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

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The Monday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

GOG has three new Deals of the Day and a new Weekly Sale:

• The first DotD is Furi, 70% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/furi
• The second DotD is Hitman: Blood Money, 80% off until Wednesday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/hitman_blood_money
• And the third and last DotD is Syberia II, with a 90% discount until February 1st: https://www.gog.com/en/game/syberia_2
• The new Weekly Sale features up to 85% discounts until next Monday: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20230130_weekly_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• The daily deal is Chorus, that has a demo, 63% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1153640/Chorus/
• And GRIME, that also has a demo, will be 33% off until the 5th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123050/GRIME/

There are two new deals at Humble:

• At Humble Bundle there's the new Survival Instinct Bundle, with 7 games to get during the next 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/survival-instinct
• And the Humble Store features a Flash Deal with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, 60% off during another 2 hours. The keys are for Steam and EGS: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/tiny-tina-winter-sale-featured-deals/

And Fanatical has three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Far Cry® 6 Game of the Year Edition, 66% off during 48 hours. Needless to say, the key is for UbiConnect: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/far-cry-6-game-of-the-year-edition
• The former is part of an Ubisoft Sale, featuring up to 86% discounts during 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/ubisoft
• And Deep Silver also puts its games on sale, with up to 90% discounts during 13 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/deep-silver

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam launches a new 'Discovery Hub' dedicated to DLC
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-launches-a-new-discovery-hub-dedicated-to-dlc/
Steam has a multitude of systems for recommending games to people as accurately and precisely as possible. Now it's looking to do the same with DLC through a new personalized hub called—get ready for it—DLC Discovery Hub.
The DLC Discovery Lab is the latest new feature to come out of Steam Labs, an experimental playground that Valve uses to corral and test new features for Steam. In previous years, it's given us things like the Interactive Recommender, Community Recommendations, a personalized news hub, and extended search options; this latest feature is designed to connect you with additional content for games you already own.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New Red Dead Redemption 2 HD Texture Packs improve birds & reptiles
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-red-dead-redemption-2-hd-texture-packs-improve-birds-reptiles/
Modder ‘WickedHorseMan’ has released two new HD Texture Packs for Red Dead Redemption 2. These new packs overhaul the textures of all reptiles and birds.
Going into more details, the first pack overhauls the textures of Alligator, Iguana, Toad, Turtle, Snake and Snapping Turtle. On the other hand, the second pack enhances the textures of all birds.
>> There are some screenshots of the mods.

Cyberpunk 2077 gets new high-resolution textures for Johnny Silverhand, Jackie, Panam & more
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/cyberpunk-2077-gets-new-high-resolution-textures-for-johnny-silverhand-jackie-panam-more/
Modder ‘XilaMonstrr’ has released new HD Texture Packs for CD Projekt RED’s latest action-adventure game, Cyberpunk 2077. These packs will improve the textures of a number of main characters.
Going into more details, the following packs will overhaul the textures for Johnny Silverhand, Jackie, Panam, Dexter, Ripperdocs and 8ug8ear. There is also an HD Texture Pack for the world map, and we highly recommend downloading that too.
>> Again, there are only some screenshots.

Unreal Prototype Remaster in Unreal Engine 4 available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/unreal-prototype-remaster-in-unreal-engine-4-available-for-download/
Now here is something that completely passed under my radar. Last year, YouTube’s “exo7341” released a prototype remaster of the first classic Unreal game in Unreal Engine 4. And this is so cool that it definitely deserves your attention.
I know, I know, shame on me for not discovering this project earlier. However, you should also be ashamed for not informing me about something this cool. So yeah, shame on you too.
But anyway, this Unreal Prototype Remaster features seven maps. From what I could see, the Vortex Rikers, Rrajigar Mine and Depths of Rrajigar are almost finished. On the other hand, Kran Deck 4, Outpost 3J, Bluff and Nali Castle are full of placeholder textures. This is kind of a bummer as I’d love to see an updated version of the Nali Castle.
Now what’s cool here is that exo7341 has implemented proper gameplay mechanics. There are also numerous enemies in the finished maps with AI routines. And yes, this prototype gives you weapons in order to fight them.
>> There's a short (less than 3 minutes) video of the mod.

This mod for a 20-year-old Star Wars game recreates the series' iconic duels with its best lightsaber combat
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-mod-for-a-20-year-old-star-wars-game-recreates-the-series-iconic-duels-with-its-best-lightsaber-combat/
First released in 2009, the absolutely massive Jedi Academy mod Movie Duels dropped its sixth major update at the beginning of January. The project aims to recreate iconic lightsaber duels from throughout Star Wars history with Jedi Academy's peerless lightsaber combat system.
(...)
I didn't even realize there was anyone making single player Jedi Academy mods like this, and at first glance parsed Movie Duels as a simple map and model pack. I dusted off my Steam version of Jedi Academy, downloaded the whopping three-file, eight gigabyte mod, and dropped everything in the Game Data folder of my Jedi Academy install (the mod handily runs off its own .exe in there).
And quite frankly? This thing rocks. The first map I loaded into was a recreation of the Star Forge observation deck, the final boss arena from Knights of the Old Republic. There's nothing to do here at the moment, but it will likely feature in an upcoming KotOR-themed duel pack hinted at in the mod's UI.
>> There's a two and a half minute video of the mod.

This 4GB Fallout 4 HD Texture Pack overhauls almost all of its creatures
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-4gb-fallout-4-hd-texture-pack-overhauls-almost-all-of-its-creatures/
Modder ‘Blackwolf24’ has released a 4GB must-have HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4. According to its description, this HD Texture Pack overhauls almost all of the game’s creatures.
Contrary to other HD Texture Packs, this one brings brand new textures to the table. As such, all of the game’s creatures are now more detailed than ever. There are some very minor artistic changes but I don’t mind as the new textures look significantly better.
>> There are some comparison screenshots, and the author of the article has forgotten to add the link to the mod, at least as I'm writing this.

GAMING NEWS

Horizon Forbidden West Multiplayer Alpha gameplay leaked online
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/horizon-forbidden-west-multiplayer-alpha-gameplay-leaked-online/
It appears that some alpha gameplay footage for the Horizon Forbidden West Multiplayer game has leaked online. According to reports, this gameplay footage is from a 2020 alpha build.

Here are some brand new beautiful 4K screenshots for Forza Motorsport
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/here-are-some-brand-new-beautiful-4k-screenshots-for-forza-motorsport/
A few days ago, Microsoft released some brand new 4K screenshots for the next Forza game, Forza Motorsport. Forza Motorsport will release later this year, and these screenshots will give you a glimpse at its graphics.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! will have Denuvo, official PC requirements revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/like-a-dragon-ishin-will-have-denuvo-official-pc-requirements-revealed/
SEGA has shared the official PC system requirements for Like a Dragon: Ishin!, and revealed that the game will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.
According to the specs, PC gamers will at least need an Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 with 8GB of RAM. Do note that the game requires CPUs that support the AVX and SSE4.2 instruction set.