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

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The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has seven new sales, plus the weeklong deals:

• Hades is going to be 30% off until October 28: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145360/Hades/
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is 50% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2600/Vampire_The_Masquerade__Bloodlines/
• The Gears Triple Bundle, featuring Gears 5, the DLC Hivebusters and Gear Tactics, will be 68% off until Thursday 28. The individual items are 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/21228/Gears_Triple_Bundle/
• The Watch_Dogs Bundle, featuring both games, will be 81% off until the 28th. The games are 75 and 80% off, respectively: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/3785/Watch_Dogs_Bundle/
• Publisher Nacon brings the KT Racing Sale, with up to 90% discounts until October 28 (plus RiMS Racing is free to try during the sale): https://store.steampowered.com/sale/Nacon_KTSale_2021
• The game Road 96 is going to be 20% off until the 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466640/Road_96/
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2 sports a 75% discount until the 29th of October: https://store.steampowered.com/app/552500/Warhammer_Vermintide_2/
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • Witchtastic gets a 25% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1080010/Witchtastic/
  • Cathedral is 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1056180/Cathedral/
  • Adapt or Perish is half its price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/870730/Adapt_or_Perish/
  • Mobile Forces is 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/837940/Mobile_Forces/
  • And Super Destronaut DX gets an 80% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/848520/Super_Destronaut_DX/

The Humble Store has a new sale: the Female Hero Sale, with up to 85% discounts during the next 6 days. The keys are for Steam, GOG and UPlay: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/female-hero-sale/

And Fanatical has a new deal:

• The new BYO Spooktacular Bundle 2 comes with 24 games to choose your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-spooktacular-bundle-2
• Also, if you spend more than £6.66/$6.66 on the Scream Sale that started yesterday, you'll get a free mystery game. Learn (not much) more here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/scream-sale-top-deals-claim-free-mystery-steam-pc-game

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.3 driver is optimized for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Riders Republic & Age of Empires 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-21-10-3-driver-is-optimized-for-marvels-guardians-of-the-galaxy-riders-republic-age-of-empires-4/
AMD has just released a new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.3 driver offers optimal performance in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Riders Republic, Age of Empires 4 and Doom Eternal’s Update 6.66.
Going into more details, this new driver improves performance by up to 21% increase in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy @ 4K Ultra Settings on the Radeon RX 6900 XT and the RX 6800 XT.
Moreover, this driver comes with a number of fixes. For instance, it fixes some crashes in Battlefield 5. Moreover, it fixes image corruption on some characters when Radeon Boost is enabled while playing Cyberpunk 2077.
>> Available from here.

Looks like Steam is getting a QR code login option
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/looks-like-steam-is-getting-a-qr-code-login-option/
A recent update to Steam's code includes signs of an upcoming new login method: Scanning a QR code with the Steam mobile app. That's according to a tweet by SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik.
The feature isn't live yet, but seems likely to release alongside the Steam Deck later this year to make logging in on the handheld more convenient. The Deck's touchscreen should mean typing in passwords won't be too onerous, but logging in by scanning a QR code sure sounds better to me.

Valve confirms Steam sale dates for the rest of 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/valve-confirms-steam-sale-dates-for-the-rest-of-2021/
Steam sales tend to leak in the weeks and months ahead of their commencement, but this time Valve has simply published them. Sure, the dates are on Steamworks and are intended to be a guide to publishers and developers, but you can access it too.
The documentation confirms dates for the Steam Autumn Sale and Steam Winter Sale, and both are pretty obvious. In fact, we even correctly predicted the Steam Autumn Sale date. But here's when they're confirmed to happen:
Steam Autumn Sale - November 24th - 30th, 2021
Steam Winter Sale - December 22nd, 2021 - January 5th, 2022
>> You can prepare your wallets.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Red Dead Redemption 2 Mod enables dismemberment for all pedestrians
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/red-dead-redemption-2-mod-enables-dismemberment-for-all-pedestrians/
Modder ‘GetGibbed’ has released a must-have mod for all those that love the advanced dismemberment system of Soldier of Fortune or STAR WARS Jedi Knight II – Jedi Outcast. As the title suggests, this mod will allow you to dismember all pedestrians in Red Dead Redemption 2.
As the modder noted, the game features 290 pedestrians that can’t be dismembered,mostly from random encounters and side quests. This, obviously, breaks immersion as you can dismember other enemies. As such, this mod enables dismemberment for all of the game’s pedestrians.
You can download the mod from here. Do note that there are some issues, and that it’s not a perfect mod. Thus, you may encounter some bugs and glitches.

GAMING NEWS

Kena: Bridge of Spirits & The Riftbreaker have sold well
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/kena-bridge-of-spirits-the-riftbreaker-have-sold-well/
Kena: Bridge of Spirits & The Riftbreaker are two games that have been recently released. And, according to both Ember Lab and EXOR Studios, the games have sold well and are both in the profit zone.

Ubisoft blames Skype, MSI Afterburner, Discord and more for possibly causing performance issues in its games
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ubisoft-blames-skype-msi-afterburner-discord-and-more-for-possibly-causing-performance-issues-in-its-games/
We all know that Ubisoft is a company that is well known for its unoptimized PC games. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla had performance issues, the latest Far Cry games have been mainly relying on one CPU core/thread, most of its games use VMProtect and Denuvo which bring an additional CPU/memory overhead, and the list goes on. And, funnily enough, Ubisoft states that some of the most popular third-party programs may be causing performance or crashing issues.
>> My fault? No! It's everyone else fault.

GTA Trilogy The Definitive Edition comparison videos showcase amazing graphical improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/gta-trilogy-the-definitive-edition-comparison-videos-showcase-amazing-graphical-improvements/
YouTube’s ENXGMA and Real KeV3n have shared two videos, detailing most of the graphical differences between the original and the remastered versions of GTA 3, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas.

Bandai Namco has removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from Tekken 7
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bandai-namco-has-removed-the-denuvo-anti-tamper-tech-from-tekken-7/
Following the removal of Denuvo from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Bandai Namco has also removed this controversial anti-tamper tech from Tekken 7. Therefore, PC fighting fans can now purchase this PC fighting game, and enjoy a better overall experience.

A Quiet Place is a story-driven single-player horror game, to be released in 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/a-quiet-place-is-a-story-driven-single-player-horror-game-to-be-released-in-2022/
Saber Interactive and iLLOGIKA have just announced the official video-game adaptation of John Krasinski’s horror movie, A Quiet Place. A Quiet Place will be a story-driven single-player horror adventure game, and targets a 2022 release date.

Far Cry 6 gets its first PC hotfix patch, resolves Ubisoft Connect overlay performance issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/far-cry-6-gets-its-first-pc-hotfix-patch-resolves-ubisoft-connect-overlay-performance-issues/
Ubisoft has just released the first PC hotfix patch for Far Cry 6. According to the team, this update is 1.1GB in size, and fixes the Ubisoft Connect overlay performance issues that players have reported.