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

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Friday's part two:

 

Hearthstone is getting its biggest ladder changes since launch
http://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-ladder-changes/
Given that grinding to Legend each month in Hearthstone is likely to take more than 500 games, and potentially even more the closer your win rate drops to 50%, it's little wonder few players bother putting the time in. Especially as even if you make it, the monthly reset will set you all the way back to rank 16. Blizzard has long promised to address the system in order to make it more player friendly, and today we found out how.

 

Blizzard says Overwatch loot box odds have not changed
http://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-says-overwatch-loot-box-odds-have-not-changed/
Blizzard added more than 100 new cosmetic items to Overwatch's base loot box yesterday, many of which you can get a closer look at here. In the eyes of some users, however, the increase in available items was accompanied by a decrease in the odds of actually getting any of the good stuff. But Blizzard says that's simply not the case.

 

Oculus has invented a new unit for measuring time
http://www.pcgamer.com/oculus-has-invented-a-new-unit-for-measuring-time/
Earlier this week, Facebook and Oculus released a new unit of time: the 'flick,' which is short for 'frame-tick' and represents a 705,600,000th of a second.
The unit was first conceived in a 2016 thread posted by Christopher Horvath, who at the time was working at Oculus Story Studio, and serves one specific purpose: it is "the smallest time unit which is larger than a nanosecond, and can in integer quantities exactly represent a single frame duration for 24hz, 25hz, 30hz, 48hz, 50hz, 60hz, 90hz, 100hz, 120hz, and also 1/1000 divisions of each."

>>I'm honestly baffled.

 

Try the demo for 2v2 4-player fighter Cerebrawl
http://www.pcgamer.com/try-the-demo-for-2v2-4-player-fighter-cerebrawl/
Cerebrawl is a 2v2, four-player fighting game that builds on the established tag-team system by letting players control both roles. It's currently on Kickstarter, with developer Zero Dimension asking for $278,000 to bring it to life. At the time of writing, its campaign has earned $14,576 and will run for another 32 days.

 

For Honor season 5 will bring major gameplay changes and dedicated servers
http://www.pcgamer.com/for-honor-season-5-will-bring-major-gameplay-changes-and-dedicated-servers/
The fifth season of For Honor, called Age of Wolves, will go live on February 15, Ubisoft announced today, bringing major gameplay changes to the Kensei, Conqueror, Nobushi, Berserker, and Highlander, plus new customization options, "quality of life" improvements, new basic and advanced training options, and those long-awaited dedicated servers—although you'll have to wait a little while longer before they go live.

 

You drink liquor to quicksave in Kingdom Come: Deliverance
http://www.pcgamer.com/you-drink-liquor-to-quicksave-in-kingdom-come-deliverance/
To keep things realistic without sacrificing the modern conveniences most games come with nowadays, Deliverance even gives the immersive sim staple of quicksaving a medieval touch. You can save by sleeping, and autosaves will keep you from losing hours of progress, but in order to save on the spot anywhere in the world, you'll need to stock up on Saviour Schnapps, an alcoholic drink that lets you reload from the moment you down the sucker. See for yourself in the latest dev video above (it starts around the 13-minute mark).

 

Ubisoft is raising the price of Rainbow Six Siege
http://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-price/
Ubisoft outlined a major change to the pricing structure of Rainbow Six Siege today, effectively raising the cost of the game by $20 for the average buyer after February 13, 2018.

 

Destiny 2 Masterwork armor and Raid reworks detailed in Bungie update
http://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-masterwork-armor-and-raid-reworks-detailed-in-bungie-update/
The latest edition of This Week at Bungie is another big one, with detailed information on Destiny 2's upcoming Iron Banner Event, substantial changes to how Raid loot drops work, some straight talk on why you can't easily dismantle all those shaders you've got lying around, and a rundown of the rest of what players can expect from the 30 January update.

 

A new Kentucky Route Zero interlude suggests that Act 5 is on the way
http://www.pcgamer.com/a-new-kentucky-route-zero-interlude-suggests-that-act-5-is-on-the-way/
It's been seven years since the "magic realist adventure game" Kentucky Route Zero successfully completed its $6500 Kickstarter campaign. Four acts have been released since then, the most recent in July 2016, and in September of last year developer Cardboard Computer said it was "totally focused" on finishing the game. It appears that the work might finally be approaching completion, as the studio dropped a tweet today that leads to a surreal trip inside a tiny independent television station somewhere deep in the Bluegrass State.

