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JEMC on 11 October 2024
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Friday news, the second part:

'We've managed to keep the lights on… until now': Cosy dino game Paleo Pines is asking players for help amid 'a sudden drying up of publishing and investment opportunities'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/weve-managed-to-keep-the-lights-on-until-now-cosy-dino-game-paleo-pines-is-asking-players-for-help-amid-a-sudden-drying-up-of-publishing-and-investment-opportunities/
It's been almost a year since the cosy dinosaur farming simulator Paleo Pines was released, and unfortunately, it has been anything but a smooth ride for developer Italic Pig. After a year of hard work, the studio finally resorted to asking its players for help. 
(...)
The team has been working on extra content for DLCs, which includes more dinosaurs, regions, and even multiplayer, but without a production partner, it doesn't really matter how much extra content is planned down the road. "We've managed to keep the lights on… until now," Italic Pig says. "Unless we can find a partner who is keen to see the Paleo Pines universe grow, we won't be able to keep our team together for much longer." 

The first game from Mike Morhaime's new company is 'a couch co-op tactical adventure' that aims to recreate the experience of tabletop gaming
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/the-first-game-from-mike-morhaimes-new-company-is-a-couch-co-op-tactical-adventure-that-aims-to-recreate-the-experience-of-tabletop-gaming/
Mike Morhaime stepped down as president of Blizzard in 2018, more than 25 years after he co-founded the company (as Silicon and Synapse) alongside Allen Adham and Frank Pearce. Two years later he launched a new venture called Dreamhaven—and now, four years after that, we've finally got a look at its first project, a "couch co-op tactical adventure" called Sunderfolk.

Persona series director says Atlus's flashy menus are 'actually really annoying' to design
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/persona-series-director-says-atluss-flashy-menus-are-actually-really-annoying-to-design/
Atlus RPGs mean bold aesthetic decisions, and that includes the studio's menus. Where other games might be content to rely on the proven, dependable rectangle, Atlus's interfaces are as much modern art as they are menus. They're arranged at off-kilter angles; they tumble onto the screen as a collage of disparate elements. They might, in the case of Metaphor: ReFantazio, be embellished with runic transcriptions of encoded Esperanto. They're striking, they're satisfying, and—according to Persona series director Katsura Hashino—they kinda suck to make.

Spooky Stardew-like farm sim Everholm launches in November
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/spooky-stardew-like-farm-sim-everholm-launches-in-november/
Earlier this month I collected a list of my favorite creepy cozy games for autumn and now I may need to consider another: Everholm. This Stardew-like farm sim revolves around witches, magic, and a mystery. It's just announced a November 11 release date but you can actually play its demo right now.

Overwatch 2 teases a new tank hero in its season 13 trailer and his name could be 'Spiker'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/overwatch-2-teases-a-new-tank-hero-in-its-season-13-trailer-and-his-name-could-be-spiker/
Overwatch 2 has another mystery for players to solve. At the end of the trailer for its upcoming witch-themed season, called Spellbinder, a new voice cuts in as the camera pans over a vandalized spawn room of an existing map teasing a new hero.

Whoops, Blizzard just leaked all the cards from Hearthstone's next expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/whoops-blizzard-just-leaked-all-the-cards-from-hearthstones-next-expansion/
Blizzard announced a new Hearthstone expansion today, The Great Dark Beyond, a spacefaring set of 145 new cards set to go live on November 5. Unfortunately, in a break from the normal drip-feed reveal schedule, every single card was revealed to the community at the same time thanks to what must be the biggest leak in the game's decade-long life. It's one way to celebrate, I suppose.

RuneScape creator's new MMO gets a one-day delay, and it's the US government's fault
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/runescape-creators-new-mmo-gets-a-one-day-delay-and-its-the-us-governments-fault/
Brighter Shores, the new MMO being developed by RuneScape creator Andrew Gower and his brother Paul, has been delayed: Instead of launching into early access on November 5 as planned, it will arrive on November 6. No, it's not much of a wait as these things go, but the reason for the postponement is pretty funny.

