The Maw - 13th-17th May 2024 | rockpapershotgunz

This week’s most splendiferous game releases, plus our weekly newsblog

Some fresh astral god trivia from my accidental molar expedition a few weeks back: each of the Maw’s teeth is different. Some form a fractal baleen network of crosshatched layers disappearing backward into the vanishing point; others are shaped like lockpicks, raccoon heads and semi-detached houses. This week’s new game releases are no less motley and misshapen, though thankfully not quite as heavily varnished with plaque: there’s something in the shop for everyone, I think.

Today, the 13th May, we open withHomeworld 3, the long-awaited space strategy-me-dowhich Nic has already reviewed and is broadly fond of. It’s gracefully accompanied byThe Land Beneath Us, a turn-based rogue-lite dungeon crawler in which you tunnel into an underworld inspired by Welsh mythology. 14th May bringsAthenian Rhapsody, which brazenly describes itself as “a souls-like platonic dating simulator with cooking-mama and WarioWare style battle mechanics”. On the 15th, there’s android-bisecting boomer shooting fromMullet Madjack, period RTSing fromMen Of War 2, and Paper Mario-ish choose-your-own adventuring fromBaladins.

Not a bad showing, I reckon! I’ll be off on an Exciting Press Trip from Thursday morning - amongst other things, I’m attending the latest Digital Dragons conference in Poland. As ever, you can follow our increasingly baffled and self-defeating attempts at journalism in the liveblog below, and we welcome suggestions in the comments about games or events we’ve missed.

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Seablip is a pixel art pirate ‘em up that’sout now in Early Access. Looks cute!

–Graham Smith

There’s now atrailer for the Dead Cells animated series, which debuts in France this summer. (It’ll arrive in English later this year, but there are subtitles for now.)

–Graham Smith

The next Call Of Duty willlaunch on Game Pass on day one, according to anonymous sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.

–Graham Smith

Redfall is gettingone final update after all, despite the closure of Arkane Austin. It’ll add an offline mode and a singleplayer pause function.

–Graham Smith

Death In Abyssis a PS1-looking 3D flight sim inspired by Devil Daggers in which your ship reverses by doing the backstroke. Very enthused about that teaser video. Fairly wowed by the developer’sprevious creations, too.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Fortnite’s next video game crossover is with Fallout, teasing an incoming collab for next season Wrecked when it arrives in exactly one week’s time.

–Matt Jarvis

Looks like Valve’s next game is Deadlock,a multiplayer shooter-MOBA mix of Overwatch, Dota and Team Fortress, as screenshots and details leak out of a closed playtest.

–Matt Jarvis

Activision have unveiled a new studio working on an original ‘narrative AAA franchise’, days after corporate parent Microsoft shut down the devs behind the likes of narrative-driven games like Prey, The Evil Within and Tokyo: Ghostwire.

–Matt Jarvis

–Nic Reuben

SteamWorld Heist II just got a new trailer - it’s a ‘Story Deep Dive’ this time.

–Nic Reuben

Artist Corey Brickley hasput together a list of modsdesigned to turn Dragon Age: Inquisition into a limber 40 hour experience with minimal faff and grind. I loved that game, but I also had to review it in three days, and you’d best believe I would have liked it to be shorter and more story-focussed.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

The 1.0 launch trailer for Wantless, another cpt_freakout spot. It’s a turn-based tactics game in which you are a magic doctor who travels inside each patient’s mind to battle their delusions. A wrinkle fromthe Steam page: “you start your turn with 8 Action points but spending one grants it to each enemy. The more you act, the more your opponents will react!” Sounds promising.Wantless | Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Take-Two haven’t actually closed Intercept Games or Roll7,accordingto CEO Strauss Zelnick. “We’ve announced that we’re saving $165 million in existing and future costs, but we haven’t shuttered anything.” That’s despitean earlier WARN notice filed in Washingtonwhich attributes 70 Take-Two layoffs in Seattle to a “closure”.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Two-thirds of the way through thisbillowing, insubstantial accountof what Embracer spin-off Middle-Earth Enterprises & Friends are doing with Lord Of The Rings, we learn that Embracer Freemode CEO Lee Guinchard is “testing a concept AI character aging generator and other tools that might enable both players and game developers to generate depth to the world. He has an internal tool called Ask Gandalf.” Hahahaha. If Embracer existed in Middle-earth, Sauron and all the other races would have allied against them.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

An update from the Ubisofties: Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t an always-online game, though you’ll need internet to install it.

