A new week has slouched into view, and with it a slight shift in The Maw's terrifying visage. A new presence can be seen through the mist, perched on its shoulder, whispering tendrils of video game news nuggets into its greedy, hungry ear. The Maw appears sated, but will the distraction hold while we await the return of our news editor Edwin, whose long weekend sojourns won't conclude until tomorrow? We pray and hope it will be satisfied in this relatively quiet week of game releases and newsy happenings, lest it turn its awful gaze upon us with a wrathful vengeance. FEED THE MAW.
Here are the games we've got our beady eyes on this week, at time of writing: brutal, but extremely stylish action RPG Death Of A Wish (11th March); the Metroid-inspired Rebel Transmute (11th March); turn-based fantasy roguelike Goblin Stone (12th March); WayForward's new Contra run 'n' gunner Contra: Operation Galuga (12th March); the early access launch of beloved team-based FPS Tribes 3: Rivals (12th March); retro love letter and archive project Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (13th March); I'm not sure it needs to exist, but here it is anyway Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection (14th March); Outcast: A New Beginning (15th March).
As always, if there's something we've overlooked in our weekly scouring, please do pop your suggestions and recommendations in the comments. The Maw is hungry, and welcomes all titbits of news and shiny new video game releases. Have a good week!
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Key points- 08:27 am March 15 2024 FRIDAY FINALLY
- 09:04 am March 14 2024 THURSDAY AGAIN
- 09:10 am March 13 2024 WEDNESDAY IT IS
- 09:05 am March 12 2024 WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE TUESDAY
- 10:51 am March 11 2024 MONDAY HAS ARISEN
MONDAY HAS ARISEN
FEED THE MAW.– Katharine Castle
15:54 pm UTC Warner Bros. have announced Multiversus will be returning in full on May 28th, almost a year after they closed its open beta.– Katharine Castle
16:41 pm UTCThe Overwatch 2 x Cowboy Beebop skins that Graham posted about last week got a second trailer, where you can see them in more detail.
Overwatch 2 x Cowboy Bebop | Gameplay Trailer Watch on YouTube– Alice Bell
16:44 pm UTCSomeone let Ernest Cline attempt a metaverse, starting with some sort of multi-IP Fortnite clone called Open, and I am heated. They allege it is coming to early access as part of the Readyverse, which was previously announced as launching this year.
– Alice Bell
18:15 pm UTCFinal Fantasy 16’s PC release sounds pretty close, with a demo first so you can test its “somewhat high” specs.
– Matt Jarvis
18:50 pm UTCThe Finals’ Season 2 brings hacker powers, a 5v5 mode, a new map and more to the multiplayer shooter later this week.
– Matt Jarvis
20:20 pm UTCPUBG is taking the fight to Fortnite with destructible environments and more transportation items in 2024, along with plans for more frequent gun balancing and a move to Unreal Engine 5.
– Matt Jarvis
20:40 pm UTCDestiny 2 is crossing over with Ghostbusters next week, complete with a Slimer Ghost and Echo-1 (and a horny Sparrow).
– Matt Jarvis
09:05 am UTCWHY DID IT HAVE TO BE TUESDAY
Beat to quarters! FEED THE MAW.– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:07 am UTCForza's big progression system overhaul goes live today.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:10 am UTC As passed on by PCG, Star Citizen's first-person shooting is getting a bunch of tweaks and additions via the upcoming Alpha 3.23 update - highlights include backpack-reloading animations, procedural recoil (even for laser guns) and dynamic crosshairs.– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:15 am UTC Stellar Settlers - a "chill space base/city builder and colony sim game" with stackable hexagonal bases and a splash of Kerbal physics-based rocketry - is out in early access.– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:18 am UTCAlso out today: Death Trick: Double Blind, a lavish-looking visual novel in which you are a magician who is also a private eye, investigating a murder in a travelling circus.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:40 am UTCA new extended trailer for space strategy sim Falling Frontier, which I continue to think looks very swish.
Falling Frontier - Might Of Mars Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:46 am UTCWe've also been emailed about this cute little puzzle game, originally on Switch, that's coming to PC on the 24th of April. Tents And Trees is sort of a twist on picross featuring little tents. And little trees. I played the demo and enjoyed it - it's clean and extremely easy to play.
– Alice Bell
09:59 am UTCA long, interesting Youtuber chat featuring Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt in which we learn about how exactly Helldivers 2 handles stealth - which is to say, it technically doesn't. Rather, stealth exists simply because "everything has to make sense".
