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

[JEMC]

The Tuesday gaming news, part two:

Monster Hunter Wilds is the latest game to announce an 'End of support notice for Windows 10', as developers prepare for the final days of the soon-to-be-dead operating system
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-is-the-latest-game-to-announce-an-end-of-support-notice-for-windows-10-as-developers-prepare-for-the-final-days-of-the-soon-to-be-dead-operating-system/
Did you know that there are just 15 days until the end of Windows 10 support? That gives you just over two weeks to make the move to the accursed Windows 11, whether that be simply pressing a button in settings or going to the horrid lengths of upgrading your PC so Windows 11 will actually work.
(...)
And now Monster Hunter Wilds, Monster Hunter Rise, and Monster Hunter: World are among the most recent games to announce that support for Windows 10 will end in the coming weeks.
"As of the same date, we will no longer guarantee that Monster Hunter: World, Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Wilds will run on Windows 10 systems," an official blog post explains.

If you're a House Flipper or PowerWash sicko you've gotta check out The Lift, a game about being a space-repairman in a spooky faux-Soviet research base
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/if-youre-a-house-flipper-or-powerwash-sicko-youve-gotta-check-out-the-lift-a-game-about-being-a-space-repairman-in-a-spooky-faux-soviet-research-base/
It's odd, I think, that so few videogames focus on the tender process of repair. Restoration is satisfying in a way almost nothing else is. Taking something broken, shattered, discarded and, by careful work, returning it to purpose is inherently pleasing, like you're reinstating a tiny bit of order in the world.
(...)
I say all this to explain why I have absolutely lost my gourd screwing bench seats back together in The Lift: Supernatural Handyman Simulator, a kind of Alien: Isolation by way of PowerWash Simulator game that's currently open for playtesting. Drawing on influences like Monday Begins on Saturday (by the Strugatsky brothers, more well-known for Stalker influence Roadside Picnic), Prey, and, uh, House Flipper, The Lift puts you in the stompy rubberised shoes of a sci-fi repair guy.

Former BioWare lead writer reads the runes on EA-Saudi deal and speculates that 'guns and football' are in, 'gay stuff' is out, and the venerable RPG studio may be for the chop
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/former-bioware-lead-writer-reads-the-runes-on-ea-saudi-deal-and-speculates-that-guns-and-football-are-in-gay-stuff-is-out-and-the-venerable-rpg-studio-may-be-for-the-chop/
The rumours have been swirling for a while, before today brought a major industry announcement: EA has struck a $55 billion deal to go private in a Saudi-backed buyout. It's the biggest leveraged buyout in history, meaning that the new EA is instantly saddled with $20 billion of debt, and will face intense pressure to crank those profits. And it's also the latest step in the Saudi Arabian Investment Fund's mission to "sportswash" the brutal regime, by using its influence and ubiquity across entertainment industries to distract from some of the world's most appalling human rights abuses.
As the crack team at PCG towers discussed the deal, one line stuck with me: "I wouldn't want to be sitting in a BioWare chair right now." The vibes around one of the all-time great RPG studios have not been good in recent years, and the fairly decent Dragon Age: The Veilguard didn't persuade anyone that the studio is capable of surpassing contemporary greats like Baldur's Gate 3 or Disco Elysium. Early this year, the studio was apparently cut to the bone in a round of layoffs, though a new Mass Effect game remains in development. For now.
Everyone who's ever loved a BioWare game, which is surely an awful lot of us, is probably feeling quite gloomy about the studio's prospects. And that extends to former BioWare leads, who're watching this acquisition and thinking pretty much what we're all thinking: It might not happen tomorrow, but this could be the death knell for the studio.

EA CEO says company values will 'remain unchanged' under the new ownership of Saudi Arabia and Jared Kushner's investment firm
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/ea-ceo-says-company-values-will-remain-unchanged-under-the-new-ownership-of-saudi-arabia-and-jared-kushners-investment-firm/
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson says the company's acquisition by a consortium made up of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners investment firm, and private equity firm Silver Lake represents "a new era of opportunity," and that "our values and our commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged."
>> It’s EA, their values aren’t exactly something to be proud of.

2XKO is going offline for a few days to prep for its early access launch before returning with an utterly demonic Teemo
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fighting/2xko-is-going-offline-for-a-few-days-to-prep-for-its-early-access-launch-before-returning-with-an-utterly-demonic-teemo/
2XKO's closed beta seems to be going pretty well, with the tag fighter throwing open the doors to the masses on October 7. Despite executive producer Tom Cannon saying in July that "our goal is to keep the game up, online, and available" from the closed beta's launch, it seems that Riot needs just a few days to get everything straightened out.
A post on the 2XKO X account reads: "We need a little more time to get early access up and running, so we'll be shutting down closed beta a few days early on Oct 3 @ 9pm PT." Servers will be back up and running in time for the early access launch on October 7 at 8am PT/11am ET/4pm BST.

