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

[JEMC]

Tuesday news, part two:

Former WoW designer tips hat to Marvel Rival's shifting meta as an antidote to MMOs with stale class design 'you have to change the meta continually'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/former-wow-designer-tips-hat-to-marvel-rivals-shifting-meta-as-an-antidote-to-mmos-with-stale-class-design-you-have-to-change-the-meta-continually/
MMOs—at least, the big boys that have endured from the massively multiplayer golden age—can sometimes be considered a smidge stale. Many design elements are, in a sense, solved. The Holy Trinity took over years ago, dungeon finders are a must, and heaven forbid if you're running something suboptimal in a pick-up group of hypervigilant strangers, with insults about your mum already bound to a macro and ready to go.
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A former WoW designer, Chris Kaleiki, who has 13 years of Blizzard under his belt, reckons that the only real way to keep classes fresh is to take a leaf from MOBAs and Hero Shooters like League of Legends and Marvel Rivals. That's as per a recent interview Kaleki conducted with GamesRadar+, (...)

PSN crapping out means we all get an extra day of the Monster Hunter Wilds beta, even us on PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/psn-crapping-out-means-we-all-get-an-extra-day-of-the-monster-hunter-wilds-beta-even-us-on-pc/
This past weekend saw a bizarre, still largely unexplained outage of Sony's PlayStation Network service, effectively rendering a bunch of folk unable to access digital games and online servers. (...)
It was quite frankly terrible timing, too—as if there's ever a good time to be almost completely offline for an entire day—considering Capcom was running its second Open Beta Test for Monster Hunter Wilds. The PSN outage meant that would-be hunters were left in the dark for almost half of the beta's runtime, leaving folk pleading with Capcom to extend the Forbidden Lands' opening times.
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"Hunters, we're pleased to confirm that due to the PlayStation Network outage that occurred during the first week of OBT2, we're extending the second week of OBT2 by +24 hours on all platforms," a follow-up post from the Monster Hunter X page read.

TennoCon 2025 sold through all 3,000 tickets in about 30 minutes, presumably off the back of massive demand for last year's customisable mums
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/at-peak-popularity-after-last-years-customisable-mums-reveal-tennocon-2025-tickets-sold-out-in-35-minutes-to-the-worlds-warframe-and-soulframe-lovers/
I have a confession: I think I might like Warframe. (…)
Lots of other people seem to love it too, which must be why there have been nine TennoCons so far: events where Warframe fans and devs pile into a venue to mix, mingle, give updates, reveal things like last year's customisable Soulframe mum announcement and collectively try to figure out what the hell Warframe is about, probably.
This year I reckon they'll crack it. Tickets for 2025's TennoCon—held as ever in London, Ontario—went on sale at about 11 am PST / 2 pm EST / 7 pm GMT last Friday, per an announcement from Digital Extremes on Bluesky. Per a subsequent announcement, they were completely sold out 35 minutes later. That means all the $50 General Admission tickets, the $150 VIP tickets, and even the two (count 'em: two) $1,000 Legendary tickets.
>> In an update, the article states that there were 3000 tickets.

Hearts of Iron 4's new DLC lets you cast off the Brits as India, cast off the Brits as Iraq, resist the Brits as Iran, or ignore the Brits as Afghanistan
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/hearts-of-iron-4s-new-dlc-lets-you-cast-off-the-brits-as-india-cast-off-the-brits-as-iraq-resist-the-brits-as-iran-or-ignore-the-brits-as-afghanistan/
If history teaches us one thing, it's this: it's always a great idea to invade Central Asia. It just can't go wrong. Honestly, if this games journalism thing doesn't work out, I'm thinking I might head over there with the lads and establish some kind of thousand-year imperium. That or back to SEO writing.
Ah, wait, I'm learning from the title of Paradox's upcoming DLC for Hearts of Iron 4 that I'm mistaken. Graveyard of Empires is the next country pack for the studio's WW2 sim, announced last year, and offering all-new ways for your imperial ambitions to crash into the rocks of a region that's got a habit of putting paid to that sort of thing. It's now got a release date: it's arriving March 4, for $15 (£12.79).

