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JEMC on 25 June 2025
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I hope you like gaming news, because here are two days of them:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10
 
(Click here for the Top 100)

'Why did this stupid jam game sell more': Climbing game Peak has sold 1 million copies in under a week, outperforming its developer's most popular game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/im-gonna-crash-out-new-climbing-game-peak-has-sold-1-million-copies-in-less-than-a-week-outperforming-its-developers-most-popular-game/
Peak has well and truly broken containment, this little old climbing game from Aggro Crab and Landfall, known for games like A Crab's Treasure and Content Warning, has risen to success in just six days.
With over 10,000 very positive reviews on Steam, an all-time peak of 102,799 via SteamDB, and 1 million copies sold, a pretty good first week if you ask me. It certainly caught me by surprise and it seems like I'm not the only one.
"Why did this stupid jam game sell more copies than Another Crabs Treasure I'm gonna crash out," developer Aggro Crab said on social media. In February earlier this year, Aggro Crab and Landfall came together for a game jam—where developers make a game from scratch in as little as one day—and the result of the happy union was Peak. "We couldn’t be happier with this game and how it turned out," a blog post reads.
>> Here’s another article where they talk more about the development

Doing a victory lap, Dune: Awakening publisher reveals that 1 million players have already huffed 6 billion grams of spice
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/doing-a-victory-lap-dune-awakening-publisher-reveals-that-1-million-players-have-already-huffed-6-billion-grams-of-spice/
Dune: Awakening is doing a well-deserved victory lap at the moment. Following its launch on June 10, the survival MMO has already reached the impressive milestone of 1,000,000 players, according to the publisher.
That makes Dune: Awakening Funcom's fastest-selling game, even beating out its 2018 survival sandbox, Conan Exiles. The million player tally isn't the only set of digits Funcom has revealed: here's an infographic with all sorts of exceptional stats. Curious about the rate of sandworm incidents in Arrakis? Keep reading.
**here goes the infographic**
The statistics are pretty revealing. For instance, did you know that over 6 billion grams of spice have been consumed? In fairness, you aren't all just getting zooted. Spice sand in Dune: Awakening can be used to make valuable items, such as powerful consumables, or certain high-level schematics. Some abilities require you to consume spice melange, too.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 had over 2200% more Steam players this weekend than it did last June—and it's thanks in part to Kyrie Irving and his level 101 Emperor Palpatine
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/star-wars-battlefront-2-had-over-2200-percent-more-steam-players-this-weekend-than-it-did-last-june-and-its-thanks-in-part-to-kyrie-irving-and-his-level-101-emperor-palpatine/
We're still in the midst of an unexpected renaissance for Star Wars Battlefront 2. Last month, we wrote about the surprising upsurge of Battlefront 2 player counts on Steam, which was really only surprising for as long as it took to remember how good Battlefront 2 is. Over the last four weeks, those player counts started to tumble back downwards.
Until this last weekend, that is, when EA kicked off a 90% off sale. Overnight, Battlefront 2 player activity on Steam rocketed upwards, and by Sunday had reached a new all-time peak of 35,892 players according to SteamDB charts. That's more than triple the previous Steam peak of 10,489, and an over 2200% increase from last year's Sunday, June 23 player count of 1,540.
(...)
More recently, Battlefront 2 has been enjoying some very vocal support from one noteworthy champion: Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks.
Irving, a nine-time All-Star and 2016 NBA champion, has had an impressive career in professional basketball. He is also, as he revealed in a Twitch stream on Saturday, a Battlefront 2 diehard, where he's had an equally impressive career as a level 101 Emperor Palpatine.

Sloclap shoots, then scores as Rematch hits 3 million players, proving there's a surprising overlap between sports and fighting game fans
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/sloclap-shoots-then-scores-as-rematch-hits-3-million-players-proving-theres-a-surprising-overlap-between-sports-and-fighting-game-fans/
Rematch is a hit—nonchalantly dribbling its way to one million players on its first day of release. It's the latest game by Sloclap, who you might know from Sifu and Absolver—a brawler and a fighting game respectively, if you've been paying attention. The studio's gotten the art of kicking the crap out of someone down pat.
Well, it's continuing to crush it. Rematch has just hit three million players, per the game's official X account—that's presumably across platforms. It seems like the football (or 'soccer' if you're wrong) game has some solid staying power, too. At the time of writing, its 24-hour peak on Steam is still a very respectable 78,500.
"For those keeping score, that's 11.8 million matches played, 55.6 million goals scored, 33.5 million assists, and 69.1 million saves," boasts the announcement post.

