Our weekly news liveblog
Some new game releases we are tip-toeing towards with our shields raised this week, in case they turn out to be Mimics:Allison Road-inspired horrorSupernormal(8th Jan), free turn-based dungeon crawlerBuriedbornes2(10th Jan), medical management simWar Hospital(11th Jan), feudal Chinese spin-offReigns: Three Kingdoms(11th Jan), pleasingly nonsensically-named retro RPGCrystal Story: Dawn of Dusk(13th Jan).
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
IT IS MONDAY. I am up far too early (I have an appointment to get to on the other side of London). FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Morning music? Well, the GTA 6 trailer has made everybody fall in love with Tom Petty, so here’s another one of his tunes.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
According to theWSJ(viaVG247), Netflix are thinking about putting ads and in-app purchases in certain games.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s the full trailer for Final Fantasy 14’s next expansion, Dawntrail.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Shotgun Kingdevelopers Punkcake Delicieux are gearing up to reveal their next game soon, which was originally born out of one of the devs making a pixel art maths game to help their daughter get better at adding and multiplication. I’m intrigued! And the clip below looks absolutely wonderful.
In November I made a game to train my 7yo daughter in doing additions and multiplications. I finally decided to make it a full punkcake, and the result is very interesting. It’s almost finished now and we will release it soon.#gamedev#pixelart#indiedevStay tuned !pic.twitter.com/HOCY0ODmMO
–Katharine Castle
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Something we missed over Xmas: former BioWare scribe David Gaider and Obsidian’s Josh Sawyer have beentalking on Xitterabout how and why 2D isometric RPGs took a tumble thanks to novelty-driven retailers and “industry wisdom”.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Kick Bastards - Mirror’s Edge meets “THIS IS SPARTA” - isout nowand has the makings of a fun parkour platformer.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Medieval Machines Builder - First Siege isout this weekand will make all your catapult construction dreams come true, possibly.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
I’m sure Edwin won’t mind if I borrow the Maw for a spot of hardwaring - AMD justannouncedthe Radeon RX 7600 XT graphics card at CES. It’s essentially anRX 7600with slightly faster clock speeds and 16GB of VRAM instead of 8GB. Maybe a less underwhelming option for fast 1080p?
We’ve also got Nvidia’s presentation starting in a few minutes, with some new GeForce RTX 40 Super GPUs likely on the agenda…
–James Archer
Factorio, often called the definitive factory sim, has received anew updatewhich introduces “parametrised blueprints”. There’s a lot more through the jump, but basically, these are templates for structures such as train stations that can be reconfigured each time you build them, so you don’t have to start from scratch, with minimal “unnecessary UI clutter”. The update has attracted a certain amount of interest mostly thanks to the accompanying developer remark that “I always thought the feature is too hardcore to be included.” I’m not sure it’s any more hardcore than Factorio as a whole, but the breakdown of its creation is interesting.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Ugh, who’s been liveblogging about graphics cards in here? The air is foul with it.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Edwin previously shared the latest trailer for Final Fantasy 14 expansion Dawntrail, andhere’s a dive into its two newly-revealed classes!
The Pictomancer is a magical artist with Splatoon and Scribblenauts vibes, while the second limited job after Blue Mage will indeed be Beastmaster, complete with a Pokémon-style monster-collecting mechanic. Exciting stuff!
–Matt Jarvis
The Samurai Champloo OST is finally (finally!) on Spotify, so please join me in bathing once again in the genius of Nujabes:
–Matt Jarvis
Final Fantasy 14’s Fan Festival over the weekend brought forth plenty of reveals, includinga new co-op mode that has more than a touch of Starfield to it.
Cosmic Exploration follows the likes of the Animal Crossing-like Island Sanctuary and Ishgardian Restoration as “expansive” lifestyle content for the MMO, seeing players work together to travel between planets and do… something. We’ll find out exactly what ahead of new expansion Dawntrail!