There's now a third studio boasting Disco Elysium veterans trying to follow up the beloved RPG—here with a spiritual successor 'psychogeographic RPG'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/theres-now-a-third-studio-boasting-disco-elysium-veterans-trying-to-follow-up-the-beloved-rpg-here-with-a-a-spiritual-successor-psychogeographic-rpg/
Disco Elysium 2 is dead, long live Disco Elysium spiritual successors. Newly-revealed studio Longdue has announced that it is working on a Disco-inspired RPG, with a "dozen strong" staff that includes some former members of Studio ZA/UM.

This overlooked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roguelike is even better on PC than it was on Nintendo Switch—and there's a free demo available now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/this-overlooked-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-roguelike-is-looking-even-better-on-pc-than-it-did-on-nintendo-switch-and-theres-a-free-demo-available-now/
Back in August, I found myself very pleasantly surprised by a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roguelike on Nintendo Switch—and happy to discover a PC port was also on the way. Now it's got a free demo on Steam, and a quick play confirms it's definitely the better version of a great game.
Basically, imagine Hades, but with four turtles instead of one goth teenager. Wacky powers allow you to create all sorts of fun builds over the course of a run, throwing together elemental types including "ooze", "ninja", and "utrom" into brilliantly chaotic combinations. There's co-op, too, which is a cool addition to the formula—though equally my solo playthrough didn't feel lacking, so it's far from mandatory.
>> The game is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate.

Helldivers 2's 60-day patch, which was due this weekend, is now a 63-day patch because oops, turns out there's a Saturday in the way
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2s-60-day-patch-which-was-due-this-weekend-is-now-a-63-day-patch-because-oops-turns-out-theres-a-saturday-in-the-way/
If you've been following the Helldivers 2 news, you'll know that Arrowhead Games is on a democracy-sanctioned mission to turn the ship around and, fair play, appears to have been doing a solid job of it so far.
A huge, buff-heavy balance patch arrived last month. ()
But that's just step one of the plan. As the now-CEO Shams Jorjani promised back in August, Helldivers 2 is on a self-imposed 60-day timer to get the game all fixed for a bright future. Well, it's October 11 now, and it was August 13 then, meaning that the end of that wait is just around the corner. October 12 to be precise.
Alas, that 60-day timer is now a 63-day timer. Egads, shock and horror, broken promises! Well, not really—turns out, it's more a mishap of scheduling than development. See, tomorrow is the weekend, and Arrowhead doesn't patch its game on weekends because, well, that's when everyone's busy playing it, and patches have a habit of breaking stuff.

A Disco Elysium successor studio has been announced for the second time today, meaning there are now 4 companies battling for the title of ZA/UM's true inheritor
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-disco-elysium-successor-studio-has-been-announced-for-the-second-time-today-meaning-there-are-now-4-companies-battling-for-the-title-of-za-ums-true-inheritor/
How many Disco Elysium successor studios is too many? Trick question, no such number has yet been invented. For the second time today (and the fourth time total) a gaggle of former ZA/UM devs has announced they're coming together to boot up a new studio. This one is called Dark Math Games, and it's working on XXX Nightshift, which looks, huh, a little like Disco Elysium.
>> This is almost comical. At least this one already has a game in the works.

AI in games might've just proven itself useful for a change—Activision claims Call of Duty's seen a 43% drop in 'disruptive voice chat' since the start of the year thanks to its robo-snitch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/ai-in-games-mightve-just-proven-itself-useful-for-a-change-activision-claims-call-of-dutys-seen-a-43-percent-drop-in-disruptive-voice-chat-since-the-start-of-the-year-thanks-to-its-robo-snitch/
AI in games is a weird subject—glassy-eyed, soulless neo-NPCs, hideous AI art slapped onto social media accounts and, thanks to the seemingly irresistible, gravitational allure of its power as a buzzword to sell software and tat, a lot of confusion as to what "AI-powered" actually means.
I'm on record as a sceptic myself. While I think AI—that is, specifically, generative AI—doesn't really have much to offer games in terms of writing or art, I must admit, with a mouthful of humble pie, that Activision (of all the studios) might've stumbled onto a good use for it with the help of Modulate.
I say might've only because it's my job to be sceptical, and because these are all numbers from Activision itself, which has a clear and vested interest in wanting you to believe that it makes good decisions. Still, as per its toxicity report blog post, the numbers are allegedly looking pretty good.

And these are the weekend deals at Steam, because GOG has no new deals:

+Steam

And that’s it. Until the next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.