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

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Wednesday news, the second part:

Soulsborne fans tackle the ultimate boss of private healthcare, paying off beloved community figure's huge bill within hours while collectively urging: 'Don't you dare go hollow'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/soulsborne-fans-tackle-the-ultimate-boss-of-private-healthcare-paying-off-beloved-community-figures-huge-bill-within-hours-while-collectively-urging-dont-you-dare-go-hollow/
The longtime Soulsborne content creator Zullie the Witch has been datamining FromSoftware's games for pretty much as long as I've been playing them, producing countless deep-dives, neat findings and lore tidbits for fans to chew on. They've covered every Soulsborne game including Elden Ring and Sekiro, but under their most recent video on Elden Ring Nightreign shared that things weren't going so well personally (thanks, GR+).
"I am clawing my way out of a pit of depression, but the pit is deep and my claws are blunt," wrote Zullie. "I'd been hoping to get back to making videos at the start of the month, only to find myself just slipping in at the end of it instead. Between that, the fact I haven't been able to secure a sponsor video in a while, and a looming $15,000 in medical expenses, I'm reluctant to do this, but I'm openly asking for donations."
Within hours Zullie chose to remove the donation links "because this has already smashed every expectation I had and I'm kind of overwhelmed by how quickly and emphatically you've all lent your support." The Ko-fi page shows 6467 donations at the time of writing, which with a minimum donation of $5 means the community has ponied-up a minimum of $32,355 and probably a great deal more.

Jennifer English (Shadowheart) and Nolan North (Nathan Drake) will be the illustrious hosts of the Future Games Show this year
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/events-conferences/jennifer-english-shadowheart-and-nolan-north-nathan-drake-will-be-the-illustrious-hosts-of-the-future-games-show-this-year/
The Future Games Show—hosted by our friends at our sister site GamesRadar+—will be arriving at GDC in San Francisco, March 20, which means we're just only a month away from getting a healthy serving of game trailers and news to chew over. But who, I hear you cry, will be telling me about all the videogames that'll be eating a hole in my bank account this year? Great question!

PUBG's creator is focusing on raising funds for his next project to 'insulate the team' so they don't end up making 'just another PlayerUnknown game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/pubgs-creator-is-focusing-on-raising-funds-for-his-next-project-to-insulate-the-team-so-they-dont-end-up-making-just-another-playerunknown-game/
Prologue: Go Wayback! is the next game for PlayerUnknown Productions. It's an upcoming survival game which is heading into early access soon, but it has longer aspirations and goals than just getting to launch, it's just the first step towards the ultimate goal of making a meterverse.
"The bigger vision is creating an Open Source Engine to create digital places," Brendan Greene, creator of PUBG tells me. "Like multiple digital worlds for everyone. The three steps or three games are basically solving technology challenges, the first being the terrain." The next step is to test out massively multiplayer worlds, and the final part will be meshing everything together in a 3D internet. But getting there will take some time, by Greene's estimation, 10 to 15 years. To ensure the devs can keep working on this long haul project, Greene is currently looking for different ways to finance it.

Marvel Rivals is giving away 200 units to everyone as an apology for the server outages, and players are very happy: 'I literally made 200 units in my sleep'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/marvel-rivals-is-giving-away-200-units-to-everyone-as-an-apology-for-the-server-outages-and-players-are-very-happy-i-literally-made-200-units-in-my-sleep/
Last night, Marvel Rivals' servers went down. After confirming the issue, NetEase took a bit of time to figure things out and implement a fix. After all was said and done, it took less than an hour, but even still, players have been given some Marvel bux for the inconvenience.
"As a token of our appreciation for your patience, we've credited your account with 200 units as compensation," a post on Marvel Rivals' Discord says. However, in order to claim this gift, players need to log into the game and claim the item from the in-game mail section. It'll only be available to grab until March 11, so it's better to do it sooner rather than later.

Haste: Broken Worlds finally lets me live out my childhood fantasy of running really fast and then slamming into a rock at Mach 1 and breaking all my bones
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/haste-broken-worlds-finally-lets-me-live-out-my-childhood-fantasy-of-running-really-fast-and-then-slamming-into-a-rock-at-mach-1-and-breaking-all-my-bones/
I've always had a hope, ever since I was little—that I would, someday, be able to run really fast and hit a rock and break all of my bones.
Okay, that's not the exact dream, but as a mentally hyperactive kid with a strong imagination, I did spend a lot of my car journeys running an imaginary stickman along parallel traffic, or walking my fingers like legs across various obstacles in my home. You see, we didn't have tablets back then, so we had to fill in the time between episodes of Bamzooki (look it up).
Luckily, Haste: Broken Worlds is here to finally make my dream come true. This roguelike bone-breaking simulator has an available demo during Steam Next Fest, and it's rather worth the concussions you'll be enduring.

Inzoi director says 'we have great respect for the legacy The Sims has built' and doesn't see their game as a director competitor: 'Our aim is to provide a different experience'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/inzoi-director-says-we-have-great-respect-for-the-legacy-the-sims-has-built-and-doesnt-see-their-game-as-a-director-competitor-our-aim-is-to-provide-a-different-experience/
Inzoi is looming ever closer, and with it the first real competition The Sims has had, well, ever. Krafton's take on the life sim genre looks like it'll be the closest we get to EA's scope and scale for a good while. Despite that, director Hyungjun Kim doesn't view his game as a rival.

The Callisto Protocol studio lays off more employees, but 'remains operational'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-callisto-protocol-studio-lays-off-more-employees-but-remains-operational/
Krafton has confirmed another round of layoffs at Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios, but says it remains operational and that the cuts will not impact any projects currently in the works.

The Sims 4 is finally bringing the burglar back to the series after a decade away
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4-is-finally-bringing-the-burglar-back-to-the-series-after-a-decade-away/
I enjoy The Sims most when it's ruining my day with random events and today The Sims 4 is bringing back one of the greats: the burglar. After a not-so-sneaky teaser this week The Sims 4 has dropped a base game update which, among a list of bug fixes, also adds a unique new thief to snatch your family's stuff. It is great to see the old gag make it back to the series, especially after I've had such a good time getting burgled in The Sims 3 recently.

Warner Bros. is closing Monolith, Player First Games, and WB San Diego, and has cancelled its Wonder Woman game
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/warner-bros-is-closing-monolith-player-first-games-and-wb-san-diego-and-has-cancelled-its-wonder-woman-game/
Just a month after Warner Bros. Games chief David Haddad announced that he's stepping down after 12 years in the role, the company is closing its Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego studios, and cancelling the Wonder Woman game first revealed in 2021.

Former Piranha Bytes veterans unveil their new dungeon crawler, and it's tripping my Arx Fatalis alarms in all the right ways
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/former-piranha-bytes-veterans-unveil-their-new-dungeon-crawler-and-its-tripping-my-arx-fatalis-alarms-in-all-the-right-ways/
Back in July 2024, former Piranha Bytes creative director Björn Pankratz and his wife, game designer Jennifer Pankratz, launched a new indie outfit called Pithead Studio, which they said would enable them to "keep doing what we love." Today we got our first look at what that is, and I am—with all appropriate caution engaged—very excited.