Layers Of Fear dev’s next original game will be revealed this year

Twitter user pl_evil has helpfully translated a recent letter to shareholders from Bloober Team, showing that their new game “Project C” will be revealed later this year. This will be the studio’s next original game, after they wrapped up Layers Of Fear last year with, confusingly, Layers Of Fear (the natural progression for a series: Layers Of Fear, Layers Of Fear 2, and then Layers Of Fear again, although it was going to be called Layers Of Fears at one point).

Bloober Team are currently doing a lot of IP work for other people, with the Silent Hill 2 remake due out later this year, and a game codenamed “Project R” in concert with Skybound Entertainment. Skybound are The Walking Dead company, so I wouldn’t give you long odds for a bet on what Project R is about. Neither would I be surprised if Project C is unveiled this summer by a man named Geoff with shiny shiny trainers. I’m interested to see what it is, and honestly I’m hoping it’s a brand new standalone thing, rather than a forced sequel to Observer or 2021’s The Medium (where I got the header).

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Escape From Tarkov studio boss says he “did not foresee” players would get mad about charging extra for PvE

The Escape From Tarkov developers’ efforts to escape from a DLC paywall quagmire of their own quagmiring continue with an update and apology from Battlestate chief operational officer Nikita Buyanov, who says he “did not foresee” the adverse reaction to selling a new PvE mode as part of a new special edition, after telling purchasers of a previous edition they’d get “all subsequent DLC” for free.

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A bot in Tekken 8 is demolishing players by only pressing one button over and over

Button mashing is advised against in fighting games if you want to climb the ranks. But those of us who’ve been destroyed by unpredictable little brothers going ham on a joystick know a secret. Sometimes spamming works. One Tekken 8 player is proving this point. They have programmed a bot of Eddy Gordo, the whirling Capoeira fighter, to slap the same button repeatedly, and nothing else, while broadcasting its performance against real players on Twitch. The bot is doing surprisingly well.

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The Maw 29th April-4th May

New week, new videogames! When will it end, etc. There aren’t many obvious headliners out in the next few days, but there are a lot of tantalisingly bleak games. Let’s see here, we’ve got a survival shooter that’s essentially set in Black Mesa, a sardonical adventure about questing Russian Orthodox nuns, a game about running the company that starts the zombie apocalypse, and a cosy village grower with an atypical emphasis on disease and death. Lovely!

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What’s on your bookshelf?: Citizen Sleeper’s Gareth Damian Martin

Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome to Booked For The Week – our new Sunday feature where we ask a selection of cool industry folks questions about books! You know books, right? They’re a bit like RPS articles, but heavier and smell a bit nicer. This week, it’s Citizen Sleeper and In Other Waters‘ creator Gareth Damien Martin! Cheers Gareth! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?

What are you currently reading?

We thought Gareth had covered all the books already, but it turns out there’s loads of them, so pop back next week for another cool person telling us about their favourites. Book for now! (still working on that one.)

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Escape From Tarkov studio head doubles down on belief new mode is not DLC, but says players can have it when the game is done

Escape From Tarkov‘s developer has responded to players having conniptions due to the release of a new $250 Unheard edition of the game. In an update shared on Reddit, Battlestate Games studio head doubled down on their view that a new co-op PvE mode is not DLC, but does say that other players can have it when Escape From Tarkov is finished… whenever that is.

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After promising free DLC forever to some players, Escape from Tarkov locks a new PvE mode behind $250 edition

The creators of Escape from Tarkov may be looking for their own escape at the moment, after enraging the extraction shooter’s community with a new top-tier edition of the game that’s come under fire for its extortionate cost, “pay-to-win” offerings and for U-turning on the promise of free DLC for buyers of a previous bundle.

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Celeste’s slick movement meets Zelda’s hookshot in Oyster Wars, “intense” platformer by an actual oyster farmer about revenge against Big Oyster

Sometimes there’s a game that’s just a delight to write about, however you slice it. That’s how I feel about getting to tell you about Oyster Wars, a platforming game that melds the fluid movement of Celeste with the puzzle dungeons and hookshot traversal of Zelda. Oh, and top of that it’s about rebelling against capitalism via oyster farming – and it’s made by a real-life oyster farmer. Let’s get into this package of joys.

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