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JEMC on 13 October 2025
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New week, new round of gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Battlefield 6 hits a peak of 747k players on Steam, hot on the heels of Baldur's Gate 3's record and in the platform's all-time top 20
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-6-hits-a-peak-of-747k-players-on-steam-hot-on-the-heels-of-baldurs-gate-3s-record-and-in-the-platforms-all-time-top-20/
Battlefield 6 is proving a remarkable milestone for the venerable military shooter series. It's not just a great game—as PC Gamer staff writer Morgan Park put it in last week's review-in-progress, "a bullseye where it matters most"—it's also very popular, as evidenced by its recent eye-watering concurrent player count of over 747,000.
That number comes from SteamDB, which shows Battlefield 6 jockeying with Dota 2 for second most-played game on Steam right now behind the platform's perennial #1, Counter-Strike 2. The number has been left to simmer for a bit as I write this on a Sunday morning, but sits proudly at around 600,000 active players regardless.
With a bit more oomph as the game builds up steam, it might just overtake Baldur's Gate 3's historical peak of 875,000 simultaneous players, which would put it very close to the all-time top ten. Still, it's overtaken the likes of Marvel Rivals, Apex Legends, and notably, any Call of Duty game on the platform, so even if it plateaus from here it is a seismic release.
>> It already went past 500k users 25 minutes after launch (link).

Steam has one new deal and two sales/events:

Fanatical has three new deals:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 25.10.1 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-25-10-1

HIGHLIGHTS
New Game Support

  • Battlefield 6 (DX12)


>> It’s a Beta driver.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Lordbound Is A New DLC-sized Expansion Mod For Skyrim
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/lordbound-is-a-new-dlc-sized-expansion-mod-for-skyrim
The Lordbound Team has released a new cool DLC-sized fan expansion mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. This mod adds the land of Druadach, a dense new region larger than Solstheim. So, let’s take a closer look at it.
Alongside the new land of Druadach, the mod adds new quests, dungeons, events, and activities for you to enjoy. Lordbound offers over 60 hours of content through main questlines and side content.
According to the team, there are over 40 quests, found through the many new settlements and by exploring the world. Players can also explore over 50 new dungeons. On top of that, they can find new weapons, armor, spells, and surprising consumables.
Right now, roughly half of the mod’s major characters are voiced, but many NPCs, especially supporting ones, will have incomplete or no voiced dialogue. The team plans to add more voices in future versions.
>> The article has no media.

Cyberpunk 2077 Just Got a Brutal New Battle Axe — And It’s Absolutely Devastating
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/cyberpunk-2077-just-got-a-brutal-new-battle-axe-and-its-absolutely-devastating
Modder ‘manavortex’ has released a simple but cool mod for Cyberpunk 2077 that introduces a Battle Axe to the game. This mod will enhance the game’s melee combat. By using this new Battle Axe, you can kill and dismember your enemies.
With this new Battle Axe, players can hack and slay their enemies and watch them fall into pieces. For those wondering, the mod re-uses the game’s original grenade explosions and limb removal features.
>> The article has a short video.

The Need for Speed Underground 2 Unreal Engine 5 Fan Remake Looks Better Than Ever
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/the-need-for-speed-underground-2-unreal-engine-5-fan-remake-looks-better-than-ever
In January 2025, we shared a demo for the fan remake of Need for Speed Underground 2 in Unreal Engine 5. Since then, the fan remake has been receiving numerous updates. So, here is a video that showcases some of its new features.
Created by apfelbaum, this fan remake attempts to bring the whole game to UE5. As its creator has stated, the Career Mode is playable from start to finish. Yup, you read that right. This project does not bring a portion of the game. Instead, it will allow you to play the whole Career Mode. Now that’s cool.
Right now, the Career Mode does not have any AI opponents or traffic. It also lacks the destructible environments that the original game has. So, hopefully, apfelbaum will add them.
The latest build of the remake will have better driving mechanics. Moreover, it will come with a new weather system, as well as a new car paint model.
The Unreal Engine 5 remake of NFS Underground 2 will also feature a new launcher. This launcher will let you easily download your game files, keep them up to date, and verify their integrity. It will be available with the next version of the fan remake.
>> There are two videos in the article.

