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

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Tuesday news, part two:

Blizzard bends on Overwatch 2 battle pass, makes next hero easier to unlock for free
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-bends-on-overwatch-2-battle-pass-makes-next-hero-easier-to-unlock-for-free/
Overwatch 2's newest hero, Ramattra, is a little easier to earn for free than Season 1's Kiriko.
"After reviewing data for Season 1, we're moving Ramattra into Tier 45 of the Battle Pass and making a few more weekly challenges easier to complete," game director Aaron Keller wrote today on Twitter.

Bizarre Pokémon-with-guns survival game Palworld has a cute and violent new trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/bizarre-pokemon-with-guns-survival-game-palworld-has-a-cute-and-violent-new-trailer/
There's always been something a bit unsettling about the bright and cheery world of Pokémon. It's all adorable and charming and sweet until you start thinking about the implications of capturing and imprisoning magical creatures and forcing them into gladiatorial combat at the hands of pre-teens.
So maybe Palworld isn't that bizarre after all: It's a Pokémon-like creature-collecting survival game that's filled with colorful creatures to collect… but it's also packed with machine guns, tanks, and rocket launchers. Instead of little poke-ball prisons, there are actual prisons, and the captured critters can be used as forced labor to build weapons and mine resources. If anything, maybe Palworld is just more honest about things than Pokémon is. The critters are cute, but war never is. Deal with it.

Gwent development is ending in 2024, but CD Projekt wants the community to take over
https://www.pcgamer.com/gwent-development-is-ending-in-2024-but-cd-projekt-wants-the-community-to-take-over/
CD Projekt has announced that 2023 will be the final year of full support for its Witcher-based digital card game Gwent. But it's not going away completely—instead, the studio plans to hand control of the game over to the community.

PSA: Remember to safeguard your armor slots before the new Destiny 2 season starts tomorrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/psa-remember-to-safeguard-your-armor-slots-before-the-new-destiny-2-season-starts-tomorrow/
Destiny 2's Season of the Plunder has been a rough one, as Phil explained in his article on how Bungie's current model is leading to player burnout. So I wouldn't blame anyone for having peaced out already. But with the next season starting tomorrow, if you are planning to come back, I implore you to do this easy piece of housekeeping today: Strip the artifact mods out of all your armor, especially pieces with the extra 'artifice' slot.

Starfield will cost $70 as Microsoft raises its base price for new games in 2023
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-will-cost-dollar70-as-microsoft-raises-its-base-price-for-new-games-in-2023/
Following the lead of Sony and others, Activision brought the $70 game to Steam this year with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Next year, Microsoft will follow suit, too: The company told IGN that beginning in 2023, the standard price of its new first-party games, including Starfield and Redfall, will be increased from $60 to $70.

Bethesda QA workers are forming a union of their own
https://www.pcgamer.com/bethesda-qa-workers-are-forming-a-union-of-their-own/
QA workers at Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media have launched a union, the ZeniMax Workers United – CWA, becoming the first group of employees at Microsoft to do so.

Petting a dog in a videogame has never been more important than in Midnight Suns
https://www.pcgamer.com/midnight-suns-charlie/
Petting the dog in a video game is a calcified meme at this point. It's not out of the ordinary for studios to dedicate hours of valuable development resources to creating bespoke dog-petting animations as an attempt at wholesome viral marketing.
(...)
But in the case of Midnight Suns, Firaxis' tactical superhero RPG that released last Friday, petting the dog isn't just a sensible moral decision. This is the first time where the fate of humanity could potentially rest on whether or not you call a puppy a good girl enough times.

Apparently, you've been able to download Bungie's first 3 FPSes for free for the past 17 years
https://www.pcgamer.com/apparently-youve-been-able-to-download-bungies-first-3-fpses-for-free-for-the-past-17-years/
Did you know that Halo and Destiny creator Bungie's classic FPS trilogy, Marathon, has been free and open source since 2005? I sure didn't when I shelled out cash for them on the Xbox Live Arcade in 2008 like some kind of chump!

Fortnite has become a graphical powerhouse overnight
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-has-become-a-graphical-powerhouse-overnight/
Yesterday, I would have described Fortnite as a reasonably good-looking game that runs on anything. After today's massive Chapter 4 update, I'd describe Fortnite as a graphical showcase that demonstrates just how pretty the next generation of 3D games will look.

Sonic Frontiers is on its way to winning a Game Award as fans push for a 'Sonic Sweep'
https://www.pcgamer.com/game-awards-2022-players-voice-sonic-frontiers/
Most winners at Geoff Keighley's Game Awards are determined through a mix of public voting and jury selection—PC Gamer is one of those jurors—but one award, called Players' Voice, is entirely up to the public. Right now, the leader of that public vote is overwhelmingly Sonic Frontiers.

Elden Ring's colosseums are finally opening in a free PvP update coming tomorrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-rings-colosseums-are-finally-opening-in-a-free-pvp-update-coming-tomorrow/
Elden Ring, the mega-hit action-RPG that is easily my game of the year, is going heavy on PvP with a free Colosseum Update that's set to roll out tomorrow, December 7.
If the name of the update rings a bell, it could be because dataminers uncovered a colosseum in Elden Ring way back in March. The leading theory at the time was that it was intended as a battle space for upcoming PvP-focused DLC, and now, here we are.

Watch the launch trailer for Destiny 2's Season of the Seraph
https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-the-launch-trailer-for-destiny-2s-season-of-the-seraph/
Bungie has just dropped the trailer for Destiny 2's next season, which we now know is called Season of the Seraph. It kicks off later today at reset time (10:00 AM PST, 1:00 PM EST, 6:00 PM GMT). Until this video arrived almost nothing official was known about the season, leading to quite a bit of grumbling from players about the studio's preference for hype-building secrecy over clear communication.