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

[JEMC]

The writers at PCGamer have been busy this weekend. Brace yourselves for the onslaught of news:

Arrowhead CEO says Games Workshop 'would love' a 40K Helldivers 2 crossover, 'but time and resources are finite and we've got our hands busy'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arrowhead-ceo-says-games-workshop-would-love-a-40k-helldivers-2-crossover-but-time-and-resources-are-finite-and-weve-got-our-hands-busy/
Helldivers 2 did its first crossover event with Killzone, recently, and it didn't go too well. (…)
Still, that's just a monetisation problem, and it'll be easily solved in future updates as Arrowhead experiments—and while the game doesn't want to become the Fortnite of grimdark futures or anything, there's one obvious crossover that'd be an intergalactic no brainer: Warhammer 40k.
During an impromptu Q&A session on the Helldivers 2 Discord (thanks, GamesRadar) CEO Shams Jorjani was quick to swat down assumptions that this hasn't come to fruition yet because Games Workshop, the wargame's creators, are a bunch of gits who don't want to share their IP. In fact, quite the opposite.

The Sims and The Sims 2 re-releases finally arrive today after weeks of hints and leaks
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-1-and-the-sims-2-re-releases-finally-arrive-today-after-weeks-of-hints-and-leaks/
After way too many leaks, theories, and teasers, the news is finally for-real official: The Sims and The Sims 2 are both being re-released. The Sims is continuing on in its celebration of the series' 25th anniversary, which is officially on February 4 this year, by bringing back the first two games so those of us with nostalgia for the old days—and those who weren't alive in the old days—can all enjoy them together.
>> Sadly, the relaunch hasn’t gone very smoothly.

'On a pirate ship, they'd toss the captain overboard': Larian head of publishing tears into EA after BioWare layoffs waste 'institutional knowledge'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/on-a-pirate-ship-theyd-toss-the-captain-overboard-larian-head-of-publishing-tears-into-ea-after-bioware-layoffs-waste-institutional-knowledge/
So, BioWare probably isn't going to be making a new Dragon Age game any time soon—maybe ever, depending on how things go. After Dragon Age: The Veilguard underperformed, much of its team (including senior members who had been making Dragon Age games for a while) were shuffled around or laid off.
This isn't necessarily out of nowhere. As quite accurately called by consultant and former BioWare vet Mark Darrah, almost prophetically, this marks the first time the studio's only had one major project to focus on. He rather optimistically stated that these devs would find their way to other EA studios, and that the challenge would be involved in trying to get them back. Turns out, he was partly right: A lot of them are just gone entirely.
(...)
That's a despondency shared by Michael Douse, publishing director of Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios, who took to X in a series of posts this week that more or less tore into EA for letting go of so much institutional talent. He writes
>> I’ll leave it to you to find out what he wrote, in the article.

Warner Bros. says that's all, folks for Multiversus: The next season will be its last, but you'll be able to play offline 'for the foreseeable future'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fighting/warner-bros-says-thats-all-folks-for-multiversus-its-next-season-will-be-its-last-but-itll-be-playable-offline-for-the-foreseeable-future/
Multiversus, the WB Games Smash Bros.-style brawler that was brave enough to explore what it would be like if Samurai Jack and LeBron James met on the field of battle, is approaching the end of its long, strange road. Earlier today, WB Games announced on X that the game's fifth season, beginning next week on February 4, will "serve as the final update." It'll be brought offline and delisted from digital storefronts when the season ends on May 30, but WB Games says "players will be able to enjoy the game offline for the foreseeable future."
>> That long hiatus between the first launch, then the sudden delisting and the comeback didn’t help the game.

