The Maw: what's new in PC games this week?
Monster Hunter Wilds, R.E.P.O., Faceminer and maw
This week is peak Maw-feeding season, for it is the release week of Monster Hunter Wilds, in which there are many maws. Fanged maws! Tusked maws! Pincered maws! Floppy toad maws! Whatever the Rompompolo has on the front of its head - possibly a proboscis, possibly a customisable screwdriver? Whatever shall we throw into all these hungry mouths, gaping at us from the dung-caked dens of Steam? Demos, of course, for this week is also the week of Steam Next Fest.
The combination of an apex Capcom predator and a population explosion of mayfly samplers has driven all mid-sized beasties from the region, but there are a few other new games to discover this week. On Monday 24th February, free-to-play medieval MMO Life is Feudal: Arden enters early access. On Tuesday 25th February, Limited Run and Konami have a Ninja Five-O remaster for us. On Wednesday 26th February, it's time for R.E.P.O. (pictured in the header), another spin on Lethal Company's co-op extracto-horror format. On Thursday 27th February, the choice of Shift'n Slay, a time-looping cyberpunk grid tactics game, or FACEMINER, in which you manage a pre-Y2K biometric data processing empire. And on Friday 28th February, finally, the big Blangonga - Monster Hunter Wilds.
Please understand as ever that these are just my personal selections from the week's offerings. It is hard to see past the serpentine flanks of Monster Hunter, or look through the buzzing swarms of Next Fest demos. But perhaps you have access to higher ground or some kind of fancy thermal imager. Are there any promising new PC games I've missed? Let us know in the comments, and find our latest weekly news blog below.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
GORE MAGALA MONDAY
This week the days are Monstrous. The Gore Magala is a big fluffy wyvern that hails from Monster Hunter 4. "Cor, Magala!" morelike. FEED THE MAW.TUESREY DAU
The Rey Dau? Big dragon-shaped railgun basically. You'll find it on the Windward Plains. FEED THE MAW.The Pan European Game Information board have re-rated Balatro and Luck Be A Landlord as PEGI 12 games, following an appeal from publishers Sold Out and Fangamer. Both had been rated 18 on the grounds that they depict gambling, but PEGI have found that Balatro contains "mitigating fantastical elements" while Luck Be A Landlord offers "no specific transferable gambling skills".
PEGI further comment that "on the basis of these appeals, the PEGI Experts Group will develop a more granular set of classification criteria to handle gambling themes and the simulation, teaching and glamorisation of gambling in different age categories, which will now include 12 but also keep 18 as an age category for games that simulate gambling typically played in casinos and betting halls."
Microsoft have delayed their Fable reboot to 2026, as announced by Xbox Games Studios head Craig Duncan in a new video.
WEDNERSCYLLADAY
GOOD MORNING. I am at a video game preview event, so the Maw might go a bit underfed today. We will FEED IT in due course.
I'm always interested to see a game where you play as a dragon, and also hopeful they manage to escape gaming's long-standing dragon curse. Best of luck, Soar: Pillars of Tasneem.
Deadline Savior is an idle "productivity RPG" that weaves in the Pomodoro technique with a quest to slay an evil dragon named "Procrastination". Come on. Couldn't even manage ""Procrastinathor"? "Pissaroundathrax"? Bone idle RPG more like.
RATHURSDALOS
Ah, Monster Hunter's old standby. People have slain and carved up enough of these to reach the Moon and back. FEED THE MAW.A behind-the-scenes video on The Witcher 4's announcement trailer.
Doom 2 mod turned standalone FPS Total Chaos is out July 24th.
Rockbeasts is Spinal Tap by way of Bojack Horseman
MicroProse-published throwback RTS Battlefall: State of Conflict launches into early access on 11th March.
Cute puzzler A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build is holding a 'pay what the temperature is' pricing event on Itch.io. "Every hour, the monster goes out to the weather station in London to check the temperature. They set the price on itch.io accordingly. Chilly day? Enjoy a lower price! Warm spell, and the game will cost a little more."
The game is ten years old today, so it's likely you've played it if you're interested, but I have to admit this is one of the more fun bits of marketing I've seen.
FRIDOSHUGAMA
We have finally slain This Week and must now bloodlessly cut apart its steaming corpse in the 60 seconds before mission completion. FEED THE MAW.Midnight Murder Club is the multiplayer FPS where everybody fights in the dark, and it's out of early access on 13th March.
Bitmap Bureau are making a new 2D pixelart Terminator 2 adaptation, which looks a bit like Contra.
Gex is back, somehow, in the form of a remaster Trilogy with the first 2D game and two 3D sequels. Away with you, traitor. I spent years trying to persuade friends you were better than Mario.
Here's a trailer for PlayerUnknown Productions' exploration sim Prologue: Go Wayback!, which I have already written about at some length.
Esoteric Ebb is one of your Dragons & Disco Elysiums. It's being published by Raw Fury later this year.
MercurySteam have announced fantasy actioner Blades Of Fire. Its sort of God Of War meets Darksiders.
