It’s Tuesday and these are the gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Monster Hunter Wilds dominated Steam so hard this weekend that a new game from a Nintendo legend attracted a mere 5 reviews, and another dev tweeted they hadn't sold 'a single game' since Wilds released
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-dominated-steam-so-hard-this-weekend-that-a-new-game-from-a-nintendo-legend-attracted-a-mere-5-reviews-and-another-dev-tweeted-it-hadnt-sold-a-single-game-since-monster-hunter-released/
The Steam concurrent player count chart for Monster Hunter Wilds on SteamDB is comically vertical: in two hours Thursday night it shot from zero to just shy of a million players, and the rest of the weekend saw player levels wax and wane from around 600,000 to 1.3 million as hunters pulled themselves away from monster slaying to catch some sleep. It was a very good weekend for Monster Hunter, but maybe not such a great weekend for smaller games on Steam capsized by Wilds' tidal wave-sized wake.
On Friday, an indie game from longtime Nintendo artist Takaya Imamura launched on Steam to virtually zero notice. Imamura's credits at Nintendo across a 30+ year career include serving as the art director for Star Fox 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and the chief designer of F-Zero X. Basically, he's the guy who drew Star Fox and Captain Falcon as well as the other characters from those two beloved Nintendo series. His art is the star attraction of indie adventure game Omega 6: The Triangle Stars, which landed on Steam with a 40% launch discount and has so far accrued a grand total of five user reviews.
Omega 6 doesn't exactly look like the kind of game that would've pulled in 100,000 players on a slower weekend, but you have to figure a game attached to the artist behind Star Fox could've gotten a bit more attention without a launch like Monster Hunter Wilds landing on the same day.
Japanese indie developer STP Works tweeted as much on Friday. As reported by GamesRadar+ and Automaton, the developer of the Old Coin Pusher Friends series posted that its sales flatlined just as Monster Hunter Wilds released.
"Not a single game has been sold on Steam since Monster Hunter was released, lol," STP Works said (via Google Translate). I think it's fair to say the post's somewhat tongue-in-cheek—the most recent Old Coin Pusher Friends game is about seven months old, so no doubt was selling in small numbers at this point. But an outsized portion of the Japanese Steam audience, especially, probably had one thing and one thing only on its mind last weekend.
On the flip side, goofy new co-op horror game REPO, which launched on Steam shortly ahead of Wilds last week, has already proven to be an early access smash hit. So clearly it is possible to survive out in the field against Capcom's monster—at least as long as your game clearly surpasses a certain threshold for shitposting-style antics.
>> I don’t know but maybe, if PCGamer had made an article about Omega 6 before it launched, praising the art director as they’ve done in this one, more people would have known about it. Maybe.

The colder the weather is in London, the cheaper this videogame gets
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/the-colder-the-weather-is-in-london-the-cheaper-this-videogame-gets/
As I'm writing this, the temperature in London is 9.4 degrees Celsius. Also as I'm writing this, the indie puzzle game A Good Snowman is Hard To Build has been out for 10 years. What do those two facts have in common?
To celebrate turning 10, the adorable puzzle game by Draknek & Friends has come up with the most unusual and creative pricing structure I've ever seen. Whatever the current temperature in London is (in Celsius), that's the price of the game (in dollars). The price is updated hourly, so the colder it gets in London, the cheaper the game gets. It's 9.4 C as I'm writing this, which means you can currently buy the game for $9.40.
That will change, of course. At about 9 pm tonight, the predicted London temperature will be 6 C, so if you wait a few hours you'll be able to buy A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build for only $6. At 11 pm the thermometer will drop to a frosty 4 C, so it'll cost $4. At 6 am tomorrow? The temperature is projected to be 1 C. You can do the math.

