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

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Wednesday news, part two:

GOG's bespoke cut of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall gets delisted tomorrow, so you've got a day to grab it for free as the store works out how 'to publish and maintain such projects better' in future
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/gogs-bespoke-cut-of-the-elder-scrolls-2-daggerfall-gets-delisted-tomorrow-so-youve-got-a-day-to-grab-it-for-free-as-the-store-works-out-how-to-publish-and-maintain-such-projects-better-in-future/
There's something about Elder Scrolls games. For years, one of the most popular ways for newbies to get into Morrowind was a mod collection called the Morrowind Graphics and Sound Overhaul (MGSO), which bundled up a bunch of gameplay and graphics mods in an easy installer to give the game a 'modern' makeover. Problem was it wasn't great, to the point that even its original creator eventually came out and asked people not to use it.
So it goes with Morrowind's predecessor—The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall. Daggerfall is a weird, wide, rambling thing, and absolutely still worth playing in 2025, especially since it's now free. But if you were to just Google an easy way to play it, chances are you'll stumble across the 2022 Daggerfall GOG Cut, a version of Daggerfall with the GOG stamp of approval, bundled up with a bunch of mods to make it feel a bit more approachable in the modern era.
Problem is, just like MGSO, it's not great. In most ways, it's inferior to just downloading the genuinely excellent Daggerfall Unity by itself and running the game straight from there. The GOG Cut is outdated, the mods it includes aren't their most recent versions, and some of them don't quite mesh. It's been the bête noire of the Daggerfall community for a while now, and so GOG has come out and announced it's delisting the whole thing tomorrow, February 12, at 2 pm GMT.

The best Far Cry game of all time now has achievements on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-best-far-cry-game-of-all-time-now-has-achievements-on-steam/
Ubisoft's return to Steam has continued slowly but surely since September 2024, when the company finally decided that enough was enough and it was time to start selling games where people actually want to buy them. That means day-one releases on Steam, which is a big deal in its own right, but Ubisoft has been going an extra step by adding Steam achievements to its older games on the storefront. That's nice, although it doesn't really interest me personally—or at least it didn't until today, because today Ubisoft brought that love to what is possibly its greatest videogame ever.
I am of course talking about Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, the "'80s vision of the future" starring Rex "Power" Colt, whose mission in the futuristic world of 2007 is to kill everything, get the girl, and save the world. "Experience every cliché of a VHS era vision of a nuclear future, where cyborgs, blood dragons, mutants, and Michael Biehn collide," the Steam page promises, and let me tell you as someone who grew up in the era of Terminator, Aliens, and Navy Seals, it works: It's dumber than hell and an absolute blast.

Karlach voice actor offers a pre-emptive no thanks to Disco Elysium successors that don't include the original project lead: 'Miss me with that casting call'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/karlach-voice-actor-offers-a-pre-emptive-no-thanks-to-disco-elysium-successors-that-dont-include-the-original-project-lead-miss-me-with-that-casting-call/
The post-Disco Elysium world we live in is... complicated. Following the release of one of the biggest and most acclaimed RPGs to come along in years, developer ZA/UM imploded, and left its wake are splinters of the shell, each claiming they're making a Disco Elysium "spiritual successor" and putting in some real effort to discredit everyone else.
It's a mess alright, but one person who's having none of it is Samantha Béart, best known for their portrayal of Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3. That performance has apparently attracted the attention of at least some of the people working on Disco Elysium follow-up projects, but sadly for them Béart said they're not interested unless the project meets one very specific requirement.
>> Meanwhile, Doug Cockle is happy to return to voice Geralt, whether it is an animated work, or The Witcher 4..

To make its fantasy extraction game, this studio of ex-Blizzard devs had to teach itself the art of third-person combat design: 'There's a science to how those are built'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/to-make-its-fantasy-extraction-game-this-studio-of-ex-blizzard-devs-had-to-teach-itself-the-art-of-third-person-combat-design-theres-a-science-to-how-those-are-built/
Late last year, I played in a closed alpha playtest of Legacy: Steel & Sorcery, an upcoming extraction game pairing World of Warcraft-style high fantasy with third-person action combat. Over a couple of hours, I got an early taste of stringing together longbow headshots on skeletons, smashing wolves with maces, and panicked escapes as a priest tried to murder me for my backpack full of goblin ears. This week, Legacy enters early access, aiming to offer its own artisanal blend of RPG extraction.
Ahead of Legacy's early access launch, I spoke last month with Chris Kaleiki, Notorious Studios co-founder and former World of Warcraft class designer. In our interview, Kaleiki explained how Legacy grew out of an idea he had about redesigning World of Warcraft's class fantasy with more action and less action bars.

'It's nice to have options': Blizzard thinks Avowed's new cross-buy feature is breaking down barriers
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/its-nice-to-have-options-blizzard-thinks-its-breaking-down-barriers-with-avoweds-new-cross-buy-feature/
We're less than a week away from Avowed's full release, which is on February 18, 2025, and as part of the lead-up to this, Blizzard has released a small bit of news about Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming game: players will be able to switch between Avowed on their PC and their Xbox.

Elden Ring Nightreign release date set for May, will cost $40
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/elden-ring-nightreign-release-date-set-for-may-will-cost-usd40/
Well here's a nice surprise: Elden Ring Nightreign's official release date is May 30, a good chunk earlier in the year than I would've guessed when FromSoftware announced it in December. Coinciding with a bunch of new Nightreign hands-on impressions, Bandai Namco also shared that the co-op Elden Ring spinoff will cost $40, the same price as the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

Looks like Neverwinter Nights 2 has been freed from rights hell and is due an imminent enhanced edition release, bringing the 2006 RPG from 5GB to 36GB
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/looks-like-neverwinter-nights-2-has-been-freed-from-rights-hell-and-is-due-an-imminent-enhanced-edition-release-bringing-the-2006-rpg-from-5gb-to-36gb/
There's probably a few holdouts somewhere, but for the most part, it seems like we've all come to accept Beamdog's "enhanced" versions of D&D classics like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights 1 as those games' go-to editions. But there are a couple of classics still missing from the lineup: Icewind Dale 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2.
Icewind Dale 2's missing source code means the outlook for a remaster of that one looks grim, but an addition to SteamDB (spotted on Reddit) has me pretty much convinced we're due for an imminent dolled-up re-release of Obsidian's follow-up to the OG Neverwinter Nights, which up to now has reputedly been in licensing rights purgatory.

Subnautica 2 dev sounds foghorn about 'fraudulent links' being sent to community members: 'We will never contact anyone by Steam DM for any potential playtests'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/subnautica-2-dev-sounds-foghorn-about-fraudulent-links-being-sent-to-community-members-we-will-never-contact-anyone-by-steam-dm-for-any-potential-playtests/
The Subnautica 2 community drifted into shark-infested waters recently, as developer Unknown Worlds cautioned players about "fraudulent links" to a supposed playtest being sent out to fans and community members on Steam.
Reported by GamesRadar, the Subnautica 2 developer first sounded the alarm on X, posting that it had "been made aware" fake links to a playtest of the highly anticipated sequel were being messaged to community members on Steam, and warned players sthat "we will never contact anyone by Steam DM for any potential playtests."