Our weekly news liveblog, and the week’s most appetising game releases
A new week has slouched into view, and with it a slight shift inThe Maw’s terrifying visage. A new presence can be seen through the mist, perched on its shoulder, whispering tendrils of video game news nuggets into its greedy, hungry ear. The Maw appears sated, but will the distraction hold while we await the return of our news editor Edwin, whose long weekend sojourns won’t conclude until tomorrow? We pray and hope it will be satisfied in this relatively quiet week of game releases and newsy happenings, lest it turn its awful gaze upon us with a wrathful vengeance. FEED THE MAW.
Here are the games we’ve got our beady eyes on this week, at time of writing: brutal, but extremely stylish action RPGDeath Of A Wish(11th March); the Metroid-inspiredRebel Transmute(11th March); turn-based fantasy roguelikeGoblin Stone(12th March); WayForward’s newContrarun ‘n’ gunnerContra: Operation Galuga(12th March); the early access launch of beloved team-based FPSTribes 3: Rivals(12th March); retro love letter and archive projectLlamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story(13th March); I’m not sure it needs to exist, but here it is anywayStar Wars Battlefront Classic Collection(14th March);Outcast: A New Beginning(15th March).
As always, if there’s something we’ve overlooked in our weekly scouring, please do pop your suggestions and recommendations in the comments. The Maw is hungry, and welcomes all titbits of news and shiny new video game releases. Have a good week!
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
MONDAY HAS ARISEN
–Katharine Castle
–Katharine Castle
The Overwatch 2 x Cowboy Beebop skins thatGraham posted about last weekgot a second trailer, where you can see them in more detail.
–Alice Bell
Someone let Ernest Cline attempt a metaverse, starting with some sort of multi-IP Fortnite clone called Open,and I am heated. They allege it is coming to early access as part of the Readyverse, which was previously announced aslaunching this year.
–Alice Bell
Final Fantasy 16’s PC release sounds pretty close, with a demo first so you can test its “somewhat high” specs.
–Matt Jarvis
The Finals’ Season 2 brings hacker powers, a 5v5 mode, a new map and more to the multiplayer shooterlater this week.
–Matt Jarvis
–Matt Jarvis
Destiny 2 is crossing over with Ghostbusters next week, complete with a Slimer Ghost and Echo-1 (and a horny Sparrow).
–Matt Jarvis
WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE TUESDAY
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Forza’s bigprogression system overhaulgoes live today.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Also out today:Death Trick: Double Blind, a lavish-looking visual novel in which you are a magician who is also a private eye, investigating a murder in a travelling circus.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A new extended trailer for space strategy sim Falling Frontier, which I continue to think looks very swish.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
We’ve also been emailed about this cute little puzzle game, originally on Switch, that’s coming to PC on the 24th of April.Tents And Treesis sort of a twist on picross featuring little tents. And little trees. I played the demo and enjoyed it - it’s clean and extremely easy to play.
–Alice Bell
A long, interestingYoutuber chatfeaturing Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt in which we learn about how exactly Helldivers 2 handles stealth - which is to say, it technically doesn’t. Rather, stealth exists simply because “everything has to make sense”.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The new edition of Monster Hunter Stories hits Steam on 14th June.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
AHelldivers 2 patchappears! Better shoot it.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Botanica is a 2D platformer from a young indie team with visuals reminscent of LocoRoco.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Settlers-alike Pioneers Of Pagonia has received itsfirst major patch, which adds a fisher hut, warehouse, unit and production statistics, and much more besides.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Katharine Castle
Tribes 3: Rivalsentered Steam Early Accesstoday, with a roadmap of updates for the next several months which includes new maps and weapons. Is it really Tribes if you can’t fly a Shrike, though?
–Graham Smith
Starbreeze have parted ways with their CEO, six months afterthe disastrous launch of Payday 3. The board say they felt new leadership was required, and have appointed the former CEO of Focus Home Interactive as interim CEO.
–Graham Smith
TopSpin 2K25 has anApril 26th release dateand will feature all four grand slams, famous tennis arenas, and pros past and present including Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Andre Agassi.
–Graham Smith
Yellow Taxi Goes Vroomlaunches on April 9th and looks utterly delightful. It’s a Nintendo 64 throwback platformer-collectathon, but there’s no jump button, because you’re a car. You can play a demo now.
–Graham Smith
WEDNESDAY IT IS
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Magic stealth simEreban: Shadow Legacyhas a Steam and Epic Games Store release date - 10th April. I’ve not come across this one before and the trailer seems a bit good.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
In a truly horrendous assault on the nerves of videogames news editors worldwide, ConcernedApe is tweeting one line from the Stardew Valley update 1.6 patch notes a day.
I’ll post a random non-spoilery patch note line each day until the 19thpic.twitter.com/shQyIcGhMW
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As passed on byGamesradar, Ghost Ship Games would like to collaborate with Arrowhead on some kind of Helldivers X Deep Rock Galactic crossover. Dwarves know a thing or two about clearing out bugholes.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Emptyvesselare a new team “who specialize in the immersive shooter space”. Staff credits include Doom, Borderlands and Call Of Duty.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
You’ll soon be able to make games that can be played directly on Discord as embedded apps.Here’s the official blog with more.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Nobody Wants To Dieis my kind of high-end cyber-bullshit.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
In Nif Nif you are a piglet who uses cards and… soup to… clean… animals in… turn-based battles and - yep, there goes the last of today’s functioning neurones. It’s for the Young People and seems sweet. Here’s the announcement trailer.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Sea Of Stars isgetting three-player couch co-op.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Vindictus: Defying Fate’s public pre-alpha test goes live on Steam today - find out more on the game’sDiscord server.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s the full early access roadmap for fantasy survival game Enshrouded, viaSteam.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Matt Jarvis
Need to catch up with Final Fantasy 14 before Dawntrail? Best start now:there won’t be a free way to skip its story anytime soon, according to producer-director Yoshi-P.
