Category: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Some weeks, finding new games for the Maw is like scouring a village of octogenarians for the last remaining virgin to throw into a rumbling volcano. You awkwardly pop the question during a dozen hastily organised afternoon tea dates, and riffle through family trees in desperation as the air thickens with sulphur.

This week, it’s like the mountainside has been invaded by a horde of teenage firebugs. Stop shoving! Form an orderly queue! You are going to give the volcano constipation. Here’s a moderately curated round-up of the most promising specimens. May they burn brightly and stave off the magma for at least another seven days.

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Borderlands 4 developers Gearbox have chucked more wrenches at the shooter‘s PC performance over the weekend, following issues that’ve landed it mixed Steam review fortunes since launch last week. However, if you’re looking for patch notes, you’re gonna be a bit disappointed. Ah well, at least there are essay-length Randy Pitchford Twitter threads to scroll through if you’re partial to someone waffling about how the game runs.

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You might not think of it as one, but Wikipedia is a game. It has untold numbers of characters and stories, each page an interactive slate with your mouse and hand acting as the choice maker for what you learn next, thus impacting your following choices. This is, admittedly, a bit of a wanky, thinkpiecey way of talking about Wikipedia, so instead of that let’s talk about Neurocracy, a game that could quite easily fool you into thinking it is another version of Wikipedia.

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Getting your game a publishing deal has never been an easy thing to do. Right now, it’s especially hard given that for many publishers, if it doesn’t seem like a guaranteed hit, it likely isn’t something they’ll take on. This is something that Vampire Survivors developer Poncle, or rather the actual person, Luca Galante, takes great issue with, and in a recent interview he spoke more broadly of his issues with publishers, and his thoughts on now being one.

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In general these days it’s never a good time to release a video game unless you’re Rockstar, but in recent months it’s been made even harder due to numerous payment processors cracking down on digital storefronts like Valve and Itch.io. There’s a host of reasons this is problematic, but one less spoken about how this is also an issue of preservation. GOG, another digital storefront, this one owned by The Witcher developer CD Projekt, is known for their preservation efforts, and in a recent interview they shared a bit of their thoughts in relation to these recent issues regarding payment processors.

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I don’t play online games particularly often, mostly the only ones that I do enjoy are the kind of games I can play with just my friends. People are mean, you see, and I have a sensitive soul, and also I often find them deeply boring conceptually and in practice. Take of that what you will in relation to this story about Dota 2! Moving on swiftly to a topic that I promise connects to this intro, Gabe Newell! He is a co-founder of Valve, and a noted Dota 2 lover. He also, apparently, is someone who is often subjected to ridicule while playing the very same game his company makes.

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Whenever there is word of a video game’s release date being changed, it’s hardly ever surprising because nine times out of ten, it’s because it has been delayed. That’s just the way things are these days, no one can have the luxury of Team Cherry, who took so long making Silksong just because they were having fun. However, in this case, the release date shifting news is actually a positive one, as Dying Light: The Beast will be launching just that little bit earlier.

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Smile and say AIEEEEE, horror fans! Tecmo and Team Ninja are bringing a “remake” of PS2 survival horror Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly to PC via Steam in early 2026. Why am I brandishing a glyph-covered Canon EOS 90D at you, while singing the Ghostbusters theme? Allow me to explain: Fatal Frame’s signature touch is that you defeat spooks using a magic camera. Naturally, this also means that you have to look steadily and calmly at said spooks while they shimmer and sway towards you. Catch some of that nonsense in the remake’s announcement trailer.

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Balatro‘s free 1.1 update won’t release in 2025 as originally planned, developer Localthunk has announced. There’s no new release date, but they say the update’ll arrive when they’ve been able to complete it, while continuing to work at a healthy pace.

This update was first announced by publishers Playstack in August last year, with Localthunk subsequently revealing in a chat with Bloomberg that it’ll feature, among other stuff, some new jokers and a revamp of the Matador card. The latter dishes out a cash boost whenever you play a hand that triggers a boss blind’s ability.

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Supergiant Games have finally done The Thing, following some patch teases that’d left things in a bit of an ‘either go or get off the pot’ situation. Hades 2‘s full release is nigh, with version 1.0 set to drop later this month.

I’m pleased, because the sequel to the horniest ancient Greek roguelike of all time was already very good in early access form. I’m also terrified, because it’s not like September hasn’t already had enough games to fight for my attention, between Silksong and Borderlands 4. I mean, I’ve not gotten around to playing either of those yet, because basketball, but hey.

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