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JEMC on 23 February 2024
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Let's make the Friday news, shall we?

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Last Epoch director admits his optimistic launch expectations 'aged like milk' as its servers struggle under the weight of 160K players
https://www.pcgamer.com/last-epoch-director-admits-his-optimistic-launch-expectations-aged-like-milk-as-its-servers-struggle-under-the-weight-of-160k-players/
Server issues continue to plague Diablo-like action RPG Last Epoch a day after its full release on Steam, but its offline mode seems to have kept many players fed.
Last Epoch had its full 1.0 release yesterday and immediately started suffering from its success. "Within 20 minutes of launch 150,000 people had joined us," game director and founder of Eleventh Hour Games Judd Cobler wrote on Reddit yesterday. "This did mean that all of our scale testing efforts were immediately put to the test, and unfortunately a service failed in a way that we didn’t suspect, and we immediately went to work to investigate and resolve it."

Palworld has achieved more players in 2 months than Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy managed in a year
https://www.pcgamer.com/palworld-has-achieved-more-players-in-2-months-than-elden-ring-and-hogwarts-legacy-managed-in-a-year/
Just one month after launch, Pocketpair says Palworld (or, as we've called it, "the Pokémon this sinful world deserves") has now surpassed 25 million players across Steam and Xbox.
(...)
To put that number in perspective, Hogwarts Legacy—one of the biggest games of 2023—took roughly three months to achieve 15 million sales across all platforms, a number that eventually grew to 22 million by the end of 2023, while Elden Ring—one of the biggest games of 2022—moved more than 20 million copies in just under a year. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison and the math is admittedly rough, but it really illustrates that Palworld is absolutely massive by any measure.
>> And let's not forget that it's still in Early Access.

'We love you, we hate money': Ultrakill and Gloomwood developer New Blood is offering discounts on all its games (and some body pillows) for its 10 year anniversary
https://www.pcgamer.com/we-love-you-we-hate-money-ultrakill-and-gloomwood-developer-new-blood-is-offering-discounts-on-all-its-games-and-some-body-pillows-for-its-10-year-anniversary/
New Blood is getting pretty old, huh? The developer (which is behind several indie hits of the past decade) is having a 10 year anniversary sale to celebrate the occasion, aptly titled "We love you, we hate money".
As announced on the studio's Twitter yesterday, New Blood is offering discounts on its catalogue of games—which includes frenetic first-person shooter Ultrakill, slightly-less-frenetic first-person stealth game Gloomwood, and Faith: A haunting little pixelated horror title with a game-over sound that's been burned into my brain by sheer meme osmosis, despite never having played it.
>> You'll find the rest of the Steam deals at the end of the news, like every Friday.

The Humble Store has three new sales:

Fanatical has three new deals:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II Remastered 3.3 Mod Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/star-wars-jedi-knight-dark-forces-ii-remastered-3-3-mod-released/
Modder ‘GeneralTantor’ has released a new version of the Remastered Mod for Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. Among other things, Version 3.3 adds the HD textures we shared a while ago.
As we’ve reported, vurt’s HD Texture Pack added 720 new textures for the game, basically overhauling almost the entire game. And now, we can enjoy these HD textures in the Remastered Mod. This is great news for everyone who wants to replay this classic Star Wars FPS game.
Jedi Knight Remastered 3.3 also has a new HD 3D model for Kyle. Not only that but it introduces HD textures for switches. Oh, and it will also update OpenJKDF2 to version 0.9.1.
>> The article has some screenshots and a 40 minutes video.

You Won’t Believe How Insanely Good Cyberpunk 2077 Looks With This “Unrecord” Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/cyberpunk-2077-unrecord-mod/
YouTube’s ‘NextGen Dreams’ has shared a video, showcasing Cyberpunk 2077 with a Reshade Mod that is heavily inspired by the upcoming Unreal Engine 5-powered game, Unrecord. And, as you will see, Cyberpunk 2077 can look like a next-gen game. Hell, this could be the most photorealistic gameplay footage we’ve seen to date.
To make CP2077 look this good, NextGen Dreams used their own Unrecord Bodycam Reshade Mod, alongside Nova LUT and Cyberpunk 2077 HD Reworked Project. They have also used the Immersive First Person and Unlocked FOV Mods. Moreover, they’ve removed all the HUD elements in order to provide a more realistic look.
The end result is truly spectacular. This is what you’d expect to see in a next-gen console PS6 or Xbox Next game. Yet here we are on PC enjoying this kind of graphics, today. And, to be honest, I’ll be really impressed if the next-gen consoles manage to provide this kind of graphics.
You see, NextGen Dreams used an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 to run the game. That was with Path Tracing and with DLSS 3.5 Frame Generation. So, to make CP2077 look this good, you’ll need a top-of-the-line PC system. Still, the results speak for themselves.
>> I think he's exaggerating, but it does look very good.

