The Maw - 11th-16th December 2023

IT IS MONDAY. Set phasers to "spark joy" and FEED THE MAW.

This morning's music is Alone in Kyoto.

The real-life "Florida Joker" is demanding millions from Rockstar for allegedly using his likeness without permission in GTA 6, as reported by Eurogamer.

An SSD is "a must" to play FF16 on PC, according to producer Naoki Yoshida. There's still no word on when it's coming, however.

Hold the phone, it's being claimed there's a Silent Hill teaser in the trailer for Hideo Kojima and Jordan Peele's new horror thingy OD. As reported by Central Xbox, letters spelling out the word "Atami" appear faintly in a character's mouth during the footage. Atami is a city in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture. The kanji for Shizuoka approximately spell out "Silent Hill". VGC say they've verified the claim after combing through the video on the official KojiPro Youtube - I couldn't see the letters myself during a quick glance just now, but perhaps you can?

I'm always up for witch-themed games and Emberstorm's Reka, which now has a Q2 2024 release window, looks rather special.

Ooft, one of the developers behind co-op mod Skyrim Together has said they won't be completing a similar mod for Starfield because "Starfield is ass". They're making the code open source, so another modder could jump in and finish it.

Some slightly lengthier thoughts on Reka, by me. I get the feeling this will be an RPS favourite.

MiniMatt says: one to possibly add to the pile - Railroader - released early access end of last week. seems pitched to appeal to ETS2 people and choo-choo-adjacent people as well as hardcore choo-chooers

Just been reading about this on PCG, and yes, those are some mighty fine engines - here's the Steam page.

Lethal Company is getting some Xmas-themed content. It's Lethal Company, so the Xmas-themed content is... not very jolly.

It appears that Embracer have shut down Free Radical, as rumoured. Best of luck to everybody who has lost their job today.

The Day Before developers Fntastic have announced that they're closing doors, following a dismal reception at launch. Best of luck to everybody there too.

Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight pic.twitter.com/AKcRHeIaIW

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 11, 2023

We've had a tiny tease of some details for the upcoming PC port of Final Fantasy 16, with the recommendation from producer Naoki Yoshida that an SSD is a "must" due to its visual demands.

There's also confirmation that no sequel or spin-off is planned, although if the PC version sells well enough Yoshi-P will apparently consider letting us play as Cid or Jill...

That new arachnophobia mode for Lethal Company is absolutely hilarious, and worth checking out whether you have a fear of spiders or not.

Also featured in the game's new update are gun-toting nutcrackers, paint spray cans and masks to scare your friends even more.

Some more details and the statement from The Day Before devs Fntastic announcing their closure following the zombie shooter's disastrous Steam launch - apparently leading to a lack of the funds needed to continue development.

“We apologize if we didn’t meet your expectations,” they wrote. “We did everything within our power, but unfortunately, we miscalculated our capabilities. Creating games is an incredibly challenging endeavor.”

In case you missed it, John Romero put out a sequel to his unofficial expansion for the original Doom to mark the shooter's 30th anniversary.

Sigil 2 brings nine new levels, which sound like a brutal challenge by all accounts. There's a fresh heavy metal OST, too.

If you didn't read it yesterday, I'd highly recommend Jeremony's wonderful chat with John about the making and legacy of Doom, 30 years on.

You may have read that Fntastic have closed doors following the disastrous launch of the The Day Before. The DayZ team are making fun of Fntastic's closure announcement on Xitter. Whatever you think of The Day Before, I'm not sure this is a very charitable response.

/s🤭 pic.twitter.com/xwfNIGpY0W

— DayZ 🖥 🎮 ❤️ (@DayZ) December 11, 2023

The developer-run website Videogamelayoffs estimates that around 9000 people lost their jobs in the games industry this year - ta VGC.

Alas, the latest Starfield update has gotten rid of the affectionate ghost asteroids that used to pursue certain players through the game - thanks PCGN. I never managed to acquire an asteroid pet myself, despite playing Starfield exclusively in space.

Saying goodbye to a faithful, but uninvited, companion - the issue where an asteroid could be permanently attached to a player's ship in @StarfieldGame has been fixed.

Crashes when saving during long playthroughs and an issue involving weapon cases have also been addressed.… pic.twitter.com/pTL8I8FBOH

— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) December 11, 2023

Ooh, New Blood Interactive have released a free HD remaster of Dusk, together with Steam Workshop tools. Better than the average stocking filler.

Stellaris Nexus (aka "4X on fast forward") launches in early access today.

Perhaps needless to say, The Day Before is no longer for sale on Steam. Fntastic (or what's left of them) are working with Steam to offer refunds.

