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

[JEMC]

Here come the Thursday news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding's now had over 20 million players, and the fact folk are still playing 'makes me the happiest'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/hideo-kojima-says-death-strandings-now-had-over-20-million-players-and-the-fact-folk-are-still-playing-makes-me-the-happiest/
Three months before the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which looks absolutely bananas, Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions have announced that Death Stranding, a Hideo Kojima game directed by Hideo Kojima (OK I'll stop), has surpassed 20 million players.
Yes that's players not sales, though it does suggest a very healthy sales count: Death Stranding was also very briefly a freebie on the Epic Game Store, and included with PC Game Pass for a time.

The Epic Store gives away Cat Quest II: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/cat-quest-ii-9dbefc.
Next week, the free games are going to be Arcadgeddon, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms and River City Girls.

GOG has finished its Spring Sale and now makes me work extra with five new sales:

• There are new Weekly Deals with up to 91% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250403_weekly_deals_1_april
• The Hack 'n' Slash Promo also has games up to 91% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250415_hack_n_slash_promo
• The Freshen Up Your Library Promo has games of all kinds with up to 95% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250403_freshen_up_your_library_promo
• In the Indie Games Promo there are games up to 95% off during the next 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250403_indie_games_promo
• And laastly, there’s the spicy NSFW Promo, with up to 95% discounts during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250403_nsfw_promo

Steam has three new deals and three new sales:

• Dungreed is going to be 50% off until the 9th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/753420/Dungreed/
• WrestleQuest has an 80% discount until the same 9th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1867510/WrestleQuest/
• PegIdle, that has a demo, will be 35% off until the 16th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2821890/PegIdle/
• And these are the sales:
  • The London Games Festival celebrates its 10th Anniversary with demos and up to 90% discounts. The festival will last until the 13th, but the deals are something else, with some ending tomorrow and others lasting until, at least, the 16th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/LondonGamesFestival2025
  • The Devil May Cry franchise is on sale and the games are going to be up to 75% off until the 16th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33273264/sale/devilmaycryfranchise
  • The Neptunia franchise is also on sale with up to 80% discounts until April, the 16th: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/ideafactoryintl/sale/Neptunia2025

There’s a new Humble Bundle: the Fellow Traveller Publisher Bundle featuring up to 9 items to get (8 games plus 1 coupon) during 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/fellow-traveller-publisher-bundle.

And Fanatical has the new Platinum Collection BYOB – April 2025, with 16 titles to choose from for your bundles of 3+, 5+ or 7+ games during 27 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 32.0.101.6732 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-32-0-101-6732

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

• The Last of Us Part II Remastered

Game performance improvements on Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs versus Intel 32.0.101.6653 software driver for:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12)
  • Up to 15% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Balanced settings

Fixed Issues
Intel Arc B-Series Graphics Products:

• Returnal (DX12) may experience lower than expected performance during gameplay.

Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:

• Returnal (DX12) may experience lower than expected performance during gameplay.

Intel Core Ultra Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs:

• FragPunk (DX12) may experience an application crash while launching game.
• Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition (DX9) may exhibit white corruption while playing the game in windowed mode.
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered (DX11) may experience intermittent crash during gameplay.

Intel Graphics Software Fixed Issues:

• Intel Graphics Software may not uninstall entirely when uninstalling using Add or Remove Programs

>> This is a Beta driver, if that matters to you.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition Mod overhauls all enemies
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-mass-effect-2-legendary-edition-mod-overhauls-all-enemies/
Modder ‘Ravager’ has released a cool new mod for Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition. This mod aims to overhaul all of its enemies, so make sure to get it if you are planning to replay it.
Going into more details, the mod adds lore friendly weapons, more powers, and improved power usage. Enemies will also have shields/barriers/armor regardless of difficulty, and there are now correct colors for blood. Plus, there are other minor additions and changes to most enemies throughout the game, including all DLC.
All enemies that have powers now use them regardless of what you or your squad is doing and try to use their shield powers immediately after they lose their shields/barriers. Moreover, most enemies with shields or barriers now have a boost power that restores them.
Most enemies now have shields/barriers/armor that are added on higher difficulties, on all difficulties. Not only that, but NPCs in hubs, missions and cutscenes will now have lore accurate weapons.
You can go ahead and download the mod from this link. To install it, you’ll need the Mod Manager. Plus, you’ll have to install it before any texture mods or other texture files.
>> The article has no media.

Wicked Whims for Inzoi is just an April Fools joke for now but The Sims' most famous sex mod is probably coming eventually
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/to-nobodys-surprise-wicked-whims-for-inzoi-is-here-less-than-a-week-after-launch-bringing-over-the-sims-most-famous-sex-mod/
There are two kinds of life simmers: Those who like playing happy families, and those who contort the games' tween age ratings into something that'd probably give your nan a heart attack.
Wicked Whims is easily one of The Sims' most popular mods for anyone who falls into the latter camp. It turns the game into something that is most definitely not safe for work—nudity, startlingly detailed sex animations, and even STDs that can spread. Outside of being relentlessly horny, there are some cool immersive features like menstrual cycles and birth control.
Correction: You win this round, Turbodriver. In our April fools announcements haze we thought we caught a real one but this release of Wicked Whims for Inzoi in fact was just a joke. The download link goes to a video—shame on us for not trying that in the middle of the office, huh? This one is probably only a joke for now until those modding tools on the Inzoi roadmap show up and the popular mod gets an Inzoi version for real.
>> There’s a couple of screenshots, but not of the not-mod.

'This is a gift': Baldur's Village mod maker says thanks to all (especially Swen) and promises more content including an 'Astarion's Ten Hearts event' is on the way
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/this-is-a-gift-baldurs-village-mod-maker-says-thanks-to-all-especially-swen-and-promises-more-content-including-an-astarions-ten-hearts-event-is-on-the-way/
It's been quite a ride for Baldur's Village, the big Stardew Valley mod that brings Baldur's Gate 3 characters and content to the world's most popular life sim. It launched in early March and everyone loved it including Larian boss Swen Vincke, but then whoops, Wizards of the Coast clobbered it with a DMCA takedown request. Everyone got mad, Swen wagged his finger, and then WotC said whoops, it was a mistake! And now it's back.
With all that water now under the bridge, mod developer XunHe1145 has shared a "full explanation" of what happened on X. It's not really a full explanation to my reading, in the sense that it doesn't explain how all of this was allowed to happen in the first place (and we will probably never know), but the important thing is confirmation that the matter is now "thoroughly clarified and resolved," and more Baldur's Village stuff, including an Astarion event, is on the way.

GAMING NEWS

New trailers for Blades of Fire focus on The Forge and Weapons
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-trailers-for-blades-of-fire-focus-on-the-forge-and-weapons/
505 Games has released two new videos for Blades of Fire, focusing on the Forge and the game’s weapons. Blades of Fire is a third-person action-adventure game from MercurySteam. According to the devs, players will forge their own weapons and face fierce enemies in a unique combat system.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Update 7 Released, Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/marvels-spider-man-2-update-7-released-full-patch-notes/
Nixxes has just released Title Update 7 for the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s take a look at all of its fixes, tweaks and improvements.