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:

Sci-fi horror game Routine just came back to life for the 2nd time in 13 years: 'We are beginning to approach the finish line'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/sci-fi-horror-game-routine-just-came-back-to-life-for-the-2nd-time-in-13-years-we-are-beginning-to-approach-the-finish-line/
Remember Steam Greenlight? That was the user-voting system Valve briefly implemented to judge whether or not it would let a game release on its platform, before it just gave up and decided it'd put up what-the-hell-ever if you tossed it a hundred bucks.
Greenlight wasn't long for this world, but one of its earliest success stories—one of the games that ginned up enough popularity with voters to guarantee itself a spot on the storefront—was Routine: moon-base horror filtered through the hazy, VHS-y lens of '70s sci-fi. It looked great, won over a bunch of Greenlight voters, got a 2017 release window (after an initial 2013 release window), then vanished off the face of the Earth.
Which was a shame. Then, out of nowhere in 2022, Routine was back. Re-revealed at Summer Game Fest, it looked as cool as ever and promised to wow us in the near future. Then it disappeared again.
Which was, um, which was a shame. But guess what? Routine is back! In a post on Steam, the three-dev team at Lunar Software said that a "huge undertaking" like this meant "it was important to keep our heads down and focus entirely on finishing." Thus, the radio silence.

World of Warcraft: The War Within's last major patch before Midnight drops early August, and it's time to go into space again
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-the-war-withins-last-major-patch-before-midnight-drops-early-august-and-its-time-to-go-into-space-again/
World of Warcraft: The War Within is in its home stretch, as Blizzard starts prepping for the next step in its trio of announced expansions, Midnight. Arriving August 5, Ghosts of K'aresh will very, very likely be the last major content update before the expansion hits.
While the official blog doesn't state this, all signs point towards it. Blizzard's already stated it's doing slightly shorter, content-dense expansions, we know Midnight'll be getting revealed before the summer's over. This patch is also explicitly the end of The War Within's story—referred to directly as a climax.

Space Invaders creator recalls building arcade games with mirrors, making a prototype console that never saw release, and how short-sighted Taito's sales team was about videogames: 'These things will never sell'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/space-invaders-creator-recalls-building-arcade-games-with-mirrors-creating-a-prototype-console-that-never-saw-release-and-how-short-sighted-taitos-sales-team-was-about-videogames-these-things-will-never-sell/
Time Extension has a new interview with Tomohiro Nishikado, the designer known for his long career at Taito and in particular the creation of Space Invaders. The 1978 arcade game has a good case for being the single most famous videogame ever, and upon release became a craze and phenomenon (a popular urban legend claimed it caused a shortage of Japan's 100-yen coin), swiftly becoming the best-selling arcade game of all time and cultural icon.

After 3 years of trying, Lord of the Rings Online's 'Great Hobbit Run' ends in confused success as a mob of low-level players gets lost inside Mount Doom and decides it's close enough: 'Sauron can kiss my butt!'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/after-3-years-of-trying-lord-of-the-rings-onlines-great-hobbit-run-ends-in-confused-success-as-a-mob-of-low-level-players-gets-lost-inside-mount-doom-and-decides-its-close-enough-sauron-can-kiss-my-butt/
The Great Hobbit Run is a Lord of the Rings Online tradition based on a simple premise: What if, instead of adventures and experience and becoming the savior of Middle-earth, a bunch of newbies just showed up at Chez Bilbo and then booked it straight to Mount Doom? It sounds like a terrible idea, at least in the very serious in-fiction context of saving the world from enslavement to evil. But as a silly good time in a very long-in-the-tooth MMO, it actually seems pretty great.

