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

[JEMC]

It’s also time for the second, and long, part of the Thursday news:

Phantom Blade Zero devs say they don't want to water down the game for foreigners—in fact, quite the opposite
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/phantom-blade-zero-devs-say-they-dont-want-to-water-down-the-game-for-foreigners-in-fact-quite-the-opposite/
I had the pleasure of romping through Phantom Blade Zero during Gamescom this August, and I was very pleased with what I saw: a frenetic game that feels more like a spiritual extension of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty than a soulslike, which is a good thing in my estimation.
It was also, from what I played, rife with lore and visual nods to Chinese mythology, a subject I'm woefully undereducated on—which isn't a problem, according to CEO Liang Qiwei. As a matter of fact, it's something the studio's banking on.
Speaking with 4gamer (thanks to Automaton for the translation), Qiwei admits that Phantom Blade Zero might confuse some players with cultural nods and references, "in my opinion, the quality and playing experience of a game are its core. If you can achieve high quality and an entertaining playing experience, I think that a difficult theme can actually be an advantage, not a disadvantage. If your game is entertaining, players will perceive unfamiliar themes as something fresh."

Larian teases 'something so small before something so big' as Baldur's Gate 3 gets its 28th hotfix
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/larian-teases-something-so-small-before-something-so-big-as-baldurs-gate-3-gets-its-28th-hotfix/
You are all criminals. This is what I've learned in over a year of writing up Baldur's Gate 3 patch notes. Faerûn's humble merchant class doesn't stand a chance against a few million dedicated players. In March, Larian had to clamp down on players getting free money from the game's salesfolk by sticking their items in containers. Now? The studio has to stop you from exploiting your most solemn of solemn oaths to make a quick buck.
BG3's hotfix 28 is live now, containing all sorts of little tweaks and adjustments in the wake of Larian's humdinger seventh patch. Most of them pertain to modding, fixing minor issues with the game's new mod manager and the like, but the bugfix that caught my eye was this one: "You can no longer add items to your wares even if they cannot become wares (e.g. pact weapons) by selecting them along with another item that can become a ware. This prevents a trade exploit where you could sell your wares and the bound items would not leave your inventory."

Diablo 4 cow-hunting boffins find some actual cows as part of their latest discovery
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/diablo-4-cow-hunting-boffins-find-some-actual-cows-as-part-of-their-latest-discovery/
Ever since Diablo 4's release one mystery has loomed larger than all others: Where is the cow level? Despite producer Rod Fergusson quickly pouring cold water on the idea, the history here means that a group of dedicated players has devoted themselves to finding a level that officially doesn't exist, and they've certainly found a few breadcrumbs along the way.

Overwatch 2 disturbs fans with a tweet telling them to look at Kiriko's 'grippers,' proving yet again that corporate accounts ruin inside jokes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/overwatch-2-disturbs-fans-with-a-tweet-telling-them-to-look-at-kirikos-grippers-proving-yet-again-that-corporate-accounts-ruin-inside-jokes/
Overwatch 2's social account on X recently surprised fans with a weird post all about Kiriko's new skin or, more specifically, her "grippers," and it's going down about as well as you'd imagine with the Overwatch 2 community. 

Riot Games lays off more employees but says the League of Legends team will be 'even larger' in the future
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/riot-games-lays-off-more-employees-but-says-the-league-of-legends-team-will-be-even-larger-in-the-future/
League of Legends studio Riot Games has announced another round of layoffs, while—somewhat counterintuitively—simultaneously promising that the League team will grow to be "even larger than it is today" in the future.
Word of the layoffs came in a message posted on X by Riot co-founder Marc Merrill, who said Riot "has made changes to our teams and how we work to make sure we can keep improving the League experience now and for the long-term."

IO Interactive's James Bond game will feature a young 007 'that the gamers can call their own'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/io-interactives-james-bond-game-will-feature-a-young-007-that-the-gamers-can-call-their-own/
When Hitman developer IO Interactive revealed that it was working on a James Bond game in 2020, we saw it as an ideal bit of licensing: "Take out the bald assassin, stick in a British secret agent, and Hitman and its sequel are basically already Bond," we wrote at the time. But in an interview with IGN, CEO Hakan Abrak said IO's take on the character might be a little different from the fellow we're used to seeing on the screen.
"James Bond is a different IP. It's a huge IP. It's not our IP. It's actually the first IP that is not our original IP from [the] ground up," Abrak said. "But what's exciting about that project is that we actually got to do an original story. So it's not a gamification of a movie. It's a completely [new] beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future."
It's also "a new Bond," he continued, "built from ground up for gamers. It's extremely exciting with all the tradition and all the history there is there … to work on this together with the family of creating a young Bond for gamers; a Bond that the gamers can call their own and grow with." (Presumably the "family" Abrak is referring to there is the Broccolis, who produce the Bond films and control the rights to the character).

