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

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Friday news, part two:

Super Animal Royale demo lets you play free for as long as you like
https://www.pcgamer.com/super-animal-royale-demo-lets-you-play-free-for-as-long-as-you-like/
If you haven't played Super Animal Royale (and I suspect you probably haven't) you can now, for free, as much as you want. The woodland battle royale featuring cuddly (yet deadly) animals now has a demo, and you can play the demo for as long as you like, for free. You'll even unlock new items as you play—you just can't use those items unless you upgrade to the full version, which costs $13/£10.29.

Return of the Obra Dinn leads the 2019 Independent Games Festival nominations
https://www.pcgamer.com/return-of-the-obra-dinn-leads-the-2019-independent-games-festival-nominations/
Another new year is upon us, and that means fresh starts, well-intentioned resolutions, gym memberships that will be gone before the snow, and a fresh batch of Independent Games Festival award nominees. This year's lineup of contenders is led by Return of the Obra Dinn, our pick for Best Puzzle Game of 2018, which has four nominations including one for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, followed by the "hilarious, horrifying wizard death experiment" Noita, and Hypnospace Outlaw, the inspiration for our October 2018 back page joke, with three each.

Reselling game keys without permission is now illegal in Japan
https://www.pcgamer.com/reselling-game-keys-without-permission-is-now-illegal-in-japan/
Reselling game keys without permission from software makers, selling tools that can modify game saves, and providing game or console modding services are now illegal in Japan because of a recent amendment to the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

Former Hearthstone developers are working on a new Marvel game
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-hearthstone-developers-are-working-on-a-new-marvel-game/
Former Hearthstone director Ben Brode has revealed what he and a handful of other former Hearthstone developers are getting up to at Second Dinner, the studio they founded last year after departing Blizzard. [Drumroll] It's a Marvel game, and it's backed by a cool $30 million investment from Chinese technology company NetEase, who just happen to also be Blizzard's main partner in that region.

Batalj beta extended to the end of January, keys are now available to everyone
https://www.pcgamer.com/batalj-beta-extended-to-the-end-of-january-keys-are-now-available-to-everyone/
Batalj is a 1v1 action-strategy game that looks like Overwatch and plays like XCOM currently in development at Swedish studio Fall Damage, whose members include DICE co-founder Markus Nyström. A closed beta began in early December and was expected to run until the end of 2018, but today the developers announced that it has been extended to the end of January, and effectively opened to everyone.

Portal 2 writer Erik Wolpaw seems to have returned to Valve
https://www.pcgamer.com/portal-2-writer-erik-wolpaw-seems-to-have-returned-to-valve/
It looks like ex-Valve writer Erik Wolpaw can drop the ‘ex’ prefix. Wolpaw worked on both Half-Life episodes and Portal 2 before leaving the developer in 2017, but after a stint at his old employer, Double Fine, he appears to have returned to Valve.

Activision Blizzard loses its second executive in a week
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-loses-its-second-executive-in-a-week/
Activision Blizzard is down a second chief financial officer this week. The publisher terminated its CFO, Spencer Neumann, early in the week, and now Blizzard’s CFO, Amrita Ahuja, is leaving for Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment company, Square.

 

The Winter sales from GOG and Steam may be over, but that doesn't mean that they don't have new deals for us this weekend:

+GOG

• XSEED Games is the star of this weekend publisher sale, with up to 75% discounts for the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20190104_weekend_promo_xseed

+Steam

• The daily deal is CHUCHEL, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/711660/CHUCHEL/
• Terraria is also 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/105600/Terraria/
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance is 50% off too: https://store.steampowered.com/app/379430/Kingdom_Come_Deliverance/
• And the Resident Evil franchise is also on sale, up to 87% off: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/resident-evil/
• And, while the winter sale may be over, there are still lots of games on sale. You can check them out on the Specials tag.

 

And just like that, we've ended the first week on news of 2019. Next Monday, more. Until then, have a happy and gaming weekend.