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
10:02 am UTCThe new edition of Monster Hunter Stories hits Steam on 14th June.
Monster Hunter Stories - Announcement Trailer | Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4 Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
11:59 am UTCA Helldivers 2 patch appears! Better shoot it.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
13:51 pm UTCBotanica is a 2D platformer from a young indie team with visuals reminscent of LocoRoco.
Botanica - Demo Release Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
14:07 pm UTCSettlers-alike Pioneers Of Pagonia has received its first major patch, which adds a fisher hut, warehouse, unit and production statistics, and much more besides.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
18:13 pm UTC Excellent news: Children Of The Sun hits Steam on April 9th.– Katharine Castle
23:09 pm UTCTribes 3: Rivals entered Steam Early Access today, with a roadmap of updates for the next several months which includes new maps and weapons. Is it really Tribes if you can't fly a Shrike, though?
– Graham Smith
23:10 pm UTCStarbreeze have parted ways with their CEO, six months after the disastrous launch of Payday 3. The board say they felt new leadership was required, and have appointed the former CEO of Focus Home Interactive as interim CEO.
– Graham Smith
23:11 pm UTCTopSpin 2K25 has an April 26th release date and will feature all four grand slams, famous tennis arenas, and pros past and present including Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Andre Agassi.
– Graham Smith
23:27 pm UTCYellow Taxi Goes Vroom launches on April 9th and looks utterly delightful. It's a Nintendo 64 throwback platformer-collectathon, but there's no jump button, because you're a car. You can play a demo now.
– Graham Smith
09:10 am UTCWEDNESDAY IT IS
Radiation levels are off the charts this morning as the Maw is swarmed by AI spambots, triggering a Gastric Singularity. FEED IT.– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:13 am UTC Nightdive are updating their System Shock reboot with the ability to select your character's gender, among other things, in patch 1.2, which is being worked on alongside this year's console release. There's no release date for the patch yet.– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:17 am UTC Via Videogamer, there's a Palworld mod that lets you breed unreleased pals included in the game's files but not, strictly speaking, available to players in the world.– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:17 am UTCA trailer for Battlefield 2042's seventh season, which includes new maps and guns.
Battlefield 2042 | Season 7: Turning Point Gameplay Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:28 am UTCMagic stealth sim Ereban: Shadow Legacy has a Steam and Epic Games Store release date - 10th April. I've not come across this one before and the trailer seems a bit good.
Ereban: Shadow Legacy Announcement Trailer - Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022 Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:34 am UTCIn a truly horrendous assault on the nerves of videogames news editors worldwide, ConcernedApe is tweeting one line from the Stardew Valley update 1.6 patch notes a day.
I'll post a random non-spoilery patch note line each day until the 19th pic.twitter.com/shQyIcGhMW
— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) March 12, 2024 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:41 am UTCAs passed on by Gamesradar, Ghost Ship Games would like to collaborate with Arrowhead on some kind of Helldivers X Deep Rock Galactic crossover. Dwarves know a thing or two about clearing out bugholes.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:55 am UTCEmptyvessel are a new team "who specialize in the immersive shooter space". Staff credits include Doom, Borderlands and Call Of Duty.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
10:00 am UTCYou'll soon be able to make games that can be played directly on Discord as embedded apps. Here's the official blog with more.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
10:07 am UTCNobody Wants To Die is my kind of high-end cyber-bullshit.
Nobody Wants to Die - Official Reveal Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
14:01 pm UTCIn Nif Nif you are a piglet who uses cards and... soup to... clean... animals in... turn-based battles and - yep, there goes the last of today's functioning neurones. It's for the Young People and seems sweet. Here's the announcement trailer.
Nif Nif Trailer BETA Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
16:20 pm UTCSea Of Stars is getting three-player couch co-op.
Sea of Stars | 3 Player Couch Co-op Teaser Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
16:22 pm UTCVindictus: Defying Fate's public pre-alpha test goes live on Steam today - find out more on the game's Discord server.
Vindictus: Defying Fate - Pre-Alpha Official Trailer #1 Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
16:48 pm UTCHere's the full early access roadmap for fantasy survival game Enshrouded, via Steam.
Image credit: Keen Games– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
18:00 pm UTCAs Edwin shared earlier, one of 2023’s best single-player games looks set to become one of 2024’s top multiplayer offerings, as Sea of Stars devs Sabotage reveal they're working on adding local co-op to the dazzling Chrono Trigger-inspired RPG.
