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

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Thursday news, part two:

We almost had an Adam Jensen-voiced protagonist in Starfield before Bethesda changed its mind
https://www.pcgamer.com/we-almost-had-an-adam-jensen-voiced-protagonist-in-starfield-before-bethesda-changed-its-mind/
There is quite a lot of Starfield. A gajillion planets. A crafting system I still haven't unlocked all of. An embarrassment of cowboys. But there's one thing it's relatively sparse on: voice acting, specifically for the game's main character. Starfield opted for an unvoiced player character for its space-based antics, possibly because everyone made fun of the Fallout 4 dialogue wheel, but it turns out that wasn't always going to be the case.
In a post on Twitter, voice actor Elias Toufexis (Starfield's Sam Coe and Deus Ex's Adam Jensen) confirmed that, once upon a time, Starfield's main character was going to be decidedly chattier. In fact, he and fellow actor Cissy Jones (Starfield's Andreja) worked on voicing the male and female version of the protagonist "for months" before Bethesda decided to toss the idea completely.

Diablo 4 developer hints that the search for the secret cow level is going in the right direction: 'If people have picked up any items from their cow campaigns, they should hang on to them'
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-developer-hints-that-the-search-for-the-secret-cow-level-is-going-in-the-right-direction-if-people-have-picked-up-any-items-from-their-cow-campaigns-they-should-hang-on-to-them/
The search for the Diablo 4 cow level is much more than a cowspiracy (apologies) at this point. IGN spoke to the game's production developer Tiffany Wat, and associate game director Joe Piepiora at BlizzCon 2023 where hints were dropped, adding more fuel to the fire. It's not much to go on, but Wat may have hinted that players are heading in the right direction: "I will say, however, if people have picked up any items from their cow campaigns… cow slay-age campaign… they should hang on to them."

Dev reveals that Half-Life could've been called 'Bent', 'Screwed', 'Trash', 'CrYsis', and my personal favourite, 'Dirt'
https://www.pcgamer.com/dev-reveals-that-half-life-couldve-been-called-bent-screwed-trash-crysis-and-my-personal-favourite-dirt/
dario.Casali" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dario Casali, who started working at Valve in 1996, has started his own playthrough of the original 1998 Half-Life on YouTube (thanks, Gamesradar). The episodes are coming out at a blistering pace, with Chapters 1 through 8 already released, but the Chapter 1 walkthrough comes front-loaded with a fascinating glimpse into the classic's early development.

One of 2023's best strategy games, Age of Wonders 4, just received a massive free update full of overhauls and new features
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-of-2023s-best-strategy-games-age-of-wonders-4-just-received-a-massive-free-update-full-of-overhauls-and-new-features/
Age of Wonders 4, easily Triumph's best 4X, received a meaty free update alongside its premium expansion this week. The expansion itself is pretty tantalising, introducing a new form with the Avians, the Reaver culture, new tomes and a whole lot more, but the free update feels almost as significant.

'If you want to think of it as Hunt 2 you're welcome to, but I'm not going to charge you': Hunt: Showdown manager on the extraction shooter's impending engine upgrade, and the pitfalls of declaring a sequel
https://www.pcgamer.com/if-you-want-to-think-of-it-as-hunt-2-youre-welcome-to-but-im-not-going-to-charge-you-hunt-showdown-manager-on-the-extraction-shooters-impending-engine-upgrade-and-the-pitfalls-of-declaring-a-sequel/
Live service games are evolving. The major multiplayer shooters of the 2010s are starting to show their age in the 2020s, leaving their stewards to answer an interesting question: How do you move a service game into the future without disrupting its active player base, or starting completely fresh? In the cases of Overwatch 2 and Counter-Strike 2, Blizzard and Valve decided to make a spectacle of it, packaging revamped maps, reworked balance, and engine upgrades as official sequels that effectively overwrote the old games.
Hunt: Showdown, an unexpected hit in the burgeoning extraction shooter subgenre, is taking a different approach. Although it's five years old now, there will be no "Hunt 2" anytime soon, according to Hunt general manager David Fifield, but Hunt will enter a new era of its own when it upgrades to the current version of CryEngine in 2024.

Risk of Rain 2 is getting a second expansion with a new big bad
https://www.pcgamer.com/risk-of-rain-2-is-getting-a-second-expansion-with-a-new-big-bad/
Risk of Rain 2 keeps on trucking. After last year's Survivors of the Void expansion added two new survivors and a smattering of new items and stages, Gearbox is following it up with Seekers of the Storm, which will again include "new survivors, new levels, and monsters, and more." The most notable bit of the "more" this time is almost certainly a new villain named The False Son, who is born out of some deep deep Risk of Rain lore I had no idea existed.

Revenant Hill, the spiritual successor to Night in the Woods, is cancelled as developers struggle with serious health issues
https://www.pcgamer.com/revenant-hill-the-spiritual-successor-to-night-in-the-woods-is-cancelled-as-developers-struggle-with-serious-health-issues/
Revenant Hill made a big impression on us when it was revealed back in May: Associate editor Ted Litchfield said it "looks to press the gas on both autumnal vibes and the themes of early industrial labor organizing," which actually sounds pretty spot-on when you consider that developer The Glory Society was founded by Night in the Woods co-creators Bethany Hockenberry and Scott Benson.
Sadly, six months later work on the game has been halted. The Glory Society announced on Twitter that "two key members" of the studio, including Benson, have been forced to step away from the project because of serious health issues, and it has thus decided to end development.

Why Diablo 4's loot filter isn't ready yet: 'Every perceivably simple decision has some kind of crazy cause and effect'
https://www.pcgamer.com/why-diablo-4s-loot-filter-isnt-ready-yet-every-perceivably-simple-decision-has-some-kind-of-crazy-cause-and-effect/
Diablo 4 has a big, small problem: inventory space. There's just not enough of it.
Among all the other cool things coming next year in Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4's first expansion, are a number of fixes designed to help players with the endless bag-space management task that is, perhaps, inevitable in Blizzard's loot-explosion action RPG.

Chucky is the next Dead By Daylight killer, and I can't stop laughing at a 2-foot-tall doll chasing teens
https://www.pcgamer.com/chucky-is-the-next-dead-by-daylight-killer-and-i-cant-stop-laughing-at-a-2-foot-tall-doll-chasing-teens/
Even though competitive keep-away isn't really my thing, it's hard not to admire Dead By Daylight from a comfortable distance. The folks at Behaviour Interactive have cooked up over 30 playable killers over the years, some original to the game and many adapted from classic horror media, with distinct abilities and upsetting methods for slaying Survivors. Their latest killer is an unconventional new face: Charles Lee "Chucky" Ray is joining Dead By Daylight.

Old School RuneScape players upend a 16-year-old minigame when they realise the cops can't possibly arrest all of them
https://www.pcgamer.com/old-school-runescape-players-upend-a-16-year-old-minigame-when-they-realise-the-cops-cant-possibly-arrest-all-of-them/
"Organisation," wrote Vladimir Lenin, "is the strength of the working class. Without mass organisation, the proletariat is nothing. Organised, it is everything. Organisation means the unity of action, the unity of practical activity."
Lenin wrote those words in 1907, about 106 years too early to apply them to Old School RuneScape, but I'm delighted to report that players have now independently rediscovered the principles therein. As reported by GamesRadar, OSRS players have made the world-historic discovery that they can totally bamboozle one of the MMO's 16-year-old minigames if they all band together, using their collective power to overwhelm the shaky guard AI and ensuring everyone—not just a talented and lucky few—receives the rewards.