Resident Evil 6 Gets a 28GB HD Mod That Overhauls All Textures
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/resident-evil-6-gets-a-28gb-hd-mod-that-overhauls-all-textures
Modder ‘Evgeshajk’ has released a must-have 28GB HD Mod for Resident Evil 6 that overhauls all of its textures. This is a must for everyone who wants to replay this RE game. So, if you were planning to replay it, you should do so with this mod.
(...)
Now, as you will see, the vanilla version had some truly awful textures. And that’s where this mod comes in. By using AI tools, the modder was able to upscale the original textures by four times. As such, they look much sharper now. Evgeshajk has also made some manual refinements here and there.
At the end of the article, you can find a comparison video. I’ve also included some comparison screenshots. The vanilla shots are on the left, whereas the modded shots are on the right. These will give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect from these new textures. So, be sure to check them out.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Just Got a Huge DLC-Sized Mod With New Gear and Encounters
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/baldurs-gate-3-just-got-a-huge-dlc-sized-mod-with-new-gear-and-encounters
Baldur’s Gate 3 fans, here is something for you today. Modders ‘Halomaster481’ and ‘Sumradagnoth8’ have released a huge new DLC-sized expansion mod for Baldur’s Gate 3, called Chivalry.
Going into more details, Chivalry adds more than 120 new items and 24 new weapons. It also brings 22 new armor sets, 10 new encounters, and over 100 new custom passives and abilities.
Chivalry will give your Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough an Arthurian legend twist. Players will battle famous heroes and villains, from the Black Knight to the Forgotten Heroes of the Gate. The mod also makes each class more flexible by adding new types of armor and improving less-used areas of the game. You’ll find new weapons and armor scattered across all acts of Faerûn, each with unique abilities and mechanics.
>> There is a shorter than 2 minutes video in the article.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Community Patch 1.8 Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/mass-effect-legendary-edition-community-patch-1-8-released
The Mass Effect Community Patch Team has just released Community Update 1.8 for Mass Effect Legendary Edition. So, let’s see what this new unofficial patch brings to the table.
For those who don’t know, the LE1 Community Patch is a simple bug-fix mod for Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition. It’s the spiritual successor to ME1Recalibrated. It mainly focuses on fixing bugs without changing the original game’s design or balance. Thus, it’s a must-have for everyone who wants to replay it.
Community Patch 1.8 fixes an issue where the jog animation would play when starting or stopping movement while the walk toggle was on. It also updates Kaidan’s combat hair mesh so his hair no longer clips through helmets. Ashley now has a proper visor when using full-breather mode. The sniper rifle camera sensitivity no longer stays active after zooming out, and the missing text in the Polish version of the FOV menu has been fixed.
And that’s not all. This latest update brings some tweaks, fixes, and changes to Eden Prime, Normandy, and the Citadel. For instance, it fixes the floating grass in the Citadel tower. Running upstairs during a fight in the Lower Markets will no longer cause enemies to stop and stand still, and the bouncer in Chora’s Den will retain his unique face when you fight him. The update fixes a broken Wrex line and Shepard’s response when speaking to him after Virmire in Normandy. It also fixes an issue where Chakwas would not speak to you in the prologue if you spammed through her lines.
>> The article has some screenshots.

Borderlands 4 director says use dialogue skip mod at your peril—it might turbo-brick your missions
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/borderlands-4-director-says-use-dialogue-skip-mod-at-your-peril-it-might-turbo-brick-your-missions/
Sick of Borderlands 4's chatty characters? Just want to press ahead and get to the shooting? Wish you could hammer a button to speed through their dialogue like you can in most other games? Good news! A courageous modder has created a dialogue-skip mod.
Whatever you do, don't ever use it.
That's not me telling you that, it's Graeme Timmins, Gearbox bigwig and creative director on Borderlands 4. Okay, to be fair, Timmins wasn't quite as foreboding as that, but he did caution players against using this (or any other) dialogue skipping mod when they brought it to his attention. Not because he's precious about you hearing his game's lovely words, but because "skipping dialog could lead to broken mission states that might not be recoverable."
Turns out all that nattering is holding something up, and that something is important. While other games might have dialogue-skip functions with hardly a problem, the way BL4 works means that "This request is way more involved and riskier that it appears on the surface with how dialog is integrated within our mission system".
In other words, not triggering some key bit of mission info in dialogue might leave you in mission limbo forevermore. "Don't ask me how I know" concludes Timmins, forebodingly.