The new game from the Blasphemous devs is like if Commandos was a metroidvania set in a Spanish monastery, and also the Green Beret kept losing his mind
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/the-new-game-from-the-blasphemous-devs-is-like-if-commandos-was-a-metroidvania-set-in-a-spanish-monastery-and-also-the-green-beret-kept-losing-his-mind/
Do you have any of those games it feels like only you remember? For me, it's Prisoner of War, a third-person stealth/adventure thing on the original Xbox that saw you play a captured WW2 pilot trying to break out of prisons like Stalag Luft and Colditz. It had some neat ideas for 2002: the prison camps were relatively open and they ran on a schedule. That meant once you had your objective—steal a document, get a disguise—you had all sorts of different routes to complete it, but you'd need to be back in bed by morning roll call.
Kind of neat, although it did look like a Morrowind mod. Anyway, the reason I bring it up is I've been playing the demo for The Stone of Madness, the new game from the devs behind Blasphemous that sees you and a cohort of comrades try to bust out of an asylum in an 18th-century Spanish monastery. Which, yep, is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect the devs behind Blasphemous to make.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure warns players coming from 'other cozy games' not to do that cheat-y time travel stuff or risk corrupting their save files
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/hello-kitty-island-adventure-warns-players-coming-from-other-cozy-games-not-to-do-that-cheat-y-time-travel-stuff-or-risk-corrupting-their-save-files/
Hello Kitty Island Adventure arrived this week as the newest and cutest in the genre of 'games where you're stuck on an island with those licensed property characters you love' but hold your darn Turfys just a minute. HKIA has kicked off its PC launch with a warning that bringing your cheater-pants system date changing strats to this game could muck up your save file. So don't do it!

Elder Scrolls voice actor Wes Johnson shares message of thanks after waking from coma to $175K GoFundMe: 'I love you all. I'm not going anywhere'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/elder-scrolls-voice-actor-wes-johnson-shares-message-of-thanks-after-waking-from-coma-to-usd175k-gofundme-i-love-you-all-im-not-going-anywhere/
Wes Johnson, the actor whose voice permeates Bethesda's RPGs like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim, has addressed fans and friends as he recovers from being found "barely alive" in his hotel room last week.
The actor had travelled to Atlanta, where he was scheduled to host a benefit event for the National Alzheimer's Foundation. But when he didn't appear at the event, his wife Kim Johnson phoned the hotel where he was staying, where security discovered him unconscious, and medical technicians struggled to find a pulse. A GoFundMe page for Johnson's medical bills revealed he had been placed in a coma. Johnson has since emerged from that coma, as he explains in a video uploaded to the GoFundMe page.

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 8 testers are whispering that a previously mediocre subclass is now an S-tier war god of infinite thunder smites, but there's no way it can last
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldurs-gate-3-patch-8-testers-are-whispering-that-a-previously-mediocre-subclass-is-now-an-s-tier-war-god-of-infinite-thunder-smites-but-theres-no-way-it-can-last/
Baldur's Gate 3's upcoming deluge of new subclasses is practically as exciting as all the entirely new games we're about to get in February, and we're starting to get reports trickling in from loose-lipped Patch 8 stress testers about how those new subclasses work in action. One thing that really stands out to me among the r/BG3builds scuttlebut is the complete 180 Eldritch Knights have made.

Fallout: New Vegas lead writer returns to Obsidian after leaving 14 years ago, but before you ask, no, 'It's not FNV2'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/fallout-new-vegas-lead-writer-returns-to-obsidian-after-leaving-14-years-ago-but-before-you-ask-no-its-not-fnv2/
14 years after leaving Obsidian Entertainment to ply his trade on games including Guardians of Middle-earth, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Horizon Forbidden West, Fallout: New Vegas creative design lead John Gonzalez has returned. But don't get too excited, New Vegas fans, because he says it's not for New Vegas 2.

'It may seem like a whole new game': One of my favorite medieval city builders just got a huge update with a ton of new features
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/it-may-seem-like-a-whole-new-game-one-of-my-favorite-medieval-city-builders-just-got-a-huge-update-with-a-ton-of-new-features/
It's been a long road for medieval city builder Foundation, but after six years it's just launched out of early access and into version 1.0. I first tried it out in 2019, and it quickly became one of my favorites, a beautiful and chill builder that I return to every so often to see what's new.
And there's a lot that's new in the 1.0 update. So much that the developer, Polymorph Games, says "it may seem like a whole new game!" The update includes a new main menu and reworked UI, lots of difficulty customizations to tailor your experience, an editor to create and customize your own village banner, new tiers of residential buildings, an improved progression system, and lots more. Even the art has been overhauled for the launch. Here are the full patch notes.

