The Maw - 3rd-9th June | rockpapershotgunz

This week’s most auspicious game releases, plus our weekly news liveblog

It’s a period of frightful bounty for the Maw, our resident Hadean icon of videogame news consumption. Look forward to trailers, celeb cameos, surprise demo releases, around a million hours of interlude music, and hands-on impressions fresh from the creaking furnace chambers of my jetlagged brain. Still, SGF isn’t All She Wrote this week. A few brave developers and publishers are releasing new games alongside the event, like individual rockets plunging into Uncle Geoff’s Fervid Fireworks Show. Here are a few that have caught our eyes.

As ever, let me know if we’ve missed anything I would feel deeply embarrassed about missing, and enjoy the week. You can follow our routine news coverage in the liveblog below, which I’m going to extend into Sunday so you can follow the deterioration of my writing abilities in real-time. Onward, to SGF! Keighley & Friends! The Endless June! The Geoffervescent Circus!

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Lost And Found Co. is a delightful, animated hidden object adventure in the Where’s Wally/Waldo mode,and there’s a demo to play now.

–Graham Smith

The Finals' third season takes players to 16th-century Kyoto and adds katanas, bows and Scorpion-from-Mortal-Kombat’s big get-over-here chainon June 13th.

–Graham Smith

Opening Summer Geoff Fest,Lego Horizon Adventures follows Forbidden West with a co-op spin-off- and we won’t have to wait for it on PC.

–Matt Jarvis

🩸❄️ Get ready to rejoin Cpt. J. F. Blake at Outpost 31 because The Thing is BACK with… The Thing: Remastered! ❄️🩸pic.twitter.com/ok2iYtbA40

–Matt Jarvis

Dusk publisher New Blood have shelled out the big, based bucks for this downtown L.A.billboard tribute to some of the studios shuttered recently:

“We love you. We miss you. We hate money.”An electronic billboard from New Blood Interactive in downtown LA mourns the closure of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Roll7, Sony’s London Studio, Volition and more“Gone but not forgotten”pic.twitter.com/1zCeD4KEEw

–Nic Reuben

FOR FRIDAY!

–Nic Reuben

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice Leaguefailed for all the reasons you guessed it failed, a new report says.

–Graham Smith

And here’s a full post aboutDragon Age 4 getting a name that reflects its protagonists, not an antagonist.

–Graham Smith

Here’s a full poston the new games coming to Game Pass in June.

–Graham Smith

–Nic Reuben

COR, THURSDAY!

–Nic Reuben

Polyarismight be the first dedicated survival skiing game. Can a polar bear outrun a skier? Can polar bears ski? Pressing questions to which I currently have no answer.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

ICYMI:Baldur’s Gate 3 will add official mod tools this September, making it even easier to play dungeon master.

–Matt Jarvis

Fucksweeperis not Minesweeper, not just porn, and not safe for work. “UNEMPLOYED ADULTS ONLY (25+)”

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Sony has official unveiled its PlayStation VR2 PC adapter with a release date, price and confirmation of SteamVR compatibility, but a lot of the headset’s best features won’t work on PC - raising the question of whether it’s worth the price if you don’t already own one.

–Matt Jarvis

Summer Game Fest may not be abundant in Big New Game Announcements but it will at least give us more of Slitterhead, the horror-me-do from Bokeh and erstwhile Silent Hill, Siren and Gravity Rush developer Keiichiro Toyama.

Don’t miss the gameplay world premiere of SLITTERHEAD, from the mind of Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama and@BokehGameStudioduring#SummerGameFestlive this Friday.Catch the global livestream athttps://t.co/59xiIzf5ANat 2p PT / 5p ET / 10p BST / 11p CEST.pic.twitter.com/qxTQhO9DcS

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

As Edwin mentioned earlier,Dead by Daylight makers Behaviour are laying off nearly 100 staff- months after cutting almost 50 devs - as part of what they’re calling “strategic changes for future growth”.

–Matt Jarvis

–Nic Reuben

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Warden’s Willis a flippy-divey third-person shooter with roguelite and bullet hell elements. It’s got a demo live for Steam Next Fest.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Baltic Folkis about managing a pub for forest gods. Forget the brews - what flavours of overpriced gastro-crisp would you serve?

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Hades 2 done got patched again. This one’spretty comprehensive- I fear I must summon the dark god Brendy to make sense of it.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Bungie have apologised for connection issues that are preventing Destiny 2 players getting their fill of The Final Shape expansion. The responses to the tweet below dig into a few of the problems they’ve encountered and fixed.

Hey everyone, if connection issues have blocked you from playing or enjoying The Final Shape today, we want to apologize. We’re hard at work trying to resolve each of these issues as quickly as possible, and many of the connection issues from this morning have already been fixed.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

SORE WEDNESDAY

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Lemming-alike puzzler Humanity is on Game Pass. This ranks pretty highly on my backlog of shame. Backlog of shame? Backlog of ripening in the fullness of time, more like. My backlog is so ripe I’m pretty sure it’s alcoholic. Anyway! Humanity is on Game Pass!

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

–Nic Reuben

Just Cause developers Avalanche haveannounced50 layoffs and the closure of two studios, encompassing roughly 9% of their workforce.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

LORE TUESDAY

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Super VHSlooks fun.

a VCR but it shoots VHS tapes and the tapes are gravity detonatorshttps://t.co/VacwV4Co4ypic.twitter.com/SY2oVGDxyP

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

One we missed from last week: you can now play theoriginal text adventure prototype for Outer Wildsin a browser.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Take-Two are reportedlyabout to sell off or close their Private Division label, whose publishing projects include Moon Studios' No Rest for the Wicked and Wētā Workshop’s Tales of the Shire.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Here’sa demo for Hollowbody, “a tech-noir survival horror” from Chasing Static developers Headware Games, whose influences include Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner Silent Hill, Kuon and Haunting Ground.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Baldur’s Gate 3’s official modding toolsland in Septemberalongside the game’s next major update.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Megacopteris a satirical sci-fantasy homage to EA’s old Desert Strike games. I’ve played the demo and there’s much to like.

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

MAW MONDAY

–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell