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

[JEMC]

Let’s check today’s gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 failed to meet expectations for Obsidian, but Grounded 2 was a hit, and the future is looking positive for the Pillars of Eternity universe
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/avowed-and-the-outer-worlds-2-failed-to-meet-expectations-for-obsidian-but-grounded-2-was-a-hit-and-the-future-is-looking-positive-for-the-pillars-of-eternity-universe/
Obsidian released three major games in 2025, at a time when most major studios—especially those owned by Microsoft—struggle to ship one. Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 were big tentpole first-person RPGs of a kind the industry used to dine out on, while Grounded 2—an early access survival crafting game set in a miniature world, co-developed in two years with Eidos Montreal—was ostensibly the more niche affair.
Nevertheless, it was Grounded 2 that proved a big hit, whereas Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 both failed to meet the sales forecasts set by Microsoft, according to a new Bloomberg report.
"They’re [Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2] not disasters," Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told Bloomberg. "I’m not going to say this was a kick in the teeth. It was more like: ‘That sucks. What are we learning?’"
The disappointing results—and the success of Grounded 2—have led Obsidian to "think a lot about how much we put into the games, how much we spend on them, how long they take." Urquhart wants Obsidian to make games in three to four year cycles.

GOG has gone mad and has launched six new promos:

• Strategy Games Promo will last 7 days. It says it has games up to 90% off, but some titles are 93% off (it may change depending on your currency) : https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20260204_strategy_games_promo
• Swords & Fireballs Promo features up to 95% discounts that will last 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20260204_sword_fireballs_promo
• Think, Point, Click Promo also has games up to 95% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20260204_think_point_click_promo
• Story Rich Promo joins the fun with the same up to 95% discounts during the same 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20260204_story_rich_promo
• Casual & Fun Promo is here and guess what. If you guessed that it has games up to 95% off and that it will last 7 days, you’re 100% correct!: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20260204_casual_fun_promo
• Treasure Chest Promo has laos launched and… yes, it has the same up to 95% discounts during the same 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20260204_treasure_chest_promo

Steam has one new deal that I can see and two sales:

• Zefyr: A Thief's Melody will be 75% off until the 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1344990/Zefyr_A_Thiefs_Melody/
• These are the sales:
  • Publisher/developer Boomzap puts its games up to 75% off, tho most of them are available with 50% discounts. The sale will last until the 16th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28077163/sale/BoomzapPublisherSale
  • Arc System Works Lunar New Year Sale launches with up to 90% discounts until February 17: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33025239/sale/lunarnewyear2026

Fanatical’s new Star Deal is Revenge of the Savage Planet, with a 62% discount during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/revenge-of-the-savage-planet

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

The Epic Games Store had a record-breaking 2025, with gamers throwing $1.16 billion at the 6,000-plus games it now offers
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-epic-games-store-had-a-record-breaking-2025-with-gamers-throwing-usd1-16-billion-at-the-6-000-plus-games-it-now-offers/
It took until February but the Epic Games Store has published its year in review for 2025, and it seems like it was a pretty good one all in all: Spending on third-party games—those not developed or published by Epic—went up by 57%, as did the amount of time people spent in them, and the store achieved 78 million monthly active users on PC, a new record.
Other interesting tidbits: The Epic Games Store now offers more than 6,000 games for purchase, and players sunk 6.65 billion gameplay hours into Epic Store games in 2025, which is actually down year-over-year, but hours spent in third party games went up by 4%. The amount of money players spent on the Epic Store also went up, by 6%, to $1.16 billion.

