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

[JEMC]

Friday gaming news, part two:

The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted returns December 3 with 20 of The Council's most hotly anticipated games
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/events-conferences/the-pc-gaming-show-most-wanted-returns-december-3-with-20-of-the-councils-most-hotly-anticipated-games/
The PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct wasn't even a week ago and it was filled to the brim with news, but we thought you deserved one last announcement so you'd have something to look forward to at the end of the year. The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted returns December 3.

The Arc Raiders Frozen Trail update is bigger than anyone expected: new ARC, gun upgrades, a map, and personal outposts you can decorate
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/the-arc-raiders-frozen-trail-update-is-bigger-than-anyone-expected-new-arc-gun-upgrades-a-map-and-personal-outposts-you-can-decorate/
Embark said "let us cook" back in May and has reappeared with a three course meal. Frozen Trail is the first fruits of Arc Raiders' new six-month gap between major updates. The 2.0 patch gives a comprehensive pass on nearly every facet of the extraction shooter, reworking skills, introducing customizable homes, and delivering core add-ons like a new map, guns, and ARC enemies.
>> But wait, there’s more: Here’s an article about the reworked skill tree (link); and players will have the chance to build their home Topside (link):

World of Warcraft: Forever's first patch will bring back the number one thing seasoned players missed from the MMO's past: storms
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-forevers-first-patch-will-bring-back-the-number-one-thing-seasoned-players-missed-from-the-mmos-past-storms/
If there's one thing that Blizzard nailed with World of Warcraft: Forever, it's the atmosphere. There's nothing quite like walking under the moonlight in Tirisfal Glades listening to distant howls and flapping wings on the way to your next quest. But many players familiar with the era of WoW it's based on felt like it was missing something.
(...)
It turns out, Blizzard agrees, and will be cranking the weather effects up to 10 in "certain" WoW: Forever beta zones, according to a teaser video for the next patch. The video is an ASMR-style montage of a rainstorm in Elwynn Forest. The screen is so thick with rain and fog it's hard to see past the trees bordering the town of Goldshire. It's a real storm that makes you instinctively want to duck into the inn to stay dry.
>> And one of the devs jumps into the debate of who it’s the game for (link).

Free puzzle game 20 More Somehow Even Smaller Mazes follows the original 20 Small Mazes with an additional 20 (somehow even smaller) mazes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/free-puzzle-game-20-more-somehow-even-smaller-mazes-follows-the-original-20-small-mazes-with-an-additional-20-somehow-even-smaller-mazes/
Want a big pile of puzzles on your desk to sort though, be baffled by, and feel incredibly clever about when you solve them? Here's the enticing kicker: this pile of puzzles is not only great but also completely free.
20 More, Somehow Even Smaller, Mazes by developer FLEB is a free puzzle game and a sequel to 20 Small Mazes. (Don't worry, you don't have to have played 20 Small Mazes to get what's going on in 20 More, Somehow Even Smaller Mazes, but if you'd like to play 20 Small Mazes it's also free.)

Quake Champions takes a shower, shedding all its 2017 live-service grime and becoming a $10 game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/quake-champions-takes-a-shower-shedding-all-its-2017-live-service-grime-and-becoming-a-usd10-game/
After nine years, Quake Champions is a live-service game no more: The free-to-play arena shooter is now even more old school as a regular $10 product on Steam. All champions are unlocked from the jump, so you don't have to buy characters piecemeal like way too many games were asking us to do in the mid-2010s. Recently purchased premium currency will be refunded, but if you spent years dropping cash on skins, it might be a little awkward that everybody else now gets those at no additional cost.

Rogue Trader is coming to an end with miracles, madness and 'tears of blood'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/rogue-trader-is-coming-to-an-end-with-miracles-madness-and-tears-of-blood/
Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader's three-year run of expansions is drawing to a close this December with Processional of the Damned. Like the previous DLCs, Processional will introduce a new storyline and companion, both integrated into the existing story rather than coming after the end of the campaign. And your new buddy, well, she sounds pretty extra. A bit risky, maybe?

