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

[JEMC]

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away:

• INDUSTRIA: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/industria
• LISA: The Definitive Edition: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/bundles/lisa-the-definitive-edition

And next week, the free games are… unknown. There’s not even a sign to say there’ll be one.

GOG has several new deals:

• The first one is the Builder Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240425_builder_sale
• Some Dontnod games land on the store, and they do it with a 20% discount until the 5th of May. Learn more here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/a_variety_of_dontnod_entertainment_titles_is_joining_the_gog_catalog
• The Maximum Entertainment Bundle is going to be 95% off until the 9th of May: https://www.gog.com/en/game/maximum_entertainment_bundle
• And the last one, the Indie Sale, with 600 titles up to 90% off during the next 14 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240425_indie_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• Lonely Mountains: Downhill, that has a demo, is going to be 70% off until May, the 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/711540/Lonely_Mountains_Downhill/
• And The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing gets a 90% discount until the same day, the 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/215530/The_Incredible_Adventures_of_Van_Helsing/

At Humble Bundle we find the new Create, Automate & Manage Bundle, featuring up to 8 items to get (there’s one coupon) for the next 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/create-automate-manage.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 31.0.101.5445 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-31-0-101-5445
Gaming Highlights:
Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics GPUs and Intel® Core™ Ultra with built-in Intel® Arc™ GPUs for:

• Manor Lords

Fixed Issues
Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics Products:

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (DX12) may experience lower than expected performance.

Steam closes refund policy loophole, finally comes up with a name for the thing where you can play a game early if you preorder
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/steam-closes-refund-policy-loophole-comes-up-with-official-term-for-the-thing-where-you-can-play-a-game-early-if-you-pre-order/
Few videogame marketing terms are more aggravatingly ambiguous than "early access." Most painfully, it can refer to two very different scenarios: Sometimes it means putting an in-development game on sale before it's done, and other times it means offering access to a finished game early, typically as a deluxe edition preorder bonus. Starfield offered several days of "early access" with its Premium Edition, for instance.
Steam, the platform responsible for popularizing the first meaning of early access, has had enough. It's now designating the latter scenario, when a developer offers pre-launch access to a completed game, "Advanced Access."
"Unlike Early Access, Advanced Access is not a unique model of development for a game, it's simply an opportunity to play a game before it fully releases on Steam," says the platform.
(...)
I'm sure someone at Valve shares my irritation with the fluctuating meaning of "early access," but the new distinction probably has less to do with that, and more to do with a refund loophole. Apparently, when you got advanced access to a game in the past, your pre-release playtime didn't count toward the two-hour refund window. Now that Steam has formalized advanced access, it does.
Steam's updated refund policy still includes one exception to the two-hour rule, "beta testing," which refers to special beta builds of games that developers can make available for a limited time. So, if you accept an invite to a free playtest on Steam, it won't contribute to your playtime should you later buy the game. But if you pre-purchase a game, and then gain advanced access to it, your playtime will count toward the two-hour limit for automatic refund approval.
The potential for confusion still exists, because sometimes developers call advanced access periods beta periods, even if nobody thinks it's sensible to claim you're "beta testing" a game two days before its wide release. But it's progress.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Garry's Mod is removing 20 years' worth of Nintendo-related items from its Steam Workshop following takedown request: 'It's Nintendo. Need more be said?'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/garrys-mod-is-removing-20-years-worth-of-nintendo-related-items-from-its-steam-workshop-following-takedown-request-its-nintendo-need-more-be-said/
Following a takedown request issued by Nintendo, the famed physics sandbox Garry's Mod is removing "all Nintendo related stuff" from its Steam Workshop.
"Some of you may have noticed that certain Nintendo related workshop items have recently been taken down," Facepunch Studios said in a Steam update. "This is not a mistake, the takedowns came from Nintendo.
"Honestly, this is fair enough. This is Nintendo's content and what they allow and don't allow is up to them. They don't want you playing with that stuff in Garry's Mod—that's their decision, we have to respect that and take down as much as we can."
(...)
There's definitely a lot of Nintendo-related stuff available for Garry's Mod. A search for "Nintendo" in the Garry's Mod Steam Workshop brings up 44 pages of results, while "Mario" delivers a whopping 186 pages of results. Other Nintendo characters, including Bowser, Zelda, Princess Peach, Luigi, and Yoshi also bring up dozens of pages of results. It's a big pile to sort through, and Facepunch turned to the community for some help with the effort.
"This is an ongoing process, as we have 20 years of uploads to go through," it wrote. "If you want to help us by deleting your Nintendo related uploads and never uploading them again, that would help us a lot."
Whether it will get that help seems to be an open question. Despite the message, there's still some doubt among Garry's Mod players that the takedown request is real. Some are criticizing the development team for "falling for it," while others are demanding proof that Facepunch verified the takedown requests are legit. A few legal theories about fair use in Japan are being kicked around, and there are also calls for Facepunch to keep the Nintendo content in place as a matter of principle, and damn the consequences. Naturally, there's also a good deal of upset with Nintendo, and occasional predictions of Garry's Mod's imminent demise (not all of them polite) should it knuckle under to the forces of injustice.
None of which is likely to matter—there's nothing in the takedown announcement indicating that this is anything but a done deal. As Facepunch put it, "It's Nintendo. Need more be said?"

