The Maw: what's new in PC games this week?
New Arc Line, Wild Country, 30 Birds and just a few more
Live
The Maw doesn't hibernate, but it does... decelerate. As the year fades, its seismic pulse slows from Gatling-gun prestissimo to howitzer larghissimo. Its compound eyes contract or dim or vanish entirely. Its limbs lengthen, forming contrails from the Arctic to Antarctica (what, did you think those were from planes? Haha. Hahahaha.) Accordingly, news writing becomes a kind of lullaby. Softly now - which promising new PC games are out this week?
We open Monday 25th November with cosy creature-feature city-builder Wild Country. Tuesday 26th November brings a couple of early access launches: on the one hand, posh pixelart roguelike Guidus Zero, which is both real-time and grid-based - the forbidden combo. And on the other, party-based industrial fantasy RPG New Arc Line, which gives you a world split between magic and steampunk gadgetry. On Wednesday 27th November, we take a rain check. Why not do the laundry or learn a language, or something? On Thursday 28th November, there's 30 Birds, a puzzler that unfolds across the surfaces of rotating lanterns, inspired by Persian miniatures. And on Friday 29th November, there's 50s anime detective sim LumineNight.
A slender assortment, that - if you know of any other games that deserve a mention, let us know. Alternatively, enjoy the relative quiet after triple-A launch season. Some local news from Edwinland: I've just bought a fan heater. It's the best thing. I kneel before it in the gloom with my duvet over my head and praise the small gods of ceramics. Wishing you a warm week.
A clever coder has made a detailed map of the huge world in sci-fantasy roguelike Caves Of Qud. You can zoom in and out, like Google Maps but with lots more pixel art. The mapper also includes one underground level (or "z-level") but adds: "for the sake of brevity (and cloud storage costs) I must omit the other 2,147,483,645 z-levels."
Chibi Souls action game Duel Corp is approaching its final playtest. I played a bit of the demo a few months ago and it seems promising, if fairly straight-laced in its Dark Soulsing.
Via MP1st, a tiny bit from Bloober about the combat of Cronos: The New Dawn, their time-diving scifi horror. It's got a mechanic redolent of Dead Space's limb-cutting and Alan Wake's flashlight, apparently, but they're withholding details, the flirts.
FRIDAY FORGIVES
Almost there. FEED THE MAW.Here's an in-depth and touching account of the writing of Dragon Age: Inquisition's Cassandra, from former BioWare scribe David Gaider. He worked on the character after Cassandra's original writer Jennifer Helpler left the team, after receiving (but not necessarily as a result of) abuse from members of noted bullyboy parade Gamergate. Thanks, Eurogamer.
Frostpunk is getting a free "major content update" and two paid DLC packs next year - the expansions are called Spectrum and Aurora. There's a third, currently untitled DLC pack out in 2026. All that's from their new roadmap.
Back in April 2021, Overgrowth developer Wolfire brought an antitrust lawsuit against Valve, stating that Steam's 30% cut from every video game purchase is anti-competitive. It was dismissed in November 2021, then updated and refiled. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, a US judge has granted the lawsuit class action status, and combined it with a similar suit from Dark Catt Studios. According to GI, this means that the suit can apply to any developers, publishers or individuals who paid a commission to Valve in connection with a game sale on or after January 28, 2017. In other words, it has the potential to get a lot bigger.
Caves of Qud 1.0 launches in under a week. Beware that your old saves will not transfer over. If you want to keep going with your old save, you'll need to switch to a legacy branch. "The currently live branch is 208.x," explains a Steam post. "You can switch to this branch now to avoid updating when the patch drops on December 5th."
Another big update! This time for well loved FPS roguelite Roboquest.
Survival game Medieval Dynasty just got a big update.
The just-announced Light of Motiram from Polaris Quest and Tencent is the Palworld to Horizon: Zero Dawn's Pokemon.
THURSDAY DESCENDS
FEED THE MAW. Starting a bit early today as I have to jump out for an appointment this morning.Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers has been updated with myriad balance changes and some swanky new card art. Enough to lure you from Balatro?
