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

[JEMC]

The news, part two. A bit longer than usual, but it's also the last one:

The PC Gaming Show returns June 9 to celebrate its 10-year anniversary and the most exciting new PC games
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-pc-gaming-show-2024-announcement/
The weather is warming and the snow is melting, which can only mean one thing: It's nearly Game Announcement Season and almost time for the best showcase of them all, the PC Gaming Show, which will return June 9 at 1 pm Pacific (4 pm ET/9 pm BST).

After community suspicion, Palworld finally fixes an issue that held your Pals back from achieving their full potential
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/after-community-suspicion-palworld-finally-fixes-an-issue-that-held-your-pals-back-from-achieving-their-full-potential/
Pocketpair has just released patch notes for Palworld's next update, and while they aren't very hefty, there is one big change to a bug that had the community questioning whether their Pals were really fighting to the best of their ability. 

WoW's Plunderstorm event just had its rep grind cut in half until April 30—which is great news for everyone, except our online editor who just spent 2 days on it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wows-plunderstorm-event-just-had-its-rep-grind-cut-in-half-until-april-30which-is-great-news-for-everyone-except-our-online-editor-who-just-spent-2-days-on-it/
World of Warcraft's limited-time event, Plunderstorm, is nearly over—but there's going to be one last chance to swipe your bag of pirate-themed swag from its many reputation rewards. Once this week's maintenance is complete (around 4 pm UTC April 16 for US servers, 4 am UTC April 17 for EU servers), all reputation gains will be doubled until the event wraps up April 30.

Final Fantasy 14's graphical update has committed the cardinal sin of messing with lalafell teeth, making them more terrifying than ever
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/final-fantasy-14s-graphical-update-has-committed-the-cardinal-sin-of-messing-with-lalafell-teeth-making-them-more-terrifying-than-ever/
The lalafell. Eorzea's potato. A whole mountain of evil condensed into one tiny gnome-like overlord. Consider: a mouth that opens as if its jaw was unhinged, revealing nothing more than a top row of teeth gracing an endless void.
Well, at least that's the way lalafell physiology has worked in Final Fantasy 14 since its inception, but things are changing—upcoming expansion Dawntrail is being accompanied by a graphical facelift, and that means some of the ageing character models are getting updated. While we wait for it, the recently released benchmark has given fans a pretty decent insight into what we can expect.

Hasbro wants to make another Baldur's Gate sequel but it's early days yet: 'We certainly hope that it's not another 25 years'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/hasbro-wants-to-make-another-baldurs-gate-sequel-but-its-early-days-yet-we-certainly-hope-that-its-not-another-25-years/
Last month, Larian announced that it's going to "move away from D&D", and suddenly the future of Baldur's Gate seemed a lot murkier. The smash success of Baldur's Gate 3 has firmly revived the classic RPG series, but without Larian to continue to shepherd it, what can we actually expect from any possible sequels or spin-offs?
It's a question Hasbro, owner of Wizards of the Coast and by extension D&D, is in the process of figuring out an answer to. Following yet more success for Baldur's Gate 3 at the BAFTA awards, I talked to Eugene Evans, senior vice president of Digital Strategy and Licensing for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, about where the series goes from here. The good news is, a sequel is very much on the cards—but the company is still exploring its options when it comes to what that looks like and what developer might get to create it, and it could still be a long way off. 

Borderlands 3 community scores a big win for science: 'These players have helped trace the evolutionary relationships of more than a million different kinds of bacteria that live in the human gut'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/borderlands-3-community-scores-a-big-win-for-science-these-players-have-helped-trace-the-evolutionary-relationships-of-more-than-a-million-different-kinds-of-bacteria-that-live-in-the-human-gut/
When Borderlands Science was announced back in 2020 I thought it all sounded a little silly. Science? In my Borderlands? It struck me as a lot less likely than Dr. Mayim Bialik seemed to think. But it turns out that I was the silly one all along, because McGill University, the institution leading the project, says the project was in fact a massive success that will "substantially advance our knowledge of the microbiome and improve on the AI programs that will be used to carry out this work in future."

XDefiant is finally getting closer: a stress test starts on Friday and will run all weekend long
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/xdefiant-is-finally-getting-closer-a-stress-test-starts-on-friday-and-will-run-all-weekend-long/
The XDefiant server stress test Ubisoft announced earlier this month will take place this weekend, beginning at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on April 19 and running until the same time on April 21.

