Brace yourselves, the long second part of the Monday news is here:

Former Bethesda dev went indie in part because of Fallout 76's noxious reception: 'If you put out a game that people don't like, the internet's gonna treat you like you're clubbing baby seals'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/former-bethesda-dev-went-indie-in-part-because-of-fallout-76s-noxious-reception-if-you-put-out-a-game-that-people-dont-like-the-internets-gonna-treat-you-like-youre-clubbing-baby-seals/
Fallout 76 has undertaken something of a redemption arc in recent years, but if you were around during its much-anticipated release you'll remember that it, aside from being mired in all sorts of controversies, had some pretty serious issues despite a promising skeleton.
The masses didn't exactly take it well, with project lead Jeff Gardiner getting yelled at in public and Todd Howard later admitting in a Wired interview that the team "struggled" to meet expectations.
Nate Purkeypile, who was an artist at Bethesda for 14 years, left triple-A development to become a solo developer. In a GDC talk last week, he noted that he swore off the big time partially because the response to Fallout 76 was so caustic.

Sea of Thieves gets some of that Destiny 2 drip as Sony and Microsoft play happy families
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/sea-of-thieves-gets-some-of-that-destiny-2-drip-as-sony-and-microsoft-play-happy-families/
Rare's Sea of Thieves, the live service pirate-em-up and one of Microsoft's great Game Pass stalwarts, has announced a new collaboration with Bungie's Destiny 2. This must be a funny feeling for Bungie, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000 and made its name with the Xbox-exclusive Halo games, before going independent in 2007, and finally being acquired by Sony in 2022.

Path of Exile 2 director says it may not leave early access in 2025: 'I want to get it done this year, but we'll see how things go'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/path-of-exile-2-director-says-it-may-not-leave-early-access-in-2025-i-want-to-get-it-done-this-year-but-well-see-how-things-go/
Path of Exile 2 players hoping the game will go into full release this year may need to be a little more patient than expected. In an interview with PC Gamer, game director Jonathan Rogers said Grinding Gear Games still hopes to wrap up early access in 2025, but it "may take a little bit of extra time."

Tired of Call of Duty's crossover skins? Hash it out in Black Ops 6's upcoming weed-themed extravaganza featuring 'joint operations' and Jay and Silent Bob
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/tired-of-call-of-dutys-crossover-skins-hash-it-out-in-black-ops-6s-upcoming-weed-themed-extravaganza-featuring-joint-operations-and-jay-and-silent-bob/
Call of Duty has a storied relationship with the sweet leaf at this point, what with its guns that are also bongs you can smoke and its collaborations with Snoop Dogg and Cheech and Chong, both of whom brought weed-themed finishers to bear. If all that sounds novel, you can expect to see a lot more in the mid-season additions to come in Black Ops 6's nug-tastic "Blaze of Glory" event.

Over 60% of Call of Duty players reported for cheating are on console, but the data says nearly all cheaters are on PC: 'We've found that many of these reports have been inaccurate'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/over-60-percent-of-call-of-duty-players-reported-for-cheating-are-on-console-but-the-data-says-nearly-all-cheaters-are-on-pc-weve-found-that-many-of-these-reports-have-been-inaccurate/
Hackusations: We've all made one, been the target of one, or at least suspected that our online opponents aren't legit. Few communities are more likely to call foul on your play than Call of Duty, whose prevalence among cheat sellers convinced Activision to form Ricochet, an entire division dedicated to anti-cheat, a few years ago.
The Ricochet Anti-Cheat team has since released progress reports every few months, documenting ban statistics and detailing new tactics to counter the latest and greatest in ruining games for other people. Today's report touches on the purpose of "shadow bans," new restrictions around Ranked play, and community questions, but what caught my eye was a section on bogus reports.
(...)
"Over 60% of received cheater reporting in Call of Duty: Warzone have been against console players, for example," the blog says. "Console cheating is possible, but our data has consistently shown it represents an extremely low population of detected cheaters when compared to PC, which means that this large volume of cheater reports are inaccurate even if the KillCams may have made it seem like the player was cheating."

Inzoi studio says running over children is 'highly inappropriate' after players discover they could launch kids into the next life by pasting them with their cars
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/inzoi-studio-says-running-over-children-is-highly-inappropriate-after-players-discover-they-could-launch-kids-into-the-next-life-by-pasting-them-with-their-cars/
Remember when there was kind of a mini-kerfuffle among Fallout fans because Bethesda wouldn't let you kill children in its games? Because it's okay to set off a nuclear device in the middle of a populated settlement but murking a lippy 14-year-old who's probably just going to grow up to be a wasteland raider is beyond the pale, I guess. Anyway, I bring this up now because Inzoi players made an unexpected and rather startling discovery almost immediately after the game went live: You could kill kids in the newly-launched life sim by pasting them with your car.