LocalThunk had made hobby games in the past, but realized Balatro was something special when a friend revealed he had played it for '20, 30, or 40' hours
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/localthunk-had-made-hobby-games-in-the-past-but-realized-balatro-was-something-special-when-a-friend-revealed-he-had-played-it-for-20-30-or-40-hours/
In a recent Bloomberg interview with Balatro creator LocalThunk, the notably private, anonymous developer opened up a little bit about the roguelike card game's origins, including how he first realized he was on to something special with what had started as just another hobby project.

Take-Two chief says PC has become a 'more important part of what used to be a console business,' but he's still not committing to a Grand Theft Auto 6 release
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/take-two-chief-says-pc-has-become-a-more-important-part-of-what-used-to-be-a-console-business-but-hes-still-not-committing-to-a-grand-theft-auto-6-release/
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a recent interview with IGN that PC has become a "much more" important part of the gaming ecosphere than it was in the past—one that generates a significant portion of sales for multiplatform games. And if you think that means he's ready to commit to a PC version of Grand Theft Auto 6 anytime soon, well, you'd best think again.

Civilization 7's new patch temporarily disables crossplay between PC and console so Firaxis can 'expedite updates to the PC'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/civilization-7s-new-patch-temporarily-disables-crossplay-between-pc-and-console-so-firaxis-can-expedite-updates-to-the-pc/
A new update for Civilization 7 aims to address "some player feedback" from the advanced access release of the game, and promises "larger, more substantive updates" on the way in the future.

Inzoi's game director teases plans for ghost Zois getting shackled to the mortal realm, karma-starved and seeking redemption if they die with a bad rep
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/inzois-game-director-teases-plans-for-ghost-zois-getting-shackled-to-the-mortal-realm-karma-starved-and-seeking-redemption-if-they-die-with-a-bad-rep/
The early access launch for fresh new Sims competitor Inzoi is just about six weeks away and information about its features—those coming in time for early access and those planned to be developed later—are arriving at a weekly pace now. Over the weekend we got yet more details about Inzoi's life sim features, this time revolving around the afterlife.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has a secret dark ending for Bohemia's worst criminals
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/kingdom-come-deliverance-2-has-a-secret-dark-ending-for-bohemias-worst-criminals/
PC Gamer's Morgan Park treated us to a story last week about the downsides of a life of crime in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2—specifically, a very conspicuous brand that did not improve his standing with the local folk. He was also warned that if he continued behaving like a jerk, he could end up being executed. As it turns out, the threat is serious.

This long-running cozy tavern life sim on Steam just added online multiplayer, so now you can design and run a medieval pub with your pals
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/this-long-running-cozy-tavern-life-sim-on-steam-just-added-online-multiplayer-so-now-you-can-design-and-run-a-medieval-pub-with-your-pals/
Every so often I poke my head into the subreddits dedicated to life sims and cozy games and farming sims to see what people are recommending, and one game keeps coming up over and over again: Travellers Rest.
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In Travellers Rest you've inherited a run-down old tavern and set to work turning it into a cozy inn, where you cook meals, brew drinks, and serve customers, using the gold you earn to expand your tavern, farm crops, and unlock new recipes. As you build your business you can design and decorate new rooms, hire servers to help out, and employ bouncers to keep order, all while experimenting with new drinks and dishes to keep your visitors happy.
Travellers Rest launched into early access on Steam in 2020, and it's been steadily adding new features since then like beekeeping, farm animals, and fishing, along with regular patches and fixes. Back in 2023 it added support for local co-op, and now online multiplayer is now underway, too: you can try out the new multiplayer beta and start running your pub with up to three other pals right now.