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

[JEMC]

Welcome to the Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Helldivers 2 has more players than the population of Sweden, making it PlayStation's fastest-selling game of all time
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-has-more-players-than-the-population-of-sweden-making-it-playstations-fastest-selling-game-of-all-time/
Every game studio has the same, overriding goal: To field enough players to destroy Sweden. Companies like Capcom and Activision have, of course, had more than enough players in their myriad series to occupy Stockholm for some time, but now a plucky upstart has joined their ranks.
Arrowhead just announced that Helldivers 2 has sold over 12 million copies since its February release, meaning "There are more Helldivers than there are Swedes," in the words of CEO Johan Pilestedt. Sweden has around 10.5 million people in it, if you're wondering, and Arrowhead is a Swedish studio, just in case you're baffled by the comparison.

GOG has launched three new sales:

• The new Weekly Sale features up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240514_weekly_deals_3_may
• Publisher(s) Dear Villagers/Plus In Digital put its games up to 90% off during 13 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240513_pid_publisher_sale
• And the Shooter Sale gets up to 95% deals during the next 14 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240514_shooter_sale

Steam has new sales and weeklong deals:

• The Humble Games Publisher Sale has up to 75% discounts until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/HumbleGamesPublisherSale2024
• The Watch_dogs franchise is on sale with up to 85% deals until the 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/watch_dogs_franchise
• Publisher(s) Dear Villagers/Plus In Digital put its games up to 90% off until the 27th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/PID2024PublisherSale
• And here’s a sample of the weeklong deals:
  • Full Metal Sergeant is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1698350/Full_Metal_Sergeant/
  • The VR ONLY title All-In-One Sports VR gets a 30% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1514840/AllInOne_Sports_VR/
  • Insomnis is half its usual price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000700/Insomnis/
  • Attack of the Earthlings is 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/621930/Attack_of_the_Earthlings/
  • And the last one, TOKYO GHOUL:re [CALL to EXIST], gets a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/756530/TOKYO_GHOULre_CALL_to_EXIST/

The Humble Store presents the Humble Games Spotlight Sale, with up to 80% discounts during 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/humble-games-spotlight-sale/.

Fanatical has the last Flash Deals of the May Madness sale and a new bundle:

• These are the two 24h Flash Deals:
  • Hogwarts Legacy Digital Deluxe Edition gets a 57% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/hogwarts-legacy-digital-deluxe-edition
  • The Dark Pictures Anthology : Season One has a 67% deal: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/the-dark-pictures-anthology-season-one
• And The NeuroVoider - Deluxe Edition Bundle, featuring the game and DLC, is gong to be77% off during the next 13 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/neurovoider-deluxe-edition

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 31.0.101.5518 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-31-0-101-5518

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

• Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT
• Homeworld 3

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

• Dragon’s Dogma 2 (DX12) may experience lower than expected performance.

Intel® Core™ Ultra with built-in Intel® Arc™ GPUs:

• Dead Space (DX12) may experience lower than expected performance.

Intel® Arc™ Control Fixed Issues:

• Endurance Gaming Power Options per application may not show correct status in Arc Control with on Intel® Core™ Ultra with built-in Intel® Arc™ GPUs.

