The Maw: what's new in PC games this week?
Arco, Shapez 2, Sins Of A Solar Empire 2, The Crimson Diamond, more
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!
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
MONDAY THEN
Good Maw-ning! I'm off to an event so will not be newsing much today.
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.
TUESDAY AHEAD
Hard a-starboard! FEED THE MAW.
Here's 32 minutes of Stalker 2/STALKER 2/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
Hunt Showdown will go offline later today for 48 hours while Crytek roll out the game's massive 1896 update.
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.
According to IGN, Evil Dead: The Game studio Boss Team are making two games based on John Carpenter's Halloween.
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.
Forthcoming movie Alien: Romulus features the emergency savegame telephones from Alien: Isolation - they've been repurposed as foreshadowing.
Highly upgradeable shmup Nova Drift is out of early access and seems very neat
.
Capcom have explained, or at least, wincingly attempted to explain why there's no longer an "Erotica" tag in the Dead Rising remaster.
WEDNESDAY TIME
Tom Clancy's F.E.E.D. T.H.E. M.A.W.
Here's a trailer for Boss Team's upcoming Evil Dead and Halloween games.
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.
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.
Time for another Two Point game. It's... Two Point Museum.
Supermassive's Until Dawn hits PC on 4th October.
And here's your first in-game trailer for Sharkmob's mech-believe looting romp Exoborne.
HO, THURSDAY
The MAWRAL OF THE STORY IS FEED THE MAW.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the halloweeniest game to ever exist, has a release date: October 31st. The trailer is premiering later today.
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.
Homeworld 3 gets a new patch today alongside the launch of the paid Kalan Raiders fleet pack - read more on Steam.
Delta Force: Hawk Ops done got a Space City map, where "everyone can hear you scream". Shameless!
Let's Build A Dungeon sounds entertaining - design, project-manage and play a fantasy MMO, all in one interface.
F-F-F-FRIDAY
F-F-F-Feed the Maw!
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.
Here's the release date trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. It features a familiar face.
The Nightingale devs have published a second blog post about the ailing survival game's forthcoming big revamp. Amongst other things, they're moving away from procedurally generated realms a little and introducing new "handcrafted" worlds, as part of a revised story.
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.
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.
Strange Scaffold are at it again.
Hunt Showdown is reborn as Hunt Showdown 1896, and certain people are not happy about it. Specifically, the overhauled UI.
