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Hunt: Showdown and Crysis developers Crytek are dismissing an estimated 15 percent of their workforce – around 60 people out of 400 – in the face of “the complex, unfavourable market dynamics that have hit our industry these past several years”. This comes after they paused development of mechsuit FPS sequel Crysis 4 last year, with staff shifting over to Hunt Showdown’s live service reboot Hunt: Showdown 1896. Crytek now say they need to cut back in order to remain “financially sustainable”.
Sharkmob have punched the green light, cracked open the hangar doors and launched a public playtest for their windblown open world extraction shooter Exoborne, which I would gingerly summarise as Anthem meets Just Cause with a touch of PUBG. From today till 17th February at 1pm GMT, 2pm CET, or 5am PST, you’ll be able to get your fill of mech-o-looting via Steam. Here’s a trailer’s worth of wiggly whooshes, big bangs and exowotsits to celebrate. Mmm, exowotsits. They used to be 25p a bag in the 1990s.
Well, this is nice. Remedy’s exceptionally good horror game Alan Wake 2 is finally making royalties for the studio for the first time since its release in late 2023, after shifting over 2 million copies. The jubilant news comes from Remedy latest financial report, as spotted by VG247.
As of September last year, the musical-with-guns had “recouped most of its development and marketing expenses”, but still wasn’t quite in the green. Since then, they’ve released both The Lake House expansion and physical console editions, which appear to have done the trick. “October saw particularly high activity around Alan Wake 2,” says the report.
The developers of upcoming survival game Subnautica 2 have warned fans that some dastardly do-badders are sending “fraudulent invites” to a playtest for the game via Steam messages. The playtest isn’t real, say Unknown Worlds, who point out that any such invite will only come in an email from their own domain.
Monster Hunter Wilds features an absolutely dreadful spider monster – a spider that, going by preview encounters and trailers, strives for the point on the Venn diagram between Malenia in Elden Ring and the demon arachnid from Hunt: Showdown. The spider monster is called the Lala Barina. If I saw “Lala Barina” out of context I would assume I was reading about a successor to Suzuki’s subcompact automobile the Holden Barina, whose brave and sturdy outline once graced the roads of Oceania. I would not picture a giant, greasy rose blossom with jet-black darting mandibles. I would not picture nests of scarlet silk and status effects literally out the wazoo.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 is out now in full public access on Steam, Epic Games Store and the Microsoft Store and once again, I ask myself: does Sid Meier keep a hit list of journalists who just call it plain old Civilization? What about journalists who come up with cute puns like Sidilization or CiviliSidtion or SimSiddy: The Meier The Merrier and whoops, I’ve just been assassinated by sniper drone. Fortunately the drone is equipped with one of those generative AI chatbots and can write the rest of this news post for me.
What would do, oh what would you do?
Yes, what would you do, with an infinite shoe?
Would you melt it to make yourself infinite glue?
Or to infinite dogs ‘pon which to infinitely chew?
Would you keep ajar infinite doors…alright enough of that. I’m very sorry. I had too much cheap energy drink for breakfast and it appears to have given me rhyming cancer. Also, the urge to browse the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 mods, to see what players of the RPG were downloading most at the moment. I find there’s usually a sweet spot before anything too substantial hits a game’s Nexus Mods page where you can use the most popular mods as an interesting barometer to what sort of game people actually want to be playing. The theme here? Players seem to love the idea of a gritty realistic medieval game in theory, but actually secretly enjoy having the inconvenient edges sanded off.
Comicbook mulchfest Marvel Rivals once planned to reset player ranks twice per season, but these recently-hatched plots are no more, for the gamers have descended upon NetEase like rogue Iron Man suits, and the developers have acquiesced to their verbal kicks and punches.
It is I, the guy who has only played Mechabellum playing his second autobattler, and getting strong Mechabellum vibes from it. Except, actually no, not at all. He Is Coming, from Chronocle and noted good game recognisers Hooded Horse, is actually a kinda sorta classic roguelike RPG. You’ll be shuffling over a Commodore 64-tified overworld map, grabbing treasure, bumping foes that move when you do, and turn-based autobattling them.
Got wounded? Maybe have a nice rest at that campfire. Not too long, you slovenly wastrel! You’re actually on the clock: the ‘he’ of the title refers to the menagerie of boss creatures that turn up after a set time. The idea is to use your time wisely to prepare for the big fight, getting stronger without getting whittled down too much.
PowerWash Simulator simply too strenuous? House Flipper 2 furrowing your brow? They can’t hurt you anymore, friend. It is simply you and the hole now. The days may come, and the world may spin, but you? You need only dig. A Game About Digging A Hole is a game about digging a hole.
“Hey Steam community,” goes the delightfully unadorned Steam page introduction to this simulation game. “I’m Ben, and I created this game in my spare time!”. I love you, Ben. Not a “play your way” in sight. Nary a “the only limit is your imagination”. Absent a venomous and detestable “easy to learn, hard to master”. Just a bloke named Ben, and a hole named hole.
