Our weekly news liveblog, with this week’s bestest videogame releases
It’s a brand new week in Computer Game Land, and right now, I am playing a nasty little survival sim called “Beating Jetlag”. I landed back in the UK from GDC on Saturday afternoon, and my brain and eyeballs still feel as though they’re being gently sautéed in a medicinal blend of oil and vinegar. The sun and sky bear down with a terrible, holy light and I can’t seem to conjure any warmth into my elbows. In the street outside, a small dog is barking. Soon, very soon, I will catch that dog, place it in a box and FedEx it to China.
But what care you for my moderate fatigue and melodramatic posturing? Without further ado, here are this week’s new PC game releases of note: spaceship defence FPSSentry(25th March, early access); free-to-play survival MMOPalia(25th March); dark fantasy metroidvaniaEnder Magnolia: Bloom In The Mist(26th March, early access); historical 4XMillennia(26th March); island city-builderBulwark: Falconeer Chronicles(26th March); party-based RPG remasterGeneforge 2: Infestation(27th March);Grandia-style wizards RPGTerra Memoria(27th March);Gone Home-esque mysteryOpen Roads(28th March); hand-drawn alt-history festFelvidek(29th March).
As ever, all these new releases are sponsored by the Maw, that abyssal personification of doomscrolling and conjecture - you can follow our efforts to appease it with videogame news stories and random asides about (e.g.) plankton in the latest weekly liveblog, below.The Maw’s mood this week can best be described as “dribbling with anticipation”. The creature knows, after all, that I have a bunch of videogame news stories to pass on from my time at GDC. Look out for the first of them shortly - and don’t forget, fellow UK denizens, there’s a bank holiday on Friday. I am counting down the hours.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
MONDAY ARRIVES
Trim the mainsail and burnish the barnacles! FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
I’m not sure if this got Mawed while I was at GDC, but it’s been fascinating to follow the reaction to Dragon’s Dogma 2’s Dragonsplague mechanic - it’s a disease that spreads between AI-controlled Pawns when they circulate online, which may cause Pawns to go on murderous rampages if left untreated.
This Feature in Dragons Dogma 2 is SCARY!You can rent out 2 “Pawns”, Created By Other Players. They can get this disease called “Dragonsplague” that can infect your pawn! THIS Pawns Eyes started glowing! If I go to sleep she will MURDER a whole town that will ruin my save!pic.twitter.com/J0etmI9MTy
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As passed on byPCG, Baldur’s Gate 3 was once supposed to have multiple dungeon masters or narrators.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Bend Studios, creators of post-apoc motorbiking sim Days Gone, arehiringfor their next project. Requirements for a new lead project manager position include “hands on game development experience in leadership roles shipping AAA live-service games”.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A release I missed last week amid all the GDCing - stealthy brawler Raw Metal, which now hasa post-launch roadmapfeat. excitable talk of boss rebalancing and alternate progression modes. We listed this as a game to watch in our last Steam Next Fest demo round-up - did any of you poor devils actually play it? There may or may not be a review in the offing.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Remedy’s latestinvestor reportincludes a smidgeon of info about the forthcoming co-op survival game Condor, which is set in the Control universe. Ta,resetera.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Larian’s CEO has denied that they’re moving away from Baldur’s Gate due to a tiff with D&D license owner Wizards Of The Coast.
Reading the reddit threads, I would like to clear up something. WOTC is not to blame for us taking a different direction. On the contrary, they really did their best and have been a great licensor for us, letting us do our thing. This is because it’s what’s best for Larian.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Those filthy teases at Bethesda have made arch mention of playing early builds of The Elder Scrolls 6 in a post celebrating the series' 30th anniversary.
Happy 30 years of The Elder Scrolls:pic.twitter.com/dvCiFnZo6T
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Who likes fractals? Do you like fractals? How about Lovecraftian monsters? Yes? Well, you might want to givethis tech demoa try, then.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Dragon’s Dogma 2 modders are finding ways around the otherwise acclaimed RPG’s controversial microtransactionsby making its character editor item and other paid DLC cheaper and easier to find in-game.
–Matt Jarvis
The head of graphics card giants Nvidiareckons we’ll see games where AI generates ‘every pixel in real-time’ sometime within the next decade.
–Matt Jarvis
A year after leaving Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush devs Tango Gameworks,Resident Evil legend Shinji Mikami has founded a new studio.
–Matt Jarvis
Ark: Survival Evolved’s animated series has dropped a surprise release, with Michelle Yeoh and Russell Crowe - as just two of a seriously stacked cast - along for dino fun.
–Matt Jarvis
TUESDAY AGAIN
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Phil Spencer has been umming and erring toPolygonabout the prospect of an Xbox handheld, or at least, of Xbox having more of a presence on other handhelds like Steam Deck. Excerpt: “Forget about the brand. More like: Are all of my games there? Do all my games show up with the save [files] that I want?”
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
ViaPCGamer, Minecraft creator Endorah and Ukrainian government charity United24 have collaborated to memorialise a Ukrainian salt mine destroyed in the war with Russia.
