Blessings and salutations to you, reader, as we embark on yet another week. Time is short for various reasons, so I will skip the usual intro about the Maw's many exhilarating skin conditions and commence to feeding the big lug with every promising new PC game I can lay hands on.
On Monday 7th April, there's the chance to experiment with UBI, robot mayors and other sociopolitical futures in Dissent On Mars. If that sounds too demanding, consider Slimekeep, in which you shoot at slimes or farm them. Or how about Leila (pictured in header), "a dreamy puzzle adventure with shades of Gorogoa"? On Tuesday 8th April, South of Midnight's island-sized crocodiles and talking catfish burst forth to claim our thumbs, but perhaps you'd prefer to cosify trains in Locomoto or coordinate mortars in Armored Brigade 2. On Wednesday 9th April, it's time to put reboots on ground in Commandos: Origins and whip sea serpents with your anchor in Nautical Survival. On Thursday 10th April, a tidy haul indeed: off-colour open world gig sim Promise Mascot Agency, house labyrinth builder/solver Blue Prince, tinseltown manager Hollywood Animal and Bastion-esque crafting RPG Crashlands 2. And on Friday 11th April, well, how about some furry Overwatch.
Our latest news liveblog lies below - lies as in lying down, I mean, not lies as in deception. Phew, almost blew it there! See how the liveblog grinds and undulates like a conveyor belt covered in knots of shining ooze that could be either Call Of Duty weapon skins or freshly grown velociraptor embryos. By all means add to the flow using our high-tech comments-dispensing apparatus. Have a great week.
Snailshock Grand Supreme is pool but the balls are snails and you can manipulate the table using magic cards and dice. Yes, a Balatro 'em up.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here's a demo for Midnight Special, which pays homage to both 80s horror cinema and 90s 16-bit point-and-clickers. You are a babysitter who has to last one night in a nasty manor. Grim.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Shapez 2 is getting a mega-update. Nay, a giga-update. It adds multiple-level factory-building, among other things, and is due on 2nd June.
VGC report that 2K Games and/or Hangar 13 have done a whoopsie and given away Mafia: The Old Country's release date. According to a now edited blog post, it's coming on August 8th.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Blacksmith Master is going to make a certain kind of player ecstatic. Yes, it's a game about running your own medieval smithy. You can have a forge dedicated to making spoons. Spoons!
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
SpeedRunners 2: King Of Speed is a competitive racing platformer. One for the siblings/schoolfriends who honed their wits playing as Tails in non-splitscreen Sonic 2.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
FREUDAY
"One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful." FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
It is quiet right now, but get ready for an embargoed news deluge in an hour or two. The Triiiplies are almost upon us.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Pushing it! Together asks the controversial yet brave question: what if Sisyphus had friends? And answers: his situation would be even worse.
Today's the day of the latest Triple-I showcase. Watch it from 9am PDT, 12 pm EDT, 5pm BST and 6pm CEST. They've already started broadcasting Hype Muzak on the video embed.
Deadline have an interview with Jared Hess, director of A Minecraft Movie, which includes discussion of the mixed response to the first teaser trailer. "You can’t go down the rabbit hole of every comment on Reddit and trying to let comments direct the look of anything," says Hess. Yes you can, Hess. Reddit quorums are how Great Art is made.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
If you weren't sure whether to buy Persona 3 Reload in February, here's a demo to help you decide.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
In Truckful you drive a jolly pickup through the woods, delivering boxes. "Beware, the old forest is watching."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
WEIL WEDNESDAYS
"Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors, who, when their turn comes, will manufacture professors." FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The Bafta Games Awards have more or less wrapped up and, surprising no one, Astro Bot won five awards (including best game), but Balatro won best debut game and Thank Goodness You're Here won best British game so that's nice!
– Oisin Kuhnke
Strikers Club is a free-to-play physics-based multiplayer footie sim.
"Expand your collection, discover antique secrets, decorate, and when you change your mind – evict everyone and throw their furniture into space!" Goodness, the blurb for cosy flying dollhouse game Twinkleby certainly takes a turn.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Either I accidentally ate fermented berries again or the site is having some kind of technical update. I promise you those missing frontpage images will return.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Kotaku's Ethan Gach and Insider Gaming claim that a new Rainbow Six turn-based tactics game is in the works, with a top-down view and a game loop similar to Rainbow Six Siege.
An interview with Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani about how Helldivers 2 recovered from getting review-bombed over balancing complaints, plus some thoughts on layoffs and reckless company growth.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Aftermath have been talking to game developers about what it's like working for companies that "force" genAI tools on their employees. The piece consists of anonymous accounts from people in art, programming and design.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
I quite like the look of 2D adventure platformer Forgotlings, which launches on 12th June. It's from the developers of Forgotten Anne, and takes place in an enchanted realm of lost objects who have separated into warring tribes.
Marble Run Maker is, as you'd expect, about building marble runs. In your bedroom, using other belongings. It seems quite jolly and feels a teeny bit like an Unpacking-style memoir.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Giant Bomb's unstoppable gossip Jeff Grubb thinks the rumoured remake of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion will "shadow drop pretty soon".
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
THOMSON TUESDAYS
As in Judith Jarvis Thomson, the American philsopher best known for theorising (but not coining) the infamous "trolley problem". Yeah, we're doing philosophers this week. Let us FEED IT ALL TO THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A Sunshine update for Cassette Beasts, adding a new endgame quest, some new monsters and the ability to personalise the wings you get by recording certain monsters.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
If this story from MP1stis indeed based on leaked Battlefield 6 footage, the new shooter will let you destroy buildings with a sledgehammer Red Faction: Guerrilla-style.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
An update for The Lord Of The Rings: Return To Moria. This one adds a Fieldpost, aka dwarven scarecrow, which extends the range of your hearth or can be used to found a new base. They've also added freecam mode for photography and a bunch of resourcing or crafting-oriented bits and pieces.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Fogpiercer is a deckbuilder in which the deck is a cannon-toting train.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Babushka's Glitch Dungeon Crystal is about using hag magic to clean up a big cellar full of corroding textures. "The only way to stop the decay of the world is by tidying up. "
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Overwatch and World Of Warcraft art director Bill Petras has died, as announced by his friend and Blizzard colleague Harley D. Huggins on LinkedIn.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
MACHIAVELLI MONDAYS
“How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.” FEED THE MAW.
