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

[JEMC]

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has four new Deals of the Day and a new Sale:

• These are the new Deals of the Day, available until Friday:
  • The first one is Roadwarden, 27% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/roadwarden
  • The next one is Absolver, 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/absolver
  • Batman™: Arkham Knight Premium Edition also gets an 80% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/batman_arkham_knight_premium_edition
  • The fourth DotD is Warhammer: Chaosbane, again with an 80% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/warhammer_chaosbane
• And the Midweek Sale features up to 80% discounts during 4 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20230208_midweek_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• Gloria Victis: Medieval MMORPG will be 50% off until February 14th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/327070/Gloria_Victis_Medieval_MMORPG/
• And Symphony of War gets a 33% discount until the 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488200/Symphony_of_War_The_Nephilim_Saga/

The Humble Store has ended its Winter Sale, but it has new sales for us:

• The Goblinz Studio Publisher Sale brings up to 80% discounts during the next 3 days. All the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/goblinz-studio-publisher-sale/
• Konami puts its games up to 90% off during 4 days. The keys are all for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/konami-sale/
• The Sonic Franchise Sale features up to 75% discounts during 5 days and, once again, all the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/sonic-franchise-sale/
• The Wired Productions Publisher Sale comes with up to 90% discounts during 6 days. All the keys are for Steam, plus one also for GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/wired-productions-publisher-sale/
• The last deal is the Hypetrain Publisher Sale, with up to 85% discounts during 9 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG (1) and EGS (1): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/hypetrain-publisher-sale/

And there's also Fanatical, with three new deals:

• The Star Deal is Star Wars Jedi Knight Collection, 80% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/star-wars-jedi-knight-collection
• The Star Wars Collection Bundle features 14 games with a 78% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/star-wars-collection
• The two former deals are part of a Disney Interactive Sale that features up to 80% discounts and that I don't know how long it will last: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/disney-interactive

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

New Intel Arc driver offers optimized performance in Hogwarts Legacy & Returnal
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-intel-arc-driver-offers-optimized-performance-in-hogwarts-legacy-returnal/
Intel is the first of the three big GPU companies that has released optimized drives for Hogwarts Legacy and Returnal. Intel has been doing its best to improve overall performance in its Arc GPUs, so this is great news for those owning these graphics cards.
Unfortunately, and other than support for these two games, this new Intel Arc driver doesn’t bring any additional improvements or fixes. Still, we highly recommend downloading it. After all, it packs all the improvements introduced in previous drivers.

NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 528.49 WHQL
https://videocardz.com/driver/nvidia-geforce-game-ready-528-49-whql

Highlights

• This new Game Ready Driver provides the best day-0 gaming experience for the latest new games supporting NVIDIA DLSS technology including Hello Neighbor 2 and PERISH. Additionally, this Game Ready Driver supports Company of Heroes 3 and the latest update for World of Warcraft which introduces support for NVIDIA Reflex.
• Introduces support for GeForce RTX 40 Series notebooks

Fixed Issues

• Adobe Bridge stability issues with 528.02 [3957846]
• Disable Hitman 3 Resizable Bar profile on Intel platforms [3956209]
• Discord update causes GPU memory clocks to drop to P2 state [3960028]

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Final Fantasy 14 dispute ends in the death of its most popular mod
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-dispute-ends-in-the-death-of-its-most-popular-mod/
Ask a Final Fantasy 14 diehard what mods they use and many of them will say GShade, a fork of Reshade that lets you customize the game's visuals. GShade has long been the tool to make the MMO (and several other games) look pretty for screenshots, allowing you to add shaders for a more vibrant or avant-garde aesthetic.
GShade, at least for the moment, is gone. Its creator, Marot Satil, announced in the GPOSERS Discord that it "will not receive updates for the time being." But at the time of this writing, GShade's GitHub page, including Satil's account, have been removed.
Over the last few days, Satil has been battling another modder, NotNite, who made an alternative version of the software called GeezShade. GeezShade is essentially a fork of ReShade that uses a workaround to download and install most of the custom shaders from GShade.

GAMING NEWS

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor gets a 9-minute gameplay video
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/star-wars-jedi-survivor-gets-a-9-minute-gameplay-video/
IGN has shared a video, showcasing 9 minutes of gameplay footage from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. This gameplay sequence takes place after Cal crash lands on Koboh and must seek out help to repair his ship, The Mantis.

System Shock Remake gets a brand new demo for Steam Next Fest
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/system-shock-remake-gets-a-brand-new-demo-for-steam-next-fest/
Nightdive Studios and Prime Matter have released a brand new demo for System Shock today, which gives fans a whole new look at the exciting title coming in March.
>> There's also a new short trailer.

The Callisto Protocol’s February 7th Update is 11GB in size, adds Hardcore Mode, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-callisto-protocols-february-7th-update-is-11gb-in-size-adds-hardcore-mode-full-patch-notes/
Striking Distance Studios has just released an 11GB Update for The Callisto Protocol that adds a Hardcore Mode to the game. Furthermore, this patch optimizes enemy combat AI when there are multiple enemies surrounding the player, and brings some Ray Tracing improvements. Or at least that’s what the devs claimed.

Here is how you can significantly improve the quality of Ray Tracing Shadows, Ambient Occlusion & Reflections in Hogwarts Legacy
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/here-is-how-you-can-significantly-improve-the-quality-of-ray-tracing-shadows-ambient-occlusion-reflections-in-hogwarts-legacy/
One of my biggest issues with Hogwarts Legacy was its Ray Tracing effects. Even when using the game’s Ultra RT settings, these RT effects can be underwhelming. Thankfully, PC gamers have figured out ways via which they can significantly improve the quality of these Ray Tracing effects.

PC demo & gameplay deep dive trailer released for Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Remake
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pc-demo-gameplay-deep-dive-trailer-released-for-sherlock-holmes-the-awakened-remake/
Frogwares has released a PC demo for Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Remake. In addition, the team released a gameplay deep dive trailer which you can also find below.