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

[JEMC]

The Tuesday news, part two:

Super Mega Baseball 3 shows off the depth of its new franchise mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/super-mega-baseball-3-shows-off-the-depth-of-its-new-franchise-mode/
With Major League Baseball sidelined for most likely the entire year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and until MLB The Show maybe-possibly releases on PC next year, PC gaming baseball fans don't have a heck of a lot of options. But it's not all bad news—Metalhead Software released a lengthy video today showcasing some of the changes coming to Super Mega Baseball 3, and there's a lot to be excited about. You can check out the video above.
>> And it will let you import your teams from Super Mega Baseball 2.

Dordogne is a promising watercolour adventure game with a stunning trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/dordogne-is-a-promising-watercolour-adventure-game-with-a-stunning-trailer/
It made me a little emotional, this beautiful trailer for Dordogne: an upcoming adventure game that seems to be deeply in love with nature and the outside world. You remember the outside, I hope, a place of stunning watercolour scenery and childhood adventuring, or at least, it is in the distinctly French Dordogne.

Rocket League's next temporary mode turns the ball into a goalseeking missile
https://www.pcgamer.com/rocket-leagues-next-temporary-mode-makes-it-more-like-pong/
I am a long time proponent of Rocket League's non-standard modes, and the next one on the way looks like it could be delightfully stupid. At the very least, I expect high scoring games in Heatseeker, which will come to Rocket League on April 16.

Call of Duty: Warzone brings back Trios mode after 2 days
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-brings-back-trios-mode-after-2-days/
That didn't take long. Call of Duty: Warzone's developers briefly replaced the Trios mode with a new Quads playlist, and fans weren't happy about it. If three's a crowd, what is a four player squad, a damn clown car? Anyway, Infinity Ward seemingly decided there were enough players to support another playlist, because Trios is now back in the game's latest update.

You might get evicted when Wastelanders move into Fallout 76
https://www.pcgamer.com/you-might-get-evicted-when-wastelanders-move-into-fallout-76/
The imminent arrival of Fallout 76's Wastelanders expansion might mean it's also time for a few players to pack up camp and find a new spot. All those incoming human NPCs need places to pitch their own tents and, announced today on the Fallout Twitter account, Bethesda's already promised them the land. That means anyone currently homesteading in a newly designated no-build-zone will need to find a new spot to plant some roots.
>> Given that the expansion is already out, some of you may have found about it the hard way.

Here's a treasure hoard of free digital D&D resources
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-a-treasure-hoard-of-free-digital-dandd-resources/
With everyone locked in their homes, Wizards of the Coast has put up a mini-site directing you to tons of resources for playing Dungeons & Dragons online with your friends on your very own personal computer. There’s a lot of good stuff here, from resources for veterans to how-to guides for new players wanting to play online. There’s even stuff in here to get you playing in real-life with your family, kids, and/or friends. There’s also coloring book pages and they’re cool? Look, there’s a lot of good stuff. They’re adding new stuff to this page, daily, Monday to Friday. There's already five days of stuff in the can, to boot!

Free game Happy’s Humble Burger Barn is really freaking me out
https://www.pcgamer.com/free-game-happys-humble-burger-barn-is-really-freaking-me-out/
You have a new job, and the job is working at a fast food burger place. You do normal things like make burgers and serve fries and drinks and salmon nuggets. Also, everything is absolutely terrifying because it looks like a game from the PS1 era. Happy’s Humble Burger Barn is a free “Fast Food Horror Sim” that has some pretty thrilling moments and an oddly captivating aesthetic for a game about burgers. It’s a game with a specific time and place it’s emulating, a kind of low-grade, lo-fi horror thrill akin to Twin Peaks or your first job in high school. I quite like it, and I’m looking forward to what else creators Scythe Dev Team come up with in the future.

Farming game meets roguelike shooter Atomicrops now has a release date
https://www.pcgamer.com/farming-game-meets-roguelike-shooter-atomicrops-now-has-a-release-date/
Who’s up for post-apocalyptic punk aesthetics, roguelike shooter mechanics, and classic farm sim gameplay all in one? I don’t know who besides me has been watching the development of Atomicrops closely, but here you go: It’s coming to full release on May 28th. Atomicrops is developed by Bird Bath Games and published by Raw Fury, who have shown pretty impeccable taste as a publisher so far and whom I am always excited to see another game from. We first called it “an unholy union between Stardew Valley and Nuclear Throne” which is still spot-on a year later. Atomicrops also has excellent music.

Foxhole's latest update adds mass production to fuel the MMO war
https://www.pcgamer.com/foxholes-latest-update-adds-mass-production-to-fuel-the-mmo-war/
Foxhole's latest update focuses on the logistics system, adding Mass Production Factories to the persistent world's largest industrial towns along with huge stationary cranes to support them. The new factories produce larger quantities of material at a discount, but are often far from the front lines and require a proportionately huge amount of resources despite the discount. The new factories can also produce vehicles in bulk, a process which previously had to be done one at a time. Plus, I mean, look at these cranes. Love a good crane.

Songs of Syx is a base building game with massive scale battles
https://www.pcgamer.com/songs-of-syx-is-a-base-building-game-with-massive-scale-battles/
Songs of Syx is an upcoming strategy game from developer Jakob de Laval that promises to dwarf its competition in the survival strategy/colony builder/base building genre. It’s a fantasy city-state simulator where you start off with a small colony and build yourself into a prosperous mega-city with a powerful military and detailed international relations. It’s also huge, with plans for massive battles and cities with tens of thousands of residents. Songs of Syx’s real banner feature is scale. Cities promise to have “5-digit populations” and battles with tens of thousands of warriors on each side.

