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

Steam's Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Tekken 8 has sold 2 million copies, but suffers from pluggers, cheaters and major gameplay bugs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tekken-8-has-sold-2-million-copies-but-suffers-from-pluggers-cheaters-and-major-gameplay-bugs/
Bandai Namco has announced that its latest fighting game, Tekken 8, has sold 2 million copies worldwide. Tekken 8 came out on January 26th, meaning that it took a month in order to hit this sales goal. And while this is great news for Bandai Namco, the game suffers from MAJOR issues.

Besides the Dinos vs Robots Fest, Steam has more opportunities for us, including new weeklong deals:

• The Age of Empires Sale puts the games up to 75% off until the 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/AgeOfEmpiresFranchiseSale
• PICO PARK gets a 30% discount until next Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1509960/PICO_PARK/
• Zero Hour, still in Early Access, will be 40% off until the 4th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1359090/Zero_Hour/
• The Midwinter in Middle-Earth Sale features up to 85% discounts until Monday, March 4th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/midwinterinmiddleearthsale
• With the Nacon Publisher Sale, you'll find its games up to 90% off until the 10th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/naconpublishersale2024
• And this is a glimpse of the weeklong deals:
  • The Early Access title Toy Tactics gets a 25% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1772530/Toy_Tactics/
  • Amnesia: The Bunker is 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944430/Amnesia_The_Bunker/
  • Homebody gets a 50% deal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1959350/Homebody/
  • Little Big Workshop has a 65% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/574720/Little_Big_Workshop/
  • Pilgrims is going to be 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049280/Pilgrims/
  • And the last one, Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, that has a demo, features a massive 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/801480/Agent_A_A_puzzle_in_disguise/

The Humble Store has the Nacon Publisher Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 12 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/nacon-publisher-sale/.

Fanatical has two deals:

• The new Star Deal is Steelrising, 71% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/steelrising
• And the BYO Trinity Bundle, Spring Edition, features 15 titles to choose from for your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-trinity-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 31.0.101.5333 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-31-0-101-5333

Highlights
GAMING HIGHLIGHTS:
Intel Game On Driver support on Intel Arc A-series Graphics and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs for:

• Last Epoch
• Sea of Thieves DirectX 12 Update

>> The article also shows the performance improvement of this driver versus the 31.0.101.5252 one is 16 games.

AMD Software Adrenalin 24.2.1 WHQL Released
https://www.techpowerup.com/319640/amd-software-adrenalin-24-2-1-whql-released
New Feature Highlights
New Game Support

• Skull and Bones
• Nightingale

Expanded Vulkan Extensions Support:

• *** 12 extensions that I won't post ***
• Click here for more information about other Vulkan extension support.

Fixed Issues

• Improvement to intermittent driver timeout or application crash experienced while playing HELLDIVERS 2 on AMD Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs. AMD is continuing to investigate additional reports of driver timeouts and application crashes while playing HELLDIVERS 2.
• Improvements to excessive stutter while playing various games, including Battlefield 2042, Destiny 2, Overwatch 2, Monster Hunter: World, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS and STAR WARS Battlefront II.
• Deathloop may experience extended loading times on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 6900 XT.
• Dead Space may experience an application crash after enabling RTAO on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 6800.
• Intermittent application crash when first launching Enshrouded or changing Anti-Aliasing settings on Radeon 7000 series graphics products.
• Shadows may appear bright, or reflections may be missing while playing Enshrouded on Radeon 7000 series graphics products.
• HDR settings may intermittently fail to take effect while playing certain games such as Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
• Intermittent driver timeout or application crash may be considered while playing Counterstrike 2 with FSR enabled on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
• Graphics API metric may be incorrectly reported as DirectX 12 for some Vulkan games.
• After a system reboot, Parsec host application may experience a crash on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
• During Microsoft Teams meetings, the camera may intermittently display looped footage on some AMD Products, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U Processor.
• Oculus Rift S may display with a green tint on AMD Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs.
• AFMF may be inaccurately displayed on select hybrid graphics configurations, particularly in systems where one of the devices lacks support for AFMF. AFMF must be supported on the displaying GPU to be activated.
• Mouse lag or stutter may be observed when selecting the discrete GPU as the primary display adapter on certain mobile systems, such as an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS Mobile Processor paired with an AMD Radeon RX 6800S Mobile GPU.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Unreal Tournament 99 RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/unreal-tournament-99-rtx-remix-path-tracing-mod-released/
The time has come and so have I. Modder ‘James Horsley’ has just released an RTX Remix Mod for Unreal Tournament 99 that adds Path Tracing to this classic arena shooter. This is a dream come true for a lot of UT fans.
As the modder noted, this is a custom render device for the Unreal Engine, optimized for use with NVIDIA’s RTX Remix. It is built off of the D3D9Drv renderer and it is heavily modified to better support Remix. Right now, the mod only supports UT 99. In theory, though, it can be modded to also support the first Unreal game. Or at least I hope so.
You can download the mod from this link. Make sure to read its installation guide as you need to make some changes to the game’s configuration file. Below you can also find some screenshots. These screenshots can give you an idea of what you can expect from it.

