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

[JEMC]

Thursday news, part two:

Shape of Dreams' demo shows off an ingenious roguelike that wields Risk of Rain-tier finesse with action MOBA chaos, and I think I might be in love
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/shape-of-dreams-demo-shows-off-an-ingenious-roguelike-that-wields-risk-of-rain-tier-finesse-with-action-moba-chaos-and-i-think-i-might-be-in-love/
I'm a little staggered that I hadn't heard of Shape of Dreams before—while it has updated and promoted its demo for Next Fest, it's actually had a "prologue" available for a while, which has essentially been a sort of open alpha test for its devs. Click on that link, and you'll find that while its reviews are nice and humble—around 3,700—almost everyone who played this thing last year (95% of them, to be precise) liked it. Well, I've played the new Next Fest demo, and wouldn't you know, I like it, too.
Shape of Dreams is a co-op roguelike with action MOBA controls, a batch of word salad I would usually roll my eyes at—in fact, I sort of did, saying out loud to myself 'that's a lot of nouns' when it greeted my Steam client this morning. It's more simply described as Risk of Rain, but make it Battlerite. Which, given my love for both games, feels somehow targeted at me.

This 'overwhelmingly positive' Steam Next Fest autobattler demo feels like someone bolted a Path of Exile-style map onto Halls of Torment, and I fear for my future productivity
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-overwhelmingly-positive-steam-next-fest-autobattler-demo-feels-like-someone-bolted-a-path-of-exile-style-map-onto-halls-of-torment-and-i-fear-for-my-future-productivity/
The autobattler's been getting chimeric since Vampire Survivors released and plunged global productivity down the toilet. VS was a chaotic slot machine: you didn't so much craft a build as you did keep pulling the lever and hope you could assemble something vaguely effective from what it spits out, which kept me occupied for weeks.
Then games like Halls of Torment bolted on a bit more ARPG stuff—things got slightly more measured, predictable, and I lost even more time. And now I fear I will lose many otherwise-productive days to Conquest Dark, the demo for which you can currently try out during Steam Next Fest, and which I was a bit surprised not to have heard of, given that the Steam reviews seem incredibly positive.

Bungie's lawyers have to use fan videos of old Destiny 2 content in court because, well, it doesn't exist in-game anymore
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/bungies-lawyers-have-to-use-fan-videos-of-old-destiny-2-content-in-court-because-well-it-doesnt-exist-in-game-anymore/
Last October a science fiction author, Matthew Kelsey Martineau, launched a lawsuit against Bungie focused on a Destiny 2 enemy faction, the Red Legion, which Martineau alleges is based on work from his Wordpress blog (Thanks, GameFile). Naturally something on the scale of Destiny 2 faces all sorts of speculative lawsuits, and this didn't seem something that should've unduly troubled Bungie's lawyers: Except for the fact that the content in question no longer exists in the game.

Riot walks back unpopular League of Legends changes: Hextech Chests are coming back, and the Blue Essence cost for new champions will be cut in half
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/riot-walks-back-unpopular-league-of-legends-changes-hextech-chests-are-coming-back-and-the-blue-essence-cost-for-new-champions-will-be-cut-in-half/
Riot Games says recent changes to League of Legends' reward system "didn't hit the mark for everyone," and so it's bringing Hextech Chests back and reducing the Blue Essence cost for new champions by half.

The Witcher 4 reveal trailer took 14 days of mocap, and CD Projekt wants you to think about what happened after it ended
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-witcher-4-reveal-trailer-took-14-days-of-mocap-and-cd-projekt-wants-you-to-think-about-what-happened-after-it-ended/
The Witcher 4 reveal at the 2024 Game Awards was a very big deal, and appropriately the trailer setting the stage for CD Projekt's next big adventure was long and elaborate, offering a look at Ciri's complicated life on the path. In a video released today, CD Projekt served up a behind-the-scenes look at the trailer's creation, which was itself a long and elaborate process that among other things required a whopping 14 days of mocap.