–Matt Jarvis
This pixel-art Slay the Spire-like originally made to teach a dev’s daughter mathslooks like the best edutainment game I never had. It’s apparently out soon, so we can all tick off “get better at maths” from our new year resolutions.
–Matt Jarvis
Final Fantasy 14’s next expansion isevoking the series' best entry in the reveal of its new cyberpunk city- and I’m holding out hope that it signals some more incoming love in the MMO as a result.
And no, I’m talking about Final Fantasy 7. (You get plenty!)
–Matt Jarvis
IT IS TUESDAY. All ceramic objects within 100 metres of the Maw have grown faces overnight. Cast the sacred smelling salts and feed it, FEED IT.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Thisdoes look intriguing! I’m not sure I necessarilyneeda blend of first-person exploration and top-down team tactics, but I’m curious to try it.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Unity are laying off approximately 1,800 people or around 25% of their workforce in a bid for long-term growth and profitability, as reported byReuters.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Horror sensation Lethal Company has receivedan updatethat adds weekly challenge moons with leaderboards, each using the same random seed. “The point of this is less for competition and more to give us all a shared experience,” notes the developer. “It will also give even the most seasoned employees a challenge; I have no idea what moons will be generated for the months to come, but some of them will surely be crazier than others.”
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
You may have seen that OpenAI and Microsoft are being sued by the New York Times for usage of copyrighted material when “training” the former’s ChatGPT language learning tools. As passed on by theGuardian, OpenAI have now told the UK’s House of Lords that “it would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials”. That’s kind of common knowledge, I think, but I haven’t seen it stated quite so bluntly, and certainly not by the provider of the software in question.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Fantasy Papers Please-alikeLil Guardsmanhas confirmed it’s coming to PC on January 23rd - and here’s a release date trailer to celebrate the occasion.
I had a good time with this duringlast summer’s Next Fest, so here’s hoping the final game lives up to its strong opening.
–Katharine Castle
Game Informer hasan interview on the making of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, in which there are thoughts about RPGs “incorporating more action elements” and how “that will be the trajectory of games overall”, which is a commentary/prediction Final Fantasy developers have been making for years. I feel like we’ve all accepted at this stage that Final Fantasy isn’t just about ATB, anymore.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Gamereactor’s been chatting to Larian about, you guessed it, Baldur’s Gate 3. Amongst other things, senior RPG designer Anna Guxens acknowledged the criticism some players had for the game’s third act. “Especially Act 2 specifically has a very strong closing moment that just shuts down a whole era of it,” she said. “and then starting off in Act 3 especially if you have so many hours running in the rest of the game can feel like a much different tone.”
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The 31st expansion for Star Trek Online, Both Worlds, launches on January 23rd. Apparently it continues the story of the “Borg King”. Since when have the Borg had a king?
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Good lord, Star Trek Online has a multiverse component, too. I haven’t been following this game and it turns out they have pulled a Marvel on Star Trek. This is an outrage!
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Show me the Champion of (Dead by Day) Light.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s a new trailer for the forthcoming Horizon: Forbidden West Complete Edition. It’ll support NVIDIA DLSS 3, Reflex and DLAA.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Brian Cox narrating Tekken’s story so far is a thing I didn’t know I needed until today.
–Katharine Castle
–Graham Smith
–Graham Smith
Palworld, the Pokémonlike with extremely familiar creature designs and monster pals you can put to work crafting machineguns, now has a fixed release date: January 19th. There’s arelease date trailer to enjoy, too.
–Graham Smith
If you enjoyed Brian Cox explaining Tekken lore, I recommend this eleven-year-old series of videos in which a pre-Succession Cox pronounces whisky names for you:
–Graham Smith
Cult Of The Lamb’s next update is referred to by players as the “sex update”, which is a missed opportunity because they could have called it the egg update. Itnow has a release date: January 16th. Join my egg cult by chanting “Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!” until it comes out.
