Here come the first round of news of the year! And, like the last ones, they're all in one post:
SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS
Steam's Top 10
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Sea of Thieves
- Valve Index VR Kit
- Rust
- Hades
- Raft
- Phasmophobia
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Operation Broken Fang
GOG has left behind the big sale and is now back to its usual business, and that means that we have a new weekly sale full of retro-styled games up to 80% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210104_weekly_sale
At the Humble Store there's a Versus Evil Sale, with up to 90% discounts for the next 3 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/versus-evil-publisher-sale/
And Fanatical should have a new Star Deal, but the site hasn't updated the front page and I don't know which is. But there's a new Sci-Fi Bundle with 7 games with a 97% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/sci-fi-bundle
SOFTWARE & DRIVERS
Steam breaks new record with over 25 million concurrent players
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/steam-breaks-new-record-with-over-25-million-concurrent-players/
Back in April 2020, Steam set a new record for concurrent players by having over 24 million players online at the same time. And today, Valve’s platform was able to hit another record, by having 25 million concurrent players.
As we can see, CS:GO, DOTA 2 and PUBG are the most played games on Steam right now. Cyberpunk 2077, which came out recently, is in fourth place, followed by Grand Theft Auto 5. Rush, Team Fortress 2 and Rainbow Six Siege also are in sixth, seventh and eighth place, respectively. Football Manager 2020 is in ninth place and ARK: Survival Evolved is in the last place of the Top 10.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is Steam's game of the year 2020
https://www.pcgamer.com/red-dead-redemption-2-is-steams-game-of-the-year-2020/
Valve have announced the winners of the 2020 Steam Awards, as voted by players. In most of the categories games are eligible if they're released on Steam after November, which is why 2020's game of the year is Red Dead Redemption 2, which made it to Steam in December of 2019. Rockstar's cowboy-em-up also won the award for Outstanding Story-Rich Game, beating several popular contenders and also Detroit: Become Human.
>> And here you'll find the top rated games of 2020 by the Steam users.
MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS
This 4GB Mod for Skyrim brings unique textures to each and every race
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/4gb-mod-skyrim-unique-textures-every-race/
Modder ‘HeartAttackMan’ has released a new HD Texture Pack for both the Legacy and the Special editions of Skyrim. As the title suggests, Disparity and Diversity adds unique textures to each and every race in order to give them a more varied appearance and to better reflect each race’s characteristics.
All the newly overhauled textures will work with the default male/female meshes. The male textures will work with vanilla meshes, even though they were made for Males of Skyrim. On the other hand, the female textures work best with the UNP compatible meshes, or the Nordic Faces.
This mod is compatible with all racial ability overhauls such as Imperious. It is also compatible with skeleton replacers, as well as with NPC overhauls.
The 2K version of this mod is 1.4GB in size, whereas the 4K version is 4GB in size. You can download Disparity and Diversity for Skyrim Legacy from here, and for Skyrim Special Edition from here.
First trailer released for Kingdom Come Deliverance Remake in Minecraft
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-trailer-released-for-kingdom-come-deliverance-remake-in-minecraft/
A team of modders is currently working on a Kingdom Come Deliverance Remake in Minecraft. This project will recreate the entire game in Minecraft, and below you can find a trailer for it.
Cyberpunk 2077 third-person mod available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-third-person-mod-available-for-download/
Last month, we shared a video showing what Cyberpunk 2077 could look like as a third-person game. And today, we are happy to report that the first third-person mod for CD Projekt RED’s latest game is available for download.
Introduced by Jelle Bakker, this is basically a Cheat Engine mod that allows you to play the game from a third-person viewpoint. Do note that this mod is currently a WIP, meaning that it may have some bugs and glitches.
The latest version of this third-person mod for Cyberpunk 2077 comes with 4 different camera views. In order to install it, you’ll simply have to download the mod from here, and extract its contents in “Cyberpunk 2077binx64”. You can then activate the new camera viewpoints by pressing the “B” key.
GAMING NEWS
Here are 5 minutes of new gameplay footage from Hitman 3
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-5-minutes-of-new-gameplay-footage-from-hitman-3/
GameInformer has shared a video, showing 5 minutes of brand new gameplay footage from Hitman 3. This video features the first 5 minutes of Hitman 3’s opening Dubai mission, during which Agent 47 descends upon The Sceptre.
