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

[JEMC]

Tuesday news, part two:

Sony throws in the towel, signs 10 year Call of Duty deal with Microsoft
https://www.pcgamer.com/sony-throws-in-the-towel-signs-10-year-call-of-duty-deal-with-microsoft/
After months of bickering and horsing around, Microsoft and Sony have signed a deal that will keep the Call of Duty series on PlayStation consoles for—you guessed it—10 years following the company's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
>> This deal is only for CoD, unlike the first deal MSoft offered which included all Activision-Blizzard games.

Cities: Skylines 2 gets real as hell with welfare offices, prison labor
https://www.pcgamer.com/cities-skylines-2-gets-real-as-hell-with-welfare-offices-prison-labor/
Over the past few weeks we've been getting an inside look at some of the new features coming to Cities: Skylines 2, like the road and traffic tools, changes to public transportation, and more. Today, Paradox Interactive pulled back the curtain on city services, and some of the new features look impressive. Some of them are also depressingly real.

Diablo 4 class chameleons rejoice—playing multiple characters is about to get easier
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-class-chameleons-rejoiceits-about-to-get-much-easier-to-play-multiple-characters/
For an action RPG with five distinct classes, Diablo 4 makes it difficult to juggle multiple characters, especially when it comes to powerful late-game gear.
Currently, level 100 Diablo 4 characters can only find items with a level 100 requirement, which means they're only useful if you have a stable of max level alts. Starting this week in season 1, however, the level requirements on Sacred and Ancestral items will be capped, allowing you to save them for other classes.

BattleBit Remastered won’t leave Steam Deck players behind when its anti-cheat update arrives
https://www.pcgamer.com/battlebit-remastered-wont-leave-steam-deck-players-behind-when-its-anti-cheat-update-arrives/
BattleBit Remastered, the $15 indie FPS that became an instant best seller on Steam last month, will continue to support the Steam Deck after its planned anti-cheat update arrives. The BattleBit team announced the news during a live dev stream held on Discord, and was later confirmed by a moderator on the server (as noticed by Steam Deck HQ).

Ubisoft's open-world Star Wars game will not have procedurally generated planets: Every game world is 'handcrafted'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisofts-open-world-star-wars-game-will-not-have-procedurally-generated-planets-every-game-world-is-handcrafted/
Star Wars Outlaws, the open world Star Wars game announced by Ubisoft earlier this year, will no doubt be an interplanetary adventure of considerable size. But in a new interview with Edge magazine, creative director Julian Gerighty said the development team at Ubisoft Massive is aiming to keep things "manageable," and that means that unlike some other big sci-fi games in the offing—and yes, I mean Starfield—there will be no procedurally generated planets where you can go anywhere and do anything you want.

The maker of Megaton Rainfall is working on a new game that looks even weirder than Megaton Rainfall
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-maker-of-megaton-rainfall-is-working-on-a-new-game-that-looks-even-weirder-than-megaton-rainfall/
Remember Megaton Rainfall? It's a VR game released in 2017 about flying around like Superman and using your powers to battle hostile aliens and also accidentally demolish the occasional skyscraper. Today the developers revealed their next project, and it looks to be even weirder: Tenebris Pictura is an "ultra-corporeal action adventure" about a paranormal investigator in Victorian England who becomes caught up in a battle against demonic extra-terrestrial beings who have escaped from supernatural paintings.

Vampire Survivors saved its creator from working on mobile gambling games
https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-survivors-saved-its-creator-from-working-on-mobile-gambling-games/
In the latest documentary from videogame YouTube channel Noclip, the team interviewed members of poncle, including Vampire Survivors creator Luca Galante, about the development history of 2022's breakout indie shooter, which started as a creative outlet for Galante from his day job working on a mobile gambling game.

