There are times when I think each week's most intriguing new PC releases are being organised behind the scenes by a fiendishly plotting, Left 4 Dead-style "AI Director". Mostly, the games approach in small groups distributed evenly among the weekdays - a steady assault. But every now and then, they treacherously mass and pounce on one particular day. This week, it's the latter.
On Monday 12th August, mockingly empty alleyways and the sound of weeping. On Tuesday 13th August, the wordy wizarding of Leximan (which still has a Steam demo). On Wednesday 14th August, a distant fell chorus and a lifting of the neck hairs. And then, on Thursday 15th August, the onslaught begins: the early access launch of laidback factory sim Shapez 2, the parsing, pointing and clicking of The Crimson Diamond (also has a Steam demo), the bloody fisticuffs and llama-based exploration of Arco (Steam demo? Yes, Steam demo), the blithe town-building of Gourdlets (no Steam demo for this one... ah, just messing - here it is), the madcap musical toys of ODDADA (you might want to try the Steam demo?), the avian mischief of Just Crow Things (Steam demo, yes), and the Steam release of Sins Of A Solar Empire 2 (shockingly demo-less).
Did you think it was over? Best regroup with team-mates, for the Director has held a few zombos in reserve. On Friday 16th August, a concluding foursome of the fun, the fearful and the forlorn: woebegone sheepdog odyssey Farewell North, pint-sized Zeldalike Castaway, cosmic junk salesman Pawn Planet and Feed The Deep, a Lovecraftian roguelike from the Fruit Ninja dev. As ever, all the week's new releases are sponsored by The Maw, an endlessly ugly embodiment of the universe's yearning for the New. You can follow our efforts to manage and mollify the creature in the news liveblog below. Have a jolly week!
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– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Playful bicycle crash 'em up Lonely Mountains is getting a snowy sequel. Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders will take players skiing down glittering low-poly slopes sometime this year.
– Brendan Caldwell
Slitterhead, the survival horror game made by a team led by the director of Siren, now has a teasy little story trailer, featuring a montage of motorcycles, immolation and enthusiastic splatters of blood.
– Brendan Caldwell
Alicia Haddick wrote about musical turn-based cyberpunker Keylocker for RPS a few years back. I'm not sure if the current demo is new, but it's turned up on my radar recently. Looks rad!
– Nic Reuben
If toast always lands butter side down, and cats always land on their feet, then what happens if you drop a buttered cat? CATO: Buttered Cat is a puzzle platformer that finally adresses the paradox.
– Nic Reuben
Here's a blog detailing some nifty new features coming in the next Total War: Warhammer III patch, including a new system that lets the dawi expand their settlements by delving deep.
While we're talking COD, Activision have reportedly sent a cease and desist to the creators of a Modern Warfare Remastered multiplayer mod - the latter's imminent launch briefly kicked the game up the Steam charts yesterday.
Today, our team members received a Cease & Desist order on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the H2M-Mod project. We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations immediately and permanently.
The Chinese Room’s senior narrative designer and writer Sarah Longthorne has blogged about creating dialogue choice systems for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Excerpt: "We don’t want you getting complacent, picking options transactionally to fill up some bar or progress some metric; we want you thinking, and engaging from moment to moment."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Delta Force: Hawk Ops done got a Space City map, where "everyone can hear you scream". Shameless!
Missing from this week's round-up: the launch of spacey time-attack racer Phantom Spark, whose demo I had fun with - find it on Steam.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A "verified" Helldivers 2 leaker has shared an in-game image of what they claim is an Illuminate tripod - the Illuminate being the game's much-rumoured third faction.
Image credit: IronS1ghts
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 has been delayed until February 11th next year.
– Nic Reuben
Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the halloweeniest game to ever exist, has a release date: October 31st. The trailer is premiering later today.
Demon Loop is a deck-building digital boardgame from Magnolia Games and author Alexander Pfister, out in Steam Early Access on August 28th. Seems a tiny bit reminiscent of Loop Hero.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
If you're in the mood for a lot of well-reviewed horror game at a moderate discount, the £70 Summer Fright Night Bundle includes Crow Country, Life Eater, Hauntii, Among The Sleep, Venture To The Vile and Harvest Hunt.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
A FF14 player has made a website solely to explain to people why the healing spell they're using is bad. Incredible commitment, 10/10. Cheers for the spot, PC Gamer.
– Nic Reuben
Here's an hour-long interview with Obsidian studio head Feargus Urquhart about, well, a lot of stuff: the possibility of New Vegas and Alpha Protocol sequels, the Xbox studio closures, subscription models, Avowed and Outer Worlds 2.
Another Monster Hunter Wilds weapon preview, this time for the light bowgun. Pah! Anyone not fighting close enough to smell the Khezu's breath is a rank coward.
Dark Fantasy RPG Band of Crusaders has a bit of Wartales about it. It's got tactical combat, camp management, and an overworld map threatened by a demon invasion that's supposed to change based on your actions and decisions.
– Nic Reuben
Kiborg is no-nonsense, vaguely Arkham-ish angry-bald-man 'em up, via PCGamesN.
– Nic Reuben
According to IGN, Evil Dead: The Game studio Boss Team are making two games based on John Carpenter's Halloween.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Food Truck Empire (Steam link) is what it sounds like, and seems fun. You can outfit truck interiors individually, and boost your profits by positioning them in the right place at the right time of day.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Abiotic Factor, the open world survival sim with rich undertones of Half-Life, has received its first major update. Additions include fishing, sushi, new traps and a reworked temperature system. Here's a trailer overview.
Black Myth: Wukong releases on 20th August, but will it cause your PC to cry hot, salty tears of inadequacy? Developers Game Science have released a benchmarking tool so you can find out in advance.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Hunt Showdown will go offline later today for 48 hours while Crytek roll out the game's massive 1896 update.
This is it, Hunters.
We are mere days from the launch of Hunt: Showdown 1896, and as noted in July, Hunt: Showdown servers are going dark for 48 hours starting Tuesday, August 13th from 7pm CEST.
This means the game will be unavailable on any platform as we ready Mammon's…
Josh Sawyer would be vaguely down for a follow-up to Fallout: New Vegas, but has some stipulations, via GamesRadar. "I think that with any IP, especially one I've worked with before, the question is 'what do I want to do this time that I wasn't able to do last time? And if those constraints are just really constraining, then it's not very appealing, because who wants to work on something where the one thing they want to explore is not possible to explore?"
– Nic Reuben
The creators of wildly successful mod Fallout London are planning to launch their own indie game development studio, as revealed in an interview with the Beeb.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Yet more evidence pointing to an iminent PC release for the original Red Dead Redemption. The Playstation Store listing contains the previously datamined text "now on PC for the first time ever." Thanks for the spot, Resetera.
– Nic Reuben
Apocalypse postponed: the release of Nacon's open worlder Terminator: Survivors has been shoved back from October 2024 to sometime in 2025.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
TUESDAY AHEAD
Hard a-starboard! FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Doom modders are irked at the recent Doom remaster on Steam, because it's been allowing anyone to upload mods to an in-game browser without decent moderation. So a lot of Doom modders work is being credited to random users. No, BilliamBongSlurper420, you did not create that level with all the exploding barrels. Sit down.
A tentative ray of hope: in a last-minute turnaround, Krafton have acquired Tango Gameworks from Microsoft along with the rights to their award-winning musical actioner Hi-Fi Rush, saving the studio from shutdown.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
MONDAY THEN
Good Maw-ning! I'm off to an event so will not be newsing much today.
