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

[JEMC]

The second part of the gaming news:

Arc Raiders' Shrouded Sky added lots of cool new toys, but my favourite part is the new quality-of-life features that have flown under the radar
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-shrouded-sky-added-lots-of-cool-new-toys-but-my-favourite-part-is-the-new-quality-of-life-features-that-have-flown-under-the-radar/
Of course, it's expected that the thing everyone's talking about in a new content drop in Arc Raiders is… the content. And the Shrouded Sky update delivered on that part, (...)
I'm not going to argue that's not cool and all, but the 1.17 patch notes also snuck in a handful of quality-of-life tweaks we've been asking for since launch. My favourite is the new inventory tooltip to display what each item breaks down into when you recycle or salvage it. No longer do you need to remember (or worse, sacrifice an item to find out) what each of the random recyclable materials actually does. Take Geiger Counters, for example, a purple-quality material that's a great source of Batteries and Exodus Materials, or Ion Sputters being salvageable for Voltage Converters.
>> And here are the other Arc Raiders articles: Embark explains why crafting Wolfpacks now cost more (link); and players reaction to Rocketeers now being deadlier (link)

Amanita Design teases the Orwell-inspired Phonopolis with a surprisingly funny demo about messing with people, running from the cops, and fighting fascism even when you don't really want to
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/amanita-design-teases-the-orwell-inspired-phonopolis-with-a-surprisingly-funny-demo-about-messing-with-people-running-from-the-cops-and-fighting-fascism-even-when-you-dont-really-want-to/
Amanita Design is one of my long-standing favorites. It was the studio's 2009 robot adventure Machinarium that hooked me, but Botanicula, the Samorost games, the madcap Chuchel—they're all brilliantly creative works. So when I saw that a demo for its next game, Phonopolis, had dropped into the Steam Next Fest, I was all over it.

This co-op FPS Steam demo feels poised to do for spellslinging robot cowboys what Deep Rock Galactic did for space dwarves
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/this-co-op-fps-steam-demo-feels-poised-to-do-for-spellslinging-robot-cowboys-what-deep-rock-galactic-did-for-space-dwarves/
Far Far West sounds like videogame premise Mad Libs: You play as a posse of gunslinging cowboy wizards who deploy from a flying train to complete randomized missions with objectives like firing a nuclear missile at a giant spectral necromancer while blasting ranks of skeletons.
It's a shooter imagined through free association, but Far Far West's demo in Steam's latest Next Fest event is a promising sampler of frantic, satisfying FPS gunfights that feel like they have the potential to stand in the same league as co-op heavy hitters like Deep Rock Galactic.

Amazon's gaming walkback continues as it ends publishing deal for a new racing game being headed up by former Forza Horizon creative director
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/amazons-gaming-walkback-continues-as-it-ends-publishing-deal-for-a-new-racing-game-being-headed-up-by-former-forza-horizon-creative-director/
Back in October 2025, Amazon effectively threw in the towel on its big-budget videogame ambitions, leaving itself only with the mysterious Tomb Raider game (which later turned out to be two games) and an open world racer being developed by Maverick Games, a studio headed up by former Forza Horizon creative director Michael Brown.
Well, you can cut that number by one, because Amazon has ended its publishing deal with Maverick.

'Please, let us cook more': Windrose devs aren't ready to give players a release date yet
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/please-let-us-cook-more-windrose-devs-arent-ready-to-give-players-a-release-date-yet/
Pirate survival game Windrose is having a moment. It's one of the most popular demos at Steam Next Fest, it's got so many concurrent players it shows up on Steam's most-played charts, and earlier this week it cannonballed to over 1 million wishlists. Plus, its combination of survival systems, open world pirate ship battles, and uplifting sea shanties makes for a heck of a lot of fun.
So when developer Windrose Crew announced a new trailer would be released today, a lot of players (including me) assumed a release date, or at least a release window, would come with it. The trailer shown today for IGN Fan Fest, while boisterous as always, doesn't give any indication of when the game will be out, however.
"Guys, I know many of you hoped for the release date reveal today, and we understand your passion—trust me, we are so eager to lock in the date and announce it to you as well," the development team posted in the game's official Discord about an hour after the new trailer appeared. "But now is not the time to do it."

Beamdog swaggers in, says sorry I'm late, then surprise-patches Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 Enhanced 14 years after release
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/beamdog-swaggers-in-says-sorry-im-late-then-surprise-patches-baldurs-gate-1-and-2-enhanced-14-years-after-release/
The birds are shining, the trees are singing, the sun is swaying in the breeze: it's the year 1999, and Baldur's Gate has just got another patch. Everything is perfect, and nothing hurts.
Wait, no, my mistake. It's 2026, and everything is bad. Good news, though: the Baldur's Gate patch thing is actually true. 14 years after it released (and 28 years since the original came out), Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition has a new 2.7 patch in beta. So too do Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition. "We’re truly sorry it took this long," write the devs. "With 2026 marking 14 years since BG:EE first launched on PC, we want to thank you for staying with us on this journey."

An Overwatch bug which allowed you to crash the game by typing in chat has been fixed, so don't make Blizzard regret letting you talk again: 'That bug accidentally made OW a safe place'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/an-overwatch-bug-which-allowed-you-to-crash-the-game-by-typing-in-chat-has-been-fixed-so-dont-make-blizzard-regret-letting-you-talk-again-that-bug-accidentally-made-ow-a-safe-place/
Usually, Overwatch's bugs are pretty harmless—like Ramattra's occasionally wonky Nemesis form—but there have been some game-breaking ones lately. Just a week or two ago, progression systems were completely borked, with Blizzard issuing apology lootboxes and event items to all.
Frustrating as it was, it was nowhere near as game-breaking as yesterday's discovery. Quite literally, in this case, as players discovered that if you spammed the '