Steam has all these deals:

Fanatical has these two deals:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Someone at Valve got their unit prefixes a bit muddled but a quick update for the latest Steam beta has fixed your slower-than-normal CPU reading
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/someone-at-valve-got-their-unit-prefixes-a-bit-muddled-but-a-quick-update-for-the-latest-steam-beta-has-fixed-your-slower-than-normal-cpu-reading/
In the world of science, SI prefixes are sacrosanct. Well, unless you happen to be a computing scientist, in which case the choice of prefix—mega vs mebi—can be a little controversial. It turns out that one programmer at Valve fell on the wrong side of the prefix war when showing your CPU clocks in the Steam performance overlay, but at least it's all been fixed with a tiny patch.
Last week, Valve added a performance overlay to the current Steam beta, and I have to say that it's quite nifty-looking. You get frame rates, clock speeds, processor utilisation, and memory consumption (RAM and VRAM), all in a handy bar that you place around your screen.
However, in some patches notes for the beta Steam client, Valve "fixed [the] Mhz/Ghz conversion for CPU speed values in Performance Monitor so values are not 2.4% lower than expected." How exactly does one end up missing 2.4% of a CPU's clock speed? The answer lies in the prefixes.
>> It’s like the capacity of storage, ones use 1000 and others 1024. The article explains it better.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

After 10 years, a modder is trying to add an ability to Batman: Arkham Knight that was cut from the game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/after-10-years-a-modder-is-trying-to-add-to-batman-arkham-knight-an-ability-that-was-cut-from-the-game/
Batman: Arkham Knight came out ten years ago. And now, a modder is trying to bring back an ability that was present in the previous Batman Arkham games but was cut from the game.
The ability that will make a return to Arkham Knight is the Bat Swarm. Modder ‘GPUnity’ is currently working on finishing it. However, there is no ETA for when it will come out.
What’s funny is that this ability appeared to be in the game files, but the devs decided to disable it. I don’t know why they did this. Point is that this mod will restore it, and this will most likely please a lot of Batman fans.
Another cool thing is that more than one character can now use Bat Swarm. Do note, though, that this ability won’t keep lieutenants stunned the whole time. So, you can’t just keep using it over and over to beat them easily. Still, once you do enough damage, the bats can knock out both lieutenants and other enemies.
Overall, this is a really awesome mod that will make the game a lot better. GPUnity plans to release it along with his Master Overhaul Mod. That mod will include a new skill tree, stronger and smarter enemies, and a cool Riddler Chest system that lets you unlock new suits. Also, the Batmobile will have different stats depending on which skin you use, making the game more fun and varied.
>> The article has an over 10 minutes video showing the bat swarm ability.

GTA 5 Enhanced Edition RealityV Mod V3.1 Available for Download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/gta-5-enhanced-edition-realityv-mod-v3-1-available-for-download/
Modder ‘BadassBaboon’ has released Version 3.1 of his amazing graphics overhaul mod for GTA 5 Enhanced Edition, RealityV. This new version is compatible with the latest update for GTA 5 Enhanced Edition, which adds two new Ray Tracing options.
For those who did not know, GTA 5 Enhanced Edition introduced Ray Tracing effects to the PC version. To be more precise, it now supports RTGI, RTAO, RT shadows, and RT reflections. Then, Rockstar added two new RT options. One gives higher quality reflections, and the other adds a second light bounce for RTGI.
The RealityV Enhanced Edition Mod V3.1 adds the 8K milky way night-time sky and stars from the Legacy version of RealityV. It also improves the game’s TAA, which should now cause far less ghosting than before. It also fixed the sun being too huge and bright during certain weather types.
And that’s not all. The mod also improves the way light and colors look in the game. This will make the Ray Tracing effects look better and the game look more realistic overall. PC players will also see better weather variety. Now, it won’t rain as often, more like in the original game, but with some upgrades. You’ll also notice nicer sky colors during sunset, especially when the weather is clear or extra sunny.
The modder also says that the new version of RealityV Enhanced Edition will make AMD FSR look better. This means the image will look sharper and edges will look cleaner. So, if you have an AMD GPU, this update is a big deal. But if you have an NVIDIA card, the game supports DLSS 3, which works better than FSR. So, there’s no reason to use FSR if you can use DLSS.
>> This article has no media of the mod.

