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

[JEMC]

Monday gaming news, part two:

As Wardogs blows past 200k Steam concurrents, its developers are prepared for the day 'hype dies down'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/as-wardogs-blows-past-200k-steam-concurrents-its-developers-are-prepared-for-the-day-hype-dies-down/
The way our hobby talks about player counts is all sorts of messed up. Steam concurrents are a useful metric for gauging a game's general popularity, but they paint an incomplete picture. They're a single data point, yet have become the flimsy scaffolding on which the internet builds elaborate headcanon about a game's quality, viability, or deadness. Sometimes dogpiling is so successful, and the resulting perception so difficult to fight, that simply saying a game is dead is enough to help kill it.
It's a trend that annoys me to no end, so it's refreshing to see a developer speaking openly about concurrents—both about how many it considers "healthy," and why it's normal for the number to rise and fall. It's been a recurring topic for Wardogs developer Bulkhead, whose closed beta surpassed 200,000 concurrents today on Steam. Responding to a TimTheTatman clip on X, CEO Joe Brammer spoke on the milsim's unexpected popularity, and its inevitable (but healthy) decline.
"Wardogs will continue to lose players for months as the hype dies down," Brammer wrote. "Doesn't make it a bad game or even a problem, we planned for 5k players concurrent! It'll maintain a healthy playerbase and we'll continue to build the 1.0 version of the game then... it'll boom again :) And so the cycle continues :)"
>> Sounds very sensible to me.

This free lockpicking puzzler you can play in your browser is unexpectedly one of the most thrilling games I've encountered this year
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/this-free-lockpicking-puzzler-you-can-play-in-your-browser-is-unexpectedly-one-of-the-most-thrilling-games-ive-encountered-this-year/
I love lockpicking minigames, especially when representatively they're as far away from the act of lockpicking as possible. While I admire the elegance of Bethesda's bobby-pin/screwdriver system seen in Fallout 4, I'm much more interested in the weirder solutions like Splinter Cell's baffling pin-flicking system, or Gothic Remake's absurdly elaborate sliding puzzle system.
I love how developers have tried so many ways to represent the act of lockpicking, and that despite this nobody has 'solved' the problem of virtual lockpicking yet (though Bethesda has arguably come closest). Inevitably, then, I was drawn to the idea of a game that is all about lockpicking. But I never expected that it could be as imaginative and thrilling as Lockpicks-11.

Peak studio Aggro Crab is publishing a sick-looking platformer about a blue collar guy doing dirty work on an alien world
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/peak-studio-aggro-crab-is-publishing-a-sick-looking-platformer-about-a-blue-collar-guy-doing-dirty-work-on-an-alien-world/
At the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, Aggro Crab developer Nick Kaman told me that he thinks there's a lot of meat left on the bone when it comes to co-op "friendslop" games, and that he wants to keep working in the space. Aggro Crab is still down to zig and not zag, though, and will be publishing and supporting a very different sort of game, the upcoming platformer Rebounder.

Civilization 7 will finally enter the atomic age in 2027, via a free update Firaxis says will be 'even bigger in scope' than last year's Test of Time
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/civilization-7-will-finally-enter-the-atomic-age-in-2027-via-a-free-update-firaxis-says-will-be-even-bigger-in-scope-than-last-years-test-of-time/
Despite more than a year of updates and at least one massive overhaul, Civilization 7 remains as stubbornly divisive as ever. May's enormous Test of Time update brought significant mechanical reworks and a fresh influx of players to Firaxis' latest entry in the 4X series. But with Steam reviews still sitting at 'Mixed', with 51% positive, it ultimately did little to shift player opinion.
This is partly because numerous aspects of Civ 7 are still rudimentary compared to previous games, including the ability to wage nuclear war. While Firaxis' latest allows players to drop atom bombs on their enemies via World War 2 bombers, its final, modern age ends in 1950, meaning many advanced technologies, including nuclear submarines and ICBMs, are not featured in the game.
Fortunately, this is going to change. Alongside the release of update 1.5.0—which adds features like improved resource generation and an Earth map where your faction starts at their historically-accurate location—Firaxis outlined its update plans for Civ 7 over the next year. This includes another free update that will finally drag the game into the age of the A-bomb.

