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

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Friday news, the second part:

Valve issues day-one warning to Counter-Strike 2 cheaters: we're coming for your accomplices, too
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-issues-day-one-warning-to-counter-strike-2-cheaters-were-coming-for-your-accomplices-too/
Take heed, Counter-Strike 2 players: Valve has issued a warning that not only will cheaters be dealt with harshly through permanent bans, those who merely "associate" with them will be punished for their bad behaviour too. What does that mean, exactly? We're still waiting to find out from Valve, who may be keeping details about this aspect of its anti-cheat program deliberately unclear to avoid circumvention.
>> Meanwhile, some streamers are getting pricey skins.

As PC gaming's war on cheating rages, EA explains why it's making its own anticheat: 'Cheat developers have increasingly moved into the kernel, so we need to have kernel-mode protections'
https://www.pcgamer.com/as-pc-gamings-war-on-cheating-rages-ea-explains-why-its-making-its-own-anticheat-cheat-developers-have-increasingly-moved-into-the-kernel-so-we-need-to-have-kernel-mode-protections/
EA is moving away from its longtime anticheat partner Easy Anti-Cheat in favor of an internally developed kernel-level anticheat software. The software, which the company is simply calling "EA anticheat," will be implemented first in Battlefield 2042 when Season 6 arrives in October.

Cyberpunk 2077 director says CD Projekt never considered walking away at any point over the last 3 years: 'it was all culminating in 2.0'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-director-says-cd-projekt-never-considered-walking-away-at-any-point-over-the-last-3-years-it-was-all-culminating-in-20/
CD Projekt Red has always stuck by its games. The Witcher and The Witcher 2 both got massively improved Enhanced Editions about a year after launch, while The Witcher 3 more recently got its big next-gen update a full seven years later. But none of those games had the rough landing of Cyberpunk 2077's, which led to everything from staff departures to class action lawsuits. The list of things to fix was vast, and the list of things that could be improved was even longer. It seemed like at some point, CD Projekt would have to declare the game done, perfect or not, and move on—especially when the studio decided to switch its future projects to Unreal Engine 5, easing Cyberpunk's REDengine towards retirement.
But according to Cyberpunk 2077 director Gabe Amatangelo, who took over shortly after launch in May 2021, wrapping up development before the dramatic overhaul of the 2.0 patch was never in the cards.
>> And a player has found a The Witcher 3 easter egg.

Dispel Magic who? A Baldur's Gate 3 player depowered a climactic necromancer boss by smuggling an anti-magic flower for dozens of hours across two whole acts
https://www.pcgamer.com/dispel-magic-who-a-baldurs-gate-3-player-depowered-a-climactic-necromancer-boss-by-smuggling-an-anti-magic-flower-for-dozens-of-hours-across-two-whole-acts/
First spotted by GamesRadar, user Kill-bray on the Baldur's Gate 3 subreddit discovered a deliciously convoluted way to punk Act 2 necromancer boss, Balthazar: smuggle an anti-magic flower that's never meant to leave the game's first act across fantasy state lines and slip it into the rude dude's pocket. We might not have the full-on Dispel Magic effect from tabletop D&D, but there are still ways to ruin a wizard's day.
>> Hey, that's better than finding a realm of naked men thanks to a bug.

Even with its Warhammer 40K RPG coming in hot, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous' developer is cranking out yet another big DLC
https://www.pcgamer.com/even-with-its-warhammer-40k-rpg-coming-in-hot-pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous-developer-is-cranking-out-yet-another-big-dlc/
Even in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 afterglow, I love Owlcat's 2021 CRPG epic, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. It's a game so good, I didn't mind replaying its opening act three times. Even as Owlcat gears up for its next major release, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, the studio's still lining up Wrath of the Righteous' fifth DLC expansion.

Restricted military info is being posted on the War Thunder forums so much these days, nobody really cares anymore (except War Thunder moderators)
https://www.pcgamer.com/restricted-military-info-is-being-posted-on-the-war-thunder-forums-so-much-these-days-nobody-really-cares-anymore-except-war-thunder-moderators/
There was a time when the leak of classified military documents on the War Thunder forums brought surprise and amusement in equal measure. Why would anyone do a treason just to win an argument on an internet forum? That actually might be more relatable than some of us care to admit, but the point is that it was a pretty big deal when it happened. These days, though? Not so much.
The most recent criminal offense (for the moment, anyway) involves documents relating to the AH-64D Apache Longbow, an attack helicopter used primarily by the US Army. Earlier this month, someone posted a copy of the vehicle's technical manual on the War Thunder forums, and virtually no one—aside from the War Thunder forum mods—even noticed.

