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

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The second, and quite long, part of the Monday gaming news:

Minecraft Java Edition system requirements want 8/16 GB RAM for the first time, but it isn't more demanding now, Microsoft just hadn't updated the specs in a while
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/minecraft-java-edition-system-requirements-want-8-16-gb-ram-for-the-first-time-but-it-isnt-more-demanding-now-microsoft-just-hadnt-updated-the-specs-in-a-while/
Minecraft has been out a whole 17 years now, which makes me feel very old as I played it as a teenager when it launched, using (I believe) an AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and 9600 GT. Oh how times have changed. Now, Microsoft has updated its system requirements to 16 GB of RAM and an RTX 2060 or equivalent GPU for recommended performance in the Java version of the game.

Tomb Raider: Catalyst delayed to 2028
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/tomb-raider-catalyst-delayed-to-2028/
Bad news for anyone looking forward to playing the new Tomb Raider game Catalyst next year: It's not going to be out until the year after that.
Word of the delay came from Amazon Gaming chief Jeffrey Gattis during an interview with The Game Business. Talking about Amazon's game investment strategy, Gattis said the company is into pretty much everything, "from what we call game night games, which are those phone-as-a-controller games, which I think of as single-A games that are in the single millions of dollars to develop, all the way up to triple-A."
Then, to provide an example of how Amazon remains committed to big-time, he dropped the news: "We've announced the two Tomb Raider titles—Atlantis comes February 12th of next year and then we'll follow on in 2028 with the next one."

Warhorse trademarks 'Kingdom Come Salvation' as fans pray in unison for another open-world RPG
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/warhorse-trademarks-kingdom-come-salvation-as-fans-pray-in-unison-for-another-open-world-rpg/
Leave it to trademark filings to publicly utter the name of a new videogame before anyone else: The next Kingdom Come will almost surely be called Kingdom Come Salvation. Huzzah.

MindsEye has multiplayer and a grenade football mode now, which the handful of people still playing it will no doubt be thrilled to hear
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/mindseye-has-multiplayer-and-a-grenade-football-mode-now-which-the-handful-of-people-still-playing-it-will-no-doubt-be-thrilled-to-hear/
Despite a poor reception, weak sales, and losing publisher IO Interactive, developer Build a Rocket Boy hasn't given up on its open world shooter MindsEye. Which might be commendable, were it not for the multiple rounds of layoffs, the wild conspiracy theories emanating from its executives, and allegations from former workers that spy tech was covertly installed on their machines.
But whatever's going on in and around the studio, MindsEye itself is still receiving updates. And the most recent update adds quite a lot of stuff, though whether it's stuff everybody wants is another matter.
Described as "one of the biggest yet" by BARB in a Steam post, Update 8 brings a major new component to MindsEye—multiplayer. Specifically, it adds a team-based mode called "grenade football", in which players apparently "swap their boots for launchers and bring the firepower to the pitch."

There's only one Jedi Operator in Star Wars Zero Company, and reckless players may end up with none at all: 'Be careful that nothing unfortunate happens to her!'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/theres-only-one-jedi-operator-in-star-wars-zero-company-and-reckless-players-may-end-up-with-none-at-all-be-careful-that-nothing-unfortunate-happens-to-her/
Jedi are a key ingredient in most Star Wars adventures, but a little bit of a Jedi also goes a long way. Put too many Jedi in your Star War and you end up with an Attack of the Clones or a post-New Game Enhancements Star Wars: Galaxies—the magic and mysticism of those berobed space wizards drowned in a sea of lightsabers.
With its upcoming tactics game Star Wars Zero Company, developer Bit Reactor appears to understand this well. According to a recent AMA hosted by the studio, there will only be one Jedi Operator in the entire game. What's more, if you act cavalier with them, you may end up with none whatsoever.

A crossover between Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft has leaked
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/a-crossover-between-dungeons-and-dragons-and-world-of-warcraft-has-leaked/
This year's Gen Con event is one Wizards of the Coast has said it's "pulling out all the stops for", with a keynote to be hosted by Theo Solomon (who played Wyll in Baldur's Gate 3) including a bunch of announcements about what's coming up for Dungeons & Dragons. One release seems to have been leaked early: a crossover with World of Warcraft.

A classic Giger-inspired adventure game just got a sequel
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/a-classic-giger-inspired-adventure-game-just-got-a-sequel/
H. R. Giger's biomechanical nightmares have inspired plenty of videogames. If we go way back, his work was repurposed for baffling puzzle adventure Dark Seed, and more recently there was the fleshy horror of Scorn. Tormentum: Dark Sorrow was more in the vein of the former than the latter, a point-and-click adventure that took Giger's stylings (and those of Zdzisław Beksiński too) as inspiration for its hand-painted horrors.
A full 11 years after its release, and after eight years of development, Tormentum finally has a sequel. Tormentum 2 is a standalone game though, just one in a similar style, which is to say that it's full of bones and alien faces and naked people who are embedded in walls.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's beta will have low-SBMM playlists, as Activision continues to 'learn a lot about multiplayer matchmaking'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-4s-beta-will-have-low-sbmm-playlists-as-activision-continues-to-learn-a-lot-about-multiplayer-matchmaking/
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was not the series' finest hour, but one aspect of the sequel that has gone down well with players is its experiments with matchmaking. For years, players have complained about the effects of skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), which is intended to level the playing field by sorting players into groups of similar skill. But some players claim that SBMM can outright flatten the experience, neutering much of the fun and unpredictability of arena shooting.
Until recently, Activision had tried to convince players of the merits of SBMM. But last year saw a change in attitude from the publisher. For Black Ops 7's multiplayer, it introduced an "open moshpit" playlist alongside its standard match allocator, wherein skill consideration was "drastically reduced in matchmaking".
It appears this option has gone down well with CoD players, as Activision has said it plans to carry low-SBMM playlists forward into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. This was revealed in a post on Call of Duty's official X account, where it explained its broader plans for multiplayer matchmaking going forward.