Epic Games Store to test forums for 'top games,' walking back previous plans, and a technical overhaul is coming: 'We're ripping out the guts'
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/epic-games-store-2026-forums-speed-improvements/
The Epic Games Store development team is now squarely focused on "the things that players need," says store GM Steve Allison.
After launching the store in 2018, Epic prioritized building features aimed at game publishers, because "there's no store without content," Allison said on a call with PC Gamer this week. Attention was then turned to building the mobile versions of the store, but the time has now come for a major effort to improve the user experience.
That includes a technical overhaul coming mid-year—"We're ripping out the guts of the Epic Games Launcher on PC," Allison said—as well as new social features. There are plans to test "community and forums around some of the top games on the store" and add player profiles, avatars, private messaging, voice chat, and game-independent parties.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Pack it up, Game Freak: Modder turns RDR2 into the best Pokémon game since Ruby, complete with catching wild beasts and trainer battles
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/pack-it-up-game-freak-modder-turns-rdr2-into-the-best-pokemon-game-since-ruby-complete-with-catching-wild-beasts-and-trainer-battles/
Before we continue, I'm gonna need you to promise you are not, and have never been, a representative of the Nintendo Co Ltd, also referred to as Nintendō Kabushiki gaisha, and formerly known as the Nintendo Playing Card Company.
And while we're here, you should probably affirm that you're not part of Rockstar, the GTA guys. All good? Great. A modder has turned Red Dead Redemption 2 into Pokémon. No, really. Look at this nonsense.
(… an embeded tweet…)
Blurbs is his name and, yep, he's graced our pages before. There was that time he let his viewers add custom voice lines to Skyrim NPCs (it was a mistake), the time he turned RDR2 into Super Monkey Ball, the time he turned GTA 5 NPCs into insurance fraudsters, and plenty else besides. This time, I find myself genuinely quite stunned by how convincingly he managed to turn Rockstar's cowboy game into a creature-collecting sim.
In place of Pokéballs, Arthur totes, well, regular… tennis balls? Old-timey balls of some description, certainly. He can chuck them at pretty much anything—from animals to humans to a disembodied torso—and attempt to add them to his coterie of warbeasts.
It all looks quite impressive. Nailing a creature with an Arthurball prompts a very non-copyright-infringing animation as they shrink down into it. The camera zeroes in on the ball as it twitches and—if you've damaged the beast enough and have luck on your side—it will eventually come to a halt, giving you the opportunity to nickname your new companion.
All rather splendid, but it doesn't end there. Blurbs even coded in a full-on battle system. Simply aim your gun at a fellow trainer and hit go (this is how it also works for Ash Ketchum, probably), and the mod will drop you into a full-on Poké-battle. Fail, and Arthur will keel over dead (this is how it also works for Ash Ketchum, probably).
It's genuinely quite astounding to look at, even if it is profoundly janky (cut Blurbs some slack, he made it in just over two weeks). Even better: unlike a lot of previous Blurbs projects, he says he'll be putting this one out for others to use somewhere down the line. Finally, Arthur Morgan will be the very best, like no one ever was.
>> The article also has an almost 20 minutes video of this mod.

GAMING NEWS

Highguard's 5v5 raid is 'here to stay' after developer noticed half the playerbase jumped over to its experimental mode at the weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/highguards-5v5-raid-is-here-to-stay-after-developer-noticed-half-the-playerbase-jumped-over-to-its-experimental-mode-at-the-weekend/
One of Highguard's biggest criticisms has been that limiting teams to 3v3 makes things feel awfully lonely on a big ol' empty map. Players asserted pretty early on that it's a game much better suited to a 5v5 setup, something which developer Wildguard ended up entertaining a mere four days after release.
It experimented with a 5v5 raid mode over the weekend, but maintained that it wasn't meant to be a replacement for its standard 3v3 mode. Well, that's still true, but it seems like trying out larger parties proved so successful that Wildguard is turning it into its own permanent game mode.

Civilization 7 players can once again play as a single civilization in a massive overhaul update that's 'tentatively' coming in spring: 'Together, these updates are similar in scope to an expansion'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/civilization-7-players-can-once-again-play-as-a-single-civilization-in-a-massive-overhaul-update-thats-tentatively-coming-in-spring-together-these-updates-are-similar-in-scope-to-an-expansion/
Though it brings me immense psychic pain to acknowledge the grinding forward churn of passing time, it's already been a year since the launch of Civilization 7. And while its reception could have been a warmer one, Firaxis is celebrating Civ 7's first anniversary by sharing its plans for an expansion-sized overhaul update that will bring much-requested gameplay revamps in the months ahead.
In a news post, Firaxis says it's planning to release three major feature revisions in a massive Test of Time update, which it's "tentatively aiming" to deploy in Spring. The sweeping reworks will revamp victory conditions, replace legacy paths with a new "triumph" system, and—most importantly—give players the ability to play as a single civilization throughout an entire game.

