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

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Thursday news, part two:

Activision fired two testers for 'profane' language, now a major tech union is filing charges
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-fired-two-testers-for-profane-language-now-a-major-tech-union-is-filing-charges/
The Communications Workers of America (CWA), the labour union behind several recent organising efforts at Activision Blizzard development studios, is filing charges directly against Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. Spotted by Kotaku, the CWA alleges that the company violated the law when it fired two QA testers last February.
Update: Since this piece was published, Activision has provided PCG with two extra statements. A company spokesperson clarified further that Activision feels it is "focused on building a culture of inclusiveness. We have a workplace Code of Conduct policy that has been consistently shared with employees, and when that policy is clearly violated, we take appropriate disciplinary action".

Tekken 8 continues to go incredibly hard with new Jin Kazama trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/tekken-8-continues-to-go-incredibly-hard-with-new-jin-kazama-trailer/
February really was the month of extreme Tekken 8 hype. First, we had the Tekken World Tour Finals giving us a better look at the Heat system and revealing that Nina Williams would be returning to the roster. Last week saw Kazuya Mishima receive a character trailer, showing off flashy particle effects and muscles galore. This week it's the turn of his son, Jin Kazama, to receive a bombastic trailer and hints of a retooled moveset.

New Deep Rock Galactic spinoff is a Vampire Survivors-style auto-shooter (with mining)
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-deep-rock-galactic-spinoff-is-a-vampire-survivors-style-auto-shooter-with-mining/
The world of cooperative horde shooter Deep Rock Galactic is getting adapted to a new setting: A survivors-style auto-horde-shooter where a single dwarf takes on the buggy hordes all on their own. The trailer for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor dropped today alongside a Steam page and a loose Early Access release date of "2023."

Kerbal Space Program 2's unfinished features may have been unearthed by dataminers
https://www.pcgamer.com/kerbal-space-program-2s-unfinished-features-may-have-been-unearthed-by-dataminers/
The rocky launch of Kerbal Space Program 2 into early access this past week has been met with a flurry of commentary, disagreement, and strife among the game's community. (...)
Some players blamed this on the decision to launch the game into early access, theorizing that it was a corporate decision by publisher Private Division after a change of studios and three years of delays. These flames were fanned for some, dampened for others, by the information that dataminers and modders started finding inside KSP2's code. One dataminer reported finding "most of a ... modding API, multiplayer synchronization code, colony management and supply route setup, research, aero heating" and more among the code.

Sons of the Forest hotfix stops you from accidentally eating severed arms
https://www.pcgamer.com/sons-of-the-forest-hotfix-stops-you-accidentally-eating-severed-arms/
(...)
Cannibalism is a feature in Sons of the Forest, but you should still be able to choose for yourself whether or not you want to indulge. Thing is, a little bug in yesterday's hotfix was turning some players into cannibals without their say-so.

Rainbow Six Siege player hacks drone that hacks drones to somehow kill player with their own claymore
https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-player-hacks-drone-that-hacks-drones-to-somehow-kill-player-with-their-own-claymore/
There was a time when the most complicated device in Rainbow Six Siege was an iPad that detects heartbeats. I imagine all of the CS:GO players who bounced off of Siege after getting spotted through a wall in 2015 would run for the hills if they knew what was possible in 2023. Thanks to Siege's newest attacker, Brava, you can't even trust your own claymores not to kill you.

And the award for the saddest patch notes ever goes to Babylon's Fall
https://www.pcgamer.com/and-the-award-for-the-saddest-patch-notes-ever-goes-to-babylons-fall/
Babylon's Fall was not a good game by most accounts: we gave the co-op action RPG a 45% in our review, and the best it could muster on Steam was 482 "Mostly Negative" user reviews. Still, its final update is a heartbreaker.

First person shooters have been getting perspective wrong all along
https://www.pcgamer.com/first-person-shooters-have-been-getting-perspective-wrong-all-along/
Linear perspective is the overarching method of representing 3D objects on a 2D plane, just like how games show up on your gaming monitor. It encompasses the one, two, and three point perspectives you probably learned about in school, and has been the major leading perspectival schema in art since it's conception, way back in the fifteenth century.
Now, Robert Pepperell of the Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales (via New Scientist) is making us question everything we understand about how perspective should be represented in video games.

'I was deranged'—Half-Life writer's regret at publishing Episode 3 story
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-was-derangedhalf-life-writers-regret-at-publishing-episode-3-story/
Back in 2017 Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw published a real oddity: a wibbly-wobbly short story that was once intended as Half-Life: Episode 3. It's a weird old thing. Eli Vance is dead, Dr. Mossman tracks down the Borealis, Gordon and Alyx head off to Antarctica, and everything of course goes wrong. Laidlaw made some cursory attempts at disguise like gender-swapping characters and slightly altering their names, but it was clear this story was once intended as a resolution to a series famous for its lack of them.
Big mistake, apparently. "I was deranged," said Laidlaw in a new interview with RPS. "I was living on an island, totally cut off from my friends and creative community of the last couple decades, I was completely out of touch and had nobody to talk me out of it. [Publishing the story] just seemed like a fun thing to do… until I did it.”

Telltale delays the Wolf Among Us 2 till at least next year, because if it's half-baked 'we're going to get torn to shreds'
https://www.pcgamer.com/telltale-delays-the-wolf-among-us-2-till-at-least-next-year-because-if-its-half-baked-were-going-to-get-torn-to-shreds/
In news that possibly everyone saw coming, The Wolf Among Us 2 has been delayed beyond this year. In a post to Twitter yesterday evening, the newly-revived (minus most of its original staff) Telltale Games announced that it had "made the difficult decision to delay The Wolf Among Us 2 out of 2023". But given that it's been nearly a decade since the last episode of the first series released, I can probably stand to wait a little longer.

'There is no doubt that I knew the facts'—Sonic creator admits insider trading guilt on first day of trial
https://www.pcgamer.com/there-is-no-doubt-that-i-knew-the-factssonic-creator-admits-insider-trading-guilt-on-first-day-of-trial/
Yuji Naka had his first day in court today, but he might not need many more. The Sonic and Balan Wonderworld creator appears to have admitted guilt in the insider trading case brought against him last year, concerning ownership of shares worth $1 million and $20,000, respectively, in ATeam and Aiming Inc.(...)
As reported by NHK (via TimeExtension), Naka told the court that "There is no doubt that I knew the facts about the game before it was made public and bought the stock," which is about as straightforward an admission of guilt as it's possible to get. Given that Japan maintains a 99.9% conviction rate in all cases brought before its criminal courts, it's likely that playing ball is Naka's best bet here, and he's probably hoping to earn himself more lenient treatment by cooperating.