Strange omens abound as late. Chickens are born with four wings, like horrible feathered dragonflies. Cows scream at the sky, then produce bile instead of milk. Most chilling of all, Aldi have discontinued their Village Bakery Seeded Medium Sliced Loaf (400g), replacing it with deeply inferior Village Bakery Lightly Seeded Loaf (800g). Throughout the chaos, the Maw simply grins, although it does seem to have a few more seeds betwixt its teeth than last week. Perhaps the Maw will deign to spit a single seed at us, from which we can grow the sapling of a new world and finally abandon this cursed, Medium Loafless existence. Until then, here are this week’s PC game releases of note.
As always, this selection is but a light sprinkling of seeds on the 800g loaf that is the bountiful harvest of PC games, so don’t be shy about shoveling any additional recommendations straight into the Maw. There’s a loafblog down there too, don’t you know! Uh, sorry. Liveblog.
Reka, aka the woodland witch sim with the chicken-legged house, goes into early access on 12th September - here's what to expect.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
If you liked moody actioner Death Of A Wish's combat, you'll probably like its forthcoming Martyr Mode, which introduces Challenge Cards such as enemies becoming briefly invulnerable when they recover from a break or getting an attack boost after suffering a status effect.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Risk Of Rain 2's troubled Seekers Of The Storm DLC got a big patch yesterday, following a backlash from players regarding how wildly buggy it was. The final boss no longer becomes invicible, you'll be glad to know.
Dark and Darker has found religion. The dungeon extraction sim's season 4 brings back the Ruins map with reworks and will also let you pledge yourself to a god in the Arena. Beware worshippers of other gods, for they might corner you over a coffee and try to sign you up to their reading group. I mean, they might axe you in the face.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Arrowhead have blogged about their forthcoming Helldivers 2 balance patches. They want killing certain enemies to feel more "rewarding", and they're also taking inspiration from player "fantasies" when redesigning a few of the weapons. T-shirt cannon pls? The next update is due on September 17th.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Ghostrunner 2 has some new DLC, an Endless Moto Mode in which you race along procedurally generated tracks that get harder as you advance.
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– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
FUGAZZA FRIDAY
We taste-test all foods before using them in articles, you know. Bread Week is really taking a toll on my waistline. The Maw doesn't worry about such things, of course. FEED IT.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Rogue Prince Of Persia's Early Access release has received a "Weapons Within" update, which adds 13 new weapons and reworks seven more. There's a trailer.
Shogun Showdown has released its 1.0 build over on Steam, after a little over a year in Early Access. It's a turn-based, roguelike-ish, deckbuilding-ish hack-and-slasher with overwhelmingly positive user reviews.
– Graham Smith
treelo says: Tomorrow sees the return of Yumetaro in hard-as-fuck platformer Gimmick 2 which should be fun for NES difficult game fans.
Had a look at the Steam page for this, and yeah, seems very charming. The trailer doesn't make it look too hard, but perhaps the trailer is lying to me. It wouldn't be the first time.
In Itch.io freebie PISCIS x MACHINA: 4.44 you (are) fish, you (are a) fish (who goes fishing) for coherence cores in order to help a Protagonist fend off the evil moon from Majora's Mask. All together now: wat
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Steam's Space Exploration fest is now live. Here are a few discounts that catch my eye: FTL, Exo One, Chorus, ΔV: Rings of Saturn and Observation. They'll all set you back around a fiver or less.
Lethal Company has a brand new bag. It holds 15 non-scrap items, and other players can access it while you're wearing it. Blessed are the packmules!
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Total War: Warhammer 3 modder Venris has announced a game of his own, Whispers of the Eyeless. It's a dark fantasy RPG inspired by Darkest Dungeon, Loop Hero, Children of Morta and Polish folklore, where you play a cult leader doing nasty stuff within the City of Aranthor.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Via PCGamer, those wily dogs at Arrowhead are still teasing the release of the game's third faction. As picked up by Redditors, the new faction were briefly visible on the game's Galactic War map. The developers are calling it "fake news".
