Part number two of the gaming news:
Baldur's Gate 3's transformative patch 8, with 12 new subclasses and photo mode, will finally launch on Tuesday
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldurs-gate-3s-transformative-patch-8-with-12-new-subclasses-and-photo-mode-will-finally-launch-next-week/
Larian has finally announced a date for Baldur's Gate 3 patch eight, an enormous update to our 2023 game of the year and Top 100 champion. The update will go live on Tuesday, April 15, with a special launch stream on Larian's YouTube Channel From Hell set for the following day.
>> By the way, Astarion’s voice, Neil Newborn *really* wants to play the character again.
William Roberts, the voice of Vesemir in The Witcher games, has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/william-roberts-the-voice-of-vesemir-in-the-witcher-games-has-died/
William Roberts, a prolific voice actor who portrayed Vesemir in CD Projekt's The Witcher videogames, has died at age 80.
Roberts' death was first reported by The Guardian in February, in an obituary written by his former wife. He was born in Oregon but "made his career in Britain," Nicolette Roberts wrote, "as an actor, director, voice artist, and writer." Among other things, he read for BBC Radio programs, narrated audiobooks for the Royal National Institute of Blind People and other independent companies, and acted in radio productions including Batman and Judge Dredd.
>> Sadly, that’s not the only death I have to post about. Nicky Katt, the voice of Atton Rand in Knights of the Old Republic 2, has also died.
'Every single gamemode is completely broken': Star Wars Battlefront 2 has been unplayable for days on PC as hackers prevent players from spawning on any server
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/every-single-gamemode-is-completely-broken-star-wars-battlefront-2-has-been-unplayable-for-days-on-pc-as-hackers-prevent-players-from-spawning-on-any-server/
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is currently undergoing its own Jedi purge—and Sith purge, and wookiee purge. Really, it's a purge of any animate being in the galaxy, droid or otherwise. For the last few days, players have been reporting that Battlefront 2 has been left almost completely unplayable as hackers have managed to prevent any matches from starting in any of its game modes (via IGN).
The sci-fi puzzle game made by ex-Blizzard devs just got its first trailer, demonstrating intricate puzzles and cool landscapes
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/the-sci-fi-puzzle-game-made-by-ex-blizzard-devs-just-got-its-first-trailer-demonstrating-intricate-puzzles-and-cool-landscapes/
Causal Loop is a new first-person puzzler with a sci-fi setting from Mirebound, a team of ex-Blizzard developers. While there's been something of a resurgence in puzzle games as of late, Causal Loop seeks to set itself apart from the herd by providing puzzles that don't just work as obstacles to progression but as a way to decide how you will progress.
The Talos Principle: Reawakened goes back to the beginning for a touching coda to its musings on what it means to be human
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/the-talos-principle-reawakened-goes-back-to-the-beginning-for-a-touching-coda-to-its-musings-on-what-it-means-to-be-human/
I'm a big fan of the Talos Principle games, and so was happy to hear that the original, now more than 10 years old, was getting the remaster treatment as The Talos Principle: Reawakened. And it's not just a graphical overhaul: The updated edition also features an entirely new chapter that takes players back to the very earliest days of the simulation that brought about the rebirth of humanity.
Dark and Darker finally gets a PvE-exclusive 'Adventure Mode'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/dark-and-darker-finally-gets-a-pve-exclusive-adventure-mode/
Have you ever wished you could go exploring in Dark and Darker without worrying about getting ganked by a fellow adventurer who started playing the game 200 hours before you even discovered its existence? If so, good news: Season 6 of the game's early access release includes a new "Adventure Mode," a PvE-exclusive co-op format that gives players the opportunity for some risk-free dungeon crawling.
'Let's just fail quickly this time': Semiwork took a 'big risk' on REPO after its first game took 6 years to make and didn't sell very well
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/lets-just-fail-quickly-this-time-semiwork-took-a-big-risk-on-repo-after-its-first-game-took-6-years-to-make-and-didnt-sell-very-well/
The co-op horror game REPO is, like Schedule I, a surprise indie hit. Released in February, it's got an "overwhelmingly positive" rating across more than 91,000 user reviews on Steam and remains near the top of its most-played chart: As I write this, nearly 170,000 people are playing.
In a new developer video diving into REPO's creation, semiwork's Pontus Sundström explains how it all came about, and the circumstances surrounding its creation were not particular fortuitous: Semiwork had spent six years working on its previous game, Voidigo, and while it also has an "overwhelmingly positive" rating on Steam, it wasn't a big seller. That left the studio in a spot where its future wasn't assured, and so its approach to REPO was a little bit different.
'Just make a very good game': Sloclap dismisses the idea that online games need to be free-to-play
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/just-make-a-very-good-game-sloclap-dismisses-the-idea-that-online-games-need-to-be-free-to-play/
Sifu developer Sloclap has pivoted from martial arts games to sports games with Rematch, a 5v5 competitive football (soccer) game coming this summer. It turns out the skills transfer: Rematch is more Rocket League than FIFA, and it's "something special," writer Daniella Lucas said after visiting Sloclap for a hands-on preview.
(...)
Speaking to PC Gamer during that recent studio visit, Rematch creative director Pierre Tarno said that he doesn't think online games have to be free-to-play, and that making a free-to-play game was never even on the table for Sloclap.
