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

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Monday news, the long part two:

PlayStation loses fight in EU courts to stop sale of 'parasite' mods because, among other reasons, a book author can't stop 'the reader from skipping to the end'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/playstation-loses-fight-in-eu-courts-to-stop-sale-of-parasite-mods-because-among-other-reasons-a-book-author-cant-stop-the-reader-from-skipping-to-the-end/
PlayStation's just lost a landmark court case that could set some precedent for cheating software in the EU—which is probably better for the consumer than it sounds at first blush.
As reported by EuroNews, PlayStation has recently been embroiled in a legal bout with Datel, who have been selling software that allows players to cheat at videogames. The software in question gave players infinite boosts in MotorStorm, but it also—in a less cheaty fashion—allowed them to control it using motion controls, which seems pretty benign to me.
The case made it to the highest court in the EU, the Court of Justice, and has been thoroughly dismissed in Datel's favour. Despite Sony's argument that the software "latches on … like a parasite" to the console, the judges maintain that the software involved merely impacts its RAM rather than the program itself, so it's all fair play:
"The Directive on the legal protection of computer programs does not allow the holder of that protection to prohibit the marketing by a third party of software which merely changes variables transferred temporarily … The directive protects only the intellectual creation as it is reflected in the text of the computer program’s source code and object code."

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii moves its launch up by a week to avoid being hunted by a monster
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/like-a-dragon-pirate-yakuza-in-hawaii-moves-its-launch-up-by-a-week-to-avoid-being-hunted-by-a-monster/
RGG Studio and Sega dropped a new trailer for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii at yesterday's Xbox Partner Preview showcase, and also a surprise new release date: Instead of coming on February 28, 2025 as planned, it will come out one week earlier, on February 21. Now we know why, and the reason is eminently practical.

'Catch and remove cheaters within one hour': Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 anti-cheat team sets a lofty goal for the new game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/catch-and-remove-cheaters-within-one-hour-call-of-duty-black-ops-6-anti-cheat-team-sets-a-lofty-goal-for-the-new-game/
I made my peace with cheaters a long time ago. The more you play a multiplayer game, and the better you get at it, the more likely you are to run into losers who paid $30 to cheat at a videogame. Call of Duty's dedicated Ricochet anti-cheat team knows it can't stamp out cheaters entirely in an FPS that's constantly changing, but it has set an ambitious new goal for itself as Black Ops 6's release looms: "We want to catch and remove cheaters within one hour of them being in their first match."

'We will not pay for our bosses mistakes' — French union denounces Don't Nod's plan that could impact up to 69 workers
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/we-will-not-pay-for-our-bosses-mistakes-french-union-denounces-dont-nods-plan-that-could-impact-up-to-69-workers/
French game studio Don't Nod has announced plans for a "reorganization project" that could result in the layoff of up to 69 workers. The French union that represents Don't Nod workers, STJV (Le Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo), called the plans "the climax of a series of catastrophic decisions," that it detailed in a statement earlier this year.

The creator of Dusk and Iron Lung is making a gruesome but surprisingly funny horror game about beating killer cultists with lead pipes and 2x4s
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/the-creator-of-dusk-and-iron-lung-is-making-a-gruesome-but-surprisingly-funny-horror-game-about-beating-killer-cultists-with-lead-pipes-and-2x4s/
I'm always down for a David Szymanski joint. The Dusk and Iron Lung dev has a real way with making games that feel good, no matter the genre⁠—really tactile weapons and interactions, great sound design, just a general attention to detail⁠—and his games always have an anarchic sense of humor that I really dig. Szymanski's next game, Butcher's Creek, feels like another winner. It's a melee combat-focused first person horror game where you square off against torture cultists in rural Appalachia.

The final trailer for Factorio: Space Age teases some sick looking planetary adventures
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/the-final-trailer-for-factorio-space-age-teases-some-sick-looking-planetary-adventures/
Folks, we're just a couple days from the release of Factorio: Space Age and there's a nice new trailer out that gets into what's going on without digging into too many spoilers on how it'll be to play the new worlds you can explore. If you've been living under a rock factory, this is Factorio's massive new expansion that more than doubles the size of the game and that's accompanied by a free 2.0 patch packed with quality of life goodies.
>> The article is from two days ago so, will it launch today?

