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

[JEMC]

Tuesday news:

SALES & DEALS

Let's check the Steam daily deal, and some of the weeklong ones too:

• The daily deal is Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, 35% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/731490/Crash_Bandicoot_N_Sane_Trilogy/
• Thief Simulator is 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/704850/Thief_Simulator/
• Life is Strange 2 is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/532210/Life_is_Strange_2/
• Depth is 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/274940/Depth/
• Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition is 85% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/307690/Sleeping_Dogs_Definitive_Edition/
• And the Tomb Raider franchise is also on sale: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/squareenix/list/36858/

At Fanatical, we have another 5 new deals:

• The first one is the Fruitbat Factory Bundle, with 12 games and 8 DLCs that can be purchased in 4 different tiers of 3, 11, 16 and 20 products for the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/fruitbat-factory-bundle
• Moonlighter is going to be 33% off for 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/moonlighter
• Frostpunk is also 33% off for the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/frostpunk
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance is half its price for another 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/kingdom-come-deliverance
• And Dying Light is 60% cheaper for the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/dying-light

 

SOFTWARE/DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce 417.71 WHQL driver is now available, adds support for FreeSync/Adaptive Sync monitors
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-geforce-417-71-whql-driver-is-now-available-adds-support-for-freesync-adaptive-sync-monitors/
As promised, NVIDIA has just released a new driver for its graphics cards that adds support for FreeSync/Adaptive Sync monitors. This basically means that gamers can install the NVIDIA GeForce 417.71 WHQL driver and start taking advantage of their FreeSync monitors.
As NVIDIA noted, NVIDIA G-SYNC can now be used to activate the VRR features of G-SYNC Compatible displays. G-SYNC Compatible displays have been validated by NVIDIA to not show pulsing, flickering, or other artifacts during VRR gaming. G-SYNC on G-SYNC Compatible displays is supported only with NVIDIA Pascal and later GPU architectures, and only single displays are currently supported; multiple monitors can be connected but no more than one display should have G-SYNC enabled.
>> Available from here.

Valve announces 8 changes coming to Steam in 2019
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-announces-8-changes-coming-to-steam-in-2019/
In a big blog post reflecting on the life of Steam in 2018, Valve detailed some new features planned for the go-to PC gaming client in 2019. Below all the numbers and pie charts explaining growth and infrastructure changes and lessons learned, Valve finally puts a release window on a long-awaited library update built on the same technology introduced with the recent Steam Chat update. With Steam just reaching 30,000 games (not including DLC or software), it's about time.
Among the other updates, machine-learning driven changes to store discoverability are on the way. And thank goodness, too! I swear, I look at one sexy anime game and suddenly Steam thinks I'm the sexy anime game guy. The machines will learn the truth.
>> +1 for the new discover algorithm.

Steam now has 90 million monthly users
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-now-has-90-million-monthly-users/
In a 2018 year in review post, in which Valve outlined plans for Steam in 2019, the company also provided some rare insight into how many people use Steam every day and every month. And the numbers are, unsurprisingly, big: in 2018, Steam averaged 47 million daily active users and 90 million monthly active users. It also broke the record for concurrent players early in 2018, with 18.5 million.
While Steam is clearly growing fast—it recently passed 30,000 games, and just look at the amount of data Valve has served up—it's interesting that that concurrent users are actually down since it broke that record in early 2018. This chart from SteamDB shows daily users declined through summer 2018, before rebounding to around 17.5 million at the beginning of 2019.
>> And they've also delivered 15 exabytes, or 15 billion gigabytes of data.

 

MODS/EMULATORS

New gameplay videos released for Quoom and Quake 1.5 mods
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-gameplay-videos-released-for-quoom-and-quake-1-5-mods/
Quake fans, here is something for you today. Modders ‘bloodshot12’ and ‘Kollech87’ have released new videos for their upcoming mods, Quake 1.5 and Quoom. As its title suggests, Quoom is basically a port of Quake to the Gzdoom Engine and will feature 3 episodes with around 30 levels.
On the other hand, Quake 1.5 is a Darkplaces addon mod for the original Quake that utilizes Seven’s SMC 5.30 as a base and has been expanded to include new features such as weapons, gore, and enemies.

The 8-player co-op mod for Skyrim is entering closed beta
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-8-player-co-op-mod-for-skyrim-is-entering-closed-beta/
Bethesda taking the Fallout series online with Fallout 76 was met with, shall we say, mixed results. Modders, meanwhile, have been trying to take Skyrim online for years, and now it's almost a reality. Skyrim Together is a co-op mod that lets you play Skyrim with your pals, and after a few false starts it appears to finally be ready for a closed beta trial.
"Yep, it's finally happening," reads a dev post in the mod's subreddit. "Soon we'll be opening the doors for our loyal patreons for a temporary closed beta - Don't fear, this will shortly available for all."
The closed beta period will be used to test stability and make fixes, and won't last long according to the mod's developers, with an open beta available to everyone following a week or two later. The mod, when released, will feature its own launcher (Bethesda objected to the release of the mod on Steam). The current cap is set at eight players max, though it's possible this may change in the future. Servers for the mod are currently only located in Europe, but again, this may change after launch based on player demand.

This Minecraft mod makes building complex structures so much easier
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-minecraft-mod-makes-building-complex-structures-so-much-easier/
Building anything in Minecraft is an intensive task, and it's frustrating how few tools the game gives you to play with. Thankfully, modder Requios is here to save the day with their Effortless Building mod that comes packed with some incredibly useful tools so you don't have to assemble buildings one block at a time.
Using Effortless Building, players have access to a special menu screen full of options to speed up building by automating the process of placing blocks. The simplest tool is mirroring, which allows you to place multiple blocks at once but in mirrored positions. It's a bit complicated to explain, but watch the video above to see the mod in action. Essentially, if you're building a symmetrical structure (like a house), mirroring requires you to only build one quadrant of the house manually, with the rest being filled in automatically. It's very handy.

 

GAMING NEWS

Open World Survival RPG, Outward, will release on March 26th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/open-world-survival-rpg-outward-will-release-on-march-26th/
Deep Silver and developer Nine Dots, have announced that their hardcore fantasy adventure RPG Outward will release on March 26th, 2019. The announcement is accompanied by a trailer that highlights the game’s focus on challenge, immersion, and fulfilment.