– Matt Jarvis
18:49 pm UTCNeed to catch up with Final Fantasy 14 before Dawntrail? Best start now: there won’t be a free way to skip its story anytime soon, according to producer-director Yoshi-P.
– Matt Jarvis
19:20 pm UTCVampire survival game V Rising sinks its teeth into a full-blooded 1.0 release this May, exiting early access after two years.
– Matt Jarvis
19:49 pm UTCYou can check out Celtic-fantasy action RPG Vindictus: Defying Fate - set in the world of the 2010 MMO - in its free pre-alpha test, running until next Monday.
– Matt Jarvis
09:04 am UTCTHURSDAY AGAIN
I have a headache. FEED THE MAW.– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:06 am UTCMiniMatt says: a morsel (sorry, mawsel) of news: Steam spring sale starts this evening 6pm UK time. DFS have a sale on too.
The Maw appreciates your offerings! Here's a trailer for the Steam sale.
Steam Spring Sale 2024: Official Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:08 am UTCFresh nooze about Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown's DLC! The first of three free updates arrives next week, and there's story DLC in the works too.
Exciting news for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown! 🎉
Three free updates and one story DLC are on the horizon in the coming months.
📆 The first update arrives on March 20!
What upcoming feature are you most excited about: speedrun mode, boss rush, or new challenges? pic.twitter.com/Rc0uhD0WGX
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:11 am UTCPCG has a piece on the Steam revival of Fancy Pants Adventures, a Flash game I wrote up for an AOL gaming blog many moons ago. Long live Flash!
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
09:15 am UTCThe Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection is available now on Steam. It gives you the first two Pandemic games and whoops, it's got a Mostly Negative user review consensus, with criticism centring on a shortage of servers.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
10:25 am UTCGranblue Fantasy: Relink has a big new update which adds a new quest, amongst other things.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
14:36 pm UTC Crow Country, the upcoming horror game from the makers of Tangle Tower, is dated for May 9th.– Katharine Castle
14:42 pm UTC Excellent village builder Stacklands is getting another DLC pack called Stacklands 2000, the devs have announced. This will propel your settlement into the modern age, and is due out later this year. For now, you can read more about the DLC on its Steam page.– Katharine Castle
14:46 pm UTC "Hostile" immersive sim Mosa Lina is getting a new update today, turning it into Mosa Lina: The Director's Cut. This will add new levels and quality of life improvements to the game, but will also remove some stuff (The Backflip, Turtle, Spikedrop, Moon, and Worm) to give it "a renewed focus back to its original hostile puzzler roots," developers Stuffed Wombat say. Thankfully, there will still be an option to turn these things back on, if you end up missing them. Check it out on Steam.– Katharine Castle
14:49 pm UTCRead Only Memories: Neurodiver, the sequel to 2064: Read Only Memories, finally has a definitely for real release date: it will be arriving on Steam on May 16th, and here's a new trailer to celebrate:
Neurodiver Release Date Announce! Watch on YouTube– Katharine Castle
15:11 pm UTCThe latest GameDiscover newsletter sheds some light on a lawsuit for pricefixing brought against Valve, and surfaces a catty 2017 email exchange between Valve boss Gabe Newell and Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney about Valve's 30% cut of Steam game sales. An excerpt: "Generally, the economics of these 30% platform fees are no longer justifiable. There was a good case for them in the early days, but the scale is now high and operating costs have been driven down, while the churn of new game releases is so fast that the brief marketing or UA value the storefront provides is far disproportionate to the fee. If you subtract out the top 25 games on Steam, I bet Valve made more profit from most of the next 1000 than the developer themselves made."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
15:30 pm UTCArrowhead have added bug-gassing missions to Helldivers 2.
Breaking: Helldivers To Permanently Contain Bugs#StrohmannNews pic.twitter.com/QLRQbtQxov
— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) March 13, 2024 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
16:49 pm UTCA new trailer for revived MOBA Gigantic covers some of the upcoming maps you'll be playing when it comes to Steam on April 9th:
Gigantic: Rampage Edition | New Map Flythrough Watch on YouTube– Katharine Castle
16:59 pm UTCA new trailer for insectile RTS Empire Of The Ants. Explore, strategize, confront and... engage in diplomacy? How does ant diplomacy work, then?
Empire of the Ants – GDC 2024 Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
17:06 pm UTCA surprise helping of Frictional, passed onto me by Katharine earlier! In this 40 minute video, Thomas Grip breaks down the difficult development of the well-good, ocean horror Soma.
