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

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Tuesday news, part two and last:

Screenshots have seemingly leaked of the new Star Wars game from a team of former XCOM developers, and surprise: it looks like a Star Wars XCOM game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/screenshots-have-seemingly-leaked-of-the-new-star-wars-game-from-a-team-of-former-xcom-developers-and-surprise-it-looks-like-a-star-wars-xcom-game/
Developer BitReactor has been particularly coy about its upcoming Star Wars game. Though it was first announced in 2022, and the studio's since talked to us about its aims for the game and its ambitious vision for turn-based strategy, it's yet to make any official reveal of the game's premise, talk in specifics about its gameplay, or show any footage or screenshots.
It's not easy to keep something that under wraps in games for so long, and sure enough, this project seems to have finally sprung a leak. MP1st has found a selection of screenshots in an artist's online portfolio, and… well, it sure looks like Star Wars XCOM.

Palworld decides it wasn't April fooling after all, is actually making a visual novel dating sim where you can, uh, 'dismember and eat' some of its cast
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/palworld-decides-it-wasnt-april-fooling-after-all-is-actually-making-a-visual-novel-dating-sim-where-you-can-uh-dismember-and-eat-some-of-its-cast/
Around this time last year, on the day of the April fool, Palworld made a funny little jest towards the gaming public—what if we do an extremely original joke and say we're making a visual novel? He he, ho ho, wouldn't that be a laugh.
I can only imagine the meeting that followed where, staring blankly into space, someone decided to speak up and say 'okay, what if we actually make one?' Clearly, no-one was brave enough to fight against this act of divine injustice, because Palworld developer Pocketpair is absolutely making a visual novel.

A whole bunch of Korean studios are trying to convince Blizzard to let them make a new StarCraft game, including MMO specialist NCSoft
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rts/a-whole-bunch-of-korean-studios-are-trying-to-convince-blizzard-to-let-them-make-a-new-starcraft-game-including-mmo-specialist-ncsoft/
A new report in Asia Today (spotted by IGN) says that four different Korean publishers are pitching StarCraft games to Blizzard, in the latest attempt to bring back the iconic RTS franchise.
>> I hope this isn’t an April Fools joke, or a lot of people will get angry mad. Then again, it’s unlikely that Blizzard will agree so they’ll be angry anyway.

Dwarf Fortress dwarves are 'more human than human,' creator says: 'They're allowed to embody bigger emotions. They're allowed to make bigger mistakes. They're allowed to do anything'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/dwarf-fortress-dwarves-are-more-human-than-human-creator-says-theyre-allowed-to-embody-bigger-emotions-theyre-allowed-to-make-bigger-mistakes-theyre-allowed-to-do-anything/
At GDC 2025, I spoke with Tarn Adams, co-creator and lead programmer of Dwarf Fortress, about the past, present, and future of his 23-year procgen masterwork. We talked about how the looming threat of aquifer flooding encapsulates his approach to Dwarf Fortress difficulty and how he's generally bummed about AI. Towards the end of our interview, our conversation turned to dwarves themselves—and to what the stout, stubborn folk add to Dwarf Fortress's emergent storytelling that other creatures can't.

Eidos Montreal lays off more employees: 'We don’t have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/eidos-montreal-lays-off-more-employees-we-dont-have-the-capacity-to-entirely-reallocate-them-to-our-other-ongoing-projects/
Less than a week after Crystal Dynamics laid off 17 employees "to better align our current business needs," Eidos Montreal has announced that it's letting go of "up to 75" employees, saying it doesn't currently have sufficient work to justify keeping them around.

Game director Soulframe Liang has used his online nickname for so long he even trademarked it in China, and when Digital Extremes and Tencent came knocking for the Warframe sequel? 'I'm not selling'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-director-soulframe-liang-has-used-his-online-nickname-for-so-long-he-even-trademarked-it-in-china-and-when-digital-extremes-and-tencent-came-knocking-for-the-warframe-sequel-im-not-selling/
I sat down for a demo of Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero with two main curiosities. First was how its combat compares to last year's Black Myth: Wukong, and it turns out: pretty different. Second was the backstory of S-Game studio founder "Soulframe" Liang, who started his career with an RPG Maker game while studying architecture in college. Where did I go wrong in my life that I didn't end up adopting a pseudonym like Soulframe?

Inzoi and The First Berserker Khazan devs suggest ditching the latest Nvidia drivers if you're running an RTX 40-series graphics card
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/inzoi-and-the-first-beserker-khazan-devs-suggest-ditching-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-if-youre-running-an-rtx-40-series-graphics-card/
If you aren't one of the lucky customers to get their hands on RTX 50-series graphics card, and are stuck with something older, some popular game developers are warning against updating to the latest Nvidia drivers.
As reported by TechSpot, developers of popular recently released games The First Berserker Khazan and Inzoi have put out notes to FAQs and patch notes respectively. These notes recommend those on RTX 40-series cards skip driver version 572.83, in favour of 566.36 which launched last December.
Those on RTX 30-series cards are advised to get the latest driver, but the Inzoi patch notes state, "If issues persist, we recommend installing version 566.36".
>> That’s not good news for Nvidia.