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

[JEMC]

The second part of the Monday gaming news:

Wardogs will bribe players with cash and XP to pick Blue team in Season 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/wardogs-will-bribe-players-with-cash-and-xp-to-pick-blue-team-in-season-2/
Bulkhead wants to boost one team's win rate, and it's willing to bribe its players (with in-game cash) to do it. Despite all three teams starting on equal grounds, many Wardogs players have been avoiding Blue from the start, going so far as to idle on the selection screen for minutes waiting for a slot to open on Green or Red.

'Overcooked broke you apart and Stage Fright is there to put you back together'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/overcooked-broke-you-apart-and-stage-fright-is-there-to-put-you-back-together/
I introduced Overcooked to two of my friends one day back in 2016. One day being the key phrase here. The Overcooked games are on our list of the best co-op games, but the series has a reputation for ruining relationships—in China it's apparently known as "The Divorce Kitchen". I don't recall actually fighting with my friends, but the tension was thick enough that we quickly went back to playing Jackbox instead.
That makes Stage Fright, which is being published by No Man's Sky developer Hello Games, kind of an interesting pivot for Ghost Town Games. It's the next co-op adventure from the makers of Overcooked, but it's aimed at building relationships with your play partner instead of leaving you irked at them.

Mafia 3, which PC Gamer scored 54% but which I say is great, got a nice little 10th-anniversary update
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/mafia-3-which-pc-gamer-scored-54-percent-but-which-i-say-is-great-got-a-nice-little-10th-anniversary-update/
Here's a truth no one but I am willing to admit: Mafia 3 was good, actually. Please disregard PC Gamer's 54% Mafia 3 review. I don't know what happened there. Possibly Andy Kelly put the wrong game disc in by mistake. I understand they were still using game discs in 2016, alongside gramophones, the telegram, wax cylinders and what have you.
It's now 10 years old, which is deeply troubling, but earlier this week it got a new patch. "We're honouring a decade of Lincoln's legacy with a new Steam update bringing quality-of-life enhancements to Mafia 3: Definitive Edition, live now," says Hangar 13.

'If you're skilful enough, you can chop the head off a monster, kick it midair, and then kill another monster with it': Consider me sold on this indie first-person ARPG
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/if-youre-skilful-enough-you-can-chop-the-head-off-a-monster-kick-it-midair-and-then-kill-another-monster-with-it-consider-me-sold-on-this-indie-first-person-arpg/
Certain ideas that crop up every so often in games will always grab my attention. One of them is letting players defeat enemies with bits of other enemies. As such, my interest in Heathen—an upcoming indie dungeon crawler—went from 'mildly curious' to 'smashing the wishlist button' when its most recent trailer revealed you can beat your foes by volleying other enemy heads at them.

Expect plenty more Silent Hill over the next few years, as Konami has plans for 'second and third waves' of new games in its revived horror series
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/expect-plenty-more-silent-hill-over-the-next-few-years-as-konami-has-plans-for-second-and-third-waves-of-new-games-in-its-revived-horror-series/
Silent Hill's resurrection is one of the happier stories to emerge from the games industry in recent years. After spending roughly a decade locked in a Konami cupboard, Silent Hill has received three new entries published by Konami in as many years, all of which arrived to positive reviews and, seemingly, healthy sales. But if Silent Hill 2 Remake, Silent Hill f, and Silent Hill: Townfall still haven't satisfied your craving for allegorical horror in foggy towns, fret not, because Konami has plenty more plans for the series' ongoing revival.

Be warned: Nivalis Nights may not be the cozy game you expect: 'If you want a cozy existence in this city, you're going to have to earn it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/be-warned-nivalis-nights-may-not-be-the-cozy-game-you-expect-if-you-want-a-cozy-existence-in-this-city-youre-going-to-have-to-earn-it/
The popular user-added tags for Nivalis Nights on Steam are: Cyberpunk, simulation, life sim, management, and relaxing. It is definitely a cyberpunk shop/life sim, but relaxing? This one was on the wishlists of a lot of cozy gaming fans, including me. After playing it though, I'm not sure it's the kind of cozy most people would expect. Here's what lead writer Thomas Welsh had to say.
>> And here’s an article about why it doesn’t have “transactional romances” (link).

Triple-A Minesweeper is a gleeful send-up of blockbuster gaming's worst habits, from yellow paint to characters who talk too much
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/triple-a-minesweeper-is-a-gleeful-send-up-of-blockbuster-gamings-worst-habits-from-yellow-paint-to-characters-who-talk-too-much/
In recent years, triple-A games have often been criticised for overly excessive handholding, overcompensating for a dread fear that the player might become stuck. This has manifested in numerous ways like Atreus' heavy-handed puzzle hints in God of War: Ragnarok, yellow paint splashed on every other ledge of Stellar Blade, and most recently, Marvel's Wolverine essentially playing itself for entire portions of the game.
I'm not here to weigh in on that debate. Instead, I'm simply going to point you to Triple-A Minesweeper, a delightful spoof game created by developer Mike Lacher, which expertly skewers some of blockbuster gaming's most egregious habits.
>> It’s the most egregious experience I’d had in a very long time. Thank God it’s very short.

