The Friday news, part two:
The upcoming Assassin's Creed VR game looks genuinely cool if you can keep yourself from throwing up
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-upcoming-assassins-creed-vr-game-looks-genuinely-cool-if-you-can-keep-yourself-from-throwing-up/
Part of me would love a VR headset, but the rest of me lives in a flat, which means I'm usually thankful that most VR game trailers don't do much for me. Besides Half-Life: Alyx and Superhot, there aren't many games that have me wishing I had an Index or Quest.
Except now they're apparently making some sort of Assassin's Creed game for your pint-size holodecks, and it actually looks pretty cool so long as you manage not to throw up.
AI in big budget games is inevitable, say dev vets from Assassin's Creed and Everquest 2: 'Developers hate it … the money is still going to drive absolutely everybody to do it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ai-in-big-budget-games-is-inevitable-say-dev-vets-from-assassins-creed-and-everquest-2-developers-hate-it-the-money-is-still-going-to-drive-absolutely-everybody-to-do-it/
AI's a thorny subject, to say the least. The big issue with technology is that it advances in waves. There'll be a very long time where it feels like nothing's changing much at all, and then suddenly we're all saddled with something new to irreversibly change our lives.
(...)
The latest two cents thrown into the ongoing debate comes via an interview from our friends over at Edge Magazine, who sat down with former Assassin's Creed lead producer Jade Raymond and Raph Koster, the former co-director of Everquest 2 co-director.
"AAA games have gone from taking teams of 50 people two years to make to now sometimes taking teams of hundreds of people more than ten years to make … [we believe] these technologies will eventually help game developers reverse that trend, and unlock more creativity from developers and players alike," says Raymond as she goes over the R&D projects of her new professional home, Haven Studios.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 finally gets an offline mode, but only for the Steam Deck
https://www.pcgamer.com/tony-hawks-pro-skater-12-finally-gets-an-offline-mode-but-only-for-the-steam-deck/
Three years after debuting for PC on the Epic Games Store, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, a remastered bundle of the first two games in the long-running Tony Hawk series, finally made its way to Steam earlier this month. By and large it's been well received, but there's one persistent complaint: A lot of players would really like to see the always-online requirement dropped. Yesterday it finally happened, thanks to the 1.1 patch for Steam, but only partially—very oddly, the offline mode is only available on Steam Deck.
Josh Sawyer would like to make Pillars of Eternity 3, but only if he got a Baldur's Gate 3-sized budget
https://www.pcgamer.com/josh-sawyer-would-like-to-make-pillars-of-eternity-3-but-only-if-he-got-a-baldurs-gate-3-sized-budget/
I recently got around to playing Pentiment, and while I won't spoil the experience for anyone I will say, "Man. Wow. Holy cow," as I stare off pensively into the distance. After contemplating the nature of existing for a few days, my main takeaway was that Obsidian should just give Josh Sawyer a few million dollars every five years or so, and tell him to come back when he's done.
But what would Sawyer do if he actually found himself in that position—or more specifically, the position of having as many million dollars and as much time as he wanted? In a wide-ranging interview with Touch Arcade he said he probably wouldn't make Pentiment 2, but he would make Pillars of Eternity 3—as long as someone was really ready to back up the money truck.
Mortal Kombat 1 players discover that crash logs are eating up massive amounts of drive space: More than 1GB per crash in some cases
https://www.pcgamer.com/mortal-kombat-1-players-discover-that-crash-logs-are-eating-up-massive-amounts-of-drive-space-more-than-1gb-per-crash-in-some-cases/
Are you playing Mortal Kombat 1 on Steam? Have you noticed that your free drive space has been disappearing without obvious cause and at a potentially alarming pace? If so, there's good news, or at least an explanation that will help you deal with it: It turns out that Mortal Kombat 1's crash logs are really big.
There's cool stuff happening in every big FPS right now, and I can't decide where to start
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-cool-stuff-happening-in-every-big-fps-right-now-and-i-cant-decide-where-to-start/
One fun side effect of every live-service FPS updating on similar seasonal schedules is that a few times a year they all decide to go big at the same time. The last big convergence of shooters happened in March, but October is poised to make March look like hot garbage.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader has an alignment system, sort of
https://www.pcgamer.com/warhammer-40000-rogue-trader-has-an-alignment-system-sort-of/
The latest trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader emphasizes choice and consequence, highlighting its equivalent of alignment—the conviction system. "While exploring you will be met with a great number of hard decisions," the trailer says. "Do you try to save the population of a dying world? Or burn it all with the intent of containing heresy?"
If you try to sneakily undercut one of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's most emotional scenes, CD Projekt counters with hidden dialogue followed by instant death
https://www.pcgamer.com/if-you-try-to-sneakily-undercut-one-of-cyberpunk-2077-phantom-libertys-most-emotional-scenes-cd-projekt-counters-with-hidden-dialogue-followed-by-instant-death/
I don't think I'm spoiling too much off the jump by saying that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's endings are emotionally charged and more than a little bit devastating. It is also a natural gamer behavior to goof around in such moments, but as reported by VG247, CD Projekt Red seems to have anticipated players attempting to bork one such scene, inserting hidden dialogue to reflect their apparent death drive. Spoilers for Phantom Liberty ahead.
