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

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The Monday news, part two:

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is making the utterly bizarre decision to lock New Game+ behind a $15 upgrade
https://www.pcgamer.com/like-a-dragon-infinite-wealth-is-making-the-utterly-bizarre-decision-to-lock-new-game-behind-a-dollar15-upgrade/
When it comes to trying to experience everything a sprawling hundred-hour RPG has to offer, New Game+ can often be an essential tool for running through a game a second or third time without causing too much psychological damage. Some games, like the Persona series, even require a NG+ run if you want the full completionist adventure.
It makes it all the more baffling, then, that Sega's upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is locking its New Game+ mode behind its Deluxe and Ultimate editions, which cost an extra $15 and $40 on top of the base game respectively. This is a series which, traditionally, has had its own features locked behind a NG+ run such as the legendary difficulty mode.
>> I'm confident a modder will fix that... but it remains to be seen if it will be a free or a paid mod.

Doom (2016)'s creative director reveals the secret to balancing the iconic BFG during a major charity speedrun: 'Uh, we don't'
https://www.pcgamer.com/doom-2016s-creative-director-reveals-the-secret-to-balancing-the-iconic-bfg-during-a-major-charity-speedrun-uh-we-dont/
Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 is already a delight—and not just because it's already raised over $1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. In a recent speedrun of Doom (2016), Hugo Martin, the game's creative director, decided to make an appearance as a guest commentator.
During the speedrun, the BFG 9000 came up—BFG stands for 'Big Fucking Gun', if that's an indication of what this thing does. In the game, this plasma weapon obliterates pretty much everything you point it at, with a direct hit connecting at 6,000 damage according to the game's wiki.
Being an important part of the speedrun, runner Raitro_ (Going by J0ker on the Stream) asks Martin how the team at id Software balances weapons like the BFG, to which Martin flatly replies: "Uh, we don't." He clarifies that it's "very tricky … it's a great gun, iconic to the franchise, but it is the 'kill everything button'."

PC is the most 'dominant' it's been this decade as two-thirds of devs say they're targeting the platform
https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-is-the-most-dominant-its-been-this-decade-as-two-thirds-of-devs-say-theyre-targeting-the-platform/
Sometimes, it's nice to hear the things you know in your heart said out loud. Such is the case with the Game Developers' Conference State of the Games Industry 2024 report, the latest edition of GDC's annual look at just what devs are doing.
One of the many, many questions GDC has put to devs over the years is asking which platform they're targeting with their current projects. The answers always range from the obvious (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo's console du jour) and the obscure (Playdate, Luna, something called "Google Stadia"), but one platform has been the focus for over half of devs for years: PC.
When asked to select every platform their current projects were in development for, 66% of the over 3,000 devs surveyed by GDC selected PC, far and away ahead of the next most-popular platform: PS5 at 35%. GDC calls the humble personal computer "the dominant platform" even as strange new entrants—like the "Nintendo Switch successor" and "UGC platforms (Roblox, Minecraft)"—begin to appear on the list of responses.
>> The headline would be more impactful if it wasn't because it's 2024. Oh, and if you're curious, the Switch successor gets 8% of the results.

WoW's dreaded druid is dead: Blizzard just 'used a sledgehammer' to nerf the boss that's been stomping Mythic raiders for the last 2 months
https://www.pcgamer.com/wows-dreaded-druid-is-dead-blizzard-just-used-a-sledgehammer-to-nerf-the-boss-thats-been-stomping-mythic-raiders-for-the-last-2-months/
The Mythic raid boss blocking a mountain of World of Warcraft guilds from progressing has finally been nuked from orbit.
Tindral Sageswift is the penultimate boss in WoW's Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope raid. It’s a long fight: Tindral is a druid, and he shapeshifts into several forms over the course of the encounter, each with its own mechanics and player-challenging spells, especially on Mythic difficulty.
He’s also drastically more difficult than the raid bosses before him, meaning that guilds progressing through Amirdrassil piled up on him like freight train cars after a head-on crash. The Hall of Fame, which holds the names of the first 200 guilds in Blizzard’s MMORPG to complete a raid on Mythic difficulty, held just over 60 guild names after the first of the year, a full eight weeks in.

