The Maw: what’s new in PC games this week?
Happy this week, everybody! In my efforts to achieve the absolute tranquility needed to spend five days shovelling PC game news stories into a ravenous otherworldly monster, I often go for an early morning walk. I tend to do this while wearing my trusty, enveloping Honcho Poncho, because the UK summer is thoroughly behind us and the very air has begun to squelch. Anyway, while walking this morning I think I actually scared somebody into crossing the road. It turns out roaming around at sunrise near Halloween looking like a ringwraith is a great way to become a figure of menace. Sorry, neighbour! I’ll wear that nice top hat and opera mask from my socialite days in future. Anyway, let us FEED THE MAW.
We open Monday 21st October with a fat nourishing dollop of infrastructure: the early access launch of Railroad Corporation 2 and the debut of Factorio’s Space Age expansion. On Tuesday 22nd October, The Axis Unseen is here to spill heavy metal all over your Skyrim, while No More Room In Hell 2 caters to the undead-fanciers. Wednesday 23rd October is the birthday of the almost offensively chillaxed picture-puzzler Wilmot Works It Out, together with sumptuous deck-and-city builder Technotopia, but perhaps you’d prefer to be a horrible fly. Thursday 24th October sees a small army of indie releases and relative obscurities weathering the blast clouds generated by the launch of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 – that’s smalltown Japanese life sim Shin Chan: Shiro And The Coal Town, the enchantingly dreary FPS Straftat, dynasty management RPG remake Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge Of The Seven, and Dead Cell’s dashing younger sibling Windblown. As for Friday 25th October – well, let’s keep it straightforward and pick just the one game, anime Star Foxer Rogue Flight.
You know the score: these are only my recommendations and might be shit. Your picks might differ. Should differ. Please give me a hard time in the comments. No really, I crave correction. Beyond that, please find our news liveblog below with the usual fitful landslide of gossip, and have an enjoyable week.
Delta Force’s open beta commences on 5th December.
Here’s the launch trailer for Romancing SaGA 2: Revenge Of The Seven.
Black Ops 6 multiplayer won’t bring back the riot shield, a notorious troll weapon. The Fans Are Pleased. Or at least, that’s how it’s being characterised by the journalists who are more plugged into Call Of Duty’s competitive scene than I am.
Dungeons Of Hinterberg has been updated with a New Game+ mode. To celebrate, it’s also 50% off on Steam till 4th November.
The Caves Of Qud developer is teasing something with a cryptic riddle. “{n} purple wardens beseech the Chair, What is death, if one rose is fair? How long from beetle moon to beetle moon?” At least one fan in the comments of this Steam post knows their lore enough to have translated this as: 12/5/24. That seems like a possible release date for version 1.0.
As reported by VGC, Dave The Diver is getting some proper story DLC, and developers Mintrocket are also thinking about spin-off games for particular characters.
TAWRRIBLE TUESDAY
The Maw has sprouted caterpillar tracks! That’s going to make a real mess of the lawn. Take up trowels and sprinklers and see if you can lure it into the treeline. FEED THE MAW.
Total conversion mod Fallout: Vault 13, which aimed to rebuild the original Fallout inside Fallout 4, is, alas, no longer in development.
Our strange bedfellows the Ian Games networkers have been talking to Black Ops 6 developers about the game’s campaign, which has apparently had more time on the hob than Modern Warfare 3’s poorly received singleplayer. “I do feel like we had good opportunities to keep crafting and recrafting the missions until we were happy with them,” says Jon Zuk, associate creative director.
Fachewachewa says: Tormenture releases today! It’s a cool mix of Inscryption and Adventure (the game). You’re a kid playing on your not-atari in a creepy room at night. It’s full of secrets and the cursed game obviously starts leaking into reality
Oh yeah, I should have included this one in the round-up. Seems like a goer.
Strinova is an upcoming free-to-play anime shooter in which your characters can transform into 2D objects – turning themselves sideways to shrink their profiles, or wafting through the air like paper planes. It’s got a demo.
The final trailer for Factorio’s Space Age expansion. We shall build ourselves a conveyor belt that girdles the universe.
One we missed from the tail-end of last week (I was at an event, Nic was neck-deep in a game that rhymes with Flagon Sage, and everybody else had been jailed for stealing the Queen’s tarts): Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is coming to PC on 30th January 2025.
MAWNFUL MONDAY
Break out the ladles and head to the battlements! The Maw, it must be fed. FEED IT.