This week’s least boring videogame releases, plus our weekly liveblog
Another week, another Monday waking up to find Edwin has trapped himself between the Maw’s cyclopean molars on what was supposed to be a routine scrubbing expedition. We usually get him out just fine, but today he’s become entranced by the chomper’s blighted runoff, and is busy stuffing plaque samples in his trousers to bring back and study. So, you get me instead. In other, non-affront to-science news, Warhorse areannouncing a new gamethis week, Thursday 18th,rumoured to bemedieval rpg sequel Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Elsewhere, theSteam FPS festkicks off later.
Here’s a question that’s been haunting me recently: Videogames - will there be more of them? I’m afraid I don’t have time to find out right now. Instead, here are some upcoming releases. Fantastical, giant turtle featuring deck-and-city builderVertical Kingdom(15th April); 80’s tinged racerRetrowave World(16th April); Handmade puppet story gameHarold Halibut(16th April); Spider-scorchingKill It With Fire 2(early access, 16th April); 2D train strategyTrackline Express(18th April); Emergent story-stuffed tactics expansionWartales - The Tavern Opens!(18th April); Top down slashy, Game Awards debutingNo Rest for The Wicked(18th April); Bug-blasting four-player rogueliteAnts Took My Eyeball(19th April)
Edwin’s new obsession has left us a pair of eyeballs down, so if you’ve spotted a particularly tasty morsel of pure videogame, please wrap this valuable information in stringy flesh and hurl it down the Maw’s gullet. That, or pop it in the comments. As for me, I suppose its a spot of teeth spelunking and…oh god, no…Edwin, don’t eat the plaque, please.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
A new fight against the Maw dawns - and earlier than normal, while the beast still slumbers. Let us get in our licks.
Possibility Space has closed downwithout warning and the CEO’s email to staff makes it seem like it’s their fault for talking to a reporter.
–Graham Smith
Ubisoft have begunrevoking licenses for The Crew from players, their racing game which closed its doors last month.
–Graham Smith
There’sa new patch for OpenTTD, the open source Transport Tycoon remake. 14.0 improves the new player experience and the UI, among many other changes.
–Graham Smith
Warhorse, the makers of Kingdom Come Deliverance, say they’reannouncing a new game on Thursday, April 18th.
–Graham Smith
–Graham Smith
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is a 2D platformer with snappy wall-jumping and sword-and-pistol combat. It’ll launch on May 21st andthere’s a demo to play now.
–Graham Smith
MONDAY MAW-NDAY
It’s Monday. My face hurts, and the only cure is dunking it in straight into a bucket of soothing videogames.Vertical Kingdomis out later today. One of the stages has you build a town on the back of a giant floating turtle. My face is feeling better already!
–Nic Reuben
Big large huge Fallout 4 Mod Fallout: London has been delayed, viaInsider Gaming. As suspected by a few of you in the comments, it’s down to Beth’s big ‘next gen’ updatedue soon.
–Nic Reuben
Dataminer Sekiro Dubi has discovered secrets aplenty in Elden Ring, viaPC Gamer. The game was originally intended to have more world altering events like the [redacted] that crashes down after you beat General [redacted], revealing the way to [redacted].
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
EA’s upcoming Black Panther and Iron Man games both look to be open-world sandboxes, according to joblistingsspottedby PCGamesN. The Iron Man game is being worked on by Dead Space remake dev Motive.
–Nic Reuben
As Nic mentioned earlier,game-sized Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London has been delayed indefinitely by Bethesda’s incoming next-gen update- it’ll now arrive when it’s fixed, whether that takes a day or a month (or longer).
–Matt Jarvis
Lethal Company’s first update in monthsmakes it harder to be a shovel-armed killing machine - or speedrunner.
–Matt Jarvis
Former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra reckons you should be able to tip developers ‘another $10 or $20’ on top of $70 games, as Nic shared earlier. What do you reckon?
–Matt Jarvis
As Graham mentioned yesterday,over 100 staff at Just Cause developers Avalanche have unionised, with Swedish staff at the studio due to be covered under the new agreement from this time next year.
–Matt Jarvis
TUESDAY TIME
Hello all! Sorry sorry sorry - I was busy yesterday clearing out a seam of fossilised Battlefield DLC announcements I found behind one of the Maw’s wisdom teeth. You really don’t want the Maw to get a gum infection. The last time that happened it somehow caused a solar eclipseanda lunar eclipse simultaneously. Anyway, FEED IT.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
ViaIGN, there appears to be a teaser for a November announcement hidden away inside the Fallout TV show.
