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

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Monday news, the second part:

Helldivers players saved the children, so Arrowhead Game Studios is making a donation to the Save the Children charity
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-players-saved-the-children-so-arrowhead-game-studios-is-making-a-donation-to-the-save-the-children-charity/
Earlier this week, Helldivers 2 were faced with a terrible choice: A major order gave them the option of liberating the planet Marfark, which would grant access to a new strategem, or heading for Vernen Wells to save thousands of survivors trapped in Super Citizen Anne's Hospital for Very Sick Children—with no discernible reward. Despite the promise of new ways to blow things up, massive armies of Helldivers drove on Vernen Wells, forgoing more 'splosions in favor of saving the kids—and I think it's fair to say it was the right call.
"Since the Helldivers2 community chose to save the children, @arrowheadgs does the same," Arrowhead COO Johan Pilestedt tweeted. "We have made a donation to, well, Save the Children. Great job Divers!"

Elden Ring is getting a beefy content update with new inventory features and hairstyles alongside the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/elden-ring-is-getting-a-beefy-content-update-with-new-inventory-features-and-hairstyles-alongside-the-shadow-of-the-erdtree-expansion/
With the long-awaited Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdree now less than a week away, FromSoft has announced a beefy new content update for the base game that will include bug fixes, balance changes, and a number of new features, and also released a detailed breakdown of when exactly the expansion will unlock.

I asked Dark Souls director Miyazaki about his now-legendary Undead Dragon quote, and he had a great response: 'Something beautiful needs something depraved or tragic to embolden that beauty'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/i-asked-dark-souls-director-hidetaka-miyazaki-about-his-now-legendary-undead-dragon-quote-and-he-had-a-great-response-something-beautiful-needs-something-depraved-or-tragic-to-embolden-that-beauty/
There may be no more effective way to tank a conversation than trying to explain a meme, but screw it—I knew I had to try. When I visited FromSoftware's offices in Tokyo to interview company president Hidetaka Miyazaki for PC Gamer's next cover story, I knew I had to ask him about my favorite bit of trivia from Dark Souls: the instructions he gave to the artist behind the Undead Dragon. 
>> He also says that there won’t be layoffs at From Software, at least while he’s the boss.

'I'm still in the process of making my ideal fantasy RPG,' says FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki: 'While Elden Ring is not quite it, it's getting close'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/im-still-in-the-process-of-making-my-ideal-fantasy-rpg-says-fromsoftwares-hidetaka-miyazaki-while-elden-ring-is-not-quite-it-its-getting-close/
Before he owned videogames growing up, FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki loved tabletop RPGs and their source books full of quests and monsters. It's not hard to see that passion reflected in any of the games he's designed at FromSoftware, but Elden Ring particularly so: Its sprawling map echoes the kinds I loved to pore over and draw myself (poorly) as a kid, from Lord of the Rings' Middle-earth to Warcraft's Azeroth. Elden Ring also seems to directly connect back to the RPGs of the '80s with its skeleton-filled catacombs, like tabletop-style dungeons ripped straight from the pages of an AD&D campaign. 
>> Maybe that will involve co-op, given that he’s not against the mods that enable it and actually think they can take ideas from them.

I'm already in love with New Blood's latest, the pulp noir immersive sim Fallen Aces, and you can get it for just $10
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/im-already-in-love-with-new-bloods-latest-the-pulp-noir-immersive-sim-fallen-aces-and-you-can-get-it-for-just-dollar10/
New Blood Interactive's pulp detective immersive sim Fallen Aces is out right now, but the price of the slapstick noir caper might be just as newsworthy: with its intro price and launch discount, Fallen Aces will only set you back $10, and after playing the first two of five levels in its intro episode, I think it's well worth that price.