Days Gone’s upcoming survival arcade mode will introduce endless hordes and ‘exploding freakers’, and I’m beginning to think it might be the best way to play the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/days-gones-upcoming-survival-arcade-mode-will-introduce-endless-hordes-and-exploding-freakers-and-im-beginning-to-think-it-might-be-the-best-way-to-play-the-game/
I was ambivalent about Days Gone when it shambled onto PC in 2021, though my issues were primarily with its clumsy storytelling rather than anything systemic. Exploring the world on Deacon St John’s motorcycle while evading hordes of shambling undead was enjoyable enough, especially when a minor pitstop to pick up some fuel would turn into a cross-country fight for survival.
Hence, I was more than a little curious when Sony announced that the upcoming Broken Road DLC will feature a horde assault mode that focuses squarely on that. With the DLC due to launch in a couple of weeks, Sony has revealed several new details about the mode, and I’m beginning to wonder whether it might turn out to be the best way to play the game.
Literary masterpiece The Count of Monte Cristo is being adapted as a clicker game about getting educated to escape prison
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/literary-masterpiece-the-count-of-monte-cristo-is-being-adapted-as-a-clicker-game-about-getting-educated-to-escape-prison/
(...)
Thanks goodness, then, for the Count of Monte Clicker, a bona-fide attempt to retell the classic tale in the interactive mode Dumas himself would no doubt have chosen—an incremental clicker game.
Following massive player fall-off, Amazon's MMO Lost Ark is getting an update to make levelling faster and address a 'known progression pain point'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/following-massive-player-fall-off-amazons-mmo-lost-ark-is-getting-an-update-to-make-levelling-faster-and-address-a-known-progression-pain-point/
Lost Ark was mostly a pleasant surprise for me when I reviewed it back in 2022. I enjoyed both its spectacular ARPG combat and its increasingly absurd MMO story, which shifted from conventional fantasy fare to throwing you into enormous clown battles and exploring islands inhabited by Borrowers-like characters. But there came a point where the progression barriers were thrown down, and my movement across its colourful archipelago was increasingly inhibited by grind.
It seems I'm not the only person who has struggled with Lost Ark's progression, as developer Smilegate and the game's Western publisher Amazon are cooking up a bunch of changes designed to improve the RPG's forward momentum.
This shooter is billing itself as 'the Battlefield Heroes you can actually play'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/this-shooter-is-billing-itself-as-the-battlefield-heroes-you-can-actually-play/
You want a sassy pitch for an upcoming game? Heroes of Valor is, per publisher Iceberg Interactive's press release, "the Battlefield Heroes you can actually play."
Clearly, it kind of is: It wears its inspiration on its sleeve as a spiritual successor to the now decade-dead free-to-play shooter. It also has a (free) playtest running right now on Steam, where it's "coming soon" into early access.
American Truck Simulator is adding a road trip mode where you drive different vehicles, 'say, a powerful pickup or even a sports car'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/american-truck-simulator-is-adding-a-road-trip-mode-where-you-drive-different-vehicles-say-a-powerful-pickup-or-even-a-sports-car/
In March, SCS Software dropped a mysterious teaser for American Truck Simulator: the sound of a revving engine that didn't quite have the full-throated roar of a big rig. It sounded more like what we call a ute in Australia and and New Zealand and the rest of the English-speaking world probably knows as a pickup truck. Was American Truck Simulator about to downscale?
The answer is, kind of, yes. As SCS Software explained in a blog post, it's working on a new mode called road trip that will let players "enjoy the vast landscapes of ATS not only from the cab of an 18-wheeler but also from behind the wheel of, say, a powerful pickup or even a sports car."
>> It better come to ETS2 at some point or I’ll be pissed off.
John Romero's brutal megawad Sigil 2 has formally chainsawed its way into Bethesda's Doom + Doom 2 remaster
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/john-romeros-brutal-megawad-sigil-2-has-formally-chainsawed-its-way-into-bethesdas-doom-doom-2-remaster/
Bethesda and Nightdive Studios' remaster of Doom + Doom 2 was not just an excellent overhaul of the legendary FPS and its sequel, it brought together all of vanilla Doom's additional adventures under one cracked, pentagram-scrawled roof. Alongside the two base games, it included the master levels for Doom II, the two halves of Final Doom, and a new official campaign developed by MachineGames, the furiously challenging Legacy of Rust.
Yet there was one notable omission from the remaster's library of canonical (and semi-canonical) adventures—Sigil 2. Designed by Doom cocreator and general FPS legend John Romero, Sigil 2 is Doom's sixth episode, comprised of nine new levels (two of them secret) which take place directly after the events of the first Doom.
(...)
Earlier this week, Bethesda patched Doom + Doom 2 which fixed various minor bugs and mod compatibility issues. Mainly though it officially added Sigil 2 to the roster of mainline Doom releases, meaning it appears on the game selection screen alongside Doom, its sequel, and the game's other supplementary adventures.
Former Skyrim dev announces a vehicular free-running game where you launch a car through a claymation world using mouth-sound explosions, and that's the weirdest thing I've ever had to fit into a headline
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/former-skyrim-dev-announces-a-vehicular-free-running-game-where-you-launch-a-car-through-a-claymation-world-using-mouth-sound-explosions-and-thats-the-weirdest-thing-ive-ever-had-to-fit-into-a-headline/
I had not realised that carkour—the theoretical act of performing parkour with a car—was something I wanted to exist until approximately 40 minutes ago, and now it has somersaulted to the summit of my own hierarchy of needs. Stuff all that nonsense about esteem and self-actualisation. I want to do backflips in a hot-rod.
You could argue that carkour tacitly exists in games like Rocket League and Trackmania already. But they did not give it a clever name, and that ultimately is all that matters. This is the little nugget of genius upon which Deedlee Doo! Carkour—a newly announced game dedicated to vehicular free-running—hopes to build its fortune.
Currently Online 