GAMING NEWS

Karlach teams up with Baldur's Gate 3's sex noise man to raise money for a good cause: SpecialEffect, which helps create kit and software for physically disabled gamers
https://www.pcgamer.com/karlach-teams-up-with-baldurs-gate-3s-sex-noise-man-to-raise-money-for-a-good-cause-specialeffect-which-helps-create-kit-and-software-for-physically-disabled-gamers/
As announced earlier this month, SpecialEffect—a charity we're proud to have teamed up with before—is running a special stream to help raise money for physically disabled gamers.
Samantha Béart is the voice of Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3, an exceptional talent who lent their voice to a beloved big tiefling lady (who just so happens to be our favourite to date). Then there's Alex Jordan, a storied voice actor in his own right who, uh, also made all the sex noises in Larian's groundbreaking RPG. Béart announced a concrete time for the event on Twitter today—and the whole video's definitely worth a watch.

Riot's Project L fighting game finally gets a proper title, will hopefully be out sometime in 2025
https://www.pcgamer.com/riots-project-l-fighting-game-finally-gets-a-proper-title-will-hopefully-be-out-sometime-in-2025/
More than four years after it was first announced to the world, Riot's League of Legends fighting game (previously known as Project L) has a proper title. It's called 2XKO, and Riot aims to have it out in 2025.
>> And it looks like nobody likes the name.

Old School RuneScape players revolt after new big money owners say bots are fine, actually, devs furiously walk it back and say they banned 7 million bots last year
https://www.pcgamer.com/old-school-runescape-players-revolt-after-new-big-money-owners-say-bots-are-fine-actually-devs-furiously-walk-it-back-and-say-they-banned-7-million-bots-last-year/
Old School RuneScape developer Jagex is trying to quell player discontent after a strongly negative reaction to comments about the proliferation of bot accounts seemingly made by the company's new owner: CVC Capital Partners.
CVC bought Jagex earlier this month for £900 million, a splashy acquisition that, naturally, caught the eye of the Financial Times. A source close to CVC told the paper that "bots are part of the RuneScape ecosystem, they just are," and went on to say that the goal was "a sort of equilibrium of players and bots" in the game. "If a player is sufficiently committed to pay for three accounts, and have an account and two bots as part of its ecosystem, then so be it," said the FT's source.
>> More money is good, no matter where it comes from. That's what investment business think, right?

I didn't have System Shock Pinball on my 2024 list but I'll take it
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-didnt-have-system-shock-pinball-on-my-2024-list-but-ill-take-it/
Zen Studios will not be a familiar name unless you're a fan of videogame pinball, but if you are then you know that this lot are the best. The studio specialises in pinball games and has made countless digital tables over the years, and I simply could not tell you how much hard-earned money I've spent on their themed tables in Zen Pinball and its sequel: worth it every time.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I was very surprised by the announcement of System Shock Pinball but, as soon as I saw it was Zen alongside Nightdive (developer of the recent and excellent remake) I knew it was in very good hands indeed.

Paragon can't catch a break: Less than two years after being brought back to life, it's closing again
https://www.pcgamer.com/paragon-cant-catch-a-break-less-than-two-years-after-being-brought-back-to-life-its-closing-again/
Paragon: The Overprime, the game that launched from the rubble of Epic's ill-fated MOBA Paragon, has suffered the same fate as its predecessor. Developer Netmarble announced today that the game will be shuttered for good in April.

