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

[JEMC]

Monday news, the very long part two:

These Jedi: Survivor stats confirm that Star Wars fans are incredibly boring
https://www.pcgamer.com/these-jedi-survivor-stats-confirm-that-star-wars-fans-are-incredibly-boring/
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor might have launched with significant performance issues, but that hasn't stopped the game proving enormously popular with fans of Star Wars and big-budget action adventures alike. To give you some sense of how far across the galaxy the game has reached, developer EA has released a bunch of stats detailing players' adventures on Koboh and beyond.

Pathfinder's ambitious Diablo 4 competitor launches its Kickstarter campaign
https://www.pcgamer.com/pathfinders-ambitious-diablo-4-competitor-launches-its-kickstarter-campaign/
Tabletop RPG Pathfinder has already spawned a series of successful CRPGs, in the form of Pathfinder: Kingmaker and its sequel Wrath of the Righteous. But the latest game based on the Pathfinder ruleset is an ARPG that points its weapons squarely at Diablo, and the Kickstarter campaign for this bold fantasy upstart has just launched.

Yep, the perfect way to lure me back to a co-op survival game is by adding fishing poles and over 50 types of fish to catch
https://www.pcgamer.com/yep-the-perfect-way-to-lure-me-back-to-a-co-op-survival-game-is-by-adding-fishing-poles-and-over-50-types-of-fish-to-catch/
Survival game Icarus launched back in December of 2021, and since then developer RocketWerkz has not been sitting idle. The studio has delivered an impressive number of small updates, missions, and tweaks to Icarus every single week, along with bigger expansions and features along the way.
While it's been a minute since I've played Icarus, the latest update immediately solidified my weekend plans. Sorry, Diablo 4, your demons are gonna have to wait. I'm going fishing on planet Icarus.

GTA Online's next free update will add a new mercenary group that you can join to fight its old mercenary group
https://www.pcgamer.com/gta-onlines-next-free-update-will-add-a-new-mercenary-group-that-you-can-join-to-fight-its-old-mercenary-group/
Back in the halcyon days of 2018, a squad of PC Gamer's top men went toe-to-toe with operatives of Merryweather Security, a major security contractor and PMC in GTA Online. It did not go well: One of our elite crew, under withering minigun fire, described the situation as "hot bullshit," shortly after which everything went completely south and an ignominious L was taken.
All these years later, it's almost time for payback. The next free GTA Online update, San Andreas Mercenaries, will give players the opportunity to join up with the Los Santos Angels, a new group of "elite pilots and ex-military operators" led by Charlie Reed, an expert mechanic and ace pilot who's looking to take on some "lucrative work" (aka crime) and push back against the dominance of Merryweather.

Praise the King of All Cosmos, the best Katamari Damacy game is now on PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/praise-the-king-of-all-cosmos-the-best-katamari-damacy-game-is-now-on-pc/
Katamari Damacy is a difficult game to describe—it's about rolling a ball around strangely earthly playgrounds to collect up a random and expanding assortment of stuff, starting with thumbtacks and paperclips and working your way up to crabs and buckets and cars and houses and entire skyscrapers. But it's also about, like, love and joy and consumerism and maybe innocence? If there is one thing Katamari Damacy is definitely not, it's subtle, which is why I was completely caught off guard by We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie's release on Steam on June 1.

After watching the explosive documentary on Disco Elysium's legal battle, I can't fathom how Disco Elysium 2 will ever be made
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-watching-the-explosive-documentary-on-disco-elysiums-legal-battle-i-cant-fathom-how-disco-elysium-2-will-ever-be-made/
Gaming YouTube channel People Make Games has released a massive two-and-a-half hour-long investigation into the legal battle over new-school PC gaming favorite, Disco Elysium, which has seen the game's creative leads go to war with developer ZA/UM's corporate ownership for control of the game and its future sequel.

Diablo 4's fastest XP farm works just like it did in the betas
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-fastest-xp-farm-works-just-like-it-did-in-the-betas/
Diablo 4's first XP farm is here and it looks like an exceptional way to suck the fun out of the new open world action RPG.

Blaseball, the bizarre, beautiful sports gambling horror sim, is ending forever
https://www.pcgamer.com/blaseball-the-bizarre-beautiful-sports-gambling-horror-sim-is-ending-forever/
The first season of Blaseball—not baseball—ended with the opening of the Forbidden Book. A solar eclipse immediately followed; the umpires' eyes turned white, the Moab Desert disappeared into a gaping Hellmouth, and star player Jaylen Hotdogfingers burst into flames. That was the beginning, not the end, of the deep, awesome weirdness that was the hallmark of the browser-based sports gambling horror sim—a later season ended "with a goddamn JRPG boss fight"—but three years later, the strange beauty has finally run its course.

The relaunch of this defunct medieval survival MMO is met with 95 cry-laugh emojis, 74 poops, 62 clowns, 42 letters spelling S-C-A-M, and 35 optimistic thumbs up
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-relaunch-of-this-defunct-medieval-survival-mmo-is-met-with-95-cry-laugh-emojis-74-poops-62-clowns-42-letters-spelling-s-c-a-m-and-35-optimistic-thumbs-up/
It's always a bummer when an MMO, or any multiplayer game, gets shut down and goes forever dark. That was the fate of medieval survival sandbox Life is Feudal: MMO, which entered early access in 2018 but closed its doors barely three years later, apparently due to financial issues and disagreements between developer Bitbox and its publisher, Xsolla.
So you'd expect hardcore fans of the realistic medieval MMO to react with joy and excitement upon hearing Life is Feudal has a new publisher that's bringing the game back. Right?

