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JEMC on 19 January 2024
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Friday news, part two:

Call of Duty's going to Alt + F4 itself if it catches players turning on aim assist while using a mouse
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-dutys-going-to-alt-f4-itself-if-it-catches-players-turning-on-aim-assist-while-using-a-mouse/
Call of Duty has a new shortcut for mouse and keyboard users trying to activate aim assist: Alt + F4. According to a tweet posted to the official Call of Duty Updates Twitter account Tuesday, the game has buffed up its security systems to automatically kill your game—as in MW3.exe itself—if it catches you using a tool to turn on the game's assist while using a mouse. The new measure works across Modern Warfare 2, 3, and Warzone.

Two more studios announce layoffs as 2024 continues to suck for game developers
https://www.pcgamer.com/two-more-studios-announce-layoffs-as-2024-continues-to-suck-for-game-developers/
The seemingly endless litany of layoffs that's plagued the game industry through 2023 and into 2024 continued today as two more studios have confirmed cuts to their workforces: Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has let 40 employees go, while Lord of the Fallen publisher CI Games has reduced its workforce by 10%.

Microsoft's answer to Civilization looks, well, a lot like Civilization, but has twists like simultaneous turn resolution
https://www.pcgamer.com/ara-history-untold-release-date-announcement/
Ara: History Untold maybe could've used a better title—it makes me think of a Las Vegas show, like the Luxor hotel's King Tut Experience—but it's interesting: a historical grand strategy game from developer Oxide Games (maker of Ashes of the Singularity), published by Microsoft, with ambitions to deliver "an evolution" in the genre.
>> Looks interesting, but it feels like one of those games that you have to try to decide if you'll like it or not (more so with that 1 turn for all mechanic).

The developer of strategy city builder Manor Lords expected 14,000 Steam wishlists... and wound up with 2 million
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-developer-of-strategy-city-builder-manor-lords-expected-14000-steam-wishlists-and-wound-up-with-2-million/
When I first saw footage of medieval city builder Manor Lords a few years ago I added it to my Steam wishlist before the trailer had even finished playing. That's how good it looked.
I wasn't alone, either. Manor Lords has occupied second place on Steam's top wishlisted games for at least a year, where it's rubbed shoulders with big name games like Hades 2, Starfield, and Hollow Knight: Silksong. That's especially impressive considering Manor Lords is being developed by a single person, Greg Styczeń, of Slavic Magic.
If you were wondering just how many people need to add a game to their Steam wishlist to reach (very nearly) the tippy top of Steam, we've now got a number for you: 2 million. According to publisher Hooded Horse, that's how many Steam wishlists Manor Lords is now parked on. And it turns out that number came as a big surprise to Styczeń.

Blizzard reveals how hard the nerfs to Diablo 4's sorcerers and barbarians will be next season as it outlines a new balance philosophy
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-reveals-how-hard-the-nerfs-to-diablo-4s-sorcerers-and-barbarians-will-be-next-season-as-it-outlines-a-new-balance-philosophy/
It's official: Barbarians and sorcerers won't rule Sanctuary in Diablo 4's next season, at least not using the same builds that absolutely crushed season 2. On a developer stream today, Blizzard said tomorrow's patch notes will include fixes to the bugs that fuel the strongest builds in the game, as well as changes that elevate the weakest ones.

After almost a decade, Bungie is letting Destiny 2 players fix their fugly guardians (and it won't cost anything)
https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-is-finally-letting-destiny-2-players-fix-their-fugly-guardians-and-it-actually-wont-cost-anything/
I've had an article in my drafts titled 'All MMOs need a barber shop' for several years now. The likelihood of that piece ever getting finished inched further away this afternoon, with Bungie announcing that—after almost a decade, and countless complaints—it's adding a system to enable players to edit the appearance of their guardians. Here's what the developer had to say in the latest This Week in Destiny blog post.

31% of game developers already use generative AI
https://www.pcgamer.com/31-of-game-developers-already-use-generative-ai/
Valve recently announced that Steam will allow games made with assistance from generative AI tools so long as it's disclosed. If game developers tell the truth, we ought to be seeing a lot of disclosures in the near future.
In a survey of over 3,000 game developers from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference, 31% of respondents said that they personally use generative AI in their work, and 18% said that they don't personally use it, but colleagues in their workplace do. That means that 49% of game studios are using generative AI in some fashion—although mostly not in ways we'll directly perceive, judging by the other survey questions.

Game developers are growing more opposed to major acquisitions: 'Too much control in one company's hands is never a good thing'
https://www.pcgamer.com/game-developers-are-growing-more-opposed-to-major-acquisitions-too-much-control-in-one-companys-hands-is-never-a-good-thing/
The last couple of years have seen some blockbusters deals in the games industry. Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is obviously the biggest of them all, but Sony's buyout of Bungie is up there too, and even (relatively) smaller deals, like NetEase's purchase of Quantic Dream or Nacon's takeover of Daedalic, can't be overlooked. And while we on the outside can debate the relative merits of this industry consolidation, GDC's latest State of the Game Industry survey indicates that it's making people who actually work in the business a little nervous.

All Genshin Impact codes from the 4.4 livestream
https://www.pcgamer.com/genshin-impact-codes-4-4-livestream/
The Genshin Impact 4.4 livestream is the latest special program detailing what Travelers can expect to get up to in the coming update. If you're a regular Genshin player, these streams are usually worth tuning into since they provide info on events and upcoming characters. More importantly, they drop livestream codes you can redeem for Primogems to use when pulling those characters.
It looks like the two new characters this time are Pyro four-star, Gaming, and Anemo five-star, Xianyun, who is the human form of Cloud Retainer. There are also speculated reruns for Xiao, Nahida, and Yae Miko. I'll list the livestream codes below as they drop during the program—these usually expire within a day, so be sure to redeem them as soon as possible.

And now, the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:

+GOG

+Steam

That will be it for this week. 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.