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

[JEMC]

We've made it to the Friday news! All in one long post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The top-selling game on Steam right now is a new 254-player FPS made by 4 people
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-top-selling-game-on-steam-right-now-is-a-new-254-player-fps-made-by-4-people/
There's a good chance you've never heard of the game that's currently blowing up the Steam charts. BattleBit Remastered, released in early access today, is a 254-player FPS that looks like Roblox but plays like Battlefield. At just $15, currently the best-selling paid game on Steam, sitting right behind CS:GO on the global top seller list. Unsurprisingly, it's also in the top ten most-played games right now.
BattleBit's top spot is impressive given its low price and the fact that Steam ranks top sellers by revenue, not copies sold. That means BattleBit is currently making more money than Warzone 2, Starfield, PUBG, and the Steam Deck. Not bad for the four-person team at OkiGames, who's been working on BattleBit in various forms for seven years.
After playing an hour of BattleBit, it's easy to see why it's an instant success. It's a remarkably fun little FPS that's a lot deeper than it looks. It's got the scale, vehicles, and destruction of a modern Battlefield game, but a lot of milsim qualities from Squad are in there too: proximity chat, buildable defensive structures, bleeds that have to be bandaged, and medic class who has the exclusive ability to heal players. It's very accessible to just hop in and play, but harder core than most multiplayer shooters.

GOG has a new DotD and a Giveaway:

• The new GIVEAWAY: Sigma Theory: Global Cold War will be free during the next 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/sigma_theory_global_cold_war
• The Deal of the Day is Mahokenshi, 25% off until Monday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/mahokenshi

Steam has several new deals:

• Astro Colony, in Early Access, will be 25% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1614550/Astro_Colony/
• 11bit Studios puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts until the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/11bit2023
• Total Tank Generals, that has a demo, is going to be 30% off until June 22: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1770050/Total_Tank_Generals/
• Sony's Spiderman games are going to be 33% off until next Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/SpidermanFranchiseSale
• The House Flipper franchise is on sale, up to 70% off until Thursday, 22nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/houseflipper
• Teardown gets a 25% discount until June, 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167630/Teardown/
• Klei Entertainment puts its games on sale featuring up to 75% discounts until the 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/kleifest2023
• The last one is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Extraction, that has a demo, with a 75% discount until the 12th of July: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379390/Tom_Clancys_Rainbow_Six_Extraction/

And Fanatical has a new Star Deal and a sale:

• The new Star Deal is Space Engineers, 55% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/space-engineers
• And publisher Slitherine puts its games on sale with up to 84% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/slitherine-ltd

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Returnal gets a pretty cool Overwatch 2 Tracer Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/returnal-gets-a-pretty-cool-overwatch-2-tracer-mod/
Now here is something really cool. Modder ‘User619’ has released a mod that replaces Returnal’s main protagonist with Tracer from Overwatch 2.
Now as you may have guessed, this is only a character swap mod. In other words, it does not bring any of Tracer’s weapons to the game. That wouldn’t make sense as Returnal relies heavily on its weapons and upgrade system.
Ironically, though, this Overwatch 2 Tracer Mod looks pretty great. I mean, a lot of people have complained about the looks of the main protagonist. And now, you can get a sweet anime girl with a big ass. Sounds like a win, right?
>> There's a twelve minutes video of the mod.

Red Dead Redemption 2 gets an unofficial New Game+ Mode
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/red-dead-redemption-2-gets-an-unofficial-new-game-mode/
Modder ‘sezzco’ has released an interesting new mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 that adds to it an unofficial New Game+ Mode. This is a must-have mod for those that have already finished the game and want to replay it.
The modder has basically created a Save File with everything done except story side missions, legendary animals/fish and two treasure maps.
>> There are no screenshots nor videos.

The Witcher 3 Next-Gen gets 8K Mods for Geralt & Yennefer
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-witcher-3-next-gen-gets-8k-mods-for-geralt-yennefer/
Modder ‘Instanity’ has released two 8K Texture Packs for The Witcher 3 Next-Gen that overhaul Geralt and Yennefer. As the title suggests, these mods bring 8K textures to these two characters by using AI techniques.
>> The article has some screenshots.