This Fallout-inspired post-apocalyptic wasteland game runs in Excel, because spreadsheets will outlive us all
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/this-fallout-inspired-post-apocalyptic-wasteland-game-runs-in-excel-because-spreadsheets-will-outlive-us-all/
If productivity apps were party guests, Microsoft Excel would be the guy who sits in the corner, interrupting every anecdote with the phrase "actually, I think you'll find…", and as a result, rarely gets invited back. It's a dependable old workhorse of a program, depressingly accurate and dry as the apocalyptic wastes. 
However, this Fallout-inspired RPG runs right inside of the spreadsheet creator, and once again shows off exactly what the dependable Microsoft app can do when shown a dash of creative spark. 
Simply referred to as "Fallout-like-excel-rpg v 1-1", the game has players explore the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Mercer, and features two primary gameplay components, questing and battling (via Tom's Hardware). The gameplay is mostly text-based, but there is a top down perspective map in which you can move your party via cell-based arrow buttons.
The questing portion of the game features eight missions in which players solve the mystery of the location of Vault 11's missing overseer, while the battling system involves defeating foes using D&D-style mechanics in order to level up their party.
It's worth noting that you'll need Microsoft Excel proper in order to run it, as I tried in LibreOffice Calc and was met with quite a few runtime errors. You'll also have to untick the "this file came from another computer..." unblock box in the file properties to enable macros as well, so there's a little bit of fiddling involved.
>> There’s a short video of the game.

GAMING NEWS

Total War: Warhammer III Patch 5.0 will add new free content
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/total-war-warhammer-iii-patch-5-0-will-add-new-free-content/
Creative Assembly and Feral Interactive announced Title Update 5.0 for Total War: Warhammer III which adds new free content to the game.

After almost a decade, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is finally available on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/after-almost-a-decade-tomb-raider-definitive-edition-is-finally-available-on-pc/
In 2014, Square Enix released a remastered version of the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. And now, after almost a decade, this Definitive Edition is finally available on PC.
(...)
Now while this is good news, there is a catch. This Definitive Edition is only available on Microsoft Store. I don’t know why, but Steam does not have this version. And, since this was a shadow-drop, I don’t expect Square Enix to release it on Valve’s distribution service.

Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection Patch 2 Released, Bringing Stability & Bug Fixes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/star-wars-battlefront-classic-collection-patch-2-released-bringing-stability-bug-fixes/
Aspyr has released the second major update for Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, and shared its complete changelog. According to the release notes, Patch 2 comes with numerous bug fixes and stability improvements.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 April 25th Patch Available for Download
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/dragons-dogma-2-april-25th-patch-available-for-download/
As promised, Capcom has released a new Title Update for Dragon’s Dogma 2 on all platforms. According to the release notes, the April 25th Patch brings adjustments to Pawns’ behavior and dialogue, and fixes a number of issues. So, let’s take a closer look at them.