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

[JEMC]

The news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has three new Deals of the Day and a new sale:

• These are the new DotD, available during 46 hours:
  • The first one is Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition, 65% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/divinity_original_sin_enhanced_edition
  • The second is Galactic Civilizations III: Ultimate Edition, with a 70% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/galactic_civilizations_iii_ultimate_edition
  • The last one is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - Digital Deluxe Edition, 85% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/deus_ex_mankind_divided_deluxe_edition
• And publisher Apogee Entertainment puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts during 5 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_apogee_entertainment

Steam has two new deals:

• Mato Anomalies will be 50% off until the 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2024390/Mato_Anomalies/
• Filament gets a 77% discount until the same 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1137350/Filament/

Fanatical's new Star Deal is Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, 79% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/klonoa-phantasy-reverie-series.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.9.2
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-23-9-2
Highlights
Note: Polaris and Vega GPUs are supported through a different package. You can download the driver for these GPUs by clicking on this link.

• New Game Support
  • Lies of P
  • Party Animals
  • The Crew™ Motorfest
• Additional SDK Support
  • Microsoft® Agility SDK Preview Release v1.711.3 including Shader Model 6.8 functionality for GPU Work Graphs (GWG)).
  • Microsoft® Agility SDK Retail Release 1.610.5 including Enhanced Barriers and Vulkan on DX12 compatibility features.
• New AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ Game Support
  • AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.9.2 introduces Anti-Lag+ support for Starfield, Witcher 3, ELDEN RING and Immortal of Aveum™.
    • Up to 45% decrease in latency across select titles when AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ is on, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™️ 23.9.2 on the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX GPU in select titles, versus when AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ is off.RS-597
  • AMD Radeon™ Anti-Lag+ features an onscreen overlay that can be used to display the system latency of supported games. When Anti-Lag+ is enabled, the onscreen overlay can be toggled on using ALT+SHIFT+L hotkey.
    • Toggling the hotkey will first enable the status indicator of Anti-Lag+ (a white triangle), and then display latency in ms or number of frames.
    • To compare the difference between Anti-Lag+ and Anti-Lag, hold the DEL key. To compare the difference between Anti-Lag+ On and Off, hold the right CTRL key.
    • Use the ALT+SHIFT+F hotkey to monitor FPS when Anti-Lag or Anti-Lag+ is enabled in the game.

Fixed Issues

• Application crash may be observed while playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with Vulkan® API set on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX.
• GPU Clock may be artificially limited to 2700 MHz when performing manual tuning on Radeon™ RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT graphics.
• Display may not reach correct brightness with certain games on select SAMSUNG™ FreeSync Premium Pro monitors or TVs with local dimming setting enabled.
• Application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing SMITE® on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing F1® 23 on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7800 XT.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Quake 4 Hi Def V3.3 is now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/quake-4-hi-def-v3-3-is-now-available-for-download/
Modder ‘y2keeth’ has released Version 3.3 of his Hi-Def graphical overhaul mod for Quake 4. This new version improves the quality of numerous textures and 3D models, brings full shadows map files, and improves the sikk phong shading.
In order to showcase Version 3.3 of the Quake 4 Hi-Def Project, the modder shared the following video and screenshots. These should give you an idea of what you can expect from this graphics overhaul mod.
>> The video is over 5 minutes long.

Starfield hero adds New Atlantis map to New Atlantis
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-hero-adds-a-new-atlantis-map-to-new-atlantis/
Starfield may have over 1,000 planets and moons but it has precisely zero local maps, a choice that starts out confusing and becomes a frequent annoyance. Trying to find your way around the sprawling city of New Atlantis or the winding walkways of Cydonia would be infinitely easier if you could pull up a map to figure out where you're going and drop a pin so you can more easily find your way to your destination.
Alas, Bethesda neglected to include local maps like you'll find in games like Skyrim and Oblivion, which means if you don't have a specific quest marker pointing you to a location in a city you're probably gonna have trouble figuring out where stuff actually is.
Thankfully a few heroes have arrived to save the day—at least when it comes to New Atlantis. First up, map fanatic Wojtek Antonowicz of Game-Maps.com created a huge and lovely labeled map of New Atlantis with all the districts, shops, elevators, and locations clearly marked. Then modder JustOkayGamer (with Antonowicz's permission) took that map and added it to kiosks found around New Atlantis. Rejoice.
This isn't a map you can pull up in your menu: the map and legend are placed on physical objects around the city, so you need to walk right up to them in-game and look at them, making it feel like the sort of map you find at a shopping mall. But that's exactly what New Atlantis needs.
>> The article has a couple of screenshots.

Baldur’s Gate 3 gets a DLSS 3 Mod that doubles its performance in CPU-bound scenes
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/baldurs-gate-3-gets-a-dlss-3-mod-that-doubles-its-performance-in-cpu-bound-scenes/
Modder PureDark has released a DLSS 3 Frame Generation Mod for Baldur’s Gate 3 that can double the performance in CPU-bound scenes.
In order to showcase the performance boost that this mod brings to the table, PureDark shared the following video. In this video, we get to see the most CPU-bound area of the game, running with over 60fps at all times.
What’s also interesting is the PC system that PureDark has used. With DLSS 3 Frame Generation, an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X with an NVIDIA RTX 4090 is able to brute force its way and offer framerates higher than 60fps.
Now as with all of PureDark’s DLSS 3 mods, this is only available to his patrons. However, I seriously hope that other modders will share free alternatives to it. After all, we’ve already gotten free DLSS 3 mods for Starfield.
>> There's an almost 4 minutes video of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

Assassin’s Creed Mirage gets PC requirements & PC features trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/assassins-creed-mirage-gets-pc-requirements-pc-features-trailer/
Ubisoft has revealed the official PC system requirements for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and shared a PC features trailer for it. And, from the looks of it, this new Assassin’s Creed game will only support Intel’s XeSS, and not AMD FSR 2.0 or NVIDIA DLSS 2.
>> I find it amusing that it lists the Intel, Nvidia and AMD recommended GPUs for each target until it reaches the 4K Ultra preset, where there's no Intel card X-D.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will release on January 26th, gets first gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/like-a-dragon-infinite-wealth-will-release-on-january-26th-gets-first-gameplay-trailer/
SEGA has announced that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will release on January 26th. In addition, the team has shared the first gameplay trailer for this new Yakuza/Like a Dragon game which you can find below.

One hour of gameplay footage from the Unreal Engine 5-powered Souls-like game, Lords of the Fallen
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/one-hour-of-gameplay-footage-from-the-unreal-engine-5-powered-souls-like-game-lords-of-the-fallen/
YouTube’s ‘KONSOLOWE.info’ has shared a video, showcasing one hour of gameplay footage from the Unreal Engine 5-powered Souls-like game, Lords of the Fallen.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Zombies Cinematic Trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3-zombies-cinematic-trailer/
Activision has released a cinematic trailer for the Zombies Mode that will be featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. In this mode, a team of multi-national Operators assist the members of Task Force 141 against vast undead hordes brought on by a second major enemy threat.

Persona 3 Reload gets a brand new gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/persona-3-reload-gets-a-brand-new-gameplay-trailer/
Atlus has just released a brand new gameplay trailer for Persona 3 Reload. This new trailer showcases some of the game’s environments, as well as its main cast. And, since I’m a big fan of its Japanese version, I’ve decided to share that one.