Age of Sigmar RTS Realms of Ruin reveals its final faction
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-sigmar-rts-realms-of-ruin-reveals-its-final-faction/
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, the upcoming real-time strategy game with big Dawn of War 2 vibes, will launch with four factions. We've already seen the heavily armored Stormcast Eternals, swamp-dwelling Orruk Kruleboyz, and undead Nighthaunt, and now developers Frontier have revealed the mutated and magical Disciples of Tzeentch will round out the roster.
Serpens is a stealth sim that's carrying a torch for Thief: The Dark Project, then quickly extinguishing it with a water arrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/serpens-is-a-stealth-sim-thats-carrying-a-torch-for-thief-the-dark-project-then-quickly-extinguishing-it-with-a-water-arrow/
I love Thief: The Dark Project so much I push for its inclusion in the PC Gamer Top 100 every year (and sometimes I get my way). Seems like Thomas Porta loves Thief too, as demonstrated by the footage of his upcoming stealth game Serpens: Eternal Thievery. As well as a gameplay trailer there's a video from the current alpha (embedded above), which shows the first 10 minutes of torch-snuffing abbey exploration and has convinced me to add Serpens to my wishlist.
Tokyo resident arrested after using FF14 to allegedly stalk a woman in grim reminder of how a blacklist overhaul is long overdue
https://www.pcgamer.com/tokyo-resident-arrested-after-using-final-fantasy-14-to-allegedly-stalk-a-woman-in-a-grim-reminder-of-how-much-the-games-blacklist-system-needs-an-update/
In Tokyo, a man has been arrested for stalking a woman using social media sites like LINE (a popular app in Japan) and Twitter—as well as the MMORPG Final Fantasy 14. As reported by Kobe News (and translated by Siliconera), the man reportedly sent over 22 messages via those apps trying to re-establish contact, while also threatening to tell her family about their past conversations.
In Final Fantasy 14, however, he was able to just follow her around. That's down to an issue the MMO has had with its friends list system since its launch—if you blacklist someone, you're not removed from their friends list.
Stellaris' next DLC is gonna take you to another dimension
https://www.pcgamer.com/stellaris-next-dlc-is-gonna-take-you-to-another-dimension/
Galactic tyranny sim Stellaris is officially getting weird. Paradox has announced the game's next DLC—named Astral Planes—and it's promising to let you venture into whole new dimensions, where everything is topsy-turvy and the laws of physics go out the window.
Starfield player turns shotgun into a carpet-bombing artillery nightmare that should probably violate interstellar law
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-player-turns-shotgun-into-a-carpet-bombing-artillery-nightmare-that-should-probably-violate-interstellar-law/
Starfield has a ton of weapon mods to muck about with—not the kind you need a script extender for, mind you. I'm talking about the vanilla crafting system: If you drop a few points into the Science skill tree, you'll be able to craft all kinds of mods that blow the doors wide open on the game's build variety.
One such combo is the Hornet Nest mod, slapped onto the Coachman shotgun. This thing makes your gun explosive, scattering rounds directly downwards from the point of impact—which can just be the sky, as they explode after a certain distance anyway. Here's a great example video from iSwearSheWas56 on the Starfield reddit.
And now, let's check the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:
+GOG
- There are four new Deals of the Day that will last until Monday, with the first one being Murder Is Game Over: Streaming Death, 14% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/murder_is_game_over_streaming_death
- The second one is Full Throttle Remastered, with a 75% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/full_throttle_remastered
- Hero of the Kingdom III is next, 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/hero_of_the_kingdom_iii
- And the fourth and last one is We are the Dwarves, with a massive 95% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/we_are_the_dwarves" target="_blank"> https://www.gog.com/en/game/we_are_the_dwarves
+Steam
- The first deal is Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim, 45% off until October, 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/
- The game EMPTY SHELL gets a 10% deal until the 30th of October: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2243110/EMPTY_SHELL/
- Publisher Neon Doctrine puts its games on sale with up to 80% deal until the 1st of November: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/nd/sale/neondoctrinescreamfest
- Sons Of The Forest, still in Early Access, gets a 20% discount until November, the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1326470/Sons_Of_The_Forest/
- STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor will be 35% off until the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1774580/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Survivor/
- To celebrate the launch of its latest game, Jackbox Games puts its titles on sale with up to 60% discounts until November, 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/JackboxGamesWeekendSale
- The Roguelike Celebration features up to 75% deals. The deals vary in length, with game deals lasting until October, 26th, the 28th and some until November, the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/roguelikecelebration2023
- Killing Floor 2 will be 80% off until the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/232090/Killing_Floor_2/
- And the Warner Bros publisher sale features up to 90% discounts until the 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/WarnerBros2023
That's all folks! 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.
