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

[JEMC]

The last news of the week:

 

Visceral's Star Wars game is now 'pretty different', Amy Hennig has left EA
https://www.pcgamer.com/viscerals-star-wars-game-is-now-pretty-different-amy-hennig-has-left-ea/
Amy Hennig, who was the creative director of Visceral's Star Wars project before the studio was shuttered last October, left EA in January and is moving into indie development. This comes from a Eurogamer interview with the Uncharted co-creator at Gamelab in Barcelona, where she also discusses how the project, previously codenamed Ragtag, isn't really the same game in the hands of new developer EA Vancouver.

 

Hearthstone's next ranked season is bringing Legend matchmaking improvements
https://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstones-next-ranked-season-is-bringing-legend-matchmaking-improvements/
In a statement released today, Blizzard affirmed that it has not changed Hearthstone's matchmaking since February's ranked update. Among other changes, the February update made it so that Legend players start new seasons at rank four. Blizzard says the recent matchmaking woes are an unintended byproduct of the update and the influx of Legend players that it brought.

 

Overwatch's new hamster hero Wrecking Ball is live now on the PTR
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-new-hero-2018-release-date/
Another mech joins the Overwatch fray, but this time, there's a hamster in it. He's no jetpack cat, but Overwatch's second new hero for 2018, Wrecking Ball, is a furry little guy who pilots a spherical mech outfitted with a pair of giant machine guns. Oh, and he's live and playable on the Overwatch PTR right now. We've given the little guy a test drive, so if you're curious to know what he can do, we've compiled Wrecking Ball's abilities for easy viewing.

 

Dear lord, even MapleStory 2 has a battle royale mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/dear-lord-even-maplestory-2-has-a-battle-royale-mode/
We are rapidly approaching the point where a game not having a battle royale mode comes as a surprise. Or maybe I blinked and we're already there? Because apparently MapleStory 2 has joined the fight: its battle royale mode, Mushking Royale, was announced earlier this year, and will be included in its upcoming beta (which you can apply for here). The beta runs from July 18 through July 31, but Mushking Royale will only be playable from July 20 through July 22.

 

Chris Avellone's Pathfinder: Kingmaker is coming this year, published by Deep Silver
https://www.pcgamer.com/chris-avellones-pathfinder-kingmaker-is-coming-this-year-published-by-deep-silver/
The isometric RPG Pathfinder: Kingmaker was a big success on Kickstarter last year, drawing in nearly double its $500,000 goal. That reflects the popularity of the Pathfinder RPG, a pencil-and-paper RPG published by Paizo, and also the participation of—who else?—Chris Avellone, who is working with Russian studio Owlcat Games on the project.

 

Pathologic 2 progress report details lockpicking, autopsies, and lucid dreams
https://www.pcgamer.com/pathologic-2-progress-report-details-lockpicking-autopsies-and-lucid-dreams/
Ice-Pick Lodge has released a fresh Pathologic 2 progress report for June, detailing some of the tweaking and tuning that's been done to the game's systems, including trading and bartering, street-level autopsies, lockpicking, and infection. "Many game systems have already been locked in place, and most of our resources go into content creation these days," the studio said. "Still, we keep fine-tuning interfaces and experimenting with sub-systems!"

 

Bungie details Destiny 2's new prestige raid lairs and Crucible changes
https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-details-destiny-2s-new-prestige-raid-lairs-and-crucible-changes/
The latest edition of This Week at Bungie covers a lot of ground, beginning with confirmation that, because of "vendor constraints," the ability to directly purchase Destiny 2 Faction armor was intentionally removed in the 1.2.1 update. The good news is that, if all goes according to plan, it'll be returned in time for the final Faction Rally, and Iron Banner, of season three.

 

State of Decay 2 DLC brings Revolutionary War-themed zombies
https://www.pcgamer.com/state-of-decay-2-dlc-brings-revolutionary-war-themed-zombies/
Independence Day happens in the United States next week, and to celebrate, State of Decay 2 is getting a surprise DLC drop. It'll set you back $4.99, and the theme is uh, Independence. It's called the Independence Pack.

 

BioWare dev opens up about Mass Effect: Andromeda reception
https://www.pcgamer.com/bioware-dev-opens-up-about-mass-effect-andromeda-reception/
It's no secret that Mass Effect: Andromeda failed to satisfy the series' fanbase, but was it that bad? Mark Darrah, executive producer of Anthem and Dragon Age at BioWare, shared some thoughts on Twitter yesterday, suggesting that part of Andromeda's reputation can be attributed to the high quality of games released in the same period last year.

 

Cyberpunk 2077 frame by frame trailer series explores political side of Night City
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-frame-by-frame-trailer-series-explores-political-side-of-night-city/
CD Projekt Red has added to its frame by frame breakdown of Cyberpunk 2077's E3 trailer. The ongoing blog series' latest entries explore Night City's sociopolitical divide, and how technology influences its civilians. Compare the trailer above to the details below.

 

Valve on Steam opportunities: 'We're not the taste police'
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-on-steam-opportunities-were-not-the-taste-police/
Speaking at the Business Conference for Games Industry event in Russia this week, Valve's Jan-Peter Ewert said the company is "not the taste police" with regards to opportunities on Steam.
One slide headed "the elephant in the room" explored Steam's game releases per week. As shown below, Ewert said Steam launched five games per week pre-Steam Greenlight, 70 games per week during the Greenlight programme (which closed last year), and 180 games per week via Steam Direct thereafter.

 

 

Time to check the GOG and Steam deals for this weekend:

+GOG

• The first of the four GOG deals is the daily deal, Pinstripe, 60% off: https://www.gog.com/game/pinstripe
• Let's continue with the weekly sale, Here for your entertainment, with up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20180625_weekly_sale
• To celebrate the launch of Myst III and Myst IV on the platform, there's a Myst sale with the rest of the series games up to 65% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20180628_launch_promo_myst_iii_iv
• And the last one is the weekend sale, Men under fire, and yes, it's about war games: https://www.gog.com/promo/20180629_weekend_sale

+Steam

• Steam is still celebrating its Summer Sale. If you still haven't checked what's on sale, go now!

 

 

Nothing else to say. Have a happy and gaming weekend.