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

[JEMC]

Can we skip four days and go straight to Friday? No? *sigh* Ok, then. Let's see what do we have for the Monday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

Apex Legends sets new player records in wake of Season 14
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-sets-new-player-records-in-wake-of-season-14-drop/
There's surely been some corks popping on celebratory beverages and clinking of glasses at Respawn Entertainment this past month, as Apex Legends continues its steady climb among the peaks of gaming. The release on Season 14 last month saw the popular battle royale push to a new peak player count of 511,676 concurrent players, an approximately 47% increase over the prior month.
More subtle, but perhaps more important, the minimum and average daily peak players have grown significantly as well. That's not always true with peak player record breaking months, and a subtle look at this year's numbers for Apex show a steady trend. Apex Legends is now averaging a minimum of over 300,000 players at any given time—329,041 in August.
These are all numbers retrieved by SteamDB, so they don't include anyone playing Apex through the EA app on Windows Store, nor the undoubtedly larger number of people playing on consoles. I'd bet my hat these numbers are going up on other major platforms as well.

Y'all know about these huge lists of free, open-source game clones, right?
https://www.pcgamer.com/yall-know-about-these-huge-lists-of-free-open-source-game-clones-right/
It might surprise you to learn that there are very many free games that don't fit the modern free-to-play model. I say that because every time somebody posts a link to some impressive, public, open-source game project that minutely recreates some abandoned classic people seem shocked.
So here's some of the best, the big fat lists of open source games and open source game clones. What do I mean when I say that?
I mean these are free public projects that produce games inspired by and using the mechanics of old classics, games like Rollercoaster or Transport Tycoon, Doom, XCOM, Red Alert, Civilization, and Sim City—not to mention the classic roguelikes like NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
>> Enjoy.

While the GOG Sale is in its last hours (less than 7 hours left), that hasn't stopped GOG from launching new sales:

• The first Deal of the Day is XEL, 45% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/xel
• The other DotD is ITORAH, with a 60% discount until Wednesday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/itorah
• And there's a new Weekly Sale, with up to 80% discounts on "Building Simulation Games" until next Monday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220905_weekly_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• The new daily deal is Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/
• And the rol games from EA/Bioware (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Jade Empire) will be up to 80% off until September 15: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/EA/sale/new-worlds-sale

There are three new deals at Humble:

• At Humble Bundle we find the Level Up and Learn Programing Games Bundle, with up to 7 games to get during 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/level-up-and-learn-programming-games
• At the Humble Store, we find two new deals:
  • The Summer 48h deal is DOOM, 80% during another 26 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/doom
  • By the way, those 26 hours are the same time remaining of the Summer Sale. Time is running out.
  • And the PDXCon Sale comes with up to 80% discounts during 7 days. Most keys are for Steam, but there are also some for GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/pdxcon-sale/

And Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Just Cause 4 Complete Edition, 83% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/just-cause-4-complete-edition
• And the new BYO Labor Day Bundle features 16 titles to choose for your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-labor-day-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

**Since they are on sale in the west, even if it's only in NA, it's time to make this with Intel drivers as well:

INTEL Arc Graphics Driver 31.0.101.3277
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-driver-31-0-101-3277
Highlights
The Intel® Arc™ 101.3277 driver is bundled with the latest version of Intel® Arc™ Control 4759 to streamline installation experience, resulting in a larger driver package file size.

Fixed Issues

• Marvel’s Spider-Man (DX12) may exhibit lighting corruption when looking towards the Sun.
• Marvel’s Spider-Man (DX12) may exhibit a soft lock when attempting to take a picture of the Empire State Building.
• Marvel’s Spider-Man (DX12) may exhibit missing lens flare effects with certain light sources.
• Saint’s Row (DX12) may experience an application crash after extended gameplay, or during game launch.
• Saint’s Row (DX12) flickering corruption may be observed on certain textures.
• Gears 5 (DX12) may experience an application crash, system hang or TDR during gameplay.
• Some third-party camera applications may exhibit video corruption when playing the recorded video in Fullscreen.
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (DX11) may exhibit shadow corruption in certain environments when observing from a large distance.

>> There are also lots of fixes for the drivers and software, but I'm not going to list those (too long).

