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

[JEMC]

Here come the Monday gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced sells 2 million copies in 1 day and achieves the 'highest concurrent player count ever recorded for an Assassin's Creed title' on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/assassins-creed/assassins-creed-black-flag-resynced-sells-2-million-copies-in-1-day-and-achieves-the-highest-concurrent-player-count-ever-recorded-for-an-assassins-creed-title-on-steam/
I gotta hand this one to the suits: I thought gamers might find a $60 price tag on a rehash of a 13-year-old Assassin's Creed game to be a bit much, and apparently I was wrong. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced sold more than two million copies in just one day, and has handily surpassed Steam player counts of newer games in the series, including Assassin's Creed Shadows.
"Dash my Buttons... Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has already passed 2 million copies sold!" Ubisoft wrote on X the day after the overhauled Black Flag launched. "Whether you're sailing with us again, or stepping aboard the Jackdaw for the first time: THANK YOU from the bottom of ARR hearts."

Palworld pulled in almost 900,000 players over the weekend, its second-highest peak ever
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/palworld-pulled-in-almost-900-000-players-over-the-weekend-its-second-highest-peak-ever/
Palworld recently celebrated its launch into 1.0 and out of early access with 27-pages of patch notes and no price hike, and the devs were rewarded with the best turnout they've seen since the game first released into early access way back in January 2024.
A peak of 855,525 concurrent players turned up for the 1.0 release on Steam alone yesterday placing Palworld back up near the top of the Steam charts. It's a massive achievement and one that was properly celebrated, not least by Pocketpair's head of publishing and communications, John "Bucky" Buckley.
"I promise I'll try not to just be posting Steam numbers every day but really, thank you so much, gamers," Buckley said in a social media post. "Obviously, we had high expectations for 1.0 internally, but this is staggering. We really hope you are enjoying your time in Palworld again."
Palworld's all-time peak still sits at 2.1 million, a ridiculous achievement that places it above the likes of Counter Strike 2, Dota 2, and Monster Hunter Wilds. In fact, the only two games that have managed to beat Palworld's all-time player count on Steam are Black Myth: Wukong and PUBG, of course.

GOG starts the week with a new Action Promo , with games up to 95% off during the enxt 10 days: https://www.gog.com/es/promo/20260713_action_promo

Steam has new deals and sales/events:

• Smash Hit Museum will have a 45% discount until the 19th of July: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4182480/Smash_Hit_Museum/
• Dark Deity 2 is going to be 40% off until July 23 (the first one is also on sale, 85% off): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2446600/Dark_Deity_2/
• Viewfinder gets a 65% discount that will last until the 26th of July: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382070/Viewfinder/
• The thos with kids or young cousins, PAW Patrol World will be 80% off until July 26: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1952520/PAW_Patrol_World/
• And these are the sales/events:
  • Let Freedom Ring Jubilee! features games about American/World History and fights for freedom. There are upcoming releases, some demos and games up to 92% off. The length of the deals vary: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45763990/sale/LetFreedomRingJubilee2026
  • Games Made in Sweden Sale 2026 features upcoming titles, demos and games with up to 95% discounts. Most, but not all deals seem to end on July 26: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/GamesMadeInSweden2026
  • Tate Media Summer Sale is very strange, because almost no game is on sale, but the bundles are. Maybe check those out?: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33222867/sale/publishersale2026
  • The Warframe’s Tennocon 2026 page features the announcements made during the even, but there are no deals: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/tennocon2026

Huumble Bundle has a couple of new collections for us:

• Squad Goals has 11 items (10 games + 1 coupon) and will last 18 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/squad-goals
• Narrative Bundle 12 for $10 Bundle has 12 games and will last 18 days (and it also cost more than that in Euros): https://www.humblebundle.com/games/narrative-12-for-10-bundle

And last, but not least, there’s Fanatical, that has launched its All Star Bundleweek, among other things:

• The new Star Deal is Frog Sqwad , 40% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/frog-sqwad
• Publisher Plug in Digital puts its games on sale with up to 91% discounts during the next 13 days (tho some deals will last less than that): https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/plug-in-digital
• The All Star Bundleweek brings two bundles today:
  • NeuroVoider - Deluxe Edition , with the game and DLC on bundled with a 15% discount during 13 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/neurovoider-deluxe-edition
  • BYO Best of Killer Bundle , with 24 games for your 5+, 10+ or 20+ game bundles during 34 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-best-of-killer-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam has raked in an estimated $11.1 billion gross revenue so far this year, says market analyst—its 'biggest-ever six months'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/steam-has-raked-in-an-estimated-usd11-1-billion-gross-revenue-so-far-this-year-says-market-analyst-its-biggest-ever-six-months/
It's easy to feel like the videogame industry is an endless tornado of shattered dreams and hellfire, and that's because it is. But it also brings in a lot of money, and our beloved PC gaming space in particular is growing faster than both mobile and console markets. Thursday, a report from Alinea Analytics said Steam is just exiting its biggest six months ever.
"In the first half of 2026, we estimate that games on Steam generated $11.1B in gross revenue, the platform’s highest-ever half-year," wrote Rhys Elliott, Alinea's head of market analysis. "That’s up 14.5% on H1 2025, and up 8% even on the holiday-heavy H2 2025, which is the more remarkable comparison given the back half of the year usually wins on seasonal sales and holiday buys."
The full blog highlights some of the biggest reasons for all this growth: new games are more expensive, friendslop megahits like Meccha Chameleon rake in mountains of cash before you can blink, and third parties like Ubisoft are back on Steam after they tried and failed to escape Gabe's dread labyrinth to play ball with Steam's lessers.
The full list of causes and takeaways is in the blog, but this all follows a very long upward trend: as the report states, Steam's yearly revenue has gone from $5.5 billion in 2017 to roughly $20 billion in 2025. A growing percentage of all those sales is from old games, too: so far, "just 21%" of Steam's 2026 revenue has come from games that released this year, down from 29% in 2024.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

