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

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The news, part two:

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 reveals its first clan, the Brujah, four years after it revealed its first clan, the Brujah
https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-reveals-its-first-clan-the-brujah-four-years-after-it-revealed-its-first-clan-the-brujah/
Now that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has a new developer, The Chinese Room, we're going through the whole rigamarole of teasers and reveals all over again, starting now and carrying on into 2024, and possibly beyond. I hope you're prepared.
This is why, more than four years after I wrote "Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2's first full-blood clan is the Brujah", I'm once again introducing you all to the Brujah. I am very tired. And while the 2019 reveal gave us details on the Brujah Disciplines—their fancy vamp powers—we'll have to assume they have all been changed in at least some way. Unfortunately, this re-reveal doesn't go into much detail.

The second part of Guild Wars 2's new expansion is out now, and it's taking players to the demon realm
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-second-part-of-guild-wars-2s-new-expansion-is-out-now-and-its-taking-players-to-the-demon-realm/
Today ArenaNet releases the next major update of Guild Wars 2's Secrets of the Obscure expansion, called Through the Veil. It's the second of four releases that will make up the full expansion's launch, and it adds the first part of the expansion's third and final map—a map that will continue to be expanded in future updates. We're heading off Tyria for this one: The map, Inner Nayos, is actually set in the demon realm, which means much of it is purple.

DayZ just added a new rifle, a new air base, and what the heck, a whole new damn sky
https://www.pcgamer.com/dayz-just-added-a-new-rifle-a-new-air-base-and-what-the-heck-a-whole-new-damn-sky/
(...)
DayZ has been in development for over a decade at this point, and it's hard to think of something about it that hasn't been replaced, tweaked, altered, or changed in that time. Even after its 1.0 launch back in 2018, Bohemia Interactive continues to update the multiplayer survival shooter, and as of today I've begun to wonder if the dev team is simply running out of things to replace.
Case in point: in DayZ update 1.23 the survival game got a whole new damn sky.

The layoffs continue: Ubisoft cuts 124 jobs worldwide, including nearly 100 in Canada
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-layoffs-continue-ubisoft-cuts-124-jobs-worldwide-including-nearly-100-in-canada/
The game industry has suffered yet another round of layoffs, as Ubisoft confirms that it has cut 124 employees worldwide as part of an ongoing restructuring effort. The bulk of that number, 98 in total, were let go from Ubisoft's business administrative services and IT in Canada, as well as the Hybride VFX studio in Montreal.

Blizzard's job is to satisfy impatient players who want 'new stuff every day, every hour,' says studio head
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzards-job-is-to-provide-impatient-players-new-stuff-every-day-every-hour-says-studio-head/
The Microsoft era of Blizzard has just begun, and it's not clear yet how the studio will change under the reign of Xbox head Phil Spencer. Maybe it'll mean more StarCraft, maybe not, but from the sounds of it we shouldn't expect a radically different approach from Blizzard: It's gonna keep running on the ol' live service treadmill.
"Players have no patience," Blizzard president Mike Ybarra told The Verge in a recent interview. "They want new stuff every day, every hour. We're trying to react that way while holding the Blizzard quality bar high."

Ex-BioWare employees and contractors use N7 Day to air disputes with the studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/ex-bioware-employees-and-contractors-use-n7-day-to-air-disputes-with-the-studio/
N7 Day was a bit of a letdown this year, as a multi-stage tease for the next Mass Effect game ended up delivering basically nothing except another reminder that yes, it is happening. But bigger things were happening elsewhere, as former employees of BioWare and contract workers on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf took advantage of the annual Mass Effect remembrance to highlight their ongoing dispute with the company.

New Halo 1 cosmetic armor in Halo Infinite costs twice as much as Halo 1 itself, straining recent fan goodwill
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-halo-1-cosmetic-armor-in-halo-infinite-costs-twice-as-much-as-halo-1-itself-straining-recent-fan-goodwill/
Halo Infinite has been on a roll lately, with its latest season having the makings of an honest-to-god comeback. The game is now well stocked with fun maps and game modes, while its battle passes have evolved from terrible to tolerable. The player count has jumped significantly, and a flood of nostalgia-bait maps from Halo 3 that will absolutely work on me are just a week away.
The Halo community is pretty upbeat for the first time in two years, but I'd say players are almost universally displeased with the latest cosmetic launched in the Infinite shop today: the Mark V armor that Master Chief wears in the original Halo: Combat Evolved.

Remedy's plant bone tech is just one of the reasons Alan Wake 2 is the best-looking videogame of 2023
https://www.pcgamer.com/remedys-plant-bone-tech-is-just-one-of-the-reasons-alan-wake-2-is-the-best-looking-videogame-of-2023/
If you've been playing Alan Wake 2 you may have noticed just how pretty that game is. I'd go as far to say it's the best looking videogame of 2023. Developer Remedy has done incredibly well to make what could've been a very dull and dark world look vibrant and detailed, and has since divulged what's actually going on behind the scenes in the Northlight engine to achieve it. And boy, it's a lot.

Rockstar officially announces GTA 6 reveal in December
https://www.pcgamer.com/rockstar-officially-announces-gta-6-reveal-in-december/
Friends, the prophets spoke true. Mere hours after rumours began to spread that Rockstar was gearing up for an official Grand Theft Auto 6 announcement ahead of a proper trailer in December, Rockstar has gone and made an official GTA 6 announcement ahead of a proper trailer in December.
In a post on the Rockstar blog marking the studio's 25th anniversary, company president Sam Houser announced that "in early December, we will release the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto," before letting us know that the studio looks forward to "many more years of sharing these experiences with you."
>> It took longer than I thought, maybe because it's the announcement of an announcement, but trunkswd has made a thread about this.

Lords of the Fallen promises to split PvP and PvE balance after player upset, fix inventory woes, and add spells in update roadmap
https://www.pcgamer.com/lords-of-the-fallen-promises-to-split-pvp-and-pve-balance-patches-after-player-upset-fix-inventory-woes-and-add-spells-in-update-roadmap/
Lords of the Fallen's been getting a lot of patches. Depending on who you ask, it might be too many—while it's neat the crew at Hexworks are this responsive to feedback, some recent changes have left a sour taste in the community's mouth.
An update that dropped November 2 made some adjustments to certain boss weapons and spells that were "heavily relied on", like giving Boss Weapons 10 upgrade levels (as opposed to five) and tweaking their numbers.
This left a lot of players with weaker stat-sticks they'd need to spend more resources on, just to gain a shadow of what they already had. Some spells, such as Pieta's Blessed Reflections, also had their mana costs adjusted for PvP reasons, leaving PvE players baffled as to the why.