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

[JEMC]

And here’s the expected part three of the Monday gaming news:

Blood Bowl 3 has vampires now, and Eternal League continues improving
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/board-games/blood-bowl-3-has-vampires-now-and-eternal-league-continues-improving/
Blood Bowl 3 has reached Season 10, and with a new season comes a new team, a new community event, a new set of Blood Pass rewards, and the usual round of bug fixes and balance tweaks.
This season's new team are the Vampires, definitely one for veteran players. Their most powerful skill is Hypnotic Gaze, which lets them strip opponents of their tackle zones and prevent them using skills like block and dodge. It works on a 2+, rather than 3+ under the old rules in Blood Bowl 2, though it's modified by -1 for each marking player. Hypnotic Gaze is a great way of bypassing blockers and busting cages, but it's balanced by the Bloodlust rule. Every bloodsucker has to pass a test before they act, and if they fail they bite someone else on your team—which is why the handful of useful vampire players have to be bulked out with a mob of thralls who exist just to be snacked on.

Final Fantasy composer shares concern about 'stagnation' in game music: 'Frankly speaking, there’s less weird things now'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/final-fantasy-composer-shares-concern-about-stagnation-in-game-music-frankly-speaking-theres-less-weird-things-now/
As reported by Automaton, iconic video game composer Nobuo Uematsu, best known for his work on the Final Fantasy series, has recently given his take on the state of videogame music. In an interview with Japanese outlet Real Sound, Uematsu commented on where the industry is now, particularly concern about creative freedom for composers being stifled.

Dying Light: The Beast's release date has been moved forward by one whole day
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/dying-light-the-beasts-release-date-has-been-moved-forward-by-one-whole-day/
A couple of months ago, Techland pushed back the release of first-person zombie kicker Dying Light: The Beast by four weeks "to allow for extra polishing work". I guess that work took less time than they expected, but only slightly less time. After moving the launch back to September 19, it's now been moved forward again. To September 18.

The Danganronpa 2 remaster also includes a remake or maybe a stealth-sequel, honestly it's hard to tell
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/visual-novel/the-danganronpa-2-remaster-also-includes-a-remake-or-maybe-a-stealth-sequel-honestly-its-hard-to-tell/
Nintendo Directs don't often have much of interest to PC gamers, though this September's scattershot barrage of Switch 2 trailers did include the news that Hades 2 is about to leave early access. Which is nice. Buried in the avalanche of Zelda nonsense was something else of potential interest to us, however. Something called Danganronpa 2x2.
While it looks like a simple remaster of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, the package also includes an alternate storyline the same size as the first one. While the series stalled after the third game, is 2x2 actually going to equal Dangonronpa 4? As the Steam page puts it, "The original setting and cast of characters are back, but a single incident sets off a completely different chain of events! New victims, new culprits, and brand-new tricks await. The new scenario offers the same volume of content as the original, delivering a complete and immersive experience."

X4: Foundations' massive diplomacy update adds an actual embassy room to your HQ, where you can entreat with aliens from across the galaxy and establish yourself as space Machiavelli
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/x4-foundations-massive-diplomacy-update-adds-an-actual-embassy-room-to-your-hq-where-you-can-entreat-with-aliens-from-across-the-galaxy-and-establish-yourself-as-space-machiavelli/
While not as flashy as Star Citizen or as popular as No Man's Sky, X4: Foundations is one of the most comprehensive space sims you can play today. Representing a return to form after the failed experiment that was X: Rebirth, X4 continues the series tradition of offering a preposterously detailed simulation of space—featuring trading, combat, space exploration, and dynamic faction politics—while also letting players build and expand their own interstellar empire.
X4 can be a hugely rewarding experience, provided you can handle its vertiginous learning curve and millions of menus. The space sim has quietly trundled along with a small but dedicated community for years now. But its latest update caught my eye. Patch 8.00 introduces a detailed diplomacy system to the sequel, letting you liaise with the universe's many alien factions, mess with inter-faction relationships to your advantage, and conduct daring espionage operations, essentially adding a slice of Crusader Kings to your adventures through the void.

Inevitably, someone has made a cooperative take on A Game About Digging a Hole, where you play as burly shirtless men whose hands swell up when they flip each other off
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/inevitably-someone-has-made-a-cooperative-take-on-a-game-about-digging-a-hole-where-you-play-as-burly-shirtless-men-whose-hands-swell-up-when-they-flip-each-other-off/
As someone who grew up when true cooperative games were vanishingly rare, the sheer number of games that allow you to play with pals at your side these days is astonishing. Every other game seems to support larking around for up to four people. And in the increasingly unlikely event that a game doesn't have co-op to begin with, chances are someone will make a version of it that does.
Such is the case with Keep Digging, which lifts the premise of DoubleBee's surprise hit A Game About Digging A Hole, er, wholesale, opens up its shovelling shenanigans for up to eight players, then rests its hard hat over its eyes for a wee nap while the cash rolls in.