–Graham Smith
IT IS WEDNESDAY. Why do the chairs have mantis legs all of a sudden? Quick, catch them before they make it past the barricades. FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The “restructuring” of the games industry continues asBloombergreports that Twitch are cutting 35% of their staff - 500 people.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Valve have released theirupdated policy on games made with generative “AI” tools. The platform holder will require developers to post disclosures when they use such tools, and are launching a player reporting system for “illegal” AI content.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
It seems that the latest Forza Motorsport had a rough launch on Steam - launched in October, it still has a Mostly Negative user review consensus. Turn 10 have blogged about how they’reupdating the game, addressing three of the major sore spots - progression, driver AI, and race regulations.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Some morning music.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Today is all about generative AI tools, it seems. As reported byVariety, the SAG-AFTRA union have announced a deal with Replica Studios that will allow the use of such tools to create digital voice replicas in videogames, given informed consent from the voice actor in question.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Not a story, but the announcement of a “sex update” for Cult of the Lamb has a lot of people asking for sex updates for other games, including Minecraft. I fear I must ask you whether you want Mojang to put sex in Minecraft.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
FakeFish and Undertow are planning a new multiplayer permadeath mode for sci-fi submarine game Barotrauma. They’vepenned a quick blogand would like seasoned Barotraummers to give feedback.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Actors' union SAG-AFTRA have struck a new deal with AI tech company Replica to create AI voice replicas of actors, including for use in video games. They claim that it represents a “fair” and “ethical” approach to the use of AI.
As you can imagine,the news has not gone down particularly well with the performers whose roles might be on the line as a result.
–Matt Jarvis
–Matt Jarvis
Minecraft Legends’ next update will be its last, nine months after launch. You’ll have one last Lost Legend combat challenge to take on, plus a final free skin.
–Matt Jarvis
IT IS THURSDAY. All our Normality Detectors are reading “Quite Normal”, but please remember that “Quite Normal” is the highest level of Normality they can measure. Better play it safe and FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
For some reason Exmouth Town Council have emailed to say that they’ve signed up to the Plant Based Treaty. Er, good job Exmouth. Please be more selective with your PR bulletins in future.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Activision havedetailedthe next big round of additions to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. The offerings include a new 6v6 Rio map and new game modes, multiplayer ranked play, a new Warlord and Champion’s Quest for Zombies, and some time-limited events including one dedicated to anti-superhero show The Boys.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As pointed out byGamesradar, Valve have senta DMCA noticeto the creators of a Team Fortress: Source 2 mod and alsoaskedthe creator of Portal 64 to take their work down, for fear of annoying Nintendo.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Diablo 4’s Season 3 starts on January 23rd, as spotted byDestructoid.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As passed on by Alice0, Terry Cavanagh has released a new update for classic platformer VVVVVV, localising it in 21 new languages and bringing the game up to Steam Deck Verified status.
VVVVVV is back on its 14th birthday with a major new update - now available for the first time in more than 20 languages! Check it out!https://t.co/d4Po65zLvEpic.twitter.com/5vCWa7z2rn
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Well, this seems promisingly unpleasant.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Seems “Indiana Jones And The Great Circle” might be the title of the new Indy game from MachineGames, which is due to be officially presented at the Xbox Developer Direct on January 18th.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Remedy havetrademarked"FBC: Firebreak", which could be one of their Control projects, or a piece of Alan Wake 2 DLC - “FBC” is presumably Federal Bureau of Control, and “firebreak” may refer to one of the supernatural boundaries within the Oldest House, as noted byRespawn First.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here’s a new dieselpunk city-builder from developer Core Engage and publisher Daedalic Entertainment. Frostpunk with trains instead of blizzards? It looks like it turns into a factory sim later on.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Midday music: an unplugged Kate Perry cover of Head Over Heels by Tears For Fears.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
1970s-France-set detective story Chronique Des Silencieux now has a release date - January 29th.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Bamco have released a tiny Elden Ring PC patchupdating its anti-cheating measuresin line with a SteamOS operating system update.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Momodora is one of those forever underrated series, because it doesn’t get attention from anyone other than hardcore action platformer players. Here’s a chance to correct that: Momodora: Moonlit Farewell, the fifth game in the series, isout now.
