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

[JEMC]

The Monday news are here!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert is free to keep on Steam
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pearl-abyss-black-desert-is-free-to-keep-on-steam/
Pearl Abyss is currently offering for free its open-world, action MMORPG, Black Desert. For the next two weeks, PC gamers can visit its Steam store page and acquire their free copy.
Black Desert Online is a sandbox, living-world MMORPG. Players can experience fast-paced, action-packed combat, hunt monsters and huge bosses. Players can also fight with friends in a guild to siege nodes and region castles, train their life skills such as fishing, trading, crafting, cooking, and much more.
Black Desert features an expansive open-world map using Pearl Abyss’ proprietary game engine. With its character creation, players can experience an amazing level of customization. Players can adjust their height, torso, face, skin texture, and even various micro-level details.
Moreover, the game comes with a variety of choices. Some of them include farming, trading, fishing, sailing, cooking, horse training, and alchemy.
>> You can get it from here.

Ok, I’ll be honest. I messed it up a bit with the Epic Store. Last Thursday, when I checked the new free game, I didn’t notice that they would be giving away free games in a daily basis. So yeah, my apologies for that. I don’t know how much that will last, but today’s free game is Dark and Darker - Legendary Status: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/dark-and-darker-qa-dark-and-darker-legendary-status-a83d59.

Meanwhile, Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition, 51% off during at least 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/resident-evil-4-gold-edition
• The BYO  Quest VR Bundle (Winter Edition) has 23 games to choose for your bundles of 2+, 4+ or 7+ during 38 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-quest-vr-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA releases GeForce display driver Hotfix 566.45
https://videocardz.com/pixel/nvidia-releases-geforce-display-driver-hotfix-566-45
NVIDIA has released the GeForce Hotfix Display Driver version 566.45, built on the latest Game Ready Driver 566.36. This update aims to address specific issues, including intermittent micro-stuttering in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and improved stability for Ubisoft games running on the Snowdrop engine.

However, this hotfix does not address issues with the NVIDIA app that some users have reported. These problems are likely related to the overlay feature, which NVIDIA recommends turning off as a temporary workaround.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Graphics Mod Improves Shadows, Draw Distance & Volumetrics
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-sekiro-shadows-die-twice-graphics-mod-improves-shadows-draw-distance-volumetrics/
Modder ‘GPUnity’ has released a new mod for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that aims to improve its graphics. To be more specific, this mod improves the game’s shadows, draw distance, volumetrics and motion blur.
Going into more detail, on the Max settings, the mod adjusts the draw distance range between 2X and 3X. It also improves the quality of shadows by four times, and it increases the quality of volumetrics by two times. Plus, it increases the sample count for motion blur by 3X.
The end result is a more stable image. The game will no longer have as many pop-ins as it had in its vanilla version. Moreover, you will no longer get annoying low-res shadows right in front of view.
>> The article has a two minutes video.

Resident Evil Village gets high resolution textures for characters & enemies
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/resident-evil-village-gets-high-resolution-textures-for-characters-enemies/
Modder ‘S1nonim’ has released two new HD Texture Packs for Resident Evil Village. These packs will update the textures of some enemies and characters with higher quality ones. So, if you’re planning to replay this RE game, you should definitely get them.
What’s interesting here is that these aren’t AI-upscaled packs. Instead, S1nonim used the textures that Capcom has used in the Model Viewer.
As he pointed out, Capcom has included high-quality 4K/2K/1K textures for its enemies and characters in the Model Viewer. However, for unknown reasons, the team did not include these textures in the game. Thankfully, with these packs, PC gamers can now enjoy these higher-quality official textures.
You can go ahead and download the packs from here and here. Below you can also find some comparison screenshots.
As you will see, the textures from the Model Viewer are better in every way. So, again, I don’t know why Capcom has not included them during gameplay. It makes no sense.
Do note that you will also need the Fluffy Mod Manager, otherwise these packs will not work. To install them, you can drop the mods folder into Fluffy Mod Manager directory modmanagerGamesRE8Mods and turn them on via Fluffy Mod. And that’s it.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Demo in Unreal Engine 5 Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-demo-in-unreal-engine-5-released/
Earlier this month, we shared a demo of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in Unreal Engine 5. And today, we are happy to share a similar demo that ports the entire map of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in Unreal Engine 5.
Created by Greg Coulthard, this project simply ports the entire map of Skyrim in UE5. All the assets used here are from the original game. As Coulthard noted, his goal wasn’t to upgrade the game’s graphics. Instead, he wanted simply wanted to see whether or not it was possible to port Skyrim’s map in UE5, and how it would look in it.
To achieve this, Greg used a C++ plugin he developed to read Skyrim’s ESM data file. This plugin allowed him to automatize landscape generation and object placement.
Now what’s cool here is that this plugin can be used for other Creation Engine games. As such, it should be possible to have similar UE5 demos for Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4 and even Starfield.
>> There’s a less than 2 minutes trailer of this demo.

Starship, PC native port of Star Fox 64, is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/starship-pc-native-port-of-star-fox-64-is-available-for-download/
Last month, we informed you about an unofficial PC native port of the classic Nintendo 64 game, Star Fox 64. And today we are happy to report that this PC port, called Starship, is now available for download.
The team behind this unofficial PC port of Star Fox 64 is the same one that gave us Ship of Harkinian. So, kudos to them for bringing another classic N64 game to the PC.
As with the Super Mario 64 PC port, Starship does not include any copyrighted assets. To make it work, you’ll need an official ROM file. By doing this, the team avoids any possible C&D letter. So no, Nintendo will not be able to take it down.
Currently, there are three rendering APIs supported in Starship. These are DirectX11 (Windows), OpenGL (all platforms), and Metal (macOS). You can change which API to use in the Settings menu of the menubar, which requires a restart.
>> In the article you’ll find an almost 1 hour video of the game.

GAMING NEWS

In Just One Day, STALKER 2 Received Another 7.6GB Patch
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/in-just-one-day-stalker-2-received-another-7-6gb-patch/
Yesterday, GSC GameWorld released a massive 110GB update for STALKER 2 that fixed over 1,800 issues. And now, just one day later, they’ve released another patch, this one around 7.6GB in size.
Sadly, GSC GameWorld has not shared yet any patch notes for this latest update. So, we don’t really know what exactly it does. I’ll be sure to update the story as soon as we get the changelog.
>> This was on Friday and the article has been updated with the release notes.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Gets PC screenshots & PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/final-fantasy-7-rebirth-gets-pc-screenshots-pc-requirements/
Square Enix has revealed the first PC screenshots and the official PC system requirements for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. FF7 Rebirth will be still using Unreal Engine 4, so let’s see what PC system you’ll need to run it.

STALKER 2 Update 1.1.3 Released, Is 7.4GB, Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/stalker-2-update-1-1-3-released-is-7-4gb-full-patch-notes/
GSC GameWorld has released another title update for the PC version of STALKER 2. Similarly to the previous one, Patch 1.1.3 is around 7.4GB in size, so let’s take a look at its complete changelog.
>> This one is from today.