Game developer efforts to ruin Xmas continue with Booze Masters: Freezing Moonshine from Polish team Asmodev, out tomorrow, in which you are an influencer running an illegal distillery out of a frozen motel. There is a living snowman and the game's map is haunted by some kind of STALKER-ish occult entity. The voice-acting is dreadful but I suspect that's deliberate.

Epic Games have won a court battle against Google regarding the latter's alleged violation of anti-trust laws, as reported by Axios.

The Last Dance is a browser-based, mobile-friendly puzzler about moving some dancers to finishing tiles in the fewest possible tries. It's part of the Confounding Calendar of daily advent Itch.io releases. Thanks to Alice0 for spotting.

Populous-esque village builder Kainga: Seeds of Civilization has a one-year anniversary 50% discount. I wouldn't usually post discounts unless they're an absolute steal for something a lot of people want, but I really liked Kainga's vibe from the pre-release demo, and am interested to know what others make of it.

ZeniMax Workers United have come to a historic albeit "tentative" agreement with Microsoft over the usage of the latest AI tools in their workplace. "Zenimax has agreed to provide notice to the union in cases where AI implementation may impact the work of union members and to bargain those impacts upon request", reads a press release.

Adam says: Whoops there goes E3.

Here's the story in question. I have officially made it through a whole career in games journalism without physically attending E3. It exists for me only as livestreams, late nights in a sweaty London office, borderline-incoherent emails from editors overseas, and grizzled anecdotes about something called the Saddle Ranch.

The tearaway folk of Lightbulb Crew have announced a superhero dating sim, Nova Hearts, which is extremely unlike their previous game Othercide - find out more here.

As Edwin shared earlier, Epic have won a court fight against Google, as a jury as ruled the search giant has an illegal monopoly in its handling of the Play Store. Here's our own story.

Bethesda say they're working on adding city maps and "new ways of traveling" to Starfield in 2024. Hopefully that doesn't just mean they're adding Segways to city streets.

The developers of Metaphor: ReFantazio at Atlus, many of whom previously worked on the Persona series, have sat down and explained what the heck their new game is in a new video. I appreciate this.

Steam seems to be down at the moment, at least in the UK.

New Game+ mode for Alan Wake 2 came out yesterday. The mode includes "new videos and manuscript pages" that build on its story. There's also a new Nightmare difficulty level.

Mouse is a first-person shooter with art inspired by early American cartoons, a la Cuphead. IGN have a trailer.

I have perhaps surpassed my usefulness for the evening, so I will leave you with 20 Words // 20 Seconds in which you have 20 seconds to enter 20 words, with each word needing to fulfil a criteria like "Starts with S" or "Includes FF". Points are awarded based on number of words, word length and time left over. What's your best score?

IT IS WEDNESDAY. Wake up, sleepies! We must go, yes, we must go at once. FEED THE MAW.

Some morning music: Vamo'alla flamenco, from Final Fantasy 9.

Embracer have at last confirmed the closure of Free Radical Design in a statement to VGC, after staff broke the news on social media.

There's a report going around that Insomniac have been hacked, with ransomware group Rhysida gaining access to files for the developer's forthcoming Wolverine game. Sony have released a statement: "We are aware of reports that Insomniac Games has been the victim of a cyber security attack. We are currently investigating this situation. We have no reason to believe that any other SIE or Sony divisions have been impacted."

There's some intriguing stuff in this Polygon piece about Exodus, the Mass Effecty sci-fi game from Archetype Studios which includes a character played by Matthew McConaughey. Specifically, there's this from executive creative director James Ohlen on how the game handles time dilation: "Instead of seeing the consequences of a choice you make in conversation or in gameplay, you know, days later, or weeks or months later, years or even decades later, you’ll see the impact."

Veil puts Dishonored's Blink move in Rainbow Six. Can't work out whether this is genius or a disgrace. Thanks for spotting, PCG.

This is videogame-adjacent news, perhaps, but D&D publisher Hasbro have announced they're laying off 1100 staff, just two weeks before the Xmas holiday.

Some quick, addled thoughts from me on V.A Proxy's demo.

Fallout 4's next-gen update needs a little longer to cook, Bethesda say - expect a release next year.

Thank you for your patience with us as we work on the Fallout 4 next-gen update. We know you're excited, and so are we! But we need a bit more time and look forward to an exciting return to the Commonwealth in 2024.

— Fallout (@Fallout) December 13, 2023

Plastic guitars are coming back, baby! Accessories markers PDP have teased a new peripheral to go with Fortnite's Festival rhythm game, which is basically Rock Band inside Fortnite. It's okay by my time with it, although the song selection is lacking unless you cough up those V-bucks.

