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

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Tuesday gaming news, the second part:

The Tales of the Shire system requirements are so light you'll be able to play it on an actual potato (whether boiled, mashed, stewed, or cooked in any other manner)
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/the-tales-of-the-shire-system-requirements-are-so-light-youll-be-able-to-play-it-on-an-actual-potato-whether-boiled-mashed-stewed-or-cooked-in-any-other-manner/
Tales of the Shire has been a little divisive so far, and I'm happy to say that the pool of gamers who will be able to form their own opinions after playing the game looks to be quite large. That's because the minimum and recommended specifications have been released, and it looks like you'll be able to run this game on the starchiest of foods, cooked exactly to your liking.

Borderlands 4 is hiding more than 200 collectible Marcus bobbleheads in hard-to-reach places, and Randy Pitchford reckons 'most players will never see any of them'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/borderlands-4-is-hiding-more-than-200-collectible-marcus-bobbleheads-in-hard-to-reach-places-and-randy-pitchford-reckons-most-players-will-never-see-any-of-them/
When Borderlands 4 launches on September 12, some of you may be inclined to rush towards the tallest peaks and the best-hidden nooks and crannies—just to see how much of it you can actually explore. Just like those pioneers who discovered you could gracelessly hop up Skyrim's seemingly unsurmountable mountains.
Gearbox boss and occasional magician Randy Pitchford promises that you'll be able to "get everywhere" by "double-jumping, grappling, dashing, gliding". And for making these tricky journeys you'll get a wee reward: bobbleheads depicting goatee-clad arms dealer Marcus. For the orienteering obsessed, more than 200 of these collectibles will be up for grabs.

One problem with making an Assassin's Creed game in Ancient Greece, says Ubisoft, is that there just weren't enough tall buildings for a 'climbing frame game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/assassins-creed/one-problem-with-making-an-assassins-creed-game-in-ancient-greece-says-ubisoft-is-that-there-just-werent-enough-tall-buildings-for-a-climbing-frame-game/
Assassin's Creed is a game where, in the words of AC Odyssey's world director, Ban Hall, "verticality is really important." It's always been a game about seeing a giant cathedral or something, scrambling up to the top, and then admiring the view before swan-diving off. Even at more of a street level, you're still constantly gaining that little bit of height for sightlines and combat advantages. It is a game that wants players to climb.
Which meant that AC Odyssey had a little bit of an issue. Ancient Greece, you see, was just not known for its skyscrapers. Speaking to Edge Magazine for the venerable tome's 413th issue (spotted by GR+), Hall says, "It really is a climbing-frame game, and it's about moving the players through those spaces and going up and down things as much as anything else."

employees to console themselves with AI, Microsoft doubles down by advertising Xbox jobs with pathetic AI image: 'So tone deaf I hope it is satire'
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/fresh-from-telling-laid-off-employees-to-console-themselves-with-ai-microsoft-doubles-down-by-advertising-xbox-jobs-with-pathetic-ai-image-so-tone-deaf-i-hope-it-is-satire/
The rollicking clown car that is Microsoft corporate leadership has outdone itself once again. Earlier this month Phil Spencer said Microsoft's gaming business has "never looked stronger" as he announced mass layoffs, which was swiftly followed up by an Xbox exec suggesting that affected employees use AI to console themselves. And now?
A round of slow claps for Xbox's principle development lead Mike Matsel, another victim of terminal LinkedIn brain, who took to the social networking site this past weekend to announce some good news: we're hiring! Except…
>> The picture is in the article and yeah, no human would have made that mistake.

Epic publicly humiliates 2 more Fortnite cheaters by forcing them to say sorry and promise to never, ever do it again
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/epic-publicly-humiliates-2-more-fortnite-cheaters-by-forcing-them-to-say-sorry-and-promise-to-never-ever-do-it-again/
Two more Fortnite ne'er-do-wells have been socked in the chops with the clenched fist of public humiliation, which is to say that they have been forced to make public apologies for being jerks.

