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

[JEMC]

Wednesday news, part two:

Indie action RPG Hammerwatch 2 is more like A Link to the Past than Diablo 4, its developer says
https://www.pcgamer.com/indie-action-rpg-hammerwatch-2-is-more-like-a-link-to-the-past-than-diablo-4-its-developer-says/
The dungeon crawling Hammerwatch series is lowkey one of my favorite co-op RPG romps, and today the series gets a much bigger sequel that has me psyched to go back. Hammerwatch 2 takes the series' fast-paced dungeon battles I enjoyed with friends and beefs them up with an open world, bigger skills list, gear, and quest system. It sounds like the indie upstart action RPG that we need right in the wake of Diablo 4. It's not heavily inspired by the modern giants of ARPGs though, its developer Crackshell tells me, and is instead chasing the greatness of much older gaming touchstones.
(...)
Hammerwatch 2 is even more ambitious yet, as Crackshell's creative director Jochum Skoglund explained in a gameplay showcase this summer. There are quests now, for one, instead of the straightforward gauntlet of hallways and monsters. There's an entire loot and gear system now too, and a crafting system for consumables. Oh, and it's got an overlay map, thank goodness.

Diablo 3's final season adds a solo play mode that fans have wanted for years
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-3s-final-season-adds-a-solo-play-mode-fans-have-wanted-for-years/
Before Diablo 3 is officially sunset and begins repeating its past seasonal themes, season 29 will arrive with a solo-only mode and a rework of its endgame Paragon system—two common requests from fans over the years.

Bungie goes into damage control mode as game director admits the State of the Game update 'wasn't up to our standards for what you all expect'
https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-goes-into-damage-control-mode-as-game-director-admits-the-state-of-the-game-update-wasnt-up-to-our-standards-for-what-you-all-expect/
You know things aren't going great for a game when one of the senior developers is wheeled out to make a vlog explaining (and apologising for) recent decisions. So it goes in Destiny 2 today, where game director Joe Blackburn earlier used the platform formerly known as Twitter to share his thoughts on how things are going. Answer: could be better..

What's next for Baldur's Gate 3: over 1,000 'fixes and tweaks,' official mod tools, requested features
https://www.pcgamer.com/whats-next-for-baldurs-gate-3-over-1000-fixes-and-tweaks-official-mod-tools-requested-features/
Following Baldur's Gate 3's wildly successful PC launch and a few bug-squashing hotfixes, Larian CEO Swen Vincke says that the D&D RPG will get one more hotfix (there have been three so far) before its first big patch, which will include "+1,000 fixes and tweaks." That patch will then be followed by—and you might've been able to guess this—another patch, one which'll start to respond to player suggestions.
>> By the way, here's how you can change the look of your dice and here you'll find how to clean your face without resting.

Microsoft's new online rules give cheaters and trolls 7 second chances before banning them for a year
https://www.pcgamer.com/microsofts-new-online-rules-give-cheaters-and-trolls-7-second-chances-before-banning-them-for-a-year/
It's like the old saying goes: Fool me once, shame on me, fool me a subsequent six times, also shame on me, but if you fool me an eighth and final time then, frankly, you're bang out of order and it's really time we did something about it. This, I assume, was the guiding mantra behind the Xbox enforcement strike system, a just-announced policy from Microsoft that aims to make the company's punishment mechanism a little clearer for players on the receiving end of it.
(...)
It might be called the Xbox enforcement system, but it applies to PC players too. Your strikes all count against your Microsoft account—the one you probably use to sign into your Windows PC—and impact your ability to use features tied to games that make use of Microsoft and Xbox services.