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

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Friday news, part two of three:

Ex-GTA dev says PC makes scads of cash now so hopefully GTA 6's 'PC version will be closer behind' consoles—that is if 'decision-day' at Rockstar doesn't give us a last-minute delay
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/ex-gta-dev-says-pc-makes-scads-of-cash-now-so-hopefully-gta-6s-pc-version-will-be-closer-behind-consoles-that-is-if-decision-day-at-the-studio-doesnt-give-us-a-last-minute-delay/
Rockstar might have come down like a tonne of bricks on the personal blog of former Rockstar North dev Obbe Vermeij (who worked at the studio from 1995 to 2009), but apparently it can't stop him from tweeting. To mark yesterday's 17th anniversary of GTA 4's release, Vermeij took to X to exposit on his experience working on the game, make some guesses about GTA 6, and explain why Rockstar keeps forgetting PC exists.

Randy Pitchford says Borderlands 4's new release date 'is literally 0% about any other product’s actual or theoretical launch date,' and you know he's talking about Grand Theft Auto 6
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/randy-pitchford-says-borderlands-4s-new-release-date-is-literally-0-percent-about-any-other-products-actual-or-theoretical-launch-date-and-you-know-hes-talking-about-grand-theft-auto-6/
Game delays are a common part of life in videogames, but game advances—where a game's release date is moved up instead of back? Not so much. It happens, but it's a rarity—in most cases, developers are hammering away on games practically right up to the moment of their release. So eyebrows understandably went up yesterday when Gearbox moved up the release of Borderlands 4 by more than a week, from September 23 to September 12.
The immediate and obvious question was why, and there was really no answer forthcoming. Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford said it was just a matter of development going really, really well, which is great to hear but come on: Are you really going to short yourself 11 days of dev time just because you can—especially when the release is still five months out?
>> Whatever the reason, here’s another bit of info about the game: rarity will matter again.

Blizzard's making a huge World of Warcraft change: combat add-ons will be eliminated, with new features coming to replace some of their functions
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wow-combat-addons-removal/
World of Warcraft senior game director Ion Hazzikostas dropped a bomb in a Blizzard broadcast today, one that many suspected would someday hit: At an undetermined point in the future, WoW will stop allowing add-ons to read combat events or auras.

Evil Dead: The Game is being removed from sale just three years after it launched
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/evil-dead-the-game-is-being-removed-from-sale-just-three-years-after-it-launched/
Just three years after its launch—and only two years after arriving on Steam, after a year as an Epic Store exclusive—the groovy multiplayer horror game Evil Dead: The Game is being removed from sale. Why? Rather like the famed incantation that enables safe handling of the Necronomicon, we're not so sure about that.

EA says Codemasters won't be making any more rally games: 'We've reached the end of the road working on WRC'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/ea-says-codemasters-wont-be-making-any-more-rally-games-weve-reached-the-end-of-the-road-working-on-wrc/
"End of an era" is an overused cliche, but in this case it is absolutely appropriate. Electronic Arts has announced that the 2024 season of EA Sports WRC will be its last, and that the Codemasters team has "reached the end of the road working on WRC."

New Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix patches a rare case of 'teeny tiny legs' syndrome and ensures Charisma gives polearm users the clout they deserve
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/new-baldurs-gate-3-hotfix-patches-a-rare-case-of-teeny-tiny-legs-syndrome-and-ensures-charisma-gives-polearm-users-the-clout-they-deserve/
Patch 8 for Baldur's Gate 3 signalled the arrival of a day we've all been dreading: the day when we finally have to accept that Larian is moving its attention to its next major project. But while we won't be getting any more major BG3 additions, we can still expect hotfixes to address any outstanding issues like one that dropped earlier today. And where there's a BG3 hotfix, there's the timeless joy of bizarre Larian patch notes.

'Be more like Larian, less like Activision': Ex-Call of Duty producer takes his old employer to task for prioritizing FOMO over quality
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/be-more-like-larian-less-like-activision-ex-call-of-duty-producer-takes-his-old-employer-to-task-for-prioritizing-fomo-over-quality/
In an older, arguably better era of Call of Duty, Mark Rubin was its face. For 10 years he was an executive producer at Infinity Ward, overseeing Call of Duty's meteoric rise in the years after the original Modern Warfare in 2007. He was one of the guys you'd reliably see in a dev log video or on an E3 stage with controller in hand, waxing poetic about Captain Price's latest exploits, before leaving the company in 2015.
Most recently, he was an executive producer on XDefiant, Ubisoft's attempt at a free-to-play CoD alternative that the publisher shut down last year. That's all to say, Rubin's been around the CoD block, and he's not thrilled by what the series has become since his departure.

Assassin's Creed Shadows announces more difficulties, more immersion options, more Jesuits, and a bo staff in its year 1 roadmap
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/assassins-creed/assassins-creed-shadows-announces-more-difficulties-more-immersion-options-more-jesuits-and-a-bo-staff-in-its-year-1-roadmap/
Assassin's Creed Shadows is the tale of Oda Nobunaga's quest to defrag Japan, and in tribute to the daimyō's relentless ambition, Ubisoft has announced its post-launch roadmap for the game consisting of patches, feature drops, and "height-gaining back ejects," which videogames need more of as a general rule.

'We as the developers do not feel like we are being robbed by anyone': Drug Dealer Simulator developer says it 'would not pursue any legal actions against Schedule 1 in any shape or form' if it had its way
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/we-as-the-developers-do-not-feel-like-we-are-being-robbed-by-anyone-drug-dealer-simulator-developer-says-it-would-not-pursue-any-legal-actions-against-schedule-1-in-any-shape-or-form-if-it-had-its-way/
Byterunners, the developer behind Drug Dealer Simulator 2, has said it "would not pursue any legal action against Schedule 1 in any shape or form" if it was the one in charge of calling the shots.

Nobody told me you could cheese the hell out of Oblivion Remastered's lockpicking minigame and I've only broken 3 lockpicks since discovering it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/nobody-told-me-you-could-cheese-the-hell-out-of-oblivion-remastereds-lockpicking-minigame-and-ive-only-broken-3-lockpicks-since-discovering-it/
I hate lockpicking in Oblivion Remastered. I hate the stupid little tumblers with their stupid speed variations and my stupid slow reaction times as I invariably miss the stupid sweet spot.
As someone who loves Skyrim's lockpicking, I was about to completely write off any attempts at going around cracking every door and chest in Cyrodiil. Even with our ridiculously handy Oblivion lockpicking guide I was, to be frank, crap at it.
That was until last week, when one Reddit comment changed my Hero of Kvatch's life. Now before you start—sure you can run and grab the skeleton key and auto everything, and sure you can just cast a bunch of spells to unlock things without ever even having to enter the lockpicking menu, but if you're like me and still at least like to try and do things somewhat manually, this is the cheese strat for you.