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Over Jump is an unofficial remake of SEGA Rally in Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/over-jump-is-an-unofficial-remake-of-sega-rally-in-unreal-engine-5/
SAGE 2022 is currently under way, offering demos from numerous indie games. And one title that is more or less an unofficial remake of SEGA Rally Championship in Unreal Engine 5 caught my attention. And yes, there is a demo that you can download and play.
Over Jump is created by a single developer, Alessandro Schiassi, and is currently in an alpha stage. The ultimate goal of this project is to remake the entire first SEGA Rally game in UE5. As such, Over Jump promises to have great graphics but the same arcade driving style that players loved.
Currently, Schiassi plans to complete the Forest track with a basic Time Attack mode, and release it for free in October. Then, and provided SEGA approves this project, the artist may recreate the rest remaining stages.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Rebirth 6.0 is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind-rebirth-6-0-is-available-for-download/
It’s been a while since our last look at the Morrowind Rebirth project. Today, we are happy to report though that modder ‘trancemaster_1988’ has released a brand new version of it that you can download right now.
Morrowind Rebirth is a complete overhaul for Morrowind. This mod adds countless new details, weapons, armors and much more for you to see and do. Basically, this is a must-have mod for those that want to replay this classic TES game.
According to the modder, Morrowind Rebirth 6.0 features numerous bug fixes, graphical improvements, reworked interiors, new weapons and armor, and more.

This Skyrim Special Edition mod allows you to become the Predator and hunt Xenomorphs
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-skyrim-special-edition-mod-allows-you-to-become-the-predator-and-hunt-xenomorphs/
Veenix1998 has shared a must-have mod for Skyrim Special Edition/Anniversary Edition. Predators The Lost Tribe V115D adds to the game 3 playable Predators, new weapons, as well as xenomorphs to hunt.
Going into more details, this is basically a port of the same mod that came out for the original version of Skyrim. Players will discover over 42 New Predator weapons with dozens and dozens of new types of predator biomasks, armor and equipment. Moreover, players will travel Skyrim and find technology scattered around Tribes of friendly and hostile Predator Civilizations. And yes, you will be able to also fight Xenomorphs.
Players can choose between normal Yautja, Super Predator and Bad Blood Predator. As a Predator, players can use cloaking and heatvision to sneak up on their prey and take them down. And yes, the mod also has the iconic Plasma Caster.
>> Sadly, the article has no video of this mod in action.

New Zelda Ocarina of Time Fan Remake in Unreal Engine 5 video shows off Hyrule Field
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-zelda-ocarina-of-time-fan-remake-in-unreal-engine-5-video-shows-off-hyrule-field/
CryZENx has released a new video (and a new build) from his fan remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine 5. This video shows off the Hyrule Field, as well as some of the tweaks and improvements that the artist has implemented in it.
Going into more details, CryZENx has been working the whole month to further optimize the project. CryZENx has added new variables and fixed numerous stuff, as well as added the whole inventory and made it functional. Furthermore, he implemented some new water physics for the game when you slash with the sword.
Now the good news is that the artist has released a brand new version for his Patreon followers. Yeah yeah, this sucks for everyone else. However, you can head over to CryZENx’s Discord server and download its free Unreal Engine 4 version. Additionally, the artist plans to release a more polished version of this UE5 project to the public in the future.

GAMING NEWS

The Callisto Protocol will most likely support Ray Tracing Shadows & Reflections
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-callisto-protocol-will-most-likely-support-ray-tracing-shadows-reflections/
It appears that some new details have emerged for the Ray Tracing features that The Callisto Protocol will support. According to two interviews, the game will have ray-traced shadows and ray-traced reflections.

Sonic Frontiers gets an official overview trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/sonic-frontiers-gets-an-official-overview-trailer/
SEGA has released an official overview trailer for its upcoming Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers. As the press release reads, this trailer provides a look at the title’s new high-speed, open-zone gameplay, exhilarating combat system, intriguing puzzles, Cyber Space stages and more.

Here are 18 minutes of gameplay footage from New Tales from the Borderlands
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-18-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-new-tales-from-the-borderlands/
2K Games and Gearbox have shared a new trailer for New Tales from the Borderlands which features 18 minutes of gameplay footage.