Co-op hit Split Fiction now holds three Guinness World Records that seem destined to be won specifically by co-op hit Split Fiction
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/co-op-hit-split-fiction-now-holds-three-guinness-world-records-that-seem-destined-to-be-won-specifically-by-co-op-hit-split-fiction/
Hazelight has been on something of a tear lately with its signature co-op adventures. Its latest game, Split Fiction, has been lighting the sales charts on fire and left PC Gamer editor Fraser Brown thoroughly impressed—he called it "one of the greatest co-op games around." The game is making its requisite victory lap around the headlines, with the latest word on the street being that it smashed three Guinness World Records within a week of its release.
The records—most played local co-op videogame on Steam, most sold local co-op videogame within 48 hours of release, and most sold local co-op videogame within one week of release—all celebrate the game's dynamite sales numbers, though I'm not sure if they're including all games that feature local co-op or just ones that emphasize it to the same extent Hazelight games do.

Quell your fears, Ultramarines! Just because Space Marine 3 is happening doesn't mean the end of support for Space Marine 2: 'There are surprises even dataminers haven’t found out about'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/quell-your-fears-ultramarines-just-because-space-marine-3-is-happening-doesnt-mean-the-end-of-support-for-space-marine-2-there-are-surprises-even-dataminers-havent-found-out-about/
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 3 is officially happening, which isn't massively surprising since Space Marine 2 sold more copies than there are Tyranids on Kadaku. You'd think this would be exciting news for Space Marine fans, but apparently some members of the community have treated the announcement with apprehension rather than joy.

'Game changing' ArmA Reforger update adds attack helicopters, mortars, and destructible buildings: 'nowhere on the battlefield is safe anymore'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/game-changing-arma-reforger-update-adds-attack-helicopters-mortars-and-destructible-buildings-nowhere-on-the-battlefield-is-safe-anymore/
ArmA Reforger has come a long way since its rather thin launch in 2022. A multiplayer-centric military roleplaying toolset, Reforger is part ArmA 3's Zeus dressed in Bohemia's snazzy new engine, and part testbed for ArmA 4. It wasn't vastly well liked when it was released out of Steam Early Access, with the community accusing Bohemia of abandoning it. But that is from the case, as is demonstrated by its latest update.
Described by Bohemia Interactive as "game-changing", update 1.3 adds several substantial features to the Czech studio's latest military simulator. While the update is headlined by the addition of two new APCs, the LAV-25 for the game's US faction, and the BDRM-2 for the Soviets, the more significant change is that ArmA Reforger now has fully destructible buildings and trees.

This whimsical adventure game sees you play as a retired Sherlock Holmes whose beekeeping hobby keeps getting interrupted by pesky crimes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/this-whimsical-adventure-game-sees-you-play-as-a-retired-sherlock-holmes-whose-beekeeping-hobby-keeps-getting-interrupted-by-pesky-crimes/
Sherlock Holmes never struck me as the retiring sort, more the 'dying in his armchair mid-deduction' sort. Nonetheless, this is the premise of The Beekeeper's Picnic—A Sherlockian Adventure, a charming little adventure game that's just released on Steam.

Tactical RPG Shadow Of The Road's open Alpha test lets players get a free first taste of its samurai versus steampunk setting
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/tactical-rpg-shadow-of-the-roads-open-alpha-test-lets-players-get-a-free-first-taste-of-its-samurai-versus-steampunk-setting/
They grow up so fast! Not long ago, Owlcat were just a plucky young Kickstarter-funded RPG studio, giving us the likes of Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous. Now they're a big, strong outfit, fresh from the monstrously huge Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader, and rolling out their own publishing wing. Now we get to play our first slice of Shadow of the Road, the steampunk samurai RPG from Another Angle Games, and Owlcat’s first published title. Starting today, all it takes is one click on the game’s Steam page to jump into an early alpha test version of the game.