Liz Ryerson is cool and her game recommendations are also cool.
Post four indie games you think more people should have played Pig Eat Ball Salad Fields Uurnog Uurnlimited Future Unfolding
— Liz Ryerson (@ellaguro.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 4:13 AM
[image or embed]
PlayStation's Shuhei Yoshida, known for being the face of Sony's "indie" gaming initiatives, has announced that he's leaving the company in January after 31 years.
The Silent Hill 2 remake's senior narrative designer Barbara Kciuk thinks one of the larger advantages to working in horror is that it's cheaper. “It is a bit niche, but actually, the interesting part about horror is that it is one of the best ratios when it comes to the cost of production and the earnings,” she told TheGamer. “If you take Paranormal Activity, it cost pennies and it made millions. This is one of the genres in both film and games where you actually can take very little resources, and the game or the movie looking cheap might actually be an advantage.”
Former Arkane dude Raphael Colantonio has been having thoughts on the TwiXters about review scores and Metacritic, with specific reference to critics docking S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 points for launch bugs.
The former Little Nightmares and LittleBigPlanet PS Vita devs of Section 9 have announced a publishing partnership with Epic Games. They're working on a new third-person sci-fi action adventure which makes me think of both LN and Returnal. Here's some WIP footage.
Minnmax have a feistily irreverent rapidfire video interview with the Indiana Jones And The Great Circle devs which doesn't reveal much and might just wind you up. I did enjoy the character arc joke though.
Citing anonymous sources, Insider Gaming report that Ubisoft are working on a social sim inspired by Animal Crossing with Minecrafty building elements. It's apparently codenamed Alterra.
WEDNESDAY ARRIVES
But perhaps if we avoid eye contact it will go away again. FEED THE MAW.Aquarium simulator Fish Game has a new 'jerk update'. This is my first time hearing of this game, but I'm sold, honestly.
Songs of Rats is a minimalist text based sci-fi RPG, coming next year. Looks rat! Uh, rad.
Moons Of Darsalon is an action platformer with shades of Oddworld and Lemmings, wrapped up in a 50's pulp sci fi aesthetic. There's a demo on Steam.
TUESDAY TIME
Coffee mug charged, fan heater set to "secondhand bathwater" temperature. Let's have at it. FEED THE MAW.A studio led by former Mass Effect director Casey Hudson has shut down before fully revealing the blobkbuster sci-fi the studio was working on. Humanoid Origin posted the announcement of the closure on LinkedIn, saying that a "shortfall of funding" was responsible. They had been working on a "multi-platform AAA game, focusing on character-driven narrative in an all-new science-fiction universe", according to the studio's website.
2K are removing their launcher from games like XCOM 2, Civilization V, BioShock Remastered, and the Mafia trilogy, according to a post on the publisher's website. Launchers are often annoying, so that's nice. All this now means XCOM 2 now has a new default mod launcher, and mods are playable on Steam Deck, they say.
Monaco 2, the sequel to the 2013 co-op heist game, is on track to come out some time in 2025, says creative directorman Andy Schatz in a Steam update.
Fachewachewa says: Is commenting safe now? Hi, happy return to the old system. Does that mean we're losing the formatting here? Anyways, slow week, probably because of the upcoming steam sales. 30 Birds is definitely a cool one though!
We have, alas, lost the liveblog formatting. On the upside, I can now once again quote comments in the feed directly from the CMS.
I'm keeping my eye on Mama's Sleeping Angels. It's a multiplayer extract-o-horror that is visually and thematically redolent of Lethal Company but has plenty of ideas of its own. Golden Light enthusiasts might also enjoy.
We didn't write up Soulmask back at early access launch because I was very tired of survival games, and still am, but the game now has elephant mounts with hot springs on their backs, which seems Maw-worthy, at least.
Abyss X Zero continues to look like top stuff.
IT IS MAWNDAY
Let's avoid the puns this week, to avoid rousing the beast from its doze. Whisper it: feed the maw.