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

The Epic Store gives away:

• Breathedge: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/breathedge
• Poker Club: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/poker-club

Next week, the free games will be Against All Odds, Horizon Chase Turbo and Kao the Kangaroo.

Confirming that what happened last week wasn't an accident, GOG has launched not one, but two new sales:

• The first one comes a bit early than usual and it's the May the 4th Sale, with Star Wars games up to 75% off until May the 5th: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_may_the_4th
• And because Star Wars isn't the only franchise about space, there's a Space Out Sale with games featuring that theme. The sale will last during 8 days and has up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_space_out_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• Gas Station Simulator will be 30% off until the 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149620/Gas_Station_Simulator/
• And Chernobylite Enhanced Edition will also be on sale until the 10th, but with a 55% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016800/Chernobylite_Enhanced_Edition/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Alien Isolation mod tools deliver Ridley Scott's original vision of a Xenomorph stalking Dust 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/alien-isolation-mod-tools-deliver-ridley-scotts-original-vision-of-a-xenomorph-stalking-dust-2/
An extremely enterprising Alien: Isolation mod project, OpenCAGE, has released its latest set of tools for the game: And demonstrated just what a big deal this is by unimportant Counter-Strike's Dust 2 map into Alien: Isolation and releasing the relentless Xenomorph and some Working Joes to hunt the player down (thanks, RPS). Obviously one would hope to never meet an Alien anywhere, but a big open space where your only protection is wooden crates certainly doesn't seem ideal (though weirdly enough is basically a reduction of the unmade Alien 3).
"I've just released a big update to the tools that adds support for custom meshes, materials, and textures—something that has been requested for years," said Matt Filer, creator of OpenCAGE. "[It] also supports custom scripting in the game's proprietary scripting format, and modification of behaviour trees & a load of other game configurations."
Naturally, Filer thought the best way to show this off was whacking an Alien into Dust 2, and apparently it only took him 15 minutes. The implications for Alien: Isolation modding are of course much deeper and wider, though that all depends on what modders decide to do with OpenCAGE: This update will let them import new models, animations and so on into the game, which hasn't previously been possible.
>> There's a short video of this imported dust2 map.

GAMING NEWS

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor appears to have major CPU and VRAM optimization issues on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-wars-jedi-survivor-appears-to-have-major-cpu-and-vram-optimization-issues-on-pc/
EA has lifted the review embargo for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and from the looks of it, this game is coming in hot on PC. According to reports, the game currently has major CPU and VRAM optimization issues on PC.

The Last of Us Part I Title Update 1.0.4.0 released, is 24GB in size, brings CPU & GPU optimizations, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-last-of-us-part-i-title-update-1-0-4-0-released-is-24gb-in-size-brings-cpu-gpu-optimizations-full-patch-notes/
Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy have released Title Update 1.0.4.0 for the PC version of The Last of Us Part I. According to the release notes, this patch brings CPU and GPU optimizations to the game.

Armored Core VI releases on August 25th, gets first gameplay trailer & minimum PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/armored-core-vi-releases-on-august-25th-gets-first-gameplay-trailer/
Bandai Namco has announced that FromSoftware’s new Armored Core game, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, will release on August 25th. In addition, the publisher shared the game’s first gameplay trailer which you can find below.

Evil Dead actor Bruce Campbell shoots down idea of Ash Williams in Mortal Kombat 12: 'They need to come to our house'
https://www.pcgamer.com/evil-dead-actor-bruce-campbell-shoots-down-idea-of-ash-williams-in-mortal-kombat-12-they-need-to-come-to-our-house/
If you were hoping to see Evil Dead's boomstick-toting Ash Williams outside the confines of Evil Dead: The Game, you might have to fight Bruce Campbell about it. In a chat with The AV Club (spotted by TheGamer), the long-time Ash actor shot down the notion of the character putting in an appearance in Mortal Kombat 12—or any other non-Evil Dead game, for that matter—saying that characters from other series ought to be coming over to Evil Dead, instead.

The Starfield open beta at the top of Google search is an obvious scam
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-starfield-open-beta-at-the-top-of-google-search-is-an-obvious-scam/
Anticipation for news on Starfield is white-hot, and this hasn't been helped by the many delays the game has had. Everyone's jonesing to get their Skyrim in space on, but maybe some of us are Jonesing too much. Eagle-eyed PCG reader Jean Carrasquillo noticed, when googling the game's name, something suspicious: The top result is a sponsored link to a Starfield open beta that promises you can "play now."