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

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The second part of the gaming news:

Chinese FMV game about getting 'revenge on gold diggers' plunges the country into online gender tumult
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/chinese-fmv-game-about-getting-revenge-on-gold-diggers-plunges-the-country-into-online-gender-tumult/
A Chinese FMV game that puts you in the role of a man exacting revenge on a series of 'gold diggers'—statuesque women who con lovelorn men out of vast sums of money before vanishing into thin air—has plunged China into an exhaustingly familiar bout of gender tumult. The internet is alight with discourse about gender, misogyny, and cyberbullying; the game's creator has been banned from social media; and even national media outlets are getting in on the action with takes. See? We're not so different after all.

EA Japan exec laments Microsoft's crushing layoffs, and the demands shareholders make for 'short-term results from large-scale investments'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/ea-japan-exec-laments-microsofts-crushing-layoffs-and-the-demands-shareholders-make-for-short-term-results-from-large-scale-investments/
Microsoft's latest round of brutal layoffs and studio closures have garnered more attention than usual—possibly because Phil Spencer had the gall to boast about how its gaming business has "never looked stronger" in the same announcement that saw 9,000 employees laid off across its gaming division and several major projects cancelled.
So much attention, in fact, that EA Japan's general manager Shaun Noguchi has taken to X to voice his dismay over the situation (thanks, Automaton). You might've seen 'EA' there and gone 'hold on, don't they do sweeping layoffs, too?' The answer is yes, but it's important to remember that the 'Japan' bit on Noguchi's title is important.
>> Oh, the irony!

Monster Hunter Wilds' poor post-launch reception bubbles up to the surface in shareholder meetings, though Capcom says it's 'committed' to fixing performance and content woes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/monster-hunter-wilds-poor-post-launch-reception-bubbles-up-to-the-surface-in-shareholder-meetings-though-capcom-says-its-committed-to-fixing-performance-and-content-woes/
Monster Hunter Wilds is in a weird spot—it's being buried under an avalanche of negative Steam ratings and community sentiment. At the time of writing, its recent reviews are "overwhelmingly negative", with just 12% of over 20,000 user reviews being positive.
Capcom's fighting a war on two fronts—firstly, the performance for the PC version has been not-so-great. Secondly, players have been complaining about a lack of proper endgame content and challenge, with a lot of the usual Monster Hunter-y mechanics ironed out in favour of streamlining routines and removing friction.
>> Does it have something to do with Capcom cancelling a MH Wilds presentation because of developer harassment? Maybe, I don’t know. But it doesn’t look good for a company that nowadays relies so much on its PC revenue.

Call of Duty: WW2 pulled from PC following reports of remote code exploit trolling players with 'Notepad pop-ups, PC shutdowns' and desktop wallpaper of a lawyer
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-ww2-pulled-from-pc-following-reports-of-remote-code-exploit-trolling-players-with-notepad-pop-ups-pc-shutdowns-and-desktop-wallpaper-of-a-lawyer/
Activision has pulled a specific PC version of Call of Duty: WW2 just days after release, following reports that the game suffers from a remote code execution (RCE) exploit. This affects the so-called "Xbox PC" version of COD: WW2 that was just released on PC Game Pass: the game remains available on Steam and through Battle.net, though perhaps now is not the time to try it out.

Obsidian stuck to some fantasy conventions for Pillars of Eternity and Avowed because that's what people want: ''I didn't want to completely flip it and say, oh you want to play an elf? F**k you, this isn't your daddy's elf'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/obsidian-stuck-to-some-fantasy-conventions-for-pillars-of-eternity-and-avowed-because-thats-what-people-want-i-didnt-want-to-completely-flip-it-and-say-oh-you-want-to-play-an-elf-f-k-you-this-isnt-your-daddys-elf/
Pillars of Eternity might be Obsidian's baby, but the series that most recently spawned Avowed is still inextricably tied to established fantasy fare, particularly D&D and the Forgotten Realms. It's a setting that's closely linked with Obsidian—the studio was founded by Black Isle veterans, after all.
But the decision to include familiar elements, particularly classic fantasy races, wasn't just down to the team's connection to D&D through Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment and Neverwinter Nights; Obsidian was also giving the people what they wanted.