GOG has two new sales:

• The Untold Tales Publisher Sale features up to 86% discounts during the next 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250204_untold_publisher_sale
• The Story Rich Promo has games up to 90% off during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250304_story_rich_promo

At Steam, this is what we find:

• Thank Goodness You're Here! will be 30% off until next Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366980/Thank_Goodness_Youre_Here/
• Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew gets a 50% discount until the 13th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/Shadow_Gambit_The_Cursed_Crew/
• The Jagged Alliance Ultimate Bundle, with 13 items, will be 68% off until the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36652/Jagged_Alliance_Ultimate_Bundle/
• The SpellForce Franchise, with 21 items, can be yours thanks to a 73% discount until March 13: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/8177/SpellForce_Franchise/
• Now comes the time for the sales:
  • Publisher Spike Chunsoft takes advantahe of the Visual Novel Festival and puts its games up to 80% off until Monday, the 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32618574/sale/SC_VN2025
  • The Carnival Sale 2025 will last until March 12 and some of the featured games and bundles are on sale with up to 80% discounts: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40645616/sale/CarnivalSale2025
  • Publisher HypeTrain celebrates its Spring Sale with up to 90% discounts. I’ve seen deals ending on March 7 and other that will last until the 13th, so be careful with that: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26684285/sale/SpringSale2025
  • The Midwinter in Middle-Earth Sale has the games from the now defunct Monolith Production on sale, as the Lego games are full price. They are up to 90% off and will last until the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34133273/sale/midwinterinmiddleearth2025
• And, of course, there’s also the weeklong deals... which aren’t many.

Fanatical has three new 24h Flash Deals:

• Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is 39% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/ace-attorney-investigations-collection
• SteamWorld Heist II has a 63% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/steamworld-heist-ii
• And Darksiders Blades & Whip Franchise Pack, with the first three games of the series, has an 80% deal: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/darksiders-blades-and-whip-franchise-pack

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Today it's Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 modder snaps, transforms all women, animals, and doors into fleshy spheres but turns all men invisible: 'It’s just spheres. Experience spheres!'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/kingdom-come-deliverance-2-modder-snaps-transforms-all-women-animals-and-doors-into-fleshy-spheres-but-turns-all-men-invisible-its-just-spheres-experience-spheres/
At times in Kingdom Come: Circumference Deliverance 2, I've felt like my Henry is rolling around Bohemia without a care in the world. This is not what I had in mind. The "Sphere World" mod by Nexus user Omniscye takes great effort to transform the harsh, unforgiving world of KCD2 into a softer, rounder, and fleshy society of spheres.
"Spheres have taken over the game! Animals look like spheres, women look like spheres, doors are now spheres. It’s just spheres," Omniscye proclaims, presumably with madness visible in his perfectly round eyes. "Experience spheres! Ride through the sunset as you pass by so many wild spheres."
I had not considered in my first 70 hours of KCD2 that I could be having a better time if all men were invisible and chickens were spheres, but I'm looking at these screenshots and failing to find a hole (or man) in their logic. Would real life itself be better this way, this writer wonders? Somehow Sphere World has been out for a whole two days and has only been downloaded 23 times. The official list of features reveals more:
Animals look like spheres. They roll, they bounce, they’re wild.

• Women? Also spheres. Good luck flirting with that.
• Doors are spheres now. How do they even work? Don’t ask.
• Ride through the sunset, dodging or admiring the endless parade of spheres.
• Sip wine with sphere locals. They’re round, they’re friendly, they’re... weird.
• Men are mostly invisible. Radavan’s forge experiments flopped hard.

Oh, and one very important disclaimer: "Known Issues: Taking a picture in photo mode can and usually does, crash your game." Yeah, that's good to know.
>> The article has some screenshots and a very short video.

There's already a Monster Hunter Wilds mod to change your appearance without a DLC voucher
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-character-edit-voucher-mod/
Monster Hunter Wilds has an impressive character creator, letting players make all manner of Ronalds McDonald and Hatsunes Miku (which you can use yourself by importing Wilds character design codes). It also lets me make an unsettlingly accurate recreation of my own face so I can watch my mild-mannered, writerly self annihilate condominium-scale reptiles. Capcom, however, has identified our universal desire to have cool-looking characters as a source of potential revenue.
As with the last two Monster Hunters, readjusting your hunter's appearance beyond basic hairstyle and color tweaks—something that, in an ideal world, would be a freely available feature—is locked behind Character Edit Vouchers: single use consumables that, outside of promotions and limited in-game events, can only be acquired through microtransactions.
You'll be shocked, I'm sure, to learn that modders have gotten right on that.
Enter the Unlimited Character and Palico Edits mod, which at time of writing has already been downloaded more than 13,000 times since creator Ridog8 posted it on Nexus Mods on Saturday night.
In extremely "I'm not touching you" fashion, the mod doesn't add any Character Edit Vouchers or prevent the game from subtracting one to edit your hunter or palico appearance. Instead, it simply lets you initiate appearance customization when you have zero vouchers. It's the same principle as setting the prices in a vending machine to "none money," except instead of a soda you get a new face.
>> The article has no media of the mod, but it has the instructions to use it.

