.
Manor Lords can be played in VR now. Cower before me, peasants!
Beyond Galaxyland is a lavishly pixel-arted sci-fi RPG. One of your party members is a hamster. Here's a tray-tray (trying out 'tray-tray' for trailers lmk if you like it.)
Big fan of the demon catphone in the just-trailered Centum.
A new trailer for Keylocker - "a Cyberpunk turn-based rhythm JRPG inspired by the Mario&Luigi RPG series and Chrono Trigger" - which I played a bit of a while ago and thought was fairly excellent. It's now coming in summer 2024. There's still a demo on the Steam page.
Arrowhead have not-very-subtly taken the piss out of Escape From Tarkov's $250 Unheard edition exclusive PvE mode controversy on ye socials.
SeekerX says: "the Maw generally prefers sequels" -- well, one for The Maw, then: the Front Mission 2 remaster comes out tomorrow. I wasn't totally sold on the first remaster, which was maybe a bit too faithful to the clunkiness of the original game, but I remember really liking this series by the time of FM3 and 4, so maybe #2 will be a step up?
The demo is still up on Steam if anyone's curious.
New Pals for the Palgods! They're coming in Palworld's summer update.
Vampire Survivors has a new Laborratory update, featuring such "industry-defining innovations" as "fully rendered running animations, mind-blowing train physics, go-cart racing, and... doors that open??" Read more on Steam.
Vampire Survivors - v1.10 Laborratory - Free Update Out Now on Nintendo Switch, Steam, Xbox & Mobile
Promise Mascot Agency is the new game from the Paradise Killer crew, Kaizen Game Works, who are calling it the "world's first (and best) open-world mascot management crime drama".
Starfield's Shattered Space expansion launches in the fall, as reported by Kinda Funny via VGC. According to Todd Howard, there's also a free update coming "really soon" that will have new city maps and ship-building features.
IT IS TUESDAY
Sunny blue skies in London today - we stand on the cusp of spring. The Maw gains +5 Photosynthesis and +10 Nostalgia. FEED IT.
Dungeons of Hinterberg, Zelda meets Persona in the Alps, will run a playtest next month ahead of its fresh July release date.
Game of Thrones reportedly has an MMO in the works, nearly a decade after the last one was cancelled. Its story will apparently take place around the fourth and fifth seasons of the show; or, Before It Got Bad.
As Edwin shared earlier, Moon Studios have said not to expect Ori 3 anytime soon, as the devs reckon they’ll be working on No Rest for the Wicked - "our Lord of the Rings" - for up to a decade.
Baldur’s Gate 3 companions are being modded into Stardew Valley, so you can romance Astarion all over again.
Thomas Mahler of No Rest For The Wicked devs Moon Game Studios says they'll be working on the new ARPG for another 5-10 years - as such, don't expect an Ori 3 "anytime soon".
Hold the phone, Returnal developers Housemarque are teasing something. I really liked Returnal. Pls let it not be a f2p mobile port.
Greg the Manor Lords dev is working on the game's first proper patches.
Here's a new Helldivers 2 patch. It makes some sweeping changes to the weapons and Stratagems, plus "minor level generation improvements to how we distribute locations throughout the mission map" and what's this, "shots that ricochet from heavy armored enemies will now properly hit the Helldiver who fired them"? Savage!
AARGH MONDAY
Why do they vex us so? Oh well, time to hand-crank the power armour again and buff that chainsword. FEED THE MAW.