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

[JEMC]

The Monday news, part two:

The IRS may want to tax your V-Bucks
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-irs-may-want-to-tax-your-v-bucks/
There's an old saying that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. It's an adage that the Internal Revenue Service in the US appears particularly committed to. A CNN report has revealed that the IRS website specifically cited Fortnite's V-Bucks and Robux from Roblox as digital currencies that could be subject to "tax consequences."

Hunt: Showdown is raising funds for Australian wildlife with the Fire Fight DLC
https://www.pcgamer.com/hunt-showdown-is-raising-funds-for-australian-wildlife-with-the-fire-fight-dlc/
Crytek has joined the ranks of game studios raising funds for fire relief in Australia with the release of the Fire Fight DLC for Hunt: Showdown. The package includes two weapons inspired by New Orleans firefighters from the 1890s: The Algiers Phoenix heavy knife, and the Sparks LRR, a charred rifle that symbolizes resilience against the destructive power of fire.
(...)
The Fire Fight DLC goes for $8/£6/€8, with all proceeds raised until March 31 going to Wires, Australia's largest wildlife rescue organization. The Wires website says the organization took more than 20,000 calls in December alone, a 14 percent over the previous year, and its volunteers attended more than 3300 rescues.

Shenmue 3's Story Quest Pack DLC arrives next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/shenmue-3s-story-quest-pack-dlc-arrives-next-week/
Shenmue 3 is "a seamless continuation of the series that makes up for its limitations with pure heart," we said in our 83/100 review. Its first DLC, Battle Rally was a bit different (...)
The second DLC release, coming next week, sounds like it will be considerably more substantial. Entitled Story Quest Pack, it will see Ryo reconnect with Zhang Shugin, a character returning from Shenmue 2. He required multiple rescues last time around and it sounds like more of the same may be required in the DLC, as players will "quickly become embroiled in a new escapade where nothing is as it seems."
>> It's this week, on the 18th.

Metro Exodus makes its way to Steam at 40% off
https://www.pcgamer.com/metro-exodus-makes-its-way-to-steam-at-40-off/
Feeling a deep-seated need to leave the Moscow metro and venture beyond, to the horrid nuclear wastes and terrible mutant creatures of eastern Russia? Good news, because Metro Exodus, the third in the long-running series, has come to Steam. It’s also currently priced at 40%, just $24, or a pretty sweet $50 for the entire franchise pack including Metro 2033 Redux, Metro: Last Light Redux, Metro Exodus, and the Metro Exodus expansions.
>> The sale will last another 24 hours.

Anime French Revolution strategy RPG Banner of the Maid is now in English
https://www.pcgamer.com/french-revolution-strategy-rpg-banner-of-the-maid-is-now-in-english/
Here's a weird one for you, fellow tactics and history nerds: Strange, glorious strategy RPG Banner of the Maid is now available localized into English on Steam. Banner of the Maid is a mix of turn-based strategy and JRPG, like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem, but it’s set during a fantasy alternate history French Revolution, having players take the role of “young officer” Pauline Bonaparte, who is… some kind of alternate history lady Napoleon, I guess? The game has been available on Steam in Chinese for about a year, and seems to have done pretty well on the Chinese market. Azure Flame Studio is a Chinese indie team, and have localized the game with the help of English-speaking beta testers, according to their announcement. The full game, and the DLC, are localized to English. The update that adds English also adds a new, easier Story Mode “for players who focus on the story rather than the combat.”

Katana Zero’s free DLC will be three times larger than expected
https://www.pcgamer.com/katana-zeros-free-dlc-will-be-three-times-larger-than-expected/
When last we checked in with Katana Zero, last year, they’d just added a crucial update where you can pet the cat. That is good. What followed was a pretty quiet period from askiisoft, developers of Katana Zero, as they worked on another game. They’ve just taken to their Twitter to say that the game’s expansion DLC is still on track and will still be free, it’s just taken longer than expected because it’s three times the size it was originally planned to be. This is, frankly, good because Katana Zero was good and I want as many more hours of it as they are willing to make for me.

Surreal exploration game Ramiwo releases this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/surreal-exploration-game-ramiwo-releases-this-week/
Are you prepared to, as the developers of Ramiwo ask, provide heavy stimulation to your frontal cortex? Grant your brain some sweetmeats? I am ready for this, as surrealist, psychedelic exploration game Ramiwo releases on February 19th. This seems like one for those who simply enjoy finding the niches, nooks, and vistas of digital environments. It’s a strange-looking game about exploring a cubic network of interlinked worlds, finding the portals between them, and mapping out their strangeness.

