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

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Tuesday news, part two:

Apex Legends is making its biggest change since launch: an upgrade tree for every legend that adds 120 new variables to every match
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-upgrades-season-20/
The eras of Apex Legends can be mapped out by a handful of milestone patches: the arrival of Evo Shields, the introduction of the map rotation, the first objective mode that'd eventually become Mixtape, and more recently the new iteration of Ranked. Experimentation is baked into Apex's identity. Respawn has never shied away from making foundational changes if it believes it makes the game better.
Season 20 is likely to mark another era with the arrival of legend upgrades—a new mid-match progression system that adds four unique abilities to all 30 legends. Upgrades are by leveling up your legend, which goes hand-in-hand with an overhaul to Evo Shields arriving at the same time.

Former Skull and Bones director says making a separate solo campaign 'would have prevented the team from creating a really deep open world'
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-skull-and-bones-director-says-making-a-separate-solo-campaign-would-have-prevented-the-team-from-creating-a-really-deep-open-world/
Ubisoft's long-awaited and much delayed pirate adventure Skull and Bones has been elusive not just in terms of its release date, but in what kind of game it actually is. First it was a match-based, multiplayer exclusive affair, then it was going to feature multiple game modes including single-player, and now it's supposed to be a shared-world experience similar to Sea of Thieves. It's changed direction more times than a sloop stuck in a whirlpool.
But a new report by IGN lays out the whole, twisting saga of the game's development in step-by-step detail, along with the reasons behind its multiple changes of tack. As part of this, former creative director Elisabeth Pellen reveals the fate of the game's touted single-player campaign, and why Ubisoft Singapore opted to ditch it.

Cyberpunk's latest patch means the cops now care if you kill drunk NPCs
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunks-latest-patch-means-the-cops-now-care-if-you-kill-drunk-npcs/
CD Projekt Red may be done adding new features to Cyberpunk 2077, but the studio isn't completely finished with the game yet. It's still issuing patches to fix bugs and further refine both the core game's much-improved experience and its excellent expansion Phantom Liberty. The latest patch, 2.11, makes a wide array of tweaks and adjustments.

A year after Dark and Darker became one one of the biggest games on Steam, a newcomer is trying to steal its thunder
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-year-after-dark-and-darker-became-one-one-of-the-biggest-games-on-steam-a-newcomer-is-trying-to-steal-its-thunder/
One year after the Steam Next Fest demo for Dark and Darker become one of the biggest games on Steam, another extraction-dungeon-crawler called Dungeonborne—first teased in September 2023 as Project Crawl—is replicating the feat with gameplay that looks a whole lot like its predecessor.

Blizzard dares its richest World of Warcraft players to pour 70K gold down the drain for a meager achievement
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-dares-its-richest-world-of-warcraft-players-to-pour-70k-gold-down-the-drain-for-a-meager-achievement/
A new achievement tied to World of Warcraft's annual Valentine's Day-themed event might be one of the most transparent gold sinks in the MMO's history. For the next two weeks, players who are carrying around 70,000 gold, can toss it straight into the void for 10 achievement points and the sting of being played.

This Enshrouded spell is so ridiculously OP I've been one-shotting bosses with it—and I'm not even a wizard
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-enshrouded-spell-is-so-ridiculously-op-ive-been-one-shotting-bosses-with-itand-im-not-even-a-wizard/
I'm not much of a magic user in survival RPG Enshrouded. I carry a magic wand so I have a ranged attack ready if I run out of arrows, and I have a decent staff I can use to fling fireballs, but my build is more of a survivalist tank: lots of points in HP, stamina, and melee weapon damage, plus copper armor and a nasty sword. Magic and mana are almost an afterthought for me.
That makes it especially weird that a magic spell I collected during my adventures let me one-shot a couple of boss monsters that would have taken ages to fight with my usual weapons.