Soledar salt mines are now in#Minecraft!Together with@EndorahCreation, we present#Minesalt, a Minecraft-based game that recreates Soledar’s salt mines.16 locations and 500 km of tunnels, alongside a unique lore and 140 collectible crystals👇https://t.co/gtT4OPOoE8pic.twitter.com/fPU7e0GlJB
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Banishers: Ghosts Of A New Eden could be the first in a series. “We always consider our games as the first step of a franchise,” narrative director Stéphane Beauverger hastold MP1st.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As detected by new Treehouse resident Nic Reuben, first of his name, Cloud Imperium arehiring for a video producer, which may suggest they’re gearing up for a marketing push for Star Citizen.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Also as detected by the mighty Nic, Mass Effect 5’s development team includes several veterans of the original trilogy.
EP, Art Director, Creative Director, Game Director areall trilogy vets.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Narrative-led strategy game Suzerain has received abig updatevia the Kingdom of Rizia DLC, which introduces a war mechanic, 40,000 words of new story, new art and much more besides.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Official Cities: Skylines 2 mod tools areupon us.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Overwatch 2’s long-promised PvE modes have been cancelled, according toa Bloomberg report.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Alice0 has caught wind of a forthcoming teaser trailer for the latest LOTR jobbie, Tales Of The Shire. Find a snippet in the tweet below.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit”.#TalesoftheShiretrailer coming soon… “pic.twitter.com/CfjWcLUXqY
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A small but valuable Helldivers 2 patch: this one stops the game freezing when you use Arc weapons.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Enshrouded’s first proper big update, Hollow Halls, is live now. It introduces a new set of dungeons for ye hardcorey players alongside fresh, steaming helpings of Quality-Of-Life Tweak.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Diablo 4 iscoming to Game Passon 28th March. That link includes instructions for connecting Battle.net to your Microsoft account.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Well here’s a thing.
These 3 indie devs are working on a game in which you play in 3D and 2D… at the same timeThis looks insane lolpic.twitter.com/nmWRagC1W2
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The Crew Motorfest isheaded to Steam on April 18th. As a thrilling portent of things to come, that means it arrives just a couple of weeks after The Crew 1 becomes unplayable forever to those who bought it.
–Graham Smith
Lego Fortnite has a big new update out now. It’s called Mechanical Mayhem and it addsdriveable vehicles that players can design themselves.
–Graham Smith
As Edwin noted earlier,Diablo 4 on Game Passstill requires that Battle.net account. So here’s a post about it.
–Graham Smith
V Rising is getting aCastlevania crossover to coincide with its 1.0 release. It includes a free fight with Simon Belmont from which players can make off with his whip, and a paid cosmetic DLC for those who want to deck their castle halls with ‘vania items and music.
–Graham Smith
MORE WEDNESDAY
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Phil Spencer has been talking toPolygonabout why big publishers have started laying everybody off recently - Microsoft have junked thousands of positions this year. His reasoning probably won’t surprise you but I guess it’s useful to have this stated plainly by an executive. “I’ll say the thing that has me most concerned for the industry is the lack of growth. And when you have an industry that is projected to be smaller next year in terms of players and dollars, and you get a lot of publicly traded companies that are in the industry that have to show their investors growth — because why else does somebody own a share of someone’s stock if it’s not going to grow? — the side of the business that then gets scrutinized is the cost side. Because if you’re not going to grow the revenue side, then the cost side becomes challenged.” The interview doesn’t cover Spencer’s own annual compensation or whether he’s had to cut back.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s how Path Of Exile’s next expansionadds to and changes the game’s gems system.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Leaker of repute Kurakasis says there’s a new Marvel multiplayer FPS in the works from NetEase.
An update on an unannounced Marvel game that I first reported in January, titled ‘Marvel Rivals’:Developed by NetEase GamesMost likely (more below) a AAA multiplayer FPS set in the Marvel universePC, mobile and consolesAnnouncement this yearpic.twitter.com/GJxF0D28S0
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Who’s up for 15 minutes ofmechadwarfing?
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Something that fell through the cracks from last week, what with all the GDC mayhem:Failbetter have blogged about sustainabilitywhile dropping a few hints about their next, unannounced game. It makes a decided contrast to the Phil Spencer quotes about the all-importance of growth further down the feed.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Fallout 76’s free America’s Playground update is out, with new quests featuring night clubs and assorted Atlantic City shenanigans. How about that trailer?
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Ed Thorn has just notified me that Hellgate is coming back - Hellgate being a dark fantasy action-RPG last glimpsed back in 2007. A new game is in the works from original developer Bill Roper’s new studio Lunacy Games. The new project’s codename is Hellgate: Redemption.IGNhas more.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Bandai Namco have released three free Steam games from their in-house team Gyaar Studio, which is staffed by new recruits. The games are robot-hacking actionerNottolot, dubious dog simDoronko Wankoand fantasy rail-grinderBoomeroad. They were previously only available to Japanese Steam users. Ta,VGC.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Yellow Brick Games, a new Canadian indie studio founded by a bunch of triple-ay vets - triple-eh for Canadians? - from e.g. Ubisoft, BioWare (and including Mike “Mr Dragon Age” Laidlaw) are teasing their first new game. They’re also self-publishing it. It’s some species of fantasy action RPG, and will turn up on IGN First next week, on April 2nd. Have a look. It’s got a giant!
