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

[JEMC]

The long second part of the Monday news:

Minecraft 1.20 Trails & Tales update is launching on June 7
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-120-trails-and-tales-update-is-launching-on-june-7/
The big feature list for Minecraft 1.20 has been known for a while, and test builds have been available for a few months, with the only remaining mystery being its release date. The next Minecraft update is happening sooner than I'd expected: Trails & Tales is coming on June 7.

Fairgames promises 'emergent sandbox gameplay' in competitive PvP heists
https://www.pcgamer.com/fairgames-promises-emergent-sandbox-gameplay-in-competitive-pvp-heists/
Are heist games in vogue? The extraction shooter genre has heist-like qualities, and several literal heist games are on the way: Payday 3 and Monaco 2, probably GTA 6 next year, and now Fairgames (technically called "Fairgame$"), a "competitive heisting experience" in which players will target the ill-gotten wealth of the world's billionaires and, presumably, try to extract it without being taken out by rival gangs of heisters.

Lionsgate really wants to make a big-budget John Wick videogame: 'There's a ton of energy around it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/lionsgate-really-wants-to-make-a-big-budget-john-wick-videogame-theres-a-ton-of-energy-around-it/
In November 2022, Lionsgate said it was interested in turning the Keanu Reeves action film series John Wick into "a big AAA game." That's still very much the case: The company said in its most recent earnings call that there's no specific action on that front at this point, but it's eager to make it happen.

The Last of Us multiplayer development reportedly slowed as Naughty Dog says the project needs 'more time'
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-last-of-us-multiplayer-development-reportedly-slowed-as-naughty-dog-says-the-project-needs-more-time/
Back in June 2022, when Naughty Dog finally confirmed that The Last of Us was coming to PC, it also announced that a new, standalone multiplayer game based on The Last of Us was in development too. It was originally meant to be an expansion for The Last of Us 2, but Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann said at the time that it had "evolved beyond the team's ambition," and so the decision was made to turn it into a standalone game instead. Platforms weren't announced at the time, although we speculated that the live service aspects of the game would make it a good candidate for a PC release.
More information was promised for 2023, and today we got it, but it's probably not what any TLOU fan was hoping for. Naughty Dog announced Friday that the game isn't ready to be shown yet, and apparently won't be for a while to come.

My favorite Elder Scrolls-like RPG ran bafflingly badly on Steam Deck, but a small, surprising tweak has doubled its performance
https://www.pcgamer.com/my-favorite-elder-scrolls-like-rpg-ran-bafflingly-badly-on-steam-deck-but-a-small-surprising-tweak-has-doubled-its-performance/
I make it no secret that I love Dread Delusion, a chunky, retro RPG in a stunning alien world with body horror-fueled societies clinging to life on the asteroids orbiting a small, blood-red star. Despite its throwback looks and a green "verified" badge however, it used to just tank my Steam Deck, rarely cresting above 30fps and typically hovering around 25. A recent early access update has vastly improved those numbers, and the culprit was so simple I can still barely believe it.
(...)
In addition to the big performance uplift, the Cadaver Keep update has also seen another expansion of Dread Delusion's main quest, bringing it one step closer to its full 1.0 release. That's the best news of all for me, because no matter how much I love this game, I can't keep playing it piecemeal. We've reprinted the full Cadaver Keep patch notes down below:

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum studio says sorry for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum game
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-studio-says-sorry-for-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-game/
After a brutal reaction from reviewers and players alike—"Misery! Misery! Curse Daedalic. Curse it and crush it! We hates it! We hates it forever!" one Steam user wrote in an appropriately in-character review—Daedalic Entertainment has apologized for the sorry state of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and says it will continue working on the game to ensure that it meets "its fullest potential."

Original Fallout co-creator finally explains what made him leave the sequel: 'I made an IP from scratch that nobody believed in except the team, and my reward for that was more crunch'
https://www.pcgamer.com/original-fallout-co-creator-finally-explains-what-made-him-leave-the-sequel-i-made-an-ip-from-scratch-that-nobody-believed-in-except-the-team-and-my-reward-for-that-was-more-crunch/
Veteran RPG creator Tim Cain has continued his campaign to pull back the curtain on CRPG history through a series of quite lovely and informative blogs on YouTube. Yesterday, he hit us with the surprising reveal that the original Fallout, which Cain co-created, was a low priority "B-tier" project for publisher Interplay during much of its development, and that video serves as background for today's topic: why Cain and fellow developers Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson left the development of Fallout 2 before its release.
Update 5/27/23: Tim Cain has followed up his prior two videos with a third further elaborating on his experience, asking viewers to approach his stories "with nuance," and stating that "things aren't as black and white in these stories as you make them out to be.

