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

[JEMC]

Friday news, part two and last for the weeK:

Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on The Block is the wrestler dating sim I didn't know I needed
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/wrestling-with-emotions-new-kid-on-the-block-is-the-wrestler-dating-sim-i-didnt-know-i-needed/
I'll be honest, big hairy guys do nothing for me, but what does get me excited is the potential for dating games to be about more than high schoolers (or, er, high school birds), and so by extension, I'm pretty excited about Wrestling With Emotions: New Kid on The Block. The 'New Kid on The Block' part is important because it marks this game as a sequel to micro dating sim Wrestling with Emotions, which came out on Itch.io in 2016.

FIFA Ultimate Team's new Preview Packs actually boosted loot box sales, EA says
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/fifa-ultimate-teams-new-preview-packs-actually-boosted-loot-box-sales-ea-says/
Unlike many other major publishers, including Riot and Microsoft, Electronic Arts has stuck with loot boxes as a major monetization model, particularly in the FIFA series. And understandably so: A €10 million fine upheld in the Netherlands in 2020 is a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.6 billion earned from "extra content sales" on the Ultimate Team games, including FIFA, NFL, and NHL.
But with sentiment having turned strongly against loot boxes, EA has been looking at ways of making them more palatable, including with FIFA Ultimate Team "Preview Packs," which players can "open" before committing to purchase. The new pack type was only meant to be available for a limited time, but it sounds like they could become a permanent fixture: In an investors call yesterday, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said Preview Packs "were very well received by the community," and more importantly they brought in lots of money, too.

Destiny 2 abilities will see big changes in Season 15
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/destiny-2-abilities-will-see-big-changes-in-season-15/
Destiny 2 Season 15 is expected to launch on August 24, and in the lead up Bungie has started discussing the changes it'll usher in. These include a comprehensive rebalancing of abilities for all character classes, and while these are quite big, Bungie isn't stopping there: these Season 15 changes will simply "help set the stage for those larger systemic ability changes" coming in later seasons, according to Bungie.

Hitman 3 smells the roses with a free and permanent Dartmoor Garden Show event
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hitman-3-smells-the-roses-with-a-free-and-permanent-dartmoor-garden-show-event/
Agent 47 is a man of many trades—including, as it happens, botany. The chrome-domed killer is heading back to England for Hitman 3's free and permanent new escalation event, the Dartmoor Garden Show.

Splitgate dev drastically shortens queue times and increases server capacity
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/splitgate-dev-drastically-shortens-queue-times-and-increases-server-capacity/
People are going nuts over Splitgate's open beta, reaching new record numbers of concurrent players every day. But the arena shooter's popularity has come at a cost, with queue times quickly exceeding 90 minutes. Now developer 1047 Games has announced that due to a breakthrough trying to increase server capacity, queue times are now down to 5 minutes on average, and 30 minutes at most, though things may look slightly different over the weekend when even more players join the game.

Time to check the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The first one is the Weekly Sale, featuring oup to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210802_weekly_sale
• The Midweek Sale features roguelikes and roguelites up to 90% off during another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210804_midweek_sale
• The Special Frogwares Summer Sale and its up to 80% discounts will last another 10 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/frogwares_summer
• The Weekend Sale brings up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210806_weekend_sale
• And there's also a new "release": the game Jupiter Hell leaves development and celebrates it with a 20% discount until August 15: https://www.gog.com/game/jupiter_hell

+Steam

• The new daily deal is STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town, 40% off (the DLCs are 50% off): https://store.steampowered.com/app/978780/STORY_OF_SEASONS_Friends_of_Mineral_Town/
• Oxygen Not Included will be 60% off during the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/app/457140/Oxygen_Not_Included/
• Publisher bilibili puts its games up to 60% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/gameconference2021
• DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT is 67% off until August 9: https://store.steampowered.com/app/851850/DRAGON_BALL_Z_KAKAROT/
• The XCOM franchise is up to 80% off until Monday 9th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/xcom/
• Far Cry 5 is 85% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/552520/Far_Cry_5/
• Dreamscaper will be 25% off until August 12: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040420/Dreamscaper/
• And of course, there's also the weeklong deals.

Nothing else to add, except wishing you a happy and gaming weekend.