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

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The other part of the Thursday news:

Monster Hunter Wilds' hunting horn will be more like World's than Rise's, but Capcom promises new moves: 'If you're a fan of the hunting horn, I'm sure you're going to love it in Wilds'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-hunting-horn-will-be-more-like-worlds-than-rises-but-capcom-promises-new-moves-if-youre-a-fan-of-the-hunting-horn-im-sure-youre-going-to-love-it-in-wilds/
If you want to make the developers behind Monster Hunter laugh, apparently there's an easy way to do it: just ask them about the hunting horn. 
"I'm always surprised by how much we get asked about the hunting horn when we come here," said Monster Wilds (and World) game director Yuya Tokuda.
(...)
Perhaps melding a weapon as slow as a hammer with the musical sensibility of a Saxaboom wasn't the easiest sell; with Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom greatly simplified the hunting horn, making it faster and easier to play songs with, but also robbing it of its expansive repertoire of songs that varied per-horn. This was either a great change or a travesty, depending on your bardic leanings. (The weapon was slightly more popular in Rise).
Well, good news (or bad news), toot squad: We're going back. Tokuda said that Wilds' hunting horn is based less on Rise and more on Monster Hunter World "as a baseline."

Monster Hunter Wilds director says changes to the ecosystem are persistent: 'Even as you return to base, the world outside is moving on and continuing where you left it in the background'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-director-says-changes-to-the-ecosystem-are-persistent-even-as-you-return-to-base-the-world-outside-is-moving-on-and-continuing-where-you-left-it-in-the-background/
A decade ago, a Monster Hunter environment was essentially a series of battle rooms, with loading screens between each piece of the map. Chasing down a monster to finish it off meant having to put up with a few of those loads every hunt. With its two latest games, World and Rise, Capcom did away with that technical limitation, but another major bit of rigidity remained: every mission had to be selected from a job board or NPC, then launched to load into a predetermined world state. 
In Monster Hunter Wilds, that's gone, too.
Once you leave the hub and head out into the field to hunt, you can stay there as long as you want—setting up custom camps that serve as fast travel points with no loading, attacking monsters to automatically begin missions, and remaining in the field after slaying and carving up a monster. Those are all niceties that will cut down on the amount of time spent staring at loading screens, but Wilds is going deeper, maintaining the effects of your hunts on the ecosystem even when you do return to the hub. According to game director Yuya Tokuda, there is no reset back to a "default" state.

Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi-P implies that Dawntrail's story will have something to do with the Twelve and the Ascians still, and my brain is on fire
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-14-director-yoshi-p-implies-that-dawntrail-s-story-will-have-something-to-do-with-the-twelve-and-the-ascians-still-and-my-brain-is-on-fire/
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail will be arriving later this month—and with it, the start of a new epic story arc similar to the 10-year saga spanning from A Realm Reborn to Dawntrail. In case you're completely uninitiated, firstly I should warn you that this article will be full of spoilers for Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker. Secondly, you should know that FF14 has a habit of being the best in the business when it comes to foreshadowing.

According to the game's director, the $500 League of Legends Ahri skin wasn't meant for the average fan, but instead 'players who are willing to spend $200 a month on their hobbies'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/according-to-the-games-director-the-dollar500-league-of-legends-ahri-skin-wasnt-meant-for-the-average-fan-but-instead-players-who-are-willing-to-spend-dollar200-a-month-on-their-hobbies/
Riot recently came under fire as League of Legends fans pushed back against its introduction of a cosmetic that cost up to $500. (...)
Since then, we talked to the game director, Pu Liu during a Q&A at Summer Games Fest, where the issue of sky-high cosmetics prices became the topic of discussion, and from the sound of things, the company doesn't want to make a habit of it. 
"I think there are people who are very upset about [the Ahri skin]," Liu says. "And I also think it's kind of justified because when you have a 14-year-old product that starts doing new things that are expensive, when [players] are used to everything living under a certain price point, all of a sudden, it can be kind of jarring." But that still doesn't explain why it was so expensive. After the controversy League of Legends released a video addressing the complaints where a couple of devs explained the price tag was to cover the costs of esports and celebrate iconic pro players.  
>> Cover the costs of esports? So they create their tournaments that lose make money, and players have to cover the cost of that? Cool.