The developer of Rogue Legacy has officially released its source code 'in the pursuit of sharing knowledge'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/the-developer-of-rogue-legacy-has-officially-released-its-source-code-in-the-pursuit-of-sharing-knowledge/
More than 10 years after its release, Rogue Legacy has proven itself one of the most aptly named games of all time. With its incremental progress across countless generations of dyslexic, incontinent knight-children, the 2D roguelite metroidvania was such a frontrunner of the modern indie roguelite boom that our coverage of its 2013 release had to define "rogue-lite" in its first paragraph. Now, Rogue Legacy developer Cellar Door Games is securing its legacy all over again by officially releasing the game's source code.

They just put a jetpack in Hades 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/they-just-put-a-jetpack-in-hades-2/
I'm sorry, is that a jetpack? Hades 2's first major update is live and I'm pretty sure that's a jetpack in the trailer. Supergiant Games calls it the "Black Coat" but that's a jetpack with giant metal fists, which is two legs away from a mech.

10 years on, the most infamous gaming Kickstarter of them all is still trying to reach the finish line: 'I want to explicitly state that this project is not dead'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/10-years-on-the-most-infamous-gaming-kickstarter-of-them-all-is-still-trying-to-reach-the-finish-line-i-want-to-explicitly-state-that-this-project-is-not-dead/
Nearly two years after its last update and more than 10 years after it was Kickstarted to the tune of $660,126, the developers behind beleaguered strategy game Unsung Story have returned to declare it's "getting back on track."
Unsung Story is not the biggest failure in gaming Kickstarter history—that honor may belong to Clang, which pulled in more than half a million dollars in 2012 and was declared dead two years later. But I don't think any other Kickstarted game can match Unsung Story's bizarre and grueling saga, from being put on hold in 2016, sold to another studio, and finally released in a limited early access form in 2020 to practically zero fanfare. That release has been hanging over the heads of developer Little Orbit for the last four years, its recent update revealed.

Sony's failed shooter Concord has been updated dozens of times on Steam in October, and I'm starting to feel a comeback
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/sonys-failed-shooter-concord-has-been-updated-dozens-of-times-on-steam-in-october-and-im-starting-to-feel-a-comeback/
Concord was decidedly not great. So not great that Sony took the virtually unprecedented step of pulling the plug on the whole thing just a couple weeks after it launched. Sony said at the time that it wanted to "explore options ... to better reach our players," leaving open the possibility that some sort of comeback, maybe as a free-to-play game, might be in the cards. I was dubious, to put it gently, but recent events have me thinking that maybe it's actually going to happen.

Skyrim lead says Bethesda was knocked back by furious response to Oblivion Horse Armour DLC, but it sold 'millions' anyway: 'You're all making fun of it and yet you buy it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/skyrim-lead-says-bethesda-was-knocked-back-by-furious-response-to-oblivion-horse-armour-dlc-but-it-sold-millions-anyway-youre-all-making-fun-of-it-and-yet-you-buy-it/
These days, the furore over Oblivion's Horse Armour DLC seems downright quaint. A couple of bucks for some mount skins? Amateur stuff. These days we're forking over $20 to recolour our portals.
But boy, it sure caused a ruckus when Bethesda released Oblivion's mini-DLC all the way back in 2006. It's one of the earliest big videogame controversies I can remember, and it caught Bethesda off-guard: In a chat with Videogamer, Skyrim lead designer Bruce Nesmith, who left Bethesda in 2021, recalled the period, saying "Bethesda, I believe, was the very first company to do downloadable content expansions… and so Bethesda didn't know what the hell it was doing at the time. We didn't know!"

Fair play, Exodus—having ex-Bioware devs and Matthew McConaughey on board is neat, but your freaky flesh spaceships have my attention
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/fair-play-exodus-having-ex-bioware-devs-and-matthew-mcconaughey-on-board-is-neat-but-your-freaky-flesh-spaceships-have-my-attention/
Exodus, an RPG from ex-Bioware developers announced at the Game Awards last year, didn't exactly grip me on first blush. In fact I remember experiencing a kind of whiplash—the first half of that initial showing aped Interstellar's emotional core (fitting given Matthew McConaughey's in it) before immediately taking a hard-right into 'hell yeah, shooting aliens!' territory as Muse's Supermassive Black Hole blared in the background.
Other than that it mostly looked kinda neat, but nothing to write home about. And while I'm not exactly picking up a letter to tell my far afield beloved about how exciting Exodus looks just yet, I will admit that its latest teaser has piqued my interest, because I love a good flesh monster.

Riot announces new exalted skins tier days after more layoffs, but you can't get it the usual way—instead, you'll have to roll the dice
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/riot-announces-new-exalted-skins-tier-days-after-more-layoffs-but-you-cant-get-it-the-usual-way-instead-youll-have-to-roll-the-dice/
Riot announced a new Exalted Skins tier for League of Legends just days after the publisher laid even more people off in order to ensure "we have the right expertise so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond." 
"Exalted is a new skin tier that fits into what we define as a 'luxury good' last December," a developer says in a blog post. "Over this past year, we've continued to refine what luxury goods are and where they exist in our catalog. Exalted skins are for players who want hyper-inclusive skins." 
>> It would be easy to blame Bethesda, given the story slightly above this one, but I’m going to blame stupid people for the existence of something like this.