Absurdly rare Team Fortress 2 hat called 'The Crone's Dome' sells for a record-setting $18,000 worth of keys because 'it's one of a kind and will not ever be unboxed again'
https://www.pcgamer.com/absurdly-rare-team-fortress-2-hat-called-the-crones-dome-sells-for-a-record-setting-dollar18000-worth-of-keys-because-its-one-of-a-kind-and-will-not-ever-be-unboxed-again/
The single most expensive hat trade in Team Fortress 2's history went down this week, with one player exchanging goods worth over 10,000 of the game's crate keys (around $1.80 each) for an unusual Arcana Crone's Dome, the characteristics of which make it the only one in existence. It's a witch's hat with some Halloween effects, basically, and the trade was first spotted by PyroJoe on X (formerly Twitter), who called it "the biggest singular unusual TF2 Hat trade" in the game's history.

The British Army made its own Fortnite map as a recruitment tool, but Epic could block it
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-british-army-made-its-own-fortnite-map-as-a-recruitment-tool-but-epic-could-block-it/
America's Army was at one time the world's most (in)famous videogame military recruitment tool, but now that it's out of the picture the British are taking their shot. The British Army has revealed a new "Fortnite experience" called Operation: Belong, and it plans to livestream an influencer-led competition on it next week.

Diablo 4 hasn't solved its worst loot problem yet, but season 3 is a step in the right direction
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-hasnt-solved-its-worst-loot-problem-yet-but-season-3-is-a-step-in-the-right-direction/
When Diablo 4 players aren't smashing bosses into the ground in one swing or becoming invulnerable with an amulet, most of their time is spent squinting at loot. Now that items pour out of every chest and monster since season 2, your inventory gets stuffed real quick, and the process of sorting through all that gear has become one of the game's worst activities.
Blizzard is aware of the issue and plans to fix it with a massive rework to item stats in season 4. But in the meantime, when season 3 launches next Tuesday, items will drop at a higher item power more often, which should at least make all that time scanning your inventory more valuable.

Halo Infinite is done with seasons, will get smaller 'content updates' from now on
https://www.pcgamer.com/halo-infinite-is-done-with-seasons-will-get-smaller-content-updates-from-now-on/
Halo Infinite's next big update is coming January 30 with a new arena map, a new operation, a free Mark IV Spartan core, and the long-awaited ability to equip shoulder pieces on any armor. (...)
At the end of the stream, 343 broke the news: there will be no Season 6. Halo Infinite is moving away from seasons.
Instead, 343 will continue to create "Operation" events with shorter 20-tier battle passes that run for four-to-six week periods. While 343 will continue to add to Infinite throughout 2024, the news will be bittersweet for fans who feel Infinite is finally mounting its comeback. It's hard not to read this as the beginning of the end for Infinite support, especially considering community director Brian Jarrard took the opportunity to mention 343's future projects.

Ten years ago I wouldn't have believed you if you told me League of Legends would one day have a bafflingly adorable 'crafting RPG' spinoff
https://www.pcgamer.com/ten-years-ago-i-wouldnt-have-believed-you-if-you-told-me-league-of-legends-would-one-day-have-a-bafflingly-adorable-crafting-rpg-spinoff/
(...)
We previously covered Bandle Tale's announcement in September, but the RPG just got a new trailer with a release date of February 21. I'm still not entirely sure what its whole deal is⁠—it definitely has that Stardew twang with its pixel art, cultivation mechanics, and developer Lazy Bear Games' history on Graveyard Keeper, but it also looks like Bandle Tale tasks you with rectifying some kind of portal calamity in the titular Bandle City, home to League's Yordle race of funky little hamster guys.

Everyone's favorite post-apocalypse beaver city builder now has horrible, polluted water
https://www.pcgamer.com/everyones-favorite-post-apocalypse-beaver-city-builder-now-has-horrible-polluted-water/
City builder Timberborn has a new update out. That's the beaver-based one about all the cool cities they'll build once we wreck the ecosphere and die off and they replace us as the planet's dominant species. The latest update, Badwater, is the fifth major release for the Early Access period of Timberborn and adds a second kind of water to the beavers' lives. It's not good water.