Tuesday news, part two:

Development of The Culling has come to a halt
http://www.pcgamer.com/development-of-the-culling-has-come-to-a-halt/
It's been well over a year since we last looked at the small-scale battle royale game The Culling. It was "sloppy but fun," we said in our March 2016 analysis, "and it's easy to see why it instantly became a Steam top seller and a popular show on Twitch." But the battle royale scene now is a lot different than it was then: The Culling has been utterly eclipsed by PUBG, and just a couple of months after it finally came out of Early Access the developers at Xaviant are moving on to other things.

Destiny 2's Three of Coins consumable is bugged, and Fated Engrams might be too
http://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2s-three-of-coins-consumable-is-bugged-and-fated-engrams-might-be-too/
The Destiny 2 update that rolled out last week added, among quite a number of other things, a Three of Coins consumable sold by Xur that the patch notes said "increases the drop chance of Exotics." But following a weekend of play, an awful lot of people came away feeling like it wasn't working like it was supposed to, and maybe wasn't working at all.

The Destiny 2: Fall of Osiris comic contains a secret code for a special emblem
http://www.pcgamer.com/the-destiny-2-fall-of-osiris-comic-contains-a-secret-code-for-a-special-emblem/
The first issue of the Destiny 2: Fall of Osiris digital comic that Bungie announced last week is now live, and there's a surprise buried within its pages: A secret code that will net you and other intrepid Guardians who can solve its multifaceted mystery a super-exclusive emblem for The Visionary. Well, exclusive until it gets spilled all over the web, which I'm about to do...

Astroneer research update makes huge changes to research and power systems
http://www.pcgamer.com/astroneer-research-update-makes-huge-changes-to-research-and-power-systems/
Astroneer, you may recall, is a crafty little survival game set in space. Chris gave it a look earlier this year, and developer System Era Softworks has been plugging away at it in Steam Early Access ever since. Its latest update is a doozy, and brings sweeping changes to the research system.

>>And the game is 20% off until January 4th, so you know how much it will be during the Steam Winter sale.

Retro FPS Dusk has a free multiplayer closed beta right now
http://www.pcgamer.com/retro-fps-dusk-has-a-free-multiplayer-closed-beta-right-now/
Dusk, the retro-styled first-person shooter that kinda looks like a 1980s Slayer album cover in action, is getting a multiplayer mode. According to the trailer below, it's "not deathmatch", but instead Duskmatch. But as you'll see it is, basically, deathmatch.

'Perma-permadeath' game Upsilon Circuit has been cancelled
http://www.pcgamer.com/perma-permadeath-game-upsilon-circuit-has-been-cancelled/
Upsilon Circuit, the fascinating game which limited players to one single life, has been cancelled. Studio Robot Loves Kitty made the announcement today, citing funding as the "primary" issue, though there's quite a bit to it.

>>Shocking, right?. Who could have thought that people wouldn't want to buy a game that you can only play once?

Dying Light launches free 'Content Drop #2' with new gun silencer
http://www.pcgamer.com/dying-light-launches-free-content-drop-2-with-new-gun-silencer/
Despite closing in on its three-year anniversary, Dying Light remains determined to treat its players to complimentary goodies. Content Drop #2 is live now and brings with it a new, much-requested gun silencer.

Maniac Mansion out now on Steam with limited-time discount
http://www.pcgamer.com/maniac-mansion-out-now-on-steam-with-limited-time-discount/
Over the last several years, a number of LucasArts classics have been remastered—not least The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. One game which hasn't been reworked for a modern audience is 1987's Maniac Mansion, but it's nevertheless landed on Steam and is subject to a limited-time discount.

>>That's not the only old/classic game that has landed on Steam. Three Disney classics from the 16-bit era have also appeared on the store: Aladdin, The Lion King and The Jungle Book. All three of them have a 33% discount that will last until the end of the upcoming sale.

Total War: Warhammer 2 Rise of the Tomb Kings DLC release date set
http://www.pcgamer.com/total-war-warhammer-2-rise-of-the-tomb-kings-dlc-release-date-set/
Since its reveal in March, barely a week has passed without Total War: Warhammer 2 giving us something to report on. This is of course testament to its scope and scale, which is one of the reasons we named it our Best Strategy Game of 2017. As of next month, the Tomb Kings will storm the turn-based strategy game's war-torn battlegrounds with new units, Legendary Lords, quest chains, skills and more.

JEMC, you do a great job with this thread!!

Thank you!

I second that comment, all the free games I have dowloaded thru his hard work.  A big thanks

I'm tempted to make a thread on why Steam isn't a magical and all powerful "monopoly", based on the fact that the other storefronts do jack shit towards gaining all the games that Steam has, as well as fully supporting indie devs.

EA doesn't support the indie scene. Their store only has a tiny handful of non EA based AAA games and it absolutely pales in comparisson to the AAA games Steam has. EA has done nothign to rectify that.

Blizzard only sells Blizzard/Activision owned titles on their storefront. Nothing else and no mod support outside of SC I/II and WC III/FT, both of which aren't included with their game client/ You have to go to their online storefront in order to get that game and it's exp pack. THey haven't even gone out of their way to make it so you can play their oldest titles from their client either. 

Bethesda only sells bethesda published/owned titles from their client, which is already a very minute library on it's own.

