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

[JEMC]

Friday news, part two:

Final Fantasy 14 suspends player housing demolition across Japanese servers, following major earthquake
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-suspends-player-housing-demolition-across-japanese-servers-following-major-earthquake/
Square Enix has suspended its housing demolition process in Final Fantasy 14, following an earthquake in the Noto Peninsula of Japan on New Year's Day. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake has left thousands without power or shelter.

After 5 years, NCSoft officially grants a licence to popular City of Heroes private server Homecoming: 'Your accounts and characters are safe'
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-five-years-ncsoft-officially-grants-a-licence-to-popular-city-of-heroes-private-server-homecoming-your-accounts-and-characters-are-safe/
If you were like me, the shutdown of the GOAT superhero MMORPG City of Heroes broke your heart into itty-bitty pieces—it also probably made you happy to see people playing it again when it was revealed that the game code had been salvaged in 2019.
Homecoming—alongside a bunch of other servers—promised a return to the good ol' days. I personally had a great time for a couple of years, diving deep into its still-active roleplay community, I even made friends who're still playing it. Still, there's always this looming, Nostralius-style dread that comes with playing on a private server. When will the corpos muscle in and shut down the party?
Turns out: not for a long time. Homecoming has just been given the official nod by NCSoft, as announced by the server today. An announcement reads: "We’d like to make a few things clear: Your accounts and characters are safe. Development of new content will continue. Homecoming will continue to be completely free. We will continue to be funded entirely through donations."

Here comes the Torment Nexus: They're making a 'metaverse' based on Ready Player One
https://www.pcgamer.com/here-comes-the-torment-nexus-theyre-making-a-metaverse-based-on-ready-player-one/
Ready Player One is a story about desperate people seeking escape from a collapsing society within the confines of a predatory digital world run by ultra-rich oligarchs who will do anything, including committing mass murder, in order to protect their positions of wealth and power. And now a company called Futureverse is teaming up with Warner Bros Discovery and author Ernest Cline to bring that particular Torment Nexus to life with the creation of the Readyverse, which aims to "to bring the promise of the open metaverse depicted in Cline’s Ready Player One novel and the blockbuster film adaptation into a tangible reality."

This city builder just shot to the top of my wishlist because it lets you design, build, and decorate every single building in your town
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-city-builder-just-shot-to-the-top-of-my-wishlist-because-it-lets-you-design-build-and-decorate-every-single-building-in-your-town/
Ever been idly clicking through the Steam store and something causes you to immediately hit the brakes and add a game to the top of your wishlist? That happened to me today while looking at upcoming city builders. There's just something about an isometric city builder with retro pixel art that immediately appeals to me, so Metropolis 1998 grabbed my attention with just a few screenshots.
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One of the most interesting and appealing features of Metropolis 1998, especially for those of you who like building houses in games like The Sims 4, is that you don't simply zone areas for residential and commercial use and then wait for buildings to pop up. You can design, build, and decorate the buildings yourself. Like… all of the buildings.

WoW's next patch drops in just under 2 weeks: game-wide dragonriding, follower dungeons, and worgens coming home
https://www.pcgamer.com/wows-next-patch-drops-in-just-under-2-weeks-game-wide-dragonriding-follower-dungeons-and-worgens-coming-home/
World of Warcraft's been on a bit of a roll with its patch cadence this past year. As Heather Newman pointed out earlier this week, Blizzard's seemingly turned a corner with the game—though whether it keeps that momentum going into 2024 and The War Within is another thing entirely.
While Shadowlands saw a horrific 218 days between its release and its first major patch, Dragonflight's been on-tempo the entire time—promising things and then… actually delivering on them. The future is now. It looks like the updates will proceed as morale improves, as announced on World of Warcraft's official Twitter account.

And now that their Winter Sales are over, let's see what do GOG and Steam have for us:

+GOG

• The first of the two Deals of the Day is the BloodRayne: Terminal Cut Bundle, 35% off during 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/bloodrayne_terminal_cut_bundle
• The second DotD is the Yakuza Complete Series, with 7 games, featuring a 77% discount until Monday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/yakuza_complete_series
• Did I say that the Winter Sale is over? Lies! There is a Winter Sale Encore, with up to 95% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240105_winter_sale_encore
• And there's also a Classic Winter Sale, with classic games up to 90% off during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240105_classic_winter_sale

+Steam

• Backpack Hero will be 20% off until January, 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1970580/Backpack_Hero/
• The Early Access title Tape to Tape will also have a 20% discount until the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1566200/Tape_to_Tape/
• NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS is going to be 30% off until the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1020790/NARUTO_X_BORUTO_Ultimate_Ninja_STORM_CONNECTIONS/
• The Expanse: A Telltale Series features a 40% discount until the 11th of January: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1708010/The_Expanse_A_Telltale_Series/
• The Evil Within 2 will be 85% off until, once again, the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/601430/The_Evil_Within_2/
• Left 4 Dead 2 gets a 90% discount until the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/550/Left_4_Dead_2/
• Portal 2 is also going to be 90% off until the, yet again, 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/620/Portal_2/
• And the last one is Fireworks Mania - An Explosive Simulator, that will have a 20% discount until the 18th of January: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

And that's it. If you celebrate the Three Wise Men, I hope you have a great night, and for everyone, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.