Hades 2 technical test set to begin 'shortly,' signups are open now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/hades-2-technical-test-set-to-begin-shortly-signups-are-open-now/
Hades 2 is set to launch into early access later this year, but if you don't want to wait that long to see what's cooking you can sign up to get a taste of it sooner in the upcoming technical test, which was announced today on Steam.

Gigantic walkers are back in Helldivers 2 with a vengeance, and you're gonna want to bring a 380mm barrage
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/gigantic-walkers-are-back-in-helldivers-2-with-a-vengeance-and-youre-gonna-want-to-bring-a-380mm-barrage/
Two weeks ago, the Helldivers 2 community was blindsided by a patch that sneakily added Gunships and gigantic AT-AT walkers to Automaton planets. It was a hectic 24 hours as players scrambled to react to the new threats and finally liberate Malevelon Creek. Super Earth prevailed, and while Gunships became a mainstay of Automaton missions, the walkers mysteriously vanished.
This morning, Arrowhead did it again. What was shared as a routine bug-fixing patch was actually a back door reintroduction of Factory Striders, four-legged "dreadnoughts" equipped with a top-mounted cannon, rotating front lasers, and a mobile factory that continuously spawns Devastators. Standing nearly as tall as a Bile Titan, Striders are by far the largest, most resilient enemy we've seen yet.
>> Talking about bug-fixing, Arrowhead is working on it, but they’re still a small studio and doesn’t have enough time to fix all of them at the same time.

Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive is laying off 5% of its workforce and 'rationalizing its pipeline,' the latest skin-crawling corporate euphemism for people losing their jobs
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/grand-theft-auto-publisher-take-two-interactive-is-laying-off-5-of-its-workforce-and-rationalizing-its-pipeline-the-latest-skin-crawling-corporate-euphemism-for-people-losing-their-jobs/
Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive said today that it has "approved a cost reduction program to identify efficiencies across its business and enhance the company’s margin profile, while still investing for growth," and what that means in practical terms is that it's canceling several games currently in development and laying off roughly 5% of its workforce.

Victoria 3's first major expansion is getting punted back by 2 months so Paradox doesn't repeat the mistake of EU4's disastrous Leviathan release
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/victoria-3s-first-major-expansion-is-getting-punted-back-by-2-months-so-paradox-doesnt-repeat-the-mistake-of-eu4s-disastrous-leviathan-release/
Victoria 3, Paradox's game about making Karl Marx president or something, is due to get its first major expansion soon. It's called Sphere of Influence, and it promises to amp up Vicky's diplomatic aspects by focusing on regional interests, entanglements in foreign economies, and letting your nation's myriad interest groups form lobbies to agitate for change.
In other words, more political headaches than ever before, which is frankly just what I come to Victoria 3 for. But alas, Paradox has delayed the expansion. Where it was previously scheduled to come out on May 6, the studio is pushing things all the way back to June 24, a delay of just under two months. That also affects the release of the free patch that will accompany the update.

You can now buy mythic skins in Overwatch 2 and, to nobody's surprise, they're ridiculously expensive to buy outright
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/you-can-now-buy-mythic-skins-in-overwatch-2-and-to-nobodys-surprise-theyre-ridiculously-expensive-to-buy-outright/
Blizzard has changed the way nabbing a mythic skin in Overwatch 2 works, introducing a new shop, new currency and (sort of) new method of obtaining them.

Palworld CEO surprisingly jazzed about the big-budget clones of its game that are in the works: 'These are incredible times'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/palworld-ceo-surprisingly-jazzed-about-the-big-budget-clones-of-its-game-that-are-in-the-works-these-are-incredible-times/
You'd think that huge corporations trying to replicate your success with clones of your game would be a bit of a kick in the teeth, but Palworld CEO Takura Mizobe couldn't seem happier. 
(...)
Posting a screenshot of Auroria to Twitter, Mizobe wrote: "Tencent is already making a Palworld clone game! In China, many companies are simultaneously developing mobile clones of Palworld, and the budgets are in the 10 billion yen [approximately $64.6 million USD] range, 10 times larger than Palworld's… Next year, we might see many Genshin Impact-level creature (or bishojo) raising games… These are incredible times."