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

[JEMC]

The Monday news, the long part two:

Two of the best adventure games of the '90s that you never played are getting remasters
https://www.pcgamer.com/two-of-the-best-adventure-games-of-the-90s-that-you-never-played-are-getting-remasters/
Little Big Adventure, or Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure outside of Europe, blew my tiny freaking mind in 1994. (...)
It was a big deal in Europe, and was followed up by a sequel a few years later, but apparently nobody gave two shits about it across the Atlantic. (...)
This mistake can soon be rectified, thankfully, as both games are getting a remaster makeover courtesy of developer [2.21], which is also working on a third game in the series.

How much sex will you have in Starfield? 'None,' says the Australian government
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-much-sex-will-you-have-in-starfield-none-says-the-australian-government/
In space, no one can hear you scream. And in Starfield, no one can hear you having sex. That's because, according to Australia's' Classification Board—the agency responsible for rating videogames and other entertainment media in the country—there is no sex to be had in that particular dark void of space.

Yu Suzuki wants to sell you Virtua Fighter JPEGs because NFTs refuse to die
https://www.pcgamer.com/yu-suzuki-wants-to-sell-you-virtua-fighter-jpegs-because-nfts-refuse-to-die/
Yu Suzuki, the legendary ex-Sega game designer who has yet to be apprehended for his role in creating the Shenmue series, has gotten a new gig. VGC reports that Suzuki has partnered up with Oasyx, "an NFT project developed on the Oasys gaming blockchain," to produce a series of covetable JPEGs based around the Virtua Fighter series, which he created.
>> Will people still fall for this? Sadly, yes.

Destiny players are gathering in the Tower to pay last respects to Lance Reddick
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-players-are-gathering-in-the-tower-to-pay-last-respects-to-lance-reddick/
Actor Lance Reddick had an impressive career in film and television, but to gamers he's likely best known as Commander Zavala, the Titan Vanguard in the Destiny games. It was a role he embraced, and not just within the development studio: He was known for his appreciation of both the game (he played himself) and its fans, and made an awful lot of them very happy in 2021 when they asked him to read Destiny 2 memes in Zavala's voice—and he said "yes."
Reddick's devotion to Destiny 2 and its community made him a fan favorite, and following the report of his death earlier today, players have been gathering in the tower to pay their respects to the man and the character he portrayed: Zavala, the taciturn father figure of the Tower.

First Kerbal Space Program 2 patch fixes a mountain of bugs
https://www.pcgamer.com/first-kerbal-space-program-2-patch-fixes-a-mountain-of-bugs/
In what is perhaps the only situation which you should be excited about the phrase "a mountain of bugs," Intercept Games has released the first big patch for Kerbal Space Program 2. The situation being, of course, that "a mountain of bugs" is prefaced with "fixed."

This upcoming FPS had me at 'fully simulated centrifugal gravity space station level'
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-upcoming-fps-had-me-at-fully-simulated-centrifugal-gravity-space-station-level/
The devs behind Fortune's Run, an upcoming shooter/immersive sim that looks like a grungier The Fifth Element and plays like Jedi Knight at 1.5x speed, just announced a July-September early access release window with a fly-through of one of its early levels. This "ridiculously huge, fully simulated centrifugal gravity space station" features a fully-modeled exterior set against the void of space, and strikes me as a fascinating departure from the game's demo level, Trouble at Club V'heni.

Monster Train dev's unique turn-based action RPG releases this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/monster-train-devs-unique-turn-based-action-rpg-releases-this-week/
The developers of hit deckbuilder Monster Train are gearing up to release their next game: Inkbound, a unique turn-based RPG that's designed to play fluidly either cooperative or solo by using many of the same tricks as action RPGs and MOBAs. Outside of combat players move freely, while inside it they move around and toss out attacks freely on their turn before the enemies take a shot.

Vermintide 2 is getting another free level
https://www.pcgamer.com/vermintide-2-is-getting-another-free-level/
Fatshark promised to have a team continue working on Vermintide 2 alongside development of Darktide, and has stuck to that promise. In November it added a new level called Trail of Treachery for free alongside a collection of premium cosmetics called Absent Friends, and a patch that addressed a couple of outstanding bugs and brought Vermintide 2's hefty download size down by 25 GB.
The party continues with Tower of Treachery, another free map that will continue the story begun in Trail of Treachery. (...)

Here's a narrative sci-fi adventure about exploring a (literally) broken world
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-a-narrative-sci-fi-adventure-about-exploring-a-literally-broken-world/
A new narrative sci-fi adventure RPG called Sky of Tides will release later this year, having players explore a world called Numen where a looming war threatens to upend protagonist Rin's life. It's an atmospheric, isometric viewpoint world that seems to rely on both the tropes of classic isometric RPGs and the language of branching visual novels.

