In a bid to shore up the Treehouse finances following several staff departures, I'm announcing a new line of official Maw spin-off products. Presenting: New Viscous n' Delicious Mawflakes! The ultimate cosmic breakfast cereal, available in all the colours of the rainbow plus 666 others that aren't fit for human eyes! Simply pour over molten ichor and leave to stand - you'll know they're ready to eat when you can no longer hear yourself weeping. "Ready to eat" is a phrase that cuts two ways, of course - and what better way to accompany being eaten by Mawflakes than by reading about this week's new PC games.
Monday 20th January sees the release of what Nic has called the only good video game, Mekkablood: Quarry Assault. Despite Nic's appraisal, developers are perversely insisting on releasing other games this week. Games like None Shall Intrude, a tile-based card-battler in which you play a raid boss fending off hero parties. They're both followed on Tuesday 21st January by Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, which Graham says "might have been one of the best games I played last year" if it had released last year. Can't argue with the logic. Wednesday 22nd January brings the Steam release of JRPG boardgame Dokapon: Sword Of Fury and free-to-play party RPG King Arthur: Legends Rise, which looks cheesy as hell. And then comes the usual Thursday deluge on 23rd January: a new Tokyo Xtreme Racer, returning to the tarmac after 18 years, the PC version of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and a PC port of cult saber 'em up Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles. Friday 24th January, finally, is a day of monochrome feline whimsy thanks to Cat Detective: Albert Wilde.
You might be wondering where you can buy a nice box of nutritious/ravenous Mawflakes. I'm afraid your regular Earth money is no good here. Instead, you must pay in the form of comments, be they actual news tips or just drive-by shitposting. Write a few solid putdowns and you'll find your box of Mawflakes at the nearest crossroads on a moonless night, when the clocks strike 13. Anyway, here's this week's news liveblog. Hope it's a fun one.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Key points- 09:15 am January 24 2025 SPACE CHANNEL FRIDAY
- 11:10 am January 23 2025 VIRTUA THURSDAY
- 09:03 am January 22 2025 WEDNESDEGA RALLY
- 09:03 am January 21 2025 SHIN MEGAMI TUESDAY
- 10:01 am January 20 2025 SUPER MONDAY BALL
SUPER MONDAY BALL
We did Nintendo puns last week. Now we must balance the scales by ripping on Ninty's ancient rival Sega. FEED THE MAW. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 10:09 am UTC One we missed from last week: the launch of the Vextro Chain Game Anthology, an Itch.io-based series of adventures, RPGs and other interactive fictions from a group of experimental designers, including sraëka-lillian and wasnotwhynot. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 11:33 am UTC Palworld is getting an ending scenario this year alongside new Pals and technologies, Pal world transfers and other such bigglyboggins. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 11:36 am UTCThatFulvioGuy says: I had to wishlist Mekkablood after seeing that header image, but then I scrolled down... "Dall-E 3 was used to help generate the textures and pixel art, no artist prompts were used, just generic terms. Suno was used for the music." Oh well *unwishlists*
Yarp! I should have spotted that. It's from a solo developer, so this isn't quite the same thing as (to give a hopefully unfeasible hypothetical example) Microsoft AI-hallucinating the next Gears Of War based on news coverage of warzones, but it's something we should look into as and when we write more about the game.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 11:46 am UTC One from the archives on David Lynch Teaches Typing. Nic Reuben 13:28 pm UTCSilksong update: the cake was lying.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 14:34 pm UTCRoad trip RPG Keep Driving will launch on 6th February.
