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JEMC on 07 November 2025
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Friday gaming news, part two:

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser wanted to kill Niko Bellic at the end of GTA 4, and only stayed his hand because the studio was 'Full of fear' and the game didn't quite work with it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/rockstar-co-founder-dan-houser-wanted-to-kill-niko-bellic-at-the-end-of-gta-4-and-only-stayed-his-hand-because-the-studio-was-full-of-fear-and-the-game-didnt-quite-work-with-it/
Red Dead Redemption's ending—which, heads up, I am gonna spoil here—is famous for a reason. Gamers are a cosseted bunch, and it was (heck, it continues to be) very rare that an open world didn't stick you right back in the protagonist's boots after credits rolled, so you could go mop up whatever side quests and activities you hadn't done yet.
(...)
Turns out, though, that Rockstar would have liked to subject you to that emotional trauma even earlier. In a chat with Lex Fridman, Rockstar co-founder (who has since departed the company) Dan Houser said that he would've really liked to break your heart in GTA 4. "I would like to have, at the end of GTA 4, killed Niko," said Houser, with what I can only describe as a bit too much relish.

'I briefly burst into tears': After 11 years of work, the dev of this fantasy sim is 'elated and grateful' to reach Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam only 3 days after launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/i-briefly-burst-into-tears-after-11-years-of-work-the-dev-of-this-fantasy-sim-is-elated-and-grateful-to-reach-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-only-3-days-after-launch/
Fantasy management sim Tavern Keeper has only been out on Steam for three days but it goes back a ways—quite a long ways. Developer Greenheart Games, maker of 2013's Game Dev Tycoon, has been working on its pub sim for more than a decade.
Looks like all that hard work has finally paid off: Tavern Keeper launched into early access on November 3 and has already clambered over one impressive milestone: an "Overwhelmingly Positive" review score on Steam. All those votes of approval from players haven't gone unnoticed by the team who have been pouring their efforts into the game for the past 11 years.

NetEase closes a fifth Western studio: Just two years after it was founded, Bad Brain Game Studios will shut down for good next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/netease-closes-a-fifth-western-studio-just-two-years-after-it-was-founded-bad-brain-game-studios-will-shut-down-for-good-next-week/
Just three days after Greg Street confirmed that Fantastic Pixel Castle is closing due to the loss of NetEase funding, yet another NetEase-backed studio says it's suffered the same fate. Bad Brain Game Studios, founded in 2023 and headed up by former Ubisoft Toronto lead producer Sean Crooks, announced today that it will close its doors on November 17—the same day as Fantastic Pixel Castle—after being unable to find a new source of funding.

Things are so bad for Payday 3 at this point, even Crime Boss: Rockay City is making fun of it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/things-are-so-bad-for-payday-3-at-this-point-even-crime-boss-rockay-city-is-making-fun-of-it/
Starbreeze recently handed Payday 2 off to a new studio, Sidetrack Games, so it can focus its efforts on salvaging the mess that is Payday 3. Whether Payday 3 can be saved is a wide open question, but as a new trailer for an entirely different game makes painfully clear, it sure doesn't look good right now.
The trailer in question is for update 18 of Crime Boss: Rockay City, and we might as well get this out of the way first: Yes, Crime Boss: Rockay City has had 18 updates since it launched in June 2024, yes it's still running, and yes, people are still playing it—not many people, no, but some. (More on this later.)

Square Enix aims to have AI doing 70% of its QA work by the end of 2027, which seems like it'd be hard to achieve without laying off most of your QA workers
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/square-enix-aims-to-have-ai-doing-70-percent-of-its-qa-work-by-the-end-of-2027-which-seems-like-itd-be-hard-to-achieve-without-laying-off-most-of-your-qa-workers/
With the release of its latest quarterly financial results, Square Enix published a progress report on its "Square Enix Reboots and Awakens" medium-term business plan. Initiated last year, the three-year plan aims to overhaul the company's game development and publishing strategy.
(...)
According to the report, Square Enix's goal for the joint research team, which incorporates both UTokyo researchers and Square Enix engineers, is to "automate 70% of QA and debugging tasks in game development by the end of 2027" by using generative AI to "improve the efficiency of QA operations."

It took a staggering 28 days, but DICE has finally disabled the bugged lock-on missile that broke Battlefield 6
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/it-took-a-staggering-28-days-but-dice-has-finally-disabled-the-bugged-lock-on-missile-that-broke-battlefield-6/
Beep-beep-beep-BOOM. One of the most disruptive bugs in Battlefield 6 has finally been addressed. DICE has temporarily disabled the lock-guided missile in the IFV tank, bypassing a bug that causes countermeasures not to work against the attack. Hear that? That's the sound of thousands of helicopter and jet pilots collectively sighing.
The bug itself has yet to be fixed, but DICE lead producer David Sirland has said that it will be in a patch next week.