Helldivers 2 has a tank now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-has-a-tank-now/
Some might be too terrified to type these words where the Super Earth censors can see, but I'll say it: I'm starting to worry that we're trusting the Helldivers with too much terrifying firepower. Fortunately for the cape-wearing commandos gleefully detonating ordnance across the galaxy, my input has no bearing on the matter, and today has brought us yet another exciting addition to the armories of managed democracy.
Helldivers 2 has a tank now.
Update: This story erroneously characterized the Bastion stratagem as a battle tank when, as tank aficionados have kindly pointed out and the Bastion's in-game description indicates, it's less of a tank than it is a tank destroyer, owing to its lack of rotating turret. Please award your technicality points as appropriate.

As a Sims 4 Build Mode freak, today's free update is way more important than the new expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/as-a-sims-4-build-mode-freak-todays-free-update-is-way-more-important-than-the-new-expansion/
The next expansion for The Sims 4 is all about royal dynasties, family secrets, and scandals. While I love that for everyone who was dying for some new family tree features, that's all squarely in the realm of Live Mode and I am a staunch Build Mode woman. I almost don't feel tempted by Royalty & Legacy at all because The Sims 4 dropped something that was made just for me in a new base game update: more staircase customization.
The Sims 4's pre-expansion base game update happened today and yes, there's some family tree stuff in there too but I don't care because, I am quite serious, look at these stairs

Anime action RPG studio Pahdo Labs shuts down despite accruing $17.5M in funding: 'We believed making a demo of a familiar but new game would be our best shot'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/anime-action-rpg-studio-pahdo-labs-shuts-down-despite-accruing-usd17-5m-in-funding-we-believed-making-a-demo-of-a-familiar-but-new-game-would-be-our-best-shot/
In November, just three months after it launched into early access, Starlight Re:Volver halted updates. Despite a demo that did well during Steam Next Fest, the anime action RPG underperformed at launch. Pahdo Labs laid off half its team, halted updates, and said it was going "back to the drawing board", with a follow-up announcement promised for February.
Now that follow-up has arrived, and it's more bad news. CEO Dan Zou has announced the studio is shutting down completely. "Since our last update in November, we've been grappling with the reality that Starlight Re:Volver did not achieve the commercial success we needed to sustain Pahdo Labs. We aimed high, spread ourselves too thin, and shipped a game that couldn't hold a healthy player base."

Good news, Stardew Valley enthusiasts: the 1.7 update will make children 'a little more interesting' and add two new marriage candidates
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/good-news-stardew-valley-enthusiasts-the-1-7-update-will-make-children-a-little-more-interesting-and-add-two-new-marriage-candidates/
Stardew Valley's 1.7 patch is going to be much bigger than anyone probably expects, and that's accounting for the fact that most Stardew Valley patches end up being bigger than anyone expects. In a new interview with IGN, creator Eric Barone listed a handful of features coming in the update, and one of them answers an oft-made demand from Stardew Valley die-hards: make kids interesting.
>> In the same interview he also said that, in regards to Haunted Chocolatier, he won’t release something he’s not happy with (link); that he would love to make Stardew Valley 2 some day (link); and that there’s still one big secret in Stardew Valley (link).

Battlefield 6's Javelin anti-cheat stopped over 580,000 cheating attempts over the course of just one month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-6s-javelin-anti-cheat-stopped-over-580-000-cheating-attempts-over-the-course-of-just-one-month/
It looks like Battlefield 6's Javelin anti-cheat has been working overtime, identifying and smiting cheaters before they can muck up your games. It worked so hard, in fact, that it managed to identify hundreds of thousands of cheating instances over December.