The new Rimworld expansion adds therapy pandas, tameable insect hive queens, nanotech-enhanced alligators, prehistoric beasts, giant toads, flamingos, and something called a 'bog hound'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/the-new-rimworld-expansion-adds-therapy-pandas-tameable-insect-hive-queens-nanotech-enhanced-alligators-prehistoric-beasts-giant-toads-flamingos-and-something-called-a-bog-hound/
RimWorld's latest expansion, Odyssey, promises to add a pretty amazing amount of stuff to the game's already deeply layered space colony simulation. Between the customisable spaceship, orbital exploration, new biomes, quest system, and a whole machine hive mind threat to deal with, on paper it seems like the biggest expansion yet.

Ousted Subnautica studio co-founder says it was a 'shock' to get fired, Subnautica 2 is 'ready' for early access release, and no longer working 'at the company I started stings'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/ousted-subnautica-studio-co-founder-says-it-was-a-shock-to-get-fired-subnautica-2-is-ready-for-early-access-release-and-no-longer-working-at-the-company-i-started-stings/
Last week, Krafton gutted the leadership level of Subnautica studio Unknown Worlds, and in a notably robust press release said that studio needed "renewed energy and leadership" to deliver the long-awaited Subnautica 2. The fan reaction was generally speaking one of total dismay, so much so that Unknown Worlds released an open letter over the weekend asking for patience, and trying to reassure fans that key team members were still in place.
Now, Unknown Worlds co-founder and designer/director of Subnautica, Charlie Cleveland, has taken it upon himself to share with the game's fans what happened behind-the-scenes: and reassure them about the state of Subnautica 2.

Vintage Story aims to save a piece of Hytale by hiring former Hypixel developers to create a new 'Adventure Mode' for the hardcore survival game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/vintage-story-aims-to-save-a-piece-of-hytale-by-hiring-former-hypixel-developers-to-create-a-new-adventure-mode-for-the-hardcore-survival-game/
PC Gamer's super-survivalist Chris Livingston called Vintage Story his "new survival game obsession" in 2024, noting that it "looks like Minecraft but is way more complex." It wasn't new new, having been in development since 2016, but it was new to him (and us), in part because it's not available on Steam, and thus has remained kind of under the radar.
It's back in the spotlight now thanks to the recent cancellation of a different Minecraft-lookin' game, Hytale, which was prematurely ended by Riot Games in June. Shortly after it was cancelled, Vintage Story team lead Tyron, a former Hytale developer themselves, invited former Hytale developers to reach out about the possibility of creating "a small sub-project within our Team of developers to bring out an additional game mode for Vintage Story that can at least in part deliver on the vision of what Hytale set out to become."
In an update posted over the weekend, Tyron confirmed that the effort is moving ahead, "We've carefully thought about our options, budget and potential risks," Tyron wrote. "We'll be starting small (3 to 4 people) and expand once the project shows merit and gathers interest. A small team might be slower, but is also much more manageable, more effective and can pivot quicker. Slow growth allows us to fund this truly for the long term. And thankfully, we can re-use a lot of the Vintage Story ecosystem."

'Infinite damage' strikes again as Diablo 4 players overthrow the tyranny of mathematics with an exploit that grants sorcerers the power of the gods: 'No way that they leave that in the game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/infinite-damage-strikes-again-as-diablo-4-players-overthrow-the-tyranny-of-mathematics-with-an-exploit-that-grants-sorcerers-the-power-of-the-gods-no-way-that-they-leave-that-in-the-game/
Ludicrous damage numbers are back in Diablo 4's latest season and once again they're so out of whack they can only be described as "infinite".
This time it's sorcerers who can stack up so much bonus damage that the game spits out incomprehensible strings of digits when their attacks land. Monsters in the upper echelons of Diablo 4's hardest dungeons explode before they take their first breath. There is simply nothing in the game that can stand a chance, which means we probably won't have long before Blizzard puts a stop to it.

Today's Dune: Awakening patch takes another sidestep away from the PvP-heavy endgame
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/todays-dune-awakening-patch-takes-another-sidestep-away-from-the-pvp-heavy-endgame/
Dune: Awakening's endgame continues to evolve. The massive Deep Desert, the only place where huge spice deposits and top-tier level materials can be found, was nearly entirely PvP at launch, with only about 10% of the map marked as PvE-only. A hotfix on June 26 made the Deep Desert an even 50/50 split between PvP and PvE—a pretty big shakeup for a game that's only been out for a month.
Today's patch takes yet another sidestep in the direction of an endgame that's more friendly to PvE play. The first line in the patch notes for Dune: Awakening version 1.1.15.0 states that "Tier 6 resources can now be collected across wider areas in the PvE part of the Deep Desert."