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

[JEMC]

Monday gaming news, part two:

Former Bethesda marketing VP says he fought against reusing the Prey name for Arkane's 2017 immersive sim: 'I definitely pissed some people off internally over that'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/former-bethesda-marketing-vp-says-he-fought-against-reusing-the-prey-name-for-arkanes-2017-immersive-sim-i-definitely-pissed-some-people-off-internally-over-that/
Arkane's 2017 immersive sim Prey is a genuinely great videogame, with a genuinely weird name—shared with a pre-existing shooter and a famously cancelled sequel that it has absolutely nothing to do with. Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio said a few years ago that he really did not want to call it Prey, and it turns out he was not alone on that: Former Bethesda marketing and communications boss Pete Hines said in an interview with Dbltap that he was dead-set against it too.
>> He also talked about the problem with the Fallout 76 bags included in the Power Armor Edition of the game.

Starfield fans are pretty sure Bethesda just dropped the first teaser for the game's second expansion: 'We look forward to the adventures yet to come'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/starfield-fans-are-pretty-sure-bethesda-just-dropped-the-first-teaser-for-the-games-second-expansion-we-look-forward-to-the-adventures-yet-to-come/
Hard to believe but it's been two years since Bethesda unleashed Starfield onto the world, a sci-fi epic that—to torque a metaphor—didn't quite achieve escape velocity. Updates have followed at something of a ponderous pace, but there's been no sign of the second expansion that was promised more than a year ago.
But now that seems to have changed. An otherwise unremarkable post on X acknowledging "two incredible years" contains a wee little "Happy Anniversary" video clip--and in that video are brief, scattered flashes of letters. A mystery!

Borderlands 4 global release times mean some of you can play a day earlier than expected
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/borderlands-4-global-release-times-mean-some-of-you-can-play-a-day-earlier-than-expected/
If you requested time off from work ahead of the new Borderlands launch next Friday, consider a last-minute addendum to the ask. Gearbox has revealed its plans to give Borderlands 4 the global release treatment, so some players will technically venture to Kairos a day early.
>> And Randy Pitchford opened his mouth once again, this time to talk about the Stop Killing Games initiative.

This brilliant boomer shooter inspired by Blood gets a whole new campaign and a free update later this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/this-brilliant-boomer-shooter-inspired-by-blood-gets-a-whole-new-campaign-and-a-free-update-later-this-month/
If you're a FPS fan and haven't played Cultic yet, you should. Where most retro-shooters take Doom or Quake or Duke Nukem as their primary inspiration, Cultic wades from the primordial pool of Monolith's 1997 classic Blood. Cultic's grungy, lusciously lo-fi action sees you blowing away crazed hooded monks with double barrelled shotguns and fistfuls of dynamite, set within ambitious, semi-open levels that are a delight to explore.

Command & Conquer successor Tempest Rising gets a big new update next week, adding massive 3v3 multiplayer matches and active pause to singleplayer
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rts/command-and-conquer-successor-tempest-rising-gets-a-big-new-update-next-week-adding-massive-3v3-multiplayer-matches-and-active-pause-to-singleplayer/
Tempest Rising finally broke the RTS curse when it arrived earlier this year, delivering a thrilling remix of Command & Conquer's classic strategy action, while also remembering to add proper singleplayer campaigns alongside its competitive multiplayer.
If I had one complaint, though, it would be that keeping up with the pace of its singleplayer could be difficult sometimes. While I generally approved of Tempest Rising's balance between tension and fun, my reaction times aren't what they used to be during C&C's heyday, and having a little more time to think wouldn't have gone amiss in some of its scenarios.
Fortunately, this will no longer be a problem as of next week. Tempest Rising's next update will bring several of the community's most hotly requested features. Among these is an active pause feature and a game speed adjustment tool designed specifically for the singleplayer campaign, letting you tweak the pace of the action to your liking, or freeze the game entirely while issuing orders to your units.

Stellaris' Shadows of the Shroud DLC will make communing with cosmic entities more rewarding later this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/stellaris-shadows-of-the-shroud-dlc-will-make-communing-with-cosmic-entities-more-rewarding-later-this-month/
Like a reverse black hole, Stellaris continues to pump out additional matter into its swirling galaxy of expansions. Just four months on from the Biogenesis addon, which built out the 4X's bioengineering pathways, the Shadows of the Shroud DLC will expand the minds of psionic players on September 22.

This Australian puzzler that took seven years to make is basically Myst with endearingly naff FMVs and music composed by a 10-year-old
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/this-australian-puzzler-that-took-seven-years-to-make-is-basically-myst-with-endearingly-naff-fmvs-and-music-composed-by-a-10-year-old/
While Myst and its sequel Riven are omnipresent games thanks to developer Cyan Worlds constantly remaking them, games directly inspired by Myst are few and far between. The most notable example is Jonathan Blow's maze-obsessed puzzler The Witness, which distressingly will be a decade old come January.
Now though, veteran publisher MicroProse has just released Neyyah. That may read like onomatopoeia for the noise Minecraft villagers make, but it is in fact a first-person 3D point 'n' click puzzler, one that doesn't so much wear its Myst inspirations on its sleeve as have them tattooed all over its body.

Hollow Knight: Silksong sinks to 'Mixed' Steam review status among Chinese gamers over its bafflingly bad translation, with Team Cherry promising to improve it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/hollow-knight-silksong-sinks-to-mixed-steam-review-status-among-chinese-gamers-over-its-bafflingly-bad-translation-with-team-cherry-promising-to-improve-it/
As reported by Eurogamer, Hollow Knight: Silksong has not met Chinese players' expectations the way it has globally, with a 42% positive "Mixed" review status from nearly 20,000 Chinese language users, who say that the game's localization was abysmally, uniquely poor.
Team Cherry has already responded to the issue, promising to work on the Chinese localization. "We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong," wrote the game's publishing and marketing lead, Matthew Griffin. "We'll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks."

Bigger guns are louder and therefore riskier as of Rust's latest update, with other players able to hear you from 'much further away'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/bigger-guns-are-louder-and-therefore-riskier-as-of-rusts-latest-update-with-other-players-able-to-hear-you-from-much-further-away/
Rust has entered a quieter period as it stocks the hold for its naval update due in a couple of months. But Facepunch Studios still continues to add bits here and there. July brought an improved mission system and more realistic erosion, while August saw the return of hardcore mode in tougher, meaner form.
September's update is by far the smallest for a while. But there is one adjustment that has potentially game-altering ramifications, and it all has to do with the noise that guns make. Basically, Facepunch has altered how sound propagation for firearms works, so gunshots can be heard at significantly longer distances than before.

RoadCraft introduces a free hard mode for all you SnowRunner sickos, adding limited fuel, more challenging convoy simulation and realistic gearboxes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/roadcraft-introduces-a-free-hard-mode-for-all-you-snowrunner-sickos-adding-limited-fuel-more-challenging-convoy-simulation-and-realistic-gearboxes/
RoadCraft proved a surprisingly controversial entry in Saber Interactive's series of grungy vehicle sims after launching in May. It expanded upon SnowRunner's logistics simulation with systems like convoy automation and an emphasis on constructing road networks (hence the name). But these bigger features came at the cost of a more simplistic driving model, leaving players who preferred the stern navigational challenge of SnowRunner put out.
Now, though, Saber has released an update to RoadCraft that folds some of that driving complexity back in. Or at least, it gives players the option to reinstate it themselves if they so choose. The update adds a "hard mode" to RoadCraft in the form of several difficulty modifiers, each of which can be toggled on or off depending on how granular you want the experience to be.