Rock On this January ⛺️🌙🎶🎸🎮 pic.twitter.com/IsjlmZyuGF

— PDP (@PDPgaming) December 12, 2023

Got a Steam Deck? Find yourself weirdly hooked on the smell from its vent? You're far from alone - but Valve have asked players to try and resist the alluring scent "for the safety of your health".

Escape Simulator, a game that does what it says on the tin pretty darn well, has dropped a free bit of crossover DLC with Among Us. Included is an escape room based on Among Us' spaceship, along with some cosmetics - hats included!

As mentioned earlier, Fallout 4's next-gen update - including expanded support for 4K and various bug fixes among other additions - will now land sometime in 2024. That puts it within touching distance of the original's 10th anniversary.

Mouse has an immediately striking look, blending Cuphead-like cartoon visuals with the fast-paced first-person gunplay of Doom. It pops with all the energy of a 1930s animation, albeit with the bloody violence of Itch & Scratchy. I can't wait to play it - though we might have to wait until 2025, devs Fumi Games say.

IT IS THURSDAY. Plasma armour is charged. Form a phalanx and FEED THE MAW.

Starfield's creative director Has Thoughts on "how disconnected some players are from the realities of game development, and yet they speak with complete authority. I mean, I can guess what it takes to make a Hostess Twinkie, but I don't work in the factory, so what the hell do I really know?" The full Xitter thread is worth a look, and doesn't just read like sour grapes about Starfield's reception, though I'm sure that's a factor.

Loooong🧵 (1/15) Funny how disconnected some players are from the realities of game development, and yet they speak with complete authority. I mean, I can guess what it takes to make a Hostess Twinkie, but I don't work in the factory, so what the hell do I really know? Not a lot.

— Emil Pagliarulo (@Dezinuh) December 13, 2023

Shadows of Doubt's modding update is now live, allowing you to edit whole cities and weave your own whodunnit mysteries within them.

Warframe's Whispers in the Walls update is also now live. This is the one about spooky goings on in a weird laboratory. Trailer below.

Hunt: Showdown has also had a mega-update that coincides with the beginning of the game's Tides of Desolation event. Expect maps covered in ash, "major controller changes and major Progression changes, as well as smaller quality of life improvements".

It's reported that the Epic Games Store will give away 17 games over the Xmas period, starting with a bunch of Destiny 2 expansions. Thanks VGC.

War Hospital has a release date - 14th January. As you can probably guess, it's a hospital management game set in WW1. It looks a bit like Commandos.

This morning I am mostly listening to the fat beats of Power Plant, from the Bionic Commando Rearmed soundtrack.

A quick piece about a nifty free Itch.io puzzler.

Some guy called Adam Smith has said that Larian "don't have any specific plans" for adding new D&D races to Baldur's Gate 3, but they're "not saying no". Seems suss.

Larian's CEO Swen Vincke has shared what he would have said in his Baldur's Gate 3 TGA acceptance speech if he hadn't been told to "wrap it up", including a tribute to people laid off by Hasbro.

Dishonored and Deathloop makers Arkane have shared concept art for their forthcoming Blade game.

Your excitement following Marvel's Blade reveal means the world to us. Here's some exclusive eye candy from our Art heroes at Lyon! ❤️

Want to team-up? Check out Arkane Lyon's open positions as we're looking for talents in various disciplines: https://t.co/JZNi6qGbJ4 pic.twitter.com/INV3h7u2VG

— Sebastien Mitton (@mitmitman) December 14, 2023

cpt_freakout says: The Blade concept art looks pretty cool! Will RPS cover Bahnsen Knights? It looks exactly like an RPS kind of game.

I am super-keen to cover Bahnsen Knights but it's a bit of a logjam here - we had a load of meetings today. It's unlikely to be a bad game - the developer's previous Mothman project was ace.

Netflix have 10 games in development internally, according to Axios, one of which is an "AAA game for PCs".

If you own The Crew but haven't played it yet, you'll want to do so soon - Ubisoft have delisted the game from Steam and announced they're shutting down servers on 31st March 2024.

Got some extensive new footage of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, the Suikoden sequel in all but name.

IT IS FRIDAY. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of Warzone/Warcraft/Total War/Warhammer/Animal Crossing/Earthworm Jim. FEED THE MAW.

Naughty Dog have cancelled long-awaited multiplayer offering The Last of Us Online. "We had two paths in front of us," reads the post in question. "Become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage."

Original Duke Nukem dev Scott Miller says that Embracer have laid people off at 3D Realms.

