It’s Thursday and these are the news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

This week, the Epic Store gives away Escape Academy: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/escape-academy-bfc2bf
Next week, the free game will be Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery.

GOG has two new promos:

• The Blue Monday Promo comes early, but it does so with up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250116_blue_monday_promo
• The GOG MIX Promo has games of all kinds up to 90% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250116_gog_mix_promo

Steam has three new deals:

• STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town will be 75% off until January 22: https://store.steampowered.com/app/978780/STORY_OF_SEASONS_Friends_of_Mineral_Town/
• Edge Of Eternity features an 80% discount until the 22nd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/269190/Edge_Of_Eternity/
• And Death and Taxes, that has a demo, will be 85% off until the 29th of January: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1166290/Death_and_Taxes/

Humble Bundle brings the Nacon Motorsports: Drive & Thrive Bundle, with up to 12 items to get (11 games and 1 coupon) during 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/nacon-motorsports-drive-thrive.

And Fanatical has this:

• The Star Deal has been extended another 24 hours.
• The new BYO Explosive Bundle comes with 21 titles to choose from for your bundles of 3+, 5+ or 7+ games during 42 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-explosive-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 32.0.101.6458/6257 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-32-0-101-6458-6257
Highlights

Highlights:

• Launch driver for Intel® Arc™ B570 Graphics (codename Battlemage).
• Launch driver for Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 2 Mobile Processors (codename Arrow Lake-H).

Gaming Highlights:

• Game performance improvements on Intel® Core™ Ultra series 2 versus Intel® 31.0.101.6449 software driver for:
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12)
    • Up to 6.8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Basic settings

Fixed Issues

Intel® Arc™ B-Series Graphics Products:

• Indiana Jones and The Great Circle (VK) may exhibit inconsistent performance and GPU memory usage during gameplay.
• Shadow of The Tomb Raider (DX12) may experience intermittent application crash and corruption in the game menu with XeSS enabled.

Here are some early visual benefits of DLSS 4’s Transformer Model
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/here-are-some-early-visual-benefits-of-dlss-4s-transformer-model/
NVIDIA has just lifted the embargo for some of its RTX 50 series slides, and we can finally share some interesting comparisons between DLSS 4’s Transformer Model and Basic Temporal Upscalers. So, let’s take a look at the visual benefits of the new DLSS 4 Mode.
DLSS 4 will be supported by all RTX GPUs. This means that these improvements will be available to all RTX gamers. This is crucial to note. The only DLSS 4 feature that will be exclusive to the RTX 50 series will be Multi Frame Generation.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is fully playable on Ryujinx
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/donkey-kong-country-returns-hd-is-fully-playable-on-ryujinx/
Nintendo has just released Donkey Kong Country Returns HD on Nintendo Switch and to the surprise of no one, the game is already fully playable on Ryujinx. So, by using this Nintendo Switch emulator, PC gamers can play the game with 60FPS and at Native 4K on their PC.
What’s really funny here is that Nintendo has already taken down Ryujinx. As we informed you in October 2024, Nintendo shut it down. And despite that, its last public version is still able to run this latest game.
>> There’s a slightly over 5 minutes video.

This mod brings elements from Undead Nightmare to Red Dead Redemption
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-mod-brings-elements-from-undead-nightmare-to-red-dead-redemption/
Now here is something really cool. Modder ‘GLITCHED MATRIX’ has released a mod that brings elements from Undead Nightmare to Red Dead Redemption, and vice versa.
As such, in RDR, players will now encounter Zombie Horses, Zombie Bats, Zombie Cougars, and Zombie Goats. You will also find Undead Nightmare-themed Camp and Campsites. Moreover, there will be new cosmetics and new weather. Plus, you can expect some texture and model replacements based on it.
Similarly, Undead Nightmare will get various elements that were present in RDR. For instance, you will now find a working passenger train in New Austin. The minigames that were in RDR will also appear in Undead Nightmare. Plus, you can expect animal and NPC spawns in any region of your choice.
>> The article has a 2 minutes video.

