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

[JEMC]

Friday news, part two:

Chicken Police, a noir adventure featuring crime-solving roosters, is out now
https://www.pcgamer.com/chicken-police-a-noir-adventure-featuring-crime-solving-roosters-is-out-now/
I'm calling it now—animals solving crime is a bona fide gaming genre worthy of respect. Whether it's Aviary Attorney, Blacksad or the upcoming Backbone, animals delivering justice is where it's at. Ahead of the upcoming tidal wave of game releases next week, you might want to make time for Chicken Police – Paint It Red.

Ubisoft put a pro baseball player in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and he plays baseball with rocks
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-put-a-pro-baseball-player-in-assassins-creed-valhalla-and-he-plays-baseball-with-rocks/
If you're a baseball fan, one of the Vikings in Assassin's Creed Valhalla may look and sound familiar. Pro ballplayer and World Champion LA Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger makes an appearance in Valhalla as a character named (deep sigh) "Otta Sluggasson."

Godfall launch trailer sets the scene for a very serious loot game
https://www.pcgamer.com/godfall-launch-trailer-sets-the-scene-for-a-very-serious-loot-game/
Godfall looks impressive from a technical standpoint—and it's going to need a monster rig—but no amount of gameplay footage really captures what's exciting about it. It's a loot-oriented third-person melee combat game that appears to take cues from both Dark Souls and the recent God of War reboot. Taking cues from Dark Souls tends to have mixed results, as we've seen countless times before.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War will share all progression with Warzone and Modern Warfare
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-will-share-all-progression-with-warzone-and-modern-warfare/
It sure is a wild time to be a Call of Duty fan: Activision announced in a new blog post that the ties between Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone will run deeper than we thought. The two games, plus Modern Warfare 2019, will all share the same rank progression and battle pass. That means no matter which game you're playing, you're progressing in the others as well.

Destiny 2 sandbox update will nerf the Hunter's Dodge and make acquiring missing quest exotics easier
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-sandbox-update-will-nerf-the-hunters-dodge-and-make-acquiring-missing-quest-exotics-easier/
The final This Week at Bungie update before the launch of Destiny 2: Beyond Light covers a wide range of news and updates, beginning—in terms of importance—with a nerf to the Hunter's Dodge that increases the cooldown period by a few seconds.

Take-Two boss: We charge less for our games than they're worth
https://www.pcgamer.com/take-two-boss-we-charge-less-for-our-games-than-theyre-worth/
Rockstar and 2K parent company Take-Two believes its games are worth more than the $60 it charges for them.
"We deliver the highest quality experiences in the business, and we charge much less for them than we believe they are worth to consumers," said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick during a financial call today. "And then we deliver, typically, an ongoing component that is free. And that is already a great deal of value. Any monetization is of course totally optional."
>> We all know what that means, right?

Kerbal Space Program 2 has been delayed again, this time until 2022
https://www.pcgamer.com/kerbal-space-program-2-has-been-delayed-again-this-time-until-2022/
Creative director Nate Simpson has posted on the Kerbal Space Program forum to announce that Kerbal Space Program 2—which made our list of 13 notable games we were looking forward to next year—is being pushed back to 2022.

Apex Legends went 'from zero to about a billion dollars' in just two years, EA says
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-went-from-zero-to-about-a-billion-dollars-in-just-two-years-ea-says/
Apex Legends is free to play, but it's also one of Electronic Arts' biggest moneymakers. The company said in today's Q2 2021 financial report that its earnings climbed 24 percent year over year, and it's now expected to bring more than $500 million on the year.

Update: Apex Legends 7 battle pass progression was too slow, is being altered
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-players-think-the-season-7-battle-pass-is-too-slow/
Electronic Arts made some changes to the Apex Legends battle pass for season 7, including an overhaul of challenges aimed at simplifying the system. Recurring weekly challenges have been rolled into "revamped" dailies, unique weekly challenges will be available to complete throughout the entire season, and instead of awarding points, completing a challenge will get you 1-5 stars, depending on the difficulty. Ten stars are required to earn a battle pass level.
Update: Respawn were listening. To address the issue of the season 7 battle pass progression being too slow, the amount of experience points required for each star has been halved from 10,000 xp to 5,000 xp as of today. Additionally, as explained on Twitter, "starting next week, your Weekly Challenges will take much less time to complete." The studio also explained the context behind the original decision.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War's Season 1 roadmap is here
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-wars-season-1-roadmap-is-here/
Keeping pace with Modern Warfare's successful year of free content, Activision has revealed Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War's Season 1 roadmap. Season 1 is kicking off December 10, less than a month after the game's launch, and will bring new weapons, maps, game modes, and a mysterious "Warzone experience".

