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

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Here come the Thursday news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Epic’s 2025 Spring Sale kicks off with some big discounts on recent hits and a pair of cat-themed giveaways
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/epics-2025-spring-sale-kicks-off-with-some-big-discounts-on-recent-hits-and-a-pair-of-cat-themed-giveaways/
Steam’s spring sale might be over, but with so many stores, you’re never short on opportunities to demolish both your bank balance and free time. Stepping up to bat yesterday was the Epic Games Store, beginning their latest two-week-long round of discounts. Sadly they’re no longer doing ridiculously discounted loss-leader ‘coupons’, but there’s still plenty of very good games going cheaper than seems reasonable.
>>The giveaways are the regular free games of every week::

• Cat Quest: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/cat-quest-8373e0
• Neko Ghost, Jump!: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/neko-ghost-jump

Next week, the free game is a mystery.

Steam has two new deals:

• Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector will be 50% off until the 2nd of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295500/Warhammer_40000_Battlesector/
• Samorost 3 gets an 85% discount until the same April, 2nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/421120/Samorost_3/

Humble Bundle has two bundles:

• The Tactial Triumph Bundle has 7 games and will last 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/tactical-triumph
• The Dice & Destiny Bundle has up to 7 items to get (6 games plus one coupon) during 20 days as well: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/dice-and-destiny

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Version 2.13 of The Dark Mod, THIEF game in the Doom 3 Engine, Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/version-2-13-of-the-dark-mod-thief-game-in-the-doom-3-engine-released/
The team behind The Dark Mod, a THIEF game that is powered by the Doom 3 Engine, has released Version 2.13. This new version comes with a lot of tweaks and improvements. So, let’s take a look at them.
For those unaware, The Dark Mod is a free dark and moody stealth game, that is heavily inspired by the Thief series by Looking Glass Studios. It’s a great game, so be sure to at least give it a go.
Version 2.13 adds support for Parallax Occlusion Mapping. As such, The Dark Mod can now offer a quantum leap in perceived geometric detail with all sorts of surfaces realistically showing 3D parallax rather than the flatter looking normal maps we usually offer.
Moreover, this new version of The Dark Mod has better cubemaps. Thus, water reflections can now move in relation to the water texture movement offering a more convincing illusion. Volumetric lights and particles can now render in mirrors. Alpha-tested surfaces get alpha shadows in Shadow Maps mode. And finally, tone-mapping now supports range compression to prevent unwanted overbright areas.
And that’s not all. The game will automatically detect the number of CPU cores and allocate jobs based on the detected specifications. As such, level loading has been given more parallel execution optimizations, including optimizations for loading audio samples in parallel.
The Dark Mod Version 2.13 also brings some major AI enhancements. The game uses a light-gem system for the AI. This system allows AI and the player to “know” when something is visible. The problem with this system was that it was too demanding. But now, the game has a stochastic sampler model that does regular measurements of the actual light volume pixel. This means that it performs way better than before. Plus, all AI and loot entities now have their own light-gem.
>> The article has not one, not two but four, four videos of this new update.

Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/kings-under-the-mountain-33-enshrouded-players-spent-10-000-hours-to-recreate-this-iconic-location-from-the-lord-of-the-rings/
Above you'll see the efforts of Enshrouded players working collaboratively to recreate an iconic location from The Lord of the Rings. Erebor, the dwarven city built under Lonely Mountain, has been brought to life in the early access survival sandbox from Keen Games—and all it took was 33 players working for a staggering 10,000 hours over 74 days.
That's a lot of effort: 220,000,000 blocks mined and over 15 million blocks placed to bring the dwarven city to life.
Erebor, if you haven't tucked into The Lord of the Rings in a while, is where the dragon Smaug brought the smackdown, sacking both the city and the nearby town of Dale before making Lonely Mountain his lair and hoarding all its treasure. In the events of The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins and Thorin's party snuck into Erebor through a secret door and discovered Smaug's weakness, which led to the defeat of the dragon and reclamation of the city.
>> The article has an almost 5 minutes video and, while you can’t get the map yet, the video description says that it will be available soon.

GAMING NEWS

F1 25 will have Denuvo, gets official PC system requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/f1-25-will-have-denuvo-gets-official-pc-system-requirements/
Electronic Arts has announced the next part in its F1 series, F1 25. F1 25 will come out on May 30th. Moreover, the publisher revealed that it will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech, as well as its official PC system requirements.

Sekiro-like Echoes of Yi: Samsara gets official PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/souls-like-echoes-of-yi-samsara-gets-official-pc-requirements/
Runmeng is currently working on a Souls-like dark martial arts action game infused with traditional Chinese culture, Echoes of Yi: Samsara. This new action game will come out on April 18, and below you can find its official PC requirements.

Deliver At All Costs will be free on Epic Games Store at launch
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/deliver-at-all-costs-will-be-free-on-epic-games-store-at-launch/
Now here is something really cool. Konami has announced that its isometric destruction-based action delivery driver, Deliver At All Costs, will be free on Epic Games Store at launch. For one whole week, PC gamers will be able to visit its EGS and acquire their free copy.
>> This will be the first time in I don’t know how many years that I’ll get a game at launch. And free!

Neon-Noir Action Sandbox Police Game, The Precinct, Will Release On May 13th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/neon-noir-action-sandbox-police-game-the-precinct-will-release-on-may-13th/
Kwalee has announced that its neon-noir action sandbox police game, The Precinct, will be released on May 13th. To celebrate this announcement, the publisher has also shared a new trailer that you can find below.

Extended gameplay trailer for sci-fi stealth-action adventure, Steel Seed
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/extended-gameplay-trailer-for-sci-fi-stealth-action-adventure-steel-seed/
ESDigital Games has released an extended gameplay trailer for its sci-fi stealth-action adventure, Steel Seed. This 15-minute gameplay trailer will give you an idea of what you can expect from this new title.