Play 'co-op with yourself' in this single-player puzzle game where you control two wizards, one with each hand
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/play-co-op-with-yourself-in-this-single-player-puzzle-game-where-you-control-two-wizards-one-with-each-hand/
My affection for retro puzzle games is almost as sizable as my backlog full of them; sometimes I find myself wishing I could play two at once just to save a little time.
Well, Spanish indie studio Majorariatto has caught my eye with a better value proposition than most, offering two death-defying quests to save helpless royals for the price of one in Ambidextro.
Ambidextro's Steam page describes it as "a multiplayer game for a single player" and presents a unique tactile challenge: navigate hellish labyrinths and lethal puzzle rooms as two characters at the same time.

There's an Inzoi bug that makes some of your family disappear if you remarry too many times
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/theres-an-inzoi-bug-that-makes-some-of-your-family-disappear-if-you-remarry-too-many-times/
My housemates played The Sims over our local network back in the day, which became an issue when one of them decided to become a homewrecker. She'd wander around our shared neighborhood, flirt with everyone, start some fights, and move on. Marriages didn't last long with her around, and pretty soon everyone's relationship history started to look like what you get when you scroll down a celebrity's Wikipedia page and notice how many ex-spouses they've got.
Do the same thing in Inzoi, and there might be even bigger problems. As Krafton's list of known issues points out, "When a single Zoi remarries multiple times, some family members may disappear." That's it, straight into the void with at least some of your family. Which maybe isn't the worst outcome in the world.
>> Another known issue is the lack of same-sex couples/relationships.

The next DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 will include a Slaanesh faction led by a six-armed snake lady
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/the-next-dlc-for-total-war-warhammer-3-will-include-a-slaanesh-faction-led-by-a-six-armed-snake-lady/
The latest video in Creative Assembly's "dev chat series" sees senior community manager Steve Coleman, game designer William Håkestad, senior game designer Vasil Nikolov, and principal technical designer Radoslav Borislov sit down to talk about the 6.2 update, the campaign AI improvements, and the next DLC.

Vampire survival RPG V Rising gets a big update next month, bringing a new biome, multiplayer duels and the 'biggest combat overhaul yet'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/vampire-survival-rpg-v-rising-gets-a-big-update-next-month-bringing-a-new-biome-multiplayer-duels-and-the-biggest-combat-overhaul-yet/
The best game about vampires and survival that isn't Vampire Survivors, V Rising originally rose from its grave back in 2022. Following one of the more comprehensive early access launches of recent years, V Rising emerged fully formed in May last year to glowing reviews. Yet it turns out developer Stunlock Studios was far from done with the game, and has spent the last year beavering away on a big new update.

And the last post of news:

The 37-year-old studio behind Myst and Riven laid off 'roughly half' of its staff: 'Our sincere hope is to continue to be around'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-37-year-old-studio-behind-myst-and-riven-laid-off-roughly-half-of-its-staff-our-sincere-hope-is-to-continue-to-be-around/
Less than a year after releasing its acclaimed Riven remake, Cyan Worlds announced last week that twelve of its employees were laid off in a statement on Bluesky.
That represents around half of the studio according to the statement, which adds: "We are having to weigh the future health of our studio against the month-to-month realities of game development in 2025." It says that leadership was "ultra-transparent" with employees about the state of the games industry and the "choppy waters" that led to these layoffs, and Cyan Worlds stated that "the news of a layoff was not a surprise to the team."

SAG-AFTRA makes exception for student devs and game jams in 8-month videogame performance strike: 'I'm thrilled that these types of projects can now be accommodated'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/sag-aftra-makes-exception-for-student-devs-and-game-jams-in-8-month-videogame-performance-strike-im-thrilled-that-these-types-of-projects-can-now-be-accommodated/
SAG-AFTRA is making a move to support student game developers amidst its ongoing strike with a new exception that will allow striking video game actors to work on student projects and game jams.

At one point, Avowed would have taught us to use magic with an explosive Elder Scrolls reference: 'How about we just have a guy on the road that blows himself up'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/at-one-point-avowed-would-have-taught-us-to-use-magic-with-an-explosive-elder-scrolls-reference-how-about-we-just-have-a-guy-on-the-road-that-blows-himself-up/
When I spoke to Obsidian region director Berto Ritger about Avowed earlier this month, the conversation mostly focused on the game's excellent level design and exploration. But he also touched on how drastically Avowed's early game changed in development. While that was probably for the best, a great Elder Scrolls gag in Avowed was originally even better.

