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

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Monday news, part two:

Lab Zero founder Mike Zaimont removed from Guilty Gear GGPO patch project
https://www.pcgamer.com/lab-zero-founder-mike-zaimont-removed-from-guilty-gear-ggpo-patch-project/
Guilty Gear developer Arc System Works has confirmed that Lab Zero Games founder Mike Zaimont, who was working with community developer Team French CaliBurst on a GGPO rollback netcode patch for Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, has been suspended from the project.

Subnautica: Below Zero update video showcases a 'complete and fully voiced story'
https://www.pcgamer.com/subnautica-below-zero-update-video-showcases-a-complete-and-fully-voiced-story/
Subnautica: Below Zero is still in Early Access, but it's taken a big step toward the finish line with the release of the Relics of the Past update. The update delivers Below Zero's story "in its most complete form," with full voice acting, more alien mysteries, new world details, an updated look for the lead character, and a new Leviathan called the Void Chelicerate.

Halo 4 beta test extended to November 6, now includes crossplay for Halo: Reach
https://www.pcgamer.com/halo-4-beta-test-extended-to-november-6-now-includes-cross-play-for-halo-reach/
The Halo 4 closed beta test—"flight," in Halo parlance—that got underway last week has been extended to November 6, and updated with a range of fixes and tweaks, as well as crossplay support for Firefight and multiplayer in Halo: Reach.

Genshin Impact is getting even more improvements to its contentious Resin system
https://www.pcgamer.com/genshin-impact-is-getting-even-more-improvements-to-its-contentious-resin-system/
Genshin Impact has been one of the best and biggest surprises of 2020. It's an exceptional free-to-play gacha game that walks and talks like a big-budget JRPG, but it still has some frustrations. Chief among them, for many players, is the Resin system, which effectively gates how often players can get rewards from certain activities like killing special bosses or completing dungeons. Each time you beat one of these fights, you have to spend some Resin to actually access the loot, and it regenerates painfully slowly. But, speaking during an interview with PC Gamer, Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo says more changes are coming.

FromSoftware acknowledges Elden Ring still exists
https://www.pcgamer.com/fromsoftware-acknowledges-elden-ring-still-exists/
In a reply to their own tweet, FromSoftware acknowledged that Elden Ring is indeed a videogame that it is still making, and that it is something to look "forward to", indicating that it will come out at some point in the future, presumably within the lifetime of any person currently reading the tweet.

House of Ashes is the next Dark Pictures Anthology game, here's the trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/house-of-ashes-is-the-next-dark-pictures-anthology-game-heres-the-trailer/
Horror game anthology The Dark Pictures has revealed its next game, House of Ashes, by secreting a teaser trailer within just-released game Little Hope. Given the look, it's likely that House of Ashes is about American soldiers and specialists in Afghanistan who uncover some ancient evil, and looks like it will star Ashley Tisdale. House of Ashes is due to release in 2021.

Action-roguelike Curse of the Dead Gods has a whole armory of new weapons
https://www.pcgamer.com/action-roguelike-curse-of-the-dead-gods-has-a-whole-armory-of-new-weapons/
If you've knocked out a few hundred runs of Hades, maybe you'd like to try out Curse of the Dead Gods? It's an action-roguelike with a very Darkest Dungeon or Hellboy-esque art style relying on heavy use of shadows, and it's definitely the first of the inevitable crop of games inspired by the excellent Hades. It's about a brave (read: barking mad) tomb explorer who delves deep into terrible places in search of unlimited power/eternal life/riches/etc.

Shadowlands pre-sales highest of any World of Warcraft expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/shadowlands-pre-sales-highest-of-any-world-of-warcraft-expansion/
World of Warcraft's upcoming Shadowlands expansion has more pre-sales than any other expansion in the game's history, says Activision Blizzard. On a recent earnings call, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert "Bobby" Kotick said that "We've seen unprecedented engagement trends since the [World of Warcraft] subscriber base doubled following the launch of Classic last year. Pre-sales of the upcoming Shadowlands expansion are the highest we've seen at this stage ahead of any release."

Fight an alien invasion in grand strategy Terra Invicta, coming in 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/alien-invasion-defense-grand-strategy-terra-invicta-is-coming-in-2021/
There's a mod for both modern XCOM games that's actually just straight-up better than both modern XCOM games. It's called The Long War and was made by the people at Pavonis Interactive, and they've been making their own alien invasion game since forming a company in 2015. We first got a look at Terra Invicta last year in a brief trailer, and since then it has moved forward into development with gusto, culminating in a successful Kickstarter campaign this past month raised $216K.
In Terra Invicta, players will coordinate the Earth's strategic defense while playing as one of several different competing human factions promoting their own ideologies. That plays out like a grand strategy or 4X game as the player sends armies to confront horrible alien Kaiju and secure crashed spaceships.

Sector's Edge is a free FPS with destructible terrain, out now
https://www.pcgamer.com/sectors-edge-is-a-free-fps-with-destructible-terrain-out-now/
Indie studio Vercidium just launched Sector's Edge, an 8v8 FPS with destructible blocky environments, into Early Access. As well as being able to blow holes in the scenery, you can build your own to make a staircase on the fly. It's designed to run well on older PCs, and the install is only 638MB.

Zombie shooter No More Room in Hell 2 jerks back to life with a new trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-shooter-no-more-room-in-hell-2-jerks-back-to-life-with-a-new-trailer/
No More Room In Hell 2 has been in development for a few years now, but updates have been fairly few for those not following the developers' official Discord server. Not so much now! There's an official trailer out for this year's spooky season, with some gameplay and action from the current development build.

There's going to be a Vampire: The Masquerade Battle Royale
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-going-to-be-a-vampire-the-masquerade-battle-royale/
Recently-formed Swedish developers Sharkmob are making a Battle Royale game based on the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, a mixture of setting and game genre that is baffling to fans and non-fans alike. The upcoming game was announced via a 32-second teaser trailer and is set to release in "the later half of 2021."

Guild Wars 2 Steam release put 'on hold'
https://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-steam-release-put-on-hold/
All the cool MMO kids are coming to Steam. Star Wars: The Old Republic joined Valve's storefront this year, and even RuneScape is on Steam now. ArenaNet were planning to follow by bringing Guild Wars 2 to Steam in November, but have announced that its release is being "put on hold for the time being" as they focus on the forthcoming End of Dragons expansion.

Shadow of Mordor is losing its online features
https://www.pcgamer.com/shadow-of-mordor-is-losing-its-online-features/
When Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor released in 2014 it included a handful of online features. Those are about to be deprecated, as a note on its Steam page explains. As of December 31, the nemesis forge, vendetta missions, leaderboards, and WBPlay connections will all be unavailable. Here's the full list of affected features.

Rainbow Six Quarantine’s prototype was a zero-g space station puzzler
https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-quarantines-prototype-was-a-zero-g-space-station-puzzler/
Before it was reconfigured as a tactical shooter spin-off, Rainbow Six Quarantine was a zero-gravity exploration game. Pioneer, as it was known then, was about overcoming realistic problems on simulated space stations.

Marvel's Avengers permanently reduces the price of takedowns and emotes
https://www.pcgamer.com/marvels-avengers-permanently-reduces-the-price-of-takedowns-and-emotes/
It doesn't look liike Marvel's Avengers has had the smoothest of starts, especially on PC. Player counts on Steam have been in the hundreds rather than the thousands since launch, while my experience of matchmaking is that it takes ages to work and often doesn't. Such problems aside, one thing most players agree on is that the in-game marketplace is something of a ripoff.