Team Fortress 2 Classic open beta halted at the last minute, and something secret is cooking behind the scenes: 'Valve has asked us to ███████'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/team-fortress-2-classic-open-beta-halted-at-the-last-minute-and-something-secret-is-cooking-behind-the-scenes-valve-has-asked-us-to/
Just over a week after announcing an October open beta for the Steam edition of Team Fortress 2 Classic, the throwback version of Valve's famed team-based shooter, developer Eminoma has an update: Never mind.
It turns out that an application on Steam can't be both a mod, which Team Fortress 2 Classic is, and a demo, which it was about to be, at the same time. You might think somebody would have flagged this ahead of time but, well, no.
"Unfortunately, this was not caught by anyone at Eminoma or at Valve until last Saturday, after initial reviews hadn't flagged it as an issue and gave us the mistaken belief that we were clear to ship," the dev team wrote.
The good news is that the mod is not at risk of being derailed: Eminoma said it's "still very much on track for full release," and that the effort to get everything ready for the cancelled open beta means it's "probably in a better spot than we would have been if we never attempted this in the first place."
But there is also the possibility that something may have to change—specifically, the name of the mod. The team explained: (...)

Battlefield 6 player shows off the power of Portal by immediately dropping a decent Call of Duty 4 Shipment remake, oh, and a Star Destroyer
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-6-player-shows-off-the-power-of-portal-by-immediately-dropping-a-decent-call-of-duty-4-shipment-remake-oh-and-the-death-star/
One of the most valuable things you can do for the health of an FPS is let people mess with maps and assemble their own servers. Battlefield 6 is checking both of those boxes at launch with Portal, a web tool and SDK that lets people fire up persistent custom games and create new game modes.
There is no more perfect day-one demonstration of what Portal can do than this surprisingly good remake of Call of Duty 4 Shipment by game dev Matavatar, who had a working version of the map up a day before Battlefield 6 was even live (EA released the Portal editor a bit early).
I played a few minutes of Matavatar's Shipment in a server someone had going and, yep, they pretty much nailed it. Because of how Portal works at the moment, the map itself was actually suspended in the air somewhere in the skybox of Operation Firestorm, which is giving early Portal creations a Halo Forge-y feel (which I mean in a complimentary way).
The same creator is also working on a version of Call of Duty's Killhouse, and even managed to make a crude Star Destroyer out of concrete blocks. That spatial editor is pretty neat, if more obtuse than your average level editor built into the game.
>> The article has a short video of the Shipment creation.

Kick ass and chew brains in Duke Nukem: Horror Castle, a spooky mod where you blast skeletons and chow down on the gooey insides of their skulls
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/kick-ass-and-chew-brains-in-duke-nukem-horror-castle-a-spooky-mod-where-you-blast-skeletons-and-chow-down-on-the-gooey-insides-of-their-skulls/
If you're a die-hard Duke Nukem 3D fan feeling starved for Hallowe'en themed action, that's an oddly specific scenario in 2025. But I have something for you nonetheless. Duke Nukem: Horror Castle takes the bubblegum-starved FPS titan and plonks him into an all-new episode, swapping out the original's sci-fi shenanigans for a spookier theme.
Created by modder WilliamGee, Horror Castle is a sizeable affair. Its nine-level campaign sees Duke explore not one but several gothic fortresses, offering between 3-5 hours of additional FPS fun. It isn't just a level pack either. Horror Castle introduces 24 new enemies including wandering skeletons, vampire bats, and Nosferatu-like bloodsuckers, as well as four minibosses from D3D with the added bonus of being able to shrink them and stomp them to death.
Horror Castle also equips Duke with four additional weapons. Duke can toss enormous spiders to attack enemies, then blast them with skeletal shrapnel using the Bone Crusher, a weapon reminiscent of the Ravager from Doom: The Dark Ages. And rather than replenishing health using medkits, Duke can boost his vitality by cracking open discarded skulls and feasting on the soft and squishy sponge within. Yum.
Duke Nukem: Horror Castle originally released back in May, but WilliamGee recently released an updated version that garlands the mod with a more specific Hallowe'en theme. This includes several newly added Hallowe'en items, like a pumpkin and a ghost, plus a new secret level that features even more bespoke enemies.
>> There is a slightly over 2 minutes video of the mod in the article.