An update from the team on Assassin’s Creed Shadows.pic.twitter.com/PTY9TXSiEo

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

BE RELIEVED FOR FRIDAY

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

As cpt_freakout notes,Arctic Eggs is out today. It’s a freaky frying pan simulator that is counter-intuitively set in Antarctica. Eggs aside, you can fry bullets, cigarettes, bottles of beer and what I think are pufferfish. That frying pan is clearly a distant cousin of the Maw.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Amplitude’s rather excellent 4X Endless Legend isfree on Steamtill 23rd May. Here’s what Adam Smith (RPS in BG3)said about it back in the day: “Legend feels like an experiment, and it’s a supremely confident and engaging one that doesn’t quite fit pre-existing templates. It’s a 4x game, sure, but it’s a not a high or low fantasy one. It’s weird fantasy and the weird cuts through to the playstyles as well as the art and fiction.”

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

PREDICTABLY, THURSDAY HAS HAPPENED.

–Nic Reuben

Ubisoft have quietly “stopped development” on looter shooter The Division Heartland, according toan earnings report from the company. They’ve done this, they say, to focus the resources on “bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.” Xdefiant is scheduled to come out this month and looks…fine?

–Brendan Caldwell

Ghost of Tsushima’s PSN login requirement will stop you playing multiplayer on Steam Deck(it’ll technically be “Unsupported”), with cross-play in beta at launch.

–Matt Jarvis

Dead by Daylight is adding D&D killer Vecna, voiced by Critical Role DM Matthew Mercer, with Castlevania also on the way. There’ll be a supersized 2v8 mode this summer, too!

–Matt Jarvis

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is both a samurai and a ninja game, as it borrows Syndicate’s dual-character story. African swordsmaster Yasuke will be the series’ first real-life protagonist too, when the latest entry releases on November 15th.

–Matt Jarvis

Honestly, “inspired by FF9” is all I needed to sell me onupcoming JRPG tribute Alzara Radiant Echoes, which is currently crowdfunding over on Kickstarter, but “Dark Souls composer” and “Genshin Impact artist” certainly help.

–Matt Jarvis

My understanding is that games are always better when their numbers are bigger, so everything in the replies and QTs for this post is therefore a classic.

if you’re currently working on a video game, take a short break, pick a number in your code or data files, multiply it by 1000, and post the results

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Do give the demo for Athenian Rhapsody a go, if you haven’t already. Game hasdefinite moxey.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

The Anniversary Edition of Braid is out nowon Steam, sporting 40 new levels and developer commentary. The original Braid is 15 years old now, which also makes me at least that old. Incredible.

–Brendan Caldwell

ViaGematsu, NieR series producer Yosuke Saito, NieR series director Yoko Taro and NieR series composer Keiichi Okabe have a new project. “It might be NieR, it might not be NieR,” Saito told Famitsu, with what I imagine was a rogueish twinkle in his eye.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Here are the global release times for Hellblade 2, which launches in under a week.

We are now just one week from launch! Here’s when you’ll be able to play Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II ⏰Xbox:https://t.co/zWoXR4JHvqSteam:https://t.co/ktwuvNOjbMpic.twitter.com/D1Rk1c5CgI

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Valheim’s new Ashlands biome ishere. Hope you like it hot.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

BE UPSTANDING FOR WEDNESDAY

In a bid to constrain the Maw’s rate of ingestion (ROI), the RPS Furnacemasters have produced a variety of toffee so dense that light slows to a standstill in its vicinity. The forges are now full of congealed photon and the afterimages of screaming sous chefs. Utter pandemonium. Nonetheless, we must FEED IT.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Double Eleven, developers on the Prison Architect series for the past nine years, areparting ways with Paradox Interactive just months ahead of the release of their sequel, Prison Architect 2. A new studio, Kokku, will finish work on the management sequel by resolving technical issues which led to a recent delay.

–Graham Smith

Minecraft is turning 15 years old and Mojang aregiving away a Character Creator item each day in the second half of May to celebrate.

