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JEMC on 23 June 2025
Edit Thread

It’s Monday and these are the gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Rematch surpasses 1 million players in its first day of full release
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/rematch-surpasses-1-million-players-in-its-first-day-of-full-release/
Sloclap's 5v5 soccer game Rematch came out strong yesterday, racking up nearly 93,000 concurrent players on Steam alone—impressive by any measure, and particularly so for a Thursday afternoon. Today the studio put an even bigger number on the scoreboard, saying Rematch pulled in a million players in its first day of full release.
"One million unique players in 24 hours," Sloclap wrote on X. "Seeing so many of you jump into Rematch on day one is incredible.
"The whole team is super grateful! And already hard at work on fixing and improving the game. We are just getting started."
That isn't straight-up sales, to be clear: Rematch is available on Game Pass, and a large number of those players could be coming from that direction. Even so, it's putting up strong numbers on Steam as well: More than 83,000 people are currently playing it there, according to SteamDB, and I would expect that number to climb even higher over the weekend.
>> Thanks to the joys of time travelling (or posting an article from Friday on a Monday if you’re that boring), I can tell you that yes, the numbers went up, but not by much.

Sega just accidentally leaked its own sales numbers, and somehow Sonic Frontiers sold more than the last two mainline Yakuzas combined, but Persona 5's putting the rest of the stable to shame
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/sega-just-accidentally-leaked-its-own-sales-numbers-and-somehow-sonic-frontiers-sold-more-than-the-last-two-mainline-yakuzas-combined-but-persona-5s-putting-the-rest-of-the-stable-to-shame/
First reported by VGC, Sega Sammy Holdings⁠—Sega's delightfully-named parent company⁠—mistakenly uploaded sales numbers for 11 major games to a public page on the company website. ResetEra user --R uploaded the full table to the forum, allowing us to still peep those numbies after Sega took the original page down.
The original table charts earnings by fiscal year from 2020 to 2025, but for simplicity, here are the total units sold for each game across the entire span:
(***check the article for the list of games and units sold***)
The biggest surprise for me is how well Sonic games are selling to this day⁠—possibly helped a great deal by the movies⁠—as well as how slowly recent Yakuza/Like a Dragon games have sold by comparison. Sonic Frontiers moved almost as many units as Yakuza 7, Infinite Wealth, and The Man Who Erased His Name combined.

Steam has three new deals and a sale:

Humble has three new deals:

Fanatical has a new Star Deal, a bundle and, I think, 3 new sales:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-For rent-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

After 10 years of development, the emulator that lets you play NES games in full 3D has been fully released
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/after-10-years-of-development-the-emulator-that-lets-you-play-nes-games-in-full-3d-has-been-fully-released/
3dSen, the amazing emulator that lets you play all the NES games in full 3D, has left Early Access and has been fully released. Created by a single dev over 10 years, this is a must for all NES fans. This will let you re-experience your favourite NES games in a new way. So, don’t sleep on it.
3dSen started with a simple idea. What if you could play classic NES games, not just emulated, but reimagined, rebuilt, and experienced in full 3D? Not just parallax or just layers. But true 3D environments. And now, after ten years of hard work, this emulator has reached Version 1.0.
Right now, 3dSen has 100 NES game profiles. It does not support the entire NES library. Still, you can find profiles for almost all of the NES classics. In other words, Punch Out, Zelda, Ninja Gaiden, Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Contra, Metroid, and more are supported.
3dSen comes with real-time lighting and shadows. The emulator adds depth and drama to every scene with dynamic visuals. Not only that, but it packs animated skyboxes, making every level feel alive with immersive skies and backgrounds. It also has custom camera controls. Players can zoom, rotate, and frame the action just the way they like.
And that’s not all. Its creator has implemented a couple of cool QoL improvements. For instance, you can quick save and load anytime and anywhere. There are also rollback and fast-forward mechanics. Plus, there is support for VR.
I cannot stress enough how amazing this emulator is. And, to be honest, I’d love to see a similar emulator for the 16-bit consoles. Just imagine a similar emulator for SNES or Genesis. Now that would be mind-blowing.
3dSen comes with a 40% discount until June 26th. So, if you are a die-hard NES fan, I suggest checking it out. Below, you can also find its latest trailer. Be sure to watch it as it highlights all of its features.
>> Yes, the emulator costs money and you can find it… on Steam?! The article has a link to the Steam page.