Space colony sim Meeple Station leaves Early Access
https://www.pcgamer.com/space-colony-sim-meeple-station-leaves-early-access/
In case you haven't heard about Meeple Station already, it's the space station management sim that Jon Bolding compared to Rimworld, and which is being made with a high degree of moddability in mind. It came out in Early Access at the start of last year.

Monstrous tactics game Alder's Blood trickles out, with a hefty discount
https://www.pcgamer.com/monstrous-tactics-game-alders-blood-trickles-out-with-a-hefty-discount/
What if mankind killed God? What if Bloodborne were a sneaky strategy game? Alder's Blood is the answer to both of these questions, as well as being a game that just popped up on Steam and GOG.

Sizeable demo boasts some lovely, tactile puzzling
https://www.pcgamer.com/sizeable-demo-boasts-some-lovely-tactile-puzzling/
There isn't a puzzle in the world that can't be 'solved' by manhandling the thing in question, either by ripping open a Rubik's Cube or taking a pair of scissors, and some glue, to a jigsaw puzzle. Very occasionally, wanton prodding is the intended process for solving it, as it is in the lovely Sizeable: a game of futzing about with beautiful scenes, to see what happens.

ESRB adds a new warning label for loot boxes
https://www.pcgamer.com/esrb-adds-a-new-warning-label-for-loot-boxes/
In February 2018, the Entertainment Software Rating Board said that it would begin labeling physical copies of games with microtransactions as having "In-Game Purchases. (...)
That system has evolved: The ESRB announced today that it will begin applying a new label, "In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)," to any game that offers randomized items for purchase, including loot boxes, card packs, treasure chests, and gacha games. The original "In-Game Purchases" label will continue to be used on games that offer only non-randomized purchases, such as expansions and cosmetics.

The Steam Game Festival is coming back on the day E3 would've started
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-steam-game-festival-is-coming-back-on-the-day-e3-wouldve-started/
In March, Valve ran the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition, a showcase of more than 40 game demos that had been destined for GDC before it was cancelled by the coronavirus outbreak. It's coming back this June.
The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition will run June 9-14, and will once again offer demos or "short playable experiences" for games scheduled to come out within the next year. The spring event was indie focused, and that'll probably stay true, though this one could be a bigger tent given that it gets underway on the same day that E3 2020 was meant to.
>> And maybe some 10 days later, the Summer Sale?

Rick May, voice of the Soldier in Team Fortress 2, has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/rick-may-voice-of-the-soldier-in-team-fortress-2-dies/
Rick May, a voice actor best known to PC gamers for his portrayal of the gruff-talking Soldier in Team Fortress 2, has died after contracting COVID-19. His death was reported by the Rekindle School, an independent art, acting, and film school in Seattle, Washington where May was a teacher.

Terraria: Journey's End finally has a firm release date
https://www.pcgamer.com/terraria-journeys-end-finally-has-a-firm-release-date/
Terraria's fourth and final update, Journey's End, will release on May 16. Studio ReLogic confirmed the news today, noting that May 16 is also the ninth anniversary of the game's original release. Journey's End will be free, and is the final major update to the game.

Here's how Artifact is overhauling deployment
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-how-artifact-is-overhauling-deployment/
Valve continues to share its progress on Artifact, its briefly popular card game that ultimately became, according to Gabe Newell, an "interesting failure". In thlatest deep dive, Valve's Eric Tams shows off how deployment has changed, though it's still not clear when players will be able to check out the changes for themselves.

Watch 20 minutes of Grounded singleplayer
https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-20-minutes-of-grounded-singleplayer/
Obsidian's diminutive survival game, Grounded, will be making an appearance in July when it launches as an Xbox Game Preview affair, but ahead of that you can get an extended look at what's going on in this deadly garden thanks to a new developer walkthrough. Check it out above.

Superman concept art has been spotted in a WB Games contractor's portfolio
https://www.pcgamer.com/superman-concept-art-has-been-spotted-in-a-wb-games-contractors-portfolio/
Twitter user tatlinksy noticed the concept art when browsing Joël Dos Reis Viegas's portfolio. Viegas was contracted to work on both Origins and Arkham Knight, helping the team "flesh out original designs." Most of the concept art, naturally, relates to Batman and his foes, including the Joker and Harley. And then there's Supes, flying over a city that doesn't immediately look like Metropolis or Gotham.

Call of Duty: Warzone gets a snipers and shotguns mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-gets-a-snipers-and-shotguns-mode/
Call of Duty: Warzone players can practice their close and long-range shooting skills in a new mode: Scopes and Scatter Guns Trios. It doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? It's essentially a snipers and shotguns mode.

Surprise, there's a new XCOM spinoff coming next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/xcom-chimera-squad-is-coming-on-april-24/
I can't say I saw this coming: a new XCOM game will release next Friday, April 24.
XCOM: Chimera Squad isn't a direct continuation of XCOM 2, but a smaller, standalone spin-off that puts you in control of a fixed set of developer-created, human and human-alien hybrid characters within a branching campaign about 20 hours in length. Interestingly, it'll be half-price on Steam ($10) until May 1, after which it will go up to its regular price of $20.
>> I can't say I saw this coming either. But I'm not complaining.

Crusader Kings 3 lets you play as bisexual or asexual rulers
https://www.pcgamer.com/crusader-kings-3-lets-you-play-as-bisexual-or-asexual-rulers/
Crusader Kings 3 is a big ol' sandbox that promises to let you slip into the shoes of all sorts of medieval rulers, and while history likes to emphasise the accomplishments of heterosexual men, it looks like Paradox is avoiding that trap.