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

[JEMC]

Tuesday gaming news, the second part:

Exclusive: Monster Train 2: Echoes From the Void first details
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/monster-train-2-echoes-from-the-void-interview/
Monster Train 2 continues to chug along as one of 2025's best games, a highly-replayable deckbuilder with an ingenious clan combination system. After adding 15 new cards in September's The Lost Arsenal update, the game continues to deliver on its promised roadmap. The second payload of post-launch content is called Echoes From the Void, and it will be arriving November 5.
I spoke with Shiny Shoe game designer Colin Krausnick about the two new bosses arriving in the update, what new artifacts are on the way, and how these new threats will complicate existing strategies.
>> While they’ve posted it in the news section, inside the article you’ll find the interview.

Fellowship just solved a UI problem that's plagued MMOs like WoW for literal years
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/fellowship-just-solved-a-ui-problem-thats-plagued-mmos-like-wow-for-literal-years/
I've been enjoying Fellowship more than I expected over the weekend—at first, I thought "WoW's Mythic+ without the MMO" would be a glorified daycare for World of Warcraft players who are too old to keep up with newfangled grinds. And I was right (partially because I'm one of them), but also, it's just a really clever little game.

Our most anticipated 13th-century Mongolian horse game had such a popular Next Fest demo the developers have decided to delay it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/our-most-anticipated-13th-century-mongolian-horse-game-had-such-a-popular-next-fest-demo-the-developers-have-decided-to-delay-it/
The Legend of Khiimori, which according to our very own Joshua Wolens is basically Death Stranding but you get to ride a 13th-century Mongolian horse instead of Norman Reedus, was meant to launch into early access in a couple weeks following a triumphant showing in the recently-concluded Steam Next Fest. I'm sorry to say that's not going to happen: The Next Fest demo went so well that the development team has decided to give it a few more months in the oven.
>> A victim of its own success.

Dead Cells studio opted to make a new game despite 'super strong' pressure for a sequel because 'we are driven by what we want to make'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/dead-cells-studio-opted-to-make-a-new-game-despite-super-strong-pressure-for-a-sequel-because-we-are-driven-by-what-we-want-to-make/
Dead Cells, released in 2018, is one of the best roguelikes ever—"a stellar action platformer with gorgeous presentation and excellent combat," we said in our 90% review, a reputation that only grew over seven years of further development, 35 updates, and a whole spin-off studio. You might think that Dead Cells 2 would inevitably follow, but no: Developer Motion Twin instead opted to go for an entirely new game called Windblown.
The reason, co-creative director and game designer Yannick Berthier recently told PCGamesN, is simple: Motion Twin is a nine-person team, nearly all of them are partners in the studio, and they aren't beholden to anyone else. "We are driven by what we want to make," Berthier said.

Battlefield 6 players are ragging on its 'useless' smoke mortar and its pitiful little plumes: 'I've seen 13 year olds rip vape clouds bigger than this outside of Target'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-6-players-are-ragging-on-its-useless-smoke-mortar-and-its-pitiful-little-plumes-ive-seen-13-year-olds-rip-vape-clouds-bigger-than-this-outside-of-target/
Now that Battlefield Studios has eased the pace of multiplayer unlock progression, more Battlefield 6 players are unlocking and experimenting with its cornucopia of combat gadgets. From New Sobek City to Liberation Peak, fighters are fielding ever-increasing numbers of deploy beacons, thermal grenade launchers, C4 charges, and slam mines.
You'll find very few who'll be willing to use the portable mortar's smoke shells, however, and that's because they're bad.
>> And, in case you haven’t heard about it already, here’s a tweak to make aiming with your mouse more precise (link).

Former God of War exec says the blockbuster games industry needs to steer away from spectacle and focus on what matters: 'if it's not fun, it's not worth the investment'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/god-of-war-producer-says-the-blockbuster-games-industry-needs-to-steer-away-from-spectacle-and-focus-on-what-matters-if-its-not-fun-its-not-worth-the-investment/
It's no secret that Western games development is in the doldrums: the industry has laid off over 45,000 jobs since the COVID bubble burst in 2022, and publishers and studios are scrambling for ways to adapt to rising costs and shifting player priorities. Meanwhile, viral hits from smaller teams—ranging from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 through to Peak—make those billion-dollar companies look old hat, almost like dinosaurs (though it's also true that neither were made by a company whose CEO makes more than $29,000,000 in a year).
But will the major Western publishers—the likes of EA, Activision and Ubisoft—shift towards making games on a smaller scale, with lower costs and more modest production? According to Meghan Morgan Juinio, former Santa Monica Studios director of product development, the answer is obvious.

The best modern platformer I've played is getting a huge 10-year anniversary update, and the devs reckon there's 'no way anyone 100%s it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/the-best-modern-platformer-ive-played-is-getting-a-huge-10-year-anniversary-update-and-the-devs-reckon-theres-no-way-anyone-100-percent-s-it/
N++ released as a PS4 exclusive in 2015 before hitting PC a year later. It's a platformer focused on fluid, momentum-based motion through stylish one-screen levels, and I can't recommend it enough: nothing else feels like this game. In my 92/100 review I practiced no restraint at all. "In some ways N++ feels like the end of the action platformer," I wrote, "like an exhaustive final document, a catalogue of its emotional highs and lows."
I stand by those words mostly because, ten years later, I still play N++ occasionally. There's nothing else that scratches the same itch. And with over 4,000 levels—not including user-made levels—It's so big that I doubt I'll ever finish it. But that doesn't mean I'm not excited for Ten++, which is a sizeable new update adding even more levels I doubt I'll ever finish.

Congratulations to Victoria 3 players on causing 860,000,000,000,000,000 deaths by famine in a single year, enough to depopulate Earth 107,000,000 times
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/congratulations-to-victoria-3-players-on-causing-860-000-000-000-000-000-deaths-by-famine-in-a-single-year-enough-to-depopulate-earth-107-000-000-times/
Every great leader knows it: you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Sometimes you have to do bad things in order to achieve good things. Sometimes you have to spill a little blood. Sometimes you have to, let's see here, kill 806 quadrillion people via famine in the space of a single year. Well okay then!
This and other vital lessons come courtesy of Victoria 3, which is celebrating its third birthday with a few statistics, as has become fashionable. Turns out players are either incredibly bad farmers or incredibly efficient murderers, because in the last 12 months they've starved enough people to death to denude real-life Earth of humans 107 million times over.
>> I’m not sure congratulations is the best choice here. I’d have gone with WTF?