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[JEMC]

***sigh*** And here’s the now usual part three:

Effulgence RPG is a game made entirely of ASCII art where you convert your enemies' raw parts into new weapons, and if that doesn't convince you to give its demo a look I don't know what will
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/effulgence-rpg-is-a-game-made-entirely-of-ascii-art-where-you-convert-your-enemies-raw-parts-into-new-weapons-and-if-that-doesnt-convince-you-to-give-its-demo-a-look-i-dont-know-what-will/
You know what I worry about? I worry about the lost artforms of the early internet. Time was, every game guide out there would come prefaced with some lustrous bit of ASCII art—an unfathomably complex picture made up solely of characters on your keyboard. Now it's gone the way of ancient basket-weaving and the spinning jenny.
(...)
Anyway, I was glad to see—amid the latest glut of Steam Next Fest demos—one game keeping the old ways alive. Effulgence RPG is a rather striking turn-based, um, RPG that pits you and your party against gauntlet after gauntlet of monsters. Also, you and the monsters and the world and everything are composed entirely of ASCII characters.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is sitting at Mixed reviews on Steam: 'It's not a Bloodlines game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-is-sitting-at-mixed-reviews-on-steam-its-not-a-bloodlines-game/
A decade after Bloodlines 2 was pitched to then-new Vampire: The Masquerade owner Paradox Interactive, we're finally able to sink our fangs into the undead sequel. Unfortunately absence has not made the heart grow fonder, and it's currently sitting at Mixed reviews on Steam.
The consensus among the user reviews, even the positive ones, is that Bloodlines 2 doesn't really earn the name, and that it has a surprising dearth of RPG systems for something that calls itself an RPG.
>> Others may complain about the performance, which is what you’d expect from a UE5 game: “Stuttering Like Starved Bloodsuckers” says a WccfTech article (link).

A publisher nobody's heard of has 'unintentionally' re-released 2006's Scarface: The World Is Yours early, and I'm not so sure 'bout this one, boss
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/a-publisher-nobodys-heard-of-has-unintentionally-re-released-2006s-scarface-the-world-is-yours-early-and-im-not-so-sure-bout-this-one-boss/
The year is 2025, and there's no better indication that we live in an increasingly meaningless and absurdist hellscape than the fact I read the news "They're re-releasing a 2006 videogame based on a 1984 movie, but with upscaled graphics, but also they might have just bundled mods into it without anyone's permission" and thought anything other than "Sure, why not, pile it on".
In fairness, Scarface: The World is Yours achieved some solid commercial and critical success—it was developed by Radical Entertainment, the auteurs behind The Simpsons: Hit & Run three years prior and, later on, the Prototype games. There were even plans for a sequel, though that got canned in 2009.
EC Digital, a publisher I could find nothing about (more on that in a moment), accidentally pushed the game to the Epic Store early. This is confirmed by its Steam page, where you can find a news post that reads:
"Due to a technical issue during backend configuration, the game was unintentionally pushed live on a different platform earlier than planned. We want to clarify that our intended long-term release platform includes Steam, and we're now accelerating our efforts to finalize this version."

Ninja Gaiden 4 reduces DLSS to a mere on/off toggle with no built-in options to tweak it, which is a new one on me
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/ninja-gaiden-4-reduces-dlss-to-a-mere-on-off-toggle-with-no-built-in-options-to-tweak-it-which-is-a-new-one-on-me/
One of the best things about DLSS, or any upscaling tech for that matter, is the ability to adjust it to your preference. The image quality difference between Performance and Quality can often be dramatic, as it substantially changes the resolution of the game running underneath. The more pixels for the upscaler to work with, the better the graphical quality overall, for the most part. But if you want more performance on less-powerful, yet still-supported hardware? Simply back it down towards a lower setting.
Which is why it's pretty astonishing that Ninja Gaiden 4, the latest entry in the long-running series, has reduced it to a simple enabled/disabled option. As spotted by X user @Sebasti66855537, a thread on the Steam discussion page highlights the issue—and has received a disappointing response from the developer.
"At this time, DLSS options aren’t adjustable directly from the in-game graphics menu. To tweak DLSS modes (e.g. Performance/Quality), please open the NVIDIA App/GeForce Experience and adjust the DLSS settings there" say the devs.

Blizzard tackles World of Warcraft Legion Remix's tank infestation by doubling healer and DPS health, with a little defensive buff on the side
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/blizzard-tackles-world-of-warcraft-legion-remixs-oops-all-tanks-woes-by-doubling-healer-and-dps-health-with-a-little-defensive-buff-on-the-side/
World of Warcraft Legion Remix—the second in Blizzard's limited-time experiments with old expansions—is trying to fix its oops! All tanks issue by throwing an absurd amount of HP at healers and DPS. And a hefty defensive buff on the side, as a treat.

Former Riot exec and WoW vet side-eyes the 'gigantic investments' and flubs of major studios as his MMO scrambles for funding: 'Please indulge me in feeling salty for a moment'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-development/former-riot-exec-and-wow-vet-side-eyes-the-gigantic-investments-and-flubs-of-major-studios-as-his-mmo-scrambles-for-funding-please-indulge-me-in-feeling-salty-for-a-moment/
Things are dire in the game industry at the moment. Which is, unfortunately, a sentence I've been writing for a lot of moments—two years of moments, actually. I am now writing it again, wincing in sympathy, as former Riot executive Greg Street has taken to LinkedIn to have an (understandable) moan about his studio's lot.
For context, Street worked on World of Warcraft (you might know him as Ghostcrawler) as well as Riot's still-fermenting League of Legends MMO, before heading out to form his own company in 2023. Fantastic Pixel Castle has been working on Project Ghost for a minute, before having the funding rug pulled out by NetEase earlier this month.

'Pacifist Battlefield completed': A Battlefield 6 player has already managed to hit a 1 million score with just 8 kills and 5,077 revives
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/pacifist-battlefield-completed-a-battlefield-6-player-has-already-managed-to-hit-a-1-million-score-with-just-8-kills-and-5-077-revives/
One of the best parts of Battlefield 6 is that you can pretty much play however you want. You don't have to go in guns blazing all the time, you can focus on fixing vehicles, jetting through the sky, and oftentimes patching up allies.
The Support class has always been my go-to in Battlefield games and now it seems like the same goes for tons of other players as well. Supports in Battlefield 6 can fully revive teammates with a charged defib hit and can also dish out regular ammo refills, making them the most self-efficient and reliable class to play.
Over the last few weeks we've seen plenty of medics jump into the line of fire to save comrades in arms, but one has managed to stand head and shoulders above the rest. ThatFriendlyGuyTTV shared the impressive news of reaching 1,000,000 score with just eight kills, a 0.006 K/D, and a mighty 5,077 revives: "Pacifist Battlefield completed."