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

[JEMC]

Monday news, part two of three (take it as a warning):

PSA: If you're using a controller like Dragon's Dogma 2 wants you to, you can turn off 'sprint' and 'interact' being on the same button for some unholy reason
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/psa-if-youre-using-a-controller-like-dragons-dogma-2-wants-you-to-you-can-turn-off-sprint-and-interact-being-on-the-same-button-for-some-unholy-reason/
Dragon's Dogma 2, generally speaking, would like you to use a controller. (…)
(…) Dragon's Dogma, however, would also like you to pick up flowers and sprint with the same button, which is a decision I'm far less happy about. 
This may bother you, or it might be totally fine—I've heard both things from the PC Gamer team, but it was starting to give me a headache before a fellow writer pointed out that you could fix it, so now I'm passing on that knowledge to you.

You'll soon be able to start a new game in Dragon's Dogma 2 without rooting around your files, as well as change your appearance all you'd like for in-game currency
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/youll-soon-be-able-to-start-a-new-game-in-dragons-dogma-2-without-rooting-around-your-game-files-as-well-as-change-your-appearance-all-youd-like-for-in-game-currency/
Dragon's Dogma 2 has had a turbulent entry to say the least. Bizarre, pointless microtransactions and performance issues have caused it to be wrung through the critical grinder on Steam. Despite that, it's hit a very respectable 220,000+ all-time player peak already. 
One particular woe that's bothered the player-base? Dragon's Dogma 2 is a one-save-only game, which is what it's like in Dragon's Dogma 1, for the record. There has, however, been a crucial difference that players are understandably upset about: You have to manually delete your save from the files if you want to start over.
(...)
Luckily, Capcom appears to have listened to that feedback, as announced on the game's official Twitter.

'We're still evolving': World of Warcraft's new battle royale is part of Blizzard's plan for 're-envisioning what Warcraft means'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/were-still-evolving-world-of-warcrafts-new-battle-royale-is-part-of-blizzards-plan-for-re-envisioning-what-warcraft-means/
In case you haven't been keeping up to date with the latest World of Warcraft news, Plunderstorm is a battle royale mode that has arrived in Blizzard's MMO, except that technically, it's not part of the MMO at all. It's a separate mode, with separate characters, though you'll need a WoW subscription to play it. And according to Warcraft's general manager, John Hight, we might be seeing more limited-time modes in the future.
>> And you wouldn’t believe it given how long Blizzard was under Kotick’s ruling, but the subscription price hasn’t changed in 20 years.

Arkane founder teases his next project, a 'retro sci-fi first-person' game, and now I'm thinking a whole lot about the Prey sequel we never got
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/arkane-founder-teases-his-next-project-a-retro-sci-fi-first-person-game-and-now-im-thinking-a-whole-lot-about-the-prey-sequel-we-never-got/
Arkane co-founder Raphael Colantonio, who left the studio in 2017 and launched indie developer WolfEye Studios a couple years later, is teasing his next game—and even though it's just scribbles on a whiteboard, I am already excited.

If working overtime on AAA games with giant budgets is the only way to succeed, 'then maybe the industry deserves to die,' says RPG veteran David Gaider: 'There is another way to be'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/if-working-overtime-on-aaa-games-with-giant-budgets-is-the-only-way-to-succeed-then-maybe-the-industry-deserves-to-die-says-rpg-veteran-david-gaider-there-is-another-way-to-be/
Underneath the professional atmosphere, there was a defiant tone to this year's Game Developers Conference. During the GDCA awards, Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke called out corporate greed for "fucking this whole thing up for so long," and other developers gathered to have a cathartic scream about the state of the industry. In an interview with PC Gamer, Summerfall Studios co-founder and former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider expressed similar conviction that something has to give.

Preserving old games was seen as a non-commercial 'art project' until recently, says Nightdive director: 'They were great then and they're great now, and companies have begun to realize that'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/events-conferences/preserving-old-games-was-seen-as-a-non-commercial-art-project-until-recently-says-nightdive-director-they-were-great-then-and-theyre-great-now-and-companies-have-begun-to-realize-that/
The Nightdive Studios website makes its mission clear: "Bringing lost and forgotten gaming treasures back from the depths." And so it has, through outstanding updates of games including Quake and Quake 2, System Shock, Turok 3, and Dark Forces. But it's not just the games that Nightdive aims to bring back from the past: Maintaining the totality of their history is a major part of what the studio aims to do.

'Is Dave The Diver an indie game? I would say no,' says game director
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/is-dave-the-diver-an-indie-game-i-would-say-no-says-game-director/
Every year—and sometimes multiple times per year—the same gaming debates pop up all over again. (…)
The definition of "indie game" is one of those recurring discussions, and it came up once around last year's Game Awards, when Dave the Diver was nominated for 'Best Independent Game' alongside games like Dredge and Cocoon. Not everyone was thrilled about that: while Dave The Diver definitely has "indie vibes" like 2D pixel art, and the development team at Mintrocket is a relatively small one, Mintrocket itself is a sub-brand of Nexon—a large South Korean game publisher.
At the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco, I sat down with Dave the Diver's game director, Jaeho Hwang, to ask for his take on the debate, whether he considers Dave the Diver an indie game or not, and what exactly is an indie game, anyway?

'Make a private hosted version of your game': Knockout City dev's top tip for studios shutting down a live service game is to give players the keys
https://www.pcgamer.com/knockout-city-sunset-gdc-talk/
No "live service" game lives forever, or in the euphemistic language of the games business, they all get "sunsetted" eventually. At a GDC talk this week, Velan Studios director of marketing Josh Harrison implored other developers to prepare for that inevitability, ideally by doing the thing we also hope they'll do every time: making their games available to play even after the official servers are unplugged.

Cyberpunk 2077 quest lead says early access wouldn't work for CDPR the way it did for Larian, and the studio prefers 'to have a banging release where everything is as close to perfection as can be' like Phantom Liberty's
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/cyberpunk-2077-quest-lead-says-early-access-wouldnt-work-for-cdpr-the-way-it-did-for-larian-and-the-studio-prefers-to-have-a-banging-release-where-everything-is-as-close-to-perfection-as-can-be-like-phantom-libertys/
Cyberpunk 2077 is good now. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's great. One of the most calamitous launches in videogame history finally made good after a bevy of updates and the meaty Phantom Liberty expansion, a journey that's had some of us at PC Gamer asking if the game was actually just in a kind of warped early access for three years. Given that Baldur's Gate 3, our Game of the Year for 2023, had a long (and formal) early access period, we asked Phantom Liberty quest director Paweł Sasko at GDC if Cyberpunk might have benefited from the same thing.

How are CD Projekt's side quests so good? Cyberpunk quest designer says they reject 'over 90%' of their pitches
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/how-are-cd-projekts-side-quests-so-good-cyberpunk-quest-designer-says-they-reject-over-90-of-their-pitches/
CD Projekt Red's two biggest RPG hits, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, are both known for big main quests and engaging characters, but more than anything you'll hear people consistently bring up the little adventures they have between other stories. In an interview with PC Gamer at GDC this past week, Cyberpunk 2077 lead quest designer Pawel Sasko said that's mostly because they're thinking of lots of ideas and only using the best ones.
"A good designer has an acceptance ratio of their ideas of between five to 10%," said Sasko, "If someone has 10%, this is probably one of the best people we have in the team."