Neopets goes independent, cancels NFT game and promises new era free from 'corporate baggage'
https://www.pcgamer.com/neopets-goes-independent-cancels-nft-game-and-promises-new-era-free-from-corporate-baggage/
Neopets was one of the hottest destinations on the World Wide Web of the early 2000s, but the audience for its virtual pets has been in decline for years now. Neopets itself has declined, too, admit its developers, who say they've had to "work tirelessly just to barely keep the site afloat" while operating at a loss for the past 10 years. Things are going to turn around soon though, say the devs, because for the first time since 2005, Neopets is an independent company again.

Salad Fingers creator is making a bizarre side-scroller beat'em up, which will be priced at 'a fiver or something'
https://www.pcgamer.com/salad-fingers-creator-is-making-a-bizarre-side-scroller-beatem-up-which-will-be-priced-at-a-fiver-or-something/
David Firth, the vivid imagination responsible for disturbing internet sensation Salad Fingers, revealed an in-development game earlier this month, a platformer following the misadventures of violent, mouthy delinquent Jerry Jackson.

Stardew Valley's newest update is looking bigger than we initially thought
https://www.pcgamer.com/stardew-valleys-newest-update-is-looking-bigger-than-we-initially-thought/
Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone has dropped a little teaser of what we can expect with Stardew Valley's 1.6 update, and it seems like he's been unable to help himself, with more on offer than originally promised.

Baldur's Gate 3 has '17,000' variations on its ending, a number that gives me a headache just thinking about it
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-has-17000-variations-on-its-ending-a-number-that-gives-me-a-headache-just-thinking-about-it/
Baldur's Gate 3 is reported to have a massive amount of endings, according to a conversation Fextralife had with Chrystal Ding, associate writing lead at Larian Studios: "I asked her, how many variations on the ending are there?"
The answer is 17,000, which is a big number. It's one that joins other such huge promises from Larian: 174 hours of cinematics! 22 subclasses! A newspaper that responds to your choices! They're definitely stoking up the furnace on Baldur's Gate 3's pre-release hype, though I feel a little tempering of expectations is in order here.

After 2 years away, dev realises no one liked his game and promises a free remaster to make up for it: 'I hope it will go some way to rectify mistakes we have made'
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-2-years-away-dev-realises-no-one-liked-his-game-and-promises-a-free-remaster-to-make-up-for-it-i-hope-it-will-go-some-way-to-rectify-mistakes-we-have-made/
You know that feeling when you submit an essay, or a project at work, that you think is pretty good, only to have it handed back to you a couple of weeks later bearing a low mark and some excoriating comments? I don't—I've jettisoned every bit of negative feedback I've ever received out of a narcissism airlock—but it's probably relatable to Nathan Seedhouse.
Seedhouse is lead dev on Grey Skies: A War of the Worlds story (the HG Wells tale it's based on is in the public domain), a third-person stealth action game that's been on the market for about two years now. It's been reviled by players for almost as long, and currently sits at a 33% "Mostly Negative" score on Steam on the back of 110 player reviews. The thing is, Seedhouse's personal life has kept him preoccupied for so much time that it took the poor guy this long to notice barely anyone was enjoying the game. But now, as spotted by GamesRadar, he wants to make it right with a free remaster.
>> I wish him good luck. Good games are always welcome, even if it's your second try.

I'm quitting my job to sell adorable stickers on the internet
https://www.pcgamer.com/im-quitting-my-job-to-sell-adorable-stickers-on-the-internet/
I bloody love stickers. Granted, I have nowhere to put them, leaving me with an amassed pile of pretty-looking adhesive vinyls tucked away inside a drawer. But there's nothing I love more than ordering something on the internet and having a few stickers thrown in as a free treat or securing some amazing hand-drawn ones at anime and gaming conventions.
(...)
Sadly, I don't think I'll ever be artistically inclined enough to make that dream come true in the real world, but hey, that's what videogames are for right? Escapism, living out your fantasies, all that jazz. So screw it, I'm gonna play Sticky Business and forget that I'm a journalist for a few hours. Why not?! Let me live vicariously through Spellgarden's cosy creative management sim.