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

[JEMC]

Thursday gaming news, part two:

'There's a strong desire on our side to make sure that our games are preserved': Obsidian promises your Grounded 1 save files won't be compost after Grounded 2 comes out
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/theres-a-strong-desire-on-our-side-to-make-sure-that-our-games-are-preserved-obsidian-promises-your-grounded-1-save-files-wont-be-compost-after-grounded-2-comes-out/
Grounded 2 is on its way, with early access kicking off later this month—which, if you've been slighted by sequels before, might have you wringing your keyboards over what's going to happen to Grounded 1. Well, don't tear up your mechanicals just yet. Executive producer Marcus Morgan at Obsidian wants to put your fears at ease.

Some gamers are angry that Battlefield 6 is likely going to require Secure Boot but most shouldn't have any issues at all
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/some-gamers-are-angry-that-battlefield-6-is-likely-going-to-require-secure-boot-but-most-shouldnt-have-any-issues-at-all/
Battlefield 6 is seeming pretty close to fully brewed, judging by recent stirrings, but if you're a bit of a techy tinkerer you might be disappointed to hear that it seems the game will require you have Secure Boot enabled to play.
As brought to my attention by an X post from Pirat_Nation, an EA rep on the Battlefield Discord server responded to the question, "Will battlefield 6 have the same secure boot s***" with, "Yes, we're currently running Secure Boot for Battlefield Labs."

'The father of Elder Scrolls' Julian LeFay has died: 'His legacy will live on in every realm, every quest, and every moment of wonder'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-father-of-elder-scrolls-julian-lefay-has-died-his-legacy-will-live-on-in-every-realm-every-quest-and-every-moment-of-wonder/
Julian LeFay, a programmer and engineer with a storied games industry career, has died at the age of 59 years old. The news was announced by OnceLost Games, a company LeFay co-founded, following last week's news that he would be retiring "to live his final moments surrounded by his loved ones."

23 years after launch, Final Fantasy 11 is suspending character creation on its most popular server as it buckles beneath the weight of player congestion
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/23-years-after-launch-final-fantasy-11-is-suspending-character-creation-on-its-most-popular-server-as-it-buckles-beneath-the-weight-of-player-congestion/
I played Final Fantasy 11 for the first time in 2024 after an episode of the Abnormal Mapping podcast poisoned me with brainworms hungry for an MMO that, since its launch in 2002, has been left largely untouched by the genre conventions World of Warcraft would formalize in the years that followed. It's like an interactive museum of an alternate MMO history, and there's apparently no shortage of other players drawn in by that siren call.
More than two decades after FF11's launch, Square Enix has halted new character creation on its most popular server because it's attracting more players than it can handle (via Vice). In a news post on the FF11 website, producer and director Yoji Fujito announced "measures that will be implemented to address congestion on the Asura World."

Microsoft backs away from $80 games, drops The Outer Worlds 2 price to $70 'in line with current market conditions'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-outer-worlds-2-will-no-longer-cost-usd80-as-microsoft-backs-away-from-plans-to-follow-nintendos-lead/
When asked how it could justify an $80 price tag for upcoming RPG The Outer Worlds 2, developer Obsidian had a sympathetic response: Ask Microsoft.
Ask we all did, and it seems the Xbox overlords eventually agreed with the public's bafflement—or at least didn't like the looks of The Outer Worlds 2's pre-order numbers—because Obsidian announced today that the price will now be $70.

Oh, hell yeah—this indie dev is making a Valkyria Chronicles-inspired mecha game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/oh-hell-yeah-this-indie-dev-is-making-a-valkyria-chronicles-inspired-mecha-game/
Sometimes the world delivers you a bit of proof that you've done a good job cultivating your online environment. For me, that proof was seeing RPG Site post on Bluesky about Ironwing Valiant: Record of Astera—a Valkyria Chronicles-inspired mecha action game from indie studio Tiger Team—and watching as a bunch of sickos near-instantly flooded my timeline with a unified, resounding "hell yeah."

At long last and 'with gracious permission from Valve,' Garry's Mod now contains 'most of Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 Episodic content' even if you don't own those games
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/at-long-last-and-with-gracious-permission-from-valve-garrys-mod-now-contains-most-of-counter-strike-source-and-half-life-2-episodic-content-even-if-you-dont-own-those-games/
So long, pink checkerboards that represent missing textures! Adiós, pitch-black skies that signify an absent skybox! Don't let the door hit you on the way out, enormous 3D model that says ERROR where a car should be!
Those have been common sights for users of Garry's Mod for, oh, let's see… 20 years or so? And one of the biggest culprits for those missing textures and models is that players didn't own the games that those assets were pulled from: Half-Life 2's episodic entries and Counter-Strike: Source. You could join a community map that used assets from those games, but if you didn't own them, you would get an eyeful of pink and black or that big ol' ERROR sign.
Hurrah, then, because the latest update for Garry's Mod solves that problem in a way that doesn't require players buying and installing extra Valve games.

Supergiant swears Hades 2's new update is the last one before it leaves early access and releases in full
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/supergiant-swears-hades-2s-new-update-is-the-last-one-before-it-leaves-early-access-and-releases-in-full/
Someone stop Supergiant from adding more stuff into Hades 2. The sequel to one the best action RPGs of all time was already overflowing with all kinds of new characters, weapons, and bosses when it launched in early access last year. And now, several updates later, Supergiant keeps messing with it as it nears the point at which it can call it finished.
Supergiant said the update earlier this month would "likely be our final patch before our v1.0 launch," but it turns out it had a little more work to do. Today's patch 11 update will be the final one before launch—for real this time.