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

[JEMC]

Wednesday news, the second part:

Random characters kept swearing in Obsidian's font-obsessed murder-mystery when its procedural error system ran amok: 'Naughtiness abounded'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/random-characters-kept-swearing-in-obsidians-font-obsessed-murder-mystery-when-its-procedural-error-system-ran-amok-naughtiness-abounded/
Pentiment is a very, very good videogame, and one of the most interesting things Obsidian's put out this decade (though I liked Avowed quite a lot). Now, we're sufficiently far enough past its release that people like director Josh Sawyer—a name you'll recognise from Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and an all-timer Dolly Parton cover—are out and about giving GDC talks about what it was like making it. Sweary, it turns out.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 won't have typical RPG romantic relationships, but it will feature 'romantic feeding'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-wont-have-typical-rpg-romantic-relationships-but-it-will-feature-romantic-feeding/
Your standard RPG romantic interludes probably wouldn't make much sense in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. You're not some adventurer, hero, or even an anti-hero. You are Phyre, an old monster who spends their unlife drinking blood, killing without mercy and plotting until the sun comes up.
But that doesn't mean romance is completely out of the question.

Ubisoft says don't compare Assassin's Creed Shadows' success to Valhalla: The latter launched in Covid's 'perfect storm' and feedback on platforms 'less affected by review bombing' is stellar
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/assassins-creed/ubisoft-says-dont-compare-assassins-creed-shadows-success-to-valhalla-the-latter-launched-in-covids-perfect-storm-and-feedback-on-platforms-less-affected-by-review-bombing-is-stellar/
Assassin's Creed Shadows is doing very well. Incredibly well. You wouldn't believe how well it's doing. But despite it all, it's not doing quite as well as AC Valhalla did back in November 2020—Shadows is the second-biggest launch in the series' long history, not the first.
But per an internal Ubisoft email seen by IGN, the company's telling employees that it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison to compare Shadows and Valhalla. "Valhalla launched under extraordinary conditions," says Ubi's internal comms, smack-dab in the middle of "widespread lockdowns and brand-new console hardware."
>> Makes complete sense. Just like the next Animal Crossing won’t do as well as the last one for the same reasons.

Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/former-bethesda-dev-who-quit-starfield-to-go-solo-says-its-much-less-stressful-as-an-indie-without-daily-meetings-or-office-politics-its-very-refreshing-to-just-care-about-the-game/
Even if you haven't yet played Nate Purkeypile's most recent game, "heavy metal horror" hunting game The Axis Unseen, you've probably played at least one of his games at some point.
Purkeypile, founder of Just Purkey Games, worked on BloodRayne 2, Aeon Flux, and Metroid Prime 3, then spent a full 14 years at Bethesda Game Studios where he was a lead artist and world artist on games like Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.
During the development of Starfield, however, Purkeypile left Bethesda to create his own studio. I caught up with him at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, and asked about his experience of going from a team of over 500 to a studio that is pretty much just him.
>> That’s cool, but not having a salary would be an equal or greater cause of stress to most people.

Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/blizzard-co-founder-mike-morhaimes-new-company-is-putting-sea-of-thieves-style-shenanigans-in-space-with-a-new-crew-based-shooter/
After leaving the company in 2019, former Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced in 2020 that he'd founded Dreamhaven, a new game publisher seeking to "reimagine the studio model." In 2024, Secret Door—the first of Dreamhaven's two in-house studios staffed by Blizzard veterans—revealed Sunderfolk, a tabletop-inspired tactical RPG. Today, in a showcase presented by The Game Awards, we've gotten our first look at what Moon Shot, Dreamhaven's second studio, has been working on behind the scenes.

Pacific Drive developers change their mind: A year after refusing to give it mid-run saves, it's getting mid-run saves
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/pacific-drive-developers-change-their-mind-a-year-after-refusing-to-give-it-mid-run-saves-its-getting-mid-run-saves/
I like Pacific Drive an awful lot—87 hours into it so far, so says Steam—but there's one thing about it that's always kind of irritated me: The lack of a mid-run save feature. I'm hardly alone in that feeling, as a quick dig through Reddit or the Steam forums will reveal, but the good news for all of us in that boat is that a proper mid-run "suspend and quit" feature is finally on the way.

A unique aspect of Japanese architecture turned out to be a key reason the Like a Dragon games can reuse assets so effectively—and deliver more compact, memorable open worlds than western cities
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/a-unique-aspect-of-japanese-architecture-turned-out-to-be-a-key-reason-the-like-a-dragon-games-can-reuse-assets-so-effectively-and-deliver-more-compact-memorable-open-worlds-than-western-cities/
(...)
"Why has the Like a Dragon series been able to create games that differ, sometimes even in genre, while using the same locations across them?" asked RGG studio design manager Eiji Hamatsu, who's been involved in the art production of the series since 2005's Yakuza. Don't worry—there's no quiz. Hamatsu followed up the question with an answer.

After 23 years of making Dwarf Fortress, even its creator is still 'terrified' of drowning all his dwarves with aquifers: 'Part of the problem is we are just not good at videogames'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/after-23-years-of-making-dwarf-fortress-even-its-creator-is-still-terrified-of-drowning-all-his-dwarves-with-heavy-aquifers-part-of-the-problem-is-we-are-just-not-good-at-videogames/
In Dwarf Fortress, aquifers are a scourge. They're layers of subterranean, water-bearing rock that continually, endlessly leak when breached by dwarven miners. They can be managed and even exploited with careful construction, but in my experience, their main utility is proving that—no matter how competent at Dwarf Fortress I might get—I'm only one overlooked, unsealed tile away from a disaster I'll only notice once the dwarves in that quarter are already neck-deep in floodwater.
I might struggle with the occasional unplanned water feature, but I'm apparently in good company. In an interview with PC Gamer at GDC 2025, Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams told me he's still terrorized by aquifers after building the game for more than two decades.

The Witcher 4 won't be out until sometime in 2027 at the soonest, CD Projekt says
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-witcher-4-wont-be-out-until-sometime-in-2027-at-the-soonest-cd-projekt-says/
The Witcher 4 doesn't have a release date yet, although it's a safe assumption that it remains a long way off. The real optimists out there might be hoping that it'll be out sometime before the end of 2026—that's nearly two years away, after all—but I'm sorry to say that CD Projekt threw a bucket of cold water on that thought during today's fiscal year 2024 earnings presentation, saying definitively that it ain't gonna happen.
>> And CD Projekt won’t use AI to make it, but not for the reasons you may think.

The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/the-5th-highest-rated-game-on-steam-in-2022-is-back-with-a-multiplayer-sequel/
When you think of the best games of 2022, what springs to mind? Elden Ring. Vampire Survivors. Persona 5 Royal. Marvel's Midnight Suns, Teardown, Card Shark, Monster Hunter Rise, the list goes on.
But the list is wrong. You're wrong. Our Game of the Year Awards were wrong. All wrong. It's Placid Plastic Duck Simulator, which was the one of the five best-reviewed games on Steam in 2022, which still has a 95.36% rating, and which was a game about plastic ducks floating around while you watch.
(...)
That's why Placid Plastic Duck Simulator has a sequel called Slowly Sliding Ducks, and not only are those beautifully rendered ducks back but they're brought online PvP with them. Take a quack at the trailer: