The Maw: what’s new in PC games this week?

Happy this week all! It’s almost time to give 2024 the finger, swallow a flagon of mince pie formula and tapdance backwards into the holiday, but the Maw still needs a little feeding and it has no appetite for mince pies. Nor will it eat tinsel, candy canes, mistletoe, snowmen or reindeer, though goodness knows we’ve tried. So much screaming. No, the Maw’s penchant remains for new PC game releases, and thankfully, they are as thick on the ground as reindeer pelts.

On Monday 9th December, we will finally learn what’s so Great about Indiana Jones’s Circle. Ace attorneys may prefer to piece together clues in Paper Perjury, which doesn’t boast of many circles, but does have some nice pixelart. On Tuesday 10th December, here’s Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 + 2 Remastered to rebuild Raziel in hi-fi plasticine, plus Voin with a more contemporary blend of dark fantasy slash-hack, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita’s Rewind for the incorrigible Saturday morning cartoon lovers. Ballionaire, meanwhile, extends the roguelike plague to pachinko, and Astrometica is Subnautica with asteroids instead of coral reefs. On Wednesday 11th December, poison monsters with rotten riceballs in Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. On Thursday 12th December, ride a carnivorous elevator in Soviet horror game Kletka, slice stop-motion tengu in The Spirit Of The Samurai, or sculpt the ooze in Creeper World IXE. And on Friday 13th December, a choice of Dovecraftian walking simulator or haunted cabin inspection.

This week is also the week of the Game Awards, when developers carve release dates into megaliths and drag them into a circle around an altar on which Geoff Keighley sacrifices various declining celebrities. The geoffening begins at 4:30pm PT or 7:30pm ET on 12th December, or 12:30am GMT or 1:30am CET on 13th December. We will be staying up late to behold the slaughter, for such crimes should be witnessed. In the meantime, here’s our weekly news liveblog.