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

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Let's go with the Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Epic Games doubles its reward program for the 2023 Summer Sale, which is live now by the way
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-doubles-its-reward-program-for-the-2023-summer-sale-which-is-live-now-by-the-way/
The Epic Games Store's 2023 Summer Sale is now live, with beefy discounts and a doubling of the Epic Rewards program that will now give back 10% of what you spend in the store to use on other purchases.
The Epic Rewards program launched in May as part of the Epic Mega Sale, and it's a pretty simple concept: Two weeks after you make an eligible purchase—basically anything you buy on the Epic Store, plus in-game purchases in Epic games like Fortnite—you get 5% of whatever you spent back as an in-store credit. So if you buy a $60 game, for instance, you'll get $3 back for future purchases.
During the Summer Sale, however, that percentage is doubled to 10%. That's a pretty good giveback, and it applies to all eligible purchases, not just the stuff that's on sale.

The Humble Store has a new 2K Publisher Sale, with up to 80% discounts during the next 5 days. The keys are for Steam, EGS and also as a direct download: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/2k-publisher-sale/.

Fanatical has four new deals:

• The Star Deal is Stranded: Alien Dawn, 36% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/stranded-alien-dawn
• The Tomb Raider games are on sale with up to 75% discounts during the next 10 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/tomb-raider
• Publisher Aspyr Games puts its titles on sale, up to 85% off during 10 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/aspyr
• And the BYO Bento Bundle 2 comes with 18 titles to choose from to build your 3, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-bento-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Elden Ring Mod reimagines the Ornstein & Smough bossfight
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-elden-ring-mod-reimagines-the-ornstein-smough-bossfight/
The team behind The Garden of Eyes overhaul mod for Elden Ring has released a new update that reimagines the Ornstein & Smough bossfight.
According to the team, the boss is a complete reimagination of the classic Dark Souls 1 boss, Ornstein & Smough, but with a full-on new design, models, music, animations, arenas, and unique phase 2.
Same with the original bossfight, when killing one of the duo first, the other one absorbs their power. Then, the game transitions into a completely new fight.
>> The article has an almost 10 minutes video of the mod.

New HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4 overhauls all armor and clothes
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-hd-texture-pack-for-fallout-4-overhauls-all-armor-and-clothes/
Modder ‘DoubleYou’ has released a new HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4 that overhauls all of the game’s armor and clothes. DobleYou has put a lot of effort into this pack, and these new textures look better than the vanilla ones. Thus, we highly recommend downloading it.
Going into more details, the modder has revised all diffuse textures with additional details. Moreover, DoubleYo has redone all normals maps to improve details, and fixed vanilla texture errors. All of the face-covering helmets, masks, and glasses were remodeled to include transparency so you can see the faces. Additionally, the modder improved specular and environment mapping effects, and added some forgotten cut content.
Now what’s interesting here is that although this pack is lower resolution than the official High-Resolution Texture Pack, it’s of better quality. Most diffuse textures are 4K BC1 and BC7, whereas normal maps are 2K BC5, and specular maps are 2K BC5.
>> The article has some screenshots and an almost 2 minutes video of the mod.

Uncanny Stardew Valley AI mod replaces its lovely villagers with '33 provided brains'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uncanny-stardew-valley-ai-mod-replaces-its-lovely-villagers-with-33-provided-brains/
Stardew Valley is a game known for its cosy homegrown feel, with complex, well-written characters populating a little village trying to scrape by under the looming shadow of a mega-corporation. So obviously, an AI company made a mod that scrapes out their personalities and replaces them with a large language model, with the appetising sales pitch: "By default, there are 33 provided brains."
InworldAI promises to "craft characters with distinct personalities and contextual awareness that stay in-world or on brand." Watching Pelican Town's civilians rattle off lines of inoffensive text, however, feels like I've stumbled into some alternate JojaMart bad ending, where all the textured characters of Stardew Valley have been body-snatched by clones.
>> This mod feels like a way to turn players into cobayas to test the AI model of that company.

GAMING NEWS

Armored Core 6 gets an official story trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/armored-core-6-gets-an-official-story-trailer/
Bandai Namco has released the official story trailer for FromSoftware’s upcoming mecha game, Armored Core 6. Now contrary to other story trailers, this one is a CG trailer, so don’t expect much from it. Still, it looks great so if you are a fan of the series, you should definitely check it out.

Diablo 4 July 20th Patch removes level requirement for World Tiers III & IV
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/diablo-4-july-20th-patch-removes-level-requirement-for-world-tiers-iii-iv/
After releasing its massive Patch 1.1.0a for Diablo 4, Blizzard released today a new small update for its action RPG. According to the changelog, the Diablo 4 July 20th Update removes the level requirement for World Tiers III and IV.

Here’s a Minecraft-like game in Unreal Engine 5 with Lumen
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/heres-a-minecraft-like-game-in-unreal-engine-5-with-lumen/
Indie developer Tooley1998 has shared some screenshots from his upcoming Minecraft-styled voxel game in Unreal Engine 5. Tooley1998 has added support for UE5’s Lumen, and these screenshots showcase this new lighting system.