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

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Friday gaming news, part two:

World of Warcraft: Midnight's new roadmap includes prop hunt, mega-dungeon sized delves, and a new experimental game mode from the folks who brought you Remix and Plunderstorm
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-midnights-new-roadmap-includes-prop-hunt-mega-dungeon-sized-delves-and-a-new-experimental-game-mode-from-the-folks-who-brought-you-remix-and-plunderstorm/
Once of the nice things about World of Warcraft's post-Shadowlands era is its ability to experiment—I never thought I'd see WoW get a Battle Royale-style pirate mode, or a zany, high-powered remix of a past expansion where actual drama happens over something called a Gulp Frog, but here we are.
World of Warcraft: Midnight means to carry on this new philosophy, as stated in a roadmap included in a State of Azeroth video posted to Blizzard's official channels today.
>> Blizzard has also shared some changes/improvements to player housing (link)

Roguelike beat-'em-up Absolum's new update is adding even more variety to 2025's most replayable game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/roguelike-beat-em-up-absolums-new-update-is-adding-even-more-variety-to-2025s-most-replayable-game/
When it came time to choose my personal pick in our 2025 Game of the Year awards, one game jumped right out at me. Absolum is a brilliantly clever hybrid of classic side-scrolling beat-'em-up combat with a roguelike framework, and I'm not sure it ever quite got the buzz it deserved.
It seems like it found an audience, at least, with 500,000 players, a 94% positive rating on Steam and apparently enough success to fuel a new free update.

After a server glitch, Final Fantasy 11 is dispatching Game Masters to manually assassinate bugged monsters just so the game knows they're really dead: 'God personally stepping in to correct the world itself'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/after-a-server-glitch-final-fantasy-11-is-dispatching-game-masters-to-manually-assassinate-bugged-monsters-just-so-the-game-knows-theyre-really-dead-god-personally-stepping-in-to-correct-the-world-itself/
As it nears its 24th birthday, Final Fantasy 11 is still quietly chugging along. And while FF14's older, weirder MMO sibling has settled into a comfortable rhythm of incremental maintenance updates, its more than two decades of layered expansions and legacy systems still manage to produce some fascinating weirdness.
Sometimes that means needing to navigate a tangle of nested launchers and login accounts to start playing, or needing to suspend character creation 23 years after launch because a sudden burst of activity is overtaxing server infrastructure. Or, as is the case this week, it means Square Enix is having to send out FF11's Game Masters to personally exterminate bugged boss monsters just so everyone can be sure they've actually been killed.

Rainbow Six Siege's next operator is, and I swear this is real, Solid Snake
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/rainbow-six-sieges-next-operator-is-and-i-swear-this-is-real-solid-snake/
Ubisoft is teasing a new Rainbow Six Siege operator that, frankly, I'm having trouble accepting is real. If this 15-second video of Sam Fisher on a Codec call with his stealth franchise rival is to be taken at face value, Solid Snake is coming to Siege.

Phasmophobia's roadmap includes evidence of a 1.0 launch in 2026: a player character overhaul, new event, and Horror 2.0
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/phasmophobias-roadmap-includes-evidence-of-a-1-0-launch-in-2026-the-player-character-overhaul-a-new-event-and-horror-2-0/
Phasmophobia's early access build celebrates its sixth anniversary as a viral ghost-hunting breakout on Steam later this year, but that's assuming we make it to September before the 1.0 launch. If Kinetic Games' latest roadmap stays on track, then we'll be cutting it close, as Phasmophobia is planning for its 1.0 launch with a horror rework and lore update sometime this year.