Say farewell to Starfield's cockamamie distance measurements with a mod that replaces astronomical units with light years
https://www.pcgamer.com/say-farewell-to-starfields-cockamamie-distance-measurements-with-a-mod-that-replaces-astronomical-units-with-light-years/
Have you ever thought to yourself, boy, I sure do wish the Starfield HUD displayed interstellar distances in light years instead of astronomical units? If your answer to this question is "yes," then it might be time to take a break and go outside for a while. Or, instead, you could download this extremely purpose-specific Starfield mod called, quite simply, See Distances in Light Years.
"Does what it says on the tin," the mod description states. "Makes your ship's HUD display interstellar distances in light years (LY) instead of astronomical units (AU). Also increases the maximum light second (LS) value from 50,000 to 500,000. If anything is further than that, distance will start being measured at 0.02 LY."
Developer Deebz96 said they created the mod because they "found AU illegible for these sort of distances," and that the light year measure "is much easier to interpret at a glance, especially if you are used to other space games." I found that complaint a little odd at first: To my mind, space games are mostly just made-up nonsense anyway (even the "realistic" ones), so who cares if one incomprehensible unit of measurement is swapped with another?
But apparently I'm a bit like an American dealing with the metric system in that regard, as a quick trip around to Reddit reveals that this is in fact an aspect of the game some players genuinely don't care for. Some of that seems to be related to a general lack of familiarity with what an astronomical unit actually is (it's the distance from Earth to the sun, for the record), but there's also the fact that AU measurements can get really big when you're dealing with interstellar distances.
>> There is one meme'd screenshot.

GAMING NEWS

Sea Fantasy is a new pixel art open-world action RPG
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/sea-fantasy-is-a-new-pixel-art-open-world-action-rpg/
METASLA has announced a new pixel art open-world action RPG, called Sea Fantasy. This new 2D RPG will be released in February 2025, and below you can find its debut gameplay trailer.

Project: White Desert gets a pre-alpha gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/project-white-desert-gets-a-pre-alpha-gameplay-trailer/
PolyDream Studio has shared the first pre-alpha gameplay trailer for its upcoming FPS, Project: White Desert. This new first-person shooter aims to blend stealth, action, and puzzle-solving, and targets a 2026 release date.

Palworld Patch v0.1.5.0 Released & Detailed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/palworld-patch-v0-1-5-0-released-detailed/
Pocketpair just rolled out a new update for Palworld, its “Pokemon with guns” open-world survival crafting game. This latest update, Title Update 0.1.5.0, brings some cool features. Now, players can fully customize their keyboard keys. Yeah, believe it or not, this basic PC feature wasn’t present. It also adds a backup for your saved game on the world selection screen, so you won’t lose your progress. And hey, they fixed a problem where unnecessary data was piling up in your saved game.

Here are 37 minutes of gameplay from the Unreal Engine 5-powered multiplayer body-cam shooter, Bodycam
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/here-are-37-minutes-of-gameplay-from-the-unreal-engine-5-powered-multiplayer-body-cam-shooter-bodycam/
In January, we informed you about a new multiplayer body-cam shooter that will be powered by Unreal Engine 5, called Bodycam. In a way, Bodycam is Unrecord with multiplayer. And below, you can find a video showcasing 37 minutes of gameplay footage from it.