Mecha action game Daemon X Machina deploys on PC, and the port is great
https://www.pcgamer.com/mecha-action-game-daemon-x-machina-deploys-on-pc-and-the-port-is-great/
If you like mecha, consider going to fight giant renegade AI war machines and giant robots as an augmented posthuman after an apocalyptic event in just-released Daemon X Machina. Developed by Marvelous Inc and published by XSEED Games, Daemon X Machina was released on February 13th. It’s an action game with highly customizable giant Arsenal mechs and giant mech pilots, known as Outers, which both have superhuman powers. The story seems somewhat barebones, but the action combat looks quite good—and it’s polling at an “Overwhelmingly Positive” on Steam. Some even compare it favorably to mech-fan ur-games Armored Core.

Crippling server issues are getting in the way of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem's big launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/crippling-server-issues-are-getting-in-the-way-of-wolcen-lords-of-mayhems-big-launch/
Another day, another online game launch hampered by widespread server issues. It's a story as old as time, and this version involves Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, a gorgeous action RPG that graduated out of Steam Early Access today. Though Wolcen has been dominating Steam's best sellers list all week, today's full launch is proving enormously successful, with a current peak of over 60,000 players—a number that keeps on climbing.
Update, 02/13/2020, 4:00 pm PST: Wolcen's developers have given another update recently. "Servers and server capacities are currently being deployed and will be fully functional in a few hours," reads a Twitter update. "We're also preparing a hotfix for progression reset issues. We will push that hotfix in a few hours as well."
Update, 02/16/2020, 12:30 pm PST: In a full statement posted to Steam, Wolcen Studio has explained a bit more detail about the reasons for the game servers' extended downtime.

Oregon's rework in Rainbow Six Siege Void Edge is a lot to take in
https://www.pcgamer.com/oregons-rework-in-rainbow-six-siege-void-edge-is-a-lot-to-take-in/
I was surprised to hear that Oregon would be Rainbow Six Siege's first map rework of 2020. It's a launch map that's somewhat iconic in the community, so I assumed it was untouchable. Turns out it's very touchable—so much so that Oregon's rework feels like a different map entirely.

Rainbow Six Siege director says Clash is a 'top candidate' for a rework
https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-director-says-clash-is-a-top-candidate-for-a-rework/
In Rainbow Six Siege Year 5 and Year 6, Ubisoft is spending less time pumping out new operators to spend more time improving the ones it already has. Lord Tachanka’s long-awaited rework is the first product of this initiative. Speaking to PC Gamer at the Six Invitational 2020, game director Leroy Athanassoff shared another operator that’s in need of a significant rework: Clash.
>> And Tachanka is getting a flame grenade launcher.

Hell yeah, Rainbow Six Siege is getting a Golden Gun mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/hell-yeah-rainbow-six-siege-is-getting-a-golden-gun-mode/
With fewer operators on the horizon in Rainbow Six Siege Year 5 (2020) and Year 6 (2021), Ubisoft is hoping to keep players entertained with more events, battle passes, and modes. One of these sideshows is the Arcade, a new playlist for small, experimental game types launching sometime during Operation Void Edge. The first mode coming to Arcade revives a classic versus mode dating all the way back to 1997’s GoldenEye 007 on the N64.

Audiosurf, 12 years old this month, just received an update
https://www.pcgamer.com/audiosurf-12-years-old-this-month-just-received-an-update/
I would not have predicted the first Audiosurf would still be receiving patches in the year 2020, but here we are. The "ride a space rollercoaster that rises and falls in time to songs from your mp3 collection" game from 2008 has been updated for better widescreen support and more corkscrew twists.

Fortnite added a Rickroll emote
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-added-a-rickroll-emote/
I hated Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up when I was a kid and now when it comes on I nod my head to this slice of non-threatening boy pop from 1987 because time makes fools of us all. God knows how the actual kids playing Fortnite feel about it, now that Epic has added the song and accompanying dance as an emote.

Watch a new trailer for bee management game Hive Time
https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-a-new-trailer-for-bee-management-game-hive-time/
I have fond memories of playing SimAnt, trying to avoid death by spider, rain, or human foot while growing my little colony and protecting the Queen. Hive Time is sort of like Sim Bee, a deliberately not too realistic management sim where you have control of a beehive.

New World dev diary reveals the factions and lore of the MMO's PvE
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-world-dev-diary-reveals-the-factions-and-lore-of-the-mmos-pve/
Amazon Game Studios has released a new developer diary for its upcoming massively multiplayer RPG New World. The diary reveals three factions of New World's Aeternum—the Lost, Angry Earth, and Ancients. In New World, players are cast as a shipwrecked 17th-century explorer discovering the hidden secrets of a monster-ridden island.