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:

After Borderlands comes crawling back to Steam, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford responds to people mocking his old predictions about Steam being killed off by the Epic Store: 'Epic is not pressing their advantage'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/after-borderlands-comes-crawling-back-to-steam-gearbox-boss-randy-pitchford-responds-to-people-mocking-his-old-predictions-about-steam-being-killed-off-by-the-epic-store-epic-is-not-pressing-their-advantage/
The inevitable return of Borderlands 4 to Steam, following the third game's Epic Store exclusivity, was the cause of some amusement this week. After the announcement of Borderlands 4 at Gamescom, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford received a light ribbing over some, uh, bold predictions he made five years ago about how the Epic Store would kill off Valve's omnipresent distribution service. Now, Pitchford has responded to the mockery (which my mum said you should never do as it's just giving them what they want), lamenting the lack of competition for Steam, and claiming that 'Epic is not pressing their advantage.'
>> For God’s Sake. Can’t he shut up?

After four months, hundreds of leaked gameplay videos, and everybody you know having played it, Valve finally admitted Deadlock exists
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/after-four-months-hundreds-of-leaked-gameplay-videos-and-everybody-you-know-having-played-it-valve-finally-admitted-deadlock-exists/
Ever since the first leaks about Deadlock came out in May, Valve's next game has been in a bit of a weird limbo: It has hundreds of gameplay videos in the wild, a public subreddit, and a peak player count of over 44,000 thanks to invites getting passed out like candy⁠—including to Steam tracking website, SteamDB. But the studio itself refused to acknowledge the game's existence until today. Deadlock has a Steam store page, and we're finally allowed to talk about it and share clips, as if that stopped anyone before.
>> Not only that, but a Valve developer has shared a previous version of the game, with Half Life 2 and Left 4 Dead assets.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle devs say an Indy game 'could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter,' so they're embracing his signature whip, improvised brawls, and disguise-based stealth instead
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-devs-say-an-indy-game-could-never-be-a-shooter-should-never-be-a-shooter-so-they-re-embracing-his-signature-whip-improvised-brawls-and-disguise-based-stealth-instead/
In a conversation with PCG global editor-in-chief Phil Savage at Gamescom, MachineGames developers went into more detail about how Indiana Jones and the Great Circle builds on their prior games like the new Wolfensteins and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay. Their emphasis on rollicking, scrappy improvisation has me way more excited than I was before for this adventure.
"Indiana Jones, he's not a gunslinger, right? He doesn't go guns blazing into situations," said Jens Andersson, design director at MachineGames. "So it could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter. But hand to hand combat, that makes total sense."

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will have challenging puzzles, but also a creative hint system through Indy's camera: 'We don't want you to go to YouTube to look up the solution, because that's immersion-breaking and bad'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-will-have-challenging-puzzles-but-also-a-creative-hint-system-through-indys-camera-we-dont-want-you-to-go-to-youtube-to-look-up-the-solution-because-thats-immersion-breaking-and-bad/
In addition to improvisational brawling and sneaking, there's another pillar of the Indiana Jones experience MachineGames wants to lean into with the Great Circle: Puzzle solving. Giant stone gears turning improbable ancient machinery, assorted cups and whether a carpenter would be caught dead holding them, I would expect no less from an outing with Dr. Jones. 

Sekiro was so influential, even the next big BioWare and Obsidian RPGs are adding parries and stagger meters
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/sekiro-was-so-influential-even-the-next-big-bioware-and-obsidian-rpgs-are-adding-parries-and-stagger-meters/
I don't know if we'll ever get another Sekiro game, but FromSoftware's 2019 ninja sim lives on in everybody cribbing off its notes. We've already seen fellow soulslikes Wo Long and Lies of P borrow its signature moves, and the Resident Evil 4 Remake used a Sekiro-style parry system to great effect. But it feels like a whole new frontier altogether to see RPG old guards BioWare and Obsidian spice up their upcoming games with some of Sekiro's signature moves.