An unofficial PC port of Mario Kart 64 is now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/an-unofficial-pc-port-of-mario-kart-64-is-now-available-for-download/
Earlier today, we shared that the NES emulator, 3dSen, has been fully released. And now, there’s even more good news for our Nintendo fans. A fan-made PC version of the classic Mario Kart 64 has just come out, and you can download it right now.
Titled SpaghettiKart, this PC port is the result of reverse engineering the entire Mario Kart 64 game. What’s crucial here is that SpaghettiKart has clean code. This means that it does not borrow any code line from the original N64 game. As such, the devs can release it to the public (and Nintendo cannot do anything at all to stop it).
Do note that this unofficial PC port of Mario 64 does not feature any game assets. This means that you’ll have to generate the O2R from the ROM yourselves. Right now, SpaghettiKart supports only the US ROM of Mario Kart 64.
In short, this project is similar to the unofficial PC ports of Super Mario 64, Crash Team Racing, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Perfect Dark, Jak & Daxter and Sonic Unleashed.
Right now, it’s not clear if SpaghettiKart works with Mario Kart 64 HD. Mario Kart 64 HD is a mod that adds high-quality textures and updates the characters so they look like the early 3D versions. It makes the game feel like a remaster and is one of the best ways to play Mario Kart 64 on PC. Until SpaghettiKart gets more mods or features, it’s better to stick with Mario Kart 64 HD.
>> The article has a 3 minutes video.

No, the Xenia team is NOT working with Microsoft on an official Xbox emulator for PC, Game Pass and xCloud
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/no-the-xenia-team-is-not-working-with-microsoft-on-an-official-xbox-emulator-for-pc-game-pass-and-xcloud/
A few days ago, a rumor surfaced, suggesting that the XBOX and XENIA CANARY emulator team were working with Microsoft to make an official Xbox and Xbox 360 emulator. But the Xenia team has now debunked this. No. They are not working with Microsoft on any project.
The Xenia team said they are not working with Microsoft at all. Microsoft already uses its own emulators to make older games work on Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles. So even if Microsoft wanted to bring those games to PC, they wouldn’t need help from Xenia. Or at least what the Xenia team claims.
And that is that. This is coming straight from the horse’s mouth. The official response is that the Xenia team is not working with MS for any Xbox emulator.

Project Brutality V0.3.1 for Classic Doom Is Available for Download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/project-brutality-v0-3-1-for-classic-doom-is-available-for-download/
Doom fans, here is something for you today. The Project Brutality Dev Team has released a new version of its mod, Project Brutality, that you can download right now.
Project Brutality is a fast and intense mod that makes classic Doom even more exciting. It first started as a small add-on for Brutal Doom but has now become a full mod on its own. It includes custom artwork, cool animations, and new code made just for it.
Project Brutality is now ten years old and in order to celebrate its birthday, its modding team released a new version of it. Version 0.3.1 brings back some old features, and overhauls the gore effects.
The new gore system looks better and works more smoothly. Behind the scenes, most of the old parts were replaced with new ones, the graphics were improved, and bugs were fixed. The blood system is now very well-optimized, so it should run fine on most modern computers.
>> The article has an over 30 minutes video, but the link to the latest version of the project is missing.

Oblivion is a very funny game but the Skyblivion remake may not be, and you can blame the quality of Skyrim's 'streamlined' engine for that
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/oblivion-is-a-very-funny-game-but-the-skyblivion-remake-may-not-be-and-you-can-blame-the-quality-of-skyrims-streamlined-engine-for-that/
It might not be immediately apparent, what with its pompous music and brutal murder of Patrick Stewart, but The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is a very funny game. For some players, like PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens, it's a big part of the attraction, and the recent official remaster kept a lot of Oblivion's jank intact.
However, much of that comedic potential may be lost in Skyblivion, the upcoming fan-made remake of Oblivion in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, not because the developers are intentionally doing away with it, but simply due to the relentless march of progress.
"The problem there is that this remake of Oblivion takes place in a completely different engine," Skyblivion lead developer Rebelzize told Joshua in a recent interview. "Most of these bugs or funny features are very engine-specific. So for instance, lot of those funny clips from Oblivion stem from the game freezing when you're in a dialog with someone.
"With the assassination of Uriel Septim in the tutorial dungeon, Uriel will sometimes talk to you while the assassin has already appeared behind him, and he's like, 'Oh, I hope nothing bad will happen to me!' Like the guy is just staring [at him], breathing down his neck. It is hilarious."
A lot of those amusing moments are entirely unintentional, the result of bugs or jankiness in the Gamebryo engine that are unfortunately no longer present in Skyrim's Creation engine. That means the Skyblivion team would have to intentionally recreate those moments, and Rebelzize said doing so just isn't feasible.

