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

[JEMC]

It’s Monday and these are the gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Resident Evil Requiem has sold 7 million copies in 2 months—a milestone that took the RE4 remake a year
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/resident-evil/resident-evil-requiem-has-sold-7-million-copies-in-2-months-a-milestone-that-took-the-re4-remake-a-year/
If you needed any further proof of the terrifying cultural potency of Leon S. Kennedy, here it is: Resident Evil Requiem has sold over 7 million copies in just under two months. The latest in a string of Capcom sales successes, the milestone makes Requiem the fastest-selling Resident Evil game to date.
While Capcom hasn't circulated a press release officially confirming the figure, the milestone was shared on game director Koshi Nakanishi's Instagram (via Twisted Voxel), where he posted a photo of Capcom staff honoring the achievement with a pair of celebratory Resident Evil-themed cakes.

Steam has two new deals and a bunch of sales/events:

• ROBOBEAT has a demo and a 50% discount that will last until the 3rd of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1456760/ROBOBEAT/
• Darksiders Ultimate Edition, with the four games in the franchise plus a soundtrack is 85% off. While there’s no mention of how long will last the deal, the individual games are also on sale until the 10th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/44666/Darksiders_Ultimate_Edition/
• And now, the sales/events. I’m sorry to say that, with 10 new ones, they’re a bit too much for a Monday with so many news to post them all. So, check the following link to see the The Bueno Interactive, FORYU CORPORATION, HandyGames and Stray Fawn publisher sales, alongside the Tokyo Game Dungeon 12, The Wishlisted Showcase, INDIE Live Expo, Wholesome Kitchen 2026, InterfaceX26 and Post-Apocalyptic Festivals, Showcases or events: https://store.steampowered.com/news/collection/sales/

There are two new Humble Bundles:

• MECHA MANIA Bundle features up to 9 games to get during 18 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/mecha-mania
• Fore! A Golf Games Bundle ha up to 10 games to get during the same 18 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/fore-golf-games-bundle-games

And Fanatical has these:

• Star Deal is Heroes of Science and Fiction , 55% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/silence-of-the-siren
• The BYO Adrenaline Bundle has 11 games for your 3+ or 5+ bundles and will last 34 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-adrenaline-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Nothing today-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Starfield Mods overhaul numerous areas and cities by adding over 2300 hand-placed light sources
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/starfield-mods-overhaul-numerous-areas-and-cities-by-adding-over-2300-hand-placed-light-sources/
Modder ‘RabbitDoesStuff’ has just released the latest part in his Real Lights mod series for Starfield, overhauling the lighting in New Babylon. This new mod adds over 100 hand-placed lighting sources and objects to create a more realistic lighting design.
RabbitDoesStuff has overhauled numerous areas in Starfield. For instance, he has overhauled Akila City, New Atlantis, Cydonia, and more. In total, he has improved the lighting of over 11 areas by adding over 2300 hand-placed lighting sources.
In my opinion, this is an amazing graphics mod series for Starfield. These mods will greatly improve the overall lighting and atmosphere of the game.
Do note that this may not be compatible with the Neon City Fan Expansion Mod I shared a while ago. RabbitDoesStuff’s covers that city. So, you will have to choose the mod you want to use. For what it’s worth, I believe the Neon City Fan Expansion Mod to be a superior mod for that particular city.
You can go ahead and download the mod from this link. At the end of that page, you can also find links for all the other areas and cities that the modder has improved. You can also find a lot of comparison shots. These will give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect from each part of the series.
>> The article has no media.

Max Payne Just Got a New RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/max-payne-just-got-a-new-rtx-remix-path-tracing-mod/
Modder ‘Neo_minigan’ has released a new RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod for Remedy’s classic third-person shooter, Max Payne. This is the third RTX Remix Mod for Max Payne. So, let’s take a look at it.
But let’s take things from the beginning. In September 2024, we shared the first RTX Remix Mod for Max Payne. That mod overhauled the prologue and Roscoe Street. In my opinion, it looked great, even though it made a lot of “artistic” changes to the game.
Then, in July 2025, I shared the second RTX Remix Mod for Max Payne. That one was more faithful to the original art style. However, as with the first mod, it only overhauled the prologue and the Roscoe Street.
The bad news is these two RTX Remix Mods seem to have been abandoned. Neither of them has received any new updates for over a year. Which brings us to this new third RTX Remix Mod for Max Payne.
Created by ‘Neo_minigan’, this new RTX Remix Mod overhauls, you guessed it, the prologue and Roscoe Street. From what I can see, it’s closer in style to the second mod, as it retains the original game’s art direction, but it still looks noticeably better than the original.
The good news is that this new mod may finally let us play the other levels of Max Payne with Path Tracing. So, here is hoping that the modder will continue working on it.
>> The article has some screenshots and a short video.

