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!

Here are the games in question, plus a few more we have in our eye: Stardew-with-malaria Echoes Of The Plum Grove (29th April); sidescrolling cyberpunk adventure Let Bions Be Bygones (30th April); Half-Lifey open world survival FPS Abiotic Factor (early access, 2nd May); bioweapons management sim Undead Inc (2nd May); US elect ’em up The Political Machine 2024 (2nd May); alt-Russia theological fantasy Indika (2nd May); Fall-Guys-with-boids Feather Party (3rd May, early access).

As ever, this week’s videogames are sponsored by that gluttonous Old One we call the Maw, which we must try eternally to satisfy with helpings of videogame news to stop it breaking into our reality like a chestburster. Will the Maw be happy with the above releases? I’m dubious – the Maw generally prefers sequels and things we can liken to The Witcher. But thankfully, I think it still has its mouth full with last week’s Manor Lords, which was explosively popular over the weekend. Anyway, you can follow and, if you must, contribute to our weekly newsgatherings by means of the liveblog below, with its unsightly comments thread appendage.