–Alice Bell
Xbox Cloud Gaming has added keyboard and mouse support for PC and browsers- sort of, anyway, with a beta preview for now that works with a select group of games, including Fortnite, Grounded and, uh, Doom 64?
–Matt Jarvis
You cangive Overwatch 2’s new drill-wielding, burrowing damage hero Venture a spin for free later this weekahead of Season 10’s arrival next month.
–Matt Jarvis
One of Ukraine’s most famous mines has been preserved in Minecraftto help rebuild a school bombed by Russia.
–Matt Jarvis
As Alice mentioned earlier,ex-Dragon Age director Mike Laidlaw’s new studio is teasing their new (and for now untitled) fantasy action-RPGahead of a full reveal next week.
–Matt Jarvis
THURSDAY INTENSIFIES
The Tesla-Pendragon Conduits are acting up! Fetch the wire sponges and, oh, let’s say 14.3 holy boars. FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Embracer aresellingBorderlands household Gearbox Entertainment to GTA 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive for $460 million.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
ViaGamesIndustry.biz, Sega are selling Relic Entertainment, and will cut 240 jobs across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly and Sega HARDlight. Best of luck to everybody affected.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Activision have posted details of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Warzone’s next season. Here be an image of the roadmap. It’s out April 3rd at 9am PT, 12pm ET, 5pm BST, or 6pm CEST across all platforms, and features six new core 6v6 maps, with four available at launch and two arriving mid-season. There’s also new Zombies stuff and the return of the Rebirth Island map in Warzone alongside Resurgence mode, which let players respawn as long as one of their teammates is still alive.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A new update for Stardew Valley, which fixes a few things that went awry following the release of the mega 1.6 update last week.
1.6.3 now available on PCpic.twitter.com/x9RHCQtJWt
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
ViaEG, the lovely Europa - a “peaceful game of adventure, exploration, and meditation” set on a terraformed Jovian moon - has been delayed till summer.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
ViaBloomberg, Sega of America workers have ratified a union contract covering around 150 people across marketing and other departments at the division’s offices in California. Those involved will receive annual pay increases, notifications ahead of layoffs and various other benefits.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Twitch have once againupdated their guidelines around sexual content. Apparently some of you naughty children have beenusing your tender bits as a green screen.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
In their own release on the purchase of Gearbox from Embracer, Take-Two haveconfirmedthat Borderlands 4, or whatever they end up calling it, is “in active development”.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Capcom have put out asurveyasking people what they want from Dragon’s Dogma 2’s DLC.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Nine Sols, the new game from the creators of modern horror classic Devotion, is out at the end of May.
Thank you for your ongoing support and patience.#NineSolswill be released on Steam on May 29th.Check out our brand-new release date trailer!#RedCandleGames#Indiegamespic.twitter.com/RKFTRU5mRw
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Employees at Sega Of America haveratified a union contract, becoming the first at a major US studio to do so. The contract guarantees minimum salary increases over the next three years and includes provisions for healthcare and commitments that workers will be credited for any project they contribute to.
–Graham Smith
Embracer say that they’re done restructuring now that they’ve sold Gearbox, and that it’s “too early” torestart acquiring other studios. I imagine employees at non-Embracer studios would breathe a sigh of relief to hear it.
–Graham Smith
Metal: Hellsinger VRis coming this year, re-tooling the rhythm first-person shooter for those with headsets. Get ready to vomit on the downbeat.
–Graham Smith
–Graham Smith
IT IS FRIDAY
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Dragon’s Dogma 2 now lets you start a new game and get a house earlier, as Capcom dare to ask about future DLC.
–Matt Jarvis
Celeste creators Extremely OK Games’ next gorgeous platformer Earthblade won’t be out this year, but the studio have assured that development is “not stagnant”: “We had hoped to be announcing a firm release date around now, but it just isn’t in the cards.”
–Matt Jarvis
Witcher 4 is more than ‘The Witcher 3 in new clothing’, CD Projekt Red have promised,as over 400 devs - two-thirds of the studio - work on Polaris.
–Matt Jarvis
TimeSplitters fan remake TimeSplitters Rewind - the shooter series' last hope after Free Radical’s demise -has called for help amid development struggles caused by “incredibly challenging” industry.
–Matt Jarvis
Seasonal affective disorder ‘em up Rain World is gettinga new DLC, The Watcher, seemingly focused on the mysterious Nightcat added in a previous expansion.
–Graham Smith
–Graham Smith
CD Projekt Red’s chief financial officer says the studiodon’t see a place for microtransactions in singleplayer games, mirroring comments made in previous years. Someone tell Capcom.
–Graham Smith