Anyone else call this number ? You can text it Also .pic.twitter.com/1S5AIMexl1
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Keanu Reeves willreportedlyvoice Shadow in the forthcoming Sonic 3 movie. I reckon he’d do a good job of that.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Former Dragon Age scribe and Summerfall co-founder David Gaider thinks a Dragon Age TV show would be “a terrible idea”.
I imagine everyone would expect me to say Dragon Age, but that’d be a terrible idea. I want to see a David Lynch-style (on acid) Disco Elysium. Or maybe Banishers.https://t.co/vljIVHAKKc
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s ajob listingthat sheds a little more light on EA’s forthcoming Black Panther adaptation from Cliffhanger Games. They’re looking for a principal sandbox designer who will “work closely with the AI engineering team to create sophisticated AI behaviors that enhance the open-world experience, from urban crowds to wildlife ecosystems”.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Hollow Knight: Silksong has beenratedby the Australian Classification Board. I refuse to believe this game is real.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Toadman Interactive aretaking over developmentof Planetside 2, and have big plans for it.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A lengthy thread from Inkle about the creation of lovely astral archaeology yarn Heaven’s Vault, to mark the game’s fifth anniversary. Excerpt: “The “rivers” concept came partly from the Egyptian Book of the Dead - a quote from which opens the game - but also from the Scottish landscape, and rivers winding through valleys.”
FIVE YEARS ago today, we released@HeavensVault.It’s discounted on Steam this week, but here’s a celebratory thread about how it came to be!pic.twitter.com/egROG31sgQ
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
Well-good immersive sim Ctrl Alt Ego has beenupdatedwith a New Game+ mode.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s the launch trailer for No Rest For The Wicked, which will not feature microtransactionsaccording to the developers.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
Palworld CEO says “many” clones of Pokémon-with-guns game are coming, including successors with a “Genshin Impact-level” of quality.
–Matt Jarvis
If you’re interested in taking an early look at the next World of Warcraft expansion,The War Within will run a beta before launch- and you can sign up to be a tester now.
–Matt Jarvis
No surprises here:Dungeons & Dragons makers Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro also want a Baldur’s Gate 4, but say they won’t rush to a sequel before they’ve found the “right” people to make it. It shouldn’t take 25 years, though.
–Matt Jarvis
The Fallout TV show might have answered a decades-old question in the video games(spoilers for its first season within!)
–Matt Jarvis
WEDNESDAY IS NOW
Augh, the Maw grew another layer of scales overnight - we’ll have to return the last 20 batches of Psycho-Epidermal Escalators. FEED IT.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As reported byKotaku, Take-Two are laying hundreds of people off and cancelling projects. “Rationalizing the pipeline”, they’re calling it.
Take-Two announces hundreds of layoffs and over $160 million in cancelled projects in an end of business SEC filingpic.twitter.com/SYNwNHiyIK
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
You can now sign up for a Hades 2 technical test in advance of the early access launch -find out how here.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Any Dredge fans reading? You might likeDeep Beyond, out in May - it’s a short thriller about salvaging derelicts. “Explore ancient wrecks, solve intricate puzzles, and uncover the secrets of her past as you journey through the depths of the ocean.”
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
FACEMINER, a dystopian AI surveillance management game with Windows 2000-esque visuals, has a free demo available onSteamandItch.
–Nic Reuben
Athenian Rhapsody, out in May, is “a Souls-like platonic dating simulator with Cooking Mama and WarioWare style battle mechanics” in which completed playthroughs become “tangible” artefacts that can be shared and “combined”. Slight NFT overtones, but I’m interested to hear more. According to the developers, “you’ll be able to use these Rhapsodies in various ways such as socializing with friends, accessing special timed in-game event adventures, and maybe even something outside of the game one day.”
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
Spitfire’s superhero tactics gameCapesis out May 29th.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Famitsu have anElden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree interviewwhich includes details of how to access the DLC’s new areas, once you’ve installed it.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
Little Kitty Big City (disclosure for Pip Warr, RPS In Peace, who is the narrative designer) just got a release date of May 9th as part of Ninty’s Indie World Showcase today. The game continues to look cute.
–Alice Bell
Likewise, Cat Quest 3 (a 2.5D cat-themed pirate adventure which has far too-many cat-based puns for my liking) seems to have just had a release date of August 8th confirmed by the Ninty stream. I have no experience of the Cat’s previous Quests but I understand them to have been well-recieved.
–Alice Bell
Well, everyone was once again rumouring that Silksong would feature at the Indie World Showcase, and once again it did not. The capper this time was SteamWorld Heist 2, a tactical, turn-based, steampunky sequel that now comes with realtime naval battles. It’s coming to the Switch on August the 8th, but the first SteamWorld Heist had a bit of a delay before it came to PC - I can’t tell you if it’s day and date yet.
