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

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The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

More people have played The Sims 4 than live in France
https://www.pcgamer.com/more-people-have-played-the-sims-4-than-live-in-france/
The numbers are in, and it turns out that basically all of you are playing The Sims 4. In an announcement put out yesterday, EA announced that The Sims 4 is officially the "most widely-played game in the history of the franchise" with over 70 million people having played the game, 16 million of which signed up since it went free-to-play last October.
Well, isn't that nice? But some of the news is a lot scarier. Since the release of the Growing Together expansion pack containing the "infant life stage," reads the announcement in a tone usually reserved for Resident Evil antagonists, The Sims 4 has accrued more than "8.6 million Sims infants in-game".

The Epic Store gives away two titles:

• Beyond Blue: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/beyond-blue
• Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna): https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/never-alone-kisima-ingitchuna

Next week, the free games will be Breathedge and Poker Club.

GOG seems to have forgotten that today it's Thirsday, not Friday, and have launched 5 new Deals of the Day and 4 new sales:

• The first DotD is Jagged Alliance: Rage! , 95% off during 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/jagged_alliance_rage
• Lock's Quest will also be 95% off during the same 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/locks_quest
• The other three Deals of the Day revolve around the Alien: Isolation game, and will last 94 hours:
  • Alien: Isolation is 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/alien_isolation
  • The Alien: Isolation - Season Pass is 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/alien_isolation_season_pass
  • And the Alien: Isolation Collection will also be 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/alien_isolation_collection
• Publisher Gamera Games celebrates its 5th anniversary putting its games up to 50% off until April 26. Learn more here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/publisher_sale_5th_anniversary_of_gamera_games_with_their_great_titles_up_to_50_off
• The Travel the Worlds Sale comes with up to 89% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_travel_the_worlds
• Publisher HandyGames puts its catalog on sale with up to 90% discounts during 9 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_handy_games_sale
• And the NSFW Spring Sale and its up to 90% off deals will be available until the 1st of May: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_nsfw_spring

Steam has two new deals:

• AMID EVIL will be 75% off until April 26: https://store.steampowered.com/app/673130/AMID_EVIL/
• And the Ultimate Voxel Destruction Sale, with 3 games, features between 50 and 75% discounts until the 3rd of May: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/DoborogGames/sale/ultimatevoxeldestruction

There are two new deals at Humble:

• Humble Bundle has the In Your Face VR Bundle, with up to 7 games to get during the next 18 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/in-your-face-vr
• The Humble Store has an Assetto Corsa Competizione Sale, with the game and different DLCs up to 70% off during 5 days. The keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/assetto-corsa-competizione-sale/

Fanatical has the new BYO Trinity Bundle, with 16 titles to choose from for your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-trinity-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New version released for the Sonic 2006 Fan Remake, Project ’06
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-version-released-for-the-sonic-2006-fan-remake-project-06/
In November 2019, we shared a fan remake of Sonic 2006 in Unity Engine, called Project ’06. And today, we are happy to report that a brand new version of it is available for download.
According to the developers, this is the third installment of Project ’06’s episodic releases and the full release of Silver’s Trial Campaign accompanied by Sonic’s & Shadow’s Trial Campaigns with all kinds of improvements and enhancements.
This release contains every stage available in Silver’s, Shadow’s and Sonic’s stories. However, we should note that it’s not compatible with your older saves. That is of course if you’ve played the previous versions of this fan remake.
>> The article has a short video of the mod.

Half-Life: Alyx NoVR Mod Update #7 is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/half-life-alyx-novr-mod-update-7-is-available-for-download/
A couple of days ago, the “GB_2 Development Team” released the seventh major update for its NoVR Mod for Half-Life: Alyx. This new patch comes with a lot of bug fixes and introduces some new features that we’ll detail below.
Update #7 updates more ladders with a new animation. And while this is great news, not all of the game’s ladders have been updated. So yeah, expect to see the game’s default teleportation in some of them. Players can also expect a new Half-Life Alyx-inspired HUD.
This update also adjusts the shotgun puzzle by making the wheel easier to use. Moreover, it adds inverted mouse support, as well as a Quicksave Tutorial.
>> There's an over 8 minutes video detailing the changes of this update.

Paper Mario PC ports beckon as coder completes full decompilation of the N64 classic
https://www.pcgamer.com/paper-mario-pc-ports-beckon-as-coder-completes-full-decompilation-of-the-n64-classic/
It takes a brave kind of person to announce they've fully decompiled Paper Mario mere days after Nintendo finished mounting hacker Gary Bowser's head on a proverbial spike, and that person is Ethan Roseman. Spotted by VGC, Roseman—a coder—has announced that he's "reached 100% completion" on a project aimed at decompiling the Nintendo 64 classic, opening the way for mods and unofficial PC ports.

GAMING NEWS

Death Stranding April 19th Patch adds support for Intel XeSS 1.1 & DualSense Edge
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/death-stranding-april-19th-patch-adds-support-for-intel-xess-1-1-dualsense-edge/
Kojima Productions has released a new patch for Death Stranding Director’s Cut that adds support for Intel XeSS 1.1 and DualSense Edge.

Returnal April 19th Update released and detailed, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/returnal-april-19th-update-released-and-detailed-full-patch-notes/
Housemarque and Climax Studios have released the April 19th Update for Returnal. In addition, the teams have shared its complete changelog which you can find below.

First official trailer for the Unreal Engine 5-powered body-cam FPS, Unrecord
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-official-trailer-for-the-unreal-engine-5-powered-body-cam-fps-unrecord/
Developer DRAMA has just released the first official gameplay trailer for their upcoming Unreal Engine 5-powered body-cam FPS, Unrecord.
>> I have to say that I'm having a hard time deciding if it's a real gameplay footage from a videogame or an excellently edited video.

Capcom restores the missing Ray Tracing options from Resident Evil 2 Remake & Resident Evil 3 Remake
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/capcom-restores-the-missing-ray-tracing-options-from-resident-evil-2-remake-resident-evil-3-remake/
Last week, we informed you about a bug that disabled the ray tracing settings from the PC versions of Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake. And today, Capcom issued a new update that restores these RT options on PC.