Thank you. It certainly makes it easier to understand what each of the new techs does.

Weekly update

Been playing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on Steam.

Reached Chapter 9 after doing all the side quests in Chapter 8.

I'm really loving the story and the fully fleshed out locations in Midgar

It’s Monday and these are the news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/assassins-creed-shadows-hits-2-million-players-putting-it-on-track-to-be-the-series-most-successful-game-yet/
Just three days after its release date, Assassin's Creed Shadows has hit yet another milestone and passed 2 million players. According to Ubisoft, "Assassin's Creed Shadows has now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey."
Shadows had already sailed past 1 million players in its first 24 hours, easily breaking AC Valhalla's record. To put that into perspective, when Valhalla released in 2020, Ubisoft claimed it was its biggest PC launch ever (although the game's Steam playerbase remains smaller than other games in the AC franchise). Five years later, Shadows seems to have eclipsed even that.
This record-breaking wave of players at launch is thanks in part to the fact that Ubisoft didn't wait to release Shadows on Steam⁠—Valhalla didn't arrive on Steam until a full two years after its original release date. That may explain why Valhalla has far fewer players on Steam than Shadows, Odyssey, and Origins, which were all available on Steam at launch.
At the time of writing, Shadows' all-time peak concurrent player count on Steam is hovering at just over 60,000, within spitting distance of Odyssey's record of 62,069, but far beyond Origins (41,551) and Valhalla (15,679). If Shadows continues to attract new players at this rate, it could pass Odyssey's record in a matter of days.
In fact, Shadows is on track to be one of the biggest game releases of the year. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was hailed as a hit earlier this year and took two weeks to hit 2 million players, a milestone Shadows reached in just a few days.
>> I’ve checked and the all-time peak has reached 64,825 players, beating Odyssey. And now that you know, I won’t need to copy tomorrow’s the article about this milestone.

Steam has some new deals for us:

• DNF Duel is going to be 70% off during 39 more hours: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1216060/DNF_Duel/
• Make Way will have a 50% discount until the 30th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1445790/Make_Way/
• Shieldwall will be 60% off until the same 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1216320/Shieldwall/
• The Atari Family GDC Sale brings up to 85% discounts until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40527942/sale/AtariGDCSale2025
• The Aichi Game Castel! Is here with Japanese games to explore, with two of them being on sale until the 2nd and 3rd of April, respectively: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45345412/sale/AichiGameCastle
• And dotAGE, with a demo, will have a 30% discount until the 4th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/638510/dotAGE/

Humble Bundle presents the EARTH DEFENSE FORCE Collection, with up to 24 items (games and DLCs) to get during 18 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/earth-defense-force-collection.

And Fanatical presents:

• Star Deal is Farm Together, with a 70% discount during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/farm-together
• Publisher Arc System Works puts its games up to 90% off during 12 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/arc-system-works
• And the BYO Early Access Bundle has 14 games to choose for your 2+, 3+ or 5+ bundles during 20 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-early-access-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Valve's DRM was inspired by an exec's nephew, who 'used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator… he sent me a lovely thank you note'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valves-drm-was-inspired-by-the-cmos-nephew-who-used-a-usd500-check-id-sent-him-for-school-expenses-and-bought-himself-a-cd-rom-replicator-he-sent-me-a-lovely-thank-you-note/
One of this year's most interesting GDC talks was delivered by Monica Harrington, a founding member of Valve and the company's first chief marketing officer, who went over her history with the company that brought us Half-Life and Steam.
There's so much in Harrington's career and memories to pick out, but a notable anecdote which PC Gamer was also able to follow-up on involves when, in the company's earliest years, Harrington gave her nephew some money: and then found out what he'd done with it.
"At the time consumer-level piracy was just becoming a real issue," said Harrington during her talk. "My own nephew had just used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator, so he sent me a lovely thank you note essentially saying how happy he was to copy and share games with his friends.
"I knew he wasn't a bad kid, but there'd been this generational shift, plus the new replicator technology. All of that put our entire business model at risk."
Harrington was more on the business and marketing side at Valve and at the time most PC titles, including Half-Life, were distributed as CD-ROMs. Consoles like PlayStation had their own proprietary spins on the format that incorporated copy protection, but PC had no equivalent.
"Because of gamers like my nephew, we implemented an authentication scheme," said Harrington. "Customers had to validate and register their copy with Valve directly. Soon gamers were flooding message boards, and they were saying, 'The game doesn't work.'
"And Mike [Harrington, Valve co-founder] stressed out and calls everyone he can find who's complained. It turns out none of them had actually bought the game. So it turned out the authentication system was working really well."