'We don't know if something's scary': Resident Evil Requiem director reveals the trials of creating the next scariest Resident Evil game, 'We talked ourselves down a little bit'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/resident-evil/we-dont-know-if-somethings-scary-resident-evil-requiem-director-reveals-the-trials-of-creating-the-next-scariest-resident-evil-game-we-talked-ourselves-down-a-little-bit/
We've been getting drip-fed Resident Evil Requiem information for a few months now, culminating in numerous Leon-centric fan theories, some absolutely terrifying hands-on sessions, and a better look into our new protagonist, Grace Ashcroft. The latest crumb being a new story trailer shown at TGS over the weekend.
(...)
But while I, and anyone else with a working amygdala, can see how terrifying Requiem is going to be, it turns out that the scares are kind of lost on the dev team. "We've made so many of these that we can't tell anymore until someone else plays it," director Koshi Nakanishi says (via IGN). "There was actually a bit of a worry internally before we showed the Resident Evil Requiem hands-off at SGF and the first hands-on at Gamescom, was this actually scary? Because we don't even know anymore.

Borderlands 4 dev clears up the difference between Skill Damage and Action Skill damage, and I feel like a combat log is in order so I didn't have to find this out on a Reddit thread
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/borderlands-4-dev-clears-up-the-difference-between-skill-damage-and-action-skill-damage-and-i-feel-like-a-combat-log-is-in-order-so-i-didnt-have-to-find-this-out-on-a-reddit-thread/
Borderlands 4 has a ton of possible builds to choose from—it's one of the strengths I highlighted in my Borderlands 4 review—but I do have one teensy-tiny complaint, and it's that I would like some of the tooltips to be a smidge more straightforward about what is what.
This feeling has returned full-force after seeing a developer kindly explaining the difference between Skill Damage and Action Skill damage on the game's subreddit (thanks, TheGamer), which probably isn't the place you should have to go for this sort of clarification.

Yakuza's all-new bonus Gaiden game was almost an mp4 bundled on the Kiwami 3 disc before RGG figured fans might wanna play it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/yakuzas-all-new-bonus-gaiden-game-was-almost-an-mp4-bundled-on-the-kiwami-3-disc-before-rgg-figured-fans-might-wanna-play-it/
Perhaps the most surprising part of Yakuza Kiwami 3's announcement had nothing to do with Yakuza Kiwami 3. It was when Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced that, in addition to an up-rezzed redo of the third Yakuza, it was going to release an entire bonus Gaiden game as well: Dark Ties, starring Y3 bad guy Yoshitaka Mine.
I've played a little Dark Ties, and it's good fun going absolutely ham on the unsuspecting punks of Kamurocho as Mine, but there was almost a world where we would never have gotten to play him at all. RGG's original plan was for the Dark Ties' story to be, uh, basically a video they bundled onto the Kiwami 3 disc.

Summer Eternal, one of the most exciting studios to come out of the Disco Elysium fallout, will announce its first game exclusively through 'the analog medium' of a vinyl record and a book of art, essays, and dev diaries
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/summer-eternal-one-of-the-most-exciting-studios-to-come-out-of-the-disco-elysium-fallout-will-announce-its-first-game-exclusively-through-the-analog-medium-of-a-vinyl-record-and-a-book-of-art-essays-and-dev-diaries/
The "announcement of an announcement" has become an aggravating marketing trend in recent years, but this is the first one to actually get me excited: Summer Eternal, the embattled RPG studio and worker collective co-founded by former ZA/UM writers Argo Tuulik and Dora Klindžić, will offer the first details of its first game not through a press release or prerendered trailer, but a book of art, essays, and dev diaries shipping next summer.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is 'building toward the most advanced and robust anti-cheat', requiring players to enable Secure Boot for the beta
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-black-ops-7-is-building-toward-the-most-advanced-and-robust-anti-cheat-starting-with-requiring-players-to-enable-secure-boot-for-the-beta/
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's beta is just days away, scheduled to kick off on October 2 for early access players (October 5 for everyone else) ahead of the game's official release on November 14. But before you get to jump in and check it out, Activision wants to make sure that you've got all your ducks in a row, and by ducks, I mean Secure Boot.

EA's new owners are leaning heavily on AI to make some money and its huge debt go away, which seems like one helluva gamble to me
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/eas-new-owners-are-leaning-heavily-on-ai-to-make-some-money-and-its-huge-debt-go-away-which-seems-like-one-helluva-gamble-to-me/
If corporate consolidation of one of the biggest entities in the video game industry by private equity, a Saudi Arabian investment fund, and a major investment firm doesn't signal a worrying future for EA, leveraging AI to further cut costs will do the trick.
The $55 billion required to buy out EA includes $20 billion worth of financing in the form of a loan from JPMorgan. Not paying back that loan could result in the closure of the gaming giant, like what happened with toy chain Toys R Us (via Los Angeles Times).
As reported by the Financial Times, the deal is reportedly betting big on AI cutting down operational cost for EA significantly. EA reportedly has not shouldered huge amounts of debt prior to now, and this could signal a change in business operations. It's not exactly stated how, but the Financial Times report claims that 'people involved in the transaction' suggest AI will boost profits for the company, which will then be used to pay that debt.
>> It’s been just 24 hours and the whole thing keeps going from bad to worse.