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JEMC on 06 October 2023
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The Friday news, part two:

Valve bans then unbans Counter-Strike skin trader with a $1.5 million inventory and the highest Steam level in the world
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-bans-counter-strike-skin-trader-with-a-dollar15-million-inventory-and-the-highest-steam-level-in-the-world/
Valve has banned a prominent and somewhat controversial Counter-Strike skin trader, St4ck, whose account boasts one of the most high-value inventories you'll ever see: by some estimates it is the third most-valuable CS skin haul out there. Pricing stuff in CS is always a bit of a guessing game, because when we're talking about rare items you're relying on middlemen and third party vendors for valuations, but PriceEmpire values St4ck's inventory at $1.45 million and lists items including a Souvenir Factory New AWP Dragon Lore ($400K), five Katowice 2014 foil stickers ($90K apiece), and a metric ton of guns and knives that go for between $5K to $40K. Update: Subsequent to publication, the ban on St4ck's account has been lifted.

Valve level designer returns to Twitter after lengthy absence to reveal he used a pot to add handles to an electrical box in Counter-Strike
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-level-designer-returns-to-twitter-after-lengthy-absence-to-reveal-he-used-a-pot-to-add-handles-to-an-electrical-box-in-counter-strike/
Magnar Jenssen is a level designer with serious pedigree, starting his career at Grin before stints at Starbreeze, Avalanche, and then from 2013 onwards working for Valve. This was an auspicious year for Counter Strike: Global Offensive, with the Winter Offensive update in December 2013 adding two new maps to the game, Cobblestone and Overpass.
Both maps have become fan favourites, although in Overpass' case it took a fair amount of tweaking, and one of Jenssen's first tasks at Valve was to work on Overpass details. Jenssen doesn't seem like much of a social media type, but for the first time in around 18 months he returned to Twitter to share a development deep dive on an element of the map's design.

Armored Core 6 players meme their way through the stages of grief as new patch buffs nearly every weapon but nerfs beloved shotgun and grenade cannon
https://www.pcgamer.com/armored-core-6-players-hit-with-intense-emotional-whiplash-as-new-patch-buffs-nearly-ever-weapon-but-nerfs-beloved-shotgun-and-grenade-cannon/
They had it coming.
From the moment players started blasting their way through Armored Core 6 dual-wielding the Zimmerman shotguns with two Songbirds grenade cannons on their shoulders, it seemed like only a matter of time until FromSoftware took a long, hard look at each weapon and turned down the heat on them both. Heck, after the last patch in early September, it became a community meme that the Zimmerman escaped unscathed. That dominant run ended today with patch 1.03.1, which buffs dozens of weapons and other mecha parts while laser targeting a few nerfs at AC6's most powerful guns.

In 12 days, your Diablo 4 season 1 characters will be retired and sent back to the Eternal Realm
https://www.pcgamer.com/in-12-days-your-diablo-4-season-1-characters-will-be-retired-and-sent-back-to-the-eternal-realm/
When Diablo 4 season 2, or the Season of Blood, begins on October 17, everyone playing a seasonal character will have to start over from scratch.
Season 1 characters will be kicked into the Eternal Realm, where non-seasonal characters live, with all their gold, items, and crafting materials. Any items that were in that character's stash will transfer into a new withdraw-only chest that they can access from the Eternal Realm. The withdraw-only stash will hold your items until the end of season 2—which should be roughly three months long—before they're permanently deleted. And any Malignant Hearts socketed into your gear or sitting in your bags will disappear in the process.

Cyberpunk 2077 sequel is officially in early development, CD Projekt says
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-sequel-is-officially-in-early-development-cd-projekt-says/
CD Projekt studio head Adam Badowski said during an investors presentation today that the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 is officially underway, but still very, very early in the process.
>> First they have to finish and launch the new The Witcher game, so we won't see this game until, maybe, the next decade.

