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Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter’s #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by multiple rope arrows, some markedly different public transport experiences, a casual bit of Mary Poppsining, and more! Check out all these attractive and interesting indie games.
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.
More developers have confirmed that they have been told by Warner Bros. Discovery that their games will imminently be delisted from digital storefronts. Soundodger+ and Fist Puncher are both due to vanish, following in the footsteps of puzzle game Small Radios Big Televisions, whose developer announced its imminent delisting earlier this week and released the game for free in response.
Remember when Ubisoft announced they were working on a movie adaptation of hacking series Watch Dogs, before it was even released? I sure didn’t! Well, allow us both to be reminded of something from over a decade ago, because the Watch Dogs film is still apparently A Thing. It’s more of A Thing now, too, because it has actual names attached rather than just a corporation’s vague “excitement” about licensing out its IP.
After cracking open its virtual Pandora’s Box using the magical key of “shooting it with a lot of bullets”, Fortnite’s mythical next season is due to roll out later today. Chapter 5 Season 2 – or Myths & Mortals, if you prefer – will bring a pantheon of god powers, locations from Greek mythology and, uh, Korra from the Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel, who has a gun now I guess.
Akira Toriyama, the mangaka whose work in video games included designing the characters for two of the most influential RPGs ever made, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest, on top of creating one of the most influential series across all of pop-culture in Dragon Ball, has passed away.
I’m beginning to think we should bury Vampire: The Masquerade back in the forsaken graveyard where it was originally dug up, or at least banish the toothy reprobate back to its pen & paper castle. I don’t know how White Wolf’s RPG is viewed in the land of table tops these days, but here in computerville it has delivered exactly one good video game in the last 25 years (and don’t come gibbering to me about 2022’s Swansong, it wasn’t fit to polish Bloodlines’ fangs). Sure, Bloodlines 2 might prove a winner, but given years of delays and a developer change, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Which brings us to Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice, the beleaguered series’ first prowl through the rain-slick streets of VR. In theory, this should be exactly my cup of haemoglobin; a gothic, linear stealth game where you use your vampire powers to sneak across the rooftops of Venice. In its mechanics and design, Justice aspires to be a cut down version of Dishonored. Unfortunately, it’s in the cutting down where most of its problems arise. It’s too cramped, too basic, and too fuzzy around the edges, and the whole experience ends up being a bit mid.
The second part of Dune is out at the moment, and it has resulted in that most filthy of perversions, discourse – a pastime in which only the most unsavoury characters indulge. Is Dune appropriative? Is the appropriation the point? Whatever the case, Funcom want you to know that their upcoming survival game Dune: Awakening has nothing to do with any of that, posting a short Xeet from the official Awakening account that’s the written equivalent of sticking your arms straight out, waving your hands, and going “Woahwoahwoah, hang on a minute.”
“We agree that religion is an integral part of the Dune universe. This is why in Dune: Awakening you will meet and interact with people of different religions along your journey. However, as opposed to the story presented in the books, the player is not a messiah and will not play a major role in any of them. Leading people on a holy war is not why you arrive on Arrakis,” reads the post in full. Personally, I approve of this effort to keep games apolitical. Politics? In my Dune. No thank you. I am of course being facetious. There is still religion and politics in Dune: Awakening, as confirmed by the statement, but you yourself aren’t doing much of it.
Well before anointing Warhammer 40,000: Darktide as this month’s RPS Game Club game, I’ve wanted to talk about its rock. The rock. The best rock. Best Darktide rocks 2024, number one: the rock.
Dragon’s Dogma series director Hideaki Itsuno has announced that the meat you can cook over campfires in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is, in fact, “real meat”. There’s been a certain amount of PlayStation-instigated speculation about whether the meat is CGI-generated, following the last round of Dragon’s Dogma 2 previews. Speaking to Japanese site 4Gamer, as translated by Automaton, Itsuno revealed that the game’s scenes of sizzling flesh are derived from live action film of steaks being grilled – partly for the sake of authenticity, and partly to save money versus creating computer models of meat products. You can cook several types of meat in Dragon’s Dogma, each of which has its own cutscene, and a number of Dragon’s Dogmatists are already performatively salivating at the prospect on social media.