Fresh Hollow Knight: Silksong details come out of Edge
https://www.pcgamer.com/fresh-hollow-knight-silksong-details-come-out-of-edge/
Team Cherry has blessed Edge (curse you, Edge!) with a look at the Hollow Knight sequel, which stars the character Hornet from the first game as she explores the new world of Pharloom. Game co-directors Ari Gibson and William Pellen revealed a lot more than they have previously about Silksong, and talked about some of its new design elements. Don't worry, they've assured everyone that the game is just as hard as the first game. About identical, actually.
The final Binding of Isaac expansion comes in March
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-final-binding-of-isaac-expansion-comes-in-march/
That delay on The Binding of Isaac: Repentance is a short one, as the final expansion for one of the most beloved roguelikes of all time is coming on March 31st, 2021. That'll be almost three years after it was announced, but it was only supposed to release in December. December to March is a hell of a lot less time than a lot of other games were delayed by 2020's nonsense.
Former Little Nightmares devs' upcoming sci-fi game has strong action horror vibes
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-little-nightmares-devs-upcoming-sci-fi-game-has-strong-action-horror-vibes/
New studio Section 9 Interactive has put out a few gifs of their upcoming project, a "sci-fi action adventure title for PC and the next-generation consoles." Section 9 is based in Malmö, Sweden, and is composed of developers who worked on Little Nightmares and the upcoming Little Nightmares 2, as well as LittleBigPlanet for the PS VITA—that is, former developers related to Tarsier Studios.
Age of Empires 4 is being played right now
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-4-is-being-played-right-now/
Shannon Loftis, studio head of World's Edge, has shared a year-end update on the state of Age of Empires in its various incarnations, including the fourth one which we last saw in November of 2019. "I don't want to make you jealous," she wrote, "but we are literally playing this game every single day—both in Washington and in Vancouver."
Bee tycoon sim Hive Time gets chat integration, other new additions
https://www.pcgamer.com/bee-tycoon-sim-hive-time-gets-chat-integration-other-new-additions/
If Bee Simulator was more of an action game for kids than you were hoping and you'd rather play something closer to SimCity with a colony of bees instead, Hive Time may be the insect sim for you. Released a year ago last month, it just celebrated its "hiveversary" with an update that adds a bunch of new stuff, including chat integration as seen in the extremely Australian trailer above. (Hive Time is the work of Australian indie developers Josh "Cheeseness" Bush and Miriam "Mimness" Roser.)
Nearly 4 years after release, Nier: Automata's final secret found
https://www.pcgamer.com/nearly-4-years-after-release-nier-automatas-final-secret-found/
Three years and ten months after release, someone finally found Nier: Automata's final secret. It was announced by discoverer Lance McDonald today, then confirmed by series director Yoko Taro less than seven hours later. The confirmation of the final secret was also noted by the official Nier account. Spoilers follow, but frankly you'd literally have to delve into the game's code to discover this.
Awesome Games Done Quick 2021 kicks off today
https://www.pcgamer.com/awesome-games-done-quick-2021-kicks-off-today/
It's a week of speedruns, online, live, and one of—in my small opinion—the most jolliest celebrations of gaming in gaming. Awesome Games Done Quick is entirely virtual this year and it's already kicking off. There are some great games in store, from Ori to Skyrim and Diablo 3. You can go and read the full schedule of games here or check it out on There's a lotta good if you go and look at the full Awesome Games Done Quick 2021 schedule.
Diablo 3's Darkening of Tristram returns this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-3s-darkening-of-tristram-returns-this-month/
Diablo 3's annual nostalgic celebration of all things bloody and pixellated is back this year, as The Darkening of Tristram kicks off today at 4 PM PST and runs through January 31st at 4 PM PST.
Psychonauts 2 update says it's almost finished, will be out in 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/psychonauts-2-update-says-its-almost-finished-will-be-out-in-2021/
Over the break, Double Fine provided an update on the state of the studio's current project Psychonauts 2 in the form of a nine-minute video hosted by Tim Schafer. Wearing a Christmas sweater with the Double Fine's two-headed baby on it, he festively explains that "all the levels are in the game" and when the developers come back from their break they'll be finishing and polishing it. As the video description says, "2020 was a dang strange time but Psychonauts 2 is doing well and will release next year."
Apex Legends enters the ring for this week's Fight Night collection event
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-enters-the-ring-for-this-weeks-fight-night-collection-event/
Drop your guns and put up your dukes, because Apex Legends' Fight Night Collection Event kicks off this week with 24 new cosmetics, a limited-time 'Airdrop Escalation' mode, friendly loot-gifting robots and a round of fisticuffs courtesy of Pathfinders Town Takeover.
