Hello and happy this week all! Goodness, it feels oddly cramped in here. Strangely... abbreviated. Ah, I see: the Maw has eaten a couple of weekdays again. In accordance with what governments are even now hurriedly white-washing as "the Easter bank holidays", we'll be ending this week on Thursday 17th April and returning to work on Tuesday 22nd. But do not despair, for the remaining days are thick with new PC games. Here are the ones I find most interesting.
On Monday 14th April, the release of The Fool's Apprentice - a wizard academy management game with sociopathic god sim elements. Also Repose, a black-and-white dungeon crawler in which you scour the bowels of a Company for oxygen cylinders. Oh and Stygian: Outer Gods (pictured), which may be a work of subtler Lovecraft than the title suggests. On Tuesday 15th April, it is time to snap pics in Lushfoil Photography Simulator, XCOM-municate mutants in Chains Of Freedom, and get sokoban confused with Portal in Lab Rat.
On Wednesday 16th April, there's Dive The Depths - lot of roguelike, splash of bullet hell, maybe a bit of Noita. I'm also moderately piqued by Haunted House Renovator, in which some blemishes need to be wallpapered over, and others, exorcised. Portal Fantasy? A little from column Zelda, a little from column Pokemon. On Thursday 17th April, a "mildly anticipated" triple-attack in the shape of physics-abusing platformerBionic Bay, first-person chasm-climber White Knuckle, and foetid action-RPGMandragora: Whispers Of The Witch Tree. Friday 18th April has been devoured, as noted, but if it hadn't, we might have spent it with open world glide 'em up Lost Skies or swinging autobattler Electro Bop Boxing League.
Assuming it's a bank holiday where you are, do you have any plans for the long weekend? Playing a new PC game that isn't listed above, perhaps? Let us know about it in the comments. Find our latest, possibly shortest news liveblog below.
The Yogscast have announced The Royal Writ, an intriguing roguelike deckbuilder in which cards advance down lanes toward enemy fortifications and are permanently destroyed if they make contact before overall victory. There's also an element of building up legends that reminds me of Wildermyth.
Nature-simulating settlement-builder Of Life And Land leaves early access on 16th May. People seem to like it so far.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
CD Projekt would like you to be wary of Witcher 4 beta scams. "We've been taking the necessary steps to take this fraudulent messaging down," reads a post. "That said, if you receive any invites to or stumble upon news of one, we kindly ask you to report the scam using the tools available to you in your email client or the social media platform you are using."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Via PCGN: Overwatch 2's forthcoming Stadium mode - in brief, a third-person round-based arena mode with the ability to buy items and upgrade characters - will not initially feature the game's postergirl Tracer and other high-mobility heroes, because these are trickier to balance.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The makers of Oblivion-in-Skyrim mod Skyblivion are pushing on undeterred by confirmation of an official Oblivion remaster. Via VG247, they plan to "focus on the release of our own version and stay positive."
Out today: Sea Chronicles, which appears to be Obra Dinn but with Spongebob-style humour.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A cut from former BioWare dev Mark Darrah regarding the influence of Baldur's Gate 3. "Baldur's Gate 3 did change the landscape in terms of who was willing to look at an RPG," he said in a podcast spotted by Gamesradar. "It broadened the genre space quite significantly, which is awesome. But I think its impact on the way that games are actually developed is going to be more muted than people who are outside the video game industry might be expecting."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here are the minimum specs for the new Marathon.
Image credit: Bungie
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's hardcore mode has launched. This removes fast travel, visual cues during combat, and map position, while asking you to pick three negative debuffs when you begin. You can opt for a Bad Back, for example, which might give you a twinge when you bend down to pick a herb.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Pokemon Go makers Niantic have laid off 68 people after selling their game business to Scopely for $3.5 billion.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
WHITE-FACED WHISTLING WEDNESDAY
Again, it's a real bird! Magical stuff. Whoever named all these birds needs to be hired and put to work naming video game hardware. I could sure go for a white-faced whistling gamer laptop. FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Bungie have dated the reveal event for Destiny 2's The Edge of Fate expansion - May 6th 2025. You'll be able to watch on Twitch.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Agni: Village of Calamity seems cool. It's about an Indonesian policewoman navigating a dodgy village. There's a big persistent monster that comes after you if you make too much of a racket.
Akwan says: Metro 2033 Redux is currently (and for a short time only) free on steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/286690/Metro_2033_Redux/
According to the news snippet it is also available for free on GOG and Xbox (I haven't checked there myself).
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
An update for Space Engineers 2, adding "target-based ship controls, undo/redo for the paint gun, improved visuals for partial copy/paste, and an important improvement of jetpack boost mode".
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Nintendo's patent for the Eternal Darkness sanity system elapsed in 2021. Eurogamer has a quick piece on whether this means anybody can now copy it.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
TUFTED TITMOUSE TUESDAY
It's a real bird, I promise! FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
cpt_freakout says: Today saw the release of Advance Wars clone Warside: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2368300/Warside/. It does look pretty much exactly like AW (some of the unit types are even the same), with some new features.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Here's the first bit of official art for Bit Reactor's Star Wars Zero Company. A proper reveal is coming on 19th April.
Image credit: EA
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Thanks for the game tips, all. The Maw is making lots of happy tectonic noises.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
SeekerX says: What's that? Last week's Promise Mascot Agency didn't sate The Maw's hunger for indie games starring voice work from Takaya Kuroda of Yakuza fame? Then let The Maw feast this Thursday 4/17 upon Rusty Rabbit, a metroidvania about a middle-aged anthropomorphic rabbit with a mech, scavenging through the ruins of human civilization:
Out Of Hands does not lack for hands. It's "a bizarre card-based adventure game that blends video-collage graphics with gripping psychological horror."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
treelo says: Also upcoming on Tuesday is precision platformer skateboarderer Seafrog: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2107540/Seafrog/
Playing the demo back some number of Next Fests past, it was a fun little game filled with tricks and even a bit of grapple tongue action.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Brush Burial 2 is a "sanguine and spirited" immersive sim featuring a devil with a forked tail. "Lose your way in the slithering guts of the colonial undercarriage. Make wealth out of misery." Yes please.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The new Marathon will be a "premium" game but not a "full-priced" game, Bungie have qualified in response to a Gamespot piece. Soooo, pay upfront, but not as much as you would for, say, Call Of Duty? It'll launch with a battle pass and three maps. There's a fourth map coming shortly after release.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Watch out Windows Eleveners with Windows Insider access, Microsoft are rolling out their Recall tool again in preview form. This nowadays opt-in tool screengrabs your desktop every few seconds, in case you forget something. Naturally, there are privacy concerns. Ta, PCGamer.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
As reported by VGC, Blizzard's Rod Fergusson has a roadmap for another ten years of Diablo.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
DMZ: Nuclear Survival is a just-announced open world survivo-crafty-bang in which you can nuke things, resurrect Roman warriors, and hire bears to run your gym. Steam page here.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
COMMONDAY BLACKBIRD
A bird did a poo on me this morning, which is apparently good luck. In gratitude, this week's day puns are avian. FEED THE MAW.
