The Tuesday news, part two:
Rockstar snubs PC with baffling Red Dead Redemption 1 port that's only coming to Switch and PS4
https://www.pcgamer.com/rockstar-snubs-pc-with-baffling-red-dead-redemption-1-port-thats-only-coming-to-switch-and-ps4/
In a move that stunned onlookers (me) and assembled experts (also me) are describing as "mystifying," Rockstar has finally come out and announced its freeing Red Dead Redemption 1 from its PS3 and Xbox 360 prison, by, uh, porting it to the Nintendo Switch and the… PS4? Apparently so!
>> I get the idea of launching it on the Switch given its install base, but can anyone can explain me the logic behind launching this game on PS4 and no other platform? It doesn't make any sense to me.
'We haven't started on an expansion' to Baldur's Gate 3, Larian says, but it's not completely off the table
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-expansion-interview/
20 years ago, expansions for PC games were as commonplace as CD drives. If a game was a hit, it probably got an expansion—that was certainly the case for Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2, which both saw their stories continue in 20-hour-plus add-on adventures. When I heard Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 imposes a level cap of 12 out of D&D's possible 20, I thought that sounded like prime expansion setup to me. But Larian founder Swen Vincke says the studio isn't working on one, and it sounds unlikely (though not impossible) that it'll happen.
>> There's already a mod to raise the level cap to 20. WccfTech has an article with some mods.
Larian's boss worried Baldur's Gate 3 had peaked in early access, so its massive 800K concurrent player launch was 'way, way beyond' expectations
https://www.pcgamer.com/larians-boss-worried-baldurs-gate-3-had-peaked-in-early-access-so-its-massive-800k-concurrent-player-launch-was-way-way-beyond-expectations/
(...)
On Friday, approximately 24 hours after Baldur's Gate 3 launched on PC, Baldur's Gate 3 had already passed 500,000 concurrent players; at the time, Vincke tweeted that he had informed the IT team managing Larian's account login servers to expect something like 100,000 players max. Their last game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, had peaked at just over 90,000 concurrent players.
"This was not in the books at all. This was way, way beyond what we expected. There's also no precedent for it, for our type of game to have that many people playing concurrently ... Everybody here is very happy. You see a lot of smiling faces. At the same time, a lot of focus. We have reports coming in from people having issues, so we're focused on fixing those issues, that's very much on everyone's minds."
Blizzard bans Diablo 4 exploiters for intentionally unplugging their internet
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-bans-diablo-4-exploiters-for-intentionally-unplugging-their-internet/
Last week, some fearless Diablo 4 players unplugged their internet to confuse the action RPG into letting them take non-seasonal characters into the seasonal mode. Blizzard has fixed the exploit—which allowed you to transfer valuable items back and forth—and has reportedly banned players who made use of it.
The new Street Fighter 6 character is really into nail art
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-new-street-fighter-6-character-is-really-into-nail-art/
Street Fighter 6's next character is "A.K.I.," a tall, sinuous woman with poisonous fingernails who'll make her series debut this fall. In her teaser trailer, Aki delights in poisoning someone who just wanted to buy some medicine, stalking about them in a circle and describing the horrible effects of the botulinum toxin she's just dosed them with. Not very nice!
Surprise! PvP dungeon crawler Dark and Darker is out in early access now
https://www.pcgamer.com/dark-and-darker-early-access-release/
The demo for PvP extraction dungeon crawler Dark and Darker was a hit earlier this year, but then Nexon alleged copyright infringement, it got booted off Steam, and its early access release was pushed back. Developer Ironmace persisted, going so far as to distribute a playtest by torrent, and this morning, Ironmace CEO Terence Park confirmed to PC Gamer that Dark and Darker would release in early access today.
That has now happened: Dark and Darker is available to purchase directly from the developer at www.darkanddarker.com. It's also available on a storefront called Chaf Games.
Red Dead Redemption fans turn their ire against Rockstar after bewildering PS4 port choice: 'Rockstar is Dutch and we've all become Arthur'
https://www.pcgamer.com/red-dead-redemption-fans-turn-their-ire-against-rockstar-after-bewildering-ps4-port-choice-rockstar-is-dutch-and-weve-all-become-arthur/
After months of speculation, the Red Dead Redemption remaster/remake saga hit a damp squelch of an anticlimax yesterday afternoon, when Rockstar proudly announced it was porting the basic version of the original PS3 and Xbox 360 game to the Nintendo Switch and PS4. For $50, no less. Fans were upset.
Fans continue to be upset, actually. Red Dead community hubs have gone into full-on mutiny mode, trading memes that excoriate and mock Rockstar's decision-making and encouraging one another to boycott the port entirely.
>> And no one's surprised.
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