Check the demo for towering city builder Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
https://www.pcgamer.com/check-the-demo-for-towering-city-builder-bulwark-falconeer-chronicles/
Developer Tomas Sala's upcoming Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles has a proof-of-concept demo out now, letting you get a taste of the combination of city-builder and open-world exploration it promises to be. The demo is billed as an "evolving demo", a kind of open development intended to update over time as new features are added to Bulwark during its development.

Total War makers open a third development studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/total-war-makers-open-a-third-development-studio/
Creative Assembly has announced the formation of a new studio based in Newcastle. It will be the Sega-owned Total War and Alien: Isolation developer's third studio after its Sussex, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria locations. The new studio will be called Creative Assembly North, or CA North, and will house a flexible team initially working on an unannounced project alongside the main CA studio in Sussex.

Valve's slow burn trolling of Counter-Strike fans continues with reveal of 'CS2' trademark
https://www.pcgamer.com/valves-slow-burn-trolling-of-counter-strike-fans-continues-with-reveal-of-cs2-trademark/
The Counter-Strike community has, for the last month or so, been convinced that a miracle is on the horizon. Exactly what that miracle will be is not yet clear, but the belief in a new version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive using Valve's current Source 2 engine is strong, and equally so is the belief in a whole new version of the game, Counter-Strike 2. I mean, it would actually be Counter-Strike 5 or 6 depending on how you count them, but let's run with it.

Disco Elysium studio declares 'resolution' of legal battle while two of its ousted founders insist the fight continues: 'they will not silence us'
https://www.pcgamer.com/disco-elysium-studio-declares-resolution-of-legal-battle-while-two-of-its-ousted-founders-insist-the-fight-continues-they-will-not-silence-us/
On March 14, Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz reported on a ZA/UM press release that declared the resolution of its legal dispute with founding member and Disco Elysium producer Kaur Kender, while also indicating that Disco Elysium project lead Robert Kurvitz and lead artist Aleksander Rostov's wrongful termination suit was dismissed over lack of evidence. Since then, Kurvitz and "Sander Taal" (GamesIndustry.biz indicates that this is a pseudonym used by Rostov) have responded, stating that they will continue to pursue legal action. Meanwhile, ZA/UM released Disco Elysium's first content update since December 2021's "Jamais Vu" patch.

Disco Elysium fans blast 'absolutely demonic' ZA/UM execs for new photo mode: 'it wasn't enough to rob the creators of their own work, you had to turn it into this meme ridden sludge, too'
https://www.pcgamer.com/disco-elysium-fans-blast-absolutely-demonic-zaum-execs-for-new-photo-mode-it-wasnt-enough-to-rob-the-creators-of-their-own-work-you-had-to-turn-it-into-this-meme-ridden-sludge-too/
Disco Elysium got an unexpected addition last week: A brand-new Collage Mode that lets you arrange the game's characters however you like, add stickers and custom text, and generally build a whole scrapbook of snaps.
But what might initially seem like a novel, harmless add-on has gone down like a lead balloon with a lot of fans, who see it as a hamfisted attempt by ZA/UM to distract players from the ongoing and bitter legal conflict between Disco Elysium's departed lead creatives—Robert Kurvitz, Helen Hindpere, and Alexander Rostov—and the company's current leadership, whom the former lead devs accuse of using funds "stolen" from ZA/UM to actually buy out ZAUM from under them. Company CEO Ilmar Kompus, and others named by the former lead devs, deny the accusations, but plenty of fans back Kurvitz, Rostov, and Hindpere to the hilt.

The next Meat Boy game parodies a '90s Sonic spinoff
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-next-meat-boy-game-parodies-a-90s-sonic-spinoff/
Everyone loves Meat Boy, though sadly our fleshy friend is now one of those characters that floats free of its creator, Edmund McMillen, who happily signed the rights away to Super Meat Boy co-creator Tommy Refenes. The 2010 platformer was almost universally praised and became a breakout hit, though the sequel Super Meat Boy Forever wouldn't appear until 2020 and… well, it just didn't quite have the joy.
If the games showed us anything though, it's that Meat Boy takes a pounding (and a slicing and a burning) and comes bouncing right back. The new game Dr. Fetus' Mean Meat Machine, however, is moving away from the platforming and is basically parodying a Sonic spinoff from the 90s. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was itself a re-jigged version of the classic Puyo Puyo, and this basically looks like a contemporary version of those puzzling mechanics with lots of drills, saws, and various other implements messing around in the playing area.

One year on, there have been more deaths in Elden Ring than there are people living on Earth
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-year-on-there-have-been-more-deaths-in-elden-ring-than-there-are-people-living-on-earth/
Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has released a bunch of stats to celebrate the game's first anniversary and, presumably, to taunt us all about how bad we are at it. There have been more deaths thanks to the game's myriad hazards than there are people currently alive on Earth, which seems like a not-great record, and nearly six billion attempts to take down its various bosses, most of which failed miserably.