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

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The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

What do the names of bestselling Steam games have in common? Words like Manager, Tycoon, Remastered, and HD
https://www.pcgamer.com/what-do-the-names-of-bestselling-steam-games-have-in-common-words-like-manager-tycoon-remastered-and-hd/
The folk behind the GameDiscoverCo newsletter have gone on a deep dive into Steam, ranking 212 words based on the median gross lifetime revenue of games that have them in the title. The results they pull out of their data may not all be super surprising, but that doesn't mean they're not interesting.
Number one with a bullet is the word HD, with a median gross Steam revenue of $63,082. It's not the only word commonly associated with rereleases near the top of the list, with Remastered at number three ($32,243) and Gold at number six ($11,239). Collection, Deluxe, and Ultimate all place solidly as well. Nothing shocking there, of course. We live in an age of remakes, which is fine as long as we can still get the originals.
Slightly more unexpected is how well management sims are represented. The word Manager clocks in at second place ($33,341), with Tycoon at number four ($18,903). Though there are other words associated with specific genres in the list, they're ranked much lower: Tactics at number 12 ($5,391), Hidden at number 20 ($3,632), and Rogue at 22 ($3,228) for instance. Management sims really are a heartland PC gaming genre, even if they're not always the most attention-grabbing.

For some reason, GOG hasn't launched new Deals of the Day.

Steam has two new deals:

• Farm Manager 2021 gets a 64% discount until September 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123830/Farm_Manager_2021/
• Rubber Bandits will be 80% off until the same 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1206610/Rubber_Bandits/

The Summer Sale at the Humble Store has ended, but it still has three deals going on for another 26 hours:

• The Capcom Summer Spotlight features up to 83% discounts. All the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/capcom-summer-spotlight/
• The One Piece Summer Spotlight keeps its up to 90% deals. The keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/one-piece-summer-spotlight/
• And the Warner Bros Games Summer Spotlight also has up to 90% deals, all of them for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/wb-summer-spotlight/

Fanatical has launched the Kalypso Greatest Hits Bundle, with 6 games and 12 DLCs split into three tiers of 6, 11 and 18 items: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/kalypso-greatest-hits-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.9.1
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-23-9-1
Highlights Please note AMD RX 7800 XT & RX 7700 XT require a special 23.9.1 driver.

New Features

• AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ – Takes responsive gaming to the next level by introducing per-game profiling to intelligently pace frames further reducing input lag on RDNA 3 based Radeon GPUs AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ product support is limited to AMD RDNA™ 3 products, including the AMD Radeon™ RX 7000 Series or newer.
• AMD Radeon™ Boost – Now supports AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ and improves image quality through awareness of mouse sensitivity, reducing the image quality impact of dynamic resolution switching during motion—typically seen with high-DPI mice.
  • AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.9.1 introduces AMD Radeon™ Boost support for Resident Evil™ 4 Remake and Ghostwire™: Tokyo, which delivers extra performance and increased responsiveness with little perceived impact to quality.
• AMD HYPR-RX – Introducing a new driver experience that allows users to optimize their games using AMD Software features for their RDNA 3 based Radeon GPUs, achieving increased performance and lower latency with ease.
• AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.9.1 introduces the ability to intelligently combine AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+, Boost, and Radeon Super Resolution to achieve improved performance and latency reduction than these features can achieve on their own.

What’s Next?

• AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ – Initially supporting 12 games, new game support for AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ will be released through AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition updates in the coming months.
• AMD HYPR-RX – The HYPR-RX experience will continue to grow, including support for AMD Fluid Motion Frames to boost FPS using frame generation for DirectX® 11 and 12 games in Q1 2024.

Fixed Issues

• Error message may be observed when selecting Spatial sound format of “Dolby Atmos for home theatre”.

>> The article also lists the 12 games that support Anti-Lag+.

Epic Games highlights the key features of Unreal Engine 5.3
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/epic-games-highlights-the-key-features-of-unreal-engine-5-3/
Epic Games has shared a new video, highlighting the key features of Unreal Engine 5.3. Epic Games has just released this new version of UE5 to everyone, meaning that game developers can now use it in their games.
As well as enhancements to core rendering, developer iteration, and virtual production toolsets, Epic has introduced new experimental rendering, animation, and simulation features. Creators can now get their hands on cinematic-quality volumetric rendering, orthographic rendering, a Skeletal Editor, panel-based Chaos Cloth, and support for SMPTE ST 2110.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Starfield has already got a 'potato mode' mod to help you run it on machines from 1969
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-has-already-got-a-potato-mode-mod-to-help-you-run-it-on-machines-from-1969/
Earlier this year, I got myself a treat. To replace my decrepit GTX 1080 Ti—the one that meant I occasionally had to turn my entire PC upside down—I bought an RTX 4080 the size of a loaf of bread. My rays were traced, my SS was DL'd, and all it required was a power draw roughly the size of Turkmenistan's.
Turns out I needn't have bothered, though, because the biggest game of the moment has now gotten a mod that would, notionally, let it run on something far weaker. Starfield has got its very own potato mode mod, crunching its textures down to 128 bits and saving you all that precious, precious VRAM you have on your, I don't know, 3DFX Voodoo 3.
>> The article only has one screenshot, but you can imagine how will the game look.

Rejoice: there's already a Starfield interface overhaul called StarUI
https://www.pcgamer.com/rejoice-theres-already-a-starfield-interface-overhaul-called-starui/
One of the most popular mods on Nexus Mods for Skyrim is SkyUI, a complete overhaul of the game's fumbled inventory system that, among a lot of other things, actually tells you the type, weight, and value of an item at a glance. It sits at over 860,000 endorsements and 6.5 million unique downloads (25 million total).
It's an absolute godsend which is basically required to play the game, unless you're really a fan of slowly scrolling through a list of shiny 3D models to get the whole picture. Fallout 4 got a similar treatment, and UI—UI never changes. It was inevitable that Starfield would follow.
StarUI Inventory is a mod by m8r98a4f2, which at the time of writing has close to 50,000 unique downloads already. StarUI aims to fix most of Bethesda's classic UI issues by, similarly to other mods of its ilk, presenting things in a more accessible list format. It lets you sort your inventory by ascending and descending order for things like weight, value, and DPS. You can also add custom columns by editing the mod's .ini file, such as ammo type, rounds, stack value—all that good granular stuff.
>> There's only one screenshot.

GAMING NEWS

Bethesda has removed Denuvo from Doom Eternal
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bethesda-has-removed-denuvo-from-doom-eternal/
Bethesda has just released a new update for Doom Eternal that has removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from it. Doom Eternal came out in March 2020, meaning that it took Bethesda over three years in order to remove Denuvo from it.

EA’s WRC will have Denuvo, will support DLSS, FSR & VR on PC, gets official PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/eas-wrc-will-have-denuvo-will-support-dlss-fsr-vr-on-pc-gets-official-pc-requirements/
Electronic Arts announced yesterday its new WRC game which will be developed by the team behind the DiRT Rally series. Furthermore, EA shared some new details about this upcoming racing game, including its PC system requirements.

REPLACED and Alone in the Dark have been delayed until 2024
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/replaced-and-alone-in-the-dark-have-been-delayed-until-2024/
Sad Cat Studios and THQ Nordic have announced that REPLACED and Alone in the Dark have been delayed until 2024. REPLACED is a 2.5D sci-fi retro-futuristic action platformer, whereas Alone in the Dark is a third-person psychological horror game.