Over 100 of the world's strongest Path of Exile 2 players are lining up to get chomped by a shark with trillions of health and an instant-kill tail swipe
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/over-100-of-the-worlds-strongest-path-of-exile-2-players-are-lining-up-to-get-chomped-by-a-shark-with-trillions-of-health-and-an-instant-kill-tail-swipe/
Watching a bunch of Path of Exile 2 players step into the ring against a giant land shark is a lot like watching those videos where someone mods in several Elden Ring bosses to fight each other. You think you have an idea of how it'll go and then realize that some enemies are just unbeatable.
Path of Exile 2 YouTuber and streamer XTheFarmerX stumbled into an incredible idea for a competition a few days ago: Call on the world's strongest players and have them fight one-on-one with a shark injected with the deadliest modifiers you can find.
The endgame loop in Path of Exile 2 basically involves running maps and defeating bosses. Each map can have additional difficulty modifiers crafted onto it to increase the potential rewards. Some of those mods can be brutal, like bonus health to all monsters or full immunity to certain types of elemental damage.
>> The article has the over 10 hours video of the whole thing.

The Deus Ex mod that's a better sequel than Invisible War just got a mondo-update, and playing it couldn't be easier
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-deus-ex-mod-thats-a-better-sequel-than-invisible-war-just-got-a-mondo-update-and-playing-it-couldnt-be-easier/
Like so many others, I was real dismayed when Aspyr lifted the veil on its upcoming official Deus Ex Remaster and revealed something alarmingly shiny and remarkably bulbous*. This dismay lasted about 10 seconds, at which point I remembered we PC people have access to Deus Ex: Revision (DX:R)—a fanmade and fan-maintained DX1 modernisation you can install with but a click on Steam.
The thing about Revision is it's essentially a greatest hits of Deus Ex modding. Packed in with its reworked maps are beloved gameplay overhauls like Shifter, BioMod, and Human Renovation, along with new, more modern renderers. Even better: you can turn all the new stuff off and just play vanilla Deus Ex with full compatibility for modern systems and resolutions. You really don't need anything else, at least in my experience.
Even better news: to mark its 10th anniversary (and with great timing, considering the DX remaster stuff), Revision just got its first update since 2023, giving the whole thing a spit-shine, fixing some lingering bugs, and adding some memory-assistance features which are increasingly relevant to the hoary age bracket still playing this game (me): you can now toggle on a saved passwords/keycode feature that will pop up and let you insta-input codes you've found in the world into the game's many terminals.
Which is all well and good, but I actually want to talk about a different update. At the same time as DX:R got its update, The Nameless Mod (TNM) got a humungo-patch too. If you're not familiar, TNM is a total-conversion mod that originally launched all the way back in 2009, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
>> The article has a couple of screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

PC demos released for Bubsy 4D, Misery, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, and Valor Mortis
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pc-demos-released-for-bubsy-4d-misery-heroes-of-might-and-magic-olden-era-and-valor-mortis
A number of PC demos went live earlier today, so I’ve decided to share most of them in one big article. So, below, you can find the PC demos for Bubsy 4D, Misery, Valor Mortis, Escape from Even After, Skate Story, and Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era.
>> A PCGamer article tried the Bubsy demo and has an article about it (link).

Paper Mario-Inspired RPG ‘Escape from Ever After’ Gets Free PC Demo on October 13th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/paper-mario-inspired-rpg-escape-from-ever-after-gets-free-pc-demo-on-october-13th
HypeTrain Digital has announced that a PC demo for its upcoming RPG that is inspired by the Paper Mario games, Escape from Ever After, will be released on October 13th. To celebrate this announcement, the team shared a trailer that you can find below.

Black Myth: Wukong’s New Patch Improves CPU & Memory Performance and Adds AMD FSR 4.0
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/black-myth-wukongs-new-patch-improves-cpu-memory-performance-and-adds-amd-fsr-4-0
Game Science announced that a new patch will be released later today for Black Myth: Wukong and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s see what this new update brings to the table.

PC Demo Released for the “Minecraft Meets Skyrim” RPG, Everwind
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pc-demo-released-for-the-minecraft-meets-skyrim-rpg-everwind
Bohemia Interactive has just released the PC demo for the upcoming “Minecraft meets Skyrim” RPG, Everwind. This demo will let you experience this new upcoming first-person sandbox survival RPG.



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.