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:

PC Gamer's 'first can't-miss cozy game of 2026' has gone missing on Steam, and some players think Tetris is to blame
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/pc-gamers-first-cant-miss-cozy-game-of-2026-has-gone-missing-on-steam-and-some-players-think-tetris-is-to-blame/
PC Gamer's Mollie Taylor had some very nice things to say about the Starsand Island demo she played in December 2025, and fellow cozy-knower Lauren Morton shared even stronger feelings in February, declaring Starsand Island "the first can't-miss cozy game of 2026." Yet if you head over to Steam right now, you will miss it, because it's no longer there.
The reason, developer Seed Sparkle Lab explained on X, is that "certain core visual elements from a classic title were used without proper authorization within our mini-game section," an error the studio attributed to "an oversight during the planning phase."

Get ready to play Overwatch's most popular maps even more in season 2 as Blizzard tweaks the voting process to prefer the majority
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/get-ready-to-play-overwatchs-most-popular-maps-even-more-in-season-2-as-blizzard-tweaks-the-voting-process-to-prefer-the-majority/
Pour one out for all the people who can't stand playing Overwatch's most popular maps, because the next season is going to make it even harder to play on anything else.
Whenever a classic Overwatch map shows up as an option on the map voting screen, you know you're probably stuck with it. Most players prefer the likes of King's Row—a hugely popular map that's been in the game since launch—over the newer options, and, currently, it takes a lot of luck for the system to pick one with only a couple of votes. Starting next week with season 2, the already low odds of playing on an unpopular map will plummet: Blizzard is changing the rules so the map with the majority of the votes will automatically win.

This 'highly realistic' city-builder could be the first real competition Cities: Skylines has seen in over a decade
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/this-highly-realistic-city-builder-could-be-the-first-real-competition-cities-skylines-has-seen-in-over-a-decade/
Steam is flooded with all manner of weird and wonderful city-builders these days. Yet few of these newer games have laid their foundations in the true heartland of the genre. If you want to build a vast, modern cityscape with intensely simulated traffic and three types of zoning, you're pretty much stuck with Cities: Skylines or its troubled sequel.
Now though, Paradox Interactive might have some competition as the city-builder's de-facto mayor. City Masterplan is a newly announced metropolis sim that files its zoning permit request squarely in Skylines' home turf.
>> An UE5 city-builder of that scale and graphics? It will put any rig down to its knees and beg for mercy.

1000xResist developer added a video sequence 'out of desperation' but now they're bringing FMV back for their next game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/1000xresist-developer-added-a-video-sequence-out-of-desperation-but-now-theyre-bringing-fmv-back-for-their-next-game/
You've been playing 1000xResist for half a dozen chapters, enjoying changes in perspective and mechanics with each chapter shift. Yet the sudden jump to video still feels unusual when it happens—recorded footage of Hong Kong suddenly taking the place of a cutscene in the middle of the game. As creative director Remy Siu says, that decision came about "really out of desperation."
Sunset Visitor, the studio behind 1000xResist, was founded by performers with backgrounds in the arts. Siu just happened to have some footage for a documentary product that turned out to perfectly fill a gap in his game project. "It's like, oh, let me reach into my archives and see what I have."
When the studio began thinking about the follow-up project that would eventually become Prove You're Human, a game about convincing an AI she's not a real person, they identified FMV as a useful thing to be proficient in. "Like, we feel comfortable doing lots of voiceover, because that's where we think we can make an interesting contribution," Sui says. "We're making very narrative-forward games, largely because we think that's where we can make a special contribution. And these full-motion videos and film things, that's something I think we can continue to explore."

Tribal survival game Soulmask leaves early access with a new Egypt-themed DLC that's free for the next month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/tribal-survival-game-soulmask-leaves-early-access-with-a-new-egypt-themed-dlc-thats-free-for-the-next-month/
A lot has happened in the world of Soulmask in the last week. The survival game where you oversee a tribe of independently minded individuals released out of early access with an update that developer CampFire Studio says represents "a complete reinvention of the game." This launch coincided with the release of an Ancient Egypt-themed DLC that basically doubles the scope of the experience. On top of that, CampFire is offering this DLC completely free to players for the next month. As I said, there's a lot going on.

Terraforming survival game The Planet Crafter gets a beefy 2.0 update and a 50% discount: 'We wanted to take some time to improve multiple things'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/terraforming-survival-game-the-planet-crafter-gets-a-beefy-2-0-update-and-a-50-percent-discount-we-wanted-to-take-some-time-to-improve-multiple-things/
The Planet Crafter is a survival game that goes way beyond the traditional remit of the genre. You're not trying to stay alive by building campfires and hunting animals and smashing together a rock and a stick to make a pickaxe appear in your inventory. Rather than bending to suit the world, you bend the world to suit you, terraforming an entire planet to make it habitable for humans.
Released in 2024 after a long stint in early access, The Planet Crafter is already among Steam's highest-rated games. But it seems developer Miju Games still wasn't fully satisfied with the experience, having just released a meaty 2.0 update for the game which gives it a tune-up across all fronts.

Anno 117's first DLC will let you disregard history by building your Roman city next to a massive volcano
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/anno-117s-first-dlc-will-let-you-disregard-history-by-building-your-roman-city-next-to-a-massive-volcano/
Ubisoft has revealed that city-building sequel Anno 117: Pax Romana will get its first DLC later this month. Prophecies of Ash will add the largest island featured in the series yet, one that happens to be loomed over by a massive volcano. Because why bother building a Roman city without the risk of a natural disaster that will echo across millennia?

If you're struggling with Crimson Desert's double jump as much as I was, it's because of this mistranslation
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/if-youre-struggling-with-crimson-deserts-double-jump-as-much-as-i-was-its-because-of-this-mistranslation/
One of my major complaints with Crimson Desert has been the fact that the double jump and the glide abilities are both bound to the same button if you're playing on controller. In the nearly two dozen hours I've spent futzing with the game, this has been a constant source of consternation—I glide when I mean to double jump, I double jump when I mean to glide.
I thought this was just a case of a crowded control scheme, maybe even something Pearl Abyss would patch out in future updates. As it turns out, I'd just completely misunderstood what the double jump ability did. I can hardly be blamed, though, because the English tooltip really isn't great at communicating this to you.

The upcoming 'hardcore sci-fi FPS' Fragmentary Order finally gets a huge lore drop trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-upcoming-hardcore-sci-fi-fps-fragmentary-order-finally-gets-a-huge-lore-drop-trailer/
Fragmentary Order is an upcoming "hardcore sci-fi FPS" project helmed by Rant Gaming and publisher Cor3 with some involvement from Escape From Tarkov boss Nikita Buyanov.
Buyanov has, however, confirmed that Fragmentary Order "is not related to BSG or Tarkov", being more of a separate project. Regardless, it seems to share much of the same DNA when it comes to its music, animation, assets, and even its website.
Set to be a "next-generation multiplayer combat tactical simulator in hazardous environments." It essentially just sounds like an extraction shooter in space. Players will take control of "clone assets" to remotely enter a battlefield spread across the solar system, such as the hostile and partially terraformed planet of Mars, carrying out contracts and scavenging for resources, all while simply trying to make it out alive.