–Graham Smith

Jake Solomon and a crew of former Firaxis and Maxis developers haveformed Midsummer Studios, with a few new details onthe life sim project we spoke to Solomon about last year.

–Graham Smith

Trackmania players are competing to finish Deep Dip 2, a 16-storey nightmare track where a single mistake can send you plummeting to the floor.

–Graham Smith

Whispers In The Moss is a retro RPG 12 years in the making andthere’s a demo and a release date next month.

–Graham Smith

A tiny bit of info about one of Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree’s new creatures. People point out that it looks a fair bit like the frenzy-inducing Winter Lanterns in Bloodborne. Seems relatively chill, though.

The abandoned and tragic who forage beneath the umbra pray for the embrace of a new master.Pre-order#ELDENRINGShadow of the Ertree:https://t.co/ivdzDMJRKZpic.twitter.com/VffO2K90Zq

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Ah yeah, I should have included this in the round-up! Alice Blikes the looks of ittoo.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Assassin’s Creed Codename RED has been officially titled Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This is the feudal Japan-set one. We’ll hear more in June at Summer Games Fest.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

As promised last week, Fallout 4has a new patch"that adds the ability to manage your control over the game’s graphic fidelity or performance" alongside “additional fixes and improvements to address some of the feedback you provided us with on the previous update”.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Supergiant havedetailed plans for Hades 2’s first patchand how they’re updating the game in general.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Fear not, I am already getting my arse kicked on this count in the associated news article. Though there does seem to be a bit of on-going disagreement about the term. If John Romero ever lets me interview him again I’ll check with him.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

And here’sa developer diary for part five of The Long Dark’s Tales From The Far Territory expansion. It adds a new alpha predator, the Cougar, a new mountain pass region and a… “Misery mode”. Oh good, because if there’s one thing The Long Dark is noticeably deficient in, it’s misery. They’re also adding a “Cheat Death System” in fairness.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

More Nebulous content for the sirius wargamerz. It’s a dev diary about fleet intelligence.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

TUESDAY? IN THIS ECONOMY?

–Nic Reuben

The first Red Dead Redemption, including zombie expansion Undead Nightmare,could finally be coming to PC- and soon - according to a fresh datamine.

–Matt Jarvis

EA are thinking about inserting adverts into games - but don’t worry,it’ll be “very thoughtful”, according to their CEO.

–Matt Jarvis

PC classics Ultima, SimCity and Myst have been added to the World Video Game Hall of Fame, along with arcade classic Asteroids and some game called “Resident Evil”?

–Matt Jarvis

As Brendan mentioned earlier,Square Enix plan to “win over PC users” with an “aggressive” shift away from console exclusives- so maybe we won’t be waiting so long for the next FF7 Remake game to land on PC? Rebirth sometime soon would be nice at least.

–Matt Jarvis

–Nic Reuben

Here’sa fairly interesting interview with Helldivers 2 lead writer Russ Nickel, in which Nickel names his favourite Helldivers 2 combat barks, and wonders whether AI can write satire.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Zenimax have trademarkedIDKFAfor videogamey products, IDKFA being an original Doom cheatcode that gives you all the weapons. A new Doom reveal in the offing? I’d tell you what IDKFA stands for but it has naughty language.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

A demo forEnter The Chronosphere, an ARPG with bullet hell elements and freeze-time decision-making, set in worlds where “the laws of physics melt”.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

As reported byEurogamer, EA arethinkingabout “sensitive” implementations of in-game advertising. When is somebody at EA not thinking about this, I have to ask?

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

–Brendan Caldwell

–Nic Reuben

ViaPC Gamer, publisher NetEase have apologised for a controversial - and honestly, a touch dystopian - “non-disparagement” requirement for content creators and streamers that enforced certain restrictions around coverage of Marvel Rivals. It included no-nos on:

a. Making disparaging or satirical comments about any game-related material, such as game features, characters, or music.

b. Engaging in malicious comparisons with competitors or belittling the gameplay or differences of “Marvel Rivals” or providing subjective negative reviews of the game.

While this is all ridiculous, the “satrical comments” part seems especially irksome. Trying to control the tone of coverage is one thing, but telling people they can’t be anything but reverent towards your deriative hero shooter is something else. Anyway, at least they’ve apologised. For being caught.

–Nic Reuben

PRAISED BE MONDAY

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell