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

[JEMC]

Thursday gaming news, part two:

Helldivers 2 won't be getting Fortnite victory royales for the democracy anytime soon, but Arrowhead certainly isn't shelving the idea entirely
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-wont-be-getting-fortnite-victory-royales-for-the-democracy-anytime-soon-but-arrowhead-certainly-isnt-shelving-the-idea-entirely/
If it exists, you best know Epic Games is probably going to get its hands on it and churn out a 1,200 V-bucks skin for the pleasure of feral Fortnite fans. Something it seemingly won't be snagging anytime soon, however, is a Helldivers 2 collaboration despite Fortnite's newest season leaning very heavily into that game's whole shtick.
That's according to Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani. As spotted by VideoGamer, someone in the Helldivers 2 Discord asked Jorjani if we could ever expect to see the studio's elite soldiers squashing bugs in the likes of Swarmy Stash or Canyon Crossing anytime soon. "Not a priority," he wrote in response. It doesn't seem like Jorjani is totally willing to close that door altogether, though. "But who knows one day. [Fortnite] is cool. And quite big."

In tribute to a player's departed baby son, Old School RuneScape players turn out in 'hundreds' to pay respects to his namesake: 'It was so overwhelming seeing so many people at Zeke's shop'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/in-tribute-to-a-players-departed-baby-son-old-school-runescape-players-turn-out-in-hundreds-to-pay-respects-to-his-namesake-it-was-so-overwhelming-seeing-so-many-people-at-zekes-shop/
MMOs tend to function, more or less, as enormous mechanisms for competition. PvP, being the first to a particular raid, pulling off troubling works of deception in EVE Online—this is what I associate with the phrase 'massively multiplayer'. But sometimes, the stars align and players come together to do something truly nice for each other.

Borderlands 4 now has updated minimum system requirements for an eight-core 'or equivalent' CPU, which leaves six-core CPU owners none the wiser
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/processors/borderlands-4-now-has-updated-minimum-system-requirements-for-an-eight-core-or-equivalent-cpu-which-leaves-six-core-cpu-owners-none-the-wiser/
Roughly two months ago we got our first look at the system requirements for Borderlands 4, a process that involved many of us on the hardware team scrunching up our noses. Listed on the Steam page was the insistence that the game would require eight CPU cores as a minimum, which seemed highly unlikely given how many speedy six core processors there are on the market.
So much so, in fact, that our Jeremy theorised that what the devs likely meant is it would require a CPU with a minimum of eight software threads, which even an ancient four-core CPU with multi-threading support would technically cover. Well, the specs have now been updated on the community page, and they look identical—save for one note.
Next to the same eight-core minimum CPU requirement is an asterisk, and that asterisk points to the phrase "or equivalent." Which means... I'm not entirely sure. Again, the temptation is to think that we're likely talking about thread requirements again here, although an eight-thread CPU is not equivalent to an eight-core model. In fact, not even close.
>> This is coming two days after asking players to have realistic expectations. I’m afraid the game will run like sh*t on most PCs.

You can make Silksong's terrible Bilewater boss 100 times easier by simply surrendering yourself to the maggot bath
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/silksong-bilewater-groal-maggots/
If you've been playing Hollow Knight: Silksong, you'll know one thing for certain: Bilewater is terrible. It sucks there. Enemies that explode when they die, darts that explode when they're thrown, bounce orbs that also explode—and worst of all, pools of maggots that will strip you of your ability to heal (after being exploded by said orbs).
It's also home to one of the most obnoxious runbacks in Silksong's entire library. For the record, you can find a slightly-closer bench located in the screenshot below. It's down at the bottom of a shaft with a pool of worms at its base—just break the wall to your right instead of going left.
Even here, though, the runback sucks. Groal the Great, the boss at the top of Bilewater, can only be fought after several waves of arena combat against those same obnoxious bastards you've been trying to avoid just to get to the guy. I, however, have discovered an absolute cheese of a strategy: Embrace the maggots. Become one with the worms.
>> More Silksong articles: you can get help during the High Halls gauntlet (here) and here’s how to get 300 rosaries per 5 minutes.

Peak dev says the 'tornado hell' of its newest biome wasn't actually a bug: 'We really did just make it that evil'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/peak-dev-says-the-tornado-hell-of-its-newest-biome-wasnt-actually-a-bug-we-really-did-just-make-it-that-evil/
Peak co-developer Aggro Crab has very politely requested your attention away from Silksong to list out some of its most recent patch notes, as well as a cheeky tease for a new biome. Oh, and an acknowledgement of how downright evil they made the mesa biome which dropped last month.

The US government is 'looking at' the connection between videogames and gun violence, because what else could it possibly be
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-us-government-is-looking-at-the-connection-between-videogames-and-gun-violence-because-what-else-could-it-possibly-be/
Like a dog gnawing on a particularly tasty bone, the US government is once again trying to link violent videogames to violence in the real world. In a press conference following the release of the Make Our Children Healthy Again report conducted by the Make America Healthy Again commission—MAHA, of course—US secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the ongoing scourge of gun violence in the country could be the result of many factors, including videogames.
>> Here we go again...

Paradox apologizes for botching yet another DLC release: 'It hurts so much when we f**k up like this'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/paradox-apologizes-for-botching-yet-another-dlc-release-it-hurts-so-much-when-we-f-k-up-like-this/
PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens wrote last month that Crusader King 3's then-upcoming DLC Coronation would provide "even more opportunities to be murdered spectacularly by your vassal." He was close, as it turns out, but a bit off the mark: It is in fact Paradox Interactive that's being spectacularly murdered by Crusader Kings 3 players, for once again blowing it with a DLC release.
>> For a company that focuses on launching tons of DLCs for their games, they sure botch a lot of them.

'An embarrassing failure of the US patent system': Videogame IP lawyer says Nintendo's latest patents on Pokémon mechanics 'should not have happened, full stop'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/an-embarrassing-failure-of-the-us-patent-system-videogame-ip-lawyer-says-nintendos-latest-patents-on-pokemon-mechanics-should-not-have-happened-full-stop/
The last 10 days have brought a string of patent wins for Nintendo. Yesterday, the company was granted US patent 12,409,387, a patent covering riding and flying systems similar to those Nintendo has been criticized for claiming in its Palworld lawsuit (via Gamesfray). Last week, however, Nintendo received a more troubling weapon in its legal arsenal: US patent 12,403,397, a patent on summoning and battling characters that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted with alarmingly little resistance.
According to videogame patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon, the USPTO granting Nintendo these latest patents isn't just a moment of questionable legal theory. It's an indictment of American patent law.
>> Next up. They’ll patent picking up objects, like a barrel, and throw them at enemies.

The Battlefield 6 battle royale ring will instantly kill anyone caught in it: 'There's no jumping in and out of it, no using it for cover, no walking through it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-battle-royale-details-playtest/
We've finally got a few details about the incoming Battlefield battle royale mode, which was teased during the Battlefield 6 reveal event and is rumored to be a free-to-play mode coming sometime after the October launch of Battlefield 6 itself.
In a Steam post about an upcoming Battlefield Labs test of the mode, the developers explain how they intend to fuse the battle royale format with the "core Battlefield pillars of class-based squadplay, tactical destruction, and vehicle combat"

Bloodlines 2 narrative director tries to get players to lower their expectations, patiently explains it's not going to have the scale of Baldur's Gate 3 or Grand Theft Auto
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/bloodlines-2-narrative-director-tries-to-get-players-to-lower-their-expectations-patiently-explains-its-not-going-to-have-the-scale-of-baldurs-gate-3-or-grand-theft-auto/
While we will get to choose the clan and gender of our player-character in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, it's apparently not going to be a full "how many skill points do I want to put into Security" kind of character creation—a revelation that's set a few fans on edge. Narrative director Ian Thomas put in some damage control by explaining that decision to PCGamesN, which I'm sure White Wolf tragics will give calm and reasonable consideration to.