Solo survival players, rejoice: Nightingale is 'prioritizing and developing an offline mode'
https://www.pcgamer.com/solo-survival-players-rejoice-nightingale-is-prioritizing-and-developing-an-offline-mode/
Survival game Nightingale launched into early access this week and the gaslamp fantasy is enjoying a strong start thanks to a rewarding tutorial, lots of interesting worldbuilding and RPG trappings, and a novel realm-creation system.
Unfortunately it's stumbled a bit when it comes to technical problems, which appear to be the main reason its Steam reviews are currently mixed. There's also another big issue for a lot of players (myself included), and it's one we've seen plenty of times in the past: Even when you're playing Nightingale solo, you have to play online.
(...)
Developer Inflexion Games has heard the anguished cries of solo players everywhere, and today announced there are plans to add offline play. Yay! Wait, how did they say "yay" in the Victorian era? Ticketyboo?

Yes, Team Fortress 2 players recently did a big trade involving an IRL dog and, no, they're not monsters and it's quite above-board and sweet actually
https://www.pcgamer.com/yes-team-fortress-2-players-recently-did-a-big-trade-involving-an-irl-dog-and-no-theyre-not-monsters-and-its-quite-above-board-and-sweet-actually/
You know how sometimes you read an online post, in this case a semi-viral tweet relating to a Team Fortress 2 trade, think "hell no that didn't happen", then read it again? I've seen some corkers in my time but get a load of this:
"Allegedly a TF2 trade occurred that included a family dog as part of the trade," says X user SirDapper. "The LIVING dog was valued at 450 keys, about $740. They traded their 'best friend of 10 years' away for some burning pixels. You cannot make this stuff up."
>> I'd advise to read the article before jumping to conclusions.

Larian is working on official mod support for Baldur's Gate 3 and it'll be cross-platform: 'We love our modding community and we want to support them'
https://www.pcgamer.com/larian-is-working-on-official-mod-support-for-baldurs-gate-3-and-itll-be-cross-platform-we-love-our-modding-community-and-we-want-to-support-them/
One of the best things about Baldur's Gate 3 are the mods. Another great thing is Larian's diligent pace of major updates and smaller hotfixes. But they unfortunately sometimes come into conflict: Larian releases a patch, some internal bits and bobs are changed, and suddenly blammo, a whole bunch of mods stop working. But hopefully that will soon be a thing of the past.
Baldur's Gate 3 patch 6—the smoochie one—arrived last week, and better lip-locks notwithstanding, there were problems. Players reported lockups, crashes, and glitches of various sorts, and a lot of mods were apparently left broken, too.
Larian's rolled out a couple hotfixes since then to smooth things out, and with the release of the latest one earlier today, Michael Dowse, the studio's director of publishing, revealed that new and improved mod support is on the way—and it'll be cross-platform, too.

Sons of the Forest 1.0 launches with creative mode, a new ending, and an answer to one of the game's biggest mysteries
https://www.pcgamer.com/sons-of-the-forest-10-launches-with-creative-mode-a-new-ending-and-an-answer-to-one-of-the-games-biggest-mysteries/
It's another busy week for survival games. Nightingale entered early access on Tuesday, survival driving game Pacific Drive launched today, and last year's survival horror smash Sons of the Forest is back because it just hit version 1.0.
Yep. After a year in early access, you can now grab your loyal buddy Kelvin and jump back in to play the full release of Sons of the Forest. If you're wondering what's new in the 1.0 version of the terrifying survival game… well, there's kind of a lot.

Helldivers 2 maximum player cap has been increased, but Arrowhead still expects queues
https://www.pcgamer.com/helldivers-2-maximum-player-cap-has-been-increased-but-arrowhead-still-expects-queues/
For those of us planning to spend the weekend spreading (managed) democracy in Helldivers 2, there's a looming threat the game's buckling servers won't allow it. Earlier this week, Arrowhead Studios capped the CCU (concurrent users) at 450,000 in the name of stability, which basically means that if that cap is reached—and it almost always is —you'll need to wait in queue.
There's a silver lining: Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has confirmed on X that as of now, the max CCU cap has been raised from 450,000 to 700,000. "Unfortunately, we expect the CCU to reach that level," Pilestedt added, though "we believe that the wait times will be much more bearable."
>> He also made another tweet about login issues that then deleted.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.