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:

New Borderlands 4 patch stumbles by making the nerfed crit knife an actual DPS loss on some builds, plus a Halloween event that's 'like getting a dead rat in a box for Christmas'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/new-borderlands-4-patch-stumbles-by-making-the-nerfed-crit-knife-an-actual-dps-loss-on-some-builds-plus-a-halloween-event-thats-like-getting-a-dead-rat-in-a-box-for-christmas/
Borderlands 4 dropped a pretty hefty patch today, and before I tell you how Gearbox has screwed the pooch, I do want to be fair and at least highlight the positives while I roll my sleeves up:
(...)
These are all genuinely solid quality-of-life improvements, and I'm glad they're in the game; at least two of those made my laundry list of complaints in my Borderlands 4 review, and it's nice to see a game I otherwise really liked striking them out. Alas, we've also got to talk about the bad, because boy howdy is there some bad.
(...)
As the patch notes read, Gearbox has "Reduced critical chance on Jakobs crit knife to 30%. Dev Note: It had to happen, you knew it was going to happen!" What players didn't know was that the knife would become an active DPS loss for some builds. Per Borderlands YouTuber Moxsy on X, who has done some testing, "The new crit knife sets your crit chance to a target at 30%, it DOES NOT ADD 30% Crit Chance."
>> And it turns out that the Horny Shield wasn’t supposed to be so horny (link).

Tech investor declares 'AI games are going to be amazing,' posts an AI-generated 'demo' of a god-awful shooter as proof
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/tech-investor-declares-ai-games-are-going-to-be-amazing-posts-an-ai-generated-demo-of-a-god-awful-shooter-as-proof/
On an almost daily basis, a terminally tech-brained individual insists that AI will determine the future of human creativity if we simply believe hard enough. Today, that soothsayer is Matt Shumer, an investor who offered a demonstration of his vision for AI's videogame development potential—and was quickly blasted for it, because the vision sucks to look at.

Amidst allegations of AI art and complaints about the music, Plants vs. Zombies fans are not happy with the remaster
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/amidst-allegations-of-ai-art-and-complaints-about-the-music-plants-vs-zombies-fans-are-not-happy-with-the-remaster/
The Plants vs. Zombies remaster arrived earlier this week, and PC Gamer's resident green thumb warrior Chris Livingston was quite taken by it, predicting that he's likely to sink another hundred hours or so into it on his Steam Deck. The reception is much less warm on Steam, though, where fewer than half of the current user reviews are positive.
Complaints about Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted are many and varied. Three leap out as particularly common—the lack of dynamic music (which the original game had), no online multiplayer, and allegations (unsubstantiated, as far as I know) of AI-generated or upscaled art assets—and as usual, words like "lazy" and "cash grab" abound. More generally (and thoughtfully), though, there's just a broad sense of dissatisfaction with the remaster's attention to detail.

Electronic Arts signs a deal with Stability AI: 'We’re evolving how we work so that AI becomes a trusted ally'
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/electronic-arts-signs-a-deal-with-stability-ai-were-evolving-how-we-work-so-that-ai-becomes-a-trusted-ally/
Electronic Arts has signed a deal with Stability AI, the company behind the Stable Diffusion generative AI image maker, to—deep breath—"co-develop transformative AI models, tools, and workflows that empower our artists, designers, and developers to reimagine how content is built."

As The Sims content creators depart over EA's $55 billion Saudi-backed buyout, the dev team promises the game 'will always be a space where you can express your authentic self'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/as-the-sims-content-creators-depart-over-eas-usd55-billion-saudi-backed-buyout-the-dev-team-promises-the-game-will-always-be-a-space-where-you-can-express-your-authentic-self/
The Sims development team has posted a message on X reassuring fans that its "mission, values, and commitment remain the same," and that "The Sims will always be a space where you can express your authentic self." The message comes one day after three of The Sims 4's biggest content creators removed themselves from EA's creator network over the company's looming acquisition by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and private equity firms, a move that was subsequently followed by numerous others, including Vixella and Syd Mac.