Keep Driving - Release Date Trailer Watch on YouTube Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 14:45 pm UTCAlan Dean Foster - Star Wars and Star Trek novelisation author and the brains behind the Spellsinger books, among others - is getting into gaming. An adaptation of Dean Foster's Midworld, first in the Humanx Commonwealth series, is to be published by Sunset Sugar Studios on PC via Steam in 2026.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 19:04 pm UTC Steam are having a Real-Time Strategy Fest till 27th January, encompassing the usual mix of demos and discounts. Some quick picks from the line-up: in Calyx, you'll be fighting a giant carpet of alien flora, while in The Scouring, it's all Orcs vs Hoomies (with the undead showing up at night). Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:03 am UTCSHIN MEGAMI TUESDAY
MAW THE FEED. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:05 am UTCSeekerX says: Ender Magnolia is very much my pick of the week, but RPGFan has a couple more things that look interesting -- Also coming Thursday 1/23 is a PC release for tactics RPG Mercenaries Lament: Requiem of the Silver Wolf, which has been on console for a year or two. The first review I can find says "Developer, Rideon, certainly churns them out, and the series has evolved into a comfort food experience. They look vaguely like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, and play like a vaguely decent homage to those genre greats. In recent times there has even been some kind of effort to throw in some thought-provoking deeper themes." Checking Steam -- holy moly, it looks like there have been 6 of these Mercenaries games already and this is #7??? https://store.steampowered.com/app/2321040/Mercenaries_Lament_Requiem_of_the_Silver_Wolf/
This does seem tasty fare for the SRPG enthusiasts. And yes, it's always terrifying to discover that some game you've never heard of is actually part of a series that goes back a decade or more.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:07 am UTCSeekerX says: One title that tried to slip The Maw's hungry gaze by releasing yesterday 1/19 is bullet-Hell deckbuilder Lymbus, whose demo tried to bully Nic back in September - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/lymbus-is-hostile-to-my-existence-and-keeps-demanding-brain-cells-i-havent-grown-yet -- It looks a bit Mega Man Battle Network-y , so therefore as a roguelike it may be kind of One Step from Eden -ish? Only with the "My screen is exploding with overflowing geysers of retro internet" vibes of Hypnospace Outlaw or recent neal.fun idle game Stimulation Clicker. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2683590/LYMBUS/
Get a load of that screen curvature!
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:10 am UTCCapcom hope to bring down the somewhat eye-watering PC system requirements for Monster Hunter Wilds (which launches in February), according to their German Xeetbox account.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:13 am UTC MechWarrior 5: Clans's Trials Of War DLC is now free and part of the main game. Quick refresher on the contents: a new PvP mode with 10 arenas, a co-op horde mode with challenges unlocked by campaign progression, and 12 additional omnimech variants. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:17 am UTCHere's a new multiplayer demo for throwback RTS Tempest Rising. The trailer presentation makes me think of Red Alert and Tiberium Wars.
Tempest Rising - Pre-order Trailer Watch on YouTube Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:36 am UTC Via VGC, here's an age rating for a re-release of Resident Evil 6 on current gen consoles. Will it get a PC remaster as well? Seems plausible. Series diehards tend to despise Resi 6 but I thought it was a lot of fun - a big messy action extravaganza that couldn't work out which kind of Resi it wanted to be. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 11:07 am UTCMarvel Snap is back online in the USA after being removed from service as part of the country's ban on TikTok - both are published by Chinese company Bytedance. Now, developers Second Dinner are seeking a new publishing partner to avoid this happening again.
MARVEL SNAP is back online in the U.S. But to make sure this NEVER happens again, we’re working to bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher. This is the start of a new era for MARVEL SNAP.
We know this probably leaves you with even more questions than…
You can now run Doom in a Microsoft Word docucument, after someone got inspired by the recent efforts to make the ubiqitous shooter run on a PDF file. Recently, it was made to run as a Captcha and (arguably) gut bacteria. Still no sign of it running on a Freewrite, sorry Nic.
Brendan Caldwell 11:19 am UTC Do you still use EA Origin? As reported by GI, it'll shut down in April 2025 as a result of Microsoft no longer supporting 32-bit software. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 15:12 pm UTCThis is older news, but - medieval city-builder Foundation hits 1.0 release on 31st January. "Like a warm bath, but with windmills," wrote Alec Meer (RPS in peace) of the early access version in 2019. I like the zone-painting and how the procedural building tool lets you clump together castles like balls of clay.
Foundation | Release Date Announcement and Demo Trailer Watch on YouTube Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 15:42 pm UTC Open question for the comments: what should we be reporting on right now? Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:03 am UTCWEDNESDEGA RALLY
The Foolery Reactors are boiling over! Pun dreadfulness is registering at 167%! SHE'S GONNA BLOW. Feed the Maw! Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:07 am UTC Reflector Entertainment's Unknown 9 series has been abandoned after poor sales of the first game, Unknown 9: Awakening. I tried to see this at GDC last year, I think, but couldn't get a preview slot. I like the sound of Jedi fisticuffs, but it sounds like the execution was nothing to write home about. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:08 am UTCSnowskeeper says: Can you do a report on some necromancy, please?