Please observe a whole symphonic orchestra recording the Vampire Survivors soundtrack
https://www.pcgamer.com/please-observe-a-whole-symphonic-orchestra-recording-the-vampire-survivors-soundtrack/
From a pure comedy standpoint, like a kind of farcical slapstick angle, Vampire Survivors really is the gift that keeps on giving. (...)
Now a professional symphony orchestra recorded fully scored, composed, and conducted soundtrack music for its second DLC, Tides of the Foscari, complete with conductor and soloist credits. You can watch a video of it happening.

EA is doing some vague nonsense on Nike's NFT platform
https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-is-doing-some-vague-nonsense-on-nikes-nft-platform/
Nike, never one to pass up a cynical corporate cash-in, obviously made its own "web3" platform last year, debuting the .Swoosh "digital community experience" in November and selling a bunch of boxes of randomized virtual shoes in its beta period. "Build your collection," it advertises, "Display, trade, or wear your Nike Virtual Creations in video games and immersive experiences."
Now one of gaming's very own cynical corporate cash-grabbers, Electronic Arts, is getting in on the "immersive experiences" to do something vague involving its games and Nike's blockchain-powered .Swoosh platform.

Boy howdy that new Hunt: Showdown gator is an absolute hoss
https://www.pcgamer.com/boy-howdy-that-new-hunt-showdown-gator-is-an-absolute-hoss/
Wild and weird shooter Hunt: Showdown has a new boss in town and she is just about the biggest gator I can think of. Rotjaw, an absolutely huge alligator, will be joining the world of Hunt as the newest threat to player Hunters as they fight each other over the right to take her down first. Which I'm sure everyone is thrilled about, right? Fighting a monster gator in a swamp, on its own turf, where there isn't much at all you can do to slow it down and it has every advantage?

After 13 years, Amnesia: The Dark Descent got Steam Workshop support out of nowhere
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-13-years-amnesia-the-dark-descent-has-gotten-steam-workshop-support-out-of-nowhere/
In a surprise move, Frictional Games has introduced Steam Workshop support for its foundational horror game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The change came four days before the launch of the latest game in the series, The Bunker, and brings The Dark Descent more in line with later games from Frictional like Soma and Amnesia: Rebirth.

The demo for this dusty survival strategy city builder was surprisingly brutal
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-demo-for-this-dusty-survival-strategy-city-builder-was-surprisingly-brutal/
Upcoming post-apocalyptic survival strategy game Homeseek, set to release in the late summer or early fall of this year, has a demo out on Steam that's surprisingly savage. You really just... don't get to save everyone.

Elden Ring dataminer uncovers alternate early game characters in a renamed Limgrave
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-dataminer-uncovers-alternate-early-game-characters-in-a-renamed-limgrave/
It's only been a little bit over a year since Elden Ring came out, but so much of it is already seared into my brain. Much like leaving the sewers in Oblivion for the first time and greeting Cyrodil, that first glimpse of Limgrave is an iconic gaming moment, but at some point in development it wasn't Limgrave at all, but apparently "Tenebrae."

Diablo 4's first big patch is here, and it's almost entirely game balance tweaks
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-first-big-patch-is-here-and-its-almost-entirely-game-balance-tweaks/
Hello everyone, we're still two days from the release of Diablo 4 and I'm already tired to trying to keep up with class balance tweaks. It has been negative two (-2) days since launch, sorry, two days since early access launch for people who paid more and two days until proper launch and we've got our first patch and it's... almost entirely nerfs and buffs. Class balance tweaks!
>> The race to level 100 already has a winner.

Diablo 4 hotfix deals with 'Darcelpocalypse', a bug that endlessly multiplied one elite enemy
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-hotfix-deals-with-darcelpocalypse-a-bug-that-endlessly-multiplied-one-elite-enemy/
Diablo 4 has a fetch quest in the Scosglen region called Stolen Artifice, in which an NPC named Merryn sends you out from Braestaig to retrieve an item from a thief called Darcel. It's a runic charm that was being used to help an ailing mother and child recover, until Darcel and his thugs stole it. The jerks.

Diablo 4 has two expansions cooking already
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-has-two-expansions-cooking-already/
(...)
Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson gave a wide-ranging interview to Kinda Funny about the game's early reception and, while discussing the live service element, casually mentioned that the team is now working on not one, but two expansions for the game. Fergusson said that the working process for Diablo 4 had to take account of the fact the game's development is intended to be a marathon rather than a sprint, and Blizzard didn't want a situation where the game launched and the team who made it was burned out.
"So you have to build your team and your structure around a way you can do that sustainably, because you're kind of always shipping in a way," said Fergusson. "As I sit here we're about to launch the main game, we're finishing up season one, we're working on season two, we're working on expansion one, we're kicking off expansion two… we're working on that now [laughs] and we haven't even launched the game."

Ubisoft will show off Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar, and The Crew Motorfest this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-will-show-off-assassins-creed-mirage-avatar-and-the-crew-motorfest-this-month/
Ubisoft has released one of those classic teasers for a show of teasers and trailers, which I know you all love to watch. The Ubisoft Forward Live 2023 announcement trailer nonetheless lets us know that we'll be able to see Assassin's Creed, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and The Crew Motorfest—and an extremely vague teaser game. Those will show up at Ubisoft Forward Live, which takes place at 10am PDT on June 12th, 2023, during what was once E3 time. But is no longer E3 time, except it's still definitely basically E3 time because every publisher is going to have a big show and announce stuff. Just not in one place at the same time.