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Dark Souls Remastered will soon get a Seamless Co-Op Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dark-souls-remastered-will-soon-get-a-seamless-co-op-mod/
Modder ‘Yui’ has announced that a Seamless Co-Op Mod will be released soon for Dark Souls Remastered. Similarly to the mod for Elden Ring and DS3, it will remove all multiplayer boundaries and allow for connections to persist after death.
This is one of the best mods for the Dark Souls games. And, since some players are still playing the first DS game, it will be a must-have when it comes out.
Going into more details, the Seamless Co-Op Mod will allow you to play with friends throughout the entirety of the game with no restrictions. With this, it’s theoretically possible to play the game from the tutorial up to the final boss completely in one co-op session. This will be a dream come true for a lot of Dark Souls fans.
What’s crucial to note is that if a player dies, they will respawn in the same world at the last bonfire they rested at. The session will not be terminated. Moreover, defeating enemy bosses and clearing areas no longer sends co-operators home.
All fog walls/barriers that usually restrict the multiplayer zone are gone, and all NPC dialogue and talk events will be synchronized. When one player rests at a bonfire the world state will reset for all players. Plus, game progression events completed in online play will also progress the game in your own world.
The mod will most likely support up to six players. This means that you can play in co-op with five of your friends. And that’s not all. The mod will overhaul Dark Souls’ peer-to-peer connection system, using Steam’s newer networking API. Thus, you should expect a more stable and robust multiplayer experience.
There is currently no ETA for when the mod will come out. My guess is that it will become available in one or two weeks. Or at least that’s what happened with the Seamless Co-Op Mod for Dark Souls 3.
>> There is a close to 5 minutes video of the mod.

GTA 5 Enhanced Edition looks glorious with the ChromatiX Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/gta-5-enhanced-edition-looks-glorious-with-the-chromatix-mod/
Last week, we informed you about the RealityV Mod for Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Edition. And today, we bring you another similar graphics mod, called ChromatiX. So, let’s see what this mod brings to the table.
ChromatiX Enhanced V0.1 Public Beta improves the game’s visuals in many ways. It increases traffic and pedestrian density, making the world feel more alive. It also enhances lighting and atmosphere for all weather conditions, both day and night.
The mod will also improve police sirens glow and intensity for day and night. Plus it will make the nights brighter, taking inspiration from RDR2. Rain weather will be now more dramatic with higher intensity and improved rain textures. You can also expect increased reflection intensity across all weathers.
Finally, the mod adds a new lens flare effect for a more cinematic look. Oh, and it will also enhance the night sky with improved star and moon textures.
>> The article has some screenshots and a video.

Cyberpunk 2077 Mod greatly improves environmental shadows
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/cyberpunk-2077-mod-greatly-improves-environmental-shadows/
Modder ‘sosuinepxisuyu’ has released a new mod for Cyberpunk 2077 that adds missing environmental shadows across the entire game. This is a must for pretty much everyone as it will significantly improve the game’s graphics.
The mod mainly focuses on improving the graphics when using Ray Tracing or Path Tracing. However, it can also affect the game without its RT effects, making more objects cast shadows. Plus, it will fix a bunch of visual problems with NPCs and the main player.
>> The article has some comparison screenshots.

