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

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Part two of the news:

Oddity is an Earthbound spiritual successor that used to be a fan sequel
https://www.pcgamer.com/oddity-is-an-earthbound-spiritual-successor-that-used-to-be-a-fan-sequel/
The Mother series, known as EarthBound outside of Japan, stopped with Mother 3 in 2006, and only the second game was released internationally. That hasn't stopped fans from carrying a torch for it over the years, with one group deciding to stop waiting for Nintendo and create their own sequel, which has now transformed into a separate game with a new name, Oddity.

Soma studio Frictional Games may be teasing its next horrific thing
https://www.pcgamer.com/soma-studio-frictional-games-may-be-teasing-its-next-horrific-thing/
It's been a couple of years since Frictional Games, the studio that over the past decade has given us the Penumbra trilogy, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Soma, revealed that its next "horrific" game was in full production, yet we still know nothing about it. That may be about to change, however. Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently noticed that the Frictional website has been updated with a link to "Next Frictional Game," and more importantly the nextfrictionalgame.com website is doing something different now, too.

Fallout 76's next location is a fortified parking garage under a ruined city
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76s-next-location-is-a-fortified-parking-garage-under-a-ruined-city/
Welcome to Watoga, city of the future! Unfortunately, the future got a buncha nukes dropped on it and all that's habitable in Watoga now is the series of automated parking garages that the city was built on. And those garages are probably filled with raiders. Sorry about that.

Take a picture, then walk into it, in this must-see game tech experiment
https://www.pcgamer.com/take-a-picture-then-walk-into-it-in-this-must-see-game-tech-experiment/
Indie Developer Matt Stark has tweeted a video of his idea for a game on twitter. It’s what he’s callling the “Polaroid Effect,” after the once-ubiquitous instant cameras. The experimental game mechanic allows a player to take a picture of a slice of environment using a camera, then place the instant-camera picture into the world as a piece of interactive environment—physically altering the world around them into a surrealist photo collage. He first posted the concept in November 2019, but was then unsure if what he has done now was even possible. “The effect is purely visual and the player can’t physically interact with it,” he said at the time. It’s clear now that Stark’s development has come pretty far. Stark hasn’t said what kind of game he’s interested in making with the concept, but with some 50k retweets and 150k likes on his concept the idea definitely shows promise.

Older Americans are playing more games, especially on PC and Mobile
https://www.pcgamer.com/older-americans-are-playing-more-games-especially-on-pc-and-mobile/
Americans ages 50+ are increasingly interested in and playing games, with a marked increase in the older gamer population. A study by the AARP reports that there were some 40.2 million older adult gamers in 216, while there are now 50.6 million. Over one-third of these gamers report themselves as constantly trying new games, and fewer of them are reporting looking to their children or grandchildren to find new games, preferring to instead find those games themselves. Nearly half of these gamers report playing games daily. A significant number—33%—report playing games online, and one-third of those generally play with strangers. These gamers almost all report playing generally puzzle, logic, word, card, and video board games.

Fantasy colony sim Odd Realm is quite charming and a bit weird
https://www.pcgamer.com/fantasy-colony-sim-odd-realm-is-quite-charming-and-a-bit-weird/
Odd Realm is an interesting gem in the rough that went into Early Access last January and has come a long way since. It’s a colony survival or simulator or manager or builder or whatever we’re calling these, the genre that sprung up from Dwarf Fortress. It’s also adorable, frankly—and it has a neat twist. Whereas most games in this genre stick you with a single species of weird thing to base your civilization on, Odd Realm has a bunch of species with their own unique game traits. You’ve got your garden variety Humans, yes, but also playable right now are a bunch of dead skeleton people who’re really good at magic. There are three more civilizations planned. Odd Realm is also rendered in pretty charming pixel art, with higher-res art for character and creature portraits.

Here’s a fun, free action game about collecting magic knives
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-a-fun-free-action-game-about-collecting-magic-knives/
Ecila is an action game available for free over on Itch.io. Ecila is a game where you collect some weird knives and they have different powers. Ecila has some pretty good pixel art. Ecila is made by developers faxdoc and NostalgiaTree. Ecila has a very satisfying dash mechanic which I like quite a lot. Ecila is playable with a keyboard + mouse or a controller. Ecila took me about an hour and a half to beat, but will be shorter for you if you are better at action games. Ecila is also “Alice” backward, so there’s that.

Kentucky Route Zero's final episode is coming soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/kentucky-route-zeros-final-episode-is-coming-soon/
Indie developer Cardboard Computer is responsible for Kentucky Route Zero, an episodic game of magical realism, secret highways, and strange Americana. The first episode of a planned five was released on January 7, 2013, and now there's a countdown suggesting the final episode could be out this week.

New League of Legends season starts soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-league-of-legends-season-starts-soon/
Riot tweeted out two images on Sunday, the first showing Urgot using his chains over the words "in 5 days we break them" and the second declaring that the 2020 season begins on January 10.

Biomass is a 2D, sci-fi Soulslike with a hefty free demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/biomass-is-a-2d-sci-fi-soulslike-with-a-hefty-free-demo/
Biomass is a sidescrolling sci-fi game with a few elements borrowed from Dark Souls. Firstly, it's hard. Really hard! Enemies can defeat you in a couple of hits. Also, you drop your collected experience when you die. That aside, the game has a refreshingly different theme, as it's set in a gleaming future metropolis packed with robots, and human jerks wielding lightsaber-esque laser weapons.

Crytek is trying to get its Star Citizen lawsuit dismissed, but only temporarily
https://www.pcgamer.com/crytek-is-trying-to-get-its-star-citizen-lawsuit-dismissed-but-only-temporarily/
Crytek and Cloud Imperium Games have been preparing for a legal battle over Star Citizen since late 2017, with Crytek contending that the developer breached a license agreement and committed copyright infringement, but the lawsuit could soon be dismissed at Crytek's request.

Manipulate the politics of a country in FMV game Not For Broadcast
https://www.pcgamer.com/manipulate-the-politics-of-a-country-in-fmv-game-not-for-broadcast/
In Not For Broadcast, you are given the power of controlling a national TV station at the time of a highly public political scandal. You only came to the studio to clean up, but now you've been thrust into the role of production director for the National Nightly News Team — that's quite a big promotion.

Heaven's Vault studio Inkle drops a strange message to tease its next project
https://www.pcgamer.com/heavens-vault-studio-inkle-drops-a-strange-message-to-tease-its-next-project/
Inkle, the interactive narrative studio whose previous games include Sorcery!, 80 Days, and Heaven's Vault, is teasing its next project—in a very distinctly Inkle-like fashion.

Gollum 'doesn't look like Andy Serkis' in Daedalic's new Lord of the Rings game
https://www.pcgamer.com/gollum-doesnt-look-like-andy-serkis-in-daedalics-new-lord-of-the-rings-game/
In March 2019, Daedalic Entertainment unveiled The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, an action-adventure game set in JRR Tolkien's famed fantasy realm. Nothing was said about the game itself, though, except that it "tells Gollum's story from a perspective never seen before ... while staying true to the legendary books." But the latest issue of Edge reveals more about what's in store, including that the lead character will not look like he did in Peter Jackson's films.

This new bullet hell adventure has a ghostly cat and a touching backstory
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-new-bullet-hell-adventure-has-a-ghostly-cat-and-a-touching-backstory/
Developed by one person, Jacob Williams, ITTA is Cuphead meets Hyper Light Drifter in a surreal, mysterious pixel art world. You play as a young girl, the titular Itta, who is armed with her father's revolver and accompanied by a ghostly, floating cat.