PS5 Emulator SharpEmu Can Now Boot Demon’s Souls Remake
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ps5-emulator-sharpemu-can-now-boot-demons-souls-remake/
SharpEmu is a new PlayStation 5 emulator currently in its early stages of development. Right now, the emulator can load the eboot.bin of real games, execute native CPU instructions, and partially handle kernel-related functionality. And one of the games it can load is Demon’s Souls Remake.
Now, while this is really impressive, there is still a lot of work left to be done. As its team has stated, several critical components are still missing.
According to its GitHub page, SharpEmu can now load some games and read basic game information, such as the title and version.
The emulator also supports loading system modules (PRX and sys_module) and includes partial support for some kernel functions. In addition, some games can already display video output.
Right now, SharpEmu is designed mainly for Windows. Support for Linux and macOS is planned for the future. For now, the developers are focusing on Windows to make early development and debugging easier.
The PS5 game that can output a real render is Dreaming Sarah. As for Demon’s Souls Remake, SharpEmu is now video loop. Shaders are ready to be converted to SPIR-V/Vulkan. As such, the team is continuing its work on this so that it can further improve overall emulation.
As I said, this PlayStation 5 emulator is in a very early development stage. So, don’t expect to be playing all the PS5 games that have not come out on PC anytime soon. Still, the fact that it can load Demon’s Souls is already impressive. So, who knows? We might be able to play Marvel’s Wolverine or Intergalactic on PC via SharpEmu in a few years.
Those interested can download this PS5 emulator from here and experiment with it.
>> It begins… and there’s a three minutes video to show it.

Grand Theft Auto 4 RTX Remix Path Tracing V1.4.0 Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/grand-theft-auto-4-rtx-remix-path-tracing-v1-4-0-released/
Modder ‘xoxor4d’ has released Update 1.4.0 of his amazing RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod for Grand Theft Auto 4. So, let’s see what this new version brings to the table.
Update 1.4.0 fully integrates the Numos – Atmospheric Sky System to the game. Players can enable it via the F4 menu. For those who don’t know, Numos is a special version that incorporates a physical atmosphere, volumetric clouds, and a new weather system. This version can change the game’s art style. The good news is that this is optional. So, if you don’t like the visual changes it makes, you can stick to the original version.
Moreover, Update 1.4.0 features the latest Remix Runtime, which should help with the CPU Bottleneck. As such, the game should now run a bit faster on your PC. Still, this latest version does not fully fix the CPU optimization issues.
Version 1.4.0 also improves the game’s lighting. The update increases the draw distance for roadside lights and makes volumetric lighting stronger. Emissive surfaces now use vertex colors by default. This lets building lights and other glowing surfaces display the correct color and brightness. The update also changes when lights turn on and off at night so they better match the game’s lighting system. On top of that, it includes several other lighting improvements.
And that’s not all. Thanks to the new Remix Runtime, raindrops will no longer stay on translucent surfaces after it stops raining. The New Remix Runtime fixes an issue where the sun/moon was rendered twice, and it fixes emissive lamp flickering. It also increases the precision of distant light (sun) rotation. As such, you’ll now have a smoother sun shadow movement.
You can go ahead and download the latest version of this RTX Remix Mod from here. I also recommend using the HD Texture Packs we’ve shared for it. You can download them from here, here, and here. At the end of the article, you can also find the complete changelog for Version 1.4.0.
>> Sadly, the article doesn’t have any media.

This Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Mod Removes the Yellow Color Filter for More Natural Graphics
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-assassins-creed-black-flag-resynced-mod-removes-the-yellow-color-filter-for-more-natural-graphics/
Modder ‘Blu’ has released a Reshade Mod that will remove the yellow color filter from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. As such, PC gamers can experience this AC remake with more natural colors.
(...)
Anyway, those interested can go ahead and download the mod from this link. To install it, you’ll need the latest version of Reshade. According to the modder, only Prod80’s shaders are required to run it.
>> It’s like the Mexican filter used in movies. Anyway, the article has a couple of comparison screenshots.

