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

[JEMC]

Since there are a ton of news from PCGamer, I’ve split them in two posts. In this first one you’ll find the ones that, in my opinion, are more relevant. In the second one are the rest and in short format (only headline and link):

World of Warcraft players have waited 11 years for this flying mount to finally spread its wings next month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-players-have-waited-11-years-for-this-flying-mount-to-finally-spread-its-wings-next-month/
The curse of knowledge is finally over for all the World of Warcraft players waiting for Blizzard to release a mount that was first dug up by dataminers 11 years ago. The near-legendary electrified Stormcrow flying mount will finally be attainable in patch 11.0.7 next month.

Apex Legends ditches Steam Deck support: EA says Linux is 'a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/battle-royale/apex-legends-ditches-steam-deck-support-ea-says-linux-is-a-path-for-a-variety-of-impactful-exploits-and-cheats/
Bad news, Steam Deck shooters: Electronic Arts has determined that Linux is "a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats" in Apex Legends, and it has thus decided to block anyone using the OS from accessing the game.

The reigning Pope of 1-bit mystery games is back with a Halloween treat: a haunted house game you can play in your browser
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/the-reigning-pope-of-1-bit-mystery-games-is-back-with-a-halloween-treat-a-haunted-house-game-you-can-play-in-your-browser/
Lucas Pope, developer of instant classics Return of the Obra Dinn and Papers, Please, may have just made the first LCD game in… decades? Well, except for the other LCD game he made last year to celebrate Papers, Please's 10th anniversary. With two of these things under his belt I'm ready to crown Pope the leading authority on modern browser games designed to replicate toys that ran on 40-year-old 4-bit microcontrollers.

Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.1 trailer teases much-needed character development for its bad dad antagonist Zoraal Ja—but a sluggish release schedule for everything else
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-14s-patch-7-1-trailer-teases-much-needed-character-development-for-its-bad-dad-antagonist-zoraal-ja-but-a-sluggish-release-schedule-for-everything-else/
Final Fantasy 14's next story patch has a lot riding on its shoulders—it'll sort of be the proof in the pudding as to whether Creative Studio 3 is able to respond quickly to story complaints, or whether we'll be stuck with an unfortunately plodding narrative for the next three patches. Still, I'm open to giving it a chance and, at the very least, this trailer promises not to abandon the premise just because of its clunky entry. Spoilers for Dawntrail, naturally.

PSA: Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn't warn you which big quests are going to lock you out of finishing up side quests
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/veilguard-point-of-no-return-quests/
I wasn't all that far into Dragon Age: The Veilguard when I realised I'd been locked out of a sidequest unexpectedly. It was after the first significant event in the game where you, of course, have to make a big decision that has some longer-lasting repercussions. But if you're not paying attention to your quest log, you might not notice that some quests disappear into the completed section with a little entry above them saying something along the lines of "You can no longer complete this because this event has happened".
>> By the way, don’t miss this side quest.

BioWare has no DLC plans for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, has shifted focus onto Mass Effect
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/bioware-has-no-dlc-plans-for-dragon-age-the-veilguard-has-shifted-focus-onto-mass-effect/
Used to be, if you skipped the DLC for a Dragon Age game you'd miss at least one important part of the story. The Awakening expansion for Dragon Age: Origins introduced Anders, who returned in Dragon Age 2 as a central character. Dragon Age 2's add-on Legacy introduced Corypheus, who returned as the main villain of Dragon Age: Inquisition. And heaven help you if you play Dragon Age: The Veilguard without first playing Inquisition's plot-critical expansion, Trespasser.
You don't have to worry about missing the one essential DLC for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, however, because apparently there won't be any. According to Rolling Stone, who interviewed creative director John Epler, "there are currently no plans for downloadable expansions" and the studio's "full attention has now shifted entirely to the next Mass Effect".

Horizon Zero Dawn's questionable remaster launches to Mixed reviews as players lament a new mandatory PSN sign-in that wasn't in the original, visual glitches, and audio bugs
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/horizon-zero-dawns-questionable-remaster-launches-to-mixed-reviews-as-players-lament-a-new-mandatory-psn-sign-in-that-wasnt-in-the-original-visual-glitches-and-audio-bugs/
Despite ranking among history's least necessary remasters, the prettied-up re-do of Horizon Zero Dawn has been earning plaudits from testers. Ours included, actually. PCG hardware guru Nick Evanson was impressed by what he saw when he took the Horizon remaster for a spin, calling it the "best version of Horizon Zero Dawn it could possibly be, short of a full remake." I admit it: in spite of myself, I kind of want to drop the £10 on the upgrade just to see.
But maybe I should wait, because in the wake of its launch yesterday, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is currently sitting at a "Mixed" user-review score over on Steam. Some fans are loving it, mind you—61% of reviews are positive—but it looks like the experience is pretty variable depending on your hardware. Fans both on Steam and elsewhere report bugs and audio glitches with the new version. And some of them are justifiably annoyed about the PSN login requirement.

GTA Online's console-exclusive enhanced edition is finally coming to PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/gta-onlines-console-exclusive-enhanced-edition-is-finally-coming-to-pc/
After years of waiting, Rockstar says it's finally going to bring the PC version of Grand Theft Auto Online to parity with the "enhanced" edition that's been available for consoles for the past two years.

Another game is disappearing from Steam: Five years after its last update, Bethesda is closing its Elder Scrolls card game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/another-game-is-disappearing-from-steam-five-years-after-its-last-update-bethesda-is-closing-its-elder-scrolls-card-game/
Five years after its last update, Bethesda's digital card game The Elder Scrolls: Legends has been removed from sale on Steam, and is set to go offline at the end of January.

Sintopia is a town-builder and god game that puts you in charge of the bureaucracy of Hell
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/sintopia-is-a-town-builder-and-god-game-that-puts-you-in-charge-of-the-bureaucracy-of-hell/
A new hybrid of god game and town-builder looks to marry the appeal of games like Dungeon Keeper with modern management game structures. Sintopia, forthcoming as an early access title in 2025, puts you in charge of hell's bureaucracy to be sure that people get properly punished for their sins and can behave in the next life. That means doing good layout and construction of Hell's infrastructure to keep that flow of souls moving and repenting. You'll also need to be sure that you hire competent "Imployees" to get the work done.

Magicraft is like Brotato mixed with Hades where you make up all your guns as you go along
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/magicraft-is-like-brotato-mixed-with-hades-where-you-make-up-all-your-guns-as-you-go-along/
A new action roguelike dropped this week that focuses on open-ended creativity with your attacks, focusing on the ability to slot different effects into one weapon to make a customized stack of powers. In Magicraft your wands all have open slots that can be filled with spells and spell modifiers that'll trigger from left to right, in order, every time you click.

Here's a time-devouring combination of factory-building and incremental game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/heres-a-time-devouring-combination-of-factory-building-and-incremental-game/
A cheap little indie released this week combines two notoriously time-sucking genres into one monstrous whole. Widget Inc has the production-matching flow of a factory game but the gameplay of an incremental, letting you build up successive layers of industry in order to make ever more complex technology over 12 tiers of tech and associated upgrades. By cleverly expanding to take advantage of machine adjacency bonuses and terrain types you can get those production numbers ever-higher in order to unlock and research new tech at a good pace.