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

[JEMC]

The second (and longer than usual) part of the Monday news:

Overwatch 2 has another pricey deal: The once-free Oni Genji skin is available to players who spend $75 in the Blizzard Gear shop first
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/overwatch-2-has-another-pricey-deal-the-once-free-oni-genji-skin-is-available-to-players-who-spend-dollar75-in-the-blizzard-gear-shop-first/
Back in my day, I had to play Heroes of the Storm to get the Genji Oni skin, and then Blizzard just went and released it a year or so later, so players could get it for free in loot boxes or in the shop for something like 1000 OW coins. But now, after all these years, the Oni skin is back, and Blizzard is giving it out again for free. Sort of. 
There's currently a deal going on in the Blizzard Gear shop, where if you purchase $75/£70 or more, then you'll also get the Genji Oni skin for free. The offer is only valid until September 16, 2024, is only available for users over the age of 18 in the US and UK, and you'll only get one per purchase. You can read more about eligibility here. There are also only 500 codes available to redeem, so do check that the promotion is still on before purchasing $75/£70 worth of products. 
>> Quite scummy, if you ask me.

The Sims 4's next season of content is business as usual with two kits, a death-themed expansion, and another log-in rewards event
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4s-next-season-of-content-is-business-as-usual-with-two-kits-a-death-themed-expansion-and-another-log-in-rewards-event/
The Sims 4 turned 10 this week and to celebrate the occasion it's *checks notes* business as usual, apparently. EA published a list of patch notes—longer than usual, thanks to that bug-defeating task force it had announced—and also rolled out a roadmap for the next suite of Sims 4 DLC, appropriately named the season of "To Be Continued". This train don't stop, folks.

Alan Wake and Alan Wake Remastered will have different ending songs starting next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/alan-wake-and-alan-wake-remastered-will-have-different-ending-songs-starting-next-week/
In our latest reminder that licensed music is a headache that most videogames could do without, Remedy has announced that the David Bowie classic Space Oddity will be removed from Alan Wake next week.
>> A shame.

Streamers captured Concord's final moments as the servers went offline: 'What a huge f***ing honor'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/streamers-captured-concords-final-moments-as-the-servers-went-offline-what-a-huge-fing-honor/
Earlier today, shortly after 1 PM Eastern, Concord's servers went offline. Ryan Ellis, game director at Concord developer Firewalk Studios, had announced the closure of the 5v5 hero shooter in an official PlayStation blog post published earlier this week on September 3, 2024—just 11 days after Concord's release.
>> You’ll still be able to see the game once more, when they air the Secret Level episode where it appears.

Once Human dev says some recent player feedback 'has been quite demoralizing'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/once-human-devs-says-some-recent-player-feedback-has-been-quite-demoralizing/
We had a fine time with free-to-play survival MMO Once Human: our review described the PvPvE open world shooter as deep and "surprisingly sticky." We're not alone in liking it, either: Steam review scores are "mostly positive" and two months after its July launch there's still over 100,000 concurrent daily players. Sounds like a well-received hit to me.
But that doesn't mean everything is going swimmingly, and according to developer Starry Studio, player reactions haven't been universally positive—or much fun to read.

Baldur's Gate 3 players are having their hearts thoroughly wrenched by the new evil endings to their companion romances: 'I'll never emotionally recover from this'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldurs-gate-3-players-are-having-their-hearts-thoroughly-wrenched-by-the-new-evil-endings-to-their-companion-romances-ill-never-emotionally-recover-from-this/
Baldur's Gate 3 got its eagerly anticipated Patch 7 yesterday, which added new, expanded ending sequences for evil player characters. Whether you're a Dark Urge or a more mundane variety of villain, an origin character or a custom-made scoundrel, your big moment has finally arrived if you're playing a bad guy. Sadly, as players have quickly discovered, ascending as an archvillain tends to have some unpleasant outcomes for the companions you might've romanced along the way.
There will be spoilers ahead for the new Baldur's Gate 3 evil endings.

Baldur's Gate 3's latest patch is not the final update, Larian says: 'The chefs must cook'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/baldurs-gate-3s-latest-patch-is-not-the-final-update-larian-says-the-chefs-must-cook/
Baldur's Gate's big patch 7 went live yesterday, adding a slew of new content, improvements, and built-in mod support. But that's not the end of the story, as Larian says it still has more to come.

