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

[JEMC]

Well, here come the third part of the news:

Ubisoft releases new Blood Dragon game... with NFTs
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/ubisoft-releases-new-blood-dragon-game-with-nfts/
Between the abrupt game cancellations, lay-offs, and ongoing buyout talks, Ubisoft is going through a bit of a PR storm at the moment. The beleaguered publisher could really do with something to regain a bit of goodwill, so what with neon-soaked Far Cry 3 spin-off Blood Dragon being so fondly remembered by fans (as well as Captain Laserhawk, the perfectly decent Netflix show set in the same universe), you can see why they'd look to this IP as their saviour.
Enter Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E., a top-down shooter set in the Blood Dragon universe, and starring Rayman as a commentator (via Polygon). Here's the catch: it's a Web 3 game that requires you to buy an NFT to play. This NFT takes the form of your very own 'Niji Warrior' card that improves as you play the game, presumably making it gain value over time so that one day other players/NFT believers buy it off you.

XDefiant's closing-down content dump is enormous, unprecedented, and bleak
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/xdefiants-closing-down-content-dump-is-enormous-unprecedented-and-bleak/
Following on from the recent announcement that XDefiant servers would be closing down in June 2025, Ubisoft released one final massive content patch for the game yesterday. The patch not only contains all Season 3 content but, in what may be a world-first for a live-service game, it also contains all future content they had already developed. That includes 13 new maps, three new factions, and all future-planned skins for the game, some of which don't even seem to have been fully finished before being chucked onto the XDefiant funeral pyre.
(...)
It's all a bit bizarre. On the one hand, it's very cool for loyal fans of the outgoing shooter to get one of biggest content updates in a live-service game ever, and the fact that there are characters and skins without proper labelling suggests that maybe devs just threw in-progress stuff on there that might otherwise not have seen the light of day. On the other hand, for a game that was criticised for a lack of content, it's frustrating to see how much great stuff was just sitting there on the backburner.

Cyberpunk 2077 goes Santapunk with a cheeky holiday gift for the chooms, tucks the starter set 'Easy Mode' for the TTRPG Cyberpunk RED into your Steam files
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/cyberpunk-2077-goes-santapunk-with-a-cheeky-holiday-gift-for-the-chooms-tucks-the-starter-set-easy-mode-for-the-ttrpg-cyberpunk-red-into-your-steam-files/
Welcome to the future: The world is ruled by corporations headed by invincible tech billionaires with an iron grip over our political processes, our lives are driven by mindless work with precious little economic mobility, and mysterious AI programs threaten our very way of life. These also happen to be things that are happening in Cyberpunk 2077, which had its recent 2.2 update released earlier this month, and as it turns out, there's a free gift in it. Yippee!
As noticed by Polygon CD Projekt, seemingly seized by the holiday spirit, has tucked a little gift into your program files with the latest update—a set of quickstart rules for Cyberpunk RED, a new version of the system that was released in 2020. This is not to be confused with the Cyberpunk 2020, which was originally released in 1990, yet came packaged as bonus content with Cyberpunk 2077 in the actual year 2020. Cyberpunk RED, which was released in 2020 (my head hurts) is the latest version of the TTRPG.

The maddest shooters of 2024 and 2020 join forces, as Ultrakill crosses over into Mullet Madjack
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-maddest-shooters-of-2024-and-2020-join-forces-as-ultrakill-crosses-over-into-mullet-madjack/
You can keep your CODs and your BLOPSes and your live-service shooters that could poof out of existence at any moment. Give me a lurid cyberpunk world, comical killing animations, and a protagonist with the retro sensibilities of Duke Nukem (minus the outmoded attitudes towards women), and you've got my attention. Mullet Madjack ticks all those boxes, amplifying its intensity via a roguelite structure and the jaw-clenching hook of having to kill an enemy every 10 seconds, lest you drop dead. 
It's good vicious fun, and it's just gotten even better, thanks to an update that includes a crossover with fellow super-speedy shooter Ultrakill. The crossover comes as part of Madjack's new Boss Rush Mode, which sees you trying to obliterate its procession of mechs, cyber-samurai, and other 'billionaire robots' that run the show in this dopamine-driven world. The Boss Rush mode is linked to a global leaderboard, so you'll get to compare your robo-bliterating feats with other players around the world.

The Illuminate in Helldivers 2 appear to be inching closer to the black hole we left at Meridia back in June, which is also looking a lot scarier, but I'm sure it's probably fine, stop worrying about it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/the-illuminate-in-helldivers-2-appear-to-be-inching-closer-to-the-black-hole-we-left-at-meridia-back-in-june-which-is-also-looking-a-lot-scarier-but-im-sure-its-probably-fine-stop-worrying-about-it/
The Illuminate have been terrorising the galaxy and, for the most part, have sort of been sucking at it so far. At the time of writing, Super Earth's finest have won their first major order against the squid scum, and are on track to win the second, punting them out of the Galaxy whenever they rear their tentacled heads.
However, there's a problem: Each time they pop up again, they move a little bit further space east (like east, but in space. Don't ask me how that works). In fact, here's a little mock-up I made of them doing just that—their warpath taking them from Calypso, to Genesis Prime, to Mog, and now to the planets of Skaash and Bashyr.
This is concerning because, well, uh, that's where the black hole players left back in June is. To recap, players were instructed to inject "dark fluid" into the ex-planet in the summer of 2024 in order to combat the Terminid threat, which had a nasty side effect of doing, well, this.

Finally, let’s take a quick look at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The Winter Sale is still going on.

+Steam

• It’s also Winter Sale time! Enough said.

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