Here's 10 more minutes of the most interesting game shown at this year's Opening Night Live
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/heres-10-more-minutes-of-the-most-interesting-game-shown-at-this-years-opening-night-live/
I was largely nonplussed by Gamescom's Opening Night Live, particularly its relentless barrage of identikit fantasy action games that I struggled to tell apart. But one game stood out like a rat-powered computer in an elven glade, and that was Ontos, Frictional Games' latest horror adventure/existential crisis generator.
The Gamescom trailer was a barrage of unsettling, distinctive imagery, from rodent server-racks to slack-jawed dudes with electrodes protruding from their heads. I was instantly intrigued and keen to learn more, so I was delighted to discover that Frictional graced us with a longer look at Ontos in action.

Blending Deus Ex with Escape from Butcher Bay, Deficit is one of the best-feeling indie immersive sims I've played—even if the stealth system needs serious work
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/blending-deus-ex-with-escape-from-butcher-bay-deficit-is-one-of-the-best-feeling-indie-immersive-sims-ive-played-even-if-the-stealth-system-needs-serious-work/
Immersive sims like Deus Ex and Dishonored are among the hardest kinds of games to make, so I always try to be supportive when an indie developer takes on the absurd challenge of creating one. Yet while there have been some good examples in recent years like Skin Deep and New Blood's early access Thief-like Gloomwood, a lot of the experiments in indie imsim design have been simply too janky for me to enjoy.
Part of the problem is I'm a highly tactile player, and my primary concern when playing any game is whether it feels good beneath the fingers. If a game falls at that initial hurdle, then it's likely (though not inevitable) that I'll drop it pretty quickly. Fortunately, I had the opposite experience with Deficit, an indie imsim with such a strong sense of physicality that I kept playing the demo despite some clear issues.

The Halloween game has a sex minigame in it, except no it doesn't, because it was apparently removed
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/the-halloween-game-has-a-sex-minigame-in-it-except-no-it-doesnt-because-it-was-apparently-removed/
If you've seen any slasher flick, you know the drill: every youth is horny, and the horny must die. Despite Halloween not being quite as trope-riddled as some of its stabbiest contemporaries, its recent asymmetrical PvP adaptation did include a minigame where two players could slip into a closet and bang each other for buffs—but after only a few days in a deluxe edition-exclusive early access, the feature has reportedly been removed.

GSC Game World says there's a reason it didn't give Stalker 2 more time in the oven: 'To make something better, you need to receive feedback, and this feedback should be fresh'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/gsc-game-world-says-theres-a-reason-it-didnt-give-stalker-2-more-time-in-the-oven-to-make-something-better-you-need-to-receive-feedback-and-this-feedback-should-be-fresh/
Like a lot of survival games, Stalker 2 had a long journey from janky larva to playable, easily recommended butterfly. It's tempting to say that these games ought to just stay under wraps until they're done and relatively bug-free—but at Gamescom 2026, GSC Game World CEO and head of game direction Ievgen Grygorovych told PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens that deciding when to release is a more complex consideration than you might think.
As for why the studio didn't just wait to release the game until it was in the state it is now, Grygorovych cited both creative and financial reasons. "To make something better, you need to receive feedback, and this feedback should be fresh. From a business perspective, it's also impossible, because it's very expensive to do two years of additional work … in most cases, it's unrealistic."
>> You’ve heard it, guys. Playtesting your game is now impossible and very expensive.

Riot co-founder doesn't think 2XKO was 'a mistake' but perhaps a tough sell: 'You're not just competing against games, you're competing against everything'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fighting/riot-co-founder-doesnt-think-2xko-was-a-mistake-but-perhaps-a-tough-sell-youre-not-just-competing-against-games-youre-competing-against-everything/
After years of development, a shaky launch, and layoffs a mere three weeks later, the inevitable came for Riot's tag fighter 2XKO in August: shutdown of future development after this year, and refunds for everyone who had made in-game purchases up to that point.
In its announcement post, Riot admitted that it was unable to find the momentum to keep 2XKO sustainable, a sentiment that co-founder Marc Merrill echoed during a panel at PAX West this weekend. When asked about mistakes the developer has made over the years—while tangentially mentioning the tag fighter—Merill responded: "Well first of all, I wouldn't characterise 2XKO as a mistake."