WoW's new DRIVE system probably won't be used outside of its GTA-style goblin zone, but devs are 'going to think about' recycling its parts elsewhere
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wows-new-drive-system-probably-wont-be-used-outside-of-its-gta-style-goblin-zone-but-devs-are-going-to-think-about-recycling-its-parts-elsewhere/
If you're at all familiar with my WoW coverage for this site, dear reader, you might know that I'm overall a fan of the MMO's new shift towards evergreen systems such as skyriding, warbands, delves, and the like—all things that could be used in future expansions to great effect and, in the case of skyriding, already have.
The new DRIVE system, at first glance, seemed like one of those—it's a bit of a madcap move, adding a ground mount to the game that allows players to literally Tokyo drift around its new GTA-style goblin map. Speaking to Ion Hazzikostas and associate design director Maria Hamilton at an event celebrating all things goblin last week, I asked how it actually came about. Did someone at a meeting just go 'let's do drifting?'

'A big scam company just stole my whole game': A Backrooms indie dev has been forced to seek legal help after someone took their game off Steam and uploaded it to the Nintendo Store
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/a-big-scam-company-just-stole-my-whole-game-a-backrooms-indie-dev-has-been-forced-to-seek-legal-help-after-someone-took-their-game-off-steam-and-uploaded-it-to-the-nintendo-store/
Backrooms games have quickly become a staple of the horror genre. If you check on Steam, there are hundreds to choose from, which, despite looking similar thanks to their setting, can be different in a couple of minor ways. However, there are at least two Backrooms games that are pretty much identical
Steelkrill's game, The Backrooms 1998, was released last week and has had a pretty good reception with a 'Very Positive' review rating on Steam. The game takes a more narrative approach to the Backrooms as it follows a young teen who has fallen into the liminal space. It also uses a camcorder to add a lost-footage vibe to the already creepy atmosphere.
After the successful initial launch on Steam, the solo dev Steelkrill decided that now was a great time to branch out to other consoles. Everything was going according to plan until one player contacted Steelkrill to ask why their game was already on consoles but under a different name. Steelkrill went to check it out, and that's how they found out that someone had ripped their entire game.

Over 30 Apex Legends voice actors refuse to sign an agreement that would see them 'give up our expertise to train the generative AI that will replace us tomorrow'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/over-30-apex-legends-voice-actors-refuse-to-sign-an-agreement-that-would-see-them-give-up-our-expertise-to-train-the-generative-ai-that-will-replace-us-tomorrow/
The turmoil that AI (specifically, generative AI) has caused in the voice acting industry continues to rage—while an ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike proceeds apace in the US, it seems like gaming companies are continuing to fumble the bag in other territories. Like EA, who has very likely asked the French cast of Apex Legends to train AI that would, invariably, replace them.
That's as per voice actor Pascale Chemin (Wraith) who, in a post to Instagram (translated here by ResetEra user Rouk') has been given an offer she, and 31 of her colleagues, can absolutely refuse.
It should be noted that Chemin has not confirmed that this agreement came from EA, or that it's for Apex Legends, but it's the game her tagged colleagues all share in common. The 6-year-long role she later cites also aligns with the release date of Apex Legends, which came out in 2019—and launched with the character she voice acts.

Monster Hunter Wilds is already trying to beat the pre-release difficulty allegations by dropping the deets on its first major patch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-is-already-trying-to-beat-the-pre-release-difficulty-allegations-by-dropping-the-deets-on-its-first-major-patch/
Monster Hunter Wilds isn't even out for most parts of the world as I write this, but that hasn't stopped Capcom from dropping breadcrumbs of information for its first major update. We already knew bits of Wilds' roadmap from February's State of Play, like the fact that Mizutsune would be the first post-launch monster coming to the game—something I'm personally very stoked about.
We've been blessed with even more information now, though: Title Update 1 will launch sometime in early April, giving hunters plenty of time to play through the story and get some High Rank grinding in.

Elite Dangerous just implemented an entire system colonisation mechanic, in case you really want to get off this planet
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/elite-dangerous-just-implemented-an-entire-system-colonisation-mechanic-in-case-you-really-want-to-get-off-this-planet/
You ever have those games that it feels like everyone else is kinda lukewarm on but that hits you, specifically, in just the right way to consume a huge part of your life? That's Elite Dangerous for me. I've never felt like there was really much I was interested in doing in the game, but that's honestly fine. I love cruising through its realistically enormous facsimile of space, hearing the creak of the hull, and marvelling at the impossible scale of it all. I have spent many, many hours doing this. I will spend many more doing it too.
But maybe I'll get sucked into something other than space trucking for a little while, because Elite Dangerous just put out its mondo-huge Trailblazers update, adding a whole new system colonisation feature (in beta) to its ridiculously big Milky Way, letting you expand humanity into systems and planets beyond those it already has. Which can surely only work out great for everyone.

Relax, that's all for today.