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

[JEMC]

It’s Thursday and these are the news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

This week, the Epic Store gives away Escape Academy: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/escape-academy-bfc2bf
Next week, the free game will be Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery.

GOG has two new promos:

• The Blue Monday Promo comes early, but it does so with up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250116_blue_monday_promo
• The GOG MIX Promo has games of all kinds up to 90% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250116_gog_mix_promo

Steam has three new deals:

• STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town will be 75% off until January 22: https://store.steampowered.com/app/978780/STORY_OF_SEASONS_Friends_of_Mineral_Town/
• Edge Of Eternity features an 80% discount until the 22nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/269190/Edge_Of_Eternity/
• And Death and Taxes, that has a demo, will be 85% off until the 29th of January: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1166290/Death_and_Taxes/

Humble Bundle brings the Nacon Motorsports: Drive & Thrive Bundle, with up to 12 items to get (11 games and 1 coupon) during 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/nacon-motorsports-drive-thrive.

And Fanatical has this:

• The Star Deal has been extended another 24 hours.
• The new BYO Explosive Bundle comes with 21 titles to choose from for your bundles of 3+, 5+ or 7+ games during 42 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-explosive-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 32.0.101.6458/6257 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-32-0-101-6458-6257
Highlights

Highlights:

• Launch driver for Intel® Arc™ B570 Graphics (codename Battlemage).
• Launch driver for Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 2 Mobile Processors (codename Arrow Lake-H).

Gaming Highlights:

• Game performance improvements on Intel® Core™ Ultra series 2 versus Intel® 31.0.101.6449 software driver for:
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12)
    • Up to 6.8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Basic settings

Fixed Issues

Intel® Arc™ B-Series Graphics Products:

• Indiana Jones and The Great Circle (VK) may exhibit inconsistent performance and GPU memory usage during gameplay.
• Shadow of The Tomb Raider (DX12) may experience intermittent application crash and corruption in the game menu with XeSS enabled.

Here are some early visual benefits of DLSS 4’s Transformer Model
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/here-are-some-early-visual-benefits-of-dlss-4s-transformer-model/
NVIDIA has just lifted the embargo for some of its RTX 50 series slides, and we can finally share some interesting comparisons between DLSS 4’s Transformer Model and Basic Temporal Upscalers. So, let’s take a look at the visual benefits of the new DLSS 4 Mode.
DLSS 4 will be supported by all RTX GPUs. This means that these improvements will be available to all RTX gamers. This is crucial to note. The only DLSS 4 feature that will be exclusive to the RTX 50 series will be Multi Frame Generation.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is fully playable on Ryujinx
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/donkey-kong-country-returns-hd-is-fully-playable-on-ryujinx/
Nintendo has just released Donkey Kong Country Returns HD on Nintendo Switch and to the surprise of no one, the game is already fully playable on Ryujinx. So, by using this Nintendo Switch emulator, PC gamers can play the game with 60FPS and at Native 4K on their PC.
What’s really funny here is that Nintendo has already taken down Ryujinx. As we informed you in October 2024, Nintendo shut it down. And despite that, its last public version is still able to run this latest game.
>> There’s a slightly over 5 minutes video.

This mod brings elements from Undead Nightmare to Red Dead Redemption
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-mod-brings-elements-from-undead-nightmare-to-red-dead-redemption/
Now here is something really cool. Modder ‘GLITCHED MATRIX’ has released a mod that brings elements from Undead Nightmare to Red Dead Redemption, and vice versa.
As such, in RDR, players will now encounter Zombie Horses, Zombie Bats, Zombie Cougars, and Zombie Goats. You will also find Undead Nightmare-themed Camp and Campsites. Moreover, there will be new cosmetics and new weather. Plus, you can expect some texture and model replacements based on it.
Similarly, Undead Nightmare will get various elements that were present in RDR. For instance, you will now find a working passenger train in New Austin. The minigames that were in RDR will also appear in Undead Nightmare. Plus, you can expect animal and NPC spawns in any region of your choice.
>> The article has a 2 minutes video.

GTA 5 mod recreating GTA 4's map nuked after 6 years of work because people noticed, and Rockstar insisted on a 'friendly takedown', if you know what I mean
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/gta-5-mod-recreating-gta-4s-map-nuked-after-6-years-of-work-because-people-noticed-and-rockstar-insisted-on-a-friendly-takedown-if-you-know-what-i-mean/
The GTA 5 Liberty City Preservation Project (LCPP) was released this month after six years of work, recreating GTA 4's unforgettable Liberty City within GTA 5's game world. This was a seriously impressive piece of work, managing to bring over the entirety of Rockstar's skewed New York and show it all off with GTA 5's improved visuals and audio: It even arrived with Steam Deck compatibility.
The joy was, however, short lived. As is now something of a tradition, the mod gained some traction, was covered by the traditional media and spread rapidly on forums and social sites. And then The Man at Rockstar HQ noticed.
The Man doesn't like GTA mods, especially in this the year of our lord GTA 6, and Take-Two has a long history of going after mod makers whose projects get a little too close for comfort (there have been rumours of an official GTA 4 remaster for a while now).
The modding team behind LCPP has now taken down the mod, and the following was posted on the project's Discord:
"Due to the unexpected attention that our project received and after speaking with Rockstar Games, we have decided to take down the Liberty City Preservation project," says a post from modder NK Jellman. "We appreciate all the support that the project has received, and we look forward to continuing to pursue our passion for modding the Grand Theft Auto series."

GAMING NEWS

Alan Wake 2 will be the first game to support RTX Mega Geometry
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/alan-wake-2-will-be-the-first-game-to-support-rtx-mega-geometry/
Now here is something that passed under my radar. Last week, NVIDIA revealed RTX Mega Geometry, one of the new features of its RTX GPUs. And, according to the green team, Alan Wake 2 will be the first game that will support it.
RTX Mega Geometry accelerates BVH building, making it possible to ray trace up to 100x more triangles than today’s standard. RTX Mega Geometry intelligently updates clusters of triangles in batches on the GPU. This will reduce CPU overhead and increase performance and image quality in ray traced scenes. Plus, NVIDIA claims that this will reduce VRAM consumption.