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

[JEMC]

Thursday gaming news, part two. Longer, but also last:

Hardcore space sim Ostranauts just joined the legendary patch notes canon: 'Corpses should no longer become hotter than the Sun and explode the ships/stations they are on'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/hardcore-space-sim-ostranauts-just-joined-the-legendary-patch-notes-canon-corpses-should-no-longer-become-hotter-than-the-sun-and-explode-the-ships-stations-they-are-on/
The games in the Kitfox publishing stable have a long history of producing beautifully absurd patch notes and bug reports thanks to the absurd intricacies of their systems and simulations. Dwarf Fortress has been responsible for classics like "Undead dwarf contracted were-chameleon curse" and "Cats dying for no reason - alcohol poisoning?" Shortly before its 1.0 release, a Caves of Qud update included this exciting feature addition: "You can voluntarily amputate your own limbs."
This week, another Kitfox game secured its place in that cherished lineage. Ostranauts, the early access hardcore space sim from developer Blue Bottle Games, just released Update v0.14.5.18, which included this magnificent line in its patch notes:

• Corpses should no longer become hotter than the Sun and explode the ships/stations they are on.

Old School RuneScape just got its first new skill ever and players are psyched about it, apart from the guy the game accidentally branded 'Morbid Loner'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/old-school-runescape-just-got-its-first-new-skill-ever-and-players-are-psyched-about-it-apart-from-the-guy-the-game-accidentally-branded-morbid-loner/
Old School RuneScape has been around for, oh, about 12 years now, and in all that time it's never gotten a new skill. Players have been working with—and making great sport of—the set of skills it inherited from the original RuneScape, which itself last got a new skill (that'd be Hunter) all the way back in 2006.
Well, welcome to a new era. Today, after much testing and debate, Jagex finally sent OSRS' first new skill ever out into the world earlier today. Sailing has landed with a—wait for it—splash, and promises to let players "Take to the high seas, traverse hazardous waters, learn new skill integrations, and finally find out what lies in the uncharted oceans of Gielinor."

After bagging a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 quest designer for The Witcher 4, CD Projekt snaps up BioShock 4's former narrative lead to work on Cyberpunk 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/after-bagging-a-kingdom-come-deliverance-2-quest-designer-for-the-witcher-4-cd-projekt-snaps-up-bioshock-4s-former-narrative-lead-to-work-on-cyberpunk-2/
CD Projekt Red is on a big recruitment push at the moment as it scales up development of its next big RPG projects. Just last week, the Polish developer nabbed one of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's lead designers to lend their quest-crafting skills to The Witcher 4. Now, it's hired the former narrative lead of Cloud Chamber Games, the developer that's currently working on BioShock 4.

This game had a 100% positive Steam review score for months, until yesterday when someone finally gave it a thumbs-down just 'to be different'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/this-game-had-a-100-percent-positive-steam-review-score-for-months-until-yesterday-when-someone-finally-gave-it-a-thumbs-down-just-to-be-different/
In 'chaotic cooking roguelike' Omelet You Cook, you prepare breakfast for picky customers as ingredients speed along a conveyor belt. It's a delightfully unhinged cooking sim that launched back in June with charming low-fi looks, a challenging cooking system, and the threat of a massive angry chicken named Principal Clucker who will fire you if you displease the customers.
Omelet You Cook launched to rave reviews from players, and over the past five months it's achieved one of the rarest of Steam milestones: 100% positive reviews. Over 500 reviews, not a single one of them negative. That is until this week, when one cook spoiled the broth with a red thumbs-down among the sea of blue approval.
The lone negative review for Omelet You Cook isn't actually negative, though. "Game is amazing," writes the reviewer. "I just like to be different."
>> What a jerk.

A year after Gearbox released Risk of Rain 2 DLC so broken the developer admitted it put the game 'in a really bad place,' it's finally got a win: the new DLC's 96% positive reviews have blasted it up Steam's top sellers chart
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/a-year-after-gearbox-released-risk-of-rain-2-dlc-so-broken-the-developer-admitted-it-put-the-game-in-a-really-bad-place-its-finally-got-a-win-the-new-dlcs-96-percent-positive-reviews-have-blasted-it-up-steams-top-sellers-chart/
Risk of Rain 2: Alloyed Collective, a new DLC for the ultimate numbers-go-up roguelike, launched on Steam yesterday to something new for Gearbox since it took over the game: Player acclaim.
After taking over development duties from original indie developer Hopoo Games last year, Gearbox stepped in it pretty hard, releasing DLC so bad that it broke the game even for players who hadn't purchased it. The fact that it cost $15 didn't help, and most players at the time were mourning Hopoo's exit and what they saw as a naked attempt to cash in. Things are going a bit better this time.