Here's a little social deduction game about figuring out who's slacking off at work
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/heres-a-little-social-deduction-game-about-figuring-out-whos-slacking-off-at-work/
An indie social game called Dale & Dawson Stationery Supplies is getting a bit of buzz on Steam this past week, casting players as managers and specialists in an office trying get their work done while rooting out perfidious slackers, who'll ensure that productivity is in the toilet and the company goes bust.

Heads-up: Space Marine 2 has a photo mode and it rules
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/heads-up-space-marine-2-has-a-photo-mode-and-it-rules/
I've been playing Space Marine 2 during its early unlock period, and while it's a shame the campaign is balanced for co-op—expect a lot of objectives you have to complete while under attack and with AI allies who suck at keeping enemies off your back—it's still a blast getting stuck into hordes of tyranids. There are so many waves of them it's like a full degustation, and the finishing moves make it look like you're cracking open the shells of ornery lobsters.
One good thing about playing Space Marine 2 solo is that I can spend as much time faffing about in the photo mode as I like. Bring up the menu and press F to access it and you'll find the usual set of tools for lining up your own dioramas, including the option to change the marines' facial expressions. Now, in every screenshot I take, Titus and his squad are gurning like pros.

Free DLC for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous adds a crossover with indie dungeon crawler Children of Morta
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/free-dlc-for-pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous-adds-a-crossover-with-indie-dungeon-crawler-children-of-morta/
Here's a surprise. Three years after its release, Owlcat CRPG Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous just got a new DLC for free, and it's a crossover with an indie action RPG that has a much smaller footprint. 

Fan-favorite stunty teams are coming to Blood Bowl 3 at last
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/board-games/fan-favorite-stunty-teams-are-coming-to-blood-bowl-3-at-last/
The teaser for the next season of Blood Bowl 3 contains good news—the next teams joining the game are two of its worst. 
(...)
Which doesn't mean they're no fun to play. I own a halfling team, and consider every draw I squeak over the line to be a moral victory. Seeing the teaser for Season 6 open with the arrival of a halfling team is a pleasant surprise. Even better, it ends with the shadow of a doom diver passing overhead, because we'll be getting two teams this season and the second is another stunty squad: goblins.

Stealth strategy takes a particularly demonic bent with this game of commando scientists vs Nazi occultists
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/stealth-strategy-takes-a-particularly-demonic-bent-with-this-game-of-commando-scientists-vs-nazi-occultists/
You know what's better than games about killing nazis? Killing wannabe nazi demon summoners. At least that's the concept behind Sumerian Six, a recently-released stealth strategy game from Devolver Digital's development studio Artificer that sends five commando scientists and one werebear to go stop some bad nazis from doing some bad nazi stuff.
>> If you like the trailer, there’s a demo on Steam.

This horny cyberpunk vampire RPG has already hit its goal on Kickstarter
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/this-horny-cyberpunk-vampire-rpg-has-already-hit-its-goal-on-kickstarter/
I played a demo of Vampire Syndicate: Gangs of Moonfall last year when it was still a top-down game that was designed in RPG Maker and looked like it. While it showed promise, the Kickstarter campaign was quickly canceled and its creator, a solo developer, went back to the drawing board. Now it's back as a flashier Unreal Engine 5 project with exploration and dialogue in first-person (you can toggle a third-person view), switching to a top-down view for the turn-based combat. The relaunched Kickstarter has already passed its initial goal of $25,000 and it still has 25 days to go.

Former World of Warcraft designer calls streamlined MMO levelling a mistake: 'Getting to level cap should be an accomplishment, not a blip'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/former-world-of-warcraft-designer-calls-streamlined-mmo-levelling-a-mistake-getting-to-level-cap-should-be-an-accomplishment-not-a-blip/
World of Warcraft: The War Within has, against all reasonable scepticism, shaken out to be pretty decent so far—a story that's really trying very hard to regain its composure, the new Warbands system and, as part and parcel of that, very nippy levelling and alt-friendly gameplay. You can get characters to max level in a jiffy, with a stacking XP buff making it faster the more 80s you have in the bank.
A veteran designer from both World of Warcraft (and the League of Legends MMO, which is still in purgatory), Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street, however, seems to think this direction for MMO design is a step too far, as he explains in a recent set of tweets (thanks, GamesRadar).