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

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Monday news, part two:

Apex Legends fans have found more images of the rumored new character Revenant
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-fans-have-found-more-images-of-the-rumored-new-character-revenant/
EA and Respawn revealed yesterday that the new character coming in season 4 of Apex Legends is a big, Doomfist-looking brawler named Forge. That may have come as a bit of a surprise to fans of the game: Our October 2019 report on "what we know about the next Apex Legend" was all about a completely different character named Revenant. It's based entirely on leaks and rumors, and sometimes these things just don't pan out, but as unsubstantiated stories go it looked pretty solid.

Frame Fatales, the all-women speedrunning event, returns in February
https://www.pcgamer.com/frame-fatales-the-all-women-speedrunning-event-returns-in-february/
Good news for speedrunning fans struggling with the post-AGDQ blues: The GDQ-affiliated speedrunning event Frost Fatales is set to kick off in February, with runners blasting their way through a range of old and new games including Hyper Light Drifter, Spelunky, Portal, The Simpsons: Bart's House of Weirdness, Ducktales Remastered, Untitled Goose Game, and Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.

Ark: Genesis delayed until February, but on the plus side it'll have giant space whales
https://www.pcgamer.com/ark-genesis-delayed-until-february-but-on-the-plus-side-itll-have-giant-space-whales/
Ark: Genesis, the first chapter of the next expansion for Ark: Survival Evolved, was originally planned for release in December of 2019, though it was later moved to January of 2020. Studio Wildcard announced today, however, that Genesis has been shuffled back once again, now to February 25, so you'll have to wait a bit longer to build your base on the back of a massive sea turtle.

As coronavirus sparks new interest in Plague Inc., dev warns it's 'not a scientific model'
https://www.pcgamer.com/coronavirus-outbreak-pushes-plague-inc-evolved-to-a-new-concurrent-player-record-on-steam/
Popular pandemic simulator Plague Inc. was released for mobile devices in 2012, while the updated Plague Inc. Evolved came to Steam in 2016. Despite that age, it hit its all-time peak concurrent player count today—8452 players, according to Steam Charts, well over the previous record of 4601, set in April 2018—and one of its highest average concurrent player counts within the past 30 days.

Play an endless, ruthless seagull battle royale in The Beach
https://www.pcgamer.com/play-an-endless-ruthless-seagull-battle-royale-in-the-beach/
You may have seen sandpipers feed on a beach at some point: small, chubby birds rush toward the ocean as the waves recede, dig in the wet sand for food, and then sprint back up the beach as the next wave rolls in, tiny little legs pumping furiously to keep ahead of the water.

When does Warcraft 3 Reforged unlock?
https://www.pcgamer.com/when-does-warcraft-3-reforged-unlock/
The multiplayer beta of Warcraft 3 Reforged, which retools the classic real-time strategy game for 4K, is available now. The full version, however, won't unlock until Tuesday, January 28. It releases at 3pm PT, but what does that mean in other timezones? Well, you can always find out at everytimezone.com, but here's a quick guide.

Duelyst to shut down servers forever
https://www.pcgamer.com/duelyst-to-shut-down-servers-forever/
Hybrid digital card game and tactics battler Duelyst will shut down its servers forever on February 27th, 2020. Developer Counterplay Games took to Steam to announce the shutdown with a post titled “Farewell Duelyst,” saying it was “Saddened” to announce the game’s closure. As Duelyst is online-only, this is effectively the end of the game entirely. Though Counterplay Games is the design studio, Duelyst is published in collaboration with Bandai Namco. Players who recently purchased Diamonds, Duelyst’s in-game currency, can receive a refund.

The tactics game based on The Dark Crystal comes out next month
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-tactics-game-based-on-the-dark-crystal-comes-out-next-month/
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics is due to release on February 4, bringing the grim-and-whimsical world of the original movie and the Netflix series to life on your PC. In the game, you lead the Gelfling resistance to unite the clans against the calamitous ker-kawing of the evil Skeksis through “50 unique turn-based tactics RPG battles.” It’s all very Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics looking, as you assign Gelflings “jobs” to get them new abilities and access to new equipment. The characters include some from the original film, and some from the Netflix series. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics is developed by BonusXP and published by En Masse Entertainment. It was originally announced for last year, but got pushed back to this year.

Village Monsters has a charming Stardew Valley meets Undertale vibe
https://www.pcgamer.com/village-monsters-has-a-charming-stardew-valley-meets-undertale-vibe/
Charmingly lo-fi village life game about outcasts and weirdos in a literally broken world? That’s what Village Monsters is. It's a low-key village life game, the kind where you go fishing and plant gardens and make your house nice. You also get to know the "dozens" of monster neighbors, learning their stories and likes and dislikes. The game also has a quirky angle—it is, in and of itself, set inside a forgotten videogame. You can apparently abuse the glitches in the game world to boost your own powers and fix things up. Finally, perhaps most mysteriously, there’s a lot of emphasis on the simulation of the world itself, with “shifting weather patterns, sweeping seasonal changes, and interesting system interactions” as well as emphasis on exploring places outside the monster village. I’ve not played it, but I can’t help but be charmed—many of the few reviews and comments are quite positive. I’ll definitely check it out.

Ballistic Craft is a bullet hell where you design the crazy weapons
https://www.pcgamer.com/ballistic-craft-is-a-bullet-hell-where-you-design-the-crazy-weapons/
Here’s a unique game: Ballistic Craft, a bullet hell where you design your own magical weapons using a customizable system. Players in Ballistic Craft are rival wizards using customizable magic “Shots” to blow each other up in new and creative ways. Ballistic Craft is due to release on Steam on February 13. It has a singleplayer RPG mode, called “Quest Mode,” which slowly unlocks new types of shots for you to use, and lets you then break down those shots into their individual components to design your own attacks. It's also due to have PvP modes, which I’m sure will be utterly absurd as people try to out-think and out-maneuver each other.

