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

[JEMC]

I bring you the Wednesday gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Fallout Season 2 has doubled the number of people playing the Fallout games on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/fallout-season-2-has-doubled-the-number-of-people-playing-the-fallout-games-on-steam/
It's not a huge surprise because we saw this happen in 2024, but Prime Video's Fallout series has once again led to a huge uptick in people playing the Fallout games on Steam. Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, and even Fallout 3 and the original Fallouts have essentially doubled their daily concurrent players on Steam since Fallout Season 2 started airing on Prime Video in December.
Via SteamDB, we can see that in the weeks leading up to the show's premiere in mid-December, Fallout 4 was typically averaging about 20,000 concurrent players, but as of Sunday that count had risen to over 40,000. Likewise, Fallout: New Vegas was pulling in roughly 8,000 concurrents a day, and that rose to nearly 20,000 last weekend.
Even Fallout 3, which was typically attracting a mere hundred or so concurrent players on Steam on an average day, has risen to close to 200—not exactly a towering number, but still about double what it was before Fallout Season 2 started. Fallout 76 got a bump too, up to about 30k from the usual 10-20k average, and the original Fallout saw an influx of players as well (I was one of them), climbing to over 800 players from a typical showing of a few hundred.

During the next 13 days, GOG will have a Winter Classics Promo, with up to 95% discounts on classic games: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20260106-winter-classics-promo

Steam has new deals and sales:

• The Early Access title Grimshire, that has a demo, is going to be 20% off until the 12th of January: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238470/Grimshire/
• Hacker Simulator will have an 80% discount until the 13th of January: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1754840/Hacker_Simulator/
• There are 11 new sales/events. A bit too many to list them today. So, you can check them out from here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/collection/sales/
• And there are new weeklong deals, of course.

Humble Bundle has two new deals for us:

• Awesome Games Done Quick 2026 Bundle has 10 games to get during 16 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/awesome-games-done-quick-2026
• Hunt Showdown 1896 Choice Essential DLCs Bundle will feature up to 10 DLCs to get during 27 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/hunt-showdown-1896-choice-essential-dlc-bundle

And Fanatical has a new Star Deal and a sale:

• The new Star Deal is Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Digital Deluxe Edition, 43% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/sonic-racing-crossworlds-digital-deluxe-edition
• Team17 Digital will put its games on sale with up to 91% discounts during 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/team17-digital-ltd

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 591.74 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/nvidia-geforce-game-ready-591-74

HIGHLIGHTS
This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 4.5 technology including a 2nd generation transformer model for DLSS Super Resolution.

FIXED ISSUES
Fixed Gaming Bugs

• Arena Breakout: Infinite: Game stability issues [5748974]

Fixed General Bugs

• Brightness adjustment issues on various displays [5739739]
• Colors are not applied correctly when using Digital Vibrance [5718365]
• Slight banding may be observed on gradients in SDR color mode [5720512]
• Unable to deselect “Show Notification Tray Icon” from NVIDIA Control Panel [5622213]
• Using RTX HDR in Vulkan games causes black screen on LG OLED TVs [5763163]

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Fallout: New Vegas Got a Must-Have 40GB HD Texture Pack
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/fallout-new-vegas-got-a-must-have-40gb-hd-texture-pack/
Fallout: New Vegas fans, here is something special for you today. Modder ‘Montisz’ has released a must-have 40GB HD Texture Pack that overhauls all the textures for the base game and the DLCs.
Contrary to the previous AI-enhanced HD Texture Packs for Fallout: New Vegas, this new one uses the model (seedvr2_ema_7b_fp16). This model adds realistic details like wood grain, rust, and fabric texture that weren’t visible before. It also enhances the text of some signs.
This mod comes in two versions. The first version will upscale the original textures by four times. This is the one that is 40GB in size. The second version will upscale the textures by two times, and it’s 20GB in size.
This is easily the best HD Texture Pack for Fallout: New Vegas. Those interested can download it from this link. At the end of the article, you can also find some comparison screenshots. The vanilla version is on the left, whereas the modded version is on the right. As you will see, this pack greatly improves the quality of all textures.

