Thursday gaming news, part two:
Indie dev says 'best I can do is sentient tofu' after fans demand a male protagonist—they respond oh yeah, actually Mr Tofu works fine, thanks
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/indie-dev-says-best-i-can-do-is-sentient-tofu-after-fans-demand-a-male-protagonist-they-respond-oh-yeah-actually-mr-tofu-works-fine-thanks/
Quick question: when you make a character in a game, do you play as your own gender or get wild with it? Me, I always used to play as a man (which I am, notionally, in real life) as a kid, but these days I play a woman 99% of the time. Women? Cool. Women with a gun/sword/lightsaber/inherited-and-possibly-magical-farmyard? Even cooler. It's simple maths.
But some people are bad at maths, like one fan of upcoming delivery sim Honcho, who took to the game's Steam forums to make a humble request: please let me play as a dude.
As Assassin's Creed Shadows support comes to an end, Ubisoft reiterates what's coming in the future, and yes, co-op factors into it somehow
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/as-assassins-creed-shadows-support-comes-to-an-end-ubisoft-reiterates-whats-coming-in-the-future-and-yes-co-op-factors-into-it-somehow/
Ahead of a stream on March 20, Ubisoft has confirmed Assassin's Creed Shadows is moving "into its final phase of support". The publisher's focus will move to three previously announced Assassin's Creed projects, including the "darker, narrative driven" Codename Hexe.
>> And they’ve confirmed the Black Flag remake (link).
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is back: 3 years after it was muscled out by Counter-Strike 2, CS:GO has its own Steam page again and has powered its way back onto Steam's most-played chart
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/counter-strike-global-offensive-is-back-3-years-after-it-was-muscled-out-by-counter-strike-2-cs-go-has-its-own-steam-page-again-and-has-powered-its-way-back-onto-steams-most-played-chart/
I have no idea what to make of this, but more than two years after it was folded into Counter-Strike 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is back on Steam.
CS:GO was never fully scrubbed out of existence: Committed diehards could continue accessing the OG GO through a CS2 beta build, unceremoniously named "csgo_demo_viewer." Online matchmaking was disabled, though, so play was restricted to matches with bots.
Now, for some reason, CS:GO has its own standalone Steam page again, although it's somewhat limited too. It's unlisted, meaning it won't appear in Steam searches. (Luckily for you, the direct link is right there, and web searches will get you there too.) There's also still no matchmaking, which is not convenient, but you can still do it old-school through Steam's server browser by manually joining community servers—and yes, there are still plenty of them up and running.
US government reportedly debating whether to force Tencent to give up its US-based game holdings
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/us-government-reportedly-debating-whether-to-force-tencent-to-give-up-its-us-based-game-holdings/
A Financial Times report (via Reuters) says the US government is debating whether Tencent's holdings in US and Finnish videogame companies pose a national security risk, and whether it should be forced to divest them. Multiple sources said cabinet officials were scheduled to have a meeting on the matter earlier this week, ahead of US president Donald Trump's scheduled meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, but the meeting was postponed due to scheduling conflicts.
Hunt: Showdown keeps experimenting with the extraction genre, and its next twist sounds irresistible: Soon, extraction points and loot won't appear on the map
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/hunt-showdown-keeps-experimenting-with-the-extraction-genre-and-its-next-twist-sounds-irresistible-soon-extraction-points-and-loot-wont-appear-on-the-map/
Over in one corner of the extraction shooter genre you have Arc Raiders, Escape from Tarkov, and Marathon doing their own spins on what I call the "backpack" shooter, where the main motivation of a match is to fill up inventory slots. In the other corner you have Hunt: Showdown, an extraction shooter that has never shied away from being first and foremost about intense firefights. (...) Hunt was my first extraction shooter and, 650 hours later, still the one that gets my blood pumping the fastest. Not every update is a winner, but I admire the way Crytek is always looking to shake up the bounty format it established in 2018 in ways that may or may not stick around. It does this by introducing sweeping changes during events and then deciding based on feedback if they're a keeper. Most recently, Hunt introduced tarot cards that let players cast magical spells on the fly, some of which can totally shift the outcome of the match (one card can shut down all extraction points temporarily). Folks dug the cards, so now they're a staple. Crytek's next experiment isn't as flashy, but it sounds just as fascinating. The Devil's Trail event, beginning March 18, will test if Hunt could benefit from taking key information away from players at the beginning of the match:.
Highguard gets a new playable character, skill trees and more ahead of next week's closure
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/highguard-gets-a-new-playable-character-skill-trees-and-more-ahead-of-next-weeks-closure/
Highguard goes offline on March 12—that's in eight days—but it's nevertheless just received a massive content update adding a new playable Warden, account progression, and a skill tree.
