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

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These are the Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Nearly 9 years after release, Fallout 4 was one of the most played Steam games this weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/nearly-9-years-after-release-fallout-4-was-one-of-the-most-played-steam-games-this-weekend/
The Fallout TV show is continuing to have an impressive ripple effect on its source material. Last week saw Fallout 76 hit its highest-ever concurrent player count on Steam, while Fallout Shelter saw a humble bump in player count and revenue. Unsurprisingly, the game reaping the biggest benefits from the show's success is Fallout 4. Despite it being almost nine years old at this point, it's technically the most recent mainline entry—one which was one of the most-played games on Steam this weekend.
The game's been slowly climbing in concurrents this week, according to SteamDB, before peaking at a respectable 164,190 simultaneous Sole Survivors exploring the Wasteland on Sunday. It was the ninth most-played game on Steam, raking in more folk than Rainbow Six Siege, Baldur's Gate 3 and Lost Ark. It's also approximately 140,000 more concurrent players than Fallout 4 had prior to the TV show's debut which, even without it topping the charts, is a significant number on its own.

GOG has two new sales:

• The Post-apocalyptic Sale features up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240423_postapo_sale
• A new Weekly Sale has launched with games up to 95% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240423_weekly_deals_5_april

Steamweeklong deals:

• I don’t know how it went unnoticed given that it also took place in other stores, but the Gamera Games Anniversary Sale is also on Steam and features up to 90% discounts, and will last a couple more days, until the 25th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/gameragamepublishersale2024
• Smalland: Survive the Wilds can be yours 33% off until Friday, the 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/768200/Smalland_Survive_the_Wilds/
• Berserk Boy gets a 25% discount until the 29th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1561340/Berserk_Boy/
• Trepang2, that has a demo, will be 40% off until the same 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1164940/Trepang2/
• The Earth Appreciation Festival 2024 has up to 80% deals for us untilMonday, the 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/appreciateearth2024
• SimRail - The Railway Simulator, still in Early Access, gets a 20% discount until May the 6th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1422130/SimRail__The_Railway_Simulator/
• Ubisoft puts on sale the Anno History Editions games on the store, 50% off until the 6th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/AnnoHistoryEditions
• And here’s a sample of the weeklong deals:
  • How To Hack In?, still in Early Access, is 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1199830/How_To_Hack_In/
  • Factory Town Idle, that has a demo, gets a 30% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2207490/Factory_Town_Idle/
  • Lichenvale, that also has a demo, is half its usual price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1432380/Lichenvale/
  • Lorelai gets a 66% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/593960/Lorelai/
  • Tinytopia is 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/968550/Tinytopia/
  • And the last one, Some Distant Memory, can be yours thanks toa big 90% deal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/824850/Some_Distant_Memory/

Fanatical has launched its BYO Supreme Collection Bundle, featuring 23 games to choose from for your bundle of 2, 3 or 5: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-supreme-collection.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This New Skyrim Mod Introduces a Dynamic Decapitation System
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-new-skyrim-mod-introduces-a-dynamic-decapitation-system/
Skyrim fans, here is something for you today. You can now download a neat new mod by ‘Seb263’ that adds a dynamic decapitation system. With this mod, both players and NPCs can perform decapitating attacks on enemies in combat. So, let’s dive in and see what it’s all about.
Normally, in Skyrim, decapitation only happens in specific situations. As such, you can decapitate your enemy only when executing a killmove. By using this mod, though, you can make it happen more frequently. So, if you strike an enemy’s head with enough force when their health is low, they might now lose their head. Plus, you can tweak settings to decide how likely this is to happen and when.
In short, this is a pretty cool new gameplay mod that can greatly enhance your gaming experience. After all, this this feature adds an extra layer of brutality to combat encounters. As such, we highly recommend giving it a go. You can download it from this link. At the end of the article, you can also find a video from it. This video should give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect from it.