Assassin's Creed Origins voice actor says heading up his own studio has been 'terrifying' but the Steam Next Fest demo for its first game is pretty great
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-origins-voice-actor-says-heading-up-his-own-studio-has-been-terrifying-but-the-steam-next-fest-demo-for-its-first-game-is-pretty-great/
The Steam Next Fest is now underway and that means we've got an awful lot of game demos to plow through in a very short amount of time. One early standout I've run is a metroidvania called Tales of Kenzara: Zau, a story about a shaman in the land of Kenzara attempting to reclaim his father's spirit. Tales of Kenzara: Zau was first revealed at the 2023 Game Awards: it's the debut project from a new studio headed up by Assassin's Creed Origins voice actor Abubakar Salim.

Amid mounting rumors of Xbox games coming to PlayStation, Phil Spencer announces a 'business update' for next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/amid-mounting-rumors-of-xbox-games-coming-to-playstation-phil-spencer-announces-a-business-update-for-next-week/
Evidence is mounting that Microsoft will release a host of its Xbox console exclusives on PlayStation, potentially marking the end of a tradition nearly as old as the medium: the viciously partisan console war. Xbox head Phil Spencer has tacitly acknowledged the rumors and reports too, and if the partial end of Xbox console exclusivity is really looming, then we'll find out how as soon as next week.

This cozy cooking platformer is so sweet that I went back for seconds of the demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-cozy-cooking-platformer-is-so-sweet-that-i-went-back-for-seconds-of-the-demo/
I was having such a good time with the demo for Magical Delicacy that I said "aw…" out loud when I realized I'd completed it. It's a "Metroidvania-inspired wholesome cooking game" where you're also a witch, because why not? You can play the hour-ish long demo yourself until February 12 as part of this week's Steam Next Fest.

This Townscaper-like building game on 'the dark side of cozy' is the perfect lock screen photo designer
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-townscaper-like-building-game-on-the-dark-side-of-cozy-is-the-perfect-lock-screen-photo-designer/
It's not often that I get to call a cyberpunk cityscape "cozy" but chill building game Dystopika describes itself as "the dark side of cozy," if you find neon-streaked skylines to be soothing. I've taken this city building toy for a spin in its new demo, which you can try for yourself on Steam this week as part of the current Steam Next Fest and it is great at churning out new candidates for my desktop wallpaper.

Obsidian says combat in Avowed will be good, actually, following criticism of battles shown in last month's game overview trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/obsidian-says-combat-in-avowed-will-be-good-actually-following-criticism-of-battles-shown-in-last-months-game-overview-trailer/
Obsidian recently showed off a sizeable chunk of Avowed, its upcoming first-person fantasy RPG. As you'd expect from the developers behind Pillars of Eternity, Avowed looks like a colourful, characterful affair. As we've also come to expect from Obsidian, it currently looks a little bit wonky. In particular, the combat depicted in the video drew criticism from the community, with complaints that fights lacked a sense of dynamism and impact.
As reported by IGN, game director Carrie Patel has now responded to these criticisms. Speaking on the Dropped Frames podcast, Patel explained that the footage shown in the video is from an older build of the game. "We're getting to show more and more, but all of that is while the game is still in progress," Patel said. "One of the heartening things has been seeing fans call out some of the things we are actively working on, like the sense of hitting impacts as you're attacking enemies."

Roblox introduces real-time AI chat translation, says the next frontier is seamless voice translation including the 'tone, rhythm, and emotion' of its users' lil voices
https://www.pcgamer.com/roblox-introduces-real-time-ai-chat-translation-says-the-next-frontier-is-seamless-voice-translation-including-the-tone-rhythm-and-emotion-of-its-users-lil-voices/
Roblox has introduced a new AI text translation feature, which translates users' chat in real-time into other languages. The feature is available to all Roblox experiences (the terminology used by the platform for user-created worlds) via the TextChatService, and Roblox Corp said it means "the chat window will automatically show Korean translated into English, or Turkish translated into German, and vice versa, so that each person sees the conversation in their own tongue."
The company rather grandly points out that translating text chat like this in real-time (the latency between input and translated output is apparently around 100 milliseconds) is "something that isn’t even possible in the physical world." At launch these 16 languages are supported, including Chinese, English, Russian and Spanish.