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

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Monday news, part two:

Lost Ark is limiting new character creation to address long queue times
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lost-ark-is-limiting-new-character-creation-to-address-long-queue-times/
The Smilegate-developed, Amazon-operated MMO Lost Ark has got off to a very strong start, peaking at more than 500,000 concurrent players on Steam. Unfortunately, that's resulted in long queue times on some servers, and in response the developers have placed a limit on character creation by new players on those servers.

Lost Ark servers are now online after last minute delays
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lost-arks-big-release-day-is-delayed-thanks-to-deployment-issues/
While Lost Ark has been out for paying customers since February 8, today marks the big release for both free and paid players to dive into the hugely popular Korean MMO. Well, it was supposed to be. The game's meant to be available right now, but it's currently delayed thanks to deployment issues.
Update: Lost Ark updated players at 2:15pm PT to say "All deployment issues have been resolved," and that the game would be available for all players at the same time.

The Chinese roguelite no-one's talking about but everyone is playing
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-chinese-roguelite-no-ones-talking-about-but-everyone-is-playing/
Much though we'd love to cover every plucky roguelite that comes to PC, some slip past us with the grace of an ethereal sword-wielding warrior dash-dodging their way through the cold, dead night. Which is appropriate, because that precisely fits the description of the hero at the heart of Warm Snow, a Chinese game from developer BadMudStudio that's quietly grown into one of the more popular games on Steam.

Dying Light 2 update aims to free players from infinite deathloops
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dying-light-2-update-aims-to-free-players-from-infinite-deathloops/
Another Dying Light 2 update appeared today as Techland continues to address bugs and other issues in its open world zombie-stomping sequel. As befitting a game filled with the undead, several of the major bugs being reported have to do with dying. Some players keep getting stuck in a deathloop (not the fun kind of Deathloop) where they die and respawn only to immediately die again.

Dying Light 2 has a hidden Star Wars blueprint that lets you Force Choke fools
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dying-light-2-force-choke-star-wars-secret-blueprint/
Techland didn't just fill the open world of Dying Light 2 with zombies, bandits, and parkour puzzles. There's also a ton of hidden blueprints, secret areas, and easter eggs crammed into the world, and players have been busy unearthing them since the game launched a week ago.

Elden Ring reveals the Bandit and the Astrologer classes
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/elden-ring-reveals-the-bandit-and-the-astrologer-classes/
FromSoftware has revealed two more of Elden Ring's playable classes: The blade-wielding Bandit, and the book-wielding astrologer.
The Bandit "strikes for weak points," the all-too-brief Twitter description says. "Excels as ranged combat with bows."
The Astrologer takes a more intellectual approach to making things happen: "A scholar who reads fate in the stars. Heir to the school of glintstone sorcery."

Rust is (probably) getting pets
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/rust-is-probably-getting-pets/
As always when it comes to keeping up with survival game Rust, you can wait for announcements from the Facepunch development team or you can go to Shadowfrax on YouTube, the charming and shockingly well-informed Rust guru who can tell you what's what a good month in advance of the official newswire.
In a new video today (you can watch it below) Shadowfrax reveals that Rust is—most likely—getting pets at some point in the future. Pets!

Ubisoft's latest effort to convince employees that NFTs are good falls flat
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ubisofts-latest-effort-to-convince-employees-that-nfts-are-good-falls-flat/
NFTs and blockchain technology seem to be losing favor with game makers. After an initial burst of enthusiasm, indie studios and major publishers alike are making a point of slowing their approach, or staying away from NFTs entirely. The one exception is Ubisoft, which seems determined to push ahead with the technology despite negative reactions from gamers and employees alike.

Final Fantasy 14 has more Deep Dungeons on the way
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/final-fantasy-14-has-more-deep-dungeons-on-the-way/
Final Fantasy 14's roguelite Deep Dungeons are on their way back, says game director Naoki Yoshida. In an interview at the Korean Final Fantasy Festival, Yoshida has confirmed that more Deep Dungeons are on the way to the MMO.

Valve bans Cities: Skylines modder accused of hiding malicious code in mods
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/valve-bans-cities-skylines-modder-accused-of-hiding-malicious-code-in-mods/
If you used Cities: Skylines mods from a user known as Chaos or Holy Water, it's probably worth unsubscribing from them, as a post on the Cities: Skylines subreddit explains.
Chaos uploaded a redesigned version of Harmony (a patching library originally created for RimWorld that is now a framework relied on by the modding communities of several games), following that with redesigned versions of other mods like Network Extensions and Traffic Manager that required Harmony (Redesigned) also be installed. And that's apparently where the trouble began.

Here's a look at the Harkonnens in Dune: Spice Wars
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/heres-a-look-at-the-harkonnens-in-dune-spice-wars/
With Dune: Spice Wars bringing back a setting that basically defined the RTS for 20 years, there's a few things we know for sure. One of them is that there will be Atreides, our most noble protagonists, and the other? The other is that there will be Harkonnens. Developer Shiro Games has detailed a bit about the second faction for Spice Wars, the upcoming 4X/RTS hybrid, and their tactics look to be about as nasty and brutish as you'd think.

A Babylon's Fall demo will hit Steam after launch in March
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/babylons-fall-trial-version-will-hit-steam-in-march/
Upcoming hack-and-slash cooperative RPG Babylon's Fall will get one of those demos that's actually a free trial that lets you carry progress forward into the proper game. It'll come to Steam in late March, says Platinum on Japanese games site GamesTalk. The demo for the PS4/PS5 version, however, will pop up in late February.

Dying Light 2's first free DLC is Peacekeeper-themed
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dying-light-2s-first-free-dlc-is-peacekeeper-themed/
Techland has committed to at least five years of post-launch support for Dying Light 2, and we're about to see the first portion of that support in the form of a free DLC. The Authority Pack consists of an armor set and weapon themed around the game's law and order-loving Peacekeeper faction.

There's a free visual novel based on Magic: The Gathering's new cyberpunk setting
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/theres-a-free-visual-novel-based-on-magic-the-gatherings-new-cyberpunk-setting/
There's a free visual novel set in the world of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the magical-cyberpunk setting created as the new world for Magic: The Gathering's latest set. Kamigawa: A Visual novel casts the player as a magically spirit-infused Imperial Samurai with an important job to do.

Napoleonic shooter Holdfast gets a free total conversion to WWI
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/napoleonic-shooter-holdfast-gets-a-free-total-conversion-to-world-war-1/
At times overwhelmingly absurd, at others dead roleplaying serious, Holdfast: Nations at War is a guilty pleasure for plenty of its players. The Napoleonic-era third person shooter has people manning the guns, riding the horses, and marching in line with muskets against the enemy.
Now the team at Anvil Game Studios is releasing an entirely free, total conversion DLC for Holdfast, called Frontlines, that transports the same gameplay to another era of total warfare: World War 1. Over five new maps, players will trade those muskets for bolt-action rifles, pistols, melee weapons, grenades, machine guns, and the explosive mortars and field artillery of the era.