We can absolutely do a report on some necromancy. I'll circle back to this.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:10 am UTCHeNeArXn says: via eurogamer.de, "Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel" as a Vampire Survivor-like with more control and fancier graphics launched in EA and has a demo out. Seems not bad from a 30 min go with that.
Here's that demo. While the core survivoring doesn't feel especially novel, I like the glowering Nordic fantasy ambience.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:58 am UTC As reported by PCGamer, the biggest PC gaming subreddit, r/pcgaming, has blocked X.com, the artist formerly known as Twitter, on account of it "increasingly hateful, toxic and less and less moderated". And also, because of platform owner Elon Musk's recent "Roman Salute". Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 10:02 am UTCI've been looking at Ender Magnolia: Bloom In The Mist following SeekerX's suggestion, and it does look pretty splendid - a doom-ridden metroidvania with soulful-looking anime warriors. It's out of early access on 23rd January. I'm not sure we have capacity to review it - we don't even have a reviews editor right now. But I'd like to give it a try.
ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist Final Trailer Watch on YouTube Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 17:00 pm UTC Ye gads! Steam now has two seperate progress bars for downloading data and updating files, via Tom Warren on X. Nic Reuben 11:10 am UTCVIRTUA THURSDAY
We've got it under control. Everybody back to your stations. We've got everything under control.
Brendan Caldwell 11:13 am UTCUh oh. Electronic Arts have released some quarterly business notes and they say Dragon Age: The Veilguard has "underperformed" so far. The publisher says they "engaged" 1.5 million players, which is "down nearly 50 percent from the company's expectations".
Brendan Caldwell 11:19 am UTCThe next coming-of-age story from Dontnod is going to see a delay. Or at least half of it is. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is planned to come out in two parts, you see, with the first part due in February. Part 2 was originally scheduled for March 18th, but is now delayed until April 15th to "allow for additional optimisation", say the devs.
Brendan Caldwell 14:38 pm UTCThe art of rally devs have announced wistful off-road exploration game over the hill, which looks like a mix of Mudrunners and A Short Hike.
over the hill - Announcement Trailer Watch on YouTube Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 16:26 pm UTC Heckin' complicated colony ship game Stardeus has received a heckin' complicated update, which introduces a new universe structure, new hyperspace features, and new tech such as an auto-repairing nanobot hive. We've not really covered Stardeus before but it looks like the kind of absolute feature overload some of you folks might enjoy. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 19:23 pm UTCCompulsion's fantasy actioner South Of Midnight will launch on 8th April. Here's a new trailer.
South of Midnight - Story Trailer | Developer_Direct 2025 Watch on YouTube Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 19:26 pm UTCLost Odyssey-esque RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, meanwhile, will launch on 24th April. I find this one to be promisingly flowery.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Release Date Trailer | Developer_Direct 2025 Watch on YouTube Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:15 am UTCSPACE CHANNEL FRIDAY
I've just seen Brendy's last day pun and I have nothing but contempt for him. "Toejam And Thearlsday" was right there, man! FEED THE MAW. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:23 am UTCKatharine Castle, sometime despot of RPSland, has written a big dissection of the modern-day wrapper in Assassin's Creed Shadows. It does sort of sound like an exhausting blend of codex and live service launcher, and I'm not sure that'll be enough to counter Ed's (RPS in peace) slight misgivings about the game's dual-protagonist structure, but I'm interested to try it.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:36 am UTCAlso in Assassin's Creed Shadows news, game director Charles Benoit has explained the most recent, one-month release delay to IGN. Apparently they've been having a nightmare getting parkour to work on feudal Japanese roofs. I would welcome a list of best-to-worst roofs from an Assassin's Creed series developer.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:39 am UTC Madcap FPS I Am Your Beast's final content update is out, adding "new story-free levels that up the challenge and extend the weird". Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 09:48 am UTC As reported by VGC, the Video Game History Foundation will make their digital library public next week, including access to 1500 out-of-print video game magazines. A lot of senior games journalists are about to experience massive psychic damage as dreadful things they wrote decades ago become contemporary internet currency. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 10:02 am UTC Tales of Kenzera dev Surgent's untitled Gothic horror RPG has received unexpected funding from Palworld devs Pocketpair, who've just launched a publishing arm. Thanks, GamesIndustry.biz. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell 13:28 pm UTC TIL that Hexen is also a rare Tarot deck (which isn't very Hexeny, but is quite computery). Edwin Evans-Thirlwell Load more comments Loading