Weta Digital’s Unreal Engine Meerkat Tech Demo has been updated to UE5.4 and is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/weta-digital-unreal-engine-meerkat-tech-demo-ue5-4-download/
In December 2020, Weta Digital showcased an amazing real-time animated short in Unreal Engine 4. And today, we have some good news for you. Not only is that UE4 demo available for download, but it was also updated for Unreal Engine 5.4, taking full advantage of Lumen.
In this tech demo, Weta Digital explored how far they can push movie-quality hair, fur, and feathers for linear storytelling in real-time. And yes, on high-end GPUs, you can run this demo in real-time with smooth framerates.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Helldivers 2 and Star Wars collide in this amazing mod, due for release "later this week"
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-and-star-wars-collide-in-this-amazing-mod-due-for-release-later-this-week/
Helldivers 2 may not have any official modding support, but you simply cannot stop players putting weird stuff in your game. A couple of weeks ago, YouTuber and modder ToastedShoes dropped Master Chief, Buzz Lightyear, the TARDIS, and more into the war for a truly chaotic take on managed democracy. Now he's showing off an impressive collision with the Star Wars universe.
Not only are the Helldivers themselves reskinned as clone soldiers (including fan favourites Rex, Cody, and Hunter), the Automatons have been recast as Separatist droids. Though the weapons and stratagems are unchanged, it's surprising how well it all fits together for a convincing recreation of a Clone Wars battle. Finally, you can experience what it would be like to scrabble in the mud against horrific odds while the Jedi are off somewhere else messing about with their lightsabers. 
You can't try the full Helldivers 2 Star Wars mod for yourself just yet, but you don't have long to wait—ToastedShoes promises it will drop later this week. In the meantime, you can at least try one of the skins, a trooper of the 501st in phase 2 armour. Do note though that modding Helldivers 2 is done at your own risk—because there's no actual support, it's technically not allowed, and there's always the risk that even client-side cosmetics could get flagged as cheating when used online, especially given the game's crossplay with the pretty strict PlayStation Network. As far as I can find Arrowhead haven't made an official statement on the use of mods, but it's safest to assume you're always rolling the dice when you use mods in a multiplayer game. 
>> The article has an over 24 minutes video, in case you want to see how it looks.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Just Got a DLSS 3 Frame Generation Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/assassins-creed-valhalla-just-got-a-dlss-3-frame-generation-mod/
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla fans, we have some good and some bad news for you today. The good news is that modder PureDark has just released a new DLSS 3 Frame Generation Mod for it. The bad news is that this is a paid mod.
Thanks to this mod, PC gamers will be able to enable DLSS 3 Super Resolution and Frame Generation in this AC game. This can greatly improve performance, especially for PC gamers who own an RTX40 series GPU.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was an AMD-sponsored title that got support for FSR 1.0. Yep, Ubisoft only added support for the first version of FSR, which is kind of a bummer.
It’s also worth noting that the mod adds support for DeepDVC. DeepDVC is basically RTX Dynamic Vibrance (or at least that’s what the modder claims). So, alongside DLSS 3, you can also enable DeepDVC.
>> The article has an over 4 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

Rockstar may finally release Red Dead Redemption on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rockstar-may-finally-release-red-dead-redemption-on-pc/
Rumor alert, everyone. It appears that Rockstar Games may finally release the first Red Dead Redemption game on the PC platform. According to dataminer Tez2, Rockstar has updated its launcher site file with the following information.

Fallout 4 May 13th Title Update Released, Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/fallout-4-may-13th-title-update-released-full-patch-notes/
Bethesda has just released the May 13th Title Update for Fallout 4, and it shared its full patch notes. This latest patch mainly focuses on bug fixes on the PC. So, let’s take a closer look at it.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Release Date Has Been Leaked
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/assassins-creed-shadows-release-date-has-been-leaked/
It appears that the release date for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, previously codenamed Assassin’s Creed Red, has been leaked. This information comes from the game’s official YouTube channel, so it’s the real deal.

Valve confirms that Sony is the one who delisted both Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima on PC/Steam
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/valve-confirms-that-sony-is-the-one-who-delisted-both-helldivers-2-and-ghost-of-tsushima-on-pc-steam/
Earlier this month, Helldivers 2 was delisted in over 100 countries. Then, another PlayStation game, Ghost of Tsushima, was delisted in the exact same countries. And, according to Valve, this decision was made by Sony themselves.

Crimson Desert rumored to be released in Q1 2025, will get a playable demo at Gamescom 2024
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/crimson-desert-rumured-to-be-released-in-q1-2025-will-get-a-playable-demo-at-gamescom-2024/
Lunatic Ignus, a reliable leaker for Chinese games like Black Myth Wukong, has shared some new details about Crimson Desert. According to the leaker, the game will come out in Q1 2025. Moreover, Pearl Abyss will have a new playable demo for it at this year’s Gamescom event.