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

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Thursday news, part two:

Silent Hill 2 devs explain how they were able to stay true to James' character, 'he had to be not too cool and not too good-looking'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/silent-hill-2-devs-explain-how-they-were-able-to-stay-true-to-james-character-he-had-to-be-not-too-cool-and-not-too-good-looking/
The Silent Hill 2 remake managed to surprise a lot of dedicated fans with a faithful retelling of a much-beloved story, and to celebrate the game's release, Bloober Team shared a behind-the-scenes video that demonstrated how much thought went into creating not only the remake, but also its protagonist. 

Killing Floor 3's dynamic tech that makes zed heads 'flower' when you shoot them will haunt me for the rest of my days, but also I have to see more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/killing-floor-3s-dynamic-tech-that-makes-zed-heads-flower-when-you-shoot-them-will-haunt-me-for-the-rest-of-my-days-but-also-i-have-to-see-more/
I'll level with you, folks: I've never sat down and pondered the precise number of ways my head could be minced, mangled, and maimed, and that's probably why no one is ringing my phone off the hook to come work on Killing Floor 3.
The devs love their gore, you see. You can tell because a new documentary cut from PCG (that's us!) and Tripwire—alongside talk about influences, approach, and philosophy—details KF3's evolution on the studio's Massive Evisceration And Trauma tech.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard won't have an arachnophobia mode because it won't have any spiders
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/dragon-age-the-veilguard-wont-have-an-arachnophobia-mode-because-it-wont-have-any-spiders/
Thedas was just declared a no-spider zone. We've seen other games offer arachnophobia modes that replace spiders with alternative enemies: World of Warcraft swaps them out with crabs, Grounded progressively de-spiderizes the offending models until they're eventually just floating balls with eyes, and Lethal Company simply replaces spiders with the word "SPIDER." But where others might provide arachnophobia modes, Dragon Age: The Veilguard has arrived at a more elegant solution for overwhelming spider terror.
Veilguard won't have an arachnophobia mode, because Veilguard simply won't have any spiders in the first place. In the business, we call that efficiency.

More Embracer Group layoffs: Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Studios is cutting jobs for the second time in a year
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/more-embracer-group-layoffs-star-trek-online-developer-cryptic-studios-is-cutting-jobs-for-the-second-time-in-a-year/
A year after laying off an unspecified number of employees as part of a "comprehensive restructuring program" at parent company Embracer Group, Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Games appears to be cutting even more staff.
As reported by Game Developer, numerous Cryptic employees have said on LinkedIn that they will be laid off from the studio at the end of October. The number of people being put out of work isn't currently known, but it sounds like the cuts are significant.

Black and White's AI programmer just won a Nobel prize: 'an incredible honor, it's the big one really'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/black-and-whites-ai-programmer-just-won-a-nobel-prize-an-incredible-honor-its-the-big-one-really/
Professor Demis Hassabis, a co-founder of DeepMind who began his programming career working for Bullfrog and Lionhead, has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, alongside Professor John Jumper and Professor David Baker. Hassabis and Jumper's share of the award is for their "complete revolution" in the prediction of protein structures through the AI tool AlphaFold2. 

Former Bethesda and BioWare devs are making a Stardew-like with Redwall animals, and oh my god look at this little mouse farmer carry a pumpkin
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/former-bethesda-and-bioware-devs-are-making-a-stardew-like-with-redwall-animals-and-oh-my-god-look-at-this-little-mouse-farmer-carry-a-pumpkin/
Nothing soothes the soul like a little woodland creature acting like it's people. If you're suffering from a midweek slump, try it yourself: Imagine a mouse. Now imagine he's got little clothes and he's sipping a tiny mouse soup from an acorn cap. Good, yeah? It's the infallible logic behind the success of Frog and Toad, Redwall, Magic's recent Bloomburrow set—and it's the delight that NEARstudios, a team of former Bethesda, BioWare, and Naughty Dog devs, are hoping to capture in Hawthorn.

'Nobody, and I mean nobody, at Bethesda is patting themselves on the back while ignoring our players': Starfield design director reassures fans that developers are paying attention to community concerns
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/nobody-and-i-mean-nobody-at-bethesda-is-patting-themselves-on-the-back-while-ignoring-our-players-starfield-design-director-reassures-fans-that-developers-are-paying-attention-to-community-concerns/
In the wake of a less-than-stellar reception for the Starfield DLC Shattered Space, design director Emil Pagliarulo has taken to X to say he's proud of it, but that nobody at Bethesda "is patting themselves on the back while ignoring our players."

Former Blizzard president planned to 'cut down' on microtransactions in Diablo 4 and reboot Overwatch before the Microsoft buyout
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/former-blizzard-president-planned-to-cut-down-on-microtransactions-in-diablo-4-and-reboot-overwatch-before-the-microsoft-buyout/
If Microsoft hadn't dropped $69 billion to buy Activision Blizzard last year, we may have seen some dramatic changes to Diablo 4 and Overwatch. In the final chapter of Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, author Jason Schreier reports that former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra "had planned to cut down on microtransactions in Diablo 4 and reboot Overwatch," before he left the studio.
>> Easy to say that now.