Someone has done the unthinkable and essentially turned Red Dead Redemption 2 into Katamari Damacy, but you can't argue with their reasoning: 'Because why not'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/someone-has-done-the-unthinkable-and-essentially-turned-red-dead-redemption-2-into-katamari-damacy-but-you-cant-argue-with-their-reasoning-because-why-not/
Red Dead Redemption 2 mods make me feel like I've never had an original thought. The second I've had the fleeting idea of "it would be cool if someone could add this", a quick search online has pulled up evidence that multiple people have already thought and actioned the same thing. But, never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see a merge of the gunslinging cowboy adventure with the frantic ball-rolling fun of Katamari Damacy, but here we are.
In a post by r/Blurbss shared to Reddit, alongside a YouTube video titled "This RDR2 Mod Broke the Universe", the Katamari mod was shown off in all its glory, with Arthur Morgan running around and balling up quite literally anything in his path. That's right, benches, wagons, townsfolk, and even horses can be bundled together. Unlike regular Katamari, it doesn't look like you have to start with small objects either, so you can head straight for your least favourite NPCs or the law if you need a speedy getaway. You can't be arrested if the law is rolled up.
In the video shared to Reddit, it looks like things spiral out of control fairly quickly, too - which is what you'd expect if you're suddenly given the power to sacrifice everything you come across into a giant spinning globe. What starts as an innocent laugh running around the town with a handful of items in front of you quickly spins into nothing but chaos, with hundreds of items and innocent bystanders all squeezed together.
One of my favourite features of this mod, though, is the addition of an animated Arthur Morgan in the corner, where you'd usually see the Prince in a Katamari game, showing him rolling the ball. Except, it's actually just the animation used when he's pushing something, but it still helps get you in the Katamari spirit.
>> The article has the Reddit video in it.

GAMING NEWS

Here are 8 minutes of new gameplay from CODE VEIN 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-8-minutes-of-new-gameplay-from-code-vein-2/
Bandai Namco has released a new trailer, showcasing 8 minutes of brand new gameplay footage from CODE VEIN 2. In this gameplay trailer, we get a glimpse at the game’s combat system, as well as its visuals and environments. So, if you are a fan of this franchise, you should definitely watch it.

Styx: Blades of Greed Just Got an Official Gameplay Trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/styx-blades-of-greed-just-got-an-official-gameplay-trailer/
NACON has just released an official gameplay trailer for its upcoming Styx game, Styx: Blades of Greed. In this trailer, we get to see 9 minutes of gameplay footage. So, if you’ve been looking forward to this new Styx game, you should definitely watch this new trailer.

Capcom’s PRAGMATA will support Path Tracing on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/capcoms-pragmata-will-support-path-tracing-on-pc/
NVIDIA and Capcom revealed that PRAGMATA will be the second Capcom game that will support Path Tracing on PC. To showcase some of its visual enhancements, NVIDIA released a new video that you can find below. This video packs some before/after comparison scenes.

Here’s a short 4K Path Tracing trailer for Resident Evil Requiem
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/heres-a-short-4k-path-tracing-trailer-for-resident-evil-requiem/
NVIDIA has released a short but sweet 4K Path Tracing trailer for the new Resident Evil game, Resident Evil Requiem. This trailer packs gameplay footage from the path-traced PC version of Resident Evil Requiem. So, make sure to watch it if you are a Resident Evil fan.

007 First Light requires 32GB of RAM and 12GB of VRAM for gaming at 1080p/60FPS
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/007-first-light-requires-32gb-of-ram-and-12gb-of-vram-for-gaming-at-1080p-60fps/
IO Interactive has revealed the official PC system requirements for its upcoming James Bond game, 007 First Light. So, let’s see what PC system you’ll need to run it.
>> A game that will run on consoles with 16GB of total RAM requires twice as much to play 1080p/60fps. I hope they don’t complain if sales aren’t great on PC.