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

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The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Cyberpunk 2077's redemption arc leads to the highest Steam player count since its disastrous launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077s-redemption-arc-leads-to-the-highest-steam-player-count-since-its-disastrous-launch/
If at first you don't succeed, patch, patch, and patch again. You might already have noticed, but Cyberpunk 2077 is having a bit of a renaissance this month, on the back of its sweeping 2.0 update and yesterday's release of its (really rather good) Phantom Liberty expansion. In No Man's Sky-like fashion, Cyberpunk seems like it's finally making good three years after its disastrous launch, and hey, it looks like people are taking notice.
According to SteamDB numbers, Cyberpunk hit its second-highest Steam player count ever in the wake of Phantom Liberty's launch, topping out at 246,754 players yesterday afternoon. That's the most people that have played the game simultaneously since the game's launch all the way back in 2020.

I don't know why, but GOG hasn't launched new Deals of the Day. Maybe tomorrow.

Steam has two new deals:

• Smushi Come Home is going to be 30% off until the 1st of October: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1740300/Smushi_Come_Home/
• And The Talos Franchise Sale features up to 90% discounts until October, 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/thetalosprinciple

The Humble Store has a new Koei Tecmo Publisher Sale, with up to 70% discounts during 12 days. The keys are all for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/koei-tecmo-publisher-sale/.

And at Fanatical, while it actually started yesterday, the Star Deal is Far Cry 6 Gold Edition, that will be 79% off during another 24 hours. The key is for UbiConnect, of course: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/far-cry-6-gold-edition.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New Cyberpunk 2077 Mod improves the quality of Path Tracing by increasing the number of rays and ray-bounces
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/new-cyberpunk-2077-mod-improves-the-quality-of-path-tracing-by-increasing-the-number-of-rays-and-ray-bounces/
Schreedr has released a new mod for Cyberpunk 2077 that aims to improve the quality of Path Tracing by increasing the number of rays and ray-bounces.
This mod will make the already GPU-heavy Path Tracing effects of CP2077 even more demanding. Thus, we only suggest using this with really high-end GPUs, like the RTX 4090, at reasonable resolutions.
This mod comes in various forms. The lite version has only one ray and one bounce. As such, this version will allow you to run Path Tracing on weaker GPUs. On the other hand, the most demanding version has 6 rays and 6 bounces. For comparison purposes, by default, Cyberpunk 2077’s Path Tracing uses 2 rays and 2 bounces.
>> Because your GPU wasn't suffering enough. Anyway, there's a roughly 2 minutes video of the mod.

Starfield DLSS3 mod creator threatens Patreon pirates with 'hidden mines' in monologue: 'They will never know if they have found all of them'
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-dlss3-mod-creator-threatens-patreon-pirates-with-hidden-mines-in-monologue-they-will-never-know-if-they-have-found-all-of-them/
You might have to worry about DRM in your mods, now. Starfield modder PureDark has been charging $5 (via Patreon) for his DLSS3 Starfield mod, although his DLSS2 mod is available for free on Nexus.
This isn't news in itself, as he's been upscaling mods on Patreon for years. "I've been providing it as a service for more than 10 months, way before Starfield," argues PureDark in an interview with IGN. "I've been making new mods and keeping mods updated for months for my subscribers, is $5 too much for such a service?"
(...)
It might not surprise you to find out that PureDark's paid, modded version was 'cracked' in rather quickly, considering Starfield's popularity. What really has the pirating community polishing their cutlasses, though, is PureDark's plans to add traps for them in the future.
"From now on I will place hidden mines in all my mods to make it harder for these people. They might be able to find and bypass some of them, but they will never know if they have found all of them," PureDark announced, before threatening would-be pirates with mischief. "The cracked mods will sometimes work, sometimes fail … they won't even know if it's a bug or just them using the cracked version, and they will never have the support I've been always providing to my subscribers."
>> Yeah, piss off the pirate community, that has always worked well. In any case, I wonder if this will end like Denuvo, were pirates have a smoother experience than legal users.

GAMING NEWS

Metaphysical puzzle game, Talos Principle 2, will release on November 2nd
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/metaphysical-puzzle-game-talos-principle-2-will-release-on-november-2nd/
Croteam and Devolver Digital have announced that The Talos Principle 2, the long-awaited sequel to 2014’s smash hit metaphysical puzzle game, will launch for PC on November 2nd. In order to celebrate this announcement, the teams have released a new gameplay trailer that you can find below.

DON’T NOD’s Action RPG, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, has been delayed until February 13th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dont-nods-action-rpg-banishers-ghosts-of-new-eden-has-been-delayed-until-february-13th/
DON’T NOD and Focus Entertainment have announced that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden will now release on February 13th, 2024. According to the companies, this delay is mostly due to the fact that a lot of new major triple-A games are coming out in the next couple of months.

Lies of P Update 1.2.0.0 released, adds Dualshock 4 & DualSense support, brings major boss balance tweaks
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/lies-of-p-update-1-2-0-0-released-adds-dualshock-4-dualsense-support-brings-major-boss-balance-tweaks/
Round8 Studio has released a new major update for its Souls-like game, Lies of P. Update 1.2.0.0 brings Dualshock 4 and DualSense support on PC, and packs numerous balance tweaks.

Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition is coming to PC in early 2024
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/horizon-forbidden-west-complete-edition-is-coming-to-pc-in-early-2024/
Sony has just announced that Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition will be officially coming to PC in early 2024. The team responsible for it will be Nixxes, and below you can find a new trailer for it.