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

[JEMC]

It’s time for the Friday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Humble Store has the New Game New Years Sale, featuring up to 90% discounts during the next 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/new-game-new-years-sale/.

Fanatical has one new deal:

• The Star Deal has been extended for another 24 hours in what it now looks like more the norm than the exception.
• There’s a new BYO Winter Superstars Collection has 16 titles to choose from for your 2+, 3+ or 4+ games bundles during 41 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-winter-superstars-collection

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

You can now play the leaked Wii build of Star Wars Battlefront 3
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/you-can-now-play-the-leaked-wii-build-of-star-wars-battlefront-3/
A few days ago, a Wii build of the canceled Star Wars: Battlefront 3 game from Free Radical was leaked online. However, that version was not playable without proper instructions and a certain dolphin build. But now, a small team created a build that you can download and play on PC with the Wii emulator, Dolphin.
To download this playable Wii build, you’ll have to head over to Free Radical Archive’s Discord. On its channel, you will immediately find the download link. I won’t be sharing a direct link as it will be a shame for the team. They deserve your follow.
Once you get the download link, you’ll see four files. The one you’ll have to download is Star Wars Battlefront 3 r2.91120a (Nov21st 2008).rvz. This is the main build of Star Wars Battlefront III dated November 21st, 2008. This is the latest known build and the most functional of the 2.
And that’s it. After downloading it, you can play it using Dolphin. Thus, you will be able to enjoy Free Radical’s canceled Star Wars: Battlefront 3 game. Pretty cool, right?
Now if you don’t want to go into all this trouble, you can simply watch the following video. The video shows off Mission 2 – The Battle of Coruscant. And, since it’s running on PC, you can enjoy it at 4K.
What’s really surprising is that there are proper cut-scenes. However, as you will see, there are a lot of visual issues and placeholder graphics. This shouldn’t surprise anyone though. After all, Free Radical Games never finished it.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle just got an AMD FSR 3.0 Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-just-got-an-amd-fsr-3-0-mod/
Indiana Jones fans, we have some good and some bad news for you today. The good news is that a new mod came out that adds support for AMD FSR 3.0 Super Resolution and Frame Generation. The bad news is that it’s a paid mod.
Created by no other than PureDark, this mod brings support for AMD FSR 3.0 Super Resolution and Frame Generation. As such, PC gamers will now be able to use AMD FSR 3.0 FG to boost their performance. This will be essential for those who want to see whether their GPUs can handle the game’s Path Tracing effects.
For those wondering, MachineGames is already working on adding official support for AMD FSR 3.0 via a new update. However, there is no ETA for when this patch will come out. So, until that happens, this mod is your only solution for enabling FSR 3.0.
This mod will work for AMD GPUs and non-RTX 40 series Nvidia GPUs. It will also work on both the Steam and Game Pass versions.
>> The article has some screenshots of the game, not the mod.

Painkiller RTX Remix Path Tracing Demo Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/painkiller-rtx-remix-path-tracing-demo-released/
Painkiller fans, get ready for a treat. Modder ‘capzor’ has released a demo for his RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod for Painkiller. This demo adds Path Tracing support to the first four levels of the game with upscaled PBR textures.
To showcase this RTX Remix Path TRacing Mod, capzor shared the following video. This video shows off the four levels that have been enhanced. As such, it can give you an idea of what you can expect from it.
You can go ahead and download the mod from this link. As capzor said, the mod is compatible with both the GOG and Steam versions of Painkiller: Black Edition.

PC VR wizard is gearing up to weave his magic on Ubisoft's 2023 open-world adventure
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/pc-vr-wizard-is-gearing-up-to-weave-his-magic-on-ubisofts-2023-open-world-adventure/
In the absence of publishers doing what is right and porting their finest games to VR, we have Luke Ross. The modder has taken it upon himself to convert some of the biggest PC games into VR over the years—Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 4-6, Marvel's Spider-Man, and Star Wars Outlaws, to name a few—and he's now revealed that the next game to get his special VR treatment is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Ubisoft's open-world adventure, set in James Cameron's universe of colonial metaphors, has been a tad divisive here at PCG—some of us loved it, others really didn't—but there's no question that its alien landscapes of floating mountains, bioluminescent flora, and dense jungles looks beautiful, and would be a joy to wander around in, even in the game's dedicated Exploration Mode. "The game looks incredible in VR, while at the same time being very resource-intensive," Ross told PC Gamer. "So we think that it will be a great showcase for the new improvements to the framework."
That brings us to the other big development with Ross' VR mod, which is the drastic improvements in image quality and performance. "Lately I introduced radical optimizations to my conversion framework that have made it possible to squeeze out about 55-60% more performance from the same hardware, with no perceivable loss in image quality," said Ross, referring to his FOV optimisations update that he released in September. 
>> It’s a paid mod you can get from his Patreon page, and you can check what you’ll get thanks to an almost 2 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

OMEGA PHENEX COMMENCED PROJECT SIX feels like a mix of Armored Core 4 & Ace Combat
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/omega-phenex-commenced-project-six-feels-like-a-mix-of-armored-core-4-ace-combat/
Now here is something for all our mecha fans. Surume Manju has just announced a new mecha game that feels like a mix of Armored Core 4 and Ace Combat, called OMEGA PHENEX COMMENCED PROJECT SIX.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Remake is coming to PC in Fall 2025
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/trails-in-the-sky-1st-chapter-remake-is-coming-to-pc-in-fall-2025/
Nihon Falcom and GungHo have announced that their 3D remake of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, will come out on PC in Fall 2025. To celebrate this announcement, the teams have also shared a new gameplay trailer that you can find below.

Sword and Fairy 4: Remake in Unreal Engine 5 is in development
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/sword-and-fairy-4-remake-in-unreal-engine-5-is-in-development/
It appears that an official remake of Sword and Fairy 4, using Unreal Engine 5, is currently in development. And although we don’t have enough details about it, you can find below its debut in-engine trailer.

Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 Preview Released & Fully Detailed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-citizen-alpha-4-0-preview-released-fully-detailed/
Cloud Imperium has just released Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 Preview. This new preview version of Star Citizen will contain all the new technology, locations, features, and ships that the devs have added. At the same time, it will run alongside the previous Alpha 3.24.3 version. As such, those who do not want to preview it can still play the older version.