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
BioWare have blogged about Dragon Age: The Veilguard's progression systems. Amongst other things, it covers how companions level up. Quests aside, "companions "can gain experience through unique conversations and decisions with them. These quests and bonds are not limited to romantic interests; platonic friendships are just as important and in focus in Dragon Age: The Veilguard."
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
PARATHA THURSDAY
Dogs Next Door update: still barking! Guy With Leafblower Status: Driven Off By Rain! I'm calling it progress. FEED THE MAW.
Pry Into The Void is an upcoming monster-taming RPG with turn-based combat and creepy pixelart, inspired by the Shin Megami Tensei series. It's "the first entry to Project: Retched Garden, a collection of monster-taming RPGs where the world dies and the flowers scream." Sounds... atmospheric. There's a demo on Steam.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
An update for development of my beloved Nebulous: Fleet Command, aka Homeworld for people who rejoice in the idea of programming their own missiles and precisely angling their armour to spread out the impact force of incoming shells. It's got carriers now. Carriers! See video.
Today's remote-working music is being supplied by two lesser-known indie bands, Guy With Leafblower and Two Dogs Who Won't Stop Barking Next Door. I have no choice but to bust out the Metallica.
Here's a new survival game, Astrobotanica. It casts you as an alien botanist roaming prehistoric Earth. Amongst other things, it lets you "engage with primal humans, leaving your mark on the future of civilization". What advice would you give primal humans? I would tell them to avoid inventing sash windows. I hate sash windows.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Astroneer is getting its first ever paid expansion, Glitchwalkers. It takes place on Aeoluz, a new planet in a "glitched solar system". Here be trazzer:
Woking, UK-based Ballistic Moon have laid off a "significant" number of staff to "secure the future" of the studio. They're currently working on the PC version of Supermassive's Until Dawn.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Deliver At All Costs is a mix of Crazy Taxi and old-school GTA, set in the USA during the 1940s. I payed a bit at an event the other day, and wasn't huuuuuugely impressed by the humour and mission selection, but it's got potential.
A story we missed from the weekend: the developer of website "multiplayer game" One Million Checkboxes says that resourceful players have been encoding images and even full-blown animations within the aforesaid one million checkboxes.
At the height of One Million Checkboxes's popularity I thought I'd been hacked. A few hours later I was tearing up, extraordinarily proud of some brilliant teens.
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– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Suicide Squad developers Rocksteady have laid off staff - it's not clear how far the reductions go, but according to Eurogamer, the company's QA team has been cut back from 33 to 15 people. Rocksteady have yet to formally acknowledge the move, but as you'd expect, the justification appears to be that Suicide Squad sold very badly.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
Sony's hero shooter Concord has performed so badly the publishers have taken it offline and pulled it from sale so that developers Firewalk can "determine the best path ahead". People who bought at launch will receive a full refund, across PS5 and PC.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
cpt_freakout says: Harebrained just announced a new cyberpunk game called Graft, it's got an animated trailer with a bit of gameplay thrown in - looks like it'll be a CRPG through and through. There's a Steam page now ;)
Well look who came crawling back from holiday/illness. FEED THE MAW.
– Edwin Evans-Thirlwell
The studio originally behind Risk of Rain is winding down as key members have decided to stop work on an unannounced project and instead take jobs at Valve. The studio made the announcement on Xitter, even as Risk of Rain 2's latest DLC gets negative reviews from players for being buggy and poor.
– Brendan Caldwell
Bethesda have pulled prime ministerial murder-mod Thatcher's Techbase from the mod browser of Doom 2, report Eurogamer. The developers say it includes "real-world politics". I don't know what they mean. Looks perfectly fine to me.
– Brendan Caldwell
A remaster of OneShot will make the cutesy RPG playable on Steam Deck, say developers Future Cat. OneShot: World Machine Edition replaces your real, actual desktop with a fictional in-game OS.
– Brendan Caldwell
CIABATTA TUESDAY
Did nobody feed the Maw yesterday? Not even any of this delicious bread?
– Brendan Caldwell
MOLLETE MONDAY
It wasn't actually going to be bread-themed but if you insist...