Helldivers 2 is giving players a free car in October, except for those who already earned it in June
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/helldivers-2-is-giving-players-a-free-car-in-october-except-for-those-who-already-earned-it-in-june/
One aspect of Helldivers 2 I've repeatedly lamented is how many of its new toys are locked away inside Warbonds, with too few new weapons, equipment and stratagems unlockable through regular play. Hence, it's worth giving Arrowhead credit when they do let you unlock a new toy through spending requisition slips and nothing else. Such is the case with the M-103 Supply FRV, which will become available for all Helldivers to unlock in October.

It's taken 13 years, but Final Fantasy 14 has finally broken the Sephiroth-shaped emergency glass
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/its-taken-13-years-but-final-fantasy-14-has-finally-broken-the-sephiroth-shaped-emergency-glass/
Final Fantasy is very much a theme park for the series. It regularly references other games or weaves their themes into the very fabric of Eorzea and beyond. Occasionally, it straight-up implants entire characters or plots.
Despite all that, it's done surprisingly very little with the series' golden goose: Final Fantasy 7. Sure, there's the Gold Saucer. And materia melding. And Cloud's Advent Children fit. And the Fenrir motorcycle. But as for actual characters or dipping into the game's world? There's not all that much to be found.
Until now, that is. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida took to the stage at Berlin's Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival this weekend to reveal that upcoming expansion Evercold is dedicating its eight-player raid series to Cloud and the gang.
>> More FF XIV articles: 1- There’s a new class: “a Viking with two shields, laser cannons, and Wolverine claws” (link); 2- Yoshi-P doesn't get the deal with Chort (a mini boss) (link); and 3- they’re planning 2 major overhauls to its housing system to catch up with World of Warcraft (link).

Capcom wants to release a Resident Evil every year and sees remakes as the way to make it happen
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/resident-evil/capcom-wants-to-release-a-resident-evil-every-year-and-sees-remakes-as-the-way-to-make-it-happen/
As part of an interview in the latest issue of GameInformer (spotted via GamesRadar), Capcom producer Masachika Kawata outlined the resurgent Japanese publisher's approach to Resident Evil: Quality and quantity, with remakes bolstering the process and helping fund the development of more adventurous projects.
According to Kawata, Capcom would like Resident Evil to be a fully annual franchise, but "producing a new entry in the Resident Evil series every year would be quite an undertaking and a difficult task." That's where the remakes come in.
>> This move never ends well.

One of the best shooters around just got a barely recognizable second episode, and it's only $12
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/one-of-the-best-shooters-around-just-got-a-barely-recognizable-second-episode-and-its-only-usd12/
New Blood's comic book golden age noir detective immersive sim shooter, Fallen Aces, just got a beefy new update: Its second episode, Shadow of Death, is playable right now, while the usually $15 game is on sale for $12 until August 8.
>> The link in the article is for the trailer. The link to the game is this one (link).

If you miss the straightforward action RPGs of the past, try the generous demo for Darkstone Restoration
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/if-you-miss-the-straightforward-action-rpgs-of-the-past-try-the-generous-demo-for-darkstone-restoration/
Before action RPGs relied on seasonal ladders and DLC treadmills there was Darkstone, a 1999 hack and slash where you clicked on things until they died and liked it. It had some interesting ideas, like the companion mode that lets you switch between two player-characters, the other controlled by the CPU while you took the lead, but it remained true to the basics of a genre I got into precisely because it was basic.
Now it's back, with a remaster in early access that improves the UI and controls (you can move characters with WASD now, or play with a controller), and the graphics (though I had to turn off volumetric fog and procedural grass for the sake of my poor framerate).
It's got a demo too, which lets you make characters from any of its eight classes and explore the early-game dungeons, letting you play three of its quests, which are selected at random each time you start a new game.

Stalker 2's engine upgrade and first story expansion are due out in August
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/stalker-2s-engine-upgrade-and-first-story-expansion-are-due-out-in-august/
The week I spent in Chornobyl in Stalker 2's pre-release review period is a demented blur in my memory at this point. I remember: gunfire randomly muting itself, multiple main quests that failed to progress until I ran about two kilometres away from them, bloodsuckers that required approximately 46,000 rounds to kill, and enemy corpses becoming nightmarish, distended and levitating things.
Despite it all, I loved it. Stalker 2 had the bones of something beautiful, just as soon as GSC could get around to, you know, finishing making it.
If that time hasn't arrived, I think it's fast-approaching. On August 20, almost two years after the base game's release, Stalker 2 will get its first expansion, Cost of Hope.