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

[JEMC]

Here come the Monday news, with a quite big first post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG's Summer Sale is in its final hours, ending in less than 7 hours. It's your last time to get something.

The Humble Store has a DRM Freedom Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 4 days. Almost every game has keys for GOG, with most, but not all, also been available for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/drm-freedom-sale/.

And Fanatical, where the Red Hot Sale is still going on, has a new Star Deal: UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection will be 51% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/uncharted-legacy-of-thieves-collection.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Valve is scrutinizing games with AI assets on Steam, says avoiding copyright violation 'is the developer's responsibility'
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-is-scrutinizing-games-with-ai-assets-on-steam-says-avoiding-copyright-violation-is-the-developers-responsibility/
The controversy around AI-generated content for videogames is starting to impact the biggest digital distribution platform on PC: an anonymous developer recently made a post on reddit (first spotted by Simon Carless) about the rejection of their game, claiming that "Valve is not willing to publish AI-generated content anymore." In a statement to PC Gamer and other publications, Valve elaborated that it is not opposed to generative tools as a concept, but instead takes the copyright concerns around them extremely seriously.
The developer says they tried to get a game approved on Steam about a month ago "with a few assets that were fairly obviously AI generated" and received the following response:
"While we strive to ship most titles submitted to us, we cannot ship games for which the developer does not have all of the necessary rights.
"After reviewing, we have identified intellectual property in [Game Name Here] which appears to belong to one or more third parties. In particular, [Game Name Here] contains art assets generated by artificial intelligence that appears to be relying on copyrighted material owned by third parties. As the legal ownership of such AI-generated art is unclear, we cannot ship your game while it contains these AI-generated assets, unless you can affirmatively confirm that you own the rights to all of the IP used in the data set that trained the AI to create the assets in your game."
>> Makes sense.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

The creators of RPCS3 are working on a Playstation 4 emulator
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-creators-of-rpcs3-are-working-on-a-playstation-4-emulator/
Now here is something unexpected. Nekotekina, kd-11 and DH, creators of the best PS3 emulator for PC, RPCS3, are currently working on a new Playstation 4 emulator.
This PS4 emulator is in a very early development stage. And when I say in very early, I mean VERY EARLY. At this point, the team has not been able to boot any PS4 game yet. So no, it doesn’t run any Playstation 4 games. Still, this is the PS4 emulator we should keep an eye on as it’s coming from the people behind RPCS3.

These Resident Evil 4 Remake Mods add Albert Wesker’s Richard Waugh and D.C. Douglas voices
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/these-resident-evil-4-remake-mods-add-albert-weskers-richard-waugh-and-d-c-douglas-voices/
Resident Evil fans, here is something for you today. Modder ‘BlitzKrieg’ has released two mods for Resident Evil 4 Remake that add the original voices of Albert Wesker.
Using AI techniques, the modder was able to create Wesker’s dialogue lines using D.C. Douglas and Richard Waugh. Since I’m a big fan of D.C. Douglas, I gave this mod a go and the results are impressive. Yes, Wesker now sounds more like the Wesker some of you loved in Resident Evil 5.
>> The article has two videos.

The Witcher 3 Next-Gen gets 8K Texture Pack for Triss Merigold
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-witcher-3-next-gen-gets-8k-texture-pack-for-triss-merigold/
A couple of days ago, we shared an 8K Texture Pack for The Witcher 3 Next-Gen that improved the Young and Adult versions of Ciri. And it appears that we should have waited as yesterday, modder ‘Instanity’ released another 8K Texture Pack that overhauls Triss Merigold.
Thanks to these texture packs, the main group of The Witcher 3 Next-Gen now has 8K textures. And as with the previous packs, this new one for Triss improves her face, body and clothes textures.
>> Like the previos 8K mod the article talks about, there are only some screenshots to show the improvements.

Street Fighter 6 gets amazing must-have realistic lighting mods
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/street-fighter-6-gets-amazing-must-have-realistic-lighting-mods/
Modder ‘alphaZomega’ has released two must-have realistic lighting mods for Capcom’s latest fighting game, Street Fighter 6. These mods attempt to make the game less cartoony and a bit more realistic.
Going into more details, this first mod introduces realistic lighting in stages. The mod dims all the default stage lights of several stages to about 10%, then places some attractive spotlights around that highlight details like skin, fabric, sweat and muscle definition. There are 4-5 of these spotlights illuminating the stage and they all cast real-time shadows.
(...)Do note that this mod currently overhauls three stages (future versions will improve more stages). (...)
The second mod removes the character backlight effect, making all characters look more realistic. What’s funny is that the backlight of the vanilla version can be really distracting. So again, this is a must-have mod as it can improve overall image quality. (...)
>> The article has some screenshots to showcase the changes.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gets 8K Texture Pack for landscapes
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-gets-8k-texture-pack-for-landscapes/
Modder ‘Shish15’ has released a must-have 8K Texture Pack for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition that overhauls its landscapes. As the modder noted, these new textures aim to provide realism, regionality and natural diversity to Skyrim’s landscapes.
This pack is also available in 2K and 4K versions. However, if you have enough VRAM, we highly recommend the 8K version. This 8K pack is 6GB in size and you can download it from here.
>> Once again, the article only has some screenshots.