After Krafton denied its CEO consulted with ChatGPT on the Subnautica 2 mess, Krafton CEO says he consulted with ChatGPT on the Subnautica 2 mess
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/after-krafton-denied-its-ceo-consulted-with-chatgpt-on-the-subnautica-2-mess-krafton-ceo-says-he-consulted-with-chatgpt-on-the-subnautica-2-mess/
The legal dispute between Krafton and the former top dogs at Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds is now at the point where the lawyers are fully in control, sifting through the sands of everything everyone's said and done over the past decade or so in search of the Ace Attorney bomb that will blow things wide open. It's something of a drag, to be honest—a lot of he said/she said—but one interestingly odd bit did emerge from the smoke. Krafton CEO Changham Kim reportedly asked ChatGPT to help him figure out how to avoid paying the Subnautica 2 earnout he'd agreed to when acquiring Unknown Worlds.
When asked yesterday whether that claim was accurate, Krafton denied it and described the allegation as a "distraction from [the former Unknown Worlds heads] own efforts to destroy evidence." Court transcripts released today reveal something of a different story, however.

'Keep dying to goose pls help': Where Winds Meet players are being chased around by demonic geese
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/keep-dying-to-goose-pls-help-where-winds-meet-players-are-being-chased-around-by-demonic-geese/
There are a lot of tough bosses in the recently released wuxia MMO Where Winds Meet, but none of them can match the sheer power of the goose.
Check the subreddit or the Steam forums and you'll see threads of befuddled players with titles like "Goose??" and "please be careful around geese" and "throw every goose you see." Where Winds Meet isn't really a game about killing wildlife, but like the chickens in Zelda games, these geese pack a punch.

Marathon cinematic director Alberto Mielgo says the 8-minute reveal video was not made with AI and frankly he can't believe he even has to say that
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/marathon-cinematic-director-alberto-mielgo-says-the-8-minute-reveal-video-was-not-made-with-ai-and-frankly-he-cant-believe-he-even-has-to-say-that/
Marathon is in a flat spin right now, but half a year ago—and despite some bumpiness at Bungie—Sony had high hopes: So high that it hired Oscar-winning director Alberto Mielgo to head up the creation of an eight-minute cinematic short that lays the foundation for the game's setting and story. It's very sharp and stylish, and Mielgo wants you (as in, everyone) to know that it was not made using generative AI.

Stardew Valley has left Miraland for a new collab, and it looks a little sus
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/stardew-valley-has-left-miraland-for-a-new-collab-and-it-looks-a-little-sus/
After its collaboration with Infinity Nikki, I thought it would be a while before Stardew Valley jumped into another random game for an elusive partnership. But, to my surprise, we've left the planet for a more galactic adventure this time around, though it won't be the farm life we're used to.
That's right, Stardew Valley has teamed up with Among Us to bring a bundle of 29 themed cosmetics for your little avatar, so you no longer have to rely on the sprout hat. This package includes things like a Krobus and Junimo Pet, a Mayor Lewis outfit, and a Linius outfit, among many others which will let you cosplay as Abigail, Sebastian, and Mr Qi. No matter how rogue your favourite character is in Stardew, it seems Among Us have tried to create an outfit for everyone in their Cosmicube.

Treyarch is opening up Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's Endgame extraction shooter to everyone after realising that most people probably won't finish the campaign
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/treyarch-is-opening-up-call-of-duty-black-ops-7s-endgame-extraction-shooter-to-everyone-after-realising-that-most-people-probably-wont-finish-the-campaign/
Treyarch has taken some big swings with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 this year, and while not all of them have landed (what the hell is that giant dude doing in the campaign?), one has done a better job than the rest: the extraction shooter-style Endgame mode.
After finishing the campaign, players get access to a new mode, Endgame, where they can complete objectives, gain experience and loot and then exfil at designated points. The addition of extraction to the usual COD multiplayer blueprint is certainly interesting, but the only problem was that unless you complete the campaign or have a friend who has, you couldn't check it out.
That was until Treyarch made the recent change of opening Endgame up to everyone, no matter if they'd finished the campaign or not. "We've seen an awesome response to Endgame from players who've already been dropping in, so we're making it available to everyone in Black Ops 7 starting Friday, November 21," Treyarch says in an official social media post.

Arc Raiders' latest update rightfully nerfs the Venator, buffs the drop rates of Aphelion blueprints, and brings crucial overhauls to your rubber duck showcase
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-patch-notes-1-3/
Until now, most Arc Raiders patch notes have been little more than bug fixes and a few crafting balance changes. Welcome tweaks, of course, but no real swings at specific weapons and items.
And that's not completely unwarranted, as I'd say most guns are pretty well-balanced right now. But while everyone's been singing the praises of the Anvil as a weapon that shoots far above its weight, the Venator has been the sleeper pick all along for PvP. Firing two shots at once, this rare pistol was capable of dropping other players blazingly fast. It was only a matter of time until the reaper came knocking, and that day is today with the 1.3.0 patch notes.
>> Embark Studios have also shared some stats of the game (link).

NCSoft launches MMO with terrible monetisation—puts out emergency broadcast 15 hours later, promising to fix it while its wax wings melt: 'We were complacent and unthoughtful'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/ncsoft-launches-mmo-with-terrible-monetisation-puts-out-emergency-broadcast-15-hours-later-promising-to-fix-it-while-its-wax-wings-melt-we-were-complacent-and-unthoughtful/
I've seen some monetisation-related disasters in my time, but I think this one might be up there with the worst—NCSoft's Aion 2, which launched in Korea and Taiwan November 18, has caused no end of problems for the company immediately after launch. Including, potentially, causing its stock price to tank a whopping 15%.