Mortal Kombat 11's Mileena gameplay trailer is somehow gorier than I thought it would be
https://www.pcgamer.com/mortal-kombat-11s-mileena-gameplay-trailer-is-somehow-gorier-than-i-thought-it-would-be/
Yesterday, a new Mortal Kombat 11 gameplay trailer featuring returning fan-favorite fighter Mileena was teased via the unusual medium of an Instagram ad featuring pop star Megan Thee Stallion dressed as the character. Now the trailer is here, and it highlights the sai-wielding genetic experiment's toothy maw and sharp knives. There's a lot of blood.

The next Fall Guys level has only fans
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-next-fall-guys-level-has-only-fans/
Fall Guys season 2 has another month left to go, but the winds of change will be blowing before then, because the stumblebum battle royale gameshow is getting a new level, and that level has fans in it. The Big Fans level, which will see players race across spinning midair fan blades, will be added as part of next week's update, which is called BIG FAN YEET LITTLE because of course it is.

Celeste creator confirms that yes, Madeline is trans
https://www.pcgamer.com/celeste-creator-confirms-that-yes-madeline-is-trans/
A year after Celeste's Farewell DLC teased a vague hint of queerness in an ending screen, creator Maddy Thorson has confirmed that the platformer's leading lady is absolutely, for sure, a transgender woman.

World of Warcraft is free for returning players this weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcraft-free-weekend/
Former World of Warcraft players will either despair or rejoice at the news that Blizzard has made the game free to access until November 9. "You and your allies are needed back on the front lines," says Blizzard, fingering a pouch that contains what you so desperately need. "This weekend, we're giving all players with inactive World of Warcraft accounts full access to the game and all of your characters without a subscription."

Teardown dev on the 'frustrating experience' of developing the breakout hit
https://www.pcgamer.com/teardown-dev-on-the-frustrating-experience-of-developing-the-breakout-hit/
Teardown developer Dennis Gustafsson has written some design notes about the making of one of the year's surprise hits (here's our thoughts). If I was to sum up Teardown it would probably be as long stretches of precision planning, followed by intense and fast destruction: it's a game that offers enormous freedom, but at the same time focuses the player's eye.

The Rapture Is Here And You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home, at 10,000 frames per second
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-rapture-is-here/
For at least the last year, it's felt like the world is just on the brink of ending for good. Fitting, then, that The Rapture Is Here And You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home creator Connor Sherlock has brought his brief apocalypse back with a surprise release on Itch this week.

And these are the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:

+GOG

• The first one is the weekly sale, with up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20201102_weekly_sale
• The Midweek Sale, with its up to 90% discounts, will last another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20201104_midweek_sale
• The Weekend Sale stars publisher 1C Entertainment, with up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/1c_entertainment_weekend
• And there are three new releases
• Chicken Police lands with a 20% discount until November 12: https://www.gog.com/game/chicken_police
• Superliminal also lands with a 20% discount until November 12: https://www.gog.com/game/superliminal
• And Rise to Ruins launches with a 50% discount that will last until November 20: https://www.gog.com/game/rise_to_ruins

+Steam

• The new daily deal is My Friend Pedro, 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/557340/My_Friend_Pedro/
• The first of the weekend deals is Unity of Command II, 50% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/809230/Unity_of_Command_II/
• CODE VEIN, that has a demo, is 60% off until the 9th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/678960/CODE_VEIN/
• Publisher Iceberg Interactive offers its games up to 90% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/iceberg/sale/icebergpw
• ARK: Survival Evolved is free to try and and 80% off until Tuesday 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/ARK_Survival_Evolved/
• And yes, there's also the weeklong deals.

And that's it. Until the next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.