After years of speculation about whether Avowed takes place before or after Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian casually revealed it's a sequel through a preview quest poking fun at the events of Pillars 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/after-years-of-speculation-about-whether-avowed-takes-place-before-or-after-pillars-of-eternity-obsidian-casually-revealed-it-s-a-sequel-through-a-preview-of-a-quest-poking-fun-at-the-events-of-pillars-2/
In a 31-minute Gamescom preview of Avowed by GameSpot, Obsidian has finally revealed when in the Pillars of Eternity timeline its upcoming action RPG, Avowed, takes place. The first-person Pillars spinoff begins at some point after the end of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.

Here's how a martial artist created the motions for Baldur's Gate 3 monks
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/heres-how-a-martial-artist-created-the-motions-for-baldurs-gate-3s-monks/
A recent video from Larian Studios shows how the motion capture movements of the Monk class in Baldur's Gate 3 were performed by an experienced real-world unarmed martial artist. Michael Li is a French martial artist with 15 years of experience in Wu Dang and Shaolin styles. In addition to the Monk's unarmed combat, Li portrays the combat animations for Elf characters.

I am so here for this zombie game set in a medieval market town
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/i-am-so-here-for-this-zombie-game-set-in-a-medieval-market-town/
One peasant and his pitchfork versus the zombie horde looks to be the concept behind God Save Birmingham, the recently-announced survival crafting game from Ocean Drive Studio. With a short alpha trailer dropped this week at Gamescom and a recently-posted Steam page, God Save Birmingham will be a "physics-based" game set "in a painstakingly recreated medieval market town."

Click Click Dig is a charming little pixelated idler
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/click-click-dig-is-a-charming-little-pixelated-idler/
Okay, idle fans, I've got a new clicker for you: Click Click Dig dropped a new demo this week, and it's looking pretty much like your kind of thing. In it, your little guy ("Diggy") and his friends are tunneling toward the center of various planets in search of special and rare materials. Special and rare materials you'll obviously use to dig deeper, faster, on even more planets.

Flip patties with friends to fill orders in cozy cook-em-up Galaxy Burger
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/flip-patties-with-friends-to-fill-orders-in-cozy-cook-em-up-galaxy-burger/
A new indie will have you flipping burgers for astronauts, aliens, and space cats in a tongue in cheek sci-fi fast food restaurant. Galaxy Burger, the second game from developer Galactic Workshop, is a "relaxing cooking simulator" that's desgined to be no-stress whether you're playing alone or doing online or LAN co-op.

Gloomwood, aka Thief with guns, is getting cutscenes 'done in an early 1900s animated horror style' to introduce major areas and encounters
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/gloomwood-aka-thief-with-guns-is-getting-cutscenes-done-in-an-early-1900s-animated-horror-style-to-introduce-major-areas-and-encounters/
There are few games I enjoy watching the development of as much as Gloomwood. Not only because New Blood Interactive's Thief-inspired immersive sim is one of my most anticipated games, but also because the developers keep adding wonderful little extras that I never would have expected. The most recently announced addition is a wonderful example, with New Blood revealing that Gloomwood is getting cutscenes.

Descending is a free Iron Lung-style horror game where you drill a giant borehole for the glory of your country
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/descending-is-a-free-iron-lung-style-horror-game-where-you-drill-a-giant-borehole-for-the-glory-of-your-country/
I love a shortform horror game about doing a practical job under impractical conditions, by which I mean I loved David Szymanski's terrifying submarine adventure Iron Lung. The procedure, the claustrophobia, the fact it wrapped up in less than an hour, it's a fantastic example of surgically precise game design (and how to scare the bejesus out of me).
Naturally, therefore, I was drawn to Descending like a wayward minnow to the light of an anglerfish. This is a free "experimental horror game" made by indie developer Eugene Radaev, in which you play a new recruit to some government run industrial organisation, tasked with operating two large drills as they bore deep into the Earth. Taking place over several days, you're required to meet a daily drilling distance quota each day, with you retiring to a bed in an adjacent room once your work for the day is done.