Modders put the Executor into Elden Ring because if FromSoftware won't give us Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 2, we'll do it ourselves
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/modders-plonk-executor-into-elden-ring-because-if-fromsoftware-wont-give-us-sekiro-shadows-die-twice-2-well-do-it-ourselves/
One of the most tantalising additions to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was the introduction of the Deflecting Hardtear, a buff that basically turns you into John Sekiro himself. The only problem? It's locked behind a DLC that requires you to push over Mohg, and that boy isn't exactly an early-game boss.
Things looked up for us Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice lovers (there are literally dozens of us!) when FromSoftware introduced the Executor to Elden Ring Nightreign. And while I've come close to scratching my itch, it's still not the same.
For one, Executor's cursed sword stance is more of a defensive option—a cousin of the Guardian's Steel Guard—that lets the Executor plant his feet and swat aside anything with the right timing. But when you're not on the back foot, you need to be slapping things with two status-build katanas to do any real damage.
I'm still left hankering for my fix, because despite the fact that basically every non-FromSoftware soulslike has snapped up Sekiro's timed deflection system, the studio's been hesitant to release a sequel. Well, now we've got the next best thing—the Executor, who is basically Wolf from Sekiro anyway—has been ported by modders to Elden Ring.
The Executor in Elden Ring mod picks up the Executor by the scruff, yoinks him out of Limveld, and plonks him in Limgrave. It replaces katana movesets, giving you the Executor's swordplay while also letting you no-sell Margit like the chump he is—with the correct timing, of course.
The mod's author NinjaRaiden, who made it with help from McKenyu (and links to a separate mod by madao112 to give players the Executor's armor), posted a demonstration video while it was still in development—but you can also watch YouTuber Allence do a full playthrough of the game with the mod enabled below.
NinjaRaiden has plans for a version that'll let you pick which bits of the Executor you'd like ported. For instance, by default, the Executor has the Nightreign sprint—which does bust up the balance of base Elden Rings bosses a tad.
>> The Allence video in the article is over 40 minutes long.

Who needs Bethesda? Oblivion Remastered modders have cooked up FO4-style settlement placing even without official support
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/who-needs-bethesda-oblivion-remastered-modders-have-cooked-up-fo4-style-settlement-placing-even-without-official-support/
It is June 2025, and Oblivion Remastered has no official modding support from Bethesda. But who cares? Because I guess modders never needed any of that stuff anyway. It was just holding them back, man. In the two months since Bethesda and Virtuos' re-do of Oblivion came out, modders have managed to create a whole range of Oblivion Remastered mods even without an official creation kit, like making the Dark Brotherhood last forever and finding ways to make the whole thing play nice with lua scripts.
Modders' latest miracle? A kind of pseudo-settlement building system, Fallout 4 style (via RPS). It's catchily titled Oblivion Settlement Building – Spawn and Place Objects and it lets you do, well, exactly that: spawn and plonk down new stuff in the world like some kind of idle god.
It's not just tiny stuff, either. In the examples on the Nexus Mods page, you can see a player—presumably author MadAborModding—spawn huge walls, rocks, and beams and pop them all across Skingrad. It's kind of wild to see, as if modders have gotten so bored of not having a proper creation kit for Oblivion Remastered they've just decided to give themselves the tools of one in the game itself*.
Admittedly, it's all a bit aimless right now. Outside of the whole inventing-reality thing, there are no actual systems attached to the mod as yet. You can't fill your created environments with inhabitants or manage systems like water or trade.
But MadAborModding is kind of hoping someone will get a bee in their bonnet to make those systems now that this mod exists. "I hope someone expands this into an actual settlement system. My goal with uploading this is hopefully to bait someone into doing that," they write, adding "I want that kind of mod, but I don't want to be the one to make it," which is the most relatable sentiment ever published on Nexus Mods dot com.
Even as-is, though, I'm still impressed by just what dedicated modders are able to do in the absence of official tools. If you want to muck about with settlement building yourself, you can download the mod, install the Unreal Engine 4/5 Scripting System, and whack the contents of the mod download into OblivionRemasteredBinariesWin64MadSpawnFiles.
*There is a lot more to a creation kit than placing objects. Please do not email me.
>> The article only has one screenshot, that doesn’t say much about the mod.

