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

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And this is the second part of the gaming news:

'We're genuinely psyched that there are more options out there': 2XKO head says he's jazzed to see more studios jumping in to help revive the humble tag fighter
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fighting/were-genuinely-psyched-that-there-are-more-options-out-there-2xko-head-says-hes-jazzed-to-see-more-studios-jumping-in-to-help-revive-the-humble-tag-fighter/
Tag fighters are back, baby. Or at least they're going to be back. At some point. After a verifiable dearth of the things for a good long while, Riot came out swinging in February 2024 by renaming Project L to the still-questionable 2XKO and revealing that it was going to be a 2v2 dukeout.
But just like buses, bad things, good things, and celebrity deaths, it turns out tag fighters also come in threes: Summer Game Fest saw the reveal of InvincibleVS—from a brand-new studio formed out of a lotta Killer Instinct folk—and Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls from veteran 2D fighter studio Arc System Works, the latter of which is going extra balls-to-the-wall by making its game a freakin' 4v4. That's a lot of characters to lab.

Take-Two boss says Civilization 7 projections 'are very consistent with our initial expectations' despite its rough start: 'The key thing is that Civ has always been a slow burn'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/take-two-boss-says-civilization-7-projections-are-very-consistent-with-our-initial-expectations-despite-its-rough-start-the-key-thing-is-that-civ-has-always-been-a-slow-burn/
Civilization 7 got off to a rough start when it dropped earlier this year: Systemic changes, particularly the addition of "ages," proved deeply divisive, but there was also a slew of more basic problems with bugs, AI issues, and a widely-disliked UI. It remains stuck with a "mixed" user rating on Steam, and concurrent player numbers on the platform lag well behind not just Civilization 6, but the 15-year-old Civ 5 too.
Despite those many troubles, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says all is well, telling IGN that the "lifetime value" of Civilization 7 remains pretty much where it was expected to be right from the start.

Former BioWare producer Mark Darrah thinks Dragon Age remasters are the series' best hope for a future, but I doubt EA and BioWare even have it in them anymore
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/former-bioware-producer-mark-darrah-thinks-dragon-age-remasters-are-the-series-best-hope-for-a-future-but-i-doubt-ea-and-bioware-even-have-it-in-them-anymore/
As reported by TheGamer, BioWare producer Mark Darrah opened up about the history of attempted Dragon Age remasters and remakes at BioWare in a recent interview with MrMattyPlays on YouTube.
>> He also said that Dragon Age wasn’t to be a series, and that the team developing the new Mass Effect games should use Veilguard as a scapegoat..

I'm hooting and hollering for this upcoming RPG about staging heists in the underworld from the publishers of Dwarf Fortress and the designers of one of the best narrative games of all time
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/im-hooting-and-hollering-for-this-upcoming-rpg-about-staging-heists-in-the-underworld-from-the-publishers-of-dwarf-fortress-and-the-designers-of-one-of-the-best-narrative-games-of-all-time/
If the words "King of Dragon Pass" don't mean anything to you, you owe it to yourself to correct that. Originally released in 1999, it and its Six Ages successors are some of the finest fantasy in videogames, with systems-driven storytelling involving everything from settling multigenerational cattle disputes to undertaking mythic quests in the realm of the gods.
Last week, its designers at developer A Sharp revealed their newest project, Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists—a tactical narrative game with a premise that has me cackling at the proverbial sicko window.

A veteran Final Fantasy programmer hates how indie games deliberately recreate PS1 visual bugs he made 'many futile efforts' to fix: 'I just don’t get what’s so interesting about trying to replicate that'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/a-veteran-final-fantasy-programmer-hates-how-indie-games-deliberately-recreate-ps1-visual-bugs-he-made-many-futile-efforts-to-fix-i-just-dont-get-whats-so-interesting-about-trying-to-replicate-that/
First reported by Automaton, veteran programmer Koji Sugimoto (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy 10) criticized modern games' emulation of retro visual glitches, specifically the affine texture warping of the original PlayStation, a frequent feature of lo-fi, throwback indie games.