Squadron 42 has a Steam page
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/squadron-42-has-a-steam-page/
In August, game director Chris Roberts said that Star Citizen's singleplayer component, Squadron 42, was being delayed out of 2026 to avoid clashing with Grand Theft Auto 6. There was a certain amount of skepticism about the reason for the delay, thanks in part to a recent Star Citizen livestream being declared a disaster, but also because, well. These games have had so many release dates the changes have their own wiki page.
There's something concrete about having Squadron 42 getting a Steam page though, with system requirements and everything. Those system requirements are charmingly old-fashioned, with no mention of ray tracing-capable GPUs or DirectX 12. Although the install size of 150GB is still pretty hefty. (Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is apparently going to be 200GB, oof.)

It looks like Wing Commander 3 is getting a remaster, after EA producer discovers the original FMV source tapes in the company's archives
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/it-looks-like-wing-commander-3-is-getting-a-remaster-after-ea-producer-discovers-the-original-fmv-source-tapes-in-the-companys-archives/
Typical, isn't it? You wait ages for new information on a Chris Roberts-directed space combat sim, and then two lots come along at once. Less than 24 hours after Cloud Imperium Games surprise-released a glossy trailer for Star Citizen's single-player spinoff Squadron 42, it now appears that Roberts' 1994 classic Wing Commander 3 is getting a remaster courtesy of EA.
The project is headed up by EA producer Jim Vessella, who revealed the remaster during a presentation at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. The remaster will include cutscenes based on Wing Commander 3's original FMV recordings, after Vessella discovered 600 source tapes while digitising EA's video archive.

The developer of an AI-powered driving instruction simulator is spending $1,000 per month just to keep its demo running
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/the-developer-of-an-ai-powered-driving-instruction-simulator-is-spending-usd1-000-per-month-just-to-keep-its-demo-running/
One of the many ways AI will (supposedly) revolutionise the games industry is facilitating highly reactive NPCs via LLM-powered chatbots. Yet so far, only a handful of games like Where Winds Meet have attempted to implement the tech, and the results have been less than spectacular. But there might also be another reason why relatively few games feature LLM-powered NPCs, which is that powering such chatbots can be costly, as recently demonstrated by the developers of an upcoming driving instructor simulator
As reported by FRVR (via Kotaku) Teach My Little Sister How To Drive is a comic simulation game in which you coach your virtual sibling on driving technique from the comfort of the passenger seat. The twist is that behind your sister's dinner-plate eyes is an LLM chatbot (currently powered by an OpenAI model, though the developers intend to use Gemini for the final release) In the role of instructor, players can both converse with the chatbot and issue vocal instructions such as "turn left here", to which the bot will respond accordingly. At least, that's the theory.

This Control-inspired action game set in a 'planet-scale alien mind' has one of the most stunning art styles I've seen this year
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-control-inspired-action-game-set-in-a-planet-scale-alien-mind-has-one-of-the-most-stunning-art-styles-ive-seen-this-year/
In the age of near photorealism, it takes a lot for a game's visuals to impress me. As cramming yet more pixels into a videogame character's face provides diminishing returns, standing out from the crowd is increasingly about how creative developers get in applying that power. All that said, I was genuinely mesmerised by the debut footage of Etre, an upcoming action adventure game with a truly eye-popping art style.

Arc Raiders 2.0 is here, and you can finally turn those lights on your backpack off
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-2-0-is-here-and-you-can-finally-turn-those-lights-on-your-backpack-off/
I remember being a kid and wishing I had shoes that lit up. I know now that I was a fool. If I festooned myself with garish lights, how would I scavenge for supplies in a frozen wasteland without being spotted by strangers who may or may not kill me before I can use my grappling hook to get away? This isn't a real problem I have, nor is it a real problem Arc Raiders players will have anymore, since your backpack now has an emissive toggle.
That's one of many little overhauls that arrived in Embark Studios' popular extraction shooter Thursday, and you can read all about the rest in the 2.0 patch notes). If you've not been tuned into the extraction world as of late, you did indeed read that right: Arc Raiders has gotten a big shakeup with the Frozen Trails update, which comes bearing snowy mountains and grappling hooks.
>> And here’s a place to find some loot (link).

PvP pinball is such a good idea I can't believe I haven't played it before
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pvp-pinball-is-such-a-good-idea-i-cant-believe-i-havent-played-it-before/
One of the great things about videogame conventions is there are always people up for playing a local multiplayer game, just waiting to be handed controls and thrown into a new experience. Which is how, at PAX Australia over the weekend, I found myself playing a game called Bumper Bout. It immediately impressed me with its concept, and then as I played a few rounds of it, with how it executed that concept.
Bumper Bout is two-player competitive pinball. If you know Puyo Puyo Tetris it's like that, but if you don't then imagine you're playing pinball on one half of the screen while someone else beside you is doing the same, only with the ability to flick balls across the divide. While you're trying to land a skill shot or just frantically deal with the balls already pinging between your flippers, the neighbor casually lobs another problem over the fence and says, "Deal with this. Good luck!"

'The algorithm continues to properly prioritise Mister Biddy Blas'—Star Wars: Galactic Racer has created the perfect creature
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/the-algorithm-continues-to-properly-prioritise-mister-biddy-blas-star-wars-galactic-racer-has-created-the-perfect-creature/
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is out, and it's pretty solid, netting a firm 76 score in our Galactic Racer review. It's also, as should always be the case with Star Wars videogames, full of funny little guys. None so funny as Biddy Blas. Why is Biddy Blas so popular? Just listen to his voice actor having an absolute ball. I will have the words "SCRIB DOON" burned into my brain forevermore.
>> And this is how the devs tested its progression system (link).