There's a new Resident Evil 4 mod that brings the remake's best addition back in time to the original game
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-a-new-resident-evil-4-mod-that-brings-the-remakes-best-addition-back-in-time-to-the-original-game/
My single favorite thing in the Resident Evil 4 remake is its sick as hell, Sekiro-style parry system, a genius improvement to RE4's already-legendary combat. Now, thanks to modders kreedyk and qingsheng, that feature's been brought back to the original game.
The RE4 remake parry is actually just a smaller part of a much bigger mod, "New Trainer Introduction UHD." It allows for everything from bringing Mercenaries mode-exclusive weapons to the main game, to full-on model swaps like playing as Ashley or HUNK. I'm just here for that sweet, sweet knife parry though.
Installation and use is a little more convoluted than your typical mod, but still nothing crazy. I opted for a manual installation⁠—I don't know nothin' about no "Fluffy Manager."
>> The article has instructions to install the mod and a 37 seconds video.

GAMING NEWS

Leaked gameplay footage from the PVPVE extraction shooter, Arc Raiders
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/leaked-gameplay-footage-from-the-pvpve-extraction-shooter-arc-raiders/
Embark Studios, the developers behind the free-to-play online fast-paced first-person shooter, THE FINALS, is currently working on a PVPVE extraction shooter, called Arc Raiders. And, from the looks of it, the first gameplay footage from its closed beta phase has been leaked online.

Battlefield 2042 Update 5.1.0 releases next week, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/battlefield-2042-update-5-1-0-releases-next-week-full-patch-notes/
DICE has announced that Title Update 5.1.0 for Battlefield 2042 will release next week, and shared its complete changelog. According to the release notes, this new update will fix a number of bugs and glitches, and it will bring improvements to the squad spawning.
>> The article is dated June 30, so the update should release this week.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has killed Daedalic Entertainment
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-has-killed-daedalic-entertainment/
And the writing was on the wall. After the huge flop that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was, Daedalic announced the closure of its development department.
>> shikamaru317 made a thread about this some days ago.

New screenshots & gameplay trailer for the STALKER-inspired MMORPG, Pioner
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/new-screenshots-gameplay-trailer-for-the-stalker-inspired-mmorpg-pioner/
Back in June 2021, we informed you about an upcoming STALKER-inspired first-person action MMORPG, Pioner. And today, we present you some new in-game screenshots and a gameplay trailer for it.

The full source code of Crytek’s Far Cry has been leaked online
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-full-source-code-of-cryteks-far-cry-has-been-leaked-online/
It appears that the full source code of the first Far Cry game, developed by Crytek, has been leaked online. Far Cry is the game that put Crysis on everyone’s radar, so it will be interesting to see what modders can now achieve with it.

F1 23 is the first game using DLSS 2 Ultra Quality Mode [UPDATE: NVIDIA responds]
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/f1-23-is-the-first-game-using-dlss-2-ultra-quality-mode/
F1 23 came out last month and from the looks of it, it’s the first game using NVIDIA DLSS 2 Ultra Quality Mode. Or at least that’s what its in-game settings suggest.
UPDATE: NVIDIA got back to us and confirmed what we initially assumed. This is indeed DLAA and not a new DLSS preset.

New Flashback 2 gameplay trailer showcases its environments
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-flashback-2-gameplay-trailer-showcases-its-environments/
Microids has released a new gameplay trailer for Flashback 2 that showcases some of its environments. Flashback 2 promises to offer an experience faithful to the Flashback universe, and this trailer will give you a taste of it.

Rise of the Ronin leak suggests a mix of Assassin’s Creed, Ghost of Tsushima and Dark Souls
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rise-of-the-ronin-leak-suggests-a-mix-of-assassins-creed-ghost-of-tsushima-and-dark-souls/
In September 2022, KOEI Tecmo revealed a new game from Team Ninja, called Rise of the Ronin. And, according to a new leak, this will be a mix of Assassin’s Creed, Ghost of Tsushima and Dark Souls.
>> The mix sounds, at the very least, ambitious.