With Shadow of the Erdtree, FromSoftware wanted to build a map 'that's not quite open field and not quite legacy dungeon,' but instead 'blends the two together'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/with-shadow-of-the-erdtree-fromsoftware-wanted-to-build-a-map-thats-not-quite-open-field-and-not-quite-legacy-dungeon-but-instead-blends-the-two-together/
As we noted in our preview of Shadow of the Erdtree last week, the expansion's new map is notably different from the Lands Between, which we explored in Elden Ring. It's smaller, yes, but also denser with enemies, activities, and notable locations, and not quite so simple to navigate. You'll find more cliffs, valleys, and bridges blocking off new areas you may have first thought you'd be able to gallop to. 
>> By the way, if you can run the original game, you can run the expansion (which is a weird sentence to make, but it’s not always the case).

Armello studio League of Geeks is 'going into hibernation for the foreseeable future' and may not be back
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/armello-studio-league-of-geeks-is-going-into-hibernation-for-the-foreseeable-future-and-may-not-be-back/
Just six months after laying off more than half its staff and pausing work on its current project, Armello and Solium Infernum developer League of Geeks has announced that the studio is going into "hibernation" for the foreseeable future, and may not return.

Obsidian CEO responds to worries Xbox could shut them down, too: 'I'm not worried about tomorrow'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/obsidian-ceo-responds-to-worries-xbox-could-shut-them-down-too-im-not-worried-about-tomorrow/
A gray cloud loomed over this year's big summer game showcases: Over 16,000 game developers have lost their jobs since 2023, many of whom were casualties of success at companies that reported huge profits this year. (…)
Hours after Microsoft's dazzling June showcase that debuted a new Doom, Perfect Dark, and Gears of War, PC Gamer sat down with Obsidian CEO and founder Feargus Urquhart, who premiered a new Avowed trailer during the show, to get his perspective on layoffs and Xbox ownership in 2024.

Helldivers 2 is hiring a second game master to help Joel carry the weight of a galaxy, and 'inconvenient working hours are expected'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-is-hiring-a-second-game-master-to-help-joel-carry-the-weight-of-a-galaxy-and-inconvenient-working-hours-are-expected/
The team behind Helldivers 2's galactic war is about to double in size, from one to two, as Arrowhead is recruiting an extra pair of hands for game master Joel, the invisible composer of Helldivers 2's metanarrative.

Helldivers 2's enormous balance patch means business—weapons are getting buffed, galactic map supply lines are here, solo patrols are sensible again, and the worst mission modifier is gone
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-s-enormous-balance-patch-means-business-weapons-are-getting-buffed-galactic-map-supply-lines-are-here-solo-patrols-are-sensible-again-and-the-worst-mission-modifier-is-gone/
Arrowhead Games has said time and time again as of late that, when it comes to Helldivers 2 patches, it'd be slowing down its cadence to deliver more on quality—and assuming there's not some catastrophic bug lurking in the shadows, it's clear by this latest patch that the studio meant it.
This morning's update for Helldivers 2 is absolutely massive—so massive, in fact, that I'm not going to be able to cover everything here, though you can always head to the Steam news page and rifle through it yourself. Until then, here's your quick debriefing, soldier.

Everywhere, an upcoming multiplayer sandbox game with a powerful creation suite under the hood, will be opening its toolkit to closed beta testers soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/everywhere-an-upcoming-multiplayer-sandbox-game-with-a-powerful-creation-suite-under-the-hood-will-be-opening-its-toolkit-to-closed-beta-testers-soon/
Everywhere, simply put, wants you to come and make stuff. While games like Fortnite and Roblox have had their own user-generated content (UGC) tools added after-the-fact (and have seen massive success off the back of them) Everywhere is a game that looks to build itself from the ground-up with those tools in mind—making it the lifeblood of its interlocking systems.