PSA: Silent Hill 2 remake has a soft lock glitch at the end of Brookhaven Hospital
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/psa-silent-hill-2-remake-has-a-soft-lock-glitch-at-the-end-of-brookhaven-hospital/
The Silent Hill 2 remake released this week, and though it's working relatively well there is one soft lock glitch that can make it impossible to progress without reloading an earlier save. The glitch takes place near the end of Brookhaven Hospital—but it can be avoided.

Silent Hill 2's development was rough on Bloober Team because of online 'hate', but now that it's proved itself it wants to 'show what we can do on our own' with Cronos: The New Dawn
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/silent-hill-2s-development-was-rough-on-bloober-team-because-of-online-hate-but-now-that-its-proved-itself-it-wants-to-show-what-we-can-do-on-our-own-with-cronos-the-new-dawn/
Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2 was a pleasant surprise. While the studio had been responsible for several fairly well-received horror games since its pivot to the genre with 2016's Layers of Fear, none of them boasted the sophistication of Team Silent's GOAT. There was a gulf between Bloober Team's spooky walking sims and the 2001 twisted survival horror game, and expectations were not high.

Here's an adorable, cozy little multiplayer chatroom fishing game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/heres-an-adorable-cozy-little-multiplayer-chatroom-fishing-game/
A cozy little game has been making the rounds on Steam the past few weeks and has picked up quite the following for an indie of its size. Webfishing is a little lo-fi jagged edged game about little animal people wandering about, dressing up in nice clothes, and most importantly fishing on their little island. It's much-loved by its players so far, with 3,819 user reviews on Steam, 98% of them positive, and a peak player count of over 10,000.

Build and automate little terraforming factories in open world survival game Eden Crafters
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/build-and-automate-little-terraforming-factories-in-open-world-survival-game-eden-crafters/
Survive, craft, automate, and terraform game Eden Cragters has released into early access bringing its interesting blend of gameplay styles to a properly playable state. In Eden Crafters your job is to land on hostile worlds and change their environments into something more hospitable for human habitation by building up large bases of automated systems and exploring the terrain for resources you need to expand.

Former Bethesda lead is sceptical of The Elder Scrolls' return to 'fiddly stat sheets', even in the face of Baldur's Gate 3's success
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/former-bethesda-lead-is-sceptical-of-the-elder-scrolls-return-to-fiddly-stat-sheets-even-in-the-face-of-baldurs-gate-3s-success/
Baldur's Gate 3 was one of last year's biggest critical and commercial successes—selling bonkers numbers and taking the crown of our annual top 100 list. We rather liked it, in case you couldn't tell.
What's more, it did so against what big-budget companies making RPGs would like you to believe is convention. (...)
Even compared to Skyrim, Starfield felt particularly thin on the RPG mechanics. I never quite felt like I was playing an archetype of a character, just a suggestion of one. That's not likely to change, though, according to a former Bethesda developer in an interview with Videogamer. Bruce Nesmith, who took lead on Skyrim, explains his reasoning:

6 months after release, the studio behind Tales of Kenzera has put its team 'on notice for redundancy' as it scrambles to find funding
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/6-months-after-release-the-studio-behind-tales-of-kenzera-has-put-its-team-on-notice-for-redundancy-as-it-scrambles-to-find-funding/
Surgent Studios was founded by actor Abubakar Salim, best known for roles as Bayek in Assassin's Creed Origins and Alyn of Hull in House of the Dragon. It went on to make Tales of Kenzera: Zau, but times have been tough since the game's release, and now the studio is taking a temporary hiatus.

The curse of horde shooter balance: Fans take to Steam in protest as Space Marine 2 gets unpopular patch—devs promise course correction within the week
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/the-curse-of-horde-shooter-balance-fans-take-to-steam-in-protest-as-space-marine-2-gets-unpopular-patch-devs-promise-course-correction-within-the-week/
If covering Helldivers 2 this year has taught me anything, it's that balancing a horde shooter is monstrously hard—starting with an unpopular major balance patch that dented the Railgun, it wasn't until this month that, after a big overhaul, Arrowhead started hitting the mark again. So to see Space Marine 2 now running into the same problems has given me an unpleasant sense of intergalactic déjà vu.