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

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Tuesday gaming news, the only sequel:

Dispatch being 'basically a live-service game for a month' did gangbusters, but leads say don't expect to copy it and get the same result
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/dispatch-being-basically-a-live-service-game-for-a-month-did-gangbusters-but-leads-say-dont-expect-to-copy-it-and-get-the-same-result/
It feels like everyone I know's gone batty for Dispatch, AdHoc's superhero management sim that picks up Telltale's choose-your-own-adventure torch and runs with it to, so I hear, great success.
A particular triumph? Its episodic release structure, which even won over our Fraser Brown—noted episode-sceptic—quite quickly. Indeed, the game's executive producer Michael Choung said the format had "absolutely proven itself" two weeks ago—sustaining interest in the game over a longer period than a one-and-done release likely would have.
But Choung doesn't see the approach as some kind of magic bullet AdHoc—or any studio—can just apply to everything. "It's insane to do," he told Edge's Knowledge newsletter. "From every metric, from a production perspective, no one should do this."

The Splinter Cell remake gets a new director, and he's the same as the Splinter Cell remake's old director
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-splinter-cell-remake-gets-a-new-director-and-hes-the-same-as-the-splinter-cell-remakes-old-director/
The Splinter Cell remake Ubisoft announced in 2021 has a new director: His name is David Grivel, and if that rings a bell it might be because he was director on the project when it was first announced, but split—from the game and Ubisoft entirely—just under a year later.

Konami veterans say they had to resurrect Metal Gear because no-one's getting any younger, are they: 'Given our age… now was the time'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/konami-veterans-say-they-had-to-resurrect-metal-gear-because-no-ones-getting-any-younger-are-they-given-our-age-now-was-the-time/
The departure of Hideo Kojima from Konami saw the publisher react, initially at least, like a spurned lover. There was an ill-advised attempt to remove the creator's name from certain packaging, followed-up by the even more ill-advised spinoff Metal Gear Survive, before things went quiet and, for years and years, Konami did nothing with the company's flagship series.
(...)
Konami's staying tight-lipped about what's next, though we do know that The Master Collection Volume 2 is in development. And now Metal Gear veterans Yuji Korekado, director of Delta, and Konami stalwart and series producer Noriaki Okamura have given a new interview to Japanese outlet Real Sound (translated by GamesRadar+) about why Konami decided to bring Metal Gear back now. Well: everyone's getting older, for a start.

'We're so back': After withdrawing from The Game Awards in November, Megabonk is back in the fight in the Players' Voice category
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/were-so-back-after-withdrawing-from-the-game-awards-in-november-megabonk-is-back-in-the-fight-in-the-players-voice-category/
Two weeks after Megabonk developer Vedinad withdrew the game from contention in the Best Debut Indie category at The Game Awards, it's back in the fight—not as a debut (or indie) game, but in the fan-voted Players' Voice category.

Runescape: Dragonwilds rolls out its farming update next week, and I can't wait to use it as another excuse to not complete the main quests
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/runescape-dragonwilds-rolls-out-its-farming-update-next-week-and-i-cant-wait-to-use-it-as-another-excuse-to-not-complete-the-main-quests/
When I first played Runescape: Dragonwilds during April's launch, it didn't take long for me to immediately disregard all of the quests to spend hours upon hours crafting the perfect house. Don't get me wrong, I made good progress through my to-do list eventually, but I certainly enjoy spending more time than necessary on the game's less central activities. Luckily, the anticipated farming update is set to launch on December 15, which I'm sure is only going to make my quest procrastination worse.

My idle vending-machine sim obsession has dropped a big new update, so don't expect me to get any work done while I fixate on Oolong Tea
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/my-idle-vending-machine-sim-obsession-has-dropped-a-big-new-update-so-dont-expect-me-to-get-any-work-done-while-i-fixate-on-oolong-tea/
Vending Dokan!: Kozy Kiosk consumed a lot of my summer after it was released in June. I underestimated just how satisfying watching little avatars interact with my machines to buy drinks on their commute to work would be, let alone how pleasing it was to restock and clean my machines every now and then. But, after sinking hours of my life into my empire, I can't lie—the machines and their stock started to get a little repetitive.
It's almost like Vending Dokan sensed this, as a brand new update has added a plethora of new machines for me to fill back alleys with. And, to make things even more exciting, these machines aren't just all about drinks anymore either. As shared in an announcement posted to Steam, a "companion machine" type has been added to the game. What this means is these machines don't require stock, but instead increase customer satisfaction just by having them around. They are also great ways to make passive income without having to stop what you're doing and restock.

Embark has confirmed that Expedition bonuses in Arc Raiders are permanent, but that does little to clear up the confusion
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/embark-has-confirmed-that-expedition-bonuses-in-arc-raiders-are-permanent-but-that-does-little-to-clear-up-the-confusion/
The decision to embark on the Expedition and effectively wipe your account is one of the most important and divisive choices in Arc Raiders. Since launch, you've had to dedicate hundreds of thousands of coins' worth of resources to building and supplying your caravan, with only a vague idea of what awaits you on the other side.
Hell, all we really know is that you'll get an XP boost, enhanced Scrappy, an unknown amount of additional stash space, and bonus skill points based on the value of the items in your stash on the departure date (December 21). Don't ask me for specifics because, well, we don't have them. Only Embark does, and it's not telling.
The only solace I can give you is that, in an update by community manager Lily on the Arc Raiders Discord server last week, it was confirmed that the "skill point and stash space bonuses are permanent". Additionally, they're based on your stash value and how much money you've got in your wallet at the time of departure.

Helldivers 2 cuts its install size from '~154GB to ~23GB' in a beta you can opt into now, defeating liberty-hating storage reqs with 'no functional differences' between versions
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/helldivers-2-cuts-its-install-size-from-154gb-to-23gb-in-a-beta-you-can-opt-into-now-defeating-liberty-hating-storage-reqs-with-no-functional-differences-between-versions/
Our hard drives get bigger, but so do the games. In 2025, we are beset by filesizes run amok. Time was, I'd consider a 30 GB game to be an unfathomable imposition on my C drive. How young and naive I was—as we speak, multiple games north of 100, even 200 GB are manspreading across my disks.
But that number just decreased by one. In an update on Steam, Arrowhead announced that it has performed some manner of warlockery and reduced the footprint of Helldivers 2 by 85%. "By completely de-duplicating our data, we were able to reduce the PC installation size from ~154GB to ~23GB, for a total saving of ~131GB (~85%)."