Dark Souls 2 Path Tracing Mod Got an HD Texture Pack
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/dark-souls-2-path-tracing-mod-got-an-hd-texture-pack/
A few days ago, we informed you about an amazing Path Tracing Mod for Dark Souls 2. Created by Ganaboy as part of DS2LightingEngine, it allows you to experience the entire game with Path Tracing. And now, an HD Texture Pack has just come out for it.
Dark Souls 2 has some very low-quality textures. So, while Path Tracing can significantly improve its visuals, the game may still look blurry due to the original textures. That’s where this HD Texture Pack comes in.
Created by Trivia Vanille, this HD Texture Pack aims to overhaul all of the game’s textures. The pack is compatible with the Path Tracing Mod, letting you enjoy the game with crisper and more detailed textures. You can download it from this link.
Now, if you don’t want to use this HD Texture Pack, you can download fromsoftserve’s Second Sin Mod. Its latest version, which is based on the DS2LightingEngine, has Path Tracing. It also comes with higher-quality textures, as well as some other visual changes. You can download it from here. At the end of the article, you can find a couple of shots from it. These shots show off some of the modded textures.
>> Besides the screenshots, there’s also an over 20 minutes video.

This Skyrim mod that makes NPCs AI chatterboxes just got a massive overhaul
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/this-skyrim-mod-that-makes-npcs-ai-chatterboxes-just-got-a-massive-overhaul/
Skyrim's got a lot of NPCs. Thing is, most of 'em are dolts. They don't have any kind of distinct personality or routine, and sometimes do the dumbest stuff imaginable. I'll never forget the time a dragon flew down to attack me near a settlement, destroying some fencing in the process, and the entire town swivelled before charging towards me, daggers drawn, completely ignoring the massive dragon in their midst that had actually caused the damage.
In recent years Skyrim's peerless modding scene has seen various experiments incorporating AI elements into the game, with varying results: PCG's Chris Livingston took a ChatGPT-powered Skyrim companion for a test drive and it nearly got him killed by repeatedly failing to solve the game's easiest puzzle. Another that's been around since 2023 is Mantella, which uses various AI LLMs alongside speech-to-text tech to enable NPC conversations, and last week received a major update.
Mantella boasts NPCs that "have memories of your previous conversations, are aware of in-game events, have vision, and can even perform actions." You can see an example of a conversation below (which is from a version before this patch) and, yeah, it's stilted in places and the voicework is clearly rudimentary computer babble: but it works.
Here's another, showing an NPC follower being scornful about the player's dance moves.
Installing Mantella is fairly straightforward (here's an installation guide, and a collection of community resources), and the new version (0.14) improves nearly every element of it, focusing particularly on NPC awareness and how they interact with the world.

Modder brings playable Halo Elite to Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/modder-brings-playable-halo-elite-to-warhammer-40k-space-marine-2/
Artist and Halo fan Skykillerr has uploaded a video showcasing Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 modded to let you play as a Sangheili "Elite" alien from the Halo franchise. At the time of writing, Skykillerr does not appear to have shared the mod widely for public use.
Skykillerr specifically ported in a white "Ultra" Elite from Halo: Reach, which makes for a nice pun with the "Ultramarine" branch of the Adeptus Astartes portrayed in the Space Marine series.
It's pretty surprising how well the model works with protagonist Titus' animations, but that Ultramarine armor was already so chunky and inhuman, some double-jointed legs and a big 'ol headdress added in the mix aren't exactly shaking things up.
(...)
Unfortunately, Skykillerr did not include a download link with the video, nor have they published anything on their social media pages. A search of the Space Marine 2 Nexus similarly did not turn up any Halo Elite content. If you want to stay abreast of any updates or expansions to this project, you'll want to follow Skykillerr on your social platform of choice.
>> The video is a bit over 1 minute long.