Several sources have told me this bad news... Sorry to hear about another drop of the axe by Embracer Group, this time landing on Danish 3D Realms. A lot of people, including core devs, will be looking for work asap. Hopefully they land jobs soon. This one hits me hard because I…

— Scott Miller - Apogee/3DR Founder☢️ (@ScottApogee) December 14, 2023

Total War developers Creative Assembly have formally apologised to players for what Creative Assembly concedes to be the substandard state of Total Warhammer 3's latest DLC and Total War: Pharaoh. Amongst other things, Pharaoh owners will receive a partial refund and free DLC, while Total Warhammer 3's Shadows of Change DLC will receive a major free update.

Do you play Dave the Diver? Because the latest Steam update brings Dredge crossover DLC. You'll need to complete the VIP Sammy mission to experience the goods, which include a new weather condition: fog.

Dyson Sphere Program's Rise of the Dark Fog update, aka the combat update, is live now.

If you need jollying up on this gloomy mid-December Friday, you might enjoy Completely Fictional Story About A City Inside A Whale - here are some thoughts on the demo.

I've been falling behind on my music recommendations. Here's Stephanie "Quiet off MGS5" Joosten's cover of "Through the Night" from Quicksilver, as heard in the rickety but endearing Wanted: Dead.

IGN have a chat with Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya about why he left Platinum, and what he'll do next. An excerpt: "PlatinumGames has placed a priority on growing as a company. But I personally have no interest in growing a company for the sake of corporate growth. The desire to make interesting games is the first step for me, so I want to stay true to that."

Astronimo is out of early access today, and to my undiscerning eye, looks like a spiritual sequel to LittleBigPlanet with a pinch of Kerbal Space Program. Oh heck, that's probably the headline, isn't it.

Valve are taking a seasonal approach to Dota 2 bans. Have you been naughty this year?

This might be the funniest thing I've ever seen relating to Dota. Well played Valve. pic.twitter.com/v37jGXHQK1

— Richard Lewis (@RLewisReports) December 15, 2023

The full details on the reported layoffs at 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks, as shared by Edwin earlier today.

Hoping those affected - it sounds like a large number of people, with half the studio rumoured to have been cut - manage to land on their feet soon. What awful timing before Christmas.

Ubisoft's open-world racer The Crew is shutting down its servers in March. Being an MMO with cars, that means it'll be impossible to play it after that date. You can no longer buy it, but you have a few more months to take a road trip across its United States if you're so inclined.

I'm seeing in the weekend gently (and seeing off a post-Christmas party malaise) with some Brian Eno - specifically, the soul-cleansing Music for Airports.

There's some new deets about the upcoming Death Stranding movie, as arthouse darlings A24 (they of Hereditary and Everything Everywhere All at Once) get involved.

“We are creating a Death Stranding universe that has never been seen before, achievable only through the medium of film, it will be born," says Kojima.

The head of Larian has shot down any hope of Baldur's Gate 3 finding its way to Game Pass - explaining that it's acceptable for the studio to want to recoup the costs of developing such a big game, especially one that doesn't have any additional micro-transactions or DLC. Sounds like a good deal to me, honestly.

Battlefield 2042 is set to see in the shooter's third year with a Season 7 in March. Expect new maps among the offering of "fresh content".

So yes, Season 7 for #Battlefield 2042 will be in your hands in March! 🗓️

It’ll be a massive Season packed with a whole load of fresh content…including maps!

Enjoy the Holiday Protocol event and we will see you in the New Year 🫡 pic.twitter.com/tGKF1Y47VS

— Battlefield (@Battlefield) December 14, 2023

PowerWash Sim is celebrating the holidays by letting you blast the dirt off Santa's Workshop. The free map is out now, and has 500 dings - more than any level to date.

The Universim, a god sim with space exploration, has a 1.0 release date - 22nd January 2024. It's been in development for a decade. I've not played it, but it has a fairly enthusiastic following on Steam.

Activision Blizzard will pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit brought by California’s Civil Rights Department in 2021 over allegations of gender discrimination and harassment at the Call of Duty publisher, as reported by the WSJ.

Godus and Godus Wars, Peter Molyneux's infamous crowdfunded return to the god game genre, have been removed from sale on Steam. A wonderful excuse to revisit the whole sorry affair.

It's DayZ's 10th anniversary and Bohemia have put together a short video to celebrate. A developer stream is coming on December 21st with new information on the future of the game.

Destructive multiplayer shooter The Finals received its first post-launch patch yesterday, with some fixes, some quality-of-life changes, animation improvements to make it feel as fast as the beta, and more.

As reader PolygonClassicist points out, the nominees for this year's player-voted Steam Awards are out. A baffling list, I think, but certainly a conversation starter. Starfield for "most innovative", hm?

Wonderful stealth tactics 'em up Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew got a surprise final update which adds a modding tool so players can create their own missions.

This week's liveblog is at an end. The battle against the Maw continues here.