Payday 3's first update is delayed to mid-October 'to ensure its stability,' more server maintenance is coming this weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/payday-3s-first-update-is-delayed-to-mid-october-to-ensure-its-stability-more-server-maintenance-is-coming-this-weekend/
It's another bump in the road for beleaguered heist-shooter Payday 3 as Starbreeze Studios has delayed an update that was expected to go live today and says it also needs to do yet more server maintenance.

Final Fantasy 14 players study a pair of legs for clues about a new playable race in its next expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-players-study-a-pair-of-legs-for-clues-about-a-new-playable-race-in-its-next-expansion/
It's basically a tradition at this point to try and guess what's coming in the next expansion for your favorite MMO. New classes and playable races arrive with just about every new expansion for Final Fantasy 14 and World of Warcraft, and it sends both communities into a craze over any clues they can find, real or not.
Today, Final Fantasy 14 players are studying a pair of disembodied legs hoping to identify a new playable race coming in the Dawntrail expansion next year. The leading theory is that the legs are owned by a female version of the male Hrothgar race–-who are basically lion men—that already exist in the game.

The Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer reveal was a glimpse into the sweatiest possible future for Call of Duty
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-modern-warfare-3-multiplayer-reveal-was-a-glimpse-into-the-sweatiest-possible-future-for-call-of-duty/
"We are so back" was the rallying cry of Call of Duty Next, Activision's annual event to debut the next Call of Duty's multiplayer. The four-hour stream saw dozens of invited streamers playing Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer live while developers chatted with hosts.

History unfortunately repeats itself as Telltale Games lays off 'most' of its staff
https://www.pcgamer.com/history-unfortunately-repeats-itself-as-telltale-games-lays-off-most-of-its-staff/
Telltale Games has laid off an unknown portion of its staff, in an unfortunate deja vu moment for a handful of its employees.
Word of the layoffs first began circulating when Jonah Huang, a former cinematic artist for the developer, published a series of tweets that claimed Telltale had let go "most" of its staff in early September, adding that he was unable to comment on the status of The Wolf Among Us 2—which was delayed earlier this year—thanks to being under NDA.

Watch the powerful firebender Azula kick the crap out of Stimpy in the final Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 character reveal
https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-the-powerful-firebender-azula-kick-the-crap-out-of-stimpy-in-the-final-nickelodeon-all-star-brawl-2-character-reveal/
The surprise sequel Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 was announced back in July, and it struck us as something of a do-over, but with a heavy emphasis on more: More stages and updates of existing stages, a new campaign mode, more modes in general, crossplay, a visual spit-shine to every existing character, new minigames, and of course new characters. And now we've got the reveal of the final character coming to the lineup: It's the Avatar firebender Azula, princess of the Fire Nation and daughter of Fire Lord Ozai.

More people are playing Arkane's Prey than Redfall on Steam right now
https://www.pcgamer.com/more-people-are-playing-arkanes-prey-than-redfall-on-steam-right-now/
Redfall, the underbaked and doomed FPS from Prey and Dishonored studio Arkane, once sat alongside your Starfields, your Halos, and your Microsoft Flight Sims in the Xbox events of yore (2021), but then, well, it came out earlier this year, and that put paid to that. Between the bugs and limp, lacklustre gameplay, the game felt beyond saving to me, and it feels like Microsoft might agree. Since Redfall's 1.1 patch in June this year, the game has lain dormant, save for the odd chirrup from its Twitter account.
That's probably one of the reasons why (as spotted by PCGamesN), Redfall's Steam player count has been so wince-inducingly low in recent weeks. A cursory check of SteamDB reveals that, since the game's all-time peak of 6,124 players during its release period five months back, its number of players has mostly hovered around the low double digits. But in the last week or two it's been hitting a single-digit player count regularly. Last Sunday, there were two players online at one point. Yup.

Last, but by no means least, here are the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:

+GOG

+Steam

Well, that was all. 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.