For Return to Castle Wolfenstein's 25th anniversary, modders are bringing its console-exclusive levels to PC at last
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/for-return-to-castle-wolfensteins-25th-anniversary-modders-are-bringing-its-console-exclusive-levels-to-pc-at-last/
It's wild to think the developers of Redneck Rampage—a game I enjoyed at the time because I was a kid, not because it was anything special—went on to make the much more well-received Return to Castle Wolfenstein, resurrecting id's abandoned FPS and laying down the foundations for its modern revival.
If you're playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein today you're probably playing it via RealRTCW, the mod with its own Steam page that overhauls, modernizes, widescreenifies, and rebalances the 2001 shooter. Not content with all those improvements, the makers of RealRTCW have announced they're also resurrecting its previously console-only prologue as free DLC.
The Cursed Sands expansion will add the seven Egypt-set levels as well as their unique enemies and variants to PC for the first time. It'll also be chock-full of customization options. You can choose between the Xbox version's HUD and the PS2 one as well as between their loading and briefing screens, and enemy variants. You can even set it to randomly pick which of the skins to use for individual enemies, meaning half the elite guards will be in Xbox camo and the other half will have traveled to Egypt in PS2 leather.
The level of customization is a bit nuts, to be honest. You can choose between different sound packs if you prefer the gun or environmental sounds from other games in the series, or even swap in the firerate from spin-off Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. You can also swap between modernized and classic assets with a click.
Cursed Sands will be available from May 6 on Steam and GOG.
>> The article has an almost 10 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

Crimson Desert Patch 1.04.01 & 1.04.02 Fix Lots of Bugs – Full Details
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/crimson-desert-patch-1-04-01-fixes-lots-of-bugs-full-patch-notes/
Pearl Abyss has released Title Update 1.04.01 for Crimson Desert and has shared its full patch notes. So, let’s see what this latest update brings to the table.
UPDATE:
Pearl Abyss has just released Patch 1.04.02. As with the previous patch, this new one aims to fix the bugs that were introduced by Title Update 1.04.00. Below, you can find its full patch notes.
>> Btw, the new camera can make it look like Baldur’s Gate 3 (link).

Secret Mode removed Denuvo from STAR WARS: Galactic Racer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/secret-mode-removed-denuvo-from-star-wars-galactic-racer/
It appears that Secret Mode has removed Denuvo from STAR WARS: Galactic Racer before the game’s official launch. This is one of the few times we’ve seen a publisher removing Denuvo before launching their title. So, this should be great news for all Star Wars fans who have been boycotting Denuvo games.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag – Original vs Remake Early Graphics Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/assassins-creed-black-flag-original-vs-remake-early-graphics-comparison/
YouTube’s ElAnalistaDeBits has shared a comparison video between the original version and the upcoming remake of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. This video will give you a glimpse at most of the visual improvements that the remake brings to the table.

This is apparently an official teaser trailer for Alien: Isolation 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/this-is-apparently-an-official-teaser-trailer-for-alien-isolation-2/
It appears that SEGA has released a teaser trailer for Alien: Isolation 2. Or at least that’s what everyone is assuming this trailer is. Titled False Sense of Security, this teaser trailer shows off some of the game’s environments. And that’s it.

Alien: Isolation 2 will use Unreal Engine 5 and not the Cathode Engine
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/alien-isolation-2-will-use-unreal-engine-5-and-not-the-cathode-engine/
A few hours ago, SEGA released a teaser trailer for Alien: Isolation 2. And now, we have confirmation of the engine it will be using. According to Creative Assembly, Alien Isolation 2 will be powered by Unreal Engine 5, and not by the Cathode Engine.

Bodycam FPS Better Than Dead Will Be Released on May 12
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bodycam-fps-better-than-dead-will-be-released-on-may-12/
MicroProse has announced that the bodycam FPS, Better Than Dead, will be released on Steam Early Access on May 12. To celebrate this announcement, the publisher has shared a new trailer that you can find below.

The 7th Guest Remake Releases On June 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-7th-guest-remake-releases-on-june-4/
Vertigo Games has announced that The 7th Guest Remake will be released on June 4. To celebrate this announcement, the publisher shared a new trailer that you can find below.