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

[JEMC]

Wednesday news, part two:

Blockchain-based space survival MMO EVE Frontier has a free trial running, with CCP hoping you'll take a chance on its 20,000 star systems, more tactical combat, and 'dark sci-fi Pinocchio story'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/blockchain-based-space-survival-mmo-eve-frontier-has-a-free-trial-running-with-ccp-hoping-youll-take-a-chance-on-its-20-000-star-systems-more-tactical-combat-and-dark-sci-fi-pinocchio-story/
In an expanded documentary produced in collaboration with PC Gamer, CCP Games is providing a deeper look at the hardcore space survival MMO EVE Frontier after its showing at the 2024 PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted. This more unforgiving and zoomed-in sister game to EVE Online is also in the middle of a 10-day free trial of its closed alpha, allowing players to try it out for themselves without committing to an early access founder pack until February 24.

Epic sues Fortnite cheater, donates his winnings to charity, forces him to publicly apologise, bans him for life, and all but sends him to his room without dinner
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/epic-sues-fortnite-cheater-donates-his-winnings-to-charity-forces-him-to-publicly-apologise-bans-him-for-life-and-all-but-sends-him-to-his-room-without-dinner/
Epic has settled with a dirty rotten cheater who made off with a chunk of cash from the 2023 Fortnite Championship Series, making them return the prize and post an apology video to their YoutTube channel. Sadly the player in question, who in a bout of nominative determinism goes by the handle Morgan 'RepulseGod' Bamford, didn't have the stones to deliver their apology in-person, choosing instead to post a 15-second video of text that reads:
>> You’ll have to check the article to see what it says.

Marvel Rivals is changing how the battlepass works so it's easier to grind-out currency for skins: 'Crazy good for people that play the game a lot'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/marvel-rivals-is-changing-how-the-battlepass-works-to-so-its-easier-to-grind-out-currency-for-skins-crazy-good-for-people-that-play-the-game-a-lot/
NetEase has released a new dev update for Marvel Rivals, and it's good news for the grind. The free-to-play hero shooter currently has three different currencies: Chrono tokens, gold lattice, and blue units. Chrono tokens are a battlepass-exclusive currency earned as you progress and can be used to buy skins and various other cosmetics on that battle pass. For months players have complained that, once the battle pass is complete, you just earn more Chrono tokens but have nothing to spend them on.
(...)
From season 1.5 players "can convert those excess Chrono Tokens into Units. If you purchase the Luxury Battle Pass and redeem all its rewards, you’ll be able to convert any leftover Chrono Tokens for Units at a specific ratio."
>> More good news: Blade is coming to the game.

NetEase confirms Marvel Rivals layoffs, says cuts were made 'to optimize development efficiency for the game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/just-couldnt-dodge-that-big-boot-i-guess-no-matter-how-big-the-success-of-the-gig-marvel-rivals-developers-in-the-us-say-netease-just-laid-off-their-whole-team/
Marvel Rivals is a big hit—the first real challenger to the long-time hero shooter big dog Overwatch. Yet amidst that success, with more than 200,000 people playing on Steam alone right now, NetEase game director Thaddeus Sasser says the Marvel Rivals development team in the US has been laid off.
Recent updates
NetEase has now confirmed the layoffs of Marvel Rivals developers in a statement provided to PC Gamer.

You know the drill: Avowed's default waypoint and UI settings are way too handholdy, so you should change them ASAP
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/you-know-the-drill-avoweds-default-waypoint-and-ui-settings-are-way-too-handholdy-so-you-should-change-them-asap/
There's a sweet spot between Dark Forces/Marathon Infinity "what the hell am I supposed to do next" level design and handholdy objective tracking that might as well just play the game for you. Avowed doesn't nail that sweet spot out of the box, but thanks to a robust settings and accessibility menu, it can be customized into something more old-school. Here's a quick breakdown of the settings I toggled to strike a good balance, all found under Settings, UI when you pause the game:

Relic's new project is a 'smaller indie-style' game about a martian invasion of Earth
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rts/relics-new-project-is-a-smaller-indie-style-game-about-a-martian-invasion-of-earth/
Earth vs Mars is a new RTS in development at Relic, but unlike the studio's big Company of Heroes and Dawn of War games, this one is a "smaller indie-style" game being made under its Relic Labs label, which aims to "explore new sub-genres, experiment, get our creative juices going, and release games more frequently."