–Graham Smith
I can’t stop playing The Finals andits latest patchshould make it a little less unfair for me, a mouse and keyboard player.
–Graham Smith
–Graham Smith
Another Tribes 3 playtest will kick off sometime in the next few hours and run until the evening (EST) on Friday, January 12th, with a possibility it will be extended. This is according to an update on the game’sDiscord server. If you’ve previously received access to a beta via Steam you should have access once again - and the ‘request access’ button remains activeon the Tribes 3: Rivals Steam page.
–Graham Smith
I didn’t watch the Halo TV series - or, indeed, play any Halo game other than the first - but there’s now a trailer for season season:
–Graham Smith
Update 8 for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor adds new accessibility features, including: additional “slow motion presets” which let you further adjust the speed of the game; a high contrast mode which desaturates the environment to highlight critical elements more; and an audio ping that allows players to echolocate “objects and interactable elements.” There arepatch noteson the official site.
–Graham Smith
IT IS FRIDAY. No notes. FEED THE MAW.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Old World’s DLC pack Wonders And Dynasties isout now. It introduces eight new wonders of the world together with “30 brand new ways of starting your game with the addition of new Dynastic leaders – each empire has received new leaders and starting conditions.”
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Ubisoft have released a demo for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which Katharine really likes. Find it onEpic Games StoreorUbisoft Connect.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
According toThe Verge, Discord are laying off 17 per cent of their workforce in a bid to “sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organization.” If the report is accurate, these are Discord’s largest ever layoffs.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As reported byIGN, Ubisoft have said they’ll update Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown after release to replace a small amount of dialogue that was voiced using placeholder text-to-speech software.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
There arereports going aroundthat Capcom have added the Enigma Protector DRM to certain older games, which is supposedly blocking mods and causing issues with some systems. I’ve asked Capcom for comment.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here bethoughts from Naoki Yoshidaof FF14 and FF16 fame about where Square Enix and Final Fantasy should go next, and who should lead the development of Final Fantasy 17.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A quick end-of-weekwrite-up from meabout Crystal Story: Dawn Of Dusk, one of the games I referenced in this week’s intro.
–Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Smite 2 has revealed its full sequel to the god-battling MOBA, promising flashier visuals, tweaked gameplay and a slew of other upgrades and changes. It won’t replace the original, though, and you’ll be rewarded for hopping over if you’re an existing player. An alpha test is planned for this spring.
–Matt Jarvis
Team Fortress: Source 2, the fan-made remake of Team Fortress 2 in the Source 2 engine,has been cancelledafter the ambitious three-year project ran into a double-whammy of recent development issues and a legal takedown from Valve.
–Matt Jarvis
Kumitantei: Old-School Slaughter looks like a promising indie successor to the darkly comic murder-mystery joys of visual novel series Danganronpa, mixing in card battles, social links and influences from eighties anime to boot.
–Matt Jarvis
Here’s a breakdown ofthe hubbub surrounding Resident Evil Revelations on PC, which reportedly added DRM tool Enigma Protector in a recent update to the 11-year-old game - only for it to apparently tank performance and cause various issues, from crashes to stuttering, and be swiftly removed. Capcom aren’t giving up on their war against mods and cheats, though, promising the update will return once the problems are fixed.
–Matt Jarvis
Overwatch 2’s season 9 update, due next month, willaim to make teamwork easier but players less reliant upon it. Among the changes is the ability for non-Support players to use a self-healing passive, to reduce the reliance and pressure upon Support players.
–Graham Smith
Dominions 6 willrelease on January 17th, packing even more pretender gods and an improved UI into the already expansive fantasy 4X series.
–Graham Smith
Starfield’s biggest patch so far focuses on bug fixes and graphical tweaks and will launch into betaon January 17th, with a full release planned for two weeks later.
–Graham Smith
Thison Nintendogs is entertaining, too. Bearman is best known today for writing the 2007 Wired article that would later be adapted into the movie Argo.
–Graham Smith