Satisfactory 1.1 will have autoconnecting blueprints, vertical splitters, branching hypertube networks, controllers, photo mode, and more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/satisfactory-1-1-will-have-autoconnecting-blueprints-vertical-splitters-branching-hypertube-networks-controllers-photo-mode-just-way-too-much-frankly/
Coffee Stain Studios has announced some contents of the upcoming 1.1 update for Satisfactory, the first update for the popular and genre-defining sandbox factory game since its quite successful 1.0 release last year. It's a doozy, combining a ton of quality-of-life and design features that players have been modding in on their own since Satisfactory came out.

Cult classic Rain World has dropped a new expansion about its most mysterious slugcat yet
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/cult-classic-rain-world-has-dropped-a-new-expansion-about-its-most-mysterious-slugcat-yet/
We've known it was coming since last year, but atmospheric, beautiful, ecologically-driven metroidvania platformer Rain World's new expansion has dropped.
In Rain World: The Watcher, you become Nightcat, AKA The Watcher, a new and adorable slugcat with its own (new, adorable) gimmick—finding mysterious echoes of itself, which will require you to check out all kinds of new places on the map.

Nordhold is out now, and one of the year's most interesting tower defense games
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/nordhold-is-out-now-and-one-of-the-years-most-interesting-tower-defense-games/
Any strategy fan likes to see a nice tower defense game, and hey, here's one now: Nordhold has you managing a little Nordic village and using replayable combinations of towers to defend it from hordes of fantasy monsters.

Videogame collectibles don't have to suck, argues seasoned dev: 'I'm lookin' at you, Korok Seeds'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/videogame-collectibles-dont-have-to-suck-argues-seasoned-dev-im-lookin-at-you-korok-seeds/
Bear with me, dear reader, and ask yourself: What makes for a good collectible? I obviously have a few good ideas now, because I'm writing this article, but before then I admit I'd be hard-pressed to give you a proper list. I know what makes a bad one, mind, but what gives them the juice? Is it something that makes a little noise when you pick it up? Does it make a bar increase somewhere?
Joe Morrissey, a seasoned writer and director who spoke at GDC this year, has a few solid ideas. In case you're unfamiliar, Morrissey has quite a few credits, including Diablo 2 and 3, InFamous 1 and 2, and Ghost of Tsushima.

CEO of GTA 6 publisher Take-Two isn't worried about AI-generated slop games: 'It’s built on data that already exists, it’s backward-looking—big hits are forward-looking'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/ceo-of-gta-6-publisher-take-two-isnt-worried-about-ai-generated-slop-games-its-built-on-data-that-already-exists-its-backward-looking-big-hits-are-forward-looking/
Generative AI has shunted its great technological heft into all sorts of industries over the past few years—and videogames aren't an exception, not by a long-shot.
(...)
That's not to say it doesn't have its uses—frame generation's neat, and deep-learning tech has lots of annoying busywork to automate, but the way you see some execs talk about it, generative AI is somehow the future of everything. Soon we'll be able to simply ask a machine to generate a game we want to play—and isn't that better? Not really, says CEO of Take-Two Strauss Zelnick, a publisher that's currently bankrolling a tiny little game called Grand Theft Auto 6.

Monster Hunter Wilds will finally let players transmog their ugly Artian weapons, and there's been some much-needed acknowledgement of PC performance problems
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-will-finally-let-players-transmog-their-ugly-artian-weapons-and-theres-been-some-much-needed-acknowledgement-of-pc-performance-problems/
Monster Hunter Wilds has been out for over four weeks now, but that doesn't mean Capcom's finished cooking. We already have a roadmap for future updates, like this week's Title Update 1—introducing Mizutsune, a gathering hub, and arena quests—as well as more updates into May before a second major patch in the summer.
But wait, there's more. To commemorate the fact the game's sold over 10 million copies, director Yuya Tokuda has done a big ol' blog post. There's some stuff we already knew about, but there's also, finally, some much-needed recognition around the PC version's performance issues as well as some extra details on what we can expect to come in the following months.