GAMING NEWS

Square Enix has removed Denuvo from Final Fantasy 16
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/square-enix-has-removed-denuvo-from-final-fantasy-16/
And another one bites the dust. Square Enix has just released a new update for Final Fantasy 16 that removes the Denuvo anti-tamper tech. Final Fantasy 16 came out on PC in September 2024, meaning that it took around five to six months for SE to remove it.

GTA 5 Enhanced is your daily reminder that you should pirate every game that uses its own launcher
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/gta-5-enhanced-is-your-daily-reminder-that-you-should-pirate-every-game-that-uses-its-own-launcher/
A couple of hours ago, Rockstar launched the Enhanced Edition of Grand Theft Auto 5 on PC. Since this new version comes with some Ray Tracing features, I’ve decided to give them a go, only to be reminded how broken the Rockstar Games Launcher is. And, after two hours of trying to make this piece of crap work, I’ve thrown the towel.

Tuesday news, part two and last:

'The market is large enough to accommodate both games': NetEase is confident it can make space for Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/the-market-is-large-enough-to-accommodate-both-games-netease-is-confident-it-can-make-space-for-marvel-rivals-and-overwatch-2/
Overwatch 2 announced that it would be returning to the Chinese region right at the beginning of the year, with NetEase and Blizzard coming to a new agreement for a contract which would allow players to access the game again. But now NetEase has not just one but two hero shooters on its hands—although that doesn't seem to be too much of an issue.
"The expectations for Overwatch are similar to those for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone," NetEase said during an earnings call. "The aim is to revitalize the product and reach new highs. Both Marvel Rivals and Overwatch are excellent superhero shooters, and the market is large enough to accommodate both games. NetEase will strive to meet the diverse demands of their respective player communities."

Undisputed has added Jake Paul DLC and given the YouTube grandad-basher a rating equivalent to two-time world champion Ricky Hatton
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/undisputed-dlc-has-added-jake-paul-and-given-the-youtube-grandad-basher-a-rating-equivalent-to-two-time-world-champion-ricky-hatton/
Boxing, and boxing games, are in a strange place at the moment. In the sport itself, we have a high-ranking member of the Saudi Arabia Royal Court clicking his fingers like a Roman Emperor at the Colosseum to create the fights that fans have long been wanting to see. On the games front, meanwhile, we have Undisputed, a flawed but strongly supported boxing sim that's undisputed in its genre by nature of the fact that it's the only serious boxing sim to have been released in over a decade (and, if I'm not mistaken, the first ever one on PC).
Another thing that speaks to the state of boxing is that the headline feature of the new Undisputed DLC released yesterday isn't the three Mexican boxing legends included in it, nor James 'Buster' Douglas—the man who infamously toppled a prime Mike Tyson in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport. No, front-and-centre of the new DLC is the man who beat a 60-year-old iteration of Mike Tyson, 'The Problem Child' Jake Paul.

Just 2 weeks before the release of its next game, another studio falls victim to the relentless drive to be 'agile'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/just-2-weeks-before-the-release-of-its-next-project-another-indie-studio-falls-victim-to-the-relentless-drive-to-be-agile/
After 14 years of operation, indie developer Studio Fizbin is closing its doors: Co-founder Alexander Pieper said today that the studio will wind down this spring after releasing its next and final game, Reignbreaker.

There's 'sort of' sex in Inzoi, its developers explain, as terminally horny life sim players ask about getting freaky and watching their Zois shower
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/theres-sort-of-sex-in-inzoi-its-developers-explain-as-terminally-horny-life-sim-players-ask-about-getting-freaky-and-watching-their-zois-shower/
I may be a Build Mode woman in my life sims but I know the adult situations you Live Mode players concoct and what extra spicy stuff you have in your mods folders. The adults-only inclination of some life sim enjoyers was on display as the developers of up-and-comer Sims competitor Inzoi answered fan questions about how much sex and nudity Inzoi will have.

