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JEMC on 12 May 2023
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The second, and long, part of the Friday news:

Blizzard developers say mandatory return-to-office policy has 'cost us some amazing people'
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-developers-say-mandatory-return-to-office-policy-has-cost-us-some-amazing-people/
Activision Blizzard's mandatory return-to-office policy is causing an unnecessary loss of talent, to the point where it could affect development of major titles like World of Warcraft and Diablo 4, according to some Blizzard developers.

Bethesda adds 27-level megawad to its Doom re-release
https://www.pcgamer.com/bethesda-adds-27-level-megawad-to-its-doom-re-release/
Bethesda has added one of the best unofficial Doom addons to its re-release version of the 1993 classic. Titled Base Ganymede, this megawad adds a new 27-map campaign to Doom set on Jupiter's largest moon.

D&D's oldest rival is making a comeback thanks to the developer of Sniper Elite
https://www.pcgamer.com/dandds-oldest-rival-is-making-a-comeback-thanks-to-the-developer-of-sniper-elite/
In 1974, TSR released Dungeons & Dragons—the world's first commercially published tabletop role-playing game. In 1975, a librarian named Ken St Andre published the second—Tunnels & Trolls. You'd be forgiven for never having heard of it, but it may be about to take on a new life under an unlikely new owner.
Nearly 50 years after its original release, Tunnels & Trolls has been acquired by Rebellion—the developer behind the Sniper Elite games, and owner of other properties as eclectic as the 2000AD comics and Whitaker's Almanac. In a statement celebrating the game's landmark place in tabletop history, the company says it's working on "the next chapter of Tunnels & Trolls releases".

CD Projekt's Witcher spinoff game is back on track with an 'updated direction'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekts-witcher-spinoff-game-is-back-on-track-with-an-updated-direction/
CD Projekt revealed in March that Project Sirius, the Witcher spinoff game being developed by Molasses Flood, had run into some kind of trouble: After evaluating "the scope and commercial potential of the original concept of Project Sirius," the studio said it was writing off the game's development expenses up to that point and had begun "formulating a new framework for this project." Now, two months later, that work is complete, and Sirius is back on track.

Rainbow Six Siege PC players are accidentally joining console lobbies and absolutely destroying them
https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-pc-players-are-accidentally-joining-console-lobbies-and-absolutely-destroying-them/
A new bug in Rainbow Six Siege's matchmaking created a nightmare scenario for console players of the game: the PC players are invading console lobbies and wiping the floor with controller players.
>>***Insert evil laugh here***

Arkane founder is working on an all-new game that's even 'more ambitious' than his last one
https://www.pcgamer.com/arkane-founder-is-working-on-an-all-new-game-thats-even-more-ambitious-than-his-last-one/
There's good news and bad news for fans of the action-RPG – immersive sim crossover Weird West: The bad news is that it doesn't look like we're getting a sequel, but the good news is that developer Wolfeye Studios is working on something brand new and even "more ambitious" than its first game.

Here's who's coming to Summer Game Fest: CD Projekt, Larian, Steam, and dozens more
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-whos-coming-to-summer-game-fest-cd-projekt-larian-steam-and-dozens-more/
There was a time when E3 was the big videogame event of the summer, but that time is long past. These days the Summer Game Fest is the can't-miss show of June, and today organizer Geoff Keighley revealed exactly when this year's festivities will begin, and which companies will be taking part.

Apex Legends player hits top rank without scoring a single kill: 'That is just so dumb'
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-player-hits-top-rank-without-scoring-a-kill-i-mean-that-is-just-so-dumb/
Is the point of battle royale games to survive, or to eliminate competitors? The latest season of Apex Legends has centered that question with a new ranking system that's stupefying top players. To "prove how bad the system is," NRG pro sweetdreams challenged himself to hit the game's highest rank, Apex Predator, without scoring any kills. After playing for almost 19 hours, entirely livestreamed, he succeeded.

Finally, after 8 years Geralt can no longer eat chicken sandwiches, turkey legs, or pierogies underwater
https://www.pcgamer.com/witcher-3-patch-4-03-underwater/
The Witcher 3's next-gen version continues to receive refinements and improvements from CD Projekt Red, and while I thought the developer could never live up to the audacious excellence of fixing the grass shadows (and thus the game itself), I have been proven grievously wrong. After eight long years, the same gap as between the O.G. Witcher and The Witcher 3, Geralt can no longer get his chow on underwater. Our boy's days of noshing in the briney deep are no more. CDPR also fixed some other stuff too.

