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

[JEMC]

Wednesday news, part two:

Don't Nod is 'temporarily pausing' work on two new games after sales of Jusant and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden fall 'well below expectations'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dont-nod-is-temporarily-pausing-work-on-two-new-games-after-sales-of-jusant-and-banishers-ghosts-of-new-eden-fall-well-below-expectations/
French game studio Don't Nod, best known as the developer of the first two Life is Strange games, is "temporarily pausing" work on two in-development projects and refocusing the design of two others after sales of Jusant and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden fell well short of expectations.

Three months after bringing Wayfinder back to Steam, Airship Syndicate announces more layoffs but says future development will continue
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/three-months-after-bringing-wayfinder-back-to-steam-airship-syndicate-announces-more-layoffs-but-says-future-development-will-continue/
Three months after bringing the action RPG Wayfinder back to Steam, developer Airship Syndicate has laid off 16 more employees but says it remains "committed to delivering the Wayfinder roadmap."

Ghost of Tsushima sequel Ghost of Yōtei announced—no word yet on a PC release, but the last one took several years to make the jump
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/ghost-of-yotei-announcement/
Ghost of Yōtei, a sequel to 2020 Sucker Punch samurai game Ghost of Tsushima, was announced with a trailer (embedded above) during today's Sony State of Play livestream.
Ghost of Tsushima came to PC earlier this year, and we gave it an 81% in our review, calling it "a thrilling and engaging samurai epic." Given that it took a few years to find its way to our platform, don't expect to be playing Ghost of Yōtei on PC in 2025, when its PS5 launch is due. As usual for big PlayStation announcements, the console version is the focus right now.
>> And, as it’s usual for my part, I won’t post any more news about this game until it’s officially announced for PC.

Playing PowerWash Simulator improves mood, Oxford researchers find, though not as much as sex
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/oxford-study-finds-that-playing-powerwash-simulator-improves-mood-though-not-as-much-as-sex/
I really appreciate the principled refusal of research scientists to let casual truths remain casual. A group at Oxford has asked, more or less: Do people feel good when they play PowerWash Simulator? And the answer they got was: Yep, over 70% of PowerWash Simulator players feel good when they play PowerWash Simulator.

After 2 years of silence, Hell is Us makes a surprise reappearance at Sony's State of Play showcase
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/after-2-years-of-silence-hell-is-us-makes-a-surprise-reappearance-at-sonys-state-of-play-showcase/
In April 2022, Deus Ex: Human Revolution art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete unveiled his new project, a third-person descent into awfulness called Hell is Us, in development at Mordheim: City of the Damned studio Rogue Factor. It was supposed to be out sometime in 2023, and obviously that didn't happen—in fact, not much at all has happened on the public-facing front since then. But now it's back, with a 2025 release target and a debut gameplay trailer that appeared at today's State of Play showcase.

The Midnight Walk, the handcrafted-in-clay nightmarish horror game shown at State of Play, is also coming to PC—thank god
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/the-midnight-walk-the-handcrafted-in-clay-nightmarish-horror-game-shown-at-state-of-play-is-also-coming-to-pcthank-god/
I only tuned into Sony's State of Play last night to see if those unfounded rumours of Resident Evil 9 getting shown were true, and while that was obviously a complete disappointment, I was happy to get a look at a new upcoming horror game, The Midnight Walk. 
I'll never pass up on a horror game, but The Midnight Walk looks particularly interesting thanks to it being entirely handcrafted in clay it's really giving out the vibes of if Sackboy was made by Tim Burton. 

Starlight Re:Volver trades out Diablo's demons and gore for magical girls and sparkles, and I couldn't be more excited for it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/starlight-revolver-trades-out-diablos-demons-and-gore-for-magical-girls-and-sparkles-and-i-couldnt-be-more-excited-for-it/
I don't know why the hell it's taken someone this long to say "What if we Sailor Moon'd the hell out of an ARPG?" but Pahdo Labs has only gone and done it with its upcoming game Starlight Re:Volver. With a delightfully colourful cast rooted in old-school magical girl vibes, it's a welcome change from the usual dark and gritty aesthetic that's so prevalent among the genre.

While Dragon Age: The Veilguard's romances might not reach bear-tier, its game director promises they'll be appropriately saucy: 'You may or may not wake up in a coffin'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/while-dragon-age-the-veilguard-s-romances-might-not-reach-bear-tier-its-game-director-promises-they-ll-be-appropriately-saucy-you-may-or-may-not-wake-up-in-a-coffin/
It's a new age for RPGs. Gone are the days of chaste kisses and clandestine hand-holding of our innocent past, now we're rolling around with bears and getting nasty with Gith. I kid, of course. Dragon Age: Origins had plenty of smut back in 2009 and, if you played your cards right, let you saddle for some group fun with Leliana, Zevran, and Isabela.
Still, Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn't going to fall behind in this arms race, even if we don't know whether there'll be even a schlong in it, because that's an industry secret-slash-spoiler, apparently.
That's as per an IGN interview with game director Corinne Busche, who promises a wide variety of flavours of the eligible consort: "Some of them are quite sensual. Some of them are more physical, some are more romantic, some are more spicy," Busch says, before casually dropping the mental fleshbang of "you may or may not wake up in a coffin."

My most anticipated extraction shooter of the year just launched in early access and the community is now fighting over the importance of regular hydration
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/my-most-anticipated-extraction-shooter-of-the-year-just-launched-in-early-access-and-the-community-is-now-fighting-over-the-importance-of-regular-hydration/
We've got a lot of extraction shooter aficionados at PC Gamer, but I've never really been able to find one to float my boat. Then I got to check out The Forever Winter, an ambitious, improbably gloomy PvE extraction romp with heavy survival vibes and a penchant for ruthlessly murdering players—and it turned out that was exactly what I was looking for. 
It hit early access yesterday, and I managed to survive a few scavenging hunts last night. I love it, but like a lot of multiplayer early access ventures, it's still got plenty of kinks to work out. It's sitting at a Mixed rating on Steam at the moment, largely because of performance issues. I've not actually had to deal with any myself, but I'm also running it on a pretty beefy rig with an RTX 4090 and an Intel i9-13900k. 

'Dive into the world of Control through the lens of Alan Wake': The upcoming Lake House expansion is rolling out just in time for Halloween
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/dive-into-the-world-of-control-through-the-lens-of-alan-wake-the-upcoming-lake-house-expansion-is-rolling-out-just-in-time-for-halloween/
We've known about The Lake House expansion for almost a year now, but boy, is it great to finally see it in the flesh. The Lake House is the second expansion coming to Alan Wake 2, and while the first DLC, Night Springs, lets players dive into a fictional TV show, The Lake House will unravel the catastrophic event that took place within the Federal Bureau of Control's research station come this October.