Developer explains why was SOMA so hard to design Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
22:35 pm UTCAs mentioned earlier today, the Steam spring sale is now underway. Is that exciting?
– Graham Smith
22:36 pm UTCEpic's spring sale is also underway, running from today until March 28th. More interestingly, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is free to keep if you grab it before the 21st.
– Graham Smith
22:37 pm UTCRimWorld is getting a new expansion and its first major update in a year. The DLC, Anomaly, will add horror-inspired scenarios featuring parasites and fleshbeasts and is due out in one month. The patch, 1.5, is available via an unstable beta branch now.
– Graham Smith
22:38 pm UTCFinal Factory, which transposes Factorio's moreish efficiency-chasing construction sim to the far reaches of deep space, will launch in Early Access on April 9th.
– Graham Smith
22:39 pm UTCNot to be outdone by Namco employing Brian Cox to explain Tekken, Capcom have tapped Ian McShane to explain Dragon's Dogma 2. The video should go live in about 20 minutes below:
Welcome to Dragon's Dogma 2 - Presented by Ian McShane Welcome to Dragon's Dogma 2 with Ian McShane.Watch on YouTube– Graham Smith
08:27 am UTCFRIDAY FINALLY
FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
08:30 am UTCArctic Eggs is a downbeat frying pan simulator - been a while since we played one of those! Thanks to Quintin Smith (RPS in peace) for mentioning it on the Twits.
Arctic Egg Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
08:33 am UTCSaber have confirmed that Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando and Jurassic Park: Survival are still in the works, following Embracer's sale of the company to Beacon Interactive.
I have received a lot of questions concerning the status of some of our previously announced projects now that Saber has separated from Embracer. I'm happy to confirm we're still working on a number of titles, including Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, John Carpenter's Toxic… pic.twitter.com/s063LxKz0X
— Tim Willits (@TimWillits) March 14, 2024 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
08:35 am UTCBrighter Shores is a new free-to-play fantasy MMORPG from Fen Research, a studio founded by original RuneScape designer Andrew Gower. It's out Q3 2024. I quite like the chunky terrain fixtures and colour scheme.
Brighter Shores Trailer Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
08:37 am UTCHere's a trailer for Palworld's first raid boss, Bellanoir.
Palnews｜Palworld Update Raid Battle #1｜Pocketpair Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
08:43 am UTCAspyr have apologised for yesterday's rocky Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection release. "At launch, we experienced critical errors with our network infrastructure," reads a statement. "The result was incredibly high ping, matchmaking errors, crashes, and servers not appearing in the browser."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
12:09 pm UTCSome bouncy new footage of Exo One developer Jay Weston's vehicular follow-up, Exo Rally.
new gameplay on planet Tensei for my sci-fi rally game! It features lower gravity than Earth and higher atmospheric drag, plus deep salt deposits, so you want to actively search for exposed rock to keep your speed up. And if you're sinking you can use thrusters to help you out!… pic.twitter.com/WsCYBB45VV
— Jay Weston - Exo One/Rally ⚫️🕳☁️🏎️ (@JayWeston) March 15, 2024 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
13:37 pm UTCA new trailer for Commandos: Origins, Kalypso's remake of the squad tactics classic.
Commandos: Origins | Diversity of Maps Trailer (UK) Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
13:40 pm UTCSomebody's just mailed me about South Pole Bebop, which is Into The Breach with penguins, zombies and cards - the classic combo. Here's a trailer.
Gameplay Trailer | South Pole Bebop-Demo | Wishlist Now Watch on YouTube– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
17:36 pm UTCHere's some more details on Brighter Shores, the new free-to-play fantasy MMO from RuneScape creator Andrew Gower, as Edwin mentioned earlier. It's due out later in 2024 after a decade in the works, and looks to balance a nostalgic look and feel with less grind than the genre's classics.
– Matt Jarvis
18:25 pm UTCTrying to emulate Hollywood movie soundtracks is holding video game music back, says Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu (and surprise, surprise, he doesn't think soulless AI can write a decent score, either).
– Matt Jarvis
19:00 pm UTCFry bacon, sausages and cigarettes to escape an Antarctica where eggs are illegal in surreal sci-fi cook-’em-up Arctic Eggs, as shared by Edwin earlier today.
– Matt Jarvis
19:38 pm UTCStardew Valley's creator Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone has confirmed the long-held rumour that harvesting in a certain direction is faster - but the almost decade-old bug won't remain for long, as a fix is finally due in next week's 1.6 update.
– Matt Jarvis
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