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

[JEMC]

Thursday gaming news, part two:

Indie game gets last minute Steam delay while Valve reviews its 'dozens of untextured polygons depicting ass and boobs'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/indie-game-gets-last-minute-steam-delay-while-valve-reviews-its-dozens-of-untextured-polygons-depicting-ass-and-boobs/
Earlier this month, indie political satirist game dev Molleindustria—pseudonym of Paolo Pedercini, who created games like Democratic Socialism Simulator and New York Times Simulator—announced that he was moving up the release of his latest game. Despite having previously promised to launch the game on the same day as GTA 6 "in order to humiliate Rockstar in the open-world genre and deliver the killing blow to the Western game industry," Future? No Thanks!, would instead launch today, on July 22.
Now that the day has arrived, Molleindustria's launch plans have changed once again. The developer announced a last minute delay for Future? No Thanks! on Bluesky, saying that the game has been the subject of an unexpectedly lengthy Steam review process due to the presence of nudity during one of the game's sequences.

Blizzard is investigating a World of Warcraft cheating scandal after game master 'death-touched' bosses for friends without realizing it was being recorded
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/blizzard-is-investigating-a-world-of-warcraft-cheating-scandal-after-game-master-death-touched-bosses-for-friends-without-realizing-it-was-being-recorded/
A cheating scandal has erupted in the World of Warcraft community after a Blizzard developer was caught using special game master (GM) abilities to kill two bosses for some friends. The GM seemingly didn't realize that one of the players was recording combat logs of the whole thing.
>> Someone is going to be out of job soon.

The new Warhammer Blood Bowl published by Slitherine will be out in fall, and I'm looking forward to it because I enjoy pain I guess
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/the-new-warhammer-blood-bowl-published-by-slitherine-will-be-out-in-fall-and-im-looking-forward-to-it-because-i-enjoy-pain-i-guess/
(...)
According to Marco Alessandro Minoli, director of publishing at Slitherine, "Our goal with Warhammer Blood Bowl is simple: we want this to become the definitive Blood Bowl videogame—not just at launch, but for years to come. Our vision is to support and expand it over time, turning it into a living, constantly evolving experience, just as we've successfully done with other Warhammer titles such as Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector and Warhammer 40,000: Gladius."
(...)
Anyone who owns Blood Bowl 3 will get Warhammer Blood Bowl for free, and any additional teams and cosmetics you've bought will carry over. Which rather suggests they're keeping the model where we have to buy teams separately and also the customizations to make individual players distinct. But if it didn't find a way to hurt us, it wouldn't be Blood Bowl. The full release is scheduled to come out in fall.

Star Wars Zero Company's story 'is a linear one from beginning to end', Bit Reactor says, so don't expect branching paths or romance options
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/star-wars-zero-companys-story-is-a-linear-one-from-beginning-to-end-bit-reactor-says-so-dont-expect-branching-paths-or-romance-options/
With Star Wars Zero Company, developer Bit Reactor aims to create a tactics RPG with characters and narrative at the forefront. It's got proper, big-budget cutscenes, you can talk to your buddies, and you can customise and upgrade your squad. However, the developers have gone on record in a new Discord Q&A to say, no, don't expect to have control over how the story unfolds.
Earlier this year, our own Ted Litchfield spoke to narrative director Aaron Contreras, who explained that while Bit Reactor wants its cast to have real friction, Star Wars Zero Company is "not a personal fantasy game." Those "player-centric romance" options that seem to pop up in so many games today won't appear in Zero Company.
This was reaffirmed in today's Q&A, where the developer plainly states, "No, there aren’t any romance systems or branching paths" in Zero Company. "While we are excited about pushing the genre forward with a more cinematic approach, this is still a turn-based tactics game at its heart where adept skill and strategy are needed to overcome tense combat challenges."
>> Other articles from that Q&A: 1- It’s a 30-40 hour game with no New Game+ (link); 2-The game won’t have official mod support (link)

Amazon walks back comments about taking 007 off of IO, but does say 'anything's possible' when it comes to buying the studio outright
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/amazon-walks-back-comments-about-taking-007-off-of-io-but-does-say-anythings-possible-when-it-comes-to-buying-the-studio-outright/
Amazon really confounded us all last month when, following the successful launch of 007 First Light, Amazon Gaming general manager Jeff Gattis mused that sequels would be "done by MGM and, theoretically, by Amazon Game Studios." Given that so many people—barring one uncontroversial and universally beloved PC Gamer writer—rather liked IOI's Bond game, it was incomprehensible to suggest yanking it away from the studio.
Well, I guess Amazon itself has realised what a boneheaded move that would be, because in a recent chat with GI.biz, Gattis clarified that—insofar as the developer of the next 007 game is concerned—nothing is set in stone. (...)
Then he states the obvious: "Given the success of this one, I think you probably want IOI developing it." Taken in tandem with an earlier comment, that "Technically, Amazon does own the rights to the game, but we're going to do what's right by the game, we're not trying to bring everything into Amazon," it does at least sound like the megacorp knows it would be a bad idea to suddenly bring Bond games in-house, though it looks like Amazon will at least be publishing any new games in the series.