Wizard with a Gun developer Galvanic Games is closing: 'Sales are not strong enough to sustain our studio'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/wizard-with-a-gun-developer-galvanic-games-is-closing-sales-are-not-strong-enough-to-sustain-our-studio/
Wizard with a Gun is a top-down co-op roguelite about wizards who, as the title makes clear, are packing heat. It's really good—"a lean roguelite that never feels like it's wasting your time, even if it's got some rough edges," we said in our 80% review—but will be the last game from developer Galvanic Games, which announced today that it is closing.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard can be played entirely offline and won't have microtransactions: 'Our focus is on making this the most complete singleplayer game we possibly can'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/dragon-age-the-veilguard-can-be-played-entirely-offline-and-wont-have-microtransactions-our-focus-is-on-making-this-the-most-complete-singleplayer-game-we-possibly-can/
As someone with an occasionally dodgy internet connection, videogames that require an internet connection even for solo play is a regular source of frustration. So I was very happy to hear that BioWare's upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard will not require an internet connection to play, nor will it offer any sort of microtransactions.
>> And it will also be mission based rather than open world.

Maxis canceled The Sims in the '90s, but it was saved by an unlikely hero: Electronic Arts
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/maxis-had-canceled-the-sims-in-the-90s-but-it-was-saved-by-an-unlikely-hero-electronic-arts/
A world without The Sims is hard to imagine: countless virtual homes unbuilt, countless bizarre challenges unplayed, countless Sims untrapped in swimming pools without ladders. What kind of path would my life have taken if I hadn't been able to pack the first game full of mods so I could watch Batman and Gandalf be roommates? It's unthinkable, but it was nearly the world we got. In the late '90s, Maxis almost axed The Sims—not once, but multiple times.

Dying in Spelunky sometimes makes me mad, but it always just makes me laugh in comically brutal roguelike Lucky Tower Ultimate
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/dying-in-spelunky-sometimes-makes-me-mad-but-it-always-just-makes-me-laugh-in-comically-brutal-roguelike-lucky-tower-ultimate/
You know in Spelunky when you spend a little too long on a level and a nearly invulnerable ghost that can instakill you appears and slowly chases you to the exit?
There's something like that in dungeon-crawling roguelike Lucky Tower Ultimate, only it's a naked purple dude with a giant hammer. And he's not slow or subtle: he sprints right at you, screaming at the top of his lungs. He also doesn't wait for you to spend too much time on a level: I've had him hammer me the second I opened the door to his room.

Files allegedly obtained in the 2021 CD Projekt hack indicate Cyberpunk 2077 was once planned to have a level or DLC set on the Moon
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/files-allegedly-obtained-in-the-2021-cd-projekt-hack-indicate-cyberpunk-2077-was-once-planned-to-have-a-level-or-dlc-set-on-the-moon/
First reported by Insider Gaming, users on 4chan have shared assets purportedly originating from the 2021 CD Projekt hack that show a lunar surface area either cut from Cyberpunk 2077 or intended for a canceled DLC.

The next game from Heaven's Vault studio Inkle is about a 1920s school for girls
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/visual-novel/the-next-game-from-heavens-vault-studio-inkle-is-about-a-1920s-school-for-girls/
Inkle's next game seems to be set in, or focused on, a boarding school for young girls in 1922. The tenatively-named Miss Mulligatawney's School for Promising Girls doesn't have many details yet but it's what they're working on after releasing A Highland Song late last year. The short descriptions available so far focus on a setting in an old nunnery, and details in the background of images seem to imply that there'll be some foul play—you know, like someone falling off a tall tower.

Total War: Warhammer 3's next DLC will focus on the ogres, the greenskins, and Khorne
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/total-war-warhammer-3s-next-dlc-will-focus-on-the-ogres-the-greenskins-and-khorne/
Total War: Warhammer 3 still isn't Total or Warhammer enough apparently, as Creative Assembly continues updating its strategy behemoth. While last year's roadmap suggested we should be expecting something Slaanesh-themed next, according to the latest news, shared by a community manager via Discord, "Khorne, Ogre Kingdoms, and Greenskins are taking centre stage for this next DLC and it's releasing later this year."