"This is our final update and it's big," Highguard creative director Jason McCord wrote on X. "Props to the skeleton crew at Wildlight for wanting to finish it and ship it to our remaining players, even if it only gets played by a few thousand people. They weren't asked to. They asked if they could finish it up and get it out there."
>> And the director of the game has shared some stats and thoughts (link)
Final Fantasy 11, a 23-year-old MMO, is getting so many new players it's having to stop character creation on its busiest server
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/final-fantasy-11-a-23-year-old-mmo-is-getting-so-many-new-players-its-having-to-stop-character-creation-on-its-busiest-server/
As someone who covers MMORPGs often for our own column, Terminally Online, it's nice to be able to break from the usual doom and gloom about new MMOs (they really aren't doing so hot) and share some positive news for once. News, for instance, like the fact that Final Fantasy 11 has so many new players it's actually causing problems.
This has led to game director Yoji Fujito having to make an official announcement on the game's pleasingly retro forums: "Once again, we are seeing periods of congestion on the game's servers, this time with the Odin World, so I'd like to take a moment to explain what measures we will be taking to help address the issue."
Hallelujah, Bungie's confirmed that Marathon's battle passes don't expire, you can purchase old ones, and you never pay for power
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/hallelujah-bungies-confirmed-that-marathons-battle-passes-dont-expire-you-can-purchase-old-ones-and-you-never-pay-for-power/
After years of waiting, only extended by a lengthy delay, Marathon's release time is almost upon us, and Bungie's been spilling the beans on its post-launch plans. There are seasonal wipes that'll reset your progress, which has been a little divisive, but on the bright side, these resets coincide with new content drops like maps, Runners, weapons, and more, as detailed in the roadmap.
That's all fine and dandy, but there was an elephant left unmentioned in the room when Bungie revealed the above: FOMO. It's not exactly got the best track record in Destiny, so I was waiting for the shoe to drop.
It turns out the shoe isn't dropping—Bungie's tying its laces—confirming that, hallelujah, battle passes don't expire and you can purchase old ones. So even if you miss a season or can't finish a battle pass (especially one you've already paid for), you're not missing out on sweet new cosmetics. There's nothing more annoying than having life get in the way of your live-service grind, after all, though maybe that's a separate issue.
Castlevania: Belmont's Curse isn't a roguelike, says Konami, despite it being made by the 2 studios behind Dead Cells
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/castlevania-belmonts-curse-isnt-a-roguelike-says-konami-despite-it-being-made-by-the-2-studios-behind-dead-cells/
The two developers behind Dead Cells are making the next Castlevania, so of course it's going to be a roguelike, right? Actually, no. Despite Motion Twin and Evil Empire's pedigree, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is going to be a bit more traditional in that it's a 2D action-exploration romp without roguelike mechanics.
This was confirmed by Konami itself, speaking to The Verge earlier this week.
After whiffing its release date by 5 years, Crimson Desert is putting out oodles of preview stuff as 'We never want to be accused of hiding anything, because we have a lot of ground to make up'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/after-whiffing-its-release-date-by-5-years-crimson-desert-is-putting-out-oodles-of-preview-stuff-as-we-never-want-to-be-accused-of-hiding-anything-because-we-have-a-lot-of-ground-to-make-up/
According to our Harvey's Crimson Desert preview, Pearl Abyss' upcoming action-sorta-RPG is quite good indeed. It's also late. It should have been here, let me check, five years ago?
Yep. Crimson Desert was first revealed at 2020's Game Awards with a proposed release year of 2021. After, ah, whiffing that slightly, it's now due out two weeks from today. In a chat with IGN, the studio copped to the fact that, yeah, it might have pulled the cover off this thing a little too early.
'Begun, the Mushroom Wars have': Bodies are piling up next to shelf fungi in Arc Raiders as players fight for the slim supply of mushrooms
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/begun-the-mushroom-wars-have-bodies-are-piling-up-next-to-shelf-fungi-in-arc-raiders-as-players-fight-for-the-slim-supply-of-mushrooms/
The window has closed for the latest Expedition, and with that, a wave of players start afresh. You know what that means: Scrappy demands another round of tributes. I'm talking prickly pears, lemons and apricots, and worst of all, mushrooms.
While these items were never abundant in Arc Raiders lobbies, they weren't nearly as hard to get a hold of in the past, or at least I don't remember it being so. It's a bloodbath out there right now with players trying to satiate Scrappy's desire for organic matter.
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