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

[JEMC]

The second, and also long, Thursday news post:

Witcher remake studio boss says it'll remake what's 'bad, outdated, or unnecessarily convoluted' without naming the sex baseball cards we all know he's talking about
https://www.pcgamer.com/witcher-remake-studio-boss-says-itll-remake-whats-bad-outdated-or-unnecessarily-convoluted-without-naming-the-sex-baseball-cards-we-all-know-hes-talking-about/
The Witcher 1 is rough, gangly, utterly idiosyncratic, and fine as it is, if you ask me. Nevertheless, it's due an open-world remake courtesy of the devs over at Fool's Theory, and it sounds like they aren't squeamish about updating some of the, ah, more awkward parts of CDPR's original 2007 classic.

Well, it sure is ambitious: this game set in ancient China wants to be a city builder, farming and life sim, open world RPG, management tycoon, and 4X strategy all rolled into one
https://www.pcgamer.com/well-it-sure-is-ambitious-this-game-set-in-ancient-china-wants-to-be-a-city-builder-farming-and-life-sim-open-world-rpg-management-tycoon-and-4x-strategy-all-rolled-into-one/
I've always got my eyes peeled for interesting upcoming city builders, and the more ambitious the better. But sometimes a game comes along that feels maybe… a little too ambitious?
I'm talking about The Bustling World, a game set in ancient China that wants to be a whole lot of different kinds of game all at once, including an open world RPG, a city builder, a crafting and exploration game, a business management sim, a war and diplomacy strategy game, a farming and survival sim… and even more. It's a lot for a single game. Heck, it's a lot for three or four games.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League apologises for early access server stumble by giving players a pat on the back and $20 worth of premium currency
https://www.pcgamer.com/suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-apologises-for-early-access-server-stumble-by-giving-players-a-pat-on-the-back-and-dollar20s-worth-of-premium-currency/
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has dropped into a brief 72-hour early access period for Deluxe Edition owners—or at least that was the plan. A bug that accidentally credited players with full, top-to-bottom completion as soon as they launched the game forced Rocksteady to pull its servers down for around six hours, alongside another hour-long maintenance period.
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As spotted by VGC, Rocksteady addressed the downtime and offered a make-good via an in-game announcement, which reads: "We recognize that you’ve been patient with us during our initial launch server updates and we’d like to show our appreciation for your patience with a special gift of 2,000 LuthorCoins. Thank you again!"

Harold Halibut, the game about making friends while trapped in a giant spaceship stranded at the bottom of an alien ocean, now has a demo on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/harold-halibut-the-game-about-making-friends-while-trapped-in-a-giant-spaceship-stranded-at-the-bottom-of-an-alien-ocean-now-has-a-demo-on-steam/
Harold Halibut is one of the more intriguing videogame ideas I've seen in a while. It's "a handmade narrative game about friendship and life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean," which is interesting in its own right. But it also employs a stop-motion visual style reminiscent of games like The Neverhood or Armikrog, or (for those of a certain age) those classic 1960s holiday movies. We got a closer look at Harold Halibut at the PC Gaming Show in 2023, and now you can take a piece of it for a spin courtesy of the demo that's now available on Steam.

Hope you're hungry for Godzilla sushi, because the legendary kaiju is coming to Dave the Diver
https://www.pcgamer.com/hope-youre-hungry-for-godzilla-sushi-because-the-legendary-kaiju-is-coming-to-dave-the-diver/
Over the course of his adventure into deep sea fishing and sushi restaurant management, the lovable Dave the Diver encounters quite a few massive sea creatures. Megasharks, giant squid, mutated hermit crabs, a literal dinosaur, and a shrimp so jumbo it could generate a year's worth of appetizers.
But despite defeating a dozen denizens of the deep, Dave has never clashed with a true, legendary kaiju. Which makes the news that Godzilla is invading Dave the Diver all the more exciting.

Kojima is making a new 'action espionage game' after Death Stranding 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/kojima-is-making-a-new-action-espionage-game-after-death-stranding-2/
Death Stranding 2 had a lengthy showing at Sony's State of Play today, but for those a little weary of Hideo Kojima's surrealist parcel delivery series there was a glimmer of hope. Kojima confirmed that after Death Stranding 2, his studio will commence development on a "next-generation action espionage game", which basically means he'll be making something more akin to the Metal Gear Solid series he created. Its working title is Physint.

Diablo 4's little robot spider is actually an apex predator who can solo bosses, and it's about to get even stronger
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-little-robot-spider-is-actually-an-apex-predator-who-can-solo-bosses-and-its-about-to-get-even-stronger/
Diablo 4's hardest bosses have a new threat and, surprisingly, it's not a barbarian with a giant hammer. It's the free robot spider pet that everyone thought was useless before Blizzard dropped an emergency patch to help level it up. Now it's crushing endgame bosses for billions of damage, and tomorrow it's going to do even more.