'Because no one was paying attention we could just put anything into the game,' says the writer responsible for sneaking The Lusty Argonian Maid into Morrowind
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/because-no-one-was-paying-attention-we-could-just-put-anything-into-the-game-says-the-writer-responsible-for-sneaking-the-lusty-argonian-maid-into-morrowind/
Filmdeg Miniatures is a YouTube channel run by Tom Evans that is full of interviews with gaming luminaries. I know it mainly for unearthing Warhammer history on topics like the early editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Evans also covers videogames, most recently in an eight-hour oral history of Morrowind in which he lets a host of the classic weird-fantasy RPG's creators meander up and down memory lane as they discuss how it was made.

You can finally scream at your friends once you've died in REPO thanks to one of the most requested features being added in its upcoming update
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/you-can-finally-scream-at-your-friends-once-youve-died-in-repo-thanks-to-one-of-the-most-requested-features-being-added-in-its-upcoming-update/
REPO's monster update is already promising a significant amount of new content for the co-op horror when it launches on October 30, but one of the most exciting features doesn't have anything to do with the new beasts. As shared in the newest video uploaded on the Semiwork YouTube channel, you'll now be able to speak through your head even once it's been flung off your body. So, I guess it does have something to do with the monsters in the game. Though I swear I've still lost my head because of my friends more than any of the creatures roaming around.

'We are subservient to the players': Battlefield 6 ditched 128-player matches in favour of classic 64 players after it 'didn't catch on' in Battlefield 2042
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/we-are-subservient-to-the-players-battlefield-6-ditched-128-player-matches-in-favour-of-classic-64-players-after-it-didnt-catch-on-in-battlefield-2042/
There's always a silver lining to be found, even when everything seems to go sideways. In the case of Battlefield 2042, the last instalment in the series, Battlefield Studios has been able to look at it and go, 'Yeah, we won't do that again' when it comes to laying the groundwork for Battlefield 6.
Battlefield 2042 isn't looked back on very fondly by players. Its futuristic setting robbed players of the usual gritty and grounded setting of previous Battlefield games, and it took chances on new ideas that didn't land well. One such being 128-player matches.

Who needs Silent Hill? The 'anxiety horror' game I'm most looking forward to is this freakish, grotesque thing about who you let stay at your house in the apocalypse
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/who-needs-silent-hill-the-anxiety-horror-game-im-most-looking-forward-to-is-this-freakish-grotesque-thing-about-who-you-let-stay-at-your-house-in-the-apocalypse/
I'm a trusting soul. When some poor unfortunate raps on my door after the end of the world, I don't have it in me not to let them in. When their teeth are a suspiciously perfect white, I attribute it to a rigorous before-bed hygiene routine. Their red eyes? We're all tired. Their hairless armpits? They must be a swimmer.
And when I wake up the next morning and find one of my other guests has been perfectly trisected into a series of hot, damp bin bags, I reason they must have had an accident using my Kai Shun knife set.
No, I'm Not A Human is a Papers Please-like—in the way that we describe any game that makes 'looking at a guy' a part of its gameplay loop as a Papers Please-like—about making room at the inn in the midst of an apocalyptic solar event. The Sun, finally tired of us, has turned up the temperature to 'kill you instantly' levels in daytime, and people need a place to stay.

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford's chronic tweeting syndrome strikes again, says 'less than 1% of 1%' of players are filing tickets about performance so clearly the internet's overblowing it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/gearbox-ceo-randy-pitchfords-chronic-tweeting-syndrome-strikes-again-says-less-than-1-percent-of-1-percent-of-players-are-filing-tickets-about-performance-so-clearly-the-internets-overblowing-it/
To what I assume is the eternal dismay of the Gearbox PR department, studio CEO Randy Pitchford has once again been tweeting. What's he up to now? Well, he's applying the ol' scientific method to people's Borderlands 4 performance complaints, pointing out that—if this game is really as stutter-prone as you horrible lot have been making it sound like—how come "less than one percent of one percent" of players are filing customer service tickets about performance woes?
>> More proof that he’s a d*xk and that he can’t keep his mouth shut (or away from social media)