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

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You’re not surprised by this third news post, are you?

Elden Ring: Nightreign players won't be able to troll each other with messages
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/elden-ring-nightreign-players-wont-be-able-to-troll-each-other-with-messages/
Elden Ring: Nightreign is going to be a very different Soulsborne game. Three-player co-op runs with no PvP, no summons, no invasions, and as Nightreign's director Junya Ishizaki told IGN Japan in a recent interview, no player messages.

Zach-like automation puzzle game ABI-DOS is available on Steam for free
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/zach-like-automation-puzzle-game-abi-dos-is-available-on-steam-for-free/
If you've played SpaceChem, Infinifactory, Opus Magnum, or any of the other engineering puzzles of Zachtronics you'll be familiar with the Zach-like subgenre—visual programming games where you build a system to turn input into output, every level a lesson in learning the tools, and then realizing there are multiple ways to achieve your goal with them.
While Zachtronics shut down a couple of years ago, other developers have picked up the ball and run with it. Last year this resulted in ABI-DOS, a game our Shaun Prescott recommended in his round-up of Steam games you didn't realize came out that week. It's a game about helping digital blocks get from A to B by laying down wires and instructions, a simple foundation it layers plenty of complications onto. The blocks you're shifting around represent code, and sometimes that code can be corrupted. There's also a meta-level where your work on this Assembly Based Interface Deus Operating System is being overseen by a sinister Admin. Spooky.
After launching with a price tag in November of 2024, the creator of ABI-DOS decided to give the game away for free instead. "This decision is not a reflection of the game’s quality—which I wholeheartedly believe is excellent—or its reception," they wrote on Steam, "which has been very positive. I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve created, and I’m thrilled that many players have called it a worthy successor to Zachtronics-style games.

Balatro developer bestows the 'very prestigious Golden Thunk award' on Animal Well, says it's so good it makes him 'feel like an imposter'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/balatro-developer-bestows-the-very-prestigious-golden-thunk-award-on-animal-well-says-its-so-good-it-makes-him-feel-like-an-imposter/
LocalThunk, the developer behind Balatro, decided to start off this new year by calling out all his 2024 highlights, with the biggest award of all going to Billy Basso for his wonderful pixel art metroidvania Animal Well.
"My very prestigious Golden Thunk award for Game of the Year 2024 goes to Animal Well," LocalThunk says in an X post. "Animal Well was an engrossing experience. Dripping with style secrets, and making me feel like an imposter in this industry as a dev, Billy Basso created a true masterpiece." Basso replied to this with an award of his own for LocalThunk: "Nicest Most Humble Dev of the Year." Everyone wins when you're nice.

Crytek went so overboard on the Crysis tech it created a whole blushing system, implemented nose shadows, and sent devs to photograph leaves in Haiti to get the translucency right: 'We went over bonkers on this one'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/crytek-went-so-overboard-on-the-crysis-tech-it-created-a-whole-blushing-system-implemented-nose-shadows-and-sent-devs-to-photograph-leaves-in-haiti-to-get-the-translucency-right-we-went-over-bonkers-on-this-one/
2007 shooter and part-time meme Crysis is the subject of an in-depth retrospective in the latest issue of PC Gamer magazine, in which Rick Lane sits down with Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli to go over the game's development. Coming off the back of Far Cry, the studio's ambition for what its next game would deliver in terms of physics and visuals was huge—to the extent that one of the minor tasks Crytek set itself was to build a new engine that could achieve a level of visual complexity that CryEngine 1 was never built for.

Former Starfield lead quest designer says we're seeing a 'resurgence of short games' because people are 'becoming fatigued' with 100-hour monsters
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/former-starfield-lead-quest-designer-says-were-seeing-a-resurgence-of-short-games-because-people-are-becoming-fatigued-with-100-hour-monsters/
Starfield lead quest designer Will Shen says "a growing section of the audience is becoming fatigued" with huge games that require dozens or hundreds of hours to properly play through, and—tongue in cheek—that he's sorry for the role he played in helping popularize that trend.

Less than 2 years after launch, 2K Games delivers a fatal piledriver to WWE 2K23, taking servers offline and removing it from Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/less-than-2-years-after-launch-2k-games-delivers-a-fatal-piledriver-to-wwe-2k23-taking-servers-offline-and-removing-it-from-steam/
Less than two years after its release, WWE 2K23 has been chokeslammed into oblivion: The game's servers have been closed, meaning all online functionality, including online matches and Community Creations, will no longer work.
2K Games telegraphed the move back in September 2024, announcing that WWE 2K23 "is getting its final takedown" on January 26. Sales of the game and its virtual currency were halted on November 1, 2024. The lone bright spot is that offline modes will remain playable for anyone who owns the game.