Nexon teases its next big thing: A singleplayer action-adventure about a 'Mage of the Way' who battles injustice and corruption in ancient Korea
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/nexon-teases-its-next-big-thing-a-singleplayer-action-adventure-about-a-mage-of-the-way-who-battles-injustice-and-corruption-in-ancient-korea/
I wasn't sure what to make of Woochi the Wayfarer when I first saw the title, but I reflexively assumed it would be cozy, and probably star a large anthropomorphic animal—an overweight bear, perhaps—with a bindle. I could not have been further off the mark if I had put conscious effort into it. It is in fact inspired by the "classic Korean novel" The Tale of Jeon Woochi, about a Dosa—a Mage of the Way— named Jeon Woochi, who battles injustice and corruption in Joseon-era Korea.

In 15 years of interviewing AAA game developers, I think this is the first time one's straight up told me 'Many people make games for money, but we make money for games'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/in-15-years-of-interviewing-aaa-game-developers-i-think-this-is-the-first-time-ones-straight-up-told-me-many-people-make-games-for-money-but-we-make-money-for-games/
I don't think you can go by a nom-de-plume like "Soulframe" without really, really loving videogames.
More than a decade before Digital Extremes started cooking up its Warframe sequel, young Chinese architecture student Qiwei Liang came up with the name as his internet handle, and has been using it ever since. (...)
(...further down the article…)
"Yeah—many people are making games for money, but we make money for games," he said with a chuckle. "We made money from the mobile market, and then we think, at first, that we'll have to make this game without any support from investors, so we put all of our money from the mobile games into Phantom Blade Zero."

Marvel Rivals reminds players it doesn't use 'EOMM', matchmaking designed to make you feel better about your terrible W/L ratio
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/marvel-rivals-reminds-players-it-doesnt-use-eomm-matchmaking-designed-to-make-you-feel-better-about-your-terrible-w-l-ratio/
Marvel Rivals is very keen to remind you all that, aside from that whole bot debacle, it's not trying to make you feel better after having a string of particularly bad games.
That's per the game's official X account, which posted: "Hi Rivals! As our game continues to thrive, we want to reiterate that Marvel Rivals does not use EOMM. We are currently working on a video to demonstrate our developer insights on the matchmaking and ranking system, which is expected to be released next week." This was also preceded by a video on the Rivals Assembled YouTube channel, explaining the studio's intent to tell-all in the future.

Hmm, Fortnite's new season looks familiar, says Arrowhead: 'It's giving we have Helldivers at home'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/hmm-fortnites-new-season-looks-familiar-says-arrowhead-its-giving-we-have-helldivers-at-home/
Fortnite is doing a Helldivers 2—well, I guess it's doing a Starship Troopers, if you wanted to get pedantic about it—but the fact remains that its new season, dubbed "Shock 'n' Awesome", is very familiar. Eerily so. It's hard to put a finger on why, though.

Helldivers 2's newest trailer basically confirms a Halo 3: ODST crossover with a melancholy saxophone
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2s-newest-trailer-basically-confirms-a-halo-3-odst-crossover-with-a-melancholy-saxophone/
Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox, per a new trailer that was just posted to Arrowhead's channel. The video in question, which uses P.O.D's "Boom", is pretty cute in itself—the fact that Arrowhead has waited a whole year and a half before using this particular bop in their promotional material, I feel, shows remarkable restraint.
What turns this into actual news for us here at PC Gamer, however, is the little wink-wink nudge-nudge snuck in by the devs at the very end. A rain-drenched Super Earth city is greeted to a lone Helldivers 2 pod-drop, while a saxophone croons a tune familiar to anyone who was traumatised by Halo 3: ODST back in 2009.

League of Legends is getting its first major control scheme change in 16 years: the option to use WASD to 'get new players to the fun parts of League faster and with less friction'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/league-of-legends-is-getting-its-first-major-control-scheme-change-in-16-years-the-option-to-use-wasd-to-get-new-players-to-the-fun-parts-of-league-faster-and-with-less-friction/
After almost 16 years of pointing and clicking, League of Legends is trying something a little different by adding the option to move around with WASD instead.