 

Overwatch dev update discusses toxicity, Mercy nerfs, and which characters are due for changes
http://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-dev-update-discusses-toxicity-mercy-nerfs-and-which-characters-are-due-for-changes/
In a developer update Thursday afternoon, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan addressed a number of popular topics in the community.
First up, Kaplan talked about the ongoing toxicity issues that plague the game, saying that minimizing toxicity is a major initiative for Blizzard and the Overwatch team. He said that the recent updates to the reporting process, such as informing players when an account they report has been sanctioned, has increased player reporting by 20 percent and decreased incidents of abusive chat in competitive play by 17 percent.

 

Sea of Thieves closed beta extended by two days
http://www.pcgamer.com/sea-of-thieves-closed-beta-extended-by-two-days/
The Sea of Thieves closed beta arrived yesterday, but many players who were granted access after pre-purchasing Rare's first-person open-world pirate game found themselves unable to play. Instead of being able to install and launch the game, many hopeful swashbucklers received an error message stating it was "too early" to play and were locked out. Rare rolled out a temporary fix today and is working on a longer term solution, and to compensate for the trouble the closed beta has been extended by a couple more days to ensure players get enough time in the game.

 

Fortnite surfaces from 14-hour downtime with building and ADS bugs, applies PC patch
http://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-surfaces-from-14-hour-downtime-with-building-and-ads-bugs-applies-pc-patch-for-latest-update/
In preparation for its v2.3.0 update, Fortnite: Battle Royale nipped offline around noon UK-time yesterday. Behind-the-scenes database issues meant it didn't return for 14 hours, and when it did, it came bearing bugs tied to reloading, key binding, building UI, and untoggle-able ADS (aim down sight).

 

GTA Online adds Ubermacht Revolter, extends Air Quota bonuses this weekend
http://www.pcgamer.com/gta-online-adds-ubermacht-revolter-extends-air-quota-bonuses-this-weekend/
Earlier this week, GTA Online introduced the classy Cadillac Escada Con—um, I mean, the Ubermacht Revolter to its Legendary Motorsport car dealerships for $1.61 million. I like the tagline: "Looks for the red carpet. Power for when the deal goes south." If my prior GTA Online misadventures are anything to go by, I'll be far more reliant on the latter scenario.

 

PixARK is a voxel-based spinoff of Ark: Survival Evolved
http://www.pcgamer.com/pixark-is-a-voxel-based-spinoff-of-ark-survival-evolved/
Ark: Survival Evolved spinoff PixARK will come to Steam Early Access this March and officially release later this year.
PixARK is being developed by Snail Games, who describes it as an open-world sandbox survival game. Ark: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard provided "design and technical input," Snail Games says.

 

Stellaris: Apocalypse expansion release date set
http://www.pcgamer.com/stellaris-apocalypse-expansion-release-date-set/
Throughout my life, I've faced many of my own end-of-the-world situations. Breakups, bereavements, moving to England and realising that for some ridiculous reason people south of the border go back to work on the second of January—and not the following week—following the Christmas break.
Luckily, I don't think Stellaris: Apocalypse features the latter—but it will contain convoys of existence-threatening space pirates, planet-destroying weapons, and gigantic Titan capital ships when it arrives next month.

 

Puzzlement is a lovely puzzle game about shifting perspectives, out next week
http://www.pcgamer.com/puzzlement-is-a-lovely-puzzle-game-about-shifting-perspectives-out-next-week/
Echoing everything from the aspect-altering works of Oscar Reutersvärd and MC Escher, to Monument Valley and the devs' previous game Hocus, Puzzlement has you steering a Pac-Man ghost-like character around a series of cubes—with progression hinged on gathering each level's collection of red squares.

 

 

With the news out of the way, it's time to see the deals we'll find at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

Here we'll find four deals:

• The first one is Seven: The Days Long Gone at 30% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20180122_seven
• Next comes the Pillars of Eternity sale, with up to 40% discount: https://www.gog.com/promo/20180125_poe
• Next comes the jRPG sale, featuring games up to 80% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20180124_jrpg_sale
• Lastly, the weekly sale featuring lots of tycoon games up to 85% off. And they've added more games since Monday! https://www.gog.com/promo/20180224_weekly_sale_tycoon

+Steam

Beyond the Black Desert Online deal, there are more to look forward:

• The Witness is 75% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/210970/The_Witness/
• The Far Cry franchise is on sale, with the older games being 70% off and the newest ones 50%: http://store.steampowered.com/sale/far-cry/
• And there's also the 498 weeklong deals.

 

And that's all. I hope you have a happy and gaming weekend.