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JEMC on 08 September 2023
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Friday news, the conclusion:

Larian Studios' Swen Vincke is loving players' systems-based hijinks in Baldur's Gate 3: 'everybody knows about the Owlbear now'
https://www.pcgamer.com/larian-studios-swen-vincke-is-loving-players-systems-based-hijinks-in-baldurs-gate-3-everybody-knows-about-the-owlbear-now/
Much of the joy in writing about Baldur's Gate 3 has been seeing its players' absolutely hairbrained tactics play out. It's a Dungeons & Dragons tradition old as time to mash rules together in unique and interesting ways, like one player sneaking 15,000 gold into a boss's pockets then hitting them with an otherwise terrible magic mace, or another minmaxing a monk into a 240 damage-per-turn monster.
This is all very much intended, and something that Larian Studios' founder and CEO Swen Vincke has been celebrating too. Vincke spoke on the topic during an interview with Dungeons & Dragons earlier this week. "We try to make our systems intuitive … if you look at our video games one after the other, we do more and more and more of that. Everybody knows about the Owlbear now—it's heavy."
>> By the way, be careful with the NPC painter. He has a mind of its own.

Japanese court throws the book at YouTuber who uploaded copyrighted game clips and spoilers: Two years in the slammer and ¥1m fine
https://www.pcgamer.com/japanese-court-throws-the-book-at-youtuber-who-uploaded-copyrighted-game-clips-and-spoilers-two-years-in-the-slammer-and-yen1m-fine/
In May this year we reported on the case of 52-year-old Shinobu Yoshida, from Nagoya, Japan, who in what may be a world first was arrested and charged for violating copyright laws, after uploading gameplay clips and other content. The prosecution was led by the Content Overseas Distribution Agency (CODA), which focuses on copyright protection, and Yoshida has now been found guilty.
Yoshida admitted to the charges at a hearing on August 2, and was sentenced on September 7 at the Sendai District Court in Miyagi Prefecture. That he pled guilty is not surprising given the facts of the case (he said to police "I knew it was illegal as I was doing it"), but the sentence may raise some eyebrows. Yoshida received two years in jail, with a five-year suspended sentence on top, and was fined one million Japanese yen ($6,785 / £5,450). It is the first time someone has been found guilty of copyright violations involving distributing game videos.

RuneScape developer firefights desperately as new battle pass leads to player revolt and review bombing: 'They've gone too far down the rabbit hole'
https://www.pcgamer.com/runescape-developer-firefights-desperately-as-new-battle-pass-leads-to-open-revolt-and-review-bombing-theyve-gone-too-far-down-the-rabbit-hole/
"Cancelled my subscriptions after playing for more than 15 years, see you around boys and girls," says sfouggarakhs. "Been playing RuneScape since I was a child and this is the first time I really have a bad taste in my mouth from an update," says ExileAgent.
Welcome to the recent and "mostly negative" reviews of RuneScape on Steam: and they all take aim at one thing. "Why do I have to pay for a battlepass for a game that has a monthly subscription," asks CommonClapton. "People are already paying membership for this game and they're tryna milk as much as they can from their players," says Chriwigi. "They've gone too far down the rabbit hole."

Rust adds attack helicopters, homing missiles to blow up attack helicopters, parachutes to escape exploding attack helicopters
https://www.pcgamer.com/rust-adds-attack-helicopters-homing-missiles-to-blow-up-attack-helicopters-parachutes-to-escape-exploding-attack-helicopters/
I remember the first time I played Rust. I was bare-ass naked, carrying a stick, and utterly without a clue. Eager for help, I approached a guy in a cabin, in as non-threatening a manner as you could reasonably expect from a dishevelled nudist waving a tree branch around. There was a misunderstanding—which is to say that he told me to leave or he was going to shoot me in the face, and I didn't understand that he was serious—and then he shot me in the face. That was then, and this is now—and now there are attack helicopters.

Asked about Starfield ground vehicles, Todd Howard points out that there are spaceships and jetpacks in the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-ground-vehicles/
Opinions on Starfield are all over the place, but two criticisms are pretty widely shared: One, the maps aren't very good, and two, it's a bit disappointing that there aren't any ground vehicles to explore planets with.
In an interview with Bloomberg this week, Todd Howard responded to a question about that absence of ground vehicles, saying that the idea was considered, but that the dev team preferred knowing "how fast [players] are seeing things" on planets through on-foot exploration. He also pointed out that, hey: you can fly.

Final Fantasy 14 won't be going free-to-play anytime soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-wont-be-going-free-to-play-anytime-soon/
Final Fantasy 14 has a ridiculously generous free trial—one that, as of next month, is going to include two expansions that encompass hundreds of hours of playtime. It's still a subscription-based MMO at its heart though, something which director and producer Naoki Yoshida doesn't intend on changing anytime soon.

This summer's hottest streamer game appears to be gone for good
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-summers-hottest-streamer-game-appears-to-be-gone-for-good/
Indie platformer Only Up! has been pulled from Steam for a second time—though this time it's seemingly forever—with its developer saying they need "peace of mind and healing". Their Twitter account also appears to have vanished.
In a post on Steam regarding the game's future, developer SCKR Games wrote: "I'm a solo developer and this game is my first experience in Gamedev, a game I did for creativity, to test myself, and where I made a lot of mistakes. The game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months. Now I want to put the game behind me. And yes, the game won't be available in the steam store soon, that's what I decided myself. What I need now is peace of mind and healing."

Starfield player uses laundry basket to pull off the casino heist of the century
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-player-uses-laundry-basket-to-pull-off-the-casino-heist-of-the-century/
Of all the Starfield stories so far, one hit me right in the feels: the bucket trick no longer works. (...)
However there are ways and means to use bins and buckets. Starfield allows you to pick up and hold items in front of your character, which retain their physics properties, and this can be used to knock objects off shelves and other surfaces.
>> Oh, and here's a trick to make an unbeatable ship.

E3 somehow gets even deader as event organiser departs by 'mutual consent', ESA says no no it's still alive we promise
https://www.pcgamer.com/e3-somehow-gets-even-deader-as-event-organiser-departs-by-mutual-consent-esa-says-no-no-its-still-alive-we-promise/
Events company ReedPop, which has been partnering with the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) for the past 14 months, will not be working on future E3 events. Reedpop has a good track record with live events, most recently organising PAX West in Seattle the past weekend, but didn't run a single E3 in that admittedly short timespan, with this year's event being cancelled due to a lack of involvement from the industry's big players.
Further to this, there will be no E3 in 2024. Well, no traditional E3. The ESA has told the Los Angeles Convention Center, where it's always held, that there will be no show next year, though it has stopped short of saying there will be no E3 at all. If there is, which I highly doubt, expect a very pared-back digital-only offering.

And here are the GOG and Steam weekend deals:

+GOG

+Steam

And, just like that, we've reached the end of the news. 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.