Jeff the Land Shark's creator tells whiny Marvel Rivals players who can't deal with her hero to buck up: 'Sounds like a skill issue to me, if my boy is beating your ass every night'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/jeff-the-land-sharks-creator-tells-whiny-marvel-rivals-players-who-cant-deal-with-her-hero-to-buck-up-sounds-like-a-skill-issue-to-me-if-my-boy-is-beating-your-ass-every-night/
There are plenty of heroes in Marvel Rivals with busted ults, but one of the most terrifying and probably the most frustrating to counter is Jeff the Land Shark's.
Despite looking adorable, his ultimate is vicious as he dives underground and emerges as a giant whirlpool, eating everyone caught in its radius. You gradually damage enemy heroes who are caught up in this, and can then launch them off the side of the map when you spit them out.
(...)
But even with all of these tricks up your sleeve, it can still be monstrously hard to avoid Jeff's ult. Instead of whining about it, though, the creator of Jeff the Land Shark just thinks players should git gud. "I think they should get better at the game," co-creator of Jeff the Land Shark, comics writer and novelist Kelly Thompson, says in an interview with Polygon. "Sounds like a skill issue to me, if my boy is beating your ass every night. I mean, listen, he has an incredibly powerful ult; just accept it, become zen about it. Everyone’s got upsides and downsides, right?"

Former Ultima Online lead says MMOs have 'been in a rut for a long time', and that cozy games like Animal Crossing have been filling a non-theme park hole
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/former-ultima-online-lead-says-mmos-have-been-in-a-rut-for-a-long-time-and-that-cozy-games-like-animal-crossing-have-been-filling-a-non-theme-park-hole/
The golden age of MMOs is no more—while it does still get new entries as a genre, we're long past the gold rush of the early 2010s, where it seemed like everyone and their mum was trying to make a new multiplayer world to jog around in. The handful of big boys remaining aren't relics by any means—they still have new, fresh expansions and bustling playerbases—but there's a reason why most popular current MMOs are at least 5-10 years old.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 3 has been delayed, as the devs say they're 'taking the time to deliver a great experience' for what will be a 'big moment' for Call of Duty
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-black-ops-6-season-3-has-been-delayed-as-the-devs-say-theyre-taking-the-time-to-deliver-a-great-experience-for-what-will-be-a-big-moment-for-call-of-duty/
It's a big month for Call of Duty, what with Black Ops 6 Season 3 gearing up for launch and Warzone's fifth anniversary next week. But with all of this comes a ton of pressure, which it seems like the devs are feeling as Call of Duty announces that Season 3 has been delayed by two weeks.

Looks like Hardware Unboxed has a hint of RDNA 4 power usage. I will say that the power usage is certainly quite high with 9070 XT using 423 watts vs 5070 Ti using 343 watts.

Considering how cut-down the 5070 is, I am actually surprised it managed to beat the 4070 Super in this chart.

Youtube reviews are vicious, and just the Thumbnails are already eviscerating NVidia for their 4090 claim:

Good thing AMD for bringing 16GB 9060(XT) cards; performance-wise the XT variant should be around at least the 4060Ti, and for that performance 8GB are simply not enough.

As for Medusa Point still using RDNA3.x, it would suck for lack of FSR4 (though since they didn't mention 3.5 and instead said 3.X, it could be a RDNA3 variant that actually could make use of RDNA4 - or the NPU could be used for that maybe?), but in terms of raw performance, it makes sense, as they will still be limited by the (LP)DDR5 memory, so no bigger GPU needed in that regard.

The games for Humble Choice March 2025 have been revealed.

• Cavern of Dreams
• Gravity Circuit
• Homeworld 3
• Pacific Drive
• Racine
• Sir Whoopass: Immortal Death
• Tales of Kenzera: ZAU (EA key)
• WILD HEARTS (EA key)

I would have liked Pacific Drive, but the the presence of the two EA keys are making me skip this month.