12 years since release, The Binding of Isaac is getting proper online co-op soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/12-years-since-release-the-binding-of-isaac-is-getting-proper-online-co-op-soon/
The best roguelike about a child escaping from their murderous mother is getting online cooperative play soon. The Binding of Isaac has had local cooperative support for a very long time, but it looks like you won't need to jerry rig online support using Steam Remote Play for much longer.

The Knights of the Old Republic Remake is either dead or about to become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-knights-of-the-old-republic-remake-is-either-dead-or-about-to-become-more-powerful-than-you-can-possibly-imagine/
Friends, I'm beginning to worry that we might not ever see the Knights of the Old Republic remake at all. It may have made a splash at its announcement during a 2021 PlayStation showcase, but it's been hanging on by a thread ever since a vertical slice demo—meant to show off all the game's features in a bitesize package—reportedly went down like a lead balloon in front of LucasFilm and Sony execs back in July 2022. It was "delayed indefinitely," and its development was moved to an unspecified "internal" studio at Embracer Group (possibly to Aspyr parent company Saber Interactive, per a Bloomberg report).
Well, the latest news isn't good, I'm afraid. As was first spotted by intrepid Reddit users on the Gaming Leaks and Rumours subreddit (via Kotaku), Sony appears to be on a quest to Order 66 any mention of the project on its various social media channels. The original short teaser for the remake has been set to private on PlayStation's YouTube channel, and a Twitter user named Crusader3456 later noticed that a nearly every tweet advertising the remake from 2021 has been mysteriously deleted from the PlayStation Twitter account.

Starfield's cursed rain orb lifts the veil on an old game design trick: 'pack it up boys, it's over'
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfields-cursed-rain-orb-lifts-the-veil-on-an-old-game-design-trick-pack-it-up-boys-its-over/
Games use all sorts of tricks to ease performance load, and while Starfield has had its fair share of optimisation woes (though Todd Howard sees things differently) it's not an exception to that rule.
One such trick was discovered in all its soggy glory on the Starfield subreddit earlier this week, as thelastfastbender points out that "In Starfield, rain only exists in a small area around the player."

Final Fantasy 7's gacha game is making its way over to PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-7s-gacha-game-is-making-its-way-over-to-pc/
Sigh. Guess it's time to open up my wallet and pray to the RNG gods because mobile gacha game Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis is making its way over to Steam.
As spotted by Eurogamer, Square Enix announced the game was being ported over during a Japanese livestream. While there's no release date to peep just yet, we do know that accounts will be shared across both mobile and PC similar to other gachas that span multiple platforms. It'll also be free-to-play, but as anyone who's sunk time into gacha games before knows, there'll be microtransactions galore forever tempting you to shed that F2P status.

Baldur's Gate 3 dataminer discovers the most gut-punching ways to upset your companions, if you're into that sort of thing
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-dataminer-discovers-the-most-gut-punching-ways-to-upset-your-companions-if-youre-into-that-sort-of-thing/
There are a lot of ways to upset or irritate your companions in Baldur's Gate 3, some of which are beyond my comprehension. (...)
Reddit user sudosussudio has you covered when it comes to causing the most emotional turmoil to your team possible. They combed through the game's script—though they do mention it's for 1.0 so some tweaks may have happened in the months since—to find the singular choices that would cause the biggest hit to your companions' approval rating. There are a few spoilers here, so if you're not out of the first act yet perhaps steer clear of min-maxing disappointment until you're further in.
>> And here's info on the most played multi-classes.

And now, the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:

+GOG

• There's a new SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS: Trüberbrook will be free during the next 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/truberbrook
• And yes, today there are new Deals of the Day. Three, to be precise, that will last until Monday:
  • The first one is Empire Earth Gold Edition, 67% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/empire_earth_gold_edition
  • After the first, comes the second, and that has never been more true with Empire Earth 2 Gold Edition, also 67% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/empire_earth_2_gold
  • And the third, and last, is Wanderlust: Travel Stories, with a 90% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/wanderlust_travel_stories

+Steam

• The Realms Deep 2023 Sale brings up to 40% discounts. The lengths of the discounts vary, with some ending the 2nd of October and other in the 5th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/RealmsDeep2023
• Sea of Thieves 2023 Edition will be 50% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172620/Sea_of_Thieves_2023_Edition/
• Steelrising gets a 60% off until Thursday, the 5th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1283400/Steelrising/
• The RPG Maker Franchise Sale features up to 90% discounts until the 5th, and RPG Maker MV will be free to try during the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39252092-Gotcha-Gotcha-Games/sale/rpgmakermv_freeweekend
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom will be 50% off until the 10th of October: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2172860/The_Elder_Scrolls_Online_Necrom/
• Unrailed! will be 75% off until October, 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016920/Unrailed/
• And the Aspyr Publisher Sale 2023 features up to 90% discounts until the same October, 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/aspyr2023

Enough of news, it's time to relax. So go, go and have a great and gaming weekend.