'A future has been stolen from many of us and our community will never experience an amazing game': Microsoft MMO devs respond to cancelation of project Phil Spencer reportedly loved
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/a-future-has-been-stolen-from-many-of-us-and-our-community-will-never-experience-an-amazing-game-microsoft-mmo-devs-respond-to-cancelation-of-project-phil-spencer-reportedly-loved/
Nearly two weeks after Microsoft announced its intent to lay off roughly 9,000 employees, yet another workplace massacre that saw deep cuts across the company's gaming division, the ZeniMax Online Studios United union says it is now bargaining with the company "over how we move forward" following the cancellation of a new MMO that was in development at the studio.

Less than 6 years after it launched, John Wick Hex is being removed from sale on all storefronts later this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/less-than-6-years-after-it-launched-john-wick-hex-is-being-removed-from-sale-on-all-storefronts-later-this-week/
Less than six years after its debut, the excellent tactical puzzler John Wick Hex is being removed from sale. Publisher Big Fan Games says owners will continue to have access to it, but "new purchases of John Wick Hex will not be possible, regardless of platform or storefront."
>> No reason provided, but we all can guess what’s going on.

Oblivion Remastered's latest patch stealthily fixed the most lore-breaking door in videogames
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/oblivion-remastereds-latest-patch-stealthily-fixed-the-most-lore-breaking-door-in-videogames/
Oblivion Remastered's first couple of patches have been, shall we say, a little underwhelming. Some bugbears have been tinkered with, but player performance woes still abound and players (and most importantly, I personally) still have a bunch of quality-of-life fixes they'd like to see implemented, even if they're running the game's 1.2 patch, currently in Steam beta.
So if you're still running into random frame stutters as you traverse Cyrodiil, my condolences. But take heart, because that latest Oblivion Remastered patch has at least fixed one error that was keeping me awake at night: the Dark Brotherhood's historically inaccurate front door.

Fallout 76 is preparing to line up future content 'with the seasonal releases of the show,' despite the two being set 194 years apart
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/fallout-76-is-preparing-to-line-up-future-content-with-the-seasonal-releases-of-the-show-despite-the-two-being-set-194-years-apart/
(...)
Fallout 76 hit an all-time player count record on Steam of just under 60,000 after the TV show aired, but despite all the flurry of new or returning players, there wasn't a ton of tie-ins with the show. I always thought this was a missed opportunity, and it looks like it's one that the Fallout 76 devs aren't going to repeat.
"The show is very effective storytelling—very Fallout—being made by folks that are big fans of the game and the series, and so are we," creative director Jon Rush says in an interview with Variety. "The two go together really well. So folks see the show and want more of that same kind of story, and they're going to come into 76, they're going to come into Fallout 4, or come into Fallout 3.
Lining things up with the seasonal releases of the show, it's stuff that we talk about all the time, and we do have plans for things here and there. I'm not going to go into detail on any of those now, but the two teams do talk to one another."

'I think Todd in particular gravitates not toward the weird stuff': Skyrim's co-lead and Morrowind 'torchbearer' says Elder Scrolls 6 will probably be pretty normcore
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/i-think-todd-in-particular-gravitates-not-toward-the-weird-stuff-skyrims-co-lead-and-morrowind-torchbearer-says-elder-scrolls-6-will-probably-be-pretty-normcore/
Certain opinions are so widespread, and so oft-repeated, that I kind of get tired of hearing them even when I share them. For instance, the notion that the version of Cyrodiil we got in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was a bland, Tolkien-ised thing compared to the descriptions of the province we got in earlier games. I agree, but also I've read variations of that take so much over the last nearly 20 years that I really struggle to care all that strongly about it anymore (and hey, I still like Oblivion a lot; more than I like Skyrim, even).
But I guess I can make an exception when the person saying it is former Bethesda loremaster and Skyrim co-lead designer Kurt Kuhlmann (via GamesRadar). Kuhlmann sat down with Kiwi Talkz recently for a big ol' chat about his life and times at Bethesda, where he worked from 1996 to 1998, then again from 2003 to 2023. Long story short? Hey, Kuhlmann wanted to #KeepCyrodiilWeird too.