GTA 5 mod recreating GTA 4's map nuked after 6 years of work because people noticed, and Rockstar insisted on a 'friendly takedown', if you know what I mean
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/gta-5-mod-recreating-gta-4s-map-nuked-after-6-years-of-work-because-people-noticed-and-rockstar-insisted-on-a-friendly-takedown-if-you-know-what-i-mean/
The GTA 5 Liberty City Preservation Project (LCPP) was released this month after six years of work, recreating GTA 4's unforgettable Liberty City within GTA 5's game world. This was a seriously impressive piece of work, managing to bring over the entirety of Rockstar's skewed New York and show it all off with GTA 5's improved visuals and audio: It even arrived with Steam Deck compatibility.
The joy was, however, short lived. As is now something of a tradition, the mod gained some traction, was covered by the traditional media and spread rapidly on forums and social sites. And then The Man at Rockstar HQ noticed.
The Man doesn't like GTA mods, especially in this the year of our lord GTA 6, and Take-Two has a long history of going after mod makers whose projects get a little too close for comfort (there have been rumours of an official GTA 4 remaster for a while now).
The modding team behind LCPP has now taken down the mod, and the following was posted on the project's Discord:
"Due to the unexpected attention that our project received and after speaking with Rockstar Games, we have decided to take down the Liberty City Preservation project," says a post from modder NK Jellman. "We appreciate all the support that the project has received, and we look forward to continuing to pursue our passion for modding the Grand Theft Auto series."

GAMING NEWS

Alan Wake 2 will be the first game to support RTX Mega Geometry
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/alan-wake-2-will-be-the-first-game-to-support-rtx-mega-geometry/
Now here is something that passed under my radar. Last week, NVIDIA revealed RTX Mega Geometry, one of the new features of its RTX GPUs. And, according to the green team, Alan Wake 2 will be the first game that will support it.
RTX Mega Geometry accelerates BVH building, making it possible to ray trace up to 100x more triangles than today’s standard. RTX Mega Geometry intelligently updates clusters of triangles in batches on the GPU. This will reduce CPU overhead and increase performance and image quality in ray traced scenes. Plus, NVIDIA claims that this will reduce VRAM consumption.

Thursday news, the second part:

The Sims 3 just got its first patch in over a decade and fans aren't quite sure what it means
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-3-just-got-its-first-patch-in-over-a-decade-and-fans-arent-quite-sure-what-it-means/
Just before all the hubbub about the Sims 4 anniversary updates yesterday, its predecessor got an unexpected update too. The Sims 3 just got its first patch in years this week and so far EA's just said nothing about it.

Riot admits it 'screwed up' League of Legends' new reward system, because somebody forgot to add a big chunk of numbers in the new XP calculations
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/riot-admits-it-screwed-up-league-of-legends-new-reward-system-because-somebody-forgot-to-add-a-big-chunk-of-numbers-in-the-new-xp-calculations/
Riot Games says it "screwed up" recent changes to League of Legends that were intended to simplify the game's overly complex reward systems, but instead dramatically slowed level advancement and new hero unlocks. Head of studio Andrei "Meddler" van Roon said in an update posted today that "the numbers we shipped were pretty far off from what they should be for many of you," and promised that fixes are incoming.

Romanian folklore, David Lynch, and heavy metal come together in a dark fantasy hack-and-slash action game 'with an even darker sense of humor'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/romanian-folklore-david-lynch-and-heavy-metal-come-together-in-a-dark-fantasy-hack-and-slash-action-game-with-an-even-darker-sense-of-humor/
If you've ever thought to yourself that what you really want from life is a videogame inspired by Romanian folkore, David Lynch, and heavy metal, then wow, this is your lucky day. Because the "dark fantasy hack-and-slash adventure" called Moroi, set to launch in early 2025, claims to be exactly that.

The Blood of Dawnwalker's design director explains the ARPG's time-as-resource mechanic, and how 'both action and inaction have consequences’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-blood-of-dawnwakers-design-director-explains-the-arpgs-time-as-resource-mechanic-and-how-both-action-and-inaction-have-consequences/
When PC Gamer visited The Blood of Dawnwalker's developer, Rebel Wolves, for our upcoming, world-exclusive issue of PC Gamer magazine, we spoke directly to the much-anticipated ARPG's design director, Daniel Sadowski, about its unique 'time as a resource' mechanic, and how it plays into the game's wider narrative sandbox approach where gamers create their own story through their choices.

'The team wants every kind of player to enjoy the game': Marvel Rivals director wants to foster a competitive scene, but not at the expense of fun
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/the-team-wants-every-kind-of-player-to-enjoy-the-game-marvel-rivals-director-wants-to-foster-a-competitive-scene-but-not-at-the-expense-of-fun/
Marvel Rivals hit the ground running at launch with 33 heroes, seven maps, and even a tournament section on the home page. Before long, NetEase had already set up and hosted an in-game tournament, and it looks like this is only the beginning of Marvel Rivals' journey to being a more seriously competitive shooter.

Marvel Rivals devs have accidentally buffed Storm into a tornado-yeeting monster that everyone is picking, and no-one knows how to counter: 'A clustered group is a snack for us'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/marvel-rivals-devs-have-accidentally-buffed-storm-into-a-tornado-yeeting-monster-that-everyone-is-picking-and-no-one-knows-how-to-counter-a-clustered-group-is-a-snack-for-us/
Storm is one of the many Duelists in Marvel Rivals, but despite her cool design and neat abilities, she wasn't really anyone's first choice in Season 0. It wasn't that she was particularly weak; there were just a ton of better choices, like Winter Soldier, Punisher, Star-Lord, and Iron Fist. So to remedy this and make the weather witch more enticing, NetEase gave her a huge buff, and in doing so, has created a monster.