Despite another big delay, Devolver is still hell-bent on releasing a game on the same day as Grand Theft Auto 6: 'you can't escape us'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/despite-another-big-delay-devolver-is-still-hell-bent-on-releasing-a-game-on-the-same-day-as-grand-theft-auto-6-you-cant-escape-us/
GTA 6 delay news usually follows the same beats. The initial reaction is annoyance, and from some quarters, even dismay. Then comes the wave of contemplation regarding what the delay could mean for the industry as a whole (usually bad stuff). In our case, there's always a moment taken to mourn that every GTA 6 delay pushes its still-unconfirmed PC release date out even further. Then, usually towards the end—but sometimes right in the middle—Devolver Digital pipes up with its own delay.
Since the announcement of GTA 6's initial release date, Devolver—the publisher of Cult of the Lamb, Baby Steps, and Ball x Pit—has been threatening to release a game on the same day as GTA 6. With every new delay, Devolver delays too. "You can't escape us," the publisher reiterated today, just as it did back in May.

Don't sleep on the new solarpunk colony sim from devs behind Firewatch, Mini Motorways, Gone Home and more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/dont-sleep-on-the-new-solarpunk-colony-sim-from-devs-behind-firewatch-mini-motorways-gone-home-and-more/
Back in September, more than a few indie developers pushed back their release dates by a few weeks or months to get out of the way of the arrival of Hollow Knight: Silksong, which they feared would suck up all of gamingdom's attention. And maybe that was the right call, but one side effect has been an almost comically packed release schedule on Steam through October and straight into this first week of November.
Case in point: on Tuesday colony builder Generation Exile dropped on Steam to a total of three user reviews, despite a seasoned indie team behind it. Studio founder Nels Anderson was previously the lead designer of masterful stealth game Mark of the Ninja before co-founding Campo Santo to make Firewatch. Generation Exile's team also includes Karla Zimonja, designer on Gone Home and Tacoma, and Niamh Fitzgerald, lead designer of hit traffic sim Mini Motorways. Oh, and a soundtrack from FTL and Into the Breach composer Ben Prunty!?
>> Here’s the link to its Steam page.

Creative Assembly has revealed unique mechanics for the armies in Total War: Warhammer 3's Tides of Torment DLC, and their unit rosters too
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/creative-assembly-has-revealed-unique-mechanics-for-the-armies-in-total-war-warhammer-3s-tides-of-torment-dlc-and-their-unit-rosters-too/
Total War: Warhammer 3's long-awaited Tides of Torment DLC is finally due on December 4, and like other recent expansions it'll be available as three separate add-ons—each containing a new legendary lord and army—and as a bundle combining all three at a discount. Those three seem like they'll play quite differently, as Creative Assembly's latest blog highlights.

Arc Raiders clears up the mystery of Trials, explaining the challenges are unfortunately harder than they first appear: 'Here's the 101'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-clears-up-the-mystery-of-trials-explaining-the-challenges-are-unfortunately-harder-than-they-first-appear-heres-the-101/
I finally got to level 15 a few days ago in Arc Raiders, and my reward? Unlocking more tasks to complete. Now that's not a bad thing, I love completing little missions in exchange for trinkets, but at first glance Arc Raiders' Trials seemed easier than they turned out to be.
(...)
This is because you don't gather progress over multiple runs, you have to complete the challenge in one go. "Raider Trials have raised a few questions, so here's the 101," an official Arc Raiders social media post says. "Progress only counts per single surface raid you safely extract from, numbers don’t add up across multiple raids. For example, to complete 'Damage Hornets', you’ll need to deal 4000 damage to those pesky ARC units in one single surface scuffle."
>> Oh, and players aren’t happy with the price of the skins (link).

CD Projekt Red tells Rockstar not to make the same mistake it did—posts a self-burn over Cyberpunk 2077's historically bad launch to support GTA 6's delay
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/cd-projekt-red-tells-rockstar-not-to-make-the-same-mistake-it-did-posts-a-self-burn-over-cyberpunk-2077s-historically-bad-launch-to-support-gta-6s-delay/
It's trotted out every time a game is delayed—that apocryphal Shigeru Miyamoto aphorism that a delayed game is eventually good, but a game you rush is bad forever. Miyamoto never said it but, hell, the truth is the truth. As frustrating as it can be to have something you're looking forward to punted back, we'd all rather a game be good and late than bad and on time.
Perhaps no studio has had this lesson drilled into it (kind of; its game didn't end up being 'bad forever') like CD Projekt Red. Cyberpunk 2077 is, now, an excellent game—worthy of inclusion on our list of the top 100 games you can play right now, no less. At launch? Less so. Now, the studio has extended a little social media backing to Rockstar over yesterday's delay to Grand Theft Auto 6.

And here are the Steam weekend deals, because GOG has no new deals:

+Steam

And that’s it. Until the next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.