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

[JEMC]

Monday news, part number two:

Ichiban Kasuga makes like a dragonfish and joins Dave the Diver’s latest DLC on April 10th for some fisticuffs and a few rounds of karaoke
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/ichiban-kasuga-makes-like-a-dragonfish-and-joins-dave-the-divers-latest-dlc-on-april-10th-for-some-fisticuffs-and-a-few-rounds-of-karaoke/
There’s only three weeks to go until Dave The Diver gets yet another round of unlikely crossover DLC, with Ichiban Kasuga of Yakuza/Like A Dragon fame joining the rotund fisherman out in the waters of the Blue Hole. First revealed last month with a broad ‘April’ release window, the latest Dev Dive vlog from very-not-indie studio Mintrocket finally reveals the precise release date for Ichiban’s latest misadventure— April 10th—along with a few revelations and some fresh gameplay footage, all of which you can see in the video below.
>> Talking about Yakuza/Like A Dragon, the series director has explained why side-quests are essential.

Monster Hunter Wilds' first free update will feature 'a whole host of new additions' and a majestic water wyvern for players to blow sky high
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-first-free-update-will-feature-a-whole-host-of-new-additions-and-a-majestic-water-wyvern-for-players-to-blow-sky-high/
The promise of any Monster Hunter game is twofold—there’s gonna be a ton of meticulously designed titans on offer, and you’re gonna get to smack the nuggets out of them with all sorts of guns, clubs, and musical instruments. I can’t help but feel a little bad, then, when a teaser like the one Capcom dropped today gets players riled up about the reintroduction of a beautiful fox dragon that blows bubbles. I feel like I should be offering it half my harvest, not shooting it with the biggest gun I’ve ever seen.
>> And they’ve also revealed that the producer, director and executive director have joined hunts online, and one of them did poorly. Which one? Only one way to find out!

'We all got laid off', says former Deck Nine narrative designer, after no-one was around to pick up Life is Strange: Double Exposure's GDC Awards win
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/we-all-got-laid-off-says-former-deck-nine-narrative-designer-after-no-one-was-around-to-pick-up-life-is-strange-double-exposures-gdc-awards-win/
I'm not entirely sure Life is Strange: Double Exposure was a good idea conceptually—nor was series fan and PC Gamer writer Mollie Taylor, who played the thing and had a good, if "unnecessary-feeling", time.
(...)
Stephen Totilo, a journalist who was backstage at the time, wrote the following: "Nearly every game that won had people coming through, beaming with their trophy in hand. It stood out that, for Life is Strange, which won the Social Impact award, there was no one."
As to why? Well, according to former Deck Nine dev, narrative designer and writer Elizabeth Ballou on BlueSky, it was because no-one at the team expected it, because, well, "We all got laid off". She writes: "It's fitting that nobody was there to accept the GDCA award that Double Exposure won, because we all got laid off lol … (Don't be sad for me, I am very lucky and I work on BitLife now and I love it)."

Inzoi's 'Smart Zoi' AI system sounds great on paper but seeing it in a live demo didn't exactly wow me
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/inzois-smart-zoi-ai-system-sounds-great-on-paper-but-seeing-it-in-a-live-demo-didnt-exactly-wow-me/
It's an important part of any life sim: giving the characters life. No one wants to play a life sim where your friends and neighbors act like drones mindlessly following daily routines to meet their needs as if they're going step-by-step through a checklist.
The developers of early access life sim Inzoi are attempting to give their characters better reasoning skills and more realistic behavior through an AI system they call "Smart Zoi." At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, I attended a panel given by Kangwook Lee, Krafton's head of deep learning, where he explained the Smart Zoi system and gave a brief live demo of it in action.

'We made one big mistake': Destiny 2 developer reveals how a small team dedicated to player retention led to a 20 hour server outage and character rollback
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/we-made-one-big-mistake-destiny-2-developer-reveals-how-a-small-team-dedicated-to-player-retention-led-to-a-20-hour-server-outage-and-character-rollback/
Destiny 2 has had a turbulent history—it's a game that, since its release in 2017, has seen many ups, downs, and outright blunders. So a GDC talk from one of Bungie's developers titled "Rescuing a Playerbase from the Doldrums" could apply to any number of periods throughout the game's life.