New World of Warcraft specialization promises 'a playstyle never seen before'
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-world-of-warcraft-specialization-promises-a-playstyle-never-seen-before/
Associate editor Tyler Colp said back in March that he was convinced Blizzard was about to bring a ranged support class to World of Warcraft. As it turns out, he was partly right: Today Blizzard unveiled the new Augmentation specialization for the Dracthyr Evoker class, a damage dealer role coming to the game this summer that uses "the essence of the Black and Bronze dragonflights to amplify the abilities of nearby allies."

'There is no AI-driven software that I know of that we would put in a shipped game,' says Blackbird Interactive's president
https://www.pcgamer.com/there-is-no-ai-driven-software-that-i-know-of-that-we-would-put-in-a-shipped-game-says-blackbird-interactives-president/
Several members of Homeworld 3 studio Blackbird Interactive recently took part in a roundtable discussion hosted by PC Gamer's Evan Lahti, with AI as the main topic. While all of them saw the value of algorithmic tools in creating videogames, the consensus was that things aren't 100% ready for prime time yet.

Ten years on, we're getting a sequel to Reus
https://www.pcgamer.com/ten-years-on-were-getting-a-sequel-to-reus/
2013 was the goldilocks period for indie gaming on PC, the point at which there was surging interest in games from outside the mainstream publishing sphere, but not so many indie games struggling for prominence that some became lost in the crowd. It was during this period that we got Reus, a 2D sort-of god game that let players assume control of giants so powerful they could reshape entire worlds. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't its biggest fan, but that didn't matter one jot, as it went on to sell a million copies.
Reus' developer, Abbey games, has made a bunch of interesting titles since, including Renowned Explorers and the more typical god game Godhood. Now, it's teaming up with publisher Firesquid Games for a direct follow-up to Reus, ten years on since the original released.

Fallout's original co-creator has casually dropped 'the true purpose of vaults' on YouTube
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallouts-original-co-creator-has-casually-dropped-the-true-purpose-of-vaults-on-youtube/
Tim Cain's had a storied career, hasn't he? The man's had a hand in pretty much all of my favourite games: Fallout 1 and 2, Arcanum, Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines, Pillars of Eternity, and Tyranny. Now the legendary game designer has a new hobby: Dropping (in the inimitable words of PCG's Ted Litchfield) "heater after heater" of classic RPG development lore over on his YouTube channel.
One of those heaters is the absolutely irresistible "The true purpose of vaults in Fallout," wherein Cain drops the knowledge that—in his original conception at the end of Fallout 1—the vaults were basically testbeds for a starship.
>> So, given that Bethesda owns the IP, does it mean that Starfield and Fallout happen in the same universe?

PUBG's latest patch adds an Apex Legends-style respawn system
https://www.pcgamer.com/pubgs-latest-patch-adds-an-apex-legends-style-respawn-system/
Battle royales have come a long way since PUBG's initial release in 2017, with each new release attempting quality-of-life improvements to iron out pain points in the genre. Dying in group play has always been a design challenge: while it's fun to cheer on your friends from the sidelines, you'll be left twiddling your thumbs while they run, gun, and scavenge.
Apex Legends tackled this sore spot via a respawn beacon, and PUBG is following its example in update 23.2. Death boxes—self–descriptive containers that drop upon death—will now contain Blue Chips on the maps Erangel, Miramar, and Deston.

Bobby Kotick's AI comments perfectly sum up the thoughtlessness behind the large-language model gold rush
https://www.pcgamer.com/bobby-koticks-ai-comments-perfectly-sum-up-the-thoughtlessness-behind-the-large-language-model-gold-rush/
One of the big problems with the tech industry's current obsession over large language models (commonly referred to under the umbrella term "AI"), is separating out the genuine potential applications and implications of this technology, from the marketing hype, misunderstanding, and outright lies proffered by industry leaders and blue-tick grifters pivoting from NFTs. A good example of how the two are easily conflated was recently provided by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who shared his thoughts on AI's potential applications in gaming.

Amnesia: The Bunker hit with one more last-minute delay, but luckily it's a short one
https://www.pcgamer.com/amnesia-the-bunker-hit-with-one-more-last-minute-delay-but-luckily-its-a-short-one/
Amnesia: The Bunker, Frictional Games' next "why-am-I-doing-this-to-myself" first-person horror game, is going to take a little longer than expected to arrive. It was scheduled to launch on May 23 but the studio said today that because of some last-minute issues, it's been pushed to June 6.

And now, the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend;

+GOG

+Steam

That's all folks! Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.