'I don't particularly think the game will be very good': The fans trying to get a never-released Chinese Borderlands MMO working are doing something so absurd that I love them for it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/i-dont-particularly-think-the-game-will-be-very-good-the-fans-trying-to-get-a-never-released-chinese-borderlands-mmo-working-are-doing-something-so-absurd-i-love-them-for-it/
Back in 2014, an established Chinese game development studio called Shanda Interactive Entertainment started work on Borderlands Online, a Chinese-market-only MMO version of the two-games-deep Borderlands series. Gearbox was trying to get a jump on the growing Chinese PC gaming market, clearly, but the game didn't happen: It was cancelled in 2015 when Shanda left game development entirely. All that remains now are some screenshots and (rather weird) trailers.
Now, on a passionate whim, some fans have dug up an ancient build of the game from virus-infested defunct Chinese websites and are hard at work on making a playable version of the long lost Borderlands game. (Which they wouldn't have been able to play if it had been finished, because it wouldn't have been released outside of China.)
In an interview with Eurogamer, project leader EpicNNG explained why they went on their quixotic quest to bring back a 10 year old unreleased game that—by their own admission—probably isn't even very good.

Elden Ring Nightreign modders are already going ham with custom skins, including Optimus Prime, Stellar Blade's Eve, and my #1 most-wanted outfit from Dark Souls
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/elden-ring-nightreign-modders-are-already-going-ham-with-custom-skins-including-optimus-prime-stellar-blades-eve-and-my-1-most-wanted-outfit-from-dark-souls/
User Orange on YouTube caught my eye with a 12-minute showcase of some of the most impressive modded skins players have cranked out for Elden Ring Nightreign, which include characters from other franchises, as well as yet more Dark Souls throwbacks.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, they're effectively inaccessible. All the skin replacement mods I've seen are dependent on a tool called the UXM Selective Unpacker, and UXM's page has been set to hidden with the following message: "The mod has (possible) permission issues that the author is working to address."
But we can still admire the work modder KRDCD has put out, even if we can't use them. The real attention grabber is Nightreign Custom Model Replacers. This is the meme one: Eve from Stellar Blade, Optimus Prime, Yorha Unit 2B, all the stars are here. The only notable omission is CJ from San Andreas, but surely he is an inevitability.
Dark Souls Armor Sets is more my speed, importing even more Dark Souls models into Nightreign, similar to the skins we already got in the game. It even includes my personal most-wanted candidate for a future DLC skin: Sir Alonne from Dark Souls 2 as Executor.
This masked samurai is basically proto-Executor anyway, and I was honestly shocked he didn't make it into the base game already. I particularly appreciate how KRDCD's skin version uses Alonne's comically long-hilted nagamaki (bring this design back, FromSoft!), the Bewitched Alonne Sword, in place of Executor's usual cursed blade.
Once UXM is back up and these mods can be installed again, you'll want to use them with Yui's Seamless Co-op in order to avoid the Easy Anticheat Eye of Sauron⁠—Yui's mod has users connect to unofficial servers, opening up the door for consequence-free modding.
>> There is an over 10 minutes video in the article showing some of the mod skins for the game.

GAMING NEWS

First Patch for FBC: Firebreak Released & Fully Detailed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-patch-for-fbc-firebreak-released-fully-detailed/
Remedy has just released the first post-launch update for its latest game, FBC: Firebreak, and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s see what this update brings to the table.

Here are 20 minutes of pre-beta gameplay from the new action adventure RPG by former The Witcher devs
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-20-minutes-of-pre-alpha-gameplay-from-the-new-action-adventure-rpg-by-former-the-witcher-devs/
Rebel Wolves has released a video showing 20 minutes of early gameplay from their new action-adventure RPG, The Blood of Dawnwalker. The team is made up of former developers of The Witcher, and you can really see that in the gameplay. So, let’s check it out.



Please excuse my bad English.

Former gaming PC: i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Current gaming PC: R5-7600, 32GB RAM 6000MT/s (CL30) and a RX 9060XT 16GB

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