The first 1,000 Diablo IV players to Hardcore level 100 get their name on a statue
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-first-1000-diablo-iv-players-to-hardcore-level-100-get-their-name-on-a-statue/
The first 1,000 people to reach level 100 in Diablo IV, and then tweet to @Diablo with proof, will get their usernames "immortalized on a statue of Lilith." Hardcore being, of course, the mode where if you die then your character is straight-up deleted and gone forever. There are going to be so, so many salty highlights of people losing a hardcore character while trying for this challenge—which will stay open until September or until 1,000 people claim it.

One of my favorite D&D videogames is still getting beefy updates after 21 years
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-of-my-favorite-dandd-videogames-is-still-getting-beefy-updates-after-21-years/
Ever since talking to prolific Neverwinter Nights module builder Luke Scull, I've been on a Neverwinter Nights kick, working through some of the huge backlog of high-quality user-made campaigns for Bioware's 2002 RPG. While playing Swordflight, a standout hardcore, ambitious mod, I logged in one day to notice new UI elements, graphics options, and quality-of-life changes, stuff that just wasn't there before. Surely Beamdog isn't still updating its 2018 Enhanced Edition re-release, right?
As reported by Gaming on Linux, that's exactly what's happened. Beamdog's patch summary characterizes the update as "a year-long love effort" by community developers clippy, Daz, Jasperre, Llareth, niv, Soren, tinygiant, and virusman, packaged by the company into an official update for the game. The full patch notes are honestly too extensive to repost in full here, and can be found on Beamdog's official website.

They're finally doing a game where the Warhammer 40K Orks go full Mad Max
https://www.pcgamer.com/theyre-finally-doing-a-game-where-the-warhammer-40k-orks-go-full-mad-max/
Angry, green, and obsessed with speed: An upcoming combat racer set in the Warhammer 40,000 takes on the Kult of Speed, those Orks obsessed with driving fast and blowing things up that players love. The team-based shooter pits two rival groups of speed freeks against each other as they race to and then fight over objectives on a large map in their ramshackle, terrifying, explosively-fueled deathtrap tanks, cars, trikes, and buggies.

Total War: Warhammer 3's latest free hero is Warhammer's original posterboy
https://www.pcgamer.com/total-war-warhammer-3s-latest-free-hero-is-warhammers-original-posterboy/
As part of update 3.1.0, Total War: Warhammer 3 has another free legendary hero. Last time it was the Kislevite vampire Ulrika Magdova, and this time it's a hard counter to undead like her: Harald Hammerstorm, also known as Harry the Hammer, a Chaos Warrior who specializes in killing anything that rises from the grave.

Prehistoric farming RPG Roots of Pacha returns to Steam following development dispute
https://www.pcgamer.com/prehistoric-farming-rpg-roots-of-pacha-returns-to-steam-following-development-dispute/
After two weeks of being unavailable for purchase, paleolithic farming sim Roots of Pacha has returned to sale on Steam. The game was originally delisted by Valve following a legal dispute between publisher Crytivo and developer Soda Den, seemingly begun over contract stipulations in the publishing agreement.

Knights of the Old Republic Remake shows faint, flickering sign of life in publisher report
https://www.pcgamer.com/knights-of-the-old-republic-remake-shows-faint-flickering-sign-of-life-in-publisher-report/
First reported by Insider Gaming, quiet mega-publisher the Embracer Group recently released its full year report for April 2022-March 2023, and that report lists the now legendarily fraught Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic Remake as a project under active development in the subhead "Announced PC/Console Releases as of May 24, 2023."

Bandai Namco officially announces Bryan Fury for Tekken 8, after accidentally announcing Bryan Fury for Tekken 8
https://www.pcgamer.com/bandai-namco-officially-announces-bryan-fury-for-tekken-8-after-accidentally-announcing-bryan-fury-for-tekken-8/
Bryan Fury is coming to Tekken 8, Bandai Namco has revealed. Twice.
Everyone's favourite deranged zombie cyborg was confirmed for Tekken 8's character roster at this year's Combo Breaker fighting tournament, held over the weekend. The announcement came in the form of a trailer, viewable above, with the tagline "A wildcard for violence and destruction".

Crowdfunding website Fig is no more
https://www.pcgamer.com/crowdfunding-website-fig-is-no-more/
Video game crowdfunding platform Fig, which helped to fund the development of games like Psychonauts 2 and Homeworld 3, is no longer online.
As reported by RPS, the news was shared by Double Fine and Blackbird Interactive, who issued updates shortly before the website's shutdown. "We've been informed that the Fig website is going to be brought offline on Sunday, May 28th," wrote Double Fine's community manager Harper Jay on the Psychonauts 2 Fig page, adding "that means we're going to have to shift our communications to a different hub." Likewise, Homeworld 3's publisher Gearbox published a similar post on its official website, stating "We are committed to continuing to provide you with consistent updates and visibility into Homeworld 3 through alternative channels."