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

[JEMC]

Tuesday news, part two

Remnant 2's latest dev talk puts crosshairs on the game's most busted ring, confirms loadouts with a 'Yep', and gets into the armour nitty-gritty
https://www.pcgamer.com/remnant-2s-latest-dev-talk-puts-crosshairs-on-the-games-most-busted-ring-confirms-loadouts-with-a-yep-and-gets-into-the-armour-nitty-gritty/
The Remnant 2 Dev Loop, a tell-all set of posts by Principal Designer at Gunfire Games Ben Cureton (otherwise known as Verytragic), hit the Remnant 2 subreddit over the weekend, and it's a doozy.
The second of these dev insight blogs, this dev loop went into the Gunfire's upcoming balance changes and plans. In particular, Cureton made sure to specifically note one absolutely busted ring as in dire need of adjustment.

Blizzard halts Diablo 4 trading again, warns that players who take advantage of a new duplication exploit will be 'actioned'
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-halts-diablo-4-trading-again-warns-that-players-who-take-advantage-of-a-new-duplication-exploit-will-be-actioned/
Blizzard has put a halt to trading in Diablo 4 while it works to fix a duplication exploit that came to light over the weekend, and warned that players caught taking advantage of the bug could find themselves in trouble.

There's secret dialogue supporting Baldur's Gate 3 fans' favorite forbidden romance locked behind an impossible nap⁠—but someone managed to find it anyway
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-secret-dialogue-supporting-baldurs-gate-3-fans-favorite-forbidden-romance-locked-behind-an-impossible-napbut-someone-managed-to-find-it-anyway/
For a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 fans, the real romantic pairing of the game isn't between their Tadpoled Adventurer and a companion, or even Raphael and Withers, but rather tiefling Barbarian Karlach and erstwhile infernal smith-turned-heart engine mechanic Dammon. There's certainly some sparks there in the game, but as reported by GamesRadar, an inaccessible camp scene makes it way more explicit.

The official Bloodlines 2 theme song is giving me a minor existential crisis over how old the first game is, and how much older I am now
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-official-bloodlines-2-theme-song-is-giving-me-a-minor-existential-crisis-over-how-old-the-first-game-is-and-how-much-older-i-am-now/
Paradox Interactive has revealed the official theme song for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, a dark, moody piece called Midnight that's really quite good. Also, I don't think I like it. Let me explain.
>> I'll let you find his explanation/excuse by yourselves.

After slaying 666 cows, Diablo 4 player makes major breakthrough in the hunt for the secret cow level
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-slaying-666-cows-diablo-4-player-makes-major-breakthrough-in-the-hunt-for-the-secret-cow-level/
The Oxen Gods are finally pleased. After four months with no news, a Diablo 4 player has made a major discovery in the hunt for its supposedly non-existent secret cow level.
"Uh hey, so I just got the Musty Tome from a cow after killing about 666 of them (it was hard to count)," a user who goes by Grampajoe wrote in the Not Finding A Cow Level Discord server last night. "The cow died with a red curse effect and the tome dropped from it."

Konami says to expect slowdown in some Metal Gear Solid cutscenes, but a patch is coming post-launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/konami-says-to-expect-slowdown-in-some-metal-gear-solid-cutscenes-but-a-patch-is-coming-post-launch/
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection is out on Tuesday, finally bringing the best Metal Gear game—MGS3—to PC for the first time. As I wrote in my preview back in August, I'm still disappointed by how barebones the ports of these great games are. While Konami's going above and beyond with its included bonus materials and different regional versions of the games, their work on the underlying emulation—like running the games at higher resolutions and framerates—leaves a lot to be desired. Speaking to IGN, Konami has also now confirmed several issues that haven't been fixed in time for the launch.

FF14's director Naoki Yoshida gets griefed by the series' creator live on stage during a bossfight: 'This tank is big trouble'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ff14s-director-naoki-yoshida-gets-griefed-by-the-series-creator-live-on-stage-during-a-bossfight-this-tank-is-big-trouble/
Final Fantasy 14's London Fanfest 2023 might be over, but it's still produced a lot of great moments—like confirmation that Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy franchise, has cleared some of the hardest raids in the game.
Those are some impressive chops. With the game's director Naoki Yoshida also being an active raider (on a black mage—one of the hardest jobs in the game to optimise), it follows that they'd want to play together some. They hopped online, using the game's Party Finder system on a first come, first serve basis to do some fights with the community. A good bit of fun. Or so one would think.

This free Frasier JRPG is a better return to the show than the new series
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-free-frasier-jrpg-is-a-better-return-to-the-show-than-the-new-series/
(...)
Anyway, all this is to say that Frasier Fantasy (spotted by RPS), a mashup of Frasier and the old Final Fantasy games that you can play for free in your browser, is tailor-made for me specifically, and it's a much better way to return to the Crane boys' adventures than the series' recent tired return on Paramount.

American McGee says the Alice series is dead, finished, kaput, and people need to stop 'continually asking me questions to which I do not have answers'
https://www.pcgamer.com/american-mcgee-says-the-alice-series-is-dead-finished-kaput-and-people-need-to-stop-continually-asking-me-questions-to-which-i-do-not-have-answers/
(...)
The writing was on the wall and in April McGee took to Youtube to say EA was out and it was time to move on. He also announced his retirement from game design entirely, so this was about as definitive an end point as you get. To be fair to McGee he has been transparent throughout the whole period of trying to get Alice: Asylum made and, while he had a Patreon allowing people to donate, he and others have done a considerable amount of pre-production on Asylum over this time, culminating in a design bible for the game which is available for download.
In a follow-up video posted last week, McGee acknowledges this year's various events and that, following EA's definitive 'no' in April, he disappeared for a while. "I was emotionally quite destroyed by the fact that our proposal was rejected," says McGee. "Not only because we had invested so much into it as a community and as creators, but because I felt quite strongly it presented a vision for something that was not only achievable but would have been quite beautiful." McGee says he had a sense of "shame" at having failed to get the game made, and re-emphasises that he and everyone invested in this "need to move on."

Players blast Metal Gear Solid Master Collection for missing options, vanished Steam pages, and muddy textures: 'absolutely poor and not worth its asking price'
https://www.pcgamer.com/players-blast-metal-gear-solid-master-collection-for-missing-options-vanished-steam-pages-and-muddy-textures-absolutely-poor-and-not-worth-its-asking-price/
The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection is here, bringing Metal Gear Solid 3 (the best one) to PC for the first time in a package that also contains MGS 1 and 2 plus the original MSX Metal Gear games. It's a day I've been hotly anticipating for literal years: The Metal Gear games are some of my favourites ever made, and to have the classics finally start trickling over to PC should be great.
Except, ah, these ports leave something to be desired. A few hours out from release, all three Metal Gear Solid games have grim beige "Mixed" ratings on Steam, and players have drawn up a long litany of complaints about Konami's work. Having played a little of the collection myself I can't help but agree.
>>*Insert Surprised Pikachu meme*