$33,000 EVE online ship sale, highest ever, to benefit Australian wildfire relief
https://www.pcgamer.com/most-expensive-eve-online-ship-sale-ever-to-benefit-australian-wildfire-relief/
Clocking in at nearly $33,000 dollars worth of internet spaceship, a rare Gold Magnate has sold for 1,001,001 PLEX in EVE Online. Space and science YouTube star Scott Manley made the winning bid, winning an auction from ship owner Kelon Darklight—that’s an in-game name—to benefit Australian wildfire relief via CCP Games’ Plex for Good campaign. PLEX is a currency used as game time in EVE, and purchasing that 1 million PLEX directly from CCP Games would cost you roughly $32,500. The Gold Magnate is one of the rarest ships in EVE Online, arguably the game’s most powerful Frigate. The Gold Magnate has only even been available as a tournament prize, and then only a handful of times throughout EVE’s history. Most of the Gold Magnates have been destroyed in combat or lost to player pirates since their distribution.

Lead mad sailors beyond the edge of the map in dice battler Here Be Dragons
https://www.pcgamer.com/lead-mad-sailors-beyond-the-edge-of-the-map-in-dice-battler-here-be-dragons/
Here Be Dragons is a whimsical looking game, part tribute to weird drawings on map edges and part dice battling puzzler, that’s due to release in just a few days. In it, you follow the journey of a bunch of oddball ne’er-do-wells as they attempt to murder every monster in the ocean, or something like that. It’s not clear exactly what the plot of Here Be Dragons is, probably because all the characters are incurably bonkers, but at least the game and I agree on one thing: Christopher Columbus was a jerk. Anyways, it’s a turn-based battle game where you use dice to activate your fleet of ships and use their powers to win combats against monsters, pirates, and sometimes even the legitimate authorities. Perhaps most uniquely, the game is narrated by the crazed crew, so you can gather up ink to change the story as it’s written by rewriting battle outcomes and dice rolls.

Here’s a breakdown of the new demons in Doom Eternal
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-a-breakdown-of-the-new-demons-in-doom-eternal/
Doom Eternal Game Director Hugo Martin has outlined a load of new and returning demons in a NoClip documentary, highlighting his new “chess pieces” with which to threaten the players. A lot of the new enemies look particularly devious, forcing players to adopt new playstyles to defeat them. Like the Carcass, for example, which throws up an anti-rocket shield to confound one of Doom’s best weapons. “We’re cool with frustrating you as long as we’re teaching,” says Martin. The old Doom 2 creatures outlined are the Pain Elemental, Arachnotron, Archvile, and Hellified Soldiers. New to Doom Eternal are the Whiplash, Tentacles, Marauder, Doom Hunter, and Carcass.

Rumor: Two Silent Hill games are currently in development
https://www.pcgamer.com/rumor-two-silent-hill-games-are-currently-in-development/
Well, this sure would be nice if it turns out to be true. AestheticGamer aka DuskGolem, who previously provided accurate leaks about the Resident Evil 3 remake and Resident Evil 7's Not a Hero DLC, says that Konami reached out to developers to pitch two new Silent Hill games. Konami apparently wanted one to be a soft reboot, and the other an episodic game in the style of Telltale or Until Dawn.

Team up with your reflection in clever, free platformer ORUL
https://www.pcgamer.com/team-up-with-your-reflection-in-clever-free-platformer-orul/
In smart platformer ORUL, a shadow isn't just a blob of shade that follows you around: it's a mirror image that copies everything you do, and it resides in another realm that doesn't always have the same geography as the real world.

Rocket League Mac and Linux players can now get refunds
https://www.pcgamer.com/rocket-league-mac-and-linux-players-can-now-get-refunds/
Psyonix announced that it was dropping multiplayer support for the Mac and Linux versions of Rocket League last week, with the changes coming in early March. While the other modes will still be playable, multiplayer is a vital component of the car-ball romp, leaving its small community unimpressed—especially as there was seemingly no refund option. It looks like this was a miscommunication, however, and Psyonix has since clarified why it's dropping support, as well as offering players refunds.

Hearthstone VR was prototyped by Blizzard
https://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-vr-was-prototyped-by-blizzard/
Hearthstone's tavern seems impossibly cosy and welcoming, the perfect place for a friendly card battle, but our eyes are always fixed on the board. A VR version that plonks you by the bar and lets you do a bit more than just play cards sounds very tempting, and apparently Blizzard concurs, to the extent that it developed a Hearthstone VR prototype.

Lazr is a cyberpunk platformer with a free demo and a thing for cloth physics
https://www.pcgamer.com/lazr-is-a-cyberpunk-platformer-with-a-free-demo-and-a-thing-for-cloth-physics/
Lazr is an explosive cyberpunk platformer where you—the titular freelancing android with laser eyes—have to shoot and leap your way through corporate offices and neon streets. For all your futuristic tricks, however, you're a lo-fi gal at heart, and one of Lazr's most notable features is its cloth physics.

Fortnite and Warner Bros. tease a Birds of Prey crossover event
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-and-warner-bros-tease-a-birds-of-prey-crossover-event/
Epic Games has dropped a little hint teasing that Birds of Prey will be the theme of Fortnite's next crossover event. Birds of Prey is the upcoming spin-off to Warner Bros. Pictures' superhero film, Suicide Squad.