Obsidian vet Josh Sawyer says that while 'it's not that important' if players never finish an RPG—after all, who finishes Skyrim—'we can kind of chill out' on size
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/obsidian-vet-josh-sawyer-says-that-while-its-not-that-important-if-players-never-finish-an-rpg-after-all-who-finishes-skyrim-we-can-kind-of-chill-out-on-size/
Obsidian head honcho and all around RPG veteran Josh Sawyer did another Tumblr Q&A earlier this week (seen above), wherein he dispensed some more of his design wisdom. For the uninitiated, Sawyer is a seasoned developer—having worked on games like Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and the Pillars of Eternity series—as well as the upcoming RPG, Avowed.
When asked if the fact that most players who buy games don't finish them (guilty) impacted Sawyer's design philosophy, he seemed zen about the prospect: "We want the player to play the game, and whatever amount they play, we want them to come away and say 'I'm glad I bought the game, I enjoyed it, great, awesome' … Just having someone's money is not good enough—that's very short sighted."

WoW's Plunderstorm mode is back, and it just lets you buy what you want with your in-game dubloons instead of having to grind
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wows-plunderstorm-mode-is-back-and-it-just-lets-you-buy-what-you-want-with-your-in-game-dubloons-instead-of-having-to-grind/
World of Warcraft's Plunderstorm is back for another go from January 14 to February 18. If you've got no idea what I'm talking about, let me explain—Blizzard put a pirate Fortnite in their MMO. Why? Well, for the most part, the company's making an attempt at branching out and evolving its existing game systems—having a little experiment, as a treat. The second part is that it's a good bit of fun to grab some pirate swag.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 made millions for Games Workshop, and now it wants more hit videogames: "Clearly we are looking for the next one"
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/warhammer-40-000-space-marine-2-made-millions-for-games-workshop-and-now-it-wants-more-hit-videogames-clearly-we-are-looking-for-the-next-one/
Warhammer videogames have been pretty hit-and-miss over the years, to put it mildly—but Saber Interactive's Space Marine 2 was firmly on the 'hit' side of the fence last year, reaching a player count of 4.5 million a month after launch and drawing more interest to the world's most grimdark sci-fi setting than ever. Unsurprisingly, Games Workshop's quite happy with that result—and pretty keen to see it happen again.

That's the thing, the results come from Nvidia's slides. They've been really cagey about the raster performance uplift. So the fact that a few of their cherry picked games show these results does't bode well for the performance uplift. Speaking GPU performance....

You are correct. Keep in mind that Jizz said "this might be one of the worst gen on gen uplifts there is" while I didn't say that the end results could be better (I learn from past mistakes), just to wait and see how it performs. It may actually be the worst!

As I said to haxxiy, I'm well aware of that and I'm not saying that the actual performance may be better, nor worse for the matter, just to wait and see how it really performs in proper reviews.

By the way, take this as you wish:

New report says PC games are outselling console games, calling PC gaming a 'bright spot' in a troubled industry
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/new-report-says-pc-games-are-outselling-console-games-calling-pc-gaming-a-bright-spot-in-a-troubled-industry/
Earlier today, Matthew Ball, CEO of investment strategy firm Epyllion, released an early version of a presentation called "The State of Video Gaming in 2025." The slideshow, which incorporates data from market research firms like IDG, Newzoo, and Circana, summarizes worldwide market trends in the gaming industry. I'll be honest: Things aren't great. Following a decade-long growth wave between 2011 and 2021, the industry's revenue growth has stalled, feeding into an atmosphere of risk aversion and stagnating investment.

The outlook isn't entirely dire, however. While gaming industry revenue growth has plateaued over the last three years, Epyllion's analysis says PC gaming is "a bright spot" of continued growth, now accounting for the majority of non-mobile content revenue.

According to Epyllion, both PC and console gaming are—as you may have noticed—considerably bigger concerns than they were at the turn of the 2010s. In 2024, consumers were spending almost $50 billion more on PC and console games than they were in 2011.

But beginning in 2021, console gaming growth started to slow, which is particularly clear in worldwide Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 console sales. Compared to the previous console generation, the current Microsoft and Sony console lines had, after 49 months, sold nearly 7 million fewer systems.

PC gaming, meanwhile, has only continued to grow. "While console has stagnated since 2021," Epyllion says, PC gaming revenue "has grown 20%."

The article is longer and has some graphs, in case you want to learn more.