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

[JEMC]

Friday news, part two:

Hitman 3 is getting a new roguelike game mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hitman-3-is-getting-a-new-roguelike-game-mode/
IO Interactive has unveiled upcoming goodies for Hitman 3 as part of its Year 2 update and us PC gamers have been spoiled rotten.
As revealed in a stream, Hitman 3 is coming to Steam on January 20 after its year of exclusivity on the Epic Game Store, plus a trilogy bundle arriving on both platforms along with being available to Game Pass for PC members. Ray tracing is being added and Hitman VR—which was previously exclusive to PlayStation 4—is being made available for PC.

God of War PC's new accessibility features 'laid the groundwork' for God of War Ragnarok
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/god-of-war-pcs-new-accessibility-features-laid-the-groundwork-for-god-of-war-ragnarok/
God of War's PC port arrives on Friday, and it's a good one: in our review, staff writer Morgan Park praised its DLSS support enabling framerates well above 60 fps. For God of War's developers, the PC port was an opportunity to add ultrawide support and dial up a few settings beyond what they could pull off on the PlayStation 4, but it was also a chance to rethink how they approach accessibility while building games.

Huge changes coming to Destiny 2's masterwork armor and weapons
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/huge-changes-coming-to-destiny-2s-masterwork-armor-and-weapons/
As an avid reader of the This Week at Bungie blog, I have long since made my peace with the way Destiny 2 balance changes tend to be a mixture of 'giveth' and 'confusingly taketh away'. Today's entry, which focuses on changes to how masterwork armor and weapons function, is a perfect example of the form. On the one hand we're getting some much-requested quality of life stuff. On the other it's going to become more fiddly to generate Orbs of Light.

Final claim in CS:GO skin gambling lawsuit dismissed because plaintiffs never actually used Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/final-claim-in-csgo-skin-gambling-lawsuit-dismissed-because-plaintiffs-never-actually-used-steam/
On January 7, a US federal court dismissed one last claim against Valve in a years-old lawsuit over CS:GO skin gambling. The case was part of a series of 2016 lawsuits that accused Valve of facilitating unregulated gambling on third-party websites where people could wager CS:GO skins, some of which sell for more than $1,000 on the Steam Marketplace. All of those suits have now been dismissed.

Analysts think GTA 6 likely to launch in the fiscal year 2024
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/analysts-think-gta-6-likely-to-launch-in-the-fiscal-year-2024/
When Take-Two Interactive recently made a deal to buy mobile game company Zynga for $12.7 billion, it was announced with a press release that included a section on "Strategic Rationale and Stockholder Value Creation". Within that was the note, "Looking ahead, the combined company is expected to deliver a 14% compound annual growth rate… over the three-year period from Take-Two's Fiscal Years 2021 through 2024."
According to an analyst from investment banking firm Jefferies, quoted by Stephen Totilo of Axios, "there are only a handful of titles that can...provide management with the confidence to put out such a strong guidance; we believe there is at least one Rockstar IP set to be released by FY24". That was followed up by a quote from research analyst Doug Creutz of Cowen, who thinks this points to "a likely GTA 6 launch in FY24." If true, that could put the Grand Theft Auto 6 release date anywhere between the beginning of April 2023 and the end of March 2024.

Final Fantasy 14 will return to sale soon as director Yoshida chides abusive fans
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/final-fantasy-14-will-return-to-sale-soon-as-director-yoshida-chides-abusive-fans/
(...)
Producer and director Naoki Yoshida has written a new blogpost addressing what's been going on, and explaining what the developers are doing about it: The short version is, opening up a tonne of new servers across the globe. Over the next year there will be new data centers dedicated to the game opening in Europe, Japan, North America and Oceania, which Yoshida believes will "fundamentally address the problem." Some are basically ready to go, while others are scheduled for later in the year.

And now, the GOG and Steam deals during the weekend:

+GOG

• The Weekly Sale features up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220110_weekly_sale
• The new Midweek Sale brings up to 80% discounts during another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211208_midweek_sale
• The first of the two flash deals is Ankh - Anniversary Edition, 70% off during the next 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/ankh_anniversary_edition
• The second flash deal is Spelunky, 83% off until Monday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/spelunky
• The Weekend Sale is full of games from EA up to 75% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220114_ea_weekend
• The three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are on sale with a 70% discount until Monday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220114_stalker
• And the JAST Publisher Week Sale brings up to 50% discounts until January 21: https://www.gog.com/partner/jast

+Steam

• The new daily deal is OMSI 2: Steam Edition, 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/252530/OMSI_2_Steam_Edition/
• The first Weekend Deal is Slime Rancher, 70% off until the 17th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/433340/Slime_Rancher/
• Publisher Games Operators puts its games up to 90% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/gamesoperatorspublishersale
• ASTRONEER is going to be 50% off until January 20: https://store.steampowered.com/app/361420/ASTRONEER/
• And the Freedom Games Publisher Sale features up to 80% discounts during the next 13 days: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/freedomgames/sale/freedomgames
• Of course, we can't forget about the weeklong deals, right?.

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