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

[JEMC]

Let’s go with the Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

We're riding shotgun with Pacific Drive to give away a free copy of the game and a carload of great gear
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/were-riding-shotgun-with-pacific-drive-to-give-away-a-free-copy-of-the-game-and-a-carload-of-great-gear/
Everyone loves taking a road trip. Hop in the car, step on the gas, and head toward the horizon. In driving survival game Pacific Drive it's not quite that simple thanks to bizarre and deadly anomalies that are lurking along the road—but as you're speeding through the hazardous exclusion zone, this giveaway will make your drive a lot smoother.
Buckle up, because we've partnered with Pacific Drive to have some awesome stuff driven to your house. One lucky winner will get a whole trunkload of cool Pacific Drive gear, like a free key for the game on Steam, a shiny red toolbox, a mechanic's shirt with a customized name tag, a dashboard bobblehead, and of course an air freshener and bumper sticker. And more!
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Our apologies to those of you in other parts of the world—this giveaway is for United States residents only. This giveaway will run from February 29 to March 14. 

The Humble Store has two new sales:

• The Burnin’Rubber Sale features up to 90% discounts during 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/burn-rubber-sale/
• And publisher Hypetrain Digital celebrates it’s Spring Sale by puting its games up to 85% off during 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/hypetrain-digital-spring-sale/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA releases hotfix driver addressing NVENC encoding issues on GeForce GTX 16 cards
https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-releases-a-hotfix-driver-addressing-nvenc-encoding-issues-on-geforce-gtx-16-cards
Users who are using the GeForce GTX 1630, GTX 1650, and GTX 1650 Ti for video encoding through the NVIDIA NVENC encoder are urged to update their drivers. NVIDIA has identified a bug in the latest 551.61 driver, which could lead to video corruption or errors during GPU encoder utilization.

This driver doesn’t introduce any additional fixes or enhancements and should be downloaded and used only by those who have those cards and use them for video encoding. Others should definitely wait for the next WHQL or Game Ready release that will undoubtedly incorporate this fix regardless.

New Unreal Engine 5.3 Dune Desert Tech Demo Showcased
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/new-unreal-engine-5-3-dune-desert-tech-demo/
MAWI United has shared a video, showcasing a new Dune Desert Landscape tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.3. This demo shows off the stone pit area of the 400 sqkm Dune Desert that the team has created.
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From what we know, the Dune Desert Landscape Demo uses both Lumen and Nanite. The majority of assets use 4K base color, normal, and utility textures. Moreover, the team used 1 million polygons for palms, 1-2 million polygons for rocks/debris, and 4000-200 polygons for plants.
The end result is pretty amazing. However, you’ll also need a really biffy PC system. Its UE5.1 demo pushed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 to its limits. NVIDIA’s most powerful GPU was unable to run it smoothly at Native 4K with 60fps.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Super Mario 64 now has infinite randomly generated levels on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/super-mario-64-mod-infinite-levels/
Now here is an amazing modification for the classic Nintendo 64 game, Super Mario 64. Created by ‘TwilightPB’, this project adds infinite randomly generated levels to the game. And this, right here is why modding is so amazing. Hear that Nintendo?
This random level generator for Super Mario 64 uses libsm64 and Godot Engine as a base. (...)
Joking aside, you should go ahead and try it. By using this mod, you can almost get an infinite amount of new levels. This will be a godsend for all those who have completed multiple times this classic platformer but still want to replay it.
You can download the mod from this link. For this to work, you’ll need an unmodified Super Mario 64 NTSC ROM in the game directory, or the game will not work. The ROM must be also named “SM64.z64”.
>> The article has an embedded tweet with a less than 2 minutes video of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

Delta Force: Hawk Ops Gets First Gameplay Trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/delta-force-hawk-ops-gets-first-gameplay-trailer/
Level Infinite and TiMi Studio Group have released the first gameplay trailer for Delta Force: Hawk Ops. And… well… this doesn’t look anything like the old Delta Force games.

NACON has announced Greedfall 2 The Dying World, coming to Steam Early Access in Summer 2024
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nacon-has-announced-greedfall-2-the-dying-world-coming-to-steam-early-access-in-summer-2024/
NACON has just announced Greedfall 2 The Dying World, and shared a CG trailer for it. Greedfall 2 will be coming to Steam Early Access in Summer 2024, and below you can find its first official details.

Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown’s latest in-engine trailer looks really rough and “meh-ish”
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/test-drive-unlimited-solar-crowns-latest-in-engine-trailer-looks-really-rough-and-meh-ish/
NACON has released a new in-engine trailer for Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, showcasing some of its off-road cars and environments. And, honestly, the game looks kind of bland and average.

Dragonkin – The Banished is a new Diablo-like action hack n slash RPG
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dragonkin-the-banished-is-a-new-diablo-like-action-hack-n-slash-rpg/
Now here is a game that caught my attention. At Connect 2024, NACON revealed a new Diablo-like action hack n slash RPG, called Dragonkin – The Banished. Dragonkin – The Banished will be coming to PC in February 2025, and below you can find its first gameplay trailer.

Terminator: Survivors will release in October 2024, and here are the first official details for it
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/terminator-survivors-will-release-in-october-2024-and-here-are-the-first-official-details-for-it/
NACON has shared the first official details about its upcoming survival open-world game set in the Terminator universe, Terminator: Survivors. Moreover, the publisher stated that the game will hit Steam Early Access on October 24th, 2024.

Lords of the Fallen Patch 1.1.560 Brings Additional Performance Optimizations, Adds New Cinematic Graphics Setting
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/lords-of-the-fallen-patch-1-1-560-performance-cinematic/
Hexworks just dropped a new update for their game, Lords of the Fallen. The new patch, 1.1.560, makes the game run smoother on all PC hardware. And guess what? They added a fancy new Cinematic graphics setting. So, let’s take a closer look at it.

Robocop: Rogue City and Remnant 2 now support AMD FSR 3.0 Frame Generation
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/robocop-rogue-city-and-remnant-2-now-support-amd-fsr-3-0-frame-generation/
Gunfire Games and Teyon have released new patches for Robocop: Rogue City and Remnant 2 that add official support for AMD FSR 3.0 Frame Generation. Thanks to these updates, players can enjoy higher framerates in these two UE5 games.