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

[JEMC]

Thursday gaming news, part two:

'It's kind of like a blind date': Fallout 76's creative director discusses the shaky beginnings of life in Appalachia—'I view the initial launch as really the prelude'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/its-kind-of-like-a-blind-date-fallout-76s-creative-director-discusses-the-shaky-beginnings-of-life-in-appalachia-i-view-the-initial-launch-as-really-the-prelude/
25 major updates later, Fallout 76's map has expanded its borders, added numerous storylines, and even allowed players to cut off their own noses and bask in the radioactive pools of the Wasteland. It's certainly something to marvel at now, but it hasn't always been like this.
(...)
"A big part of live services is achieved through the course of the project," Jon Rush, creative director for Fallout 76, tells Ted Litchfield during an interview. "It's becoming familiar with and accustomed to your player base or your community. I'd kind of made a joke earlier, where it's like a blind date. It's like, hi, I'm Fallout 76. Oh, hi, I'm your player base. Well, it's nice to meet you. Let's see if we can work things out.

A Red Dead Redemption 2 fan conducted an in-game census to test Rockstar's historical accuracy and found it wasn't half bad: 'It's videogame-ified in a lot of ways, but not as much you might guess'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/a-red-dead-redemption-2-fan-conducted-an-in-game-census-to-test-rockstars-historical-accuracy-and-found-it-wasnt-half-bad-its-videogame-ified-in-a-lot-of-ways-but-not-as-much-you-might-guess/
Sometimes the cost of a big, open world is lower fidelity in each environment—not so in Red Dead Redemption 2, which manages to be both meticulously constructed and impossibly huge. More than that, Red Dead is a period piece of sorts taking place from 1899 to 1907; but who's keeping score with all those fussy details, right? Would anyone notice if the specifics were flubbed here and there?
Yeah, it's the internet we're talking about, of course someone would. YouTuber Any Austin decided to conduct an ad hoc in-game census of Red Dead 2's fictional town Valentine, including "employment status, employment industry, income level, age, and overall health." He compared his findings with real census data from 1907 United States and found that, by some metrics at least, the game's batting average was "pretty amazing."

Capcom says it wants Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and Ace Attorney to be 'core IPs' like Monster Hunter and Street Fighter: '[We] recognize the need to grow our pipeline going forward'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/capcom-says-it-wants-mega-man-devil-may-cry-and-ace-attorney-to-be-core-ips-like-monster-hunter-and-street-fighter-we-recognize-the-need-to-grow-our-pipeline-going-forward/
Another year, another deluge of business slideshow presentations throwing around phrases like "brand power" and "human capital." This recent integrated report from Capcom is one to make note of, though, if you fancy yourself a fan of the venerable studio—or at least a fan of Mega Man, Devil May Cry, or Ace Attorney. (Sorry, Demon's Crest guy. You'll have your day.)
Much of the report is spent on financial talk: Capcom boasts it's "achieved 12 consecutive years of increased operating profit" and "four decades of steady growth toward our goal of making the most entertaining games in the world." Still, it's determined a "need" to broaden its output, and has identified the three series I mentioned as high value and worth leveraging with new titles.
>> Not to be a d*ck, but I’d guess that, nowadays, something like Dino Crisis would have more appeal than Mega Man, but that’s just me. Anyways, shadowii made a thread about this report.

King of Meat studio was reportedly expecting 100,000 concurrent players, but it peaked at 320 on Steam—and that was during a free weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/king-of-meat-studio-was-reportedly-expecting-100-000-concurrent-players-but-it-peaked-at-320-on-steam-and-that-was-during-a-free-weekend/
An Insider Gaming report says Glowmade Games will lay off employees in January 2026 after its debut game, the Amazon-published King of Meat, flopped badly. While the number of employees being put out of work isn't known, sources told the site that the process began earlier this month with discussions about voluntary redundancies that would impact about a dozen people.
Word of the layoffs, confirmed by multiple Glowmade employees on LinkedIn, comes just a couple months after the release of King of Meat, a "co-op party platformer" for up to four players. It's yet another ugly outcome for a game studio, but what makes this case particularly interesting is that the report claims "leadership"—whether that's at Glowmade or Amazon isn't specified—was expecting a concurrent player count for King of Meat of at least 100,000.
The actual number? On Steam, it peaked at just 320, according to SteamDB, a number it only managed to achieve thanks to a free weekend. The player count quickly tailed off after that to double-digits, and at this moment sits at just 12, enough to populate three matches.

Legendary FPS developer John Romero says his studio 'survived the cancellation of our huge game' and its shooter project 'will be new to people the way that going through Elden Ring was a really new experience'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/legendary-fps-developer-john-romero-says-his-studio-survived-the-cancellation-of-our-huge-game-and-its-shooter-project-will-be-new-to-people-the-way-that-going-through-elden-ring-was-a-really-new-experience/
In July, Romero Games, the game studio founded by industry legends Brenda and John Romero, announced in the midst of Microsoft's mass layoffs of over 9,000 employees that it had lost funding for its in-development shooter project. While the developer said days later that it was "doing everything in our power to ensure" it stayed open, the state of the studio and the fate of its shooter production remained unclear throughout the following months.
This week, during a panel at Spain's Salón del Videojuego de Madrid 2025 (via Eurogamer), John Romero confirmed that Romero Games has avoided closure and is continuing work on an overhauled shooter project. You can watch Romero discussing the status of his studio in the video embedded below.

Arrowhead founder casually mentions that a Helldivers 2 'roguelite mode' is in the prototype phase: 'It changes the game fundamentally!'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arrowhead-founder-casually-mentions-that-a-helldivers-2-roguelite-mode-is-in-the-prototype-phase-it-changes-the-game-fundamentally/
Helldivers 2 is a deep, engrossing co-op shooter with no shortage of things to do, but I wouldn't say no to additional modes that shake up its mission-based structure. According to Arrowhead founder Johan Pilestedt, such a mode is actively in the works for Helldivers 2.

The Outer Worlds is actually not being delisted from GOG after all: 'It was an unfortunate miscommunication'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-outer-worlds-and-ancestors-the-humankind-odyssey-are-being-delisted-from-gog/
If you've been waiting for a good opportunity to pick up the prehistoric survival game Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, here it is: You can get it on GOG right now for 80% off, cutting it to just $8. That's the good news—the bad news is that it, along with Obsidian's popular sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds, is being delisted on December 15. Update: What a difference two days makes. "The Outer Worlds, as well as the Spacer's Choice Edition, will NOT be delisted," GOG's king_kunat wrote in a new forum post. "While this is great news, I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused." As for what exactly happened, well, that's not clear, but you know how it is—these things happen. "It was an unfortunate miscommunication. We're all humans after all ." As for Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, it currently remains slated for delisting but GOG is working on turning that one around too. It's also still on sale for $8, until January 3, 2026.

Arc Raiders' latest mini update fixes a bunch of ratty exploits, including the zipline that set players free in Stella Montis, as Embark announces it's stepping back from weekly fixes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-latest-mini-update-fixes-a-bunch-of-ratty-exploits-including-the-zipline-that-set-players-free-in-stella-montis-as-embark-announces-its-stepping-back-from-weekly-fixes/
Embark has given us one last Arc Raiders gift before the holiday season properly kicks off, and it's barring us from getting to forbidden spots on the map; booo. I joke (kind of), this small update dishes out some fixes for maps like Stella Montis and Blue Gate, as well as notifying us of some upcoming changes to the update schedule.

That's it for today. We'll see how many posts I need tomorrow after The Game Awards.