Monday news, part two:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's latest legendary operator skin is a fluorescent anime girl with cat ears, and it strikes fear into the hearts of all
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-black-ops-6s-latest-legendary-operator-skin-is-a-fluorescent-anime-girl-with-cat-ears-and-it-strikes-fear-into-the-hearts-of-all/
Long before Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was released a couple months ago players have been complaining about highly stylistic skins that look ridiculously out of place in Call of Duty games. It got so bad that some players were even asking Activision if they could pay to have the guady skins removed from their matches.
Now there's a new legendary skin up for grabs and instead of looking like a flaming green dragon with enough particles to blind anyone, this time we've got an anime cat girl snowboarder on our hands.
No Man's Sky dev reflects on the new Very Positive rating on Steam and promises that this is only the beginning: 'We aren't even close to being finished yet'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/no-mans-sky-dev-reflects-on-the-new-very-positive-rating-on-steam-and-promises-that-this-is-only-the-beginning-we-arent-even-close-to-being-finished-yet/
Earlier this week, No Man's Sky finally managed to reach a very positive rating on Steam. It only took eight years and a ridiculous amount of effort to get there, but it turns out that even after this great milestone, the developers aren't planning to end development anytime soon.
Terraria dev won't have staff crunch to get its next big update out before the end of the year: 'Apologies for this one taking so long for sure, but it will be well worth it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/terraria-dev-wont-have-staff-crunch-to-get-its-next-big-update-out-before-the-end-of-the-year-apologies-for-this-one-taking-so-long-for-sure-but-it-will-be-well-worth-it/
The survival game that simply refuses to stop is pushing its next major update back just a bit further. Terraria 1.4.5 has been in the works for over two years, and in a recent State of the Game update, developer Re-Logic said it's almost complete, but won't release in 2024.
Just Grill the Steak—what else do you want from this micro-scale cooking simulator that made me very hungry?
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/just-grill-the-steak-what-else-do-you-want-from-this-micro-scale-cooking-simulator-that-made-me-v/
A rarely-mentioned risk of games news writing is the threat of covering a game like Just Grill the Steak in the wee small hours of the morning, where the stores are closed and it’s hard to justify doing anything in the kitchen. I am extremely hungry now, and it will only get worse as I continue to stare at this physics-driven cooking sim.
Valve stiffed speedrunners by adding an invisible wall in its Half-Life 2 tuneup, so now it's fixed the fix and says 'enjoy'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/valve-stiffed-speedrunners-by-adding-an-invisible-wall-in-its-half-life-2-tuneup-so-now-its-fixed-the-fix-and-says-enjoy/
The 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 saw Valve release a major surprise update for the PC gaming hall-of-famer (as well as an excellent two hour documentary). It integrated Episodes 1 and 2 with the base game (so you can now play through the entire experience seamlessly), added a new commentary track from the old gang, and for the coup de grace every location was given a glow-up: "Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog."
Lovely! Except perhaps if you're a Half-Life 2 speedrunner, one of those freewheeling souls who's long ago stopped seeing the G-Man and looks at City 17 like the Matrix, pinballing the Freeman from checkpoint to checkpoint on Valve's hidden flippers. It turns out that, when improving everything, Valve's current designers added an invisible wall to a large sewer pipe. And speedrunners promptly started slamming right into it.
>> The fact that it’s in a sewer makes it funnier, at least to me.
Retro RPG The Edge Of Allegoria does it like Nintendon’t, with rude words and fat blunts
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/retro-rpg-the-edge-of-allegoria-does-it-like-nintendont-with-rude-words-and-fat-blunts/
“Pssst! Hey kid… Want to go on an adventure?” asks the store-page for The Edge Of Allegoria, an upcoming Game Boy-styled retro RPG. It might look like an old Pokemon game (and play like one, too, minus the creature collecting part), but this one’s for GROWN UPS. Or at least teenagers discovering the siren song of games with swearing and the occasional (very) pixelated boob. The store page does promise “Nudity and Sexual Content, Pervasive Coarse Language, Alcohol and Drug Use”, after all.
If you missed April's total solar eclipse, you can see it in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/if-you-missed-aprils-total-solar-eclipse-you-can-see-it-in-microsoft-flight-simulator-2024/
Back in April, North America was treated to a rare celestial event: a total solar eclipse. Observers from Mexico to Maine witnessed an amazing sight as the moon passed in front of the sun and made it as dark as night in the middle of the day.
I don't live in the path of that eclipse so I didn't get to see it in person, but I made up for that today. If you've got a copy of Microsoft Simulator 2024, you can experience an amazing simulation of April's eclipse whenever you want.
Troy Baker isn't trying to do a 'bang on' impression of Harrison Ford for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/troy-baker-isnt-trying-to-do-a-bang-on-impression-of-harrison-ford-for-indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle/
Vetern voice actor Troy Baker wasn't going to audition for Indiana Jones at all, apparently—because he didn't think he'd be able to pull it off. Despite that, Baker will be the voice of the famous archaeologist and pulp hero for Machine Games' sprawling and very large adventure Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
"I originally passed [on the Indiana Jones role] because, truth be told, I was so scared that I would not be able to pull it off. And fortunately, [voice acting director] Tom Keegan saw past my insecurities and encouraged me to put myself on tape for this still," said Baker in an interview with GamesRadar+.
CD Projekt promises that, compared to The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 4 'will not be smaller, and it will not be worse'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/cd-projekt-promises-that-compared-to-the-witcher-3-and-cyberpunk-2077-the-witcher-4-will-not-be-smaller-and-it-will-not-be-worse/
The Witcher 4 is finally in full production, as CD Projekt announced during its Q3 financial update. The game, which is still codenamed Project Polaris, moved into full-scale production several weeks ago, chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz said.
Speaking to Eurogamer, CD Projekt Red's vice president of technology, Charles Tremblay, discussed the switch from the internally developed REDengine, last used on Cyberpunk 2077, to Unreal Engine 5. "I will not say it's easy," he said, "but I think that we have some cool stuff going, and hopefully that will have some good showcase [of the technology]. The only thing I will say is that changing the tech for us does not change the fact that we always will be ambitious".
Tremblay went on to declare Project Polaris, which is currently being worked on by 400 members of CDPR's 650-strong staff, would be bigger and better than anything the studio had done before. "And the next game we do will not be smaller, and it will not be worse. So it will be better, bigger, greater than The Witcher 3, it will be better than Cyberpunk—because for us, it's unacceptable [to launch that way]. We don't want to go back."
>> He also talked about the switch to UE5, and why they did it.
CD Projekt wants to be more careful about marketing after, you know, everything that happened with Cyberpunk 2077
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/cd-projekt-wants-to-be-more-careful-about-marketing-after-you-know-everything-that-happened-with-cyberpunk-2077/
It will surprise no one that CD Projekt has been thinking long and hard about how not to repeat the mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077 with its upcoming Witcher game, currently codenamed Project Polaris. Speaking to Eurogamer, joint CEO of CD Projekt Michał Nowakowski said part of that was being "smarter in how we want to announce and kick off marketing campaigns" in the future.
>> I don’t think marketing was the biggest problem with the game, but ok.
Helldivers 2 composer almost gave up on orchestral scores before its monumental success
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/helldivers-2-composer-almost-gave-up-on-orchestral-scores-before-its-monumental-success/
Prior to the release of Helldivers 2, soundtrack composer Wilbert Roget was considering moving on from writing orchestral music for games, he recently posted. The overwhelming community response to the soundtrack, however, has renewed his faith in orchestral composition for games.
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
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