Certainly. Not only does it fall short of the 4070Ti, so it doesn't even move the performance up one tier, but it sometimes loses with the 4070 Super. It's embarrassing.

So, not only is the card joke, but even Nvidia won't have FE cards at launch? What, even they're ashamed of their products.

The 5000 series launch is getting worse and worse for Nvidia.

But don't fool yourself, Jensen isn't the clown. He's the host of the circus and the clowns will be the ones buying this card at anything above MSRP.

I mean, look at Indiana Jones from the Hardware Unboxed review:

Those 12GB of VRAM are already hurting the card, at launch, running at 1440p. And with DLSS!

A shame about the 8GB versions. AMD should have gone with a 192bit bus and stick at least 12GB of VRAM.

About the benchmark, that I haven't watched, I don't know what to say. Maybe they wanted people to know that now they can also do path tracing? Maybe to keep people¡s expectations in check for tomorrow? I don't know why they've done it, to be honest.

I really hope it's a case of an partner model screwing up their design and the rest of the lineup performs as it should. After all, this is not an MBA card.

So, one Steve has shown us that the 9070XT uses as much power as the 7900XT while the other Steve has all but said that the 9070XT will perform like a 7900XT, plus any improvements on RT.

Well, at least it seems that AMD managed to follow what people expect and bring performance one tier down in price this time around. $600 for what used to be an (overpriced) $900 card two years ago is good news.

As the lawyer on retainer for Flop, my client has ask you to Cease & Desist in such defamatory statements. My client has not, nor have they have ever been as bad as the RTX 5070

Edit: After watching multiple reviews of the 5070 the one universal theme I saw from all the reviewers was "Guys wait until tomorrow." which tells me that AMD's performance slides maybe accurate and not cherry picked nonsense. Granted the game selection hinted that they were being straight shooters. CP2077 and BMW* both favor Nvidia and AMD put them on their charts anyway.

*Sun Wukong not the car.

Nice!

I managed to find time to try a few demos as well.

The good: "Deliver At All Costs" and "Chains of Freedom". Both have gone straight into my wishlist. 

• Deliver At All Costs is a lighthearted driving game about driving around, completing missions, upgrading your vehicle, finding collectibles and side-quests. The isometric camera only has two positions, which kind of sucks, and the handling of the vehicles is a bit loose, but on purpose to follow the theme of the game. Once the content of the demo ends, you can still play the game running around in search of the collectibles and side-quests.
• Chains of Freedom is a turn based strategy game that lets you freely explore the map when you're not in combat. I'm surpised by how well it plays given the kind of games the studio has made before this one.

Both demos are still up, if any of you want to check them out.

The meh: "Tempest Rising" and "City Tales - Medieval Era".

• Tempest Rising is a new take on Combat & Conquer as many of you already know. It plays well but I wasn't a big fan of C&C and the demo hasn't done anything to change my mind. Don't get me wrong, it's very well done, but not my prefered style.
• City Tales - Medieval Era is a city builder game that resembles the still unreleased Foundation. It's ok but the devs have decided to not implement an economy system... but buildings still require money to be build. And the money can only be had by constantly expanding the city and by leveling up the houses. It sound good in practice, but I found that it ends limiting the way you want to play the game, among other personal nitpicks.

Again, both demos are still up.

The bad: "Roadcraft" and "Secrets of Grindea"

• Roadcraft_ I mostly knew what to expect as I played Mudrunner on the Epic Store, and the vehicle I tried behaved as I thought it would. The problem is that the game crased twice in less than 5 minutes. I bothered to send an error report the first time, but for the second (I checked the map, went back to the game and then forgot where I was supposed to go and went back into the map, crashing the game) I didn't bother.
• Secrets of Grindea was even worse, as a message appeared on just after launching it saying that there was a workshop mod to run it in Spanish, asking if I wanted to try it... but the control didn't work and I couldn't click on any option or even close the game other than from the task bar. It's a shame and I hope they fix that once it launched.

The demos of these two are still available as well. You may be more lucky than I was.

Not that anyone has a choice even if they wanted a 5070 cause it's gonna be all out of stock anyway. Like just buy Radeon at this point is what Nvidia is telling everyone lol