Thursday news, part two:
They actually did it: EVE Online becomes the first videogame with Microsoft Excel integration
https://www.pcgamer.com/they-actually-did-it-eve-online-becomes-the-first-videogame-with-microsoft-excel-integration/
Those lunatics in Reykjavik have only gone and done it. EVE Online developer CCP games has always had an element of self-knowledge about it, and a unique relationship with its community, who love and loathe EVE with a life-overtaking ardour. One of the long-running gags about the game is that it's really just "spreadsheets in space" and, after announcing the collaboration a while ago, EVE Online has, 20 years after release, become the first videogame to seamlessly integrate Microsoft Excel, the world's favourite spreadsheet software.
Broken Sword designer retires after 30 years in the industry, laments the 'threat of AI' to the next generation of creators
https://www.pcgamer.com/broken-sword-designer-retires-after-30-years-in-the-industry-laments-the-threat-of-ai-to-the-next-generation-of-creators/
On June 20, Steve Ince announced his retirement on LinkedIn after over 30 years of working in the gaming industry. Ince has enjoyed an impressive career and was a big part of the Broken Sword series, classic point-and-click adventure games that date back to 1996 with Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (which received a Director's Cut in 2010). He's built up an impressive portfolio during his long career—production, writing, and even creating art for games like Beneath a Steel Sky, as well as credits in The Witcher and Resident Evil: Village.
Cyberpunk 2077’s massive credits roll gets even bigger with the addition of more than 1,600 voice actors
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077s-massive-credits-roll-gets-even-bigger-with-the-addition-of-more-than-1600-voice-actors/
Cyberpunk 2077's credit roll is already absurdly long, but it's about to get even longer. Senior Localization Project Manager Alexander Radkevich said on Twitter that the game’s latest update adds the names of every voice actor who performed in the game, in every language—and holy cow, it's an awful lot of people.
Vampire Survivors is finally getting couch co-op multiplayer for up to 4 players
https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-survivors-is-finally-getting-couch-co-op-multiplayer-for-up-to-4-players/
There are still no vampires coming to Vampire Survivors, but what is coming on August 17 is a new couch co-op mode that will let up to four people jump in to do battle with the game's multitudinous enemies—and, just a little bit, with each other.
Iron Lung dev weirded-out by their game being linked to the Titanic sub story and sales spiking: 'This feels so wrong'
https://www.pcgamer.com/iron-lung-dev-weirded-out-by-their-game-being-linked-to-the-titanic-sub-story-and-sales-spiking-this-feels-so-wrong/
Global news this week has been fixated on the missing Titan submersible, with rescue teams racing against time to find a vessel containing five people that has gone missing during a tourist dive to the wreck of the Titanic. (...)
One notable element in the reaction on social media has been frequent comparisons to a breakout indie hit from 2022, Iron Lung, to the extent it became a Twitter trend. In this game you play the sole crewmember of the titular craft, navigating an alien seafloor with analogue instruments and a black-and-white camera on the sub's exterior, while something stirs outside. The game sets out to horrify and, helped enormously by the confines and limitations of the sub itself, is a terrifying experience.
Cities: Skylines 2's cool new road tools are already making me think my city won't be a traffic-filled hellscape
https://www.pcgamer.com/cities-skylines-2s-cool-new-road-tools-are-already-making-me-think-my-city-wont-be-a-traffic-filled-hellscape/
I love building cities in Cities: Skylines, but loving something doesn't mean you're good at it. And when it comes to the cities I've built over the years, all of them have one thing in common: they are an utter traffic nightmare.
(...)
But the new Cities: Skylines 2 road tools trailer (above) has given me hope. There are so many neat new tools for building and managing roads and traffic that I'm starting to think maybe even the world's worst city planner (me) can manage to not completely bungle things when it comes to roads.
The Metal Gear Solid collection is including the non-canon game Kojima hates
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-metal-gear-solid-collection-is-including-the-non-canon-game-kojima-hates/
Konami recently announced the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, headlined by remastered versions of the first three games in the Metal Gear Solid series. Some more details have now emerged about what's going to be in the package and, well, colour me surprised: Konami has made the extremely interesting choice to include the NES game Metal Gear 2: Snake's Revenge.
Bungie says it will 'compensate and credit' artist whose work was 'mistakenly' used in this week's major Destiny 2 cutscene
https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-says-it-will-compensate-and-credit-artist-whose-work-was-mistakenly-used-in-this-weeks-major-destiny-2-cutscene/
Earlier this week, as part of the ongoing Season of the Deep, Destiny 2 released a cutscene that casually pulled back the curtain on some of the deepest mysteries in its nine-year-long history. (...)
While some players are thrilled to have finally received answers, others are puzzled as to why such a major story beat has been delivered in a seasonal update, which will be removed when the next expansion, The Final Shape, launches next year. And over on Twitter, another controversy emerged. Accusations of plagiarism surfaced when Julian Faylona—professionally known as ELEMENTJ21 designs—made a Twitter thread highlighting the similarities between a piece of fanart they made two years ago and a specific image found within the cutscene.
South Korea leaks the existence of Quake 2 Remastered a mere 2 years after it leaked the existence of Quake 1 Remastered
https://www.pcgamer.com/south-korea-leaks-the-existence-of-quake-2-remastered-a-mere-2-years-after-it-leaked-the-existence-of-quake-1-remastered/
The South Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) has done it again, folks. With just under two months to go until this year's QuakeCon event, the agency has gone and rated Quake 2 Remastered (via Gematsu), which we can probably assume does for the second game in the series what Quake Remastered did for the first.
Solid Snake says he's not worried about AI stealing work from voice actors: 'it'll always be soulless'
https://www.pcgamer.com/solid-snake-says-hes-not-worried-about-ai-stealing-work-from-voice-actors-itll-always-be-soulless/
Longtime Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter is a man of many talents, and has written and acted across films, games and TV since the early '90s. He's a guy who's been around these industries a while, certainly knows what goes into making the sausage, and he's not impressed with AI one bit.
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