Butcher's Creek is a short, sweet and brutal FPS video nasty from the maker of Dusk
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/butchers-creek-is-a-short-sweet-and-brutal-fps-video-nasty-from-the-maker-of-dusk/
Butcher's Creek should have been named Kill Streak. I mean, what else would you name a game about a man on a naked axe-murder rampage through a cult compound? Released just a few days ago, it's the sort of short, low-fi and pointedly horrible experience that its lone developer David Szymanski (Dusk, Iron Lung, Squirrel Stapler) is increasingly known for. Filthy, rusty, rough-edged horror adventures of movie length or less. Just long enough to get under your skin and have you turning them over in your head for a while.

Nightdive's remaster of Doom + Doom 2 gets multiplayer mod support, spectator mode for co-op play, and stops you from losing your mind searching for red doors
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/nightdives-remaster-of-doom-doom-2-gets-multiplayer-mod-support-spectator-mode-for-co-op-play-and-stops-you-from-losing-your-mind-searching-for-red-doors/
Nightdive's remaster of Doom + Doom 2 has given me hours of sweet demon-blasting joy since it launched in the middle of last year. (...)
It was a pretty comprehensive package, but Nightdive and Bethesda have continued to tinker away with it in the months since. This culminated in a new update that arrived earlier this week, which makes numerous smaller fixes and quality-of-life changes, but mainly adds support for multiplayer mods.

DeTechtive 2112 is a slick-looking cyberpunk shooter that seems great on paper but is really just Hotline Miami but worse
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/detechtive-2112-is-a-slick-looking-cyberpunk-shooter-that-seems-great-on-paper-but-is-really-just-hotline-miami-but-worse/
DeTechtive 2112 feels like a gorgeous set of environments looking for a game, if my casual run through the first half of its story missions is any indication. Developed by Turkish indie outfit M11 Studio, it's a stealthy isometric shooter about a depressed noir detective in a very snazzy jacket, solving crimes in post-WW3 England. I was eager to try it out when it dropped on Steam this week, but sadly I've got to deliver a warning rather than a recommendation.

Split Fiction's latest trailer shows off its side-stories, which let you fly through space and ride giant desert fish in worlds 'completely different' from the main adventure
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/split-fictions-latest-trailer-shows-off-its-side-stories-which-let-you-fly-through-space-and-ride-giant-desert-fish-in-worlds-completely-different-from-the-main-adventure/
Hazelight Studios' upcoming adventure Split Fiction does more than add a genre-blending twist to the cooperative action of It Takes Two. A newly released trailer shows that the follow-up to Josef Fares' wildly successful third-person platformer isn't a strictly linear affair. According to Fares, who provides the trailer's voiceover, players will be able to embark upon "side-stories" that are "completely different from the main adventure" as they explore the game's dual sci-fi and fantasy worlds.

Snowrunner follow-up RoadCraft shows off its roadbuilding and logistics automation in a new trailer, and I'm already in love with its mobile quarry
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/snowrunner-follow-up-roadcraft-shows-off-its-roadbuilding-and-logistics-automation-in-a-new-trailer-and-im-already-in-love-with-its-mobile-quarry/
I was wooed consistently through the latest trailer for RoadCraft, Saber Interactive's follow-up to Expeditions: Mudrunner about rebuilding infrastructure across global disaster zones, but it was the phrase "mobile quarry" that convinced me Roadcraft is the one. Quarries, as you may know, are generally static affairs, given they are literally the ground. But RoadCraft's portable mineral deposit lets you take a little chunk of our planet with you, processing the stone and refilling your trucks on the fly. Put a ring on it, Saber Interactive.

I didn't think Factorio needed swarms of robot ants, but the trailer for this upcoming factory sim has convinced me it missed a trick
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/i-didnt-think-factorio-needed-swarms-of-robot-ants-but-the-trailer-for-this-upcoming-factory-sim-has-convinced-me-it-missed-a-trick/
The last thing I need in my life is another factory game, if only because allowing any factory game into your life risks it being consumed entirely by its sprawling, hopelessly absorbing logistics puzzle. But then Cordyceps Collective went and mashed up Factorio with last year's colony simulation Empire of the Ants, and now I see I'm going to lose the second half of February to Microtopia.