After 15 years of busted marksdwarves, Dwarf Fortress creator Tarn Adams says archers will finally refill their ammo 'instead of leaping over walls and clubbing people with their crossbows'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/after-15-years-of-busted-marksdwarves-dwarf-fortress-creator-tarn-adams-says-archers-will-finally-refill-their-ammo-instead-of-leaping-over-walls-and-clubbing-people-with-their-crossbows/
As a longtime Dwarf Fortress devotee, the last few years of DF development have felt like a wonder. For most of the procedural fantasy sim's history, there could be years between updates as development progress was subject to the circumstances affecting the Adams brothers' lives and attention.
Since joining with Kitfox Games for the Steam release and hiring on additional developers, however, Bay 12 Games is now expanding its simulation's scope at an unprecedented pace. It's even able to address bugs that have been tormenting players for 15 years.
In a YouTube video published yesterday, Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams spoke about a DF update that landed at the very end of June to bring a change that, to any Dwarf Fort veteran, sounded like a miracle: Marksdwarves actually work now.

John Wick Hex and Tron Catalyst dev Mike Bithell thinks licensed games have evolved past 'lunchbox tie-ins' because 'the people who played licensed games are now bosses in the companies that are licensing IP'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/john-wick-hex-and-tron-catalyst-dev-mike-bithell-thinks-licensed-games-have-evolved-past-lunchbox-tie-ins-because-the-people-who-played-licensed-games-are-now-bosses-in-the-companies-that-are-licensing-ip/
Speaking to Bithell Games founder Mike Bithell on the release of the studio's latest game, Tron: Catalyst, I had to get his take on the current state of licensed games. The days of every movie getting a PS2 tie-in have long past, and we seem to have settled into a new era of smaller-scale spin-offs like those made by Bithell, and monster triple-A projects like Insomniac's Spider-Men.

For the next 2 weeks Destiny 2 is completely free to play, even the stuff you normally have to pay for
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/for-the-next-2-weeks-destiny-2-is-completely-free-to-play-even-the-stuff-you-normally-have-to-pay-for/
Destiny 2 is free to play so you can unleash your divine genocide of alien races at anytime without spending a dime, but naturally some pretty big parts of the game are locked behind expansions that cost money.
For the next two weeks, though, you can see everything it has to offer thanks to the newly-started "open access," which makes "all currently available Destiny 2 expansions," along with all three currently available Destiny 2 Episodes, free to play for everyone.

FromSoftware scrambles for content to keep Elden Ring Nightreign players interested as it announces the return of the first three Everdark Nightlords
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/fromsoftware-scrambles-for-content-to-keep-elden-ring-nightreign-players-interested-as-it-announces-the-return-of-the-first-three-everdark-nightlords/
Ok, so Elden Ring Nightreign players have beaten all the Nightlords, they've come to the end of the Remembrance quests, and everyone's running through the few Everdark bosses we've released so far. How do we keep the remaining players interested? We could, hear me out now, make them fight the first three Everdark bosses again? Genius, someone give this person a raise.
"From the Night, familiar terrors rise anew," FromSoftware says in a social media post. "The Everdark Sovereigns' Gaping Jaw, Sentient Pest & Darkdrift Knight Nightlords will come back in pairs over the next three weeks."

The Last of Us Part 2 has a 'chronological mode' now, in case you wanted to play through a story with all the finesse of a Wikipedia plot summary
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/the-last-of-us-part-2-has-a-chronological-mode-now-in-case-you-wanted-to-play-through-a-story-with-all-the-finesse-of-a-wikipedia-plot-summary/
One of the most powerful tools in any writer's box is the complete mastery they have over time. While real life trudges along in a doldrum routine of cause and effect, stories can arrange their happenings however they'd like. Storytellers have spent centuries finding and developing effective structures. Naughty Dog, however, has better plans. Plans that I am about to be entirely too crotchety about. Nevertheless:
(...)
Introducing the cure to what ails ye: The Last of Us Part 2 "Chronological Experience", a truly baffling alternate mode recently released for the remastered version of the game on both PC and PS5.

Ready or Not's review bomb campaign may have been short-lived, as player count subsequently doubles on Steam and it tops PlayStation's pre-order list
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/ready-or-nots-review-bomb-campaign-may-have-been-short-lived-as-player-count-subsequently-doubles-on-steam-and-it-tops-playstations-pre-order-list/
Ready or Not, the gritty, realistic SWAT experience, is currently sat at Mostly Negative on Steam, as players gathered to protest changes made to adhere to stricter console standards over the last couple of weeks. But despite all the angry reviews and comments, it doesn't look like Ready or Not has suffered any lasting damage.