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

[JEMC]

It's Thursday, and this is the first part of the news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away GRIME: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/grime
Next week, they'll give away Train Valley 2.

GOG has added two new Deals of the Day, that will last until tomorrow's refresh:

• Noita is 50% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/noita
• Shadowrun Trilogy gets an 82% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/shadowrun_trilogy

And Fanatical has launched the Platinum Collection BOYB for July, with 16 titles to choose from to build your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

RPCS3 0.0.28 brings numerous GPU performance improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rpcs3-0-0-28-brings-numerous-gpu-performance-improvements/
The team behind the best Playstation 3 emulator, the RPCS3, announced that version 0.0.28 brings numerous GPU performance improvements.
As the team noted, these improvements can result in a massive speedup in games (such as the Gran Turismo series) on smaller GPUs without super-fast GDDR6X memory. However, the team states that there might be diminishing returns on high-end GPUs (like the RTX 4090).
Unfortunately, the RPCS3 team has not shared any official video for version 0.0.28. However, YouTube’s ‘Emulator + PC Gameplay’ shared three videos. In these videos, we get to see Dante’s Inferno, Demon’s Souls and Asura’s Wrath running on this latest version of RPCS3.
>> The article includes those three videos.

Hogwarts Legacy Ultra+ Mod adds “Insane” graphics, improves performance, fixes stutters/hitches
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/hogwarts-legacy-ultra-mod-adds-insane-graphics-improves-performance/
Modder ‘SammiLucia’ has released a new version of her Ultra+ Mod for Hogwarts Legacy which adds an “Insane” graphics preset. This is a must-have mod for everyone that wants to play this latest “Harry Potter” game, and we highly recommend using it.
For those unaware, the Hogwarts Legacy Ultra+ Mod enables global illumination (you can either select RTGI or SSGI), adds ray-traced water, and brings better graphics for the whole game. Moreover, it fixes texture loading, blurriness, disables Chroma DLL, and increases view distance and LODs.
Perhaps what’s more interesting here, though, are the performance improvements that this mod brings to the table. For instance, it fixes broken LOD definitions in Hogsmeade and elsewhere, reduces memory usage and improves stability. Not only that, but the modder has reworked the texture streamer to fix hitches/stutters, and addressed some slow texture loading issues.
What this ultimately means is that you’ll get a smoother overall performance with this mod. Not only that, but you can also improve its visuals.
>> There's an over 10 minutes long video of the mod.

The Grimace Shake has arrived in Skyrim, because of course it has
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-grimace-shake-has-arrived-in-skyrim-because-of-course-it-has/
This Skyrim mod makes me want to go and lie down for a bit. Uploaded by user MissleMann, the Grimace Mead mod is simply credited to "He watches". Great. On the plus side, NexusMod's virus scan feature has designated the Skyrim Grimace Shake as "safe to use", which somehow fails to be reassuring when faced with the prospect of downloading this purple eldritch horror.
If you're unfamiliar with the Grimace Shake, it's one of those infectiously weird TikTok trends that there's just no escape from. The premise is as follows: you receive a McDonalds Grimace Shake. You wish Grimace a happy birthday. You drink it. You are then found in a puddle of Grimace-coloured blood by your camera person, presumably dead. It's also spawned more Twitter memes than you can shake a Grimace at.
This version of the Grimace Shake, named the Grimace Mead, can be bought from Belethor for the staggering price of 170 septims. That's about 18 loaves of bread, or 28 potatoes. Mercifully, I didn't have to download this cursed artefact onto my machine to give it a test drive, as a channel named Jackary on YouTube has already done that for me.

GAMING NEWS

Witchfire won’t be coming to Steam at launch
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/witchfire-wont-be-coming-to-steam-at-launch/
The Astronauts has announced that Witchfire will release exclusively on Epic Games Store at launch, and will be skipping Steam.

Waking Tides is a new adventure game in Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/waking-tides-is-a-new-adventure-game-in-unreal-engine-5/
AirshipFx, a one-man dev team, is currently working on an interesting first-person adventure game in Unreal Engine 5, called Waking Tides. This game promises to feature a cool AR hybrid gameplay element, and you can find its debut in-engine trailer below.

TEVI is a cool metroidvania game that has NOTHING to do with The Elder Scrolls 6
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tevi-is-a-cool-metroidvania-game-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-elder-scrolls-6/
CreSpirit has shared an official combat trailer for its upcoming metroidvania 2D game, TEVI. And while the game looks kind of cool, its title was cleverly used to remind you of one of the most highly anticipated triple-A games. But no, TEVI has NOTHING to do with The Elder Scrolls 6.