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

[JEMC]

The second part of the Monday gaming news:

There's a huge Arc Raiders duplication glitch which has players hoarding mountains of rubber ducks worth millions, 'I extracted with 2.8 million. Still confused'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/theres-a-huge-arc-raiders-duplication-glitch-which-has-players-hoarding-mountains-of-rubber-ducks-worth-millions-i-extracted-with-2-8-million-still-confused/
There's always something fishy going on in Arc Raiders. Whether it be players clipping through doors or changing to first person perspective. But very few of these glitches actually earn the guilty player any in-game money. Unlike the latest hack, which manages to duplicate the new rare rubber ducks.
>> But the players aren’t happy about the Trophy Display project… because it has no trophy (link).

Old-school MMO Project: Gorgon launches into 1.0 with an update that adds 'by far the largest and most complex map we've ever made'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/old-school-mmo-project-gorgon-launches-into-1-0-with-an-update-that-adds-by-far-the-largest-and-most-complex-map-weve-ever-made/
The children yearn for the grind. Between projects like World of Warcraft: Classic and Old School RuneScape, alongside new games like Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen there's clearly a hankering among MMO players for traditional online experiences. Now, players looking to get hopelessly lost in a lo-fi fantasy world before getting kerb-stomped by a level 4 skeleton can add Project: Gorgon to their lists, as the classically styled MMO just released out of Steam early access.

The best Elder Scrolls game that isn't an Elder Scrolls game is getting a big patch in February and free DLC in March
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-best-elder-scrolls-game-that-isnt-an-elder-scrolls-game-is-getting-a-big-patch-in-february-and-free-dlc-in-march/
Questline, the developer behind Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, made a big pile of money in 2025 by doing something that in hindsight seems obvious: making an Elder Scrolls-style RPG during a fifteen-year drought for Elder Scrolls RPGs. (Ok, we got Oblivion Remastered last year, but leftovers, however well warmed up, don't count). The Arthurian-flavoured open-world RPG recently surpassed one million copies sold, proving, if proof was ever needed, there's still a big hunger for Skyrim-style experiences.
Tainted Grail kept players well fed over 2025 with a constant stream of patches, and Questline looks set to carry that momentum forward into 2026. With the release of Tainted Grail's latest patch, the developers revealed that a bigger update is coming in February, while a free DLC will be released to all players in March.

Highguard adds an experimental 5v5 mode with longer respawns during raids, though it's 'not meant to replace 3s'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/highguard-adds-an-experimental-5v5-mode-with-longer-respawns-during-raids-though-its-not-meant-to-replace-3s/
Highguard has fielded all sorts of opinions since it launched Monday. I'm not huge on it, but PC Gamer staff writer Morgan Park spoke more positively of it in his impressions—though he did say it's "ill-timed" given the larger shift toward more casual, chaotic fun that shooters are taking right now. It seems like Highguard may already be moving in that direction itself, though, as it's now toying with a "hectic" alternate format.
"We heard the feedback," opens the first patch note from the latest post on Highguard's Steam community blog. The new 5v5 mode was implemented just four days after release on Jan. 30, which is a pretty impressive turnaround time for something added in response to community sentiment. You don't have to scroll very far down on the Steam reviews or on the game's subreddit to see people put off by the 3v3 format, as in this thread from user mexicantacothief.

Cities: Skylines 2's new developer breaks cover on its plans for the sequel's future, revealing a patch that will include changes players 'have been requesting for a long time'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/cities-skylines-2s-new-developer-breaks-cover-on-its-plans-for-the-sequels-future-revealing-a-patch-that-will-include-changes-players-have-been-requesting-for-a-long-time/
A decade after it famously beat SimCity at its own game, Finnish developer Colossal Order waved goodbye to the Cities: Skylines series last year. In Colossal Order's place, stewardship of Cities: Skylines 2 was taken over by Surviving the Aftermath developer Iceflake Studios. Now at the helm, Iceflake has unveiled the first part of its plans to take the sequel forward.
In the first issue of a new developer diary called City Corner, Iceflake outlines some of the features arriving in its debut Skylines 2 update. "There are quite a few changes coming in this first patch, some of which you have been requesting for a long time," the developer explains. The post focusses primarily on visual changes Iceflake is working on, though these do not represent the full extent of the update.