Don't expect Vermintide 3 any time soon, as Fatshark plans to keep supporting the existing game: 'Vermintide will keep on going'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/dont-expect-vermintide-3-any-time-soon-as-fatshark-plans-to-keep-supporting-the-existing-game-vermintide-will-keep-on-going/
"We had a guy in Korea that broke Vermintide 1 because he had played it so much he hit, in the background, level 999 or something like that," says Victor Magnuson, currently design director of Darktide. "He just got stuck because it couldn't go above that number. We had to patch the game to allow him to play more, because the number just couldn't go up. Then we started counting, like, he must have played almost every waking hour since the game launched to be able to hit that number."
So yeah, Vermintide and its 2018 sequel have some devoted players, happy to rinse the games in perpetuity as they work their way up the difficulty levels and run maps over and over until they perfect them. In good news for those hardcore 'Tide heads, Fatshark plans to continue support for Vermintide 2, which has already grown so much it barely resembles the game we reviewed seven years ago.
>> And the devs weren’t aware of the sub-genre they were getting into while developing the first Vermintide (link).

Darktide's narrative will be expanded as part of future updates: 'We are definitely going to be adding to the story of the game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/darktides-narrative-will-be-expanded-as-part-of-future-updates-we-are-definitely-going-to-be-adding-to-the-story-of-the-game/
When Darktide's Arbites Class DLC arrived, it came alongside a free update called The Battle for Tertium, which added a campaign mode at long last. Rather than the story coming to a halt once the prologue ended, players had the option to be guided through missions with bespoke voiceover, cutscenes, even unique enemy spawns to make it feel like you weren't just grinding maps for gear over and over. We won't find out what Darktide's second class DLC will be until it's revealed on November 11, but Fatshark did confirm the game's story will continue to be expanded.

The Outer Worlds 2 has a helmet that makes it look like an arcade game, including an 'insert coins to continue' option
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/outer-worlds-2-new-point-of-view-mk2/
Now, let me tell you, The Outer Worlds 2 has some strange gear. After exploring Arcadia's many moons and space stations, visiting its various merchants and completing quests, I've found some weird ass weapons and armor, including, but not limited to:

1. A gun that fires corrosive tumors you can then eat for health.
2. A hammer with a slot machine built into it that randomly rewards you jackpots.
3. A cowboy hat that boosts damage by 99% if you wait six seconds without shooting anyone in combat.

It's a great thing, quite frankly, that The Outer Worlds 2 is leaning so heavily into the absurdity of its setting, trying to provide the kind of weird and wacky build options you'd see in Borderlands 4. Still, the strangest helmet I've come across in my travels through outer space is by far A New Point of View Mk 2.
>> There is a video showing its effects. You may also want to check this article about a rainbow sword that turns combat into a rhythm game (link).

Somehow, Heroes of Newerth returned: One of the first standalone MOBAs is back, but fans are mixed on its new look and bizarre launcher
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/somehow-heroes-of-newerth-returned-one-of-the-first-standalone-mobas-is-back-but-fans-are-mixed-on-its-new-look-and-bizarre-launcher/
The progenitor MOBAs—RTS mods like Aeon of Strife and Defense of the Ancients—had something sensational on their hands, but it took awhile for the whole thing to catch on. In 2010, before League of Legends and Dota 2 had become the esports institutions they are now, there was Heroes of Newerth. Before it shut down in 2022, it was a relic of a time when MOBAs hadn't really proved their staying power yet; and now, somehow, it's back.

It's Helldivers 2's Liberty Day, so break out your shovels and play Arrowhead's patriotic new Whack-a-Terminid browser game before it's gone
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/its-helldivers-2s-liberty-day-so-break-out-your-shovels-and-play-arrowheads-patriotic-new-whack-a-terminid-browser-game-before-its-gone/
It's Oct. 26—the day Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came out, and also Helldivers 2's in-universe holiday Liberty Day, celebrating all the times we spent together splattering the stars with blood and burying any dissent beneath busted-up robot parts.
It's enough to make a man shed a tear into his liber-tea, and if you can get away from your major orders long enough for a fun little distraction, Arrowhead's celebrating the occasion with a browser game called Whack-a-Terminid.