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

[JEMC]

The second part of the gaming news:

Before his death in 2025, Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov worked on one last game: A Wild West FPS soulslike that's 'coming soon' to Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/before-his-death-in-2025-half-life-2-art-director-viktor-antonov-worked-on-one-last-game-a-wild-west-fps-roguelike-thats-coming-soon-to-steam/
Visionary artist Viktor Antonov defined a small but unforgettable selection of games with his unmistakably bold visual style, including Half-Life 2, Dishonored, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Weird West. (He also did Redneck Rampage, but that was way back when.) He died in 2025 at just 52 years old, but before his tragic passing he put his stamp on one final game, revealed today as a fantasy Wild West soulslike shooter called Guns of Eschaton.
Set in a darkly twisted 19th century, Guns of Eschaton is "inspired" by historical figures, legends, and archetypes of the Old West, but is filled with bizarre enemies and powerful bosses who players will encounter on their journey from the West Coast to the East Coast of "a dying America."

Ahead of next week's expected Xbox bloodbath, IO Interactive loses funding for its online fantasy RPG
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/ahead-of-next-weeks-expected-xbox-bloodbath-io-interactive-loses-funding-for-its-online-fantasy-rpg/
Just over a month after the successful launch of 007 First Light, the fastest selling game in its history, IO Interactive has run into some unexpected bad news about another project it's had in development for years. An "external partner" pulled funding from Project Fantasy, an "online fantasy RPG" that IO announced in 2023, and it sounds like layoffs at the studio are imminent as a result.

Steam is getting a jockey simulator next month that reimagines umamusume as normal horses
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/steam-is-getting-a-jockey-simulator-next-month-that-reimagines-umamusume-as-normal-horses/
On June 24, 2025, Cygames released Umamusume: Pretty Derby on Steam, tasking players with scouting, training, and managing the racing careers of the titular umamusume—horse girls born for the singular pursuit of speed.
Next month—just over a year later—developer Blue Bullet is releasing its own fantastical take on the storied tradition of umamusume racing with Full Stride, a jockey racing simulator that reimagines the expected horse girls as normal horses. You know, the kind that in our world spend their time doing things like eating roughage and unsettling passersby with their inscrutable auras. How quaint!

Total War: Warhammer 3 is getting new endgames, individual victory conditions, a Vampire Counts rework, and Nurgle's three grossest champions
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/total-war-warhammer-3-is-getting-new-endgames-individual-victory-conditions-a-vampire-counts-rework-and-nurgles-three-grossest-champions/
Creative Assembly's recent What's Next livestream dropped a few bombshells about the upcoming 9.0 update and the Lords of the End Times DLC. It's good news for anyone who loves vampires and Chaos, and for anyone who has ever found themselves underwhelmed by the conclusion to an Immortal Empires campaign.

EA accidentally made the right decision twice in one month and reverted it both times, inflicting psychic damage on Battlefield 6 players
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/ea-accidentally-made-the-right-decision-twice-in-one-month-and-reverted-it-both-times-inflicting-psychic-damage-on-battlefield-6-players/
In an update early last month, Battlefield 6 accidentally made a change everyone loved. The in-game description of XP Boosters was changed to say that they would now count down only while you're actively playing a match, rather than in real time, as they have since launch. Wasting your precious boosts because you've had to log off is, unsurprisingly, annoying as hell.
Naturally, instead of formally making this highly requested change a reality, Battlefield Studios decided it didn't want the easy PR win, explaining: "We’re working to correct the in-game text in a future update and apologize for the confusion."
Unfortunately that wasn't the end of EA shooting itself in the foot and handing away the easy wins. Alongside the latest update on the final day of June, which overhauled gunplay, came a sequel to the slip-up.

Battlefield 6 is an FPS where 'the guy obsessed with metas is having the least fun', and it's free-to-play for a week
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-6-is-an-fps-where-the-guy-obsessed-with-metas-is-having-the-least-fun-and-its-free-to-play-for-a-week/
It is time to do war crimes in a cool way. Battlefield 6, EA's big loud military-themed shooter that earned a coveted 82% from PC Gamer FPS czar Morgan Park, is free-to-try for a week. The trial period runs from yesterday, June 30, up until July 6.
The trial gives you access to five modes and four maps, which I will lay out in a conveniently bulletpointed form below.