Fallout 4 now has a Fallout 3/New Vegas-inspired Karma System
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/fallout-4-now-has-a-fallout-3-new-vegas-inspired-karma-system/
Modder ‘bp42s’ has released a new mod for Fallout 4 that brings to it a Karma System that is heavily inspired by the one found in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.
By using this mod, players will be able to explore the wasteland, make decisions, speak to people, and their karma will react accordingly. Moreover, the mod comes with level-dependent karma titles, similar to those found in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. There is also a new KARMA Pip-Boy tab, as well as custom-animated Pip-Boy icons.
Now for those wondering, no. This new Karma system will not influence, in any way, the game’s ending. Fallout 4 wasn’t built with that in mind. So, don’t expect the Karma consequences to be similar to those of New Vegas.
Still, this is a cool new mechanic that can enhance your gaming experience. I mean, it’s better than nothing, right?
>> The article doesn’t feature screenshots or videos.

So many people are downloading Fallout mods after watching the show that the Nexus is straining to support all the traffic
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/so-many-people-are-downloading-fallout-mods-after-watching-the-show-that-the-nexus-is-straining-to-support-all-the-traffic/
First reported by PCGamesN, ubiquitous videogame mod site NexusMods has been experiencing interruptions due to an influx of traffic as new and old Fallout fans check out the games after watching the show. Fallouts 4, New Vegas, and 3 are the third, fourth, and eighth all-time biggest games on the site, commanding over 2 billion total downloads across the three.
The NexusMods status page first flagged the problem on April 19, with a message explaining why users may encounter slow load times and downloads. "We are experiencing much more traffic than usual due to the popularity of the Fallout TV show," the message reads. "We have deployed extra resources where possible and we are monitoring the uptime and performance across the network. We have staff on call at all times to deal with any problems."
According to the status page, the increased traffic and performance issues remain unresolved and under investigation as of early this morning, and the Nexus is actively rerouting download traffic to account for this. At the time of writing, I'm not having any issues loading into the site, and I was able to download a small mod as a test.
Over the weekend though, I definitely had a bit of trouble trying to access NexusMods to report on The Witcher 3 Brothers In Arms unofficial patch, but I didn't think much of it at the time⁠. One thing we've been surprised at is how few direct Fallout show mods there seem to be so far⁠—a few Lucy presets, some sound packs, icons⁠, all pretty tame. 

This Total War: Shogun 2 mod lets you play out the real historical war that inspired the FX TV show
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/shogun-tv-show-real-history-total-war-mod/
While PC gamers all over the place are flocking back to Fallout after having a great time watching the new Amazon TV series, I'm over here quietly despairing that there's only a single episode of FX's Shogun left to air. The new adaptation of the 1975 novel has been so excellent I even considered playing the 1980s PC games that tried to put their own spin on the story just like our news writer Joshua Wolens did, but then I came to my senses and went looking for options that aren't quite as old as computers with 64 kilobytes of RAM.
And I found the perfect one in the first place I looked: the Total War: Shogun 2 Steam Workshop.
The Sekigahara Campaign jumps Total War: Shogun 2's campaign forward in history approximately 50 years, to the 1590s. (...)
The events of Total War: Shogun 2 let you play through the decades prior to the show and novel, then, but the Sekigahara Campaign jumps up to just before the events of the TV series. Should you choose to take command of the Tokugawa clan, you can lead the real-life version of Toranaga to victory. Or, instead, step into the shoes of Hidetoshi a few years prior to his death or control the clan of Toranaga's main rival from the council of regents in the show (Ishida Mitsunari is the real-life figure).
>> The article has several screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

Tales of the Shire has been officially announced, coming to PC in 2024
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tales-of-the-shire-has-been-officially-announced-coming-to-pc-in-2024/
Private Division and WETA Workshop have just announced a new The Lord of The Rings game, called Tales of the Shire. Tales of the Shire is a Hobbit life sim game that will be coming to PC in 2024, and below you can find its announcement in-engine trailer.

Here are 35 minutes of gameplay from the Unreal Engine 5-powered Lovecraftian horror game, Pneumata
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-35-minutes-of-gameplay-from-the-unreal-engine-5-powered-lovecraftian-horror-game-pneumata/
YouTube’s ‘ENFANT TERRIBLE’ has shared a video, showcasing 35 minutes of gameplay footage from Pneumata. Pneumata is a new Lovecraftian survival and psychological horror game using Unreal Engine 5, that will be coming to PC in Q2 2024.