Ubisoft sells their games on Steam, but requrie you to use their client. Their storefront sells a couple of indie supported games (a very small few), but the vast majority being sold are titles owned by them. like EA, they only sell a tiny handful of non Ubisoft owned AAA titles.

GoG's business is making sure older titles work with modern OS's. They sell a few AAA games and some indie titles, but again, nothing of the same scale that Steam sells.

Everyone but GOG hasn't bothered to compete with Valve in terms of obtaining all the good non trash titles to their storefronts. Hardly any of them fully support the modding scene and they all mostly sell games they've own or publish. GoG still has a long way to go, but they are second to steam, while the rest sink below the two storefronts. 

You want that "monopoly" to end?, ask for the competition to work their asses as hard as they can. They should be out there courting all the indie devs to sell from their store, as well as supporting them. They should all be aiming for as much mod support as possible. Steam has their Steam workshop, as well as forum guides for each game that allows for guides on outside modding. I don't care if anyone on this site doesn't give two shits about indie or mods, but I do, and I'll not see a company driven under because a few here don't care about those two aspects of PC gaming. I love indie games and I love modding them, especially AAA games that come out busted, where the modding community is basically a second safety net. 

I think Valve will get shat on regardless of what they do. Like they removed 150-200 "fake" games from steam and no one cared...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-09-27-valve-removes-over-150-fake-games-from-steam

They remove one game with questionable material based on their investigation on the actions of the developer and everyone is like derp, Valve is terrible. It's like wtf...

Like k, I don't agree with the decision of removing the game but here's the thing. What do people think will happen if Valve starts curating their store seriously? When you have curators, games will be subjective af. If a Curator thinks something is meant for "pedos" and shouldn't be on steam, it will either be removed or not allowed on steam in the first place. But what will people's reaction is gonna be? Boo Valve!

On the other end, if they don't curate, guess what's people's reaction is gonna be? Boo Valve! It's laughable honestly.

I know they have a planned store revamp, but I highly doubt many on here will care for that either.

Some here just want a company that worked hard to get where it is, to die and for all the games to just vanish overnight. The other storefronts won't take all the missing games in, nor will they support them either. People wishing for one company, that most devs sell from to die, without realising just how much damage that would do to the platform in general.

GoG isn't nearly as rich to support all of the games that Steam has (excluding the trash), while the rest are absolutely not interested in supporting the entire library. If they were, we'd have seen insane library growth from all the other clients, but we haven't. 

These people seem to forget that Valve doesn't hold indie and AAA studios at gunpoint. The devs choose to sell on that storefront because it's more accessible, has mod support and it also has the most users buying and using it. You can't simply tell millions of gamers to stop using Steam, stop buying games from the storefront and then tossing away the library you paid for.

it amazes me what people will fight for, and the thing they fight for, is the one that will do the most damage. It's like they cannot see the consequences of placing their needs over others first. But then again, it's no surprise that this site is pro heavy Japanese in terms of support. So anything that doesn't get approved from Japan, earns massive ire from the crowd on here. Ruler is just another one of those who would throw PC under the bus to get anything out there.

@bold

Exactly. Either way, Valve would get shat on. because these people fail to understand what a tight form of curation would do to the store in general. imagine if Valve was as tight at EA/Blizzard. We wouldn't have Undertale. We wouldn't have Starbound and many others out there.

People give props to Nintendo for their super tight curation view, but they fail to notice that for all those AAA games and indie titles that are turned away by that company, all end up going to PC, because they aren't turned away and are in fact supported one way or another (the other way involving a release on all the storefronts, or one of them).

I think their reasoning was lame, but the last thing I want, is for creepy titles to pop up over and over, then having the UK/US journo's sticking their heads into the games industry and labeling gamers as pedos.

Japan makes good games here and there, but they are ever so pervy. The US/UK loves gun violence, but they shy away from porn in the public eye, while Japan loves to dance across that line in nearly any aspect of the industries they have in their own country. 

The funny thing is, we already had a time when Valve did curate their store... And people hated it. Many excellent indie games and even some non-indie games wouldn't make it to the store or they will make it a long time after they have come out. So Valve tried to listen to the fans then and came up with Steam GreenLight which I still think the concept was a great one but of course, it eventually didn't go the way they wanted it to go. So Valve is once again trying to listen to the fans and trying to revamp their store but people are still like derp, they are bad.

It feels like what people think is gonna happen is that Valve is gonna turn on a switch and then boom, all the bad games will go away and only the good games will remain which will never be the case. If Valve really is starting to curate their store, it's not gonna happen overnight and plenty of good and some questionable games won't be allowed to come to the store on the way since that is how curation works. It's all subjective and It will probably take them a couple of years to fully revamp everything and get it working.

And of course, people's usual response is, but Valve is making billions! Guess what? So is every other company! Yet none of the other companies really have a really good service like Steam. Like you look at Family Sharing, Cloud storage that is done on a per game biases instead of a total amount and etc, that is only on steam. You don't see Origin and etc having all of that that and Sony's/MS's implementation is not only lolz worthy but also costs money...

Oh well. What can ya do...

If only we had enough time to play them all, right?

GOG will never be able to compete with Steam for one simple reason: DRM.

Steam is a safe and not very intrusive DRM system, but CD Projekt has one simple with rule with GOG, and that is no DRM. Consequently, third parties don't want to put their new games at GOG because they fear of piracy and, without them, they'll never be able to compete face to face with Steam.