Lovecraftian horror detective game The Sinking City's grand redemption arc continues, with a shiny new remaster coming free to all existing owners
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/lovecraftian-horror-detective-game-the-sinking-citys-grand-redemption-arc-continues-with-a-shiny-new-remaster-coming-free-to-all-existing-owners/
Back in 2023, I had a blast with developer Frogwares' remake of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. Its blend of detective work and Lovecraftian horror felt like the studio fully in its element. I enjoy its straight Sherlock Holmes games, but increasingly they have this undercurrent of dark strangeness—particularly noticeable in most recent entry Chapter One—as if the team are straining to stop themselves slipping a tentacle and a cult sacrifice into the middle of the mystery.
All of which made it particularly sad to look back on the original fate of The Sinking City, Frogwares' full-on, mask-off Lovecraftian detective game. It felt rough on launch, and then owing to a dispute with the game's publisher, has existed in an awkward limbo for years that has prevented post-release support. Players on Steam couldn't get the latest patches, including basic features like achievements as well as serious bug fixes and even DLC.
It's definitely getting its second chance now, at least. Not only did Frogwares regain control of the Steam page last year and update the game to its most recent version with all expansions available, it also announced a sequel. And now there's one more treat to secure the game's legacy: it's getting a remaster, and it'll be free to all existing owners.

"Former Bethesda dev went indie in part because of Fallout 76's noxious reception: 'If you put out a game that people don't like, the internet's gonna treat you like you're clubbing baby seals' "

There are plenty of titles that have gotten undue hate from the internet lynchmob. That said the fervor of that lynchmob has only intensified recently. Moreover Bethesda released a piss poor product with Fallout 76. There wasn't the current woke/anti-woke internet war riling up people to pile on the game. They simply released a game that didn't do what was promised and feature bugs from the previous game. Bugs their fans had fixed in that game, yet Bethesda could be bothered do so in Fallout 76.

The problem lies more towards the people that go beyond what's reasonable, or at least this is how I see it.

If a game is bad or the end product doesn't have the features promised, it's perfectly ok to complain about the quality of the product and demand that it gets fixed. What's more, it should be encouraged!

But when you see comments straight up attacking the persons that have made the game and even going as far as sending death threads, now that's completelly unnacceptable. And lately, thanks to social media, more and more people don't realize how useless and hurtful that behavious is, quite the contrary, they feel entitled to do that because it's "they right" (and no, it isn't. No one has the right to be a d*ck to anyone else).

And yes, Fallout 76 was a bad game at launch that deserved to be criticized, for many, many reasons. But what part of the Fallout fanaticals did wasn't right, and it must also be criticized.

I've kept playing both Saints Row eand Arcade Paradise.

I've also played a bit of Secret of Mana (my brother gifted me a Super Nes Mini for X-mas). Apparently you can't just follow the story and you need to grind for experience, or at least that seems to be my experience with it.

There are always people that go too far. The issue I have is companies hide behind those types of people to avoid accountability for substandard products. Internet trolls were not saying "16 times the detail", Todd Howard was. Nor they have leave bugs that had been long resolved by fans in Fallout 76's game code. Fallout 76 was the perfect storm because it being online hamstruck the people that had been fixing Bethesda's problems. Their fans. It laid bare just how piss poor of a job they were doing. It's not just a Bethesda issue though, it's business at large. They'll put out a bad product, latch on the virtrolic reactions from a small segment of the internet, and completely evade responsibiity for the fact that they put out a bad product. 

Secret of Mana was a bit grindy for the SNES version ya.

Not sure about the remake - I'll be playing both in the future.

And, as I said, I agree completely with you that companies need to be held accountable for the quality of the products they ship and the promises made, but there are ways and ways to do it. And while this second group is a minority, thankfully, we can't just close our eyes to the effect they have on those working on the games.

Not surprising really they said 6 month minimum and they don't want it longer than 12 but so much is still missing from the game they said would be there and the endgame needs big changes and I think it was just thrown in right before early access launch as a placeholder but the campaign has been top tier so far and and I do think they have a good core to build on and I'm expecting them to keep this closer to 2 years in early access since people need to pay $30 for it instead of the f2p it will be when goes out of early access so no rush when they seem to be treating it like poe1 league launches are.

I've also played a lot of poe1 over the past decade so it's annoying to see them take all the devs off it to get the early access launched and then months of fixing leaving poe1 on life support with a patch going to end up over a year long when they were releasing new sizable content every 3-4 months for many years now.

Hi, guys. I have something for you. And no, it's not a joke:

*** NEW COMPETITION ***

Win a mighty 16TB QNAP TS-432X-4G NAS
https://www.club386.com/win-a-16tb-qnap-ts-432x-4g-nas/
or https://gleam.io/4ZGkz/win-a-mighty-16tb-qnap-ts432x4g-nas

Please note that nowhere in the competition page nor in the terms and conditions is mentioned which drives will come with the NAS. They may be Ironwolf or other class, or maybe even from a brand other than Seagate.

The competition is GLOBAL.

Good luck!