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

[JEMC]

Tuesday news, part two:

Age of Empires 2's snowmen-at-arms give a very different meaning to festive cheer
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-2s-snowmen-at-arms-give-a-very-different-meaning-to-festive-cheer/
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition just kicked off its 2020 Winter Celebration, which lets players enjoy the festive season with fun mods for existing factions, and some new items and decorations. Players have until January 1st to secure these new items by completing different daily challenges over a five-day period.

Beautiful action platformer Ender Lilies enters Early Access in January
https://www.pcgamer.com/beautiful-action-platformer-ender-lilies-enters-early-access-in-january/
In metroidvanias, horror and beauty often belong together. Think of the gorgeous yet dark world of Blasphemous or Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, where the dangerous monsters out for your hide are as likely to be overly large kittens as tentacle beasts. With Ender Lilies, developers Live Wire and adglobe are evoking a similar feel, dropping a young girl called Lily into a world where everything the rain touches turns monstrous. If that sounds like a world you'd like to explore, you're in luck—Ender Lilies will release into Steam Early Access on January 21.

Vin Diesel isn't just starring in Ark 2, he's also working on the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/vin-diesel-isnt-just-starring-in-ark-2-hes-also-working-on-the-game/
We recently got our first look at Ark 2, the sequel to the popular GPU-straining dino-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. The extensive cinematic trailer for Ark 2 shown at The Game Awards was a surprise for several reasons, but mostly because Vin Diesel was in it.
It turns out that the Fast and Furious series star isn't just lending his looks, voice, and motion-captured dino-slaying moves to Ark 2. Diesel is actually working on the game itself.

Hearthstone Battlegrounds gets its first ever spells and three new Old God heroes
https://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-battlegrounds-is-its-first-ever-spells-and-three-new-old-god-heroes/
A major new Hearthstone Battlegrounds update is scheduled to roll out tomorrow that will introduce a trio of new heroes based on the Old Gods, plus new limited-time spells called "Darkmoon Prizes" that can be played every four turns—with increasingly powerful effects as the game progresses.
>> That tomorrow is today.

Survival horror game The Callisto Protocol is set in the PUBG universe, for some reason
https://www.pcgamer.com/survival-horror-game-the-callisto-protocol-is-set-in-the-pubg-universe-for-some-reason/
When former Visceral Games boss Glen Schofield announced the launch of Striking Distance Studios in 2019, he said its first game would be "an original narrative in the PUBG universe." Last week, though, they unveiled it as The Callisto Protocol, a sci-fi survival-horror game that looks very much like a spiritual successor to Visceral's Dead Space, and very much not like a PUBG game. Plans change, right?
Except that apparently, they did not change. In an interview with IGN, Schofield said that The Callisto Protocol is in fact set in the PUBG universe, as it was originally billed, but 300 years after the events of PUBG.

Fall Guys Season 3 patch notes detail new levels and features ahead of tomorrow's launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/fall-guys-season-3-patch-notes-detail-new-levels-and-features-ahead-of-tomorrows-launch/
Fall Guys, the popular multiplayer videogame featuring guys (or beans?) who fall, kicks off its Season 3 proceedings tomorrow in the form of Winter Knockout. It'll bring some substantial new features to the game, not least seven new levels, which will no doubt have their fair share of slippery ice. It'll bring Ringus Dingus too, who looks unpleasant in a cute way.

CDPR calls Cyberpunk 2077's current NPC and AI problems 'bugs'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cdpr-calls-cyberpunk-2077s-current-npc-and-ai-problems-bugs/
Yesterday CD Projekt issued an apology to customers, mostly those on last gen consoles, who are having a terrible time with Cyberpunk 2077. Following this, the company held an emergency call with investors about the game's launch and subsequent reception, prefaced by a statement from CDP joint-CEO Adam Kiciński that is a real hairshirt moment.

Vulkan Ray Tracing support enables even AMD GPUs to run Quake II RTX
https://www.pcgamer.com/vulkan-ray-tracing-driver-support-quake-ii-rtx-benchmark/
It's more good news from the Vulkan API camp: The open consortium responsible for the popular game API has announced full support for Vulkan Ray Tracing has arrived in its SDK, tools, and across the latest AMD and Nvidia drivers, thus enabling waves of developers to jump on the ray tracing wagon cross-platform. There's even a Vulkan Ray Tracing game ready to go out of the gate: Quake II RTX.

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla update 1.10 fixes a long list of quest bugs, adds Yule Festival support
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-valhalla-update-110-fixes-a-long-list-of-quest-bugs-adds-yule-festival-support/
The latest update for Assassin's Creed Valhalla is here, and it once again brings many much-needed bug fixes and performance improvements. This time, the focus seems to lie squarely on fixing bugs that kept you from completing a number of quests, such as NPCs not moving where they're supposed to, or, in one case, not leaving you alone, ever.

GTA Online did not forget about Dre
https://www.pcgamer.com/gta-online-did-not-forget-about-dre/
A surprise feature of Grand Theft Auto Online's Cayo Perico heist update, released today, is the presence of the legendary rapper and producer Dr. Dre, alongside fellow artist DJ Pooh and record exec Jimmy Iovine. DJ Pooh, real name Mark Jordan, is a longtime collaborator with Rockstar, having written on and co-produced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before returning as a consultant and writer for GTA V and GTA Online.