Palworld 1.0 Mod Enables Ray-Traced Lumen Global Illumination, Dynamic Shadows, Better Draw Distance
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/palworld-1-0-mod-enables-ray-traced-lumen-global-illumination-dynamic-shadows-better-draw-distance/
Modder ‘Fr4nsson’ has released a must-have mod for everyone who plays the final retail version of Palworld. This mod enables ray-traced lumen global illumination, lumen reflections, dynamic shadows, and more. So, let’s take a closer look at it.
This Ultra Graphics Mod for Palworld combines Unreal Engine configuration changes with a UE4SS Lua script that enhances selected in-game light sources. Sunlight, torches, wall-mounted lights, and similar sources produce stronger indirect illumination, improved shadows, and more noticeable lighting in their surroundings.
As I said, the mod enables ray-traced Lumen global illumination. It also allows multiple light sources to cast dynamic shadows (however, as of this moment, not all of them cast shadows).
Furthermore, the mod increases distance-field shadow range from 25,000 to 250,000. It also increases the World Partition default loading range, as well as the overall view distance.
Do note that this mod comes with a pretty big performance hit, though. An AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and 64GB of RAM can run the vanilla game with 152FPS at 4K/Max Settings. With this mod, we get down to 142FPS. And then, with the Engine.ini changes, we get to 92FPS. That’s a 40% performance hit. So, use it only if you have a high-end gaming PC system.
You can go ahead and download the mod from here. You’ll also need UE4SS (you can find a download link for its latest version on its NexusMods page).
>> The article has the instructions to install the mod and edit the .ini file, as well as some comparison screenshots.

Fallout 4 Gets a New Quest Mod With a Dungeon, Armor, and Player Home
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/fallout-4-gets-a-new-quest-mod-with-a-dungeon-armor-and-player-home/
Modding for Charity has released a new quest mod for Fallout 4, featuring voices from Wes Johnson, Jan Johns, and Leer Leary. This new quest is written by Sirick, the lead writer of Sim Settlements 2, and Pig from the Commonwealth Story Expansion Project, and is almost one hour long. So, let’s take a closer look at it.
Modding for Charity has created this mod almost entirely in one weekend for charity. The mod introduces a new dungeon to explore. As a reward, you get access to a player home by Elianora, a new weapon by Neeher, a new piece of power armor from Niero, and Captain-Ultima. Not only that, but you’ll be joined by a brand new companion.
To start the quest, you’ll have to travel to Cambridge and head to the Raider camp near CIT. Then, look for a “damaged Protectron” calling for help. As soon as you get close, the quest should begin.
You can go ahead and download the mod from this link.
>> I may have shared this same mod from a PCGamer article, but I’m not sure. This article has a one hour long video.

A piece of GTA modding history that was considered lost has been rebuilt from scratch and fixed 22 years later
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/a-piece-of-gta-modding-history-that-was-considered-lost-has-been-rebuilt-from-scratch-and-fixed-22-years-later/
Grand Theft Auto 3's Ghost City was my first proper experience of community discovery.
I was too young to fully appreciate game-breaking in the likes of Super Mario and Alex Kidd, so the idea of flying the clipped-wing Dodo aircraft from the runway of Frances International Airport at a very specific angle in order to break the 3D map and wind up in an otherwise inaccessible area—the section which housed the game's opening bank robbery cutscene, floating well beyond the playable map—blew my teenage mind.
In 2004, modder Eliano86 built a bridge that allowed players to more formally access the area with less of the faff, however the project's original hosting platform (gta-downloads.com) has long since disappeared from the interwebs. Now, hobbyist creator Mod_Saver has resurrected that project well over two decades down the line. Enter Ghost City Available.
"For over a decade, this specific alternative bridge mod was considered 'Lost Media'," says Mod_Saver. "The original hosting platform went completely offline, and the original link was dead forever. Even the Wayback Machine couldn't recover the downloadable files. This mod was gone.
"Instead of letting it fade into history, I decided to fully recreate and resurrect it from scratch based on an old 2012 video (GTA 3 - Tips & Tricks - How to Reach Ghost Town by GTA Series Videos) footage. But I didn't just clone it: I fixed its biggest flaw. The original 2004 mod was strictly visual (you would fall straight through the Ghost Town floor). 22 years later, I have finally built the missing collision files (.col) to make the entire island solid and fully playable for the very first time."
Which is pretty beautiful, truth be told. I'm a sucker for game preservation, for unearthing secrets and for the passion that drives each and every hobbyist endeavour—in this case in relation to a game now 25 years old and an OG mod just a few years younger.
>> The article only has one screenshot.

GAMING NEWS

The Sinking City 2 Gets Final PC System Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-sinking-city-2-gets-final-pc-system-requirements/
Frogwares has revealed the final PC system requirements for The Sinking City 2. The game will be using Unreal Engine 5, so let’s see what PC system you’ll need to run it.
The reason I’m calling them final is because Frogwares previously shared some PC specs for the game’s demo, which came out in June 2026. Compared to them, there are a couple of changes. So, let’s dive in.