The Maw – 15th-20th April 2024

Another week, another Monday waking up to find Edwin has trapped himself between the Maw’s cyclopean molars on what was supposed to be a routine scrubbing expedition. We usually get him out just fine, but today he’s become entranced by the chomper’s blighted runoff, and is busy stuffing plaque samples in his trousers to bring back and study. So, you get me instead. In other, non-affront to-science news, Warhorse are announcing a new game this week, Thursday 18th, rumoured to be medieval rpg sequel Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Elsewhere, the Steam FPS fest kicks off later.

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The Crew has started disappearing from game libraries after its closure last month

The Crew, Ubisoft’s 2014 racing game, closed its doors on March 31st. After that date, launching the game took you to a splash screen and then presented an error message when trying to advance, because the servers are no longer offline.

Ubisoft have now taken the extra step of revoking The Crew licenses from purchasers and removing it from their library.

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Possibility Space closes down, founder blames staff leaks

Possibility Space has become the second studio owned by Prytania Media to close in recent weeks following Crop Circle Games’ closure in March. Both studios were founded by Jeff Strain, the co-founder of Guild Wars creators ArenaNet and the founder of State Of Decay developers Undead Labs.

In a message to staff about the studio’s immediate closure, Strain implies the outcome was prompted by employees who leaked information about the company to a journalist.

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64-player Pac-Man battle royale game Chomp Champs escapes the grave of Google Stadia onto Steam next month

Remember when Pac-Man got its own battle royale game where 64 Pac-People competed to eat each other and be the ‘Chomp Champ’? Me neither! But Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle apparently came out on Google Stadia – ah, that’d be why – back in 2020, and served up a massively (or at least medium-ly) multiplayer spin on the arcade classic. With Stadia dead and buried, Mega Tunnel Battle is chewing its way out of the streaming console’s grave with a new subtitle and a fresh Steam release next month.

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Carpathian Night Starring Bela Lugosi takes Castlevania back to basics

“Very little Bela Lugosi” is not a criticism I ever expected to level at a game. It’s not entirely unexpected considering he’s dead, but I’m still grumbling at you, Carpathian Night Starring Bela Lugosi.

It is, as it appears, an unabashed homage to Castlevania, but with none of the -vania, making it much more like the original (or the game boy ones, and possibly a few others in the series I don’t know about): a straightforward, linear platform game about whipping monsters and not stepping on spikes. Ten a penny, right? But CNSBL captures it so well that it had me looking up old game boy tunes it vaguely reminded me of.

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No, the Fallout TV show hasn’t written Fallout: New Vegas out of history, says Bethesda design director

Friends, there is trouble a-brewing down the radioactive watering hole. While Amazon’s Fallout TV adaptation has launched to pretty positive verdicts, a contingent of Fallout players are up in arms over its portrayal of the Fallout timeline. In particular, it’s being claimed that the show has written the events of Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas out of the canon, despite reassurances from Bethesda Game Studios design director Emil Pagliarulo. Dare you read on? Let me just load up my Junk Jet with piping, hot Fallout Season 1 spoilers

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Visit a mystical Montreal corner shop in this lovely little indie game

Need anything from the shop? Mushroom milk? Fresh tarts? Mystical bejewelled skull? I’m just popping out to Dépanneur Nocturne, a lovely little game which came out in 2020 and I kept forgetting to post about. It’s a small first-person explore-o-chatter set within a corner shop in a magical, mystical Montreal, full of things to admire, find, poke at, and chat about with the owner. And it’ll only cost you about as much as a pint of semi-skimmed and loaf of Kingsmill from your own local shop.

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