Morrowind mod 'Feminist Nerevarine' lets you side with women more often
https://www.pcgamer.com/morrowind-mod-feminist-nerevarine/
Morrowind is one of the most-modded roleplaying games of all time, and a lot of those mods focus on big sweeping changes like overhauling UI and adding new locations, or rebuilding the whole dang thing, or delightful-yet-absurd technical upgrades like adding footprints.
Others, meanwhile, make smaller tweaks. That's the case with the Feminist Nerevarine mod from AliceL93. The title is a little overblown—it doesn't rewrite Morrowind as a feminist parable—but by changing a few quest options, it highlights the number of times Morrowind didn't give us the option to take a woman's side in a dispute, or even just be polite.
"In some Morrowind quests where there was a conflict between a man and a woman, you didn't have the opportunity to side with the woman," writes AliceL93. "In other quests, a woman required something from you, and if you wanted to refuse it, the game forced you to do so in a rude manner. And there were also quests where a man overstepped the boundaries of a woman, and you didn't have the opportunity to refuse helping him."
>> There are no screenshots nor videos.

GAMING NEWS

Payday 3 dev diary details all the sociopathic stuff you can do with hostages
https://www.pcgamer.com/payday-3-dev-diary-details-all-the-sociopathic-stuff-you-can-do-with-hostages/
Last week's Xbox Games Showcase had the first reveal of the much-anticipated Payday 3, and perhaps the biggest surprise is how restrained Starbreeze has been in making the sequel. The studio clearly understands it has a formula that works, one that has attracted a large and loyal fanbase, and so Payday 3 doesn't take the series open-world or make any massive changes to the formula: instead it looks to be about refining the heists, and enhancing the elements of the game that give it such an exciting rhythm.

Nurture tiny sociopaths in Crusader Kings 3's next event pack this August
https://www.pcgamer.com/nurture-tiny-sociopaths-in-crusader-kings-3s-next-event-pack-this-august/
Terrifying little goblins are in the spotlight in Crusader Kings 3's upcoming event pack. I am of course talking about children, the most horrible monsters of all. No, I have not forgiven my nephew for attacking me with a lightsaber. Chosen by the community, the Wards & Wardens pack hones in on the "perils and potentials of being a child ruler", as well as educating the little blighters and continuing that education into adulthood.

Not the tease! Nicolas Cage may be in a Hideo Kojima game
https://www.pcgamer.com/not-the-tease-looks-like-nicolas-cage-may-be-in-a-hideo-kojima-game/
Hollywood maniac-in-chief Nicolas Cage is, it appears, getting into games in a big way. Last month brought the news that Nicolas Cage would play Nicolas Cage starring as Nicolas Cage in Dead by Daylight later this year, which was swiftly followed by a scene-stealing cameo at Summer Games Fest where Cage very sincerely told players that "I want you to know when you're playing the Nic Cage survivor, I want you to know that we're one, that we're fused".
Yuh huh. Well, a certain game director slash movie buff has clearly been watching all this with interest, and he wants a piece of the action. Hideo Kojima is a longtime fan of the actor and yesterday welcomed Cage to Kojima Productions.
>> I doubt this will go anywhere.

Todd Howard says Starfield's 1000+ planets won't be all boring procgen globes and contain more handcrafted work 'than Skyrim and Fallout 4 combined'
https://www.pcgamer.com/todd-howard-says-starfields-1000-planets-wont-be-all-boring-procgen-globes-and-contain-more-handcrafted-work-than-skyrim-and-fallout-4-combined/
Todd Howard, creative overlord of upcoming space-based sandwich-theft sim Starfield, sat down with IGN in the aftermath of last Sunday's Starfield Direct to chat about the game ahead of its September 6 release date. The key takeaway? Space is still big in Starfield, but it's not entirely down to procedural generation.

New Valheim update brings world modifiers, creative mode, and finally lets you see your hair with a helmet on
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-valheim-update-brings-world-modifiers-creative-mode-and-finally-lets-you-see-your-hair-with-a-helmet-on/
Valheim's latest update has just hit the public test server, which means it'll be released for all very soon, and introduces the long-promised world modifiers that will allow players to tweak the experience to exactly the atmosphere they're looking for. As well as this, it adds a new quest-giving NPC, new locations, new hair and beard styles (very important in a viking game), and excellent-looking manual snapping when building.

Wave goodbye to yet another Diablo 4 power levelling trick as Blizzard releases a World Tier-focused hotfix
https://www.pcgamer.com/wave-goodbye-to-yet-another-diablo-4-power-levelling-trick-as-blizzard-releases-a-world-tier-focused-hotfix/
I'm starting to think that Blizzard really isn't keen on all your Diablo 4 power levelling techniques, guys. The company is fresh off of a hotfix that completely defanged the game's juiciest, most XP-laden dungeons to stop you all from running them over and over, but that wasn't enough. Now Blizzard's gone and patched out a trick that would let low-level players reap the benefits of World Tiers they hadn't unlocked yet.

And that's it for the week. Until the next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.