Carzy Zarx’s PC Gaming Emporium - Catch Up on All the Latest PC Gaming Related News

[JEMC]

Here come the Friday news!

SALES & DEALS

Free Deals – Age of Wonders 3 is free on Steam, Torchlight free on Epic Games Store
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/free-deals-age-of-wonders-3-is-free-on-steam-torchlight-free-on-epic-games-store/
Steam and Epic Games Store are currently offering free copies of Age of Wonders III and Torchlight, respectively. Age of Wonders 3 is available for free until July 15th, whereas Torchlight will be available for free until July 18th.
>> Here's Age of Wonders III from Steam and Torchlight from Epic Store. The next free game from the Epic Store will be Limbo.

On the Humble Store there are five new sales:

• The Humble's Greatest Hits offers up to 90% discounts until July 18: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/humbles-greatest-hits/
• 2K has its games on sale, up to 90% off for the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/2k-humbles-greatest-hits/
• Warner Bros also has its games on sale, up to 60% off for the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/wb-games-humbles-greatest-hits/
• Frontier has also put its games on sale too, also for the next 6 days and with up to 75% discounts: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/frontier-developments-humbles-greatest-hits/
• And lastly there's Humble Bundle's own publishing brand, that has also put its games on sale, up to 40% off and yes, it will also last 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/humble-publishing-humbles-greatest-hits/

At Fanatical, there are two new sales:

• Publisher Jackbox Games has its games on sale, up to 60% off for the next 3 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/jackbox-games-inc.
• The Something for the Weekend deal is an Adventure Pick & Mix Build your Own Bundle, with 18 games to choose from: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/adventure-pick-and-mix

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam's new 'microtrailers' want to help you absorb every game on Steam in 6 second bursts
https://www.pcgamer.com/steams-new-microtrailers-is-valves-latest-idea-inspired-by-an-indie-developer/
It's so hard to keep track of what's coming out on Steam every week, every day, every hour, that our team at PC Gamer likes to follow a pair of Twitter accounts, @microtrailers and @whatsonsteam, that list new games as they're released, along with six second trailers and screenshots. Apparently Valve likes those accounts too, because as part of a set of experimental new Steam features called Steam Labs, it took the idea and ran with it: "Micro Trailers are six-second looping videos designed to quickly inform viewers about titles on Steam with a presentation that's easy to skim. This experiment is a fancier version of the Twitter bot of the same name."
The micro trailers page asks the question "What if you could absorb every game on Steam in just moments?" and shows off a range of trailers in various categories, like roguelikes, visual novels, and "dragons." (Also, based on the 31,000 or so games on Steam, it would actually take about 52 hours to absorb every game on Steam in 6-second bursts).

Steam's new 'Interactive Recommender' uses machine learning, not tags or reviews, to tell you what to play
https://www.pcgamer.com/steams-new-interactive-recommender-uses-machine-learning-not-tags-or-reviews-to-tell-you-what-to-play/
Valve has unveiled a new experimental feature on Steam called the Interactive Recommender that it hopes will, once the kinks are worked out, give players better, more personalized recommendations about games they might like. Rather than relying on tags, the system is built on a "neural network model" based on your playtime history and "other salient data," and updates its recommendations in real-time through adjustable preferences for game age and "popularity" so you can tune its suggestions on the fly.
"We train the model based on data from many millions of Steam users and many billions of play sessions, giving us robust results that capture the nuances of different play patterns and covers our catalog. The model is parameterized so that we can restrict output to games released within a specified time-window, and can be adjusted to prefer games [with] a higher or lower underlying popularity," Valve explained in a blog post.

MODS/EMULATORS

Modder has ported AMD’s new Image Sharpening to Reshade, allowing all NVIDIA & AMD gamers to use it
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/modder-has-ported-amds-new-image-sharpening-to-reshade-allowing-all-nvidia-amd-gamers-to-use-it/
One of the new features that the new NAVI GPUs support is a special sharpening filter created by AMD. Now even though the red team has locked this feature for all other GPUs in its drivers, a modder was able to port it to Reshade and allow all NVIDIA and AMD gamers to use it and enhance their games.
In case you aren’t aware of, Image Sharpening can be enabled for DirectX 9, DirectX 12 and Vulkan games on AMD Radeon RX 5700 series graphics via its Control Panel, and provides contrast-adaptive sharpening combined with optional GPU upscaling that helps draw out detail and provide crisp-looking visuals.

GAMING NEWS

New Gears 5 multiplayer trailers showcase Escalation Mode and two multiplayer maps
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-gears-5-multiplayer-trailers-showcase-escalation-mode-and-two-multiplayer-maps/
Over the past few days, Microsoft and The Coalition have been sharing some multiplayer trailer for Gears 5. As such, below you can find three videos in which the companies have showcased the game’s Escalation mode, as well as two maps that will be featured in its upcoming Tech Test.

Here are 10 minutes of gameplay footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s multiplayer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-10-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-call-of-duty-modern-warfares-multiplayer/
Yesterday, Activision gave us a glimpse at the multiplayer mode for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. And while the publisher has stated that its multiplayer universe will be officially revealed on August 1st, you can find below a video showing 10 minutes of gameplay footage from its Gunfight mode.

First gameplay footage for Marvel’s Avengers to be shown at San Diego Comic Con 2019, won’t be streamed online
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/first-gameplay-footage-for-marvels-avengers-to-be-shown-at-san-diego-comic-con-2019-wont-be-streamed-online/
Square Enix has announced that the first gameplay footage for Marvel’s Avengers will be shown at San Diego Comic Con 2019. However, it appears that this gameplay footage will be available only to those that will attend this event, and will not be streamed online.
>> Ok, so instead of a good quality stream, we'll get instead lots of bad quality videos from the attendants that will make the game look worse than it (hopefully) is. Great idea!

First official gameplay teaser video released for NASCAR Heat 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-official-gameplay-teaser-video-released-for-nascar-heat-4/
704 Games Company has released the first gameplay teaser video for NASCAR Heat 4. According to the team, this video shows gameplay from an early development build, meaning that it does not reflect the quality of the final product.
>> It's a boring video.... but it's Nascar, so that was to be expected .

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan Multiplayer Reveal Trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-dark-pictures-anthology-man-of-medan-multiplayer-reveal-trailer/
Man of Medan is Supermassive’s new game coming out at the end of August. The game is categorized as interactive drama horror, pretty much like Until Dawn, which was pretty entertaining. I even made it out without losing a soul. Spoiler alert, in these games you die a lot and no, I do not mean Dark Souls dying but rather more like State of Decay dying. Permadeath, I am talking about permadeath.