Wanna make mods for Stalker 2? That'll be 700 GB of hard drive space, please
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/wanna-make-mods-for-stalker-2-thatll-be-700-gb-of-hard-drive-space-please/
It's a big day in the Zone: Stalker 2's mega 1.5 patch is here, bringing with it a suite of improvements to the game's ever-so-slightly busted and dearly missed A-Life system, a load of fixes, and some new content.
But frankly, I'll deal with that in a separate article, because what I want to speak with you about is the concurrent release of the Stalker 2 Zone Kit: what GSC Game World is calling its "phase 1" in modding tools for one of my favourite games from last year (even if it did launch kind of on fire).
"Shape the Zone in Your Way with the Stalker 2 Zone Kit," says the store page, "Modify existing content or create new experiences — animations, weapons, mechanics, and even wonders of the Zone."
Which sounds great! I'd love to do that (in a magical alternate world in which I have useful skills like 'coding,' 'design,' and 'programming'), let me just whack that download button and make sure I have a free… 700 gigabytes?
That's right, folks. In what I feel must be some kind of record, the modding toolkit for Stalker 2 wants nearly a full terabyte of space to really stretch out on your hard drive or SSD. That's according to its system requirements on Epic, anyway; when I tried to install it myself, it asked for a 471 GB download which would unpack into 659 GB on the drive itself. Which is much more reasonable. That's fine, then.

GAMING NEWS

Here are the PC requirements for Digimon Story Time Stranger
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/here-are-the-pc-requirements-for-digimon-story-time-stranger/
Bandai Namco has released the official PC system requirements for its new Digimon game, Digimon Story Time Stranger. So, let’s see what PC system you’ll need to run it.

Simon the Sorcerer Origins, the prequel to the classic point-and-click adventure, is coming to PC on October 28th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/simon-the-sorcerer-origins-the-prequel-to-the-classic-point-and-click-adventure-is-coming-to-pc-on-october-28th/
In 2022, we informed you about Simon the Sorcerer Origins. Simon the Sorcerer Origins is a prequel to the classic point-and-click adventure game. And, a few days ago, ININ announced that it will be released on PC on October 28th.

Painkiller Remake Is Coming to PC on October 9th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/painkiller-remake-is-coming-to-pc-october-9th/
Anshar Studios and Saber Interactive have announced that their new Painkiller will be released on October 9th. This is a modern remake of the classic action game and will include co-op gameplay. To celebrate, they also released a new trailer you can watch below.

Project Motor Racing, Spiritual Successor to GTR, Releases on November 25th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/project-motor-racing-spiritual-successor-to-gtr-releases-on-november-25th/
GIANTS Software and Straight4 Studios have announced that their ultra-authentic racing sim, Project Motor Racing, will hit the track on November 25th. To celebrate this, the teams have shared a brand new trailer for it. This trailer focuses on the game’s Career Mode.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Update 1.0.6 Releases Tomorrow, Will Be 17GB, Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/assassins-creed-shadows-update-1-0-6-releases-tomorrow-will-be-17gb-full-patch-notes/
Ubisoft announced that Title Update 1.0.6 for Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released tomorrow and shared its full patch notes. This patch will be 17GB in size on PC. So, let’s see what it brings to the table.
>> That tomorrow is today.



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.