'We all thought we were bringing extraction to the masses, and we didn't'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/we-all-thought-we-were-bringing-extraction-to-the-masses-and-we-didnt/
A few illustrative quotes from the "Future of Marathon Part 1" video that Bungie published today. The team (recently reduced by Sony layoffs) were candid in their plans to transform Marathon from purely an extraction shooter to something more Destiny-shaped: Easier onboarding, dedicated PvE options, a wider variety of PvP (Including a team deathmatch mode), and a greater emphasis on story. This upcoming vision for Marathon sounds less hardcore and, ideally, more broad in its appeal.
The two major milestones for Marathon's future will be the December Symbiosis update and a March 2027 update. Here's what Bungie's laid out for those.

Control Resonant embarrasses me, specifically, with a launch day hotfix negating my main review complaint
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/control-resonant-embarrasses-me-specifically-with-a-launch-day-hotfix-negating-my-main-review-complaint/
Today is Control Resonant's launch day, and as I wrote in our review, it's peak Remedy. It's a gorgeously surreal atmosphere to sink into—but I had one main complaint. Its combat system centers around building ways to turn your piddly attacks into heavy hitters, which has the unfortunate side effect of making most of its hours of monster fighting a slog of inflated health pools.
Or at least, that was the case until earlier today. Ahead of launch, Remedy released a launch day hotfix that essentially looked me in the eye to say, Nice review you wrote there—would be a real shame if someone made it irrelevant.

Call of Duty 'cosmetic toggle' will cleanse Warzone of its Party City aesthetic
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-cosmetic-toggle-will-cleanse-warzone-of-its-party-city-aesthetic/
This time last year, Call of Duty had to look itself in the mirror and admit that all the ugly crossover skins had gotten out of hand. The company committed to a clean break with Black Ops 7: No old skins would carry forward, and future cosmetics would have to fit the Black Ops universe to make the cut. That lasted for about three months, when a CoD x Fallout collaboration arrived and all bets were off again.
This new toggle is, without a doubt, a positive change for CoD that I personally never expected to happen. If I were a Warzone diehard, I'd turn this on from day one and never look back. It's a shame, though, that this toggle appears to be only a temporary vacation from tacky outfits.

It's tough to stand out in today's games industry, but 'sorta like Helldivers 2 except dog people' worked on me
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/its-tough-to-stand-out-in-todays-games-industry-but-sorta-like-helldivers-2-except-dog-people-worked-on-me/
Here are some reasons to try the Gravhounds open playtest on Steam:

• It's free for the next few days and seems well put-together for a playtest of an unreleased early access game
• It's a co-op wave shooter and those are basically always fun to muck around in with friends, at least for a bit
• The movement feels good, especially gliding across networks of buildable cables
• There's a light resource mining and tower defense element that has potential
• You collect resources by hucking them across the map with a gravity gun, which is satisfying (just don't do it with explosive materials, I learned)
• It doesn't really play like Helldivers 2, it just replicates the home base spaceship setup, but it's a good format, and the shooting is fun

Also, you may have noticed that the characters are dogs with people bodies.

I am now certain The Blood of Dawnwalker's time limit should've just been a setting, after hearing about Rebel Wolves' attempts to thread the needle
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/i-am-now-certain-the-blood-of-dawnwalkers-time-limit-shouldve-just-been-a-setting-after-hearing-about-rebel-wolves-attempts-to-thread-the-needle/
Listen—I like The Blood of Dawnwalker, I've had a pretty good time with it thus far, but by far its most interesting mechanic from the preview I played, the time limit, is by far the least impactful element of the full game. It's still kinda there, you still kinda need to keep an eye on it, but short of doing a full completionist sweep of the worldmap? It doesn't really stop you from doing what you want to do.
And hey, I understand why some folks didn't like that, and moved faster than a hungry vampire in a blood bank to mod it out of their games. But I actually wanted to go the other way—I wanted it to be harsher. And to hear that it was harsher at some point in development actually makes me kinda disappointed.