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

[JEMC]

Hey, look! It's the Monday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG's Spring Sale will end in 7 hours. That's all the time you have to decide if you want "that" game or not.

Steam has two new deals:

• Hacker Simulator will be 70% off until Sunday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1754840/Hacker_Simulator/
• And RUNNING WITH RIFLES gets an 80% discount until April 9: https://store.steampowered.com/app/270150/RUNNING_WITH_RIFLES/

There are three new deals at Humble:

• At Humble Bundle there's the Best of Survivors-Like Bundle, with 8 games to get during the next 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/best-survivorslike
• And at the Humble Store there are another two sales:
  • Publisher Coffee Stain puts its games up to 80% off during 4 days. There are keys for Steam and EGS(2): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/coffee-stain-publisher-sale/
  • The Cards & Puzzle Sale features up to 85% discounts during 4 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG and UPlay: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/card-puzzle-sale/

Fanatical has launhed its Easter Eggstravaganza Sale, with deals form a lot of publishers, plus some other deals:

• The new Star Deal is Hi-Fi Rush Digital Deluxe, 28% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/hi-fi-rush-digital-deluxe
• There are four "new" bundles: Star Wars Collection (13 days, 79% off), Rimworld with all expansions (14 days, 12% off), The Jackbox Quintpack (14 days, 40% off) and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete Bundle (14 days, 81% off)
• There's a Mystery Egg Bundle, with between 1 and 20 games to get. If you want to know which games can be obtained, click this link: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/mystery-egg-bundle
• There are also supposed to be 2 Flash Deal, (maybe the Star Deal is one of them), but they aren't loading at the time of writing this.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Fallout 4 gets a 41GB 4K Texture Pack, optimizing all 40,962 textures
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/fallout-4-gets-a-41gb-4k-texture-pack-optimizing-all-40962-textures/
Modder ‘Painstaking Rick’ has released a new 4K Texture Pack for Fallout 4. This pack weighs around 41GB in size, and aims to optimize all of the game’s textures. That’s 40,962 textures in total.
Going into more details, Performout 4 – Fancy introduces 4K textures for all objects. The key feature here is that these 4K textures perform similarly to the game’s vanilla textures. So, if your computer ran the vanilla version at 60fps, it can also run this 4K modded version at the same speed.
>> The article has some comparison screenshots.

This flying car from Blade Runner feels right at home modded into Cyberpunk 2077
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-flying-car-from-blade-runner-feels-right-at-home-modded-into-cyberpunk-2077/
Cyberpunk 2077 already borrows a fair bit from other standbys of the genre⁠—I've spent like 90 hours tooling around Night City on the bike from Akira (sorry, the "Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X"), why not add in some more vehicles that tickle the lizard-like "hey, I recognize that!" part of my brain?
Enter Nexus modder ctxrisec's Blade Runner Spinner, which adds Ryan Gosling's spiffy air sedan from Blade Runner 2049 to CD Projekt's own vision of the dark future. The spinner honestly looks right at home in Night City: it has a retro, but still quite sleek design that wouldn't be out of place in a uh, "corpo rat's" garage, and I find it cuts a similar "luxury sports car but weird" silhouette to the Delamain cabs already in the game.
>> There are some screenshots of the car.

I hope Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's new weapons take a page from this modder's sick custom movesets
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-hope-elden-ring-shadow-of-the-erdtrees-new-weapons-take-a-page-from-this-modders-sick-custom-movesets/
Ashes of War and Weapon Arts in FromSoftware's newer games have really spoiled us⁠—it used to be you got your R1, R2, and some movement-dependent attacks, and that was it. Now when I go into a Soulsborne, I want some spice. I want the Rakuyo double-bladed katana's mixups, the Farron Greatsword's straight-up Samurai Champloo breakdancing, or the Marais Executioner Sword's Jedi telekinesis nonsense. I've been a little worried that FromSoft just won't be able to top the excellent and varied armory already in Elden Ring, but modder clevereraptor6 over on NexusMods has been quietly toiling away on custom weapon movesets that prove just how much juice is left in the animations and effects FromSoft has already created.
>> There's a short video of the mod.

