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

[JEMC]

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

GOG has a new publisher sale, with GSC putting its games up to 75% off during 6 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240304_gsc_publisher_sale.

Steam has new deals, sales and weeklong deals:

• Crab Champions, still in Ealry Access, will be 25% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/774801/Crab_Champions/
• Crusader Kings III gets a 50% discount until the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158310/Crusader_Kings_III/
• Democracy 4 will be 70% off until Monday, the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1410710/Democracy_4/
• ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN features an 84% discount until the 11th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/502500/ACE_COMBAT_7_SKIES_UNKNOWN/
• Seven: Enhanced Edition, that has a demo, is going to be 95% off until March, 11: https://store.steampowered.com/app/471010/Seven_Enhanced_Edition/
• Beyond Contact will sport a 65% discount until the 13th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/877010/Beyond_Contact/
• Against the Storm can be yours with a 35% deal until March, the 14th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/
• The Saints Row franchise is on sale, up to 84% off until the 14th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/SaintsRowFranchiseSale2024
• Publisher Arc System Works puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts until the 14th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/ArcSystemWorksPublisherSale2024
• Now I’d list some of t he weeklong deals, but Steam is being stubborn and only shows me a handful of items. So, you’ll have to check them out by yourselves.

Fanatical has a new bundle, among other things:

• The Batman: Arkham Collection will be 88% off during 13 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/batman-arkham-collection
• There is a contest to win one of 4 games: Wo Long Dynasty, Tomb Raider Remastered, TEKKEN 8 and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. Learn more here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/win-a-most-wishlisted-game-for-spring-sale-24
• And you can also get a free gift if you spend above a certain amount in the Spring Sale. Learn more, including what could this gift be, here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/24-what-are-your-free-spring-sale-choices

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 551.76 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/nvidia-geforce-game-ready-551-76
Highlights
Game Ready for The Thaumaturge This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 3 technology including The Thaumaturge. In addition, this driver supports the beta release of NVIDIA App, which unifies GeForce Experience and the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Fixed Issues
Fixed Gaming Bugs

• The Talos Principle 2: Game stability issues when DLSS FG is enabled [4492121]

Fixed General Bugs

• Using NVENC to encode videos may result in corrupted videos or error message on GeForce GTX 16xx GPUs [4511046]
• Steamwebhelper.exe blocking notebook display mode switch [4536504]

You can finally accept your mum's friend request now Steam officially lets you hide your mountain of weird sex games
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/you-can-finally-accept-your-mums-friend-request-now-steam-officially-lets-you-hide-your-mountain-of-weird-sex-games/
Good news for anyone who's spent the last six years in a cold sweat, veins pulsing in their forehead as their hand hovers over the purchase button on the Steam page for Hentai Backend Developer 4: that feature that lets you hide all your most shameful games from your Steam library is finally out of beta.
We first caught wind that Steam was going to add a Mark as Private option to your library back in November last year, and Valve put the feature into beta in December. It works simply enough: just right-click a game in your library, go down to Manage, then hit Mark as Private (not "Hide this game," which just obscures an entry from your list of games but keeps it viewable on your profile and when you play it). Boom, suddenly you can accept that pending friend request from your local vicar without fear.
While the ability to stick a game under your proverbial mattress is the obvious headline item, the update actually comes as part of a suite of new additions to Steam's purchasing experience. For instance, you can now gift a game to multiple friends all at once and your shopping cart will follow you across devices. You can also mark a game as private right there when you buy it: handy if you might otherwise forget to mark it later while you're overcome with, uh, emotion.
If, like me, you share your Steam library using the platform's family sharing functionality, you're probably wondering if marking a game as private impacts that. After some testing, I can confirm that it does. Games I marked as private in my own library didn't appear in the games lists of people I share with. Your private games are just for you. And god, to whom you will one day have to justify your purchases.
>> That’s a nice surprise Jizz will find when he comes back from his honeymoon. And he’s not the only one around here...

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Yuzu is dead and its creators will pay $2.4 million in damages to Nintendo
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-creators-of-yuzu-will-pay-2-4-million-in-damages-to-nintendo/
Last week, Nintendo sued the creators of the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu. Nintendo claimed in its lawsuit that Yuzu was responsible for the illegal downloads of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Moreover, the big “N” claimed that its tech illegally circumvents Nintendo’s software encryption. And from the looks of it, the Yuzu team will have to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages.
Not only that but the Court has ordered the team to surrender, and permanently cease to use, the domain name YUZUEMU.ORG. The court has also ordered the destruction by deletion of all circumvention devices, including all copies of Yuzu, all circumvention tools used for developing or using Yuzu, and all copies of Nintendo cryptographic keys. Basically, Yuzu is now officially dead.
Now I don’t know what this could mean for the future of console emulation. I also don’t know whether Nintendo will now go after Ryujinx. What I do know is that this win for Nintendo may have a huge impact on the whole emulation scene.
It will be interesting to see whether Nintendo will now go after Ryujinx. Alongside Yuzu, Ryujinx was able to play A LOT of Nintendo Switch games at launch. So, make sure to back up copies of these emulators while you still can.

Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra taken offline as collateral damage in Yuzu lawsuit settlement
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/nintendo-3ds-emulator-citra-taken-offline-as-collateral-damage-in-yuzu-settlement/
The developers of Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu entered a surprise settlement with Nintendo on Monday, agreeing to pay the game company $2.4 million in damages and cease development and distribution of the emulator. Now, as a result of that settlement, Citra—a 3DS emulator that shared developers with Yuzu—has also been taken offline.
The Citra Twitter account posted a message that was originally shared in the Yuzu Discord, addressed to "Yuz-ers and Citra fans," stating that "Yuzu and Yuzu's support of Citra are being discontinued, effective immediately."

New Nintendo Switch emulators Nuzu and Suyu rise from the ashes of Yuzu
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nintendo-switch-emulators-nuzu-and-suyu-rise-from-the-ashes-of-yuzu/
Earlier today, we shared news about Yuzu, the Nintendo Switch emulator, shutting down. But guess what? Two new emulators have popped up since then – Nuzu and Suyu. They’re built on the latest Yuzu version. Cool, right?
If you didn’t know, Yuzu used to be a Nintendo Switch emulator that anyone could use and improve since it was open-source. Now that the emulator has closed, folks can still use its code and make it even better. That is of course under a different name.
From what I know, there aren’t any teams working on them right now. In short, these are forks of the latest Early-Access version of Yuzu. As such, they can run all the games that Yuzu could. They also suffer from the same issues that Yuzu did.
(...)
Some say that Yuzu’s Patreon was what forced Nintendo to hunt them down. Yuzu made a lot of money via Patreon as it kept its Early Builds behind its Patreon wall. That’s basically what modders do with their beta/early-access mods. So, if that’s the case, the rest of the Nintendo Switch emulators should be safe. After all, Nintendo will soon launch Switch 2 so it makes no sense to hunt down the remaining emulators.

Version 2.12 of The Dark Mod, THIEF game in the Doom 3 Engine, brings major performance and optimization improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/version-2-12-of-the-dark-mod-thief-game-in-the-doom-3-engine-brings-major-performance-and-optimization-improvements/
The team behind The Dark Mod, a THIEF game that is powered by the Doom 3 Engine, has released a brand new version of it. According to the devs, Version 2.12 brings major performance and optimization improvements.
For those unaware, The Dark Mod is a free dark and moody stealth game, that is heavily inspired by the Thief series by Looking Glass Studios. It’s a great game, so be sure to at least give it a go.
Version 2.12 brings a big improvement to the game by overhauling its culling system. In short, it improves how the game handles things you can’t see, like hidden objects, lights, and shadows. As such, your PC won’t waste resources on things you’re not looking at, making the game run better. You’ll notice that missions which used to slow down your computer now run much more smoothly. So, big thumbs up to the team for this awesome optimization change. If you’re curious, you can find more details about the new culling system here.
This latest version also packs a number of QoL improvements. For instance, the game now has more seamless and accessible controls. Mantling is now smoother, faster, and less prone to cause the player to clip through geometry. Leaning is also more subtle and less prone to cause motion sickness. Plus, you can now configure TDM to automatically loot any frobbed AI.
>> The article has three videos.

Baldur's Gate 3 players can't figure out why Astarion sometimes goes full Grinch-mode after patch 6, but there's a mod that fixes it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldurs-gate-3-players-cant-figure-out-why-astarion-sometimes-goes-full-grinch-mode-after-patch-6-but-theres-a-mod-that-fixes-it/
One baffling result of Baldur's Gate 3's latest patch—which arrived with plenty of bugs and subsequently a bunch of hotfixes—is, well, Astarion turning into the Grinch. It's only happening under certain mysterious circumstances, but it is certainly happening. Act 3 and Astarion spoilers to follow.
>> The article has a 4 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

Dune: Awakening is powered by Unreal Engine 5, will take advantage of Lumen & Nanite, gets first gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dune-awakening-unreal-engine-5-lumen-nanite-first-gameplay-trailer/
Funcom has shared some new tech details about its upcoming online multiplayer survival Dune game, Dune Awakening. According to the devs, Dune Awakening will be powered by Unreal Engine 5, and it will take full advantage of both Nanite and Lumen. And below, you can find its first gameplay trailer.

Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition PC Requirements Revealed, Will Require 150GB of Free Disk Space, Will Support DLSS 3 at Launch
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/horizon-forbidden-west-complete-edition-pc-requirements/
Sony and Nixxes Software have shared the official PC system requirements for Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition. In addition, NVIDIA revealed that the game will support DLSS 3 Frame Generation at launch.