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

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Friday news, part two:

Cyberpunk 2077 dev says they went all-out on the memorial to Johnny Silverhand's nuclear attack, then found out bosses 'just expected a commemorative plaque'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/cyberpunk-2077-developer-says-they-went-all-out-on-the-in-game-memorial-to-johnny-silverhands-nuclear-attack-then-found-out-bosses-just-expected-a-commemorative-plaque/
The bombing of Arasaka Tower in 2023 is a massive moment in Cyberpunk lore, and pretty much the key inciting event that makes the whole plot of Cyberpunk 2077 possible. No wonder, then, that the ground zero of the blast—right next to the new Arasaka Tower—is home to a sprawling memorial in stark, black blocks.
Except it turns out it wasn't really meant to be there at all.

Baldur's Gate 3 initially had an entire mechanic where you'd go to the fugue plane if you died, but it was scrapped
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/baldurs-gate-3-initially-had-an-entire-mechanic-where-youd-go-to-the-fugue-plane-if-you-died-but-it-was-scrapped/
Death in Baldur's Gate 3 is final—if you're playing Honour Mode, that is. For everyone else, returning to the land of the living is but a revivify scroll away. This is a streamlining of D&D 5e (the system the game's built upon) and its resurrection mechanics—which typically require powerful magic that grows costlier and more advanced the longer the poor sod in question has been dead.
Originally, though, this process wasn't quite so simple. As Larian co-founder and CEO Sven Vincke told PC Gamer in a recent roundtable podcast, Baldur's Gate's development team once planned an entire mechanic that'd task players with escaping the fugue plane.

The Outer Worlds once had an incredible secret ending that was cut for pushing the limits of 'too horny'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-outer-worlds-once-had-an-incredible-secret-ending-that-was-cut-for-pushing-the-limits-of-too-horny/
Baldur's Gate 3 has certainly changed the conversation on sex in games, from the breakout viral moment around its bear sex scene to the way it turns intimacy, rather than sex, into the end goal of many of its relationships. Our RPG roundtable from this year's Game Developers Conference, now available on the PC Gamer Chat Log podcast feed, touches on the topic of sex in games—but it also spawned an incredible anecdote from Obsidian game director Carrie Patel from her time as a narrative designer on The Outer Worlds.

Kerbal Space Program fans react with anger over Intercept Games closure, and you know what that means: Review bombing on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/kerbal-space-program-fans-react-with-anger-over-intercept-games-closure-and-you-know-what-that-means-review-bombing-on-steam/
Kerbal Space Program 2 players are responding to the reported closure of developer Intercept Games with what has become something of a time-honored tradition among gamers: A flood of negative reviews on Steam.

That gorgeous cozy castle doodling game is launching a demo this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/that-gorgeous-cozy-castle-doodling-game-is-launching-a-demo-this-month/
Since the surprise success of Townscaper a few years ago, a crop of other "radically casual" cozy city builders has been in the works, and Tiny Glade has definitely been at the top of my wishlist—and most other folks', I suspect. Thank goodness we're finally going to get to try painting lovely ivy-covered walls across a pastoral canvas: Pounce Light says a demo is coming on May 30.

Helldivers 2's next warbond makes slowdown an unpatriotic thing of the past with 'motivational shocks'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/helldivers-2s-next-warbond-makes-slowdown-an-unpatriotic-thing-of-the-past-with-motivational-shocks/
Helldivers 2 has announced its next warbond, the game's equivalent of battle passes, will arrive on May 9 and is going to take the temperature of this war all the way down. Polar Patriots leads with the line that "a deep freeze is coming to the galaxy" before introducing a plethora of cold-themed armor, new weapons, and a white phosphorous grenade to balance things out.
>> Oh, and a whole planet has turned green.

Balatro's first big balance patch fiddles with Fibonacci and makes a mod to Odd Todd
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/balatros-first-big-balance-patch-fiddles-with-fibonacci-and-makes-a-mod-to-odd-todd/
The first big balance patch for Balatro is now fully live on Steam, bringing with it performance improvements, numerous gameplay adjustments, bug fixes, and a reduction in the cost of Fibonacci, "because Fibonacci."

Elden Ring lead Hidetaka Miyazaki won't say how long the DLC is since everyone thinks he lowballed the main game: 'Everyone told me I was lying and that's not remotely enough time!'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/elden-ring-lead-hidetaka-miyazaki-wont-say-how-long-the-dlc-is-since-everyone-thinks-he-lowballed-the-main-game-everyone-told-me-i-was-lying-and-thats-not-remotely-enough-time/
FromSoftware big shot and Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki has delivered some more cryptic Shadow of the Erdtree details in a recent interview shared to the Chinese social network Zhihu. The big takeaways for my money are that this thing is going to be big, and that Elden lore freak favorite St. Trina will make an appearance.

Abiotic Factor, a 6-player survival game where you're scientists in a paranormal lab, is rising up Steam's top-sellers chart
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/abiotic-factor-early-access-launch/
Gordon Freeman is a nerd who cuts a heroic profile, but in Abiotic Factor you're just a nerd: a regular, lab-coat-wearing new employee in a Black Mesa-like science facility that's undergoing an unspecified security situation. Your job, at least for starters, is to avoid dying.
Out in early access on Steam today, Abiotic Factor's premise seems to be striking a chord with co-op survival crafting fans: It hasn't hit Steam's top concurrents chart at the time of writing, but it has jumped to seventh place in Steam's US top-sellers list just a few hours after launch.

Taking a lesson from Manor Lords, Hooded Horse delays Norland to July
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/taking-a-lesson-from-manor-lords-hooded-horse-delays-norland-to-july/
"Late is just for a little while," a wise man once said. "Suck is forever." Few games embody that mantra as effectively as Manor Lords: It was supposed to come out in 2023, got pushed to April 2024, and ultimately launched to near-universal acclaim and major sales. Perhaps inspired by that success, publisher Hooded Horse announced today that medieval strategy sim Norland—which, like Manor Lords, is putting up big wishlist numbers—has likewise been delayed, and is now set to come out on July 18.