I found a Skyrim mod that adds skooma hallucinations, now I'm a drug addict with an imaginary goat
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-found-a-skyrim-mod-that-adds-skooma-hallucinations-now-im-a-drug-addict-with-an-imaginary-goat/
I was somewhere around Whiterun on the edge of Fort Greymoor when the skooma began to take hold. Things became washed-out and smeary, and then there was two of everything including me and my pet elytra—an odd kind of mantis-looking bug who I realized, seeing two of the bizarre insect beside me, probably wasn't the best companion to bring on a 10-skooma bender.
Skooma is a narcotic substance made of refined moon sugar that's banned in some parts of Tamriel due to its addictiveness, though considered a sacred sacrament by the khajiit. In Morrowind and Oblivion it fortified your speed and strength while draining your intelligence and agility, while in Skyrim it simply restores stamina. Its addictiveness and hallucinatory qualities have never really been modeled by any of the Elder Scrolls games—until now.
JaySerpa is responsible for the Skyrim on Skooma mod, which not only makes skooma addictive, but adds 69 different psychedelic experiences you'll randomly enjoy one of each time you consume a bottle of the madgod's favorite tipple. It may sound like a joke, and it was uploaded on April 1st, but it's clearly a labor of love that took JaySerpa about five months to create. One of the best Skyrim mods? Well, I think so.
>> There are some screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

CD Projekt boss confirms it's reassessing its multiplayer Witcher game: 'We don't want to carry on with projects that we are not aligned with'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekt-boss-confirms-its-starting-over-with-multiplayer-witcher-game-we-dont-want-to-carry-on-with-projects-that-we-are-not-aligned-with/
We already kind of knew that CD Projekt-owned studio The Molasses Flood had gone back to the drawing board with Project Sirius, its upcoming multiplayer Witcher game, following a recent announcement to CD Projekt investors. But now CDP has confirmed that the project is being "re-evaluated", and provided a little insight into why.

Windy Meadow will take players back to the world of one of 2022's best narrative adventures
https://www.pcgamer.com/windy-meadow-will-take-players-back-to-the-world-of-one-of-2022s-best-narrative-adventures/
Associate editor Lauren Morton chose Roadwarden as her game of the year personal pick for 2023, saying it "nails the intersection between novel and adventure game in a way that, for the first time, doesn't make me wish it were just one of those other things instead." It's also acclaimed over on Steam, where more than 1,600 user reviews have conferred upon it an "overwhelmingly positive" rating.
All those fans will no doubt be happy that more is on the way: Developer Moral Anxiety Studios says Windy Meadow—A Roadwarden Tale is a "familiar-yet-new ‘slice of life’ adventure where every decision matters on the quest to forge a noble path."

I played DayZ creator Dean Hall's next game, which is like RimWorld in a submarine
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-played-dayz-creator-dean-halls-next-game-which-is-like-rimworld-in-a-submarine/
I'm not sure when, or even if, DayZ creator Dean Hall sleeps. Not only has his New Zealand-based game studio, RocketWerkz, updated its survival game Icarus every week for 68 consecutive weeks, but it continues developing space station management game Stationeers and upcoming transport tycoon game Art of the Rail.

Marvel's Avengers gets its final update, unlocking all the cosmetics for everyone
https://www.pcgamer.com/marvels-avengers-gets-its-final-update-unlocking-all-the-cosmetics-for-everyone/
The final update for Marvel's Avengers is now live, meaning players now have full access to "nearly all" of the game's content, including outfits, emotes, takedowns, and nameplates, plus a special "Founder's Gift" for everyone who's earned at least one achievement or trophy by April 1.

Ark 2 delayed until 'end of 2024'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ark-2-delayed-until-end-of-2024/
Ark 2 has been delayed until late 2024, according to a post on the dinosaur survival game's official site. While a specific date for the sequel to Ark: Survival Evolved has never been announced by Studio Wildcard, it was planned for sometime this year.