REPO dev says it wasn’t actually inspired by Lethal Company, and started as a singleplayer cleaning game: ‘It was nice, but far from what REPO is now’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/repo-dev-says-it-wasnt-actually-inspired-by-lethal-company-and-started-as-a-singleplayer-cleaning-game-it-was-nice-but-far-from-what-repo-is-now/
You’d be forgiven for thinking REPO is a lot like Lethal Company. Both games involve fetching precious objects, hiding from things that go bump in the night, working cooperatively as nigh-identical, disposable grunts, and hollering over voice chat when things inevitably go wrong. Both games are also overnight phenomena, with REPO scrambling to adjust to its massive success and garnering the attention of Lethal Company’s very own creator.
But in a vlog dropped by REPO studio semiwork today, developer Pontus clarified that the game was never intended to resemble Lethal Company. In fact, it began as a solo horror game where players would have to clean a mansion while remaining hidden from Headman, one of many monsters that ended up in the final game. Pontus said in the video that a "deep dive" on the topic is coming in the future, but there are some brief snippets of footage peppered throughout today's vlog.

Helldivers 2 composer recalls stomping around his apartment and channeling 'Super Patriotism' to capture Arrowhead's satirical vision in music: 'The satire works because the music believes it's a pure patriotic love without irony or criticism'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-composer-recalls-stomping-around-his-apartment-and-channeling-super-patriotism-to-capture-arrowheads-satirical-vision-in-music-the-satire-works-because-the-music-believes-its-a-pure-patriotic-love-without-irony-or-criticism/
Almost every element of Helldivers 2 is dripping with satire. The voice lines, story, and even individual armor pieces parody patriotism while telling a story of what could happen if corrupt governmental systems ran amuck. Well, everything except the music.
"It's jingoism, but it's amplified with uplifting modern synth productions, and without suggesting any nuance other than the valor of the soldiers' fight," said Helldivers 2 composer Wilbert Roget, II during a talk at Game Developers Conference 2025 in San Francisco. "The satire works because the music believes it's a pure patriotic love without irony or criticism."

Bethesda marks Oblivion's 19th with a sweetroll, a candle, and absolutely no happy birthday gift for fans eager for the still-unannounced remaster
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/bethesda-marks-oblivions-19th-with-a-sweetroll-a-candle-and-absolutely-no-happy-birthday-gift-for-fans-eager-for-the-still-unannounced-remaster/
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, the second or maybe third-best game in Bethesda's long-running Elder Scrolls RPG series, turned 19 yesterday. In Canada, 19th birthdays are traditionally a very big deal: 19 is the legal drinking age in most of the country, and so you can imagine how the celebrations typically go. But in the world of Tamriel, well, it's apparently a little less of a noteworthy milestone.

Seekers of Skyveil, the MOBA—extraction shooter mashup, is shutting down less than a month after release: ‘We have no choice but to bring this short journey to an end’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/seekers-of-skyveil-the-moba-extraction-shooter-mashup-is-shutting-down-less-than-a-month-after-release-we-have-no-choice-but-to-bring-this-short-journey-to-an-end/
Six years ago, a bunch of former BioWare, Blizzard, and Riot developers formed Elodie to work on a game that eventually became Seekers of Skyveil, a novel blend of MOBA action and the extraction format made popular by games like Escape From Tarkov. The team at PC Gamer had positive things to say about it, with former editor Tyler Colp saying it "might’ve cracked a new subgenre," but the game never climbed above a Mixed user rating on Steam since launching earlier this month. Today, only 18 days after it was released into early access, it was announced that the game and the studio behind it will be shutting down.

Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio's UI designer is open to accessibility options for players who find the stylish menus overstimulating: 'That is something we understand we'll need to work on and provide in the future'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/persona-and-metaphor-refantazios-ui-designer-is-open-to-accessibility-options-for-players-who-find-the-stylish-menus-overstimulating-that-is-something-we-understand-well-need-to-work-on-and-provide-in-the-future/
What defines Atlus's modern RPGs more: the characters you spend dozens of hours befriending and romancing, or the menus that pack more rizz into a single font than most entire games? If you're judging by presentations at this year's Game Developers Conference, Atlus knows what the people want: there wasn't a talk on the former, but lead interface designer Koje Ise was in attendance to talk about crafting Metaphor's user interface.

Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/nearly-2-years-after-its-last-update-the-excellent-battle-brothers-gets-a-bucket-load-of-fixes-and-free-new-content/
It's been eight years since the strategy-RPG Battle Brothers—turn-based Mount & Blade meets XCOM, as PC Gamer's Evan Lahti once described it—made its debut on Steam, and nearly two years since its last update. But despite that passage of time, and the fact that developer Overhype Studios has moved on to a new game called Menace, Battle Brothers isn't done getting updates just yet.
A new update for Battle Brothers, taking the game to version 1.5.1, rolled out yesterday with not only "a bucket load of fixes accumulated over the last year," but also some new content. "You heard that right," Overhype wrote. "There’s actual new content for Battle Brothers, for free."

'Players don't explore': former Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online designer lays out the perils of 'open world fatigue'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/players-dont-explore-former-grand-theft-auto-6-and-red-dead-online-designer-lays-out-the-perils-of-open-world-fatigue/
So there I am playing a game with a big, beautiful open world. It's got lovely scenery and eye-catching landmarks, it's stuffed with quests and missions and collectibles, and I'm free to go in any direction I choose. What's the problem?
Me. I'm the problem, or at least I'm part of the problem, as former Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online game designer Cameron Williams explained in a panel at the Game Developers Conference.
Williams opened the panel with a slide titled "Common Open World Problems," and the first bullet point read: "Players don't explore."
>> Guilty.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/warhammer-40-000-darktides-getting-a-new-roguelite-wave-defense-mode-that-sounds-a-whole-lot-like-a-souped-up-take-on-killing-floor/
Fatshark has done a fair bit of fooling around with Darktide’s format offerings lately, with the recent Havoc mode expanding the game’s difficulty options and variance. But while Havoc caters to endgame players looking for a challenge, Mortis Trials—laid out in the latest blog post from community manager StrawHat—are described as "chaotic, with easy access for immediate fun."

This upcoming Korean tactical shooter features 'situational awareness AI' that reminds me of the uber-smart clones from Monolith's FEAR
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-upcoming-korean-tactical-shooter-features-situational-awareness-ai-that-reminds-me-of-the-uber-smart-clones-from-monoliths-fear/
It doesn't take much to get me thinking about Monolith's classic FPS FEAR, but it's barely left my thoughts since Warner Bros' baffling decision to shut down the veteran studio, which also created games like No One Lives Forever and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Yet it's Monolith's 2005 shooter that is my favourite of its games, mainly thanks to its landmark AI design. Its army of clones was eerily capable of outflanking and outfoxing you as you battled through the game's office complexes and research labs.
Hence, any game that strives to create genuinely smart-seeming enemies is likely to grab my attention, which is why this unassuming development video of a Korean tactical shooter caught my eye. Project TH (short for 'Project Two Hearts') is a third-person stealth-action game with shades of Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon: Wildlands. But it was a recent overview of the game's enemy navigation and movement systems that got me thinking about Monolith's classic FPS.
>> And since the article mentioned them, Monolith’s Nemesis system came to be because of… second hand sales.

Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/former-age-of-empires-2-dev-claims-microsoft-demanded-its-first-expansion-should-have-a-korean-faction-because-starcraft-sold-3-million-copies-in-korea/
Age of Empires 2 fans are no strangers to the game receiving new factions. The Definitive Edition's curators, Forgotten Empires, have regularly updated the game with new playable civs for years. But it turns out the game's history of adding unexpected dynasties stretches much farther back in time than 2017, at least according to one of the sequel's original designers.
That designer is Sandy Petersen, who joined Ensemble Studios after leaving id Software where he worked on both Doom and Quake. As Petersen explained in a lengthy thread on X (via Windows Central), he was assigned to design the sequel's first expansion pack, The Conquerors. As was the case for the original game's expansion, Rise of Rome, Petersen opted to include four playable civs, the Spanish, the Aztecs, the Huns, and the Mayans.
(...)
According to Petersen, Microsoft urged him to add a fifth faction to the expansion, the Koreans. Petersen pointed out that Korea is not known for its history of conquest. "Koreans, greatly to their credit, were not conquerors. They stayed in their lane. While they're cool, they don't fit the Conquerors theme."
In Peterson's recollection, Microsoft then argued that "StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea". To this, Peterson pointed out, "StarCraft doesn't have any Koreans in it, so those sales had zero to do with a Korean civ." Microsoft then reiterated the 3 million figure, at which point Petersen relented. "Once someone simply repeats a previous argument, it's clear they are no longer functioning from logic or intelligence."