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

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Monday gaming news, part two:

World of Warcraft's adding player housing in December, so naturally there's an add-on to let players earn as much furniture as possible in advance
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcrafts-adding-player-housing-in-december-so-naturally-theres-an-add-on-to-let-players-earn-as-much-furniture-as-possible-in-advance/
The next World of Warcraft expansion, Midnight, will finally add player housing to the venerable MMO. It arrives December 3 and the early signs are very positive: Blizzard may well have dragged its feet over adding a feature that much of the competition already has but, as PCG's Harvey Randall points out, it's also been able to learn from two decades of others' mistakes.
Needless to say, part of this new housing system is furniture. When the housing system launches, players will earn decor relating to achievements and existing in-game content: but this will also work retroactively, so achievements earned now will count toward furniture when housing goes live. The housing system is already live on WoW's Public Test Realm for the early birds, so players know what these achievements are.
I'm sure you can see where this is going. A new add-on called Home Bound by Bettiold (available on CurseForge) essentially tells players which achievements they should be gunning for in the runup to the release of the full housing system, whereupon they'll be showered with all their hard-earned furniture.
>> On another note, Turtle Wow has asked for a fan server license to solve its legal problems with Blizzard (link).

Football Manager 26 announces partnership with FIFA, so get ready to take the mighty Scotland to glory in World Cup 26
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/football-manager-26-announces-partnership-with-fifa-so-get-ready-to-take-the-mighty-scotland-to-glory-in-world-cup-26/
A whole lot is riding on Football Manager 26 which, after the late cancellation of FM 25, has to deliver a major leap forward for the beloved management sim. The early signs are positive, with showcases of the new-look match engine, overhauled tactics, a reimagined UI and the debut of the women's game all going down well with fans.
One other reason to get excited is Sports Interactive's deal with the English Premier League, arguably the greatest club league in the world, and now it has announced another biggie: a multi-year deal with FIFA, football's world governing body, that gives FM 26 and its successors the license to multiple international competitions, most notably FIFA World Cup 26.

So, uh, why are there suddenly at least 4 sinister convenience store simulators on Steam at once?
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/so-uh-why-are-there-suddenly-at-least-4-sinister-convenience-store-simulators-on-steam-at-once/
In 2024, we witnessed the rise of the retail sim: games like Supermarket Simulator, Supermarket Together, and TCG Card Shop Simulator that lured players, streamers, and YouTubers with the unparalleled power fantasy of putting stuff on shelves. While the genre's overnight emergence was surprising, its success makes sense. There's joy to be found in mundane retail work when your real-life livelihood doesn't depend on enduring its regular horrors.
While surveying the top demos of this month's Next Fest, however, I couldn't help but notice that there's a sudden rash of upcoming games all intent on making simulated retail work worse. By my count, there are currently at least four different games in development about operating convenience stores while surviving—or in some cases, facilitating—a variety of interplanetary, unholy, and undead terrors.

Sony accuses Tencent of playing a 'shell game' with its Horizon-like survival game, seeks a preliminary injunction against it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sony-accuses-tencent-of-playing-a-shell-game-with-its-horizon-like-survival-game-seeks-a-preliminary-injunction-against-it/
When Tencent unveiled its upcoming Light of Motiram survival game in late 2024, we (and a lot of other places and people) called out its many similarities to Sony's Horizon series, and idly wondered whether it was tempting fate and SIE's legal team.
The answer came in July 2025 when Sony filed suit, shortly after which Tencent did something unusual: It purged most of the Horizon-like content from the game's Steam page, and delayed its launch target from late 2025 to late 2027—all without saying a word about why, or even acknowledging it was being done at all.
The "why" seemed obvious enough: Light of Motiram really did look an awful lot like Horizon: Zero Dawn, in some very overt ways. Despite Tencent's lack of comment, I assumed the store page changes, and the huge two-year delay, represented a fairly complete walkback and rework. But it seems that Sony isn't buying it: As reported by Games Fray, Sony has now filed for a preliminary injunction against Tencent's use of any material "copied or derived" from the Horizon games.

My new most anticipated game is about a lonely house who can roll, jump, fish and go on dates
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/my-new-most-anticipated-game-is-about-a-lonely-house-who-can-roll-jump-fish-and-go-on-dates/
Building Relationships is a game about roaming an island and meeting potential romantic partners. But that's not all: You're a building. Specifically, you're a house who eats furniture, loves fishing, and even knows how to jump. As a house, you roll around this island at sometimes ridiculous speeds, chatting with different buildings and going on dates with them.

Doom: The Dark Ages gets Steam Deck verification and a bunch of portable optimisations, just in time for the launch of Microsoft's new handheld
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/doom-the-dark-ages-gets-steam-deck-verification-and-a-bunch-of-portable-optimisations-just-in-time-for-the-launch-of-microsofts-new-handheld/
Doom: The Dark Ages is officially Steam Deck verified, which is surprising only in how long it took considering id Software's history delivering shooters that are not just visually impressive, but exceedingly well optimised. The studio has worked minor miracles with handheld ports too, most notably the Nintendo Switch version of 2020's Doom Eternal.
That said, The Dark Ages was the first Doom game to be fully and constantly ray-traced, making it a less obvious candidate for handheld gaming when it launched. While it ran well enough on most PC hardware and could even deliver reasonable framerates on a cheap gaming laptop, as Andy Edser noted in his PC performance analysis, the Steam Deck nonetheless struggled to meet its minimum requirements, and as such performance was underwhelming.
But that's all changed, apparently. Update 2.2 introduces several handheld-centric optimisations and quality-of-life features. This includes general performance improvements and advanced optimisation settings for handheld devices, as well as more performant SFX and VFX when gaming on the go.

Drive a truck filled with explosives across horrible terrain in this gnarly mix of Snowrunner and Baby Steps—inspired by one of Hollywood's most misunderstood films
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/drive-a-truck-filled-with-explosives-across-horrible-terrain-in-this-gnarly-mix-of-snowrunner-and-baby-steps-inspired-by-one-of-hollywoods-most-misunderstood-films/
Film sickos will instantly recognise the inspiration behind Nitroglyerine! which sees you drive a truck filled with volatile explosives across terrain more rugged than Glen Powell's chin. Its rough and ready demo oozes with the same the lo-fi tension of William Friedkin's Sorcerer, a nihilistic thriller that was critically panned and buried at the box office by the runaway success of Star Wars, but has been (rightly) reappraised in subsequent years.
If you haven't seen Sorcerer, I strongly recommend you check it out. But in the meantime, you can think of Nitroglycerine! as a mix of Snowrunner and Baby Steps. The playable demo skips the surprisingly long setup of Friedkin's film, planting your straight in the cabin of a snorting, grunting '70s flatbed loaded with a single crate of pure liquid concussion. You're then tasked with navigating a twisting morass of slippery, crumbling dirt tracks with nothing but a crude map and nerves of steel.
>> I haven’t seen Sorcerer, but I’ve seen the French film that came earlier.

Expect to serve up 'floor chicken casserole' in the new Two Point Museum update—a crossover with, of all things, Vampire Survivors
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/expect-to-serve-up-floor-chicken-casserole-in-the-new-two-point-museum-update-a-crossover-with-of-all-things-vampire-survivors/
I loved my time with Two Point Museum, which reviewer and PC Gamer features producer Mollie Taylor and I agree may be Two Point Studios' best game yet. I took a break from it to let the updates roll in, so imagine my puzzled delight when I returned to find the latest update for this cozy museum tycoon game is a sizable crossover with horde-pummeling powerhouse Vampire Survivors.

'Remember Beach': Arrowhead has awarded thousands of 'inexplicably dedicated' Helldivers 2 players with a commemorative 'Avengement Day' after they ignored High Command to save a planet reminiscent of Halo Reach
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/remember-beach-arrowhead-has-awarded-thousands-of-inexplicably-dedicated-helldivers-2-players-with-a-commemorative-avengement-day-after-they-ignored-high-command-to-save-a-planet-reminiscent-of-halo-reach/
Despite major orders to go and spend their lives elsewhere, an estimated 30,000 Helldivers 2 players took a liking to a planet with some oblique Halo references—Seyshel Beach—and decided to finish the fight. The socials team at Arrowhead congratulated the "small but inexplicably dedicated group of Helldivers" with, as befits a bloodthirsty star-spanning democracy, a post on X.

The sleeper hit of the Fall might be this mad lad's hyper realistic traffic management sim that uses real census data and a 'distance-based gravity model' to produce millions of NPC commuters
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/the-sleeper-hit-of-the-fall-might-be-this-mad-lads-hyper-realistic-traffic-management-sim-that-uses-real-census-data-and-a-distance-based-gravity-model-to-produce-millions-of-npc-commuters/
SimCity 4 is one of the most pleasant games I own—I can experience all the splendor of a modern metropolis with a fraction of the nuance, and for the first time in my life, feel what it's like to drive on American roads that don't piss me off. Up-and-coming "hyperrealistic" transit sim Subway Builder offers a terrifying proposition: that same satisfaction in real US cities, assuming I'm up to the challenge.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director says all that timewasting filler was good actually
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/final-fantasy-7-rebirth-director-says-all-that-timewasting-filler-was-good-actually/
Final Fantasy 7 Remake took the first eight or so hours of Final Fantasy 7 and expanded them into a 30-hour prestige RPG that, while it contained some quite skippable sidequests, added to the story in ways that made it even more impactful. The additions deepened character relationships and made you feel more attached to the setting. By contrast, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth took the original's second act and bloated it into 50+ hours of open world RPG filler.
(...)
Screenrant recently spoke to Naoki Hamaguchi, director of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, and brought up some of these complaints. "Regarding time management in certain sections," he replied, "especially in FF7 Rebirth, I honestly don't believe that they were longer than necessary. I feel like nowadays, players just have too much to do and too much to play; so they often feel the urge that something has to be concluded quickly."

Techland reveals an 11-week roadmap for Dying Light: The Beast, the gaming equivalent of a hastily-drawn sketch showing the way to the nearest post office
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/techland-reveals-an-11-week-roadmap-for-dying-light-the-beast-the-gaming-equivalent-of-a-hastily-drawn-sketch-showing-the-way-to-the-nearest-post-office/
Techland has released its post-launch roadmap for its free-running, zombie-dropkicking spinoff Dying Light: The Beast. As gaming roadmaps go, it's closer to what you'd scribble on the back of a packet of ciggies than the cartographical masterpieces produced by Ordnance Survey, with Techland's plans stretching over just 11 weeks. But this pencil-scrawl to your local newsagent nonetheless has a few landmarks worth visiting between now and the end of the year.