Hold onto your hats!SteamWorld Heist II ricochets onto#NintendoSwitch08/08.Guide a rag-tag crew of Steambots across the Great Sea in a brand-new adventure.#IndieWorldpic.twitter.com/angKB5Mdm3
–Alice Bell
Dwarf Fortress' adventure mode has launched in beta. Check out the trailerhere. Diggy hole, rock and stone etc etc
–Nic Reuben
THIS IS THURSDAY
Butter the battlements and gas the geraniums! FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Shadow-hugging puzzler SCHiM has a release date - 18th July.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
As reported byGamesradar, Arrowhead have indicated their awareness of a super credits farming glitch in Helldivers 2, though they don’t seem excessively bothered by “such undemocratic behavior”.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Oh my good golly goshness, Comedy Central are making a new animated show based on Sega classic Golden Axe. It’s got Matthew Rhys, Danny Pudi, Lisa Gilroy, Liam McIntyre and Carl Tart in it, and “follows veteran warriors Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead as they once again battle to save Yuria from the evil giant Death Adder who just won’t seem to stay dead. Fortunately, this time they have the inexperienced and underprepared Hampton Squib on their side.” Ta,VGC.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
Baldur’s Gate 3 is getting yet more endings, as outlined anew Steam blog. “Patch 7…will add improved evil endings to the game for even darker conclusions to your most sinister playthroughs, and yes, that includes you non-Durge players.” The patch also plans to bring along “our official modding tools.”
–Nic Reuben
–Nic Reuben
Braid’s Anniversary Edition has squeezed in one more delay, three years after it was first meant to arrive - it’s just two weeks extra to wait this time (hopefully).
–Matt Jarvis
Arma and DayZ makers’ free-to-play looter-shooter Vigor is coming to PC, half a decade after consoles (inmcluding the Nintendo Switch!)
–Matt Jarvis
–Matt Jarvis
Wave goodbye to every free moment you have:Balatro ‘95 has perfected procrastination by modding the roguelike deckbuilder into classic Windows Solitaire.
–Matt Jarvis
AND THAT IS FRIDAY
We come to it at last: the weekend! I’m definitely ready for it: the Maw farted last night and now our astrologers have a whole new constellation to deal with, working title “The Great Air Biscuit”. FEED THE MAW… but no fried onion or cabbage please.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
Stardew Valley’s 1.6.4 update adds a whole bunch of new mine layouts, as detailed on the developer’ssite.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
There’s a big new update for DOTA 2, as well:Crownfall. It’s an on-going story event that provides access to new heroes and rewards. The first act is The Markets of Midgate.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
More detailsof a new expansion for Fallout 76, which has seen an inevitable uptick following the TV show’s release. The expansion is Skyline Valley, and starting today, you’ll be able to test it via the public test server on Steam.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
No Rest For The Wicked launched yesterday and appears to be on the buggy side. Developers Moon Studios havebloggedabout things they’re fixing, including stodgy performance and progression loss.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
PCGamesN has just pointed me towardJitter, a 2D space sim with kewl greenish visuals which sort of looks like a more serious version of Heat Signature.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Bethesda are not only refusing to date Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 for release, they’re threatening to update Starfield again. Who will stop Todd Howard’s reign of terror? ThanksIGN.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Nic Reuben
Prison Architect 2 has been pushed from its already delayed release date next monthall the way back to autumn.
–Matt Jarvis
Well, whaddya know,there’ll officially be a season two of Amazon’s very popular Fallout TV show, as Nic mentioned earlier.
–Matt Jarvis
Suikoden spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicles will get a sequel to ‘carry on the legacy’ of late creator, its developers have expressed, following the death of Yoshitaka Murayama in February ahead of this month’s release for Hundred Heroes.
–Matt Jarvis
Final Fantasy 14’s long-awaited graphics update in 7.0 will look better than the Dawntrail benchmark, Yoshi-P has promised.
–Matt Jarvis
As Nic mentioned in brief earlier this week, Tinkerlands: A Shipwrecked Adventure is afree prologue aka demoof 2D topdown surviving, crafting, frog-fighting.
–Graham Smith
The Palestinian Relief Bundle on Itch.ionets you hundreds of games for just $8, with all the money going towards providing food, water and medical treatment in Gaza.
–Graham Smith
No Rest For The Wicked hasreceived its first hotfix, with much-requested changes to gear durability and repair costs. Performance issues are still being worked on.
–Graham Smith
The sequel to Star Control 2 - but don’t call it that - hasmore than tripled its crowdfunding target after four days. It’s got a long way to go before it reaches its $4.4 million open source stretch goal, however.
–Graham Smith
