The Wednesday news, part two:
Sony applies to patent dynamic difficulty settings that respond to your performance, one year after EA did the same thing with controller settings
https://www.pcgamer.com/sony-applies-to-patent-dynamic-difficulty-settings-that-respond-to-your-performance-one-year-after-ea-did-the-same-thing-with-controller-settings/
Sony has applied to patent systems that automatically fiddle with "parameters that change the difficulty of the game" based on your performance, a patent on the World Intellectual Property Organization's website reveals. (Actually, the patent reads "difficultly" at the time of writing, so Sony may in fact be referring to the implementation of dynamic cults. But probably not.)
EA rebrands Frostbite with a cuddly new hand as it says its studios are now 'free to develop on any engine they choose'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-rebrands-frostbite-with-a-cuddly-new-hand-as-it-says-its-studios-are-now-free-to-develop-on-any-engine-they-choose/
Publisher Electronic Arts has rebranded its Frostbite engine, with the aim of better reflecting the tech as a "platform for collaborative innovation".
In an announcement on the publisher's website, EA introduced a new brand direction for the engine, saying the it "signals not just a visual shift for Frostbite, but a philosophical one, with a renewed focus on partnership with our teams and collaborators." As part of this, it has created a new logo for Frostbite, which is still a handprint, but is softer and more contiguous than previous iterations.
There's a detailed explanation about why the logo looks like this which we'll get into, but most important point in the announcement is that "EA game teams are free to develop on any engine they choose."
Streets of Rogue 2 promises to mash up Deus Ex and Dwarf Fortress in a chaotic immersive sim 10,000 times bigger than the first game
https://www.pcgamer.com/streets-of-rogue-2-promises-to-mash-up-deus-ex-and-dwarf-fortress-in-a-chaotic-immersive-sim-10000-times-bigger-than-the-first-game/
I am unreasonably excited for Streets of Rogue 2, the follow-up to 2019's best immersive sim in which you could play a vampire, hacker, gorilla or bartender, which means I've been eagerly devouring information about it ever since it was announced in October last year. Lucky for me, then, that developer Matt Dabrowski is kicking off a series of devlogs giving a look at the game's features, inspirations, and, naturally, development.
The Finals might be a bit less sweaty now it's cracking down on cheaters
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-finals-might-be-a-bit-less-sweaty-now-its-cracking-down-on-cheaters/
Embark Studios' The Finals is one of the most interesting multiplayers to come along for a while. It's also a brand new game from a new studio, and it unsurprisingly has some issues at launch. (...) However, it's possible that the issues weren't entirely due to the game's skill-based-matchmaking or dog-eat-dog structure. It could also be that we've simply been playing against a bunch of big ol' cheaters. In the wake of the game's surprise launch during the Game Awards, reports of cheating over on Reddit have spiked enormously, with many of these cheaters believed to originate from China.
Former Mass Effect lead writer Mac Walters says the success of the Legendary Edition helped convince him to leave BioWare: 'I don't want to do any more Mass Effect after this'
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-mass-effect-lead-writer-mac-walters-says-the-success-of-the-legendary-edition-helped-convince-him-to-leave-bioware-i-dont-want-to-do-any-more-mass-effect-after-this/
Mac Walters amassed an enviable list of credits during his nearly 20-year career at BioWare on games including Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age, eventually rising to lead writer of Mass Effect 2 and 3 and creative director on Mass Effect: Andromeda. He then stepped into the role of production director on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, before leaving the studio in January 2023. In a new interview with MinnMax, Walters talked about his reasons for leaving, saying he was prompted to do so in part by the success of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
The Baldur's Gate 3 advent calendar is telling the tale of 'How the Gremishka Stole Christmas'
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-baldurs-gate-3-advent-calendar-is-telling-the-tale-of-how-the-gremishka-stole-christmas/
Somehow I missed this until just now, but Larian Studios has put up a Baldur's Gate 3 advent calendar, with prizes and an epic Christmas-themed poem being doled out daily until December 24.
WoW shows off four Hero Talent trees from its upcoming expansion The War Within, and it looks like the Augmentation Evoker's meta chaos is spreading to other specs
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-shows-off-four-hero-talent-trees-from-its-upcoming-expansion-the-war-within-and-it-looks-like-the-augmentation-evokers-meta-chaos-is-spreading-to-other-specs/
Blizzard have released a sneak peek at some of the Hero Talents from World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion: The War Within. Hero Talents are meant to be evergreen dashes of spice to the game's existing talent system—ones which mainly add "class utility [and] defensive bonuses."
>> We have the 2024 roadmap, that includes a Cataclysm Classic Beta coming soon.
3 months after Blizzard's president sank WoW players' hopes of a swashbuckling adventure with the words 'No pirates', roadmap suggests: Yes, yes pirates
https://www.pcgamer.com/3-months-after-blizzards-president-sank-wow-players-hopes-of-a-swashbuckling-adventure-with-the-words-no-pirates-roadmap-suggests-yes-yes-pirates/
World of Warcraft revealed its roadmaps for both retail and Classic yesterday, and while there's plenty of exciting news—including a confirmed Summer release window for The War Within—one particular stop on the road hit me like a cannon full of grapeshot. A black flag with a skull and crossbones.
Bethesda is far from done with Fallout 76, unsurprising given 17 million people have jumped in since the Wastelanders update
https://www.pcgamer.com/bethesda-is-far-from-done-with-fallout-76-unsurprising-given-17-million-people-have-jumped-in-since-the-wastelanders-update/
We often discuss the impressive turnaround of games like No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk, but Fallout 76 should probably be included in that discussion. While the game launched as an empty wasteland back in 2018, Bethesda has since added a ton of new features to make it feel more like, well, a Fallout game. NPCs, new locations, more fulfilling quests, iconic Fallout factions like the Brotherhood of Steel, and downright weird stuff like alien invasions. It may have suffered a torrid development, but the general consensus is that it's now a Good Videogame.
What's more, Bethesda is far from finished building out its Most Improved virtual son. To celebrate the end of the year, and Fallout 76's fifth anniversary, art director Jon Rush took to the Fallout website to reflect upon the game's successes, and outline the developer's vision for 2024.
'We would love to explore a new game mode,' says Remnant 2's creative director, which he'd like to 'scratch the same itch' as a wave-based survival gauntlet
https://www.pcgamer.com/we-would-love-to-explore-a-new-game-mode-says-remnant-2s-creative-director-which-hed-like-to-scratch-the-same-itch-as-a-wave-based-survival-gauntlet/
Remnant 2's first DLC dropped a short while ago—and it's a pretty good romp. It adds a whole new area to explore, a new class, and some new gear to grab—it also enhances Losomn as a whole, since having the DLC lets its areas and bosses crop up during your randomised runs of the main campaign.
In an interview with the game's creative director David Adams (also the president of development studio Gunfire Games) Exputer asked whether he'd consider adding a survival mode to the game, a la Call of Duty's Zombies.