Exploit asteroids for resources using automated mining equipment as they hurtle through your space-claim in Astronomics
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/exploit-asteroids-for-resources-using-automated-mining-equipment-as-they-hurtle-through-your-space-claim-in-astronomics/
Earth. It's a great place to live, as far as you know. You've never been there, but all you have to do is earn a quick 600 million bucks and you'll be guaranteed your own little residence on that big blue marble.
That's gonna take a while because it turns out space-capitalism is even harsher than regular capitalism. As an asteroid miner in Astronomics, which is now in early access on Steam, the precious resources you collect from mining space rocks will make massive profits for the Cube Corporation, but you'll receive only the tiniest sliver of the profits.

Just Cause creator's new studio announces 'incredibly difficult' layoffs while still working on its first game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/just-cause-creators-new-studio-announces-incredibly-difficult-layoffs-while-still-working-on-its-first-game/
It just wouldn't be a day in the games industry without some dispiriting news about layoffs, would it? This time the company cutting back on staff is Liquid Swords, the studio founded by Christofer Sundberg, formerly Chief Creative Officer at Avalanche Studios and creator of the Just Cause series.
In a statement (via Game Developer), Sundberg explained that Liquid Swords was founded in 2020 with the intent "to build a studio redefining game development with a small, expert-driven team and a sustainable work model." Yet while he claims the company achieved "much" of this goal, "shifting market conditions prevented us from succeeding in our timeframe." Consequently, Liquid Swords has made the "incredibly difficult" decision to "part ways with talented individuals who have been instrumental in our journey."

Overwatch 2's new competitive season is as chaotic as ever, thanks to the new perk system, but it's still a huge step in the right direction
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/overwatch-2s-new-competitive-season-is-as-chaotic-as-ever-thanks-to-the-new-perk-system-but-its-still-a-huge-step-in-the-right-direction/
Overwatch 2's Season 16 began last night, and with it came a load of new features like perks and loot boxes, changes to the UI, and a rank reset. It's a big update for the start of the season, but one that was very much needed thanks to the new competition that Marvel Rivals has brought.

Choo choo, here comes Monster Train 2: One of our favorite deckbuilders is getting a sequel and you can play a demo today
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/choo-choo-here-comes-monster-train-2-one-of-our-favorite-deckbuilders-is-getting-a-sequel-and-you-can-play-a-demo-today/
The first Monster Train had great timing: It pulled into Steam a few months after Slay the Spire left early access, which was right when I was ready for a break from spire slaying, but was still in the mood for roguelike deckbuilding. And it was a lot of fun.
Five years later, history might repeat itself: Slay the Spire 2 was announced last year and is set to release sometime this year, and now Monster Train 2 has been announced and is also releasing sometime in 2025.

There’s another article, but this one is more for pointing at and laughing:

Amazon apparently thought it was gonna compete with Steam since the Orange Box, but Prime Gaming's former VP admits that 'gamers already had the solution to their problems'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/amazon-apparently-thought-it-was-gonna-compete-with-steam-since-the-orange-box-but-prime-gamings-former-vp-admits-that-gamers-already-had-the-solution-to-their-problems/
I will never understand, dear reader, why we keep running into this baffling issue of Valve (and PC gaming in general) being underestimated. Starting at its roots, when basically no-one thought it'd work as a distribution platform—and extending into the modern age. Ethan Evans, who was the former Vice President of Prime Gaming at Amazon until 2020, took to LinkedIn recently to share his wisdom as to why the giant never toppled Valve. And, uh, basically, they thought they could just throw money at the problem.
Alright, I'm being glib here—and hindsight is 20/20—but reading through this explanation has me saying 'no doy' like it's my new catchphrase. Evans is at least being a little self-reflective, though: "As VP of Prime Gaming at Amazon, we failed multiple times to disrupt the game platform Steam. We were at least 250x bigger, and we tried everything. But ultimately, Goliath lost.
"The 15+ year long attempt to challenge Steam started before I was VP of Prime Gaming, but we never cracked the code." He then maps out the timeline. First, an ill-fated attempt at making Reflexive Entertainment's online store a thing in 2009: "It went nowhere." Then, an attempt to make a game store after buying Twitch: "Our assumption was that gamers would naturally buy from us because they were already using Twitch. Wrong." Lastly, "Luna", a cloud gaming app that I literally hadn't heard of until this point. "The whole time, Steam dominated despite being a relatively small company (compared to Amazon and Google)." Thorn, meet side.