Carzy Zarx’s PC Gaming Emporium - Catch Up on All the Latest PC Gaming Related News

[JEMC]

Tuesday news:

SALES & DEALS

At Steam, we have a new daily and weeklong deals:

• The daily deal is the Shadow Warrior franchise: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/shadow-warrior/
• Circle Empires is 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/834740/Circle_Empires/
• Pillars of Eternity - Definitive Edition is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/sub/220633/
• Hacknet is 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/365450/Hacknet/
• Crypt of the NecroDancer is 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/247080/Crypt_of_the_NecroDancer/
• And Valley is 90% cheaper: https://store.steampowered.com/app/378610/Valley/

On the Humble Store, there are two new deals:

• First is a new Humble Bundle, the Yogscast Jingle Jam 2018. This bundle is more expensive than usual, but a new game will be added every day until Dec 25: https://www.humblebundle.com/yogscast/yogscast-jingle-jam-2018
• And there's a build your own bundle. If you pick 3 of the eligible games, the game discounts will rise to 75%, if they're 4 it will be 78% and if you choose 5 the discounts will be 80%. It will last another 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/plugin-digital-byob/

And at Fanatical, there are also two new deals:

• The Star Deal is SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising, 60% off for the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/synthetik
• There's a Call of Duty sale, with the games being 50% off for the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/call-of-duty

 

SOFTWARE/DRIVERS

A Steam bug has reportedly halved the revenue of some indie developers
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-steam-bug-has-reportedly-halved-the-revenue-of-some-indie-developers/
In October, Valve introduced a bug into Steam’s Discovery feature that made it recommend large, popular games instead of more relevant ones, according to developers affected by the problem. While the bug was apparently squashed quite quickly, the impact has remained, with a significant number of indie developers reporting a reduction in traffic and sales.
The issue has been going on for two months and there’s a forum thread (only developers who log in can read it) detailing it, but if you’re not a Steam developer, you can also read Shadowhand and Ancient Enemy developer Jake Birkett’s detailed account.
>> It's interesting that we know about this just days after learning that Valve will give big publishers more money, pissing off the indie scene.

Spend your Ubisoft Club points soon or they'll start to vanish
https://www.pcgamer.com/spend-your-ubisoft-club-points-soon-or-theyll-start-to-vanish/
You probably don’t think about Ubisoft Club points (which they insist on calling ‘units’) very often. They’re earned in-game for completing challenges, but there are so many opportunities to earn them that you’ll get plenty without going out of your way. They’re an unobtrusive way for Ubisoft to reward players without putting pressure on them. Recently, I used some to fill my ship in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with an army of female assassins, so I’m generally pro Ubisoft Club points. Unfortunately, Ubisoft has now decided to give the points a two-year shelf life that kicks in next year. Your points are going to start vanishing.
“Beginning April 1, 2019, you have 24 months to redeem the Club Units you acquired through your gaming experience or by making eligible purchases on the Ubisoft Store,” Ubisoft warns in its FAQ. “After 24 months, these Club Units will expire and will automatically disappear from your Ubisoft Account. Each time you redeem Club Units, the oldest Club Units will be redeemed first.”
>> I better take a look at how many points I have and what can I do with them. And not because I care about them, but because I don't want to stupidly miss them.

Epic Games is starting a store to rival Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-is-starting-a-store-to-rival-steam/
Fortnite developer Epic Games is launching a new online shop called Epic Games Store. The store will offer an 88/12 percent developer-to-Epic revenue split, compared to a 70/30 split on Steam for devs earning less than a certain amount. The Epic Games Store is launching soon with a collection of titles that will expand throughout 2019.
Epic is leaning hard on the revenue split disparity between Steam and their new store. CEO Tim Sweeney tells MCV that “In our analysis, stores charging 30 per cent are marking up their costs by 300 to 400 per cent." The announcement also came with a graph to push the point.
Games using any engine will be allowed on the store, though Epic will waive the licence charge for games that use its Unreal Engine.
>> And another one joins the battle. I wonder what will happen to their current Epic Games store.

 

MODS/EMULATORS

Diablo 2: Median XL mod releases on January 18th, brings new enemies, areas, skills and more
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/diablo-2-median-xl-mod-releases-on-january-18th-brings-new-enemies-areas-skills-and-more/
The team behind the Diablo 2: Median XL mod has announced that this brand new mod will release on January 18th. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team has also released a new gameplay trailer that you can find below, showcasing the key features that will be implemented in it.
Diablo 2: Median XL will feature new skills, new monsters, new bosses, new areas and new items. What’s also really interesting is that this mod will be powered by a new engine that will also come with a new inventory, support for high resolutions and a bigger inventory.

 

GAMING NEWS

WB Montreal appears to be working on a Batman: Court of Owls game, won’t be shown at Video Game Awards 2018
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/wb-montreal-appears-to-be-working-on-a-batman-court-of-owls-game-wont-be-shown-at-video-game-awards-2018/
It appears that WB Montreal is currently working on a Batman: Court of Owls game. Earlier last month, WB Montreal’s Assistant Producer has shared an image of a T-shirt that featured a logo almost identical to the Court of Owls symbol.

New beautiful 4K screenshots for Remedy’s Control released
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/new-beautiful-4k-screenshots-for-remedys-control-released/
Remedy has released some new 4K screenshots from its upcoming title, Control. These new screenshots showcase some of the environments, as well as the main protagonist, Jesse Faden, and it looks absolutely stunning.

Avalanche’s Generation Zero gets an one-hour gameplay livestream
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/avalanches-generation-zero-gets-a-new-gameplay-trailer/
Avalanche has released a brand new video for Generation Zero, showing one hour of gameplay footage. Generation Zero is described as an explosive game of cat and mouse set in a vast open world, that will be powered by the APEX Engine and targets a 2019 release.

Battlefield 5 Chapter 1: Overture Update has been delayed and won’t be released today
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/battlefield-5-chapter-1-overture-update-has-been-delayed-and-wont-be-released-today/
Electronic Arts and DICE have announced that the Chapter 1: Overture update, which was meant to come out later today, has been delayed. According to the official statement, the development team has discovered an issue with it and instead of releasing it in a broken state, it decided to slightly delay it.