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

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Once more, the news:

SALES & DEALS

Electronic Arts has ended its fiscal year with strong growth thanks to its live services business
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/electronic-arts-has-ended-its-fiscal-year-with-strong-growth-thanks-to-its-live-services-business/
It’s no secret that a lot of players hate microtransactions and the “live services” that more and more games are currently implementing. However, it appears that these services are really profitable for publishers as EA has just announced that it saw a strong growth in its Forth and Final Quarter of the Fiscal Year 2018/2019 thanks to them.
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EA also noted that its digital net bookings for the trailing twelve months was $3.722 billion were up 5% year-over-year, representing 75% of total net bookings. Furthermore, in FY19, more than 45 million unique players engaged in FIFA 19 and FIFA 18 on console and PC and the active players in The Sims 4 have increased by 35% year-over-year.
>> The Sims 4 won't die, will it? In any case, this article is a bit misleading as things aren't as rosy.

Anthem did not meet EA’s expectations, Battlefield 5 Firestorm battle royale is biggest BF live service event
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/anthem-did-not-meet-eas-expectations-battlefield-5-firestorm-battle-royale-is-biggest-bf-live-service-event/
During its conference call for the fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Electronic Arts revealed that Anthem’s launch did not meet its expectations. This shouldn’t obviously surprise us, however this is the first time the publisher comments on the game’s sales.
According to EA, players have spent over 150 million hours in Anthem since launch and its development team is currently focused on content /fixes for it.
On the other hand, Battlefield 5’s battle royale mode was a success and the publisher declared it as biggest Battlefield live service event ever.

Kholat, exploration first-person horror game, has now more than 3.5 million users
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/kholat-exploration-first-person-horror-game-has-now-more-than-3-5-million-users/
IMGN.PRO has announced that its exploration first-person horror game, Kholat, has been played by 3.5 million users so far. Narrated by one of the most popular British actors, Sean Bean, Kholat is an exploration adventure game with elements of horror, inspired by a true event known as the Dyatlov Pass incident.
In case you weren’t aware of, Dyatlov Pass incident was a real story that happened in winter of 1959. Nine skilled alpinists went for a trip to the northern part of Ural Mountains, which ended fatally. Bodies of expedition’s crew were found scattered on slope of Kholat Syakhl.

GOG's new midweek sale features games from Beamdog as well as other classic (and modern classic) RPGs, with up to 75% discounts for the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20190508_midweek_sale

At Steam, there's a new weekly sale and 4 Midweek Madness deals:

• The daily deal is a sale on the Company of Heroes franchise, all of them 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/coh-franchise/
• The Tales of franchise of JRPGs are on sale, with deals that range between 50 and 75%: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/sale_talesfranchise/
• Don't Starve Together is 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/322330/Dont_Starve_Together/
• The BIG BAD BOSS Bundle, that features 5 games, gets a 65% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/9273/Big_Bad_Boss_Bundle/
• Finally, there's The Long Dark, 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/305620/The_Long_Dark/

And at Fanatical, there are three new sales:

• The Star Deal is Assassin's Creed Odyssey for UPlay, 63% off for the next48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/assassins-creed-odyssey
• That's part of an Assassin's Creed Sale, with up to 75% discounts for the next 6 days, all for UPlay: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/assassin's-creed
• And the Far Cry franchise is also on sale, with up to 80% discounts for the next 6 days. Again, all for UPlay: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/far-cry

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

CRYENGINE Neon Noir real-time ray tracing demo runs at 1080p/30fps on AMD Vega 56, full 4K on the RTX GPUs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cryengine-neon-noir-real-time-ray-tracing-demo-runs-at-1080p-30fps-on-amd-vega-56-full-4k-on-the-rtx-gpus/
Back in March 2019, we informed about a new real-time ray tracing CRYENGINE demo, called Neon Noir. This ray tracing tech demo was running on an AMD Radeon Vega 56, and yesterday Crytek revealed some additional details about it.
According to the team, this tech demo runs at 1080p with 30 fps on that particular AMD graphics card with reflections and refractions being calculated at full screen resolution. At half screen resolution, Crytek is able to run this tech demo at 1440p with 40+ fps.
These CRYENGINE real-time ray tracing effects do not currently benefit from any additional performance that modern APIs like Vulkan or DX12 or dedicated hardware. However, the team aims to add support for RTX in the near future. The benefits of RTX will be higher performance and the presence of more dynamic elements in the scene.

MODS/EMULATORS

New graphics overhaul mod, featuring 4K/2K textures, released for open-world survival FPS, 7 Days To Die
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-graphics-overhaul-mod-featuring-4k-2k-textures-released-for-open-world-survival-fps-7-days-to-die/
DUST2DEATH has released brand new mod for the open-world game that is a combination of first person shooter, survival horror, tower defense, and role-playing games, 7 Days To Die. This new mod is called “HDHQ Overhaul – Textures – Lighting – Environment – Vehicles” and adds new 4K/2K terrain textures, as well as new and improved grass/water textures.
Furthermore, this mod makes some lighting changes to the game. The world is now much more vibrant, saturated, contrasted, and the reflections also get a boost from the new lighting. The differences between Reflections on and off have been minimised and there is Biomes seamless transition between each other as you move through the world.
>> Get this mod from Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

Fallout 76 Patch 9 available for download, introduces Backpacks, Personal Vending Machines & Pioneer Scouts
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/fallout-76-patch-9-available-for-download-introduces-backpacks-personal-vending-machines-pioneer-scouts/
Bethesda has released a brand new update for Fallout 76. According to the release notes, patch 9 introduces backpacks that players can equip to increase their Carry Weight, and adds Pioneer Scouts to the game, allowing players to join the Order of the Tadpole.

Doom Eternal will be playable at Quakecon Europe 2019 this July
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/doom-eternal-will-be-playable-at-quakecon-europe-2019-this-july/
Bethesda has announced that it will host ‘QUAKECON Europe’ at Printworks, London, across 26-27 July. Not only that, but there will be a public playable demo for all those that attend this event, allowing them to get their hands on this highly anticipated shooter.

Funcom announces Steam Free Weekend for Conan Exiles, starts later today
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/funcom-announces-steam-free-weekend-for-conan-exiles-starts-later-today/
Funcom has announced that Conan Exiles will be free to play on Steam later today on Steam and until May 12th. This prolonged Steam Free Weekend was made to pay tribute to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s breakthrough role in the anniversary-DLC for Conan Exiles.