Over a decade since launch, this cooperative dungeon crawler is getting a double-barrelled update that overhauls its magic system, dungeon generation, and much more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/over-a-decade-since-launch-this-cooperative-dungeon-crawler-is-getting-a-double-barrelled-update-that-overhauls-its-magic-system-dungeon-generation-and-much-more/
It shows just how vast PC gaming has become that I had not heard of Barony until now, despite it being over a decade old and attracting thousands of players every day. After a wobbly start in 2015, the cooperative dungeon crawler has grown steadily in popularity over its lifespan, and in the last 12 months has received more players than ever.
Not resting on its laurels, developer Turning Wheel has fed this success back into the game, resulting in one of its most significant updates ever. Titled Instruments of Destruction, the update is so big it's being delivered in two parts. The first part is available now, and it makes some pretty big changes to the Ultima Underworld-inspired RPG.

Thirty years after launch, this classic space combat sim just got updated to work on modern systems and released for free
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/thirty-years-after-launch-this-classic-space-combat-sim-just-got-updated-to-work-on-modern-systems-and-released-for-free/
Alongside first-person shooters and real-time strategy games, the '90s was also the golden era of space combat simulators. From Star Wars: X-Wing to Freespace 2, whipping out your joystick to blow up spaceships in nausea-inducing 3D spaceflight was a formative experience for every first-generation PC gamer.
Among those space sims jostling for supremacy was Star Quest 1 in the 27th Century. Developed by Virtual Adventures Inc and released in November 1995, its defining feature was how it allowed seamless transition between open space and planetary atmospheres, which technically put it decades ahead of games like No Man's Sky. Sadly, this wasn't enough to make Star Quest a big success, and the game's been largely forgotten in the interceding years.
Until now, that is. Three decades since Star Quest first appeared, its designer Paul Lauzon has updated the space combat sim so that it works on modern machines, and re-released it over on itch. Best of all, you can download it for completely free.

'Anyone mad is a cheater:' Players are divided as Rust beefs up anti-cheat with more effective—and invasive—upgrades
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/anyone-mad-is-a-cheater-players-are-divided-as-rust-beefs-up-anti-cheat-with-more-effective-and-invasive-upgrades/
Unfortunately, you can't tell the story of Rust without including its "cheat community," which Facepunch COO Alistair McFarlane once said routinely harasses and threatens the game's developers when it's not, you know, cheating. The latest measure the studio is taking to keep up with cheat makers is one you'll find familiar if you've tried to play a game like Highguard or Battlefield 6 recently: Secure Boot and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) requirements.

21 years after release, Guild Wars 1 just got an 'Ironman' mode inspired by a venerable community-driven challenge
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/21-years-after-release-guild-wars-1-just-got-an-ironman-mode-inspired-by-a-venerable-community-driven-challenge/
Guild Wars might look indistinct among the many MMOs that arrived in the wake of World of Warcraft's genre-defining heyday, but it has relatively little in common with WoW or even EverQuest, the Iron Age big dog in the massively multiplayer space. It's a unique blend of deckbuilding and ARPG-esque adventuring where you can team up with other players in town hubs across different campaigns—a setup so unique it's still drawing a crowd over two decades, a very different sequel, and a big modernization update later.
It's not an easy game. But, the question always goes, how can I make this harder on myself? An update arrived Jan. 28 with the answer: Melandru's Accord. "Inspired by the community-driven Ironman challenge," the new game mode will require that players earn all their skills and items without the relief of player trading or mercenaries (special NPC helpers that copy character builds and gear).

2 days after promising it was still 'worthy of your investment,' the most successful Kickstarter MMO ever was canceled and its team laid off: 'The developers and staff acted in good faith and deserved better'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/2-days-after-promising-it-was-still-worthy-of-your-investment-the-most-successful-kickstarter-mmo-ever-was-canceled-and-its-team-laid-off-the-developers-and-staff-acted-in-good-faith-and-deserved-better/
Early access MMO Ashes of Creation has reportedly ceased development, and the entire team behind it at Intrepid Studios has been laid off. With nearly $3.3 million raised in a 2017 campaign, Ashes of Creation was the crowdfunding platform's most successful MMO fundraiser, and one of its most successful videogame campaigns overall.
On Saturday, January 31, the game's official Discord was abuzz over rumored firings and resignations at Intrepid. Community lead Margaret Krohn revealed she had been laid off on LinkedIn, and in reply to a comment on the post, Krohn wrote: "I don't know how they would make it when the heart and soul of the product, the amazing dev team, was all laid off."