Tuesday gaming news, part two:
WoW's revisiting old zones for Midnight and The Last Titan because not every story 'has to be told within the context of a new continent'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wows-revisiting-old-zones-for-midnight-and-the-last-titan-because-not-every-story-has-to-be-told-within-the-context-of-a-new-continent/
World of Warcraft: Midnight's doing some interesting stuff—reimagining zones from The Burning Crusade which (sorry) came out in 2007 (so sorry) which was almost 20 whole years ago (I really am sorry). That's only a couple years shy of being able to drink in the US.
(...)
In an interview with associate game director Paul Kubit, game designer Jake Shillan and senior game designer Kim Flak, I was able to talk directly to the developers of World of Warcraft on why it's starting to really use the whole tauren, not just leaving old zones to collect dust.
>> After Midnight launches, Blizzard will take it slow with balance updates (link).
After playing the free demo of this bloody medieval carve-'em-up, I'm praying the devs deliver a holy gaming experience
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-bloody-medieval-carve-em-up-has-me-praying-the-devs-deliver-a-holy-gaming-experience/
As soon as I saw the key art for 1348 Ex Voto, I knew I had to play some. A female warrior knight with authentically awesome (so, totally crap) bowl cut hairdo, wielding a huge longsword, and bedecked in suitably religious ornamentation and vibes, is definitely my jam. And after playing the new free demo of 1348 Ex Voto, despite some concerns, I'm now praying that developer Sedleo can follow through and deliver a great full game.
'Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances': Bungie's doubling down on security following Arc Raiders' recent struggles
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/anyone-found-to-be-cheating-will-be-permabanned-from-playing-marathon-forever-bungies-doubling-down-on-security-following-arc-raiders-recent-foibles/
As we've learned from the likes of Arc Raiders as of late, cheating and exploits are absolutely game-breaking in an extraction shooter. The recent item duplication glitch forced Embark to dish out warnings and bans after it broke the in-game economy, though there have been fears over big-name content creators getting preferential treatment.
Bungie has evidently been taking notes in the background, as it has just released a hefty blog on how it will handle cheating and networking issues in Marathon. The answer? It's not going easy on these issues or those who go out of their way to ruin the game for others.
The latest Steam Next Fest features a pile of Palworld-likes as witches and airships battle over the creature-collecting survival subgenre
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/the-latest-steam-next-fest-features-a-pile-of-palworld-likes-as-witches-and-airships-battle-over-the-creature-collecting-survival-subgenre/
When Palworld sold 12 million Steam copies in under two weeks, two things felt like they'd become inevitable: First, that Nintendo's lawyers would take any opening they could find to punish Pocketpair for daring to release what many had been calling Pokemon: Gun Version well before its launch, and second, that we'd eventually see Palworld prompt its own imitators with hopes of pulling off a similar smash hit.
While Nintendo threw down the lawsuit gauntlet within a year of Palworld's launch, the nature of videogame development timelines meant that if a new subgenre was spinning up, it'd be a bit longer before we saw the evidence. With the kickoff of the latest Steam Next Fest, however, it seems the time has finally come. The age of the Palworld-like is upon us.
>> The article mentions 4 games.
Amazon expected this co-op party game to draw in 100,000+ active players, but it hit an all-time peak of just 320 on Steam and now it's closing for good just 6 months after it launched
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/amazon-expected-this-co-op-party-game-to-draw-in-100-000-active-players-but-it-hit-an-all-time-peak-of-just-320-on-steam-and-now-its-closing-for-good-just-6-months-after-it-launched/
Amazon announced today that King of Meat, one of the more disastrous outcomes of its ill-fated effort to be a big-time PC game publisher, is officially throwing in the towel and going away for good in April.
"Despite the creativity and innovation Glowmade brought to King of Meat, the game has unfortunately not found the audience we hoped for," Amazon wrote on Steam. "As a result, we have made the difficult decision to conclude our investment in the game, and King of Meat's servers will close on April 9, 2026. Players will be able to access and play all existing content until then, so we encourage you to enjoy your remaining time in the game with your fellow Contenders."
The one bright spot is that everyone who purchased the game—which is no longer available for purchase—will be given a full refund "in the coming weeks."
'We couldn’t even have imagined this': Co-op pirate survival game Windrose has been wishlisted over 1 million times
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/we-couldnt-even-have-imagined-this-co-op-pirate-survival-game-windrose-has-been-wishlisted-over-1-million-times/
Avast ye! Thar, off the starboard bow, sail ho! It's a pirate ship, and it's headed right toward your wishlist! Heave ho, you scallywags!
That's pirate speak for: did you know co-op pirate survival game Windrose now has over 1,000,000 wishlists on Steam? That massive bounty of excited fans means it's now among Steam's top 20 most wishlisted games. I don't know if that surprises you, but it seems to have caught the development team off-guard.
The creators of Rain World were tired of making something so depressing, so their next game is a 'loud and dumb and fast' cyberpunk racer you can try in the Steam Next Fest
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/the-creators-of-rain-world-were-tired-of-making-something-so-depressing-so-their-next-game-is-a-loud-and-dumb-and-fast-cyberpunk-racer-you-can-try-in-the-steam-next-fest/
Airframe Ultra is looking to be the good kind of multiplayer game: No engagement hacking or battle passes—you pay once, but it has lasting value and, depending on its success at launch, dev support. There's no ranked play, but it's still a game with competitive depth and mechanics to master.
Devs behind GoldenEye, Perfect Dark and TimeSplitters are done with big shooters after getting burned by Embracer, so their next game is a Balatro-like twist on Scrabble—and you can try the demo now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/devs-behind-goldeneye-perfect-dark-and-timesplitters-are-done-with-big-shooters-after-getting-burned-by-embracer-so-their-next-game-is-a-balatro-like-twist-on-scrabble-and-you-can-try-the-demo-now/
When you read the words "From legendary developers Steve Ellis and David Doak" you could be forgiven for assuming that the next words would be "comes a new FPS".
Ellis and Doak were among Free Radical Design's co-founders, giving us the excellent TimeSplitters series, and nearly Star Wars: Battlefront 3, before it was canned and the studio went bankrupt. Before that, they worked at Rare, on games like GoldenEye and Perfect Dark.
But their new game, which you can play now thanks to Steam Next Fest, has nothing to do with any of these illustrious first-person shooters. Instead, Beyond Words is a roguelike take on Scrabble, which sounds quite a bit like Balatro.
Phasmophobia's most popular map is getting a major rework, making this the only acceptable time to be excited by the phrase 'a new surprise in the basement'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/phasmophobias-most-popular-map-is-getting-a-major-rework-making-this-the-only-acceptable-time-to-be-excited-by-the-phrase-a-new-surprise-in-the-basement/
Phasmophobia's list of demon-infested destinations has grown over the last few years, but Kinetic Games hasn't abandoned its old haunts in favor of the new. Last year, both Bleasdale and Grafton Farmhouse saw major visual overhauls, and now the ghost-hunting game's first-ever map, 6 Tanglewood Drive, is scheduled for an upgrade on March 3.