–Matt Jarvis
Vampire survival game V Rising sinks its teeth intoa full-blooded 1.0 release this May, exiting early access after two years.
–Matt Jarvis
–Matt Jarvis
THURSDAY AGAIN
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The Maw appreciates your offerings! Here’s a trailer for the Steam sale.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Fresh nooze about Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown’s DLC! The first of three free updates arrives next week, and there’s story DLC in the works too.
Exciting news for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown! 🎉Three free updates and one story DLC are on the horizon in the coming months.📆 The first update arrives on March 20!What upcoming feature are you most excited about: speedrun mode, boss rush, or new challenges?pic.twitter.com/Rc0uhD0WGX
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
PCGhas a piece onthe Steam revival of Fancy Pants Adventures, a Flash game I wrote up for an AOL gaming blog many moons ago. Long live Flash!
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection isavailable now on Steam. It gives you the first two Pandemic games and whoops, it’s got a Mostly Negative user review consensus, with criticism centring on a shortage of servers.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Granblue Fantasy: Relink has abig new updatewhich adds a new quest, amongst other things.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Katharine Castle
–Katharine Castle
–Katharine Castle
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver, the sequel to2064: Read Only Memories, finally has a definitely for real release date: it will be arriving on Steam on May 16th, and here’s a new trailer to celebrate:
–Katharine Castle
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Arrowhead have added bug-gassing missions to Helldivers 2.
Breaking: Helldivers To Permanently Contain Bugs#StrohmannNewspic.twitter.com/QLRQbtQxov
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A new trailer forrevived MOBA Giganticcovers some of the upcoming maps you’ll be playing when it comes to Steam on April 9th:
–Katharine Castle
A new trailer for insectile RTS Empire Of The Ants. Explore, strategize, confront and… engage in diplomacy? How does ant diplomacy work, then?
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A surprise helping of Frictional, passed onto me by Katharine earlier! In this 40 minute video, Thomas Grip breaks down the difficult development of thewell-good, ocean horror Soma.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As mentioned earlier today, theSteam spring sale is now underway. Is that exciting?
–Graham Smith
Epic’s spring saleis also underway, running from today until March 28th. More interestingly, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is free to keep if you grab it before the 21st.
–Graham Smith
RimWorld is getting a new expansion and its first major update in a year. The DLC, Anomaly, will addhorror-inspired scenarios featuring parasites and fleshbeastsand is due out in one month. The patch, 1.5, is available via an unstable beta branch now.
–Graham Smith
Final Factory, which transposes Factorio’s moreish efficiency-chasing construction sim to the far reaches of deep space, willlaunch in Early Access on April 9th.
–Graham Smith
Not to be outdone by Namco employing Brian Cox to explain Tekken, Capcom have tapped Ian McShane to explain Dragon’s Dogma 2. The video should go live in about 20 minutes below:
–Graham Smith
FRIDAY FINALLY
FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Arctic Eggsis a downbeat frying pan simulator - been a while since we played one of those! Thanks to Quintin Smith (RPS in peace) for mentioning it on the Twits.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Saber have confirmed that Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando and Jurassic Park: Survival are still in the works, following Embracer’s sale of the company to Beacon Interactive.
I have received a lot of questions concerning the status of some of our previously announced projects now that Saber has separated from Embracer. I’m happy to confirm we’re still working on a number of titles, including Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, John Carpenter’s Toxic…pic.twitter.com/s063LxKz0X
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s a trailer for Palworld’s first raid boss, Bellanoir.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Aspyr haveapologisedfor yesterday’s rocky Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection release. “At launch, we experienced critical errors with our network infrastructure,” reads a statement. “The result was incredibly high ping, matchmaking errors, crashes, and servers not appearing in the browser.”
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Some bouncy new footage of Exo One developer Jay Weston’s vehicular follow-up,Exo Rally.
new gameplay on planet Tensei for my sci-fi rally game! It features lower gravity than Earth and higher atmospheric drag, plus deep salt deposits, so you want to actively search for exposed rock to keep your speed up. And if you’re sinking you can use thrusters to help you out!…pic.twitter.com/WsCYBB45VV
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A new trailer for Commandos: Origins, Kalypso’s remake of the squad tactics classic.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Somebody’s just mailed me about South Pole Bebop, which is Into The Breach with penguins, zombies and cards - the classic combo. Here’s a trailer.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Matt Jarvis
Trying to emulate Hollywood movie soundtracks is holding video game music back, says Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu (and surprise, surprise, he doesn’t think soulless AI can write a decent score, either).
–Matt Jarvis
Fry bacon, sausages and cigarettes to escape an Antarctica where eggs are illegal in surreal sci-fi cook-’em-up Arctic Eggs, as shared by Edwin earlier today.
–Matt Jarvis
Stardew Valley’s creator Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone hasconfirmed the long-held rumour that harvesting in a certain direction is faster- but the almost decade-old bug won’t remain for long, as a fix is finally due in next week’s 1.6 update.
–Matt Jarvis