Wayfinder studio Airship Syndicate says layoffs are necessary to ensure it 'can continue to operate and deliver great experiences'
https://www.pcgamer.com/wayfinder-studio-airship-syndicate-says-layoffs-are-necessary-to-ensure-it-can-continue-to-operate-and-deliver-great-experiences/
Wayfinder developer Airship Syndicate has confirmed the layoffs of 12 employees, originally reported by Nicole Carpenter of Polygon, as part of an effort to keep the studio open and operating. In an unusual twist, Airship Syndicate said company president Ryan Stefanelli and CEO Joe Madureira are also taking pay cuts.

Deep Rock Galactic and Dwarf Fortress call on their fans for a Steam revolution: a new dwarf tag to unite the games under one label
https://www.pcgamer.com/deep-rock-galactic-and-dwarf-fortress-call-on-their-fans-for-a-steam-revolution-a-new-dwarf-tag-to-unite-the-games-under-one-label/
Game genres are a bit of an ossified thing. You've got strategy, FPS, RPG, and something called action-adventure for when you don't actually know where else to categorise a game. It's always been that way and feels like it'll always be that way. But it doesn't have to be.
Spotted by GamesRadar, Kitfox Games and Ghost Ship Studios—the teams behind Dwarf Fortress' premium edition and Deep Rock Galactic respectively—have united to launch a generation-defining campaign to get a new tag added to Steam: Dwarf. It kicked off in January, but things really hotted up yesterday when the games finally got a response from Steam.

Kurt Russell gives thoughtful and nuanced answer about why he wouldn't voice Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3, also seems to think the character is actually Snake Plissken
https://www.pcgamer.com/kurt-russell-gives-thoughtful-and-nuanced-answer-about-why-he-wouldnt-voice-snake-in-metal-gear-solid-3-also-seems-to-think-the-character-is-actually-snake-plissken/
Since the series' earliest days on the humble MSX, one of the big inspirations behind Metal Gear has been John Carpenter's Escape from New York. Protagonist Solid Snake gets his callsign from Kurt Russell's character Snake Plissken (a link that would later be solidified when Snake uses the codename Plisken in MGS2), as well as his general bearing and attitude and equipment, while later games will make the Snake connection even more obvious with the addition of a Plissken-style eyepatch.
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Hayter would go on to voice Naked Snake in MGS3 and take his final bow as Solid Snake in MGS4. But the notion that Russell could've voiced a character based so heavily on one of his own characters has always been a piece of catnip trivia for some fans, and in a new interview with GQ the actor was asked about being approached to star in the series. Warning: the question is direct, but his answer is thoughtful, nuanced, and possibly slightly confused about how close the characters are.

Palworld update fixes save-bricking capture bug, permanently-nerfing respec juice, and Pals randomly levitating or dying to 'unexplained falling damage'
https://www.pcgamer.com/palworld-update-fixes-save-bricking-capture-bug-permanently-nerfing-respec-juice-and-pals-randomly-levitating-or-dying-to-unexplained-falling-damage/
Palworld deserves kudos for actually following up on its success with bug fixes—Pocketpair now has the unenviable task of matching the sudden, unanticipated expectations that come with an indie breakout success with further support. The team's stated mission goal on its roadmap—primarily a focus on squashing game-breaking bugs—is getting done.
Patch v.0.1.4.0 aims to fix some major issues. For starters, your mates can no longer steal your pals if they're below 30% HP with a pal sphere—which is a relief, especially the targeting on those things is a touch wonky, making accidental pal napping (or in my case, pissing off a big mammoth that kills you) a real possibility.

Palworld glitch lets you carry 9,999 of anything like a legally distinct Sisyphus hauling pal spheres up a mountain
https://www.pcgamer.com/palworld-glitch-lets-you-carry-9999-of-anything-like-a-legally-distinct-sisyphus-hauling-pal-spheres-up-a-mountain/
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Flavour-of-the-moment Palworld is, despite its Pokémon with guns tagline, more of a survival game at heart, and boy are survival games just the sort to slap you with all sorts of nonsense about encumbrance. Palworld has an interface and systems pretty typical of the genre, with things like item-stacking to manage, inventory chests, personal inventory and, of course, encumbrance penalties. You may well want to build a glorious stone fortress, but you're gonna have to schlep a lot of stone back to base to get started.
Well, Palworld player BeyondSmash has changed the game (first spotted by GamesRadar+). They noticed that, when fooling around with inventories, it is possible to place stacks of items in a suspended state. Items in this menu limbo remain accessible but are weightless, like you're transporting everything in a little pocket dimension (which is how it should be). No encumbrance penalty, no problem carrying everything you need to where you need it in one go.