A bizarre mod that adds human poop to Skyrim led me on an enlightening journey into Viking sanitation: 'Your world will certainly be more immersive, but it will also certainly smell worse'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-bizarre-mod-that-adds-human-poop-to-skyrim-led-me-on-an-enlightening-journey-into-viking-sanitation-your-world-will-certainly-be-more-immersive-but-it-will-also-certainly-smell-worse/
I've played a few Skyrim mods that stank in my time, but none quite like this. Everyone Poops­—Mihail's Shards of Immersion adds actual piles of excrement into Bethesda's perennial fantasy RPG.
"You can now find human feces near and inside some houses, forts and caves," writes Mihail Mods, the creator of Everyone Poops, which according to its NexusMods tags is "lore friendly" and "fair and balanced".
And when Mihail says everyone poops, he really does mean everyone. The mod is wholly dedicated to representing a broad spectrum of faecal matter. Alongside the biological leavings of humans, elves and beastmen, which Mihail says are all "greenish to brown in color", the mod includes the faeces of the Falmer, which have "some luminescence" due to the heavy presence of glowing mushrooms in their diet.
And yes, the mod also includes poop for giants, which Mihail says are "disgustingly gigantic", letting you embody the spirit of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park as you wander around marvelling at their voluminous dung heaps. The mod draws the line at non-humanoid creatures, however, so don't expect to see any dragon droppings knocking about. This is probably a mercy, given dragons can fly.
The mod even sprinkles some light simulation onto its glistening dung pies. "All feces emit heat, except for those that are old and have lost their 'freshness'," Mihail writes, while "blowflies can be heard around most of them." Mihail does not directly explain why they have opted to shovel shit into Skyrim, but implies it exists to improve immersion, presumably in the belief that no preindustrial society is complete without the reek of manure emanating from every corner. "Your world will certainly be more immersive, but it will also certainly smell worse."
>> For once, I’m happy to say that there’s no media in an article.

GAMING NEWS

Dinosaur survival horror game, Deathground, gets a new trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/dinosaur-survival-horror-game-deathground-gets-a-new-trailer/
Jaw Drop Games has released a new gameplay teaser trailer for its upcoming dino survival horror game, Deathground. This game has been in development for a while, and it will now take advantage of Unreal Engine 5.

Dark Mass is a new first-person underwater horror game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dark-mass-is-a-new-first-person-underwater-horror-game/
Path Games has announced a new first-person underwater horror game that will be using Unreal Engine 5, called Dark Mass. To celebrate this announcement, the devs have also shared the game’s debut trailer which you can find below.

New leaked gameplay for Battlefield 6 shows new urban map
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-leaked-gameplay-for-battlefield-6-shows-new-urban-map/
Two new leaked videos surfaced for Battlefield 6’s latest Playtest, showcasing a new urban map called Gibraltar. As with the previously leaked videos, they are of low quality. So, expect a lot of compression artifacts (which kind of sucks).

Atelier Yumia runs better than the previous Atelier games, but has ridiculously high CPU requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/atelier-yumia-is-a-pleasant-surprise-after-the-disastrous-atelier-ryza-ever-darkness-the-secret-hideout/
A few days ago, KOEI Tecmo released Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land. And, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by it. You see, Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout was one of the worst optimized PC games of 2019. And, after six years, GUST Studios has finally been able to offer a somewhat good PC game.

Monday news, part number two:

Ichiban Kasuga makes like a dragonfish and joins Dave the Diver’s latest DLC on April 10th for some fisticuffs and a few rounds of karaoke
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/ichiban-kasuga-makes-like-a-dragonfish-and-joins-dave-the-divers-latest-dlc-on-april-10th-for-some-fisticuffs-and-a-few-rounds-of-karaoke/
There’s only three weeks to go until Dave The Diver gets yet another round of unlikely crossover DLC, with Ichiban Kasuga of Yakuza/Like A Dragon fame joining the rotund fisherman out in the waters of the Blue Hole. First revealed last month with a broad ‘April’ release window, the latest Dev Dive vlog from very-not-indie studio Mintrocket finally reveals the precise release date for Ichiban’s latest misadventure— April 10th—along with a few revelations and some fresh gameplay footage, all of which you can see in the video below.
>> Talking about Yakuza/Like A Dragon, the series director has explained why side-quests are essential.

Monster Hunter Wilds' first free update will feature 'a whole host of new additions' and a majestic water wyvern for players to blow sky high
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-first-free-update-will-feature-a-whole-host-of-new-additions-and-a-majestic-water-wyvern-for-players-to-blow-sky-high/
The promise of any Monster Hunter game is twofold—there’s gonna be a ton of meticulously designed titans on offer, and you’re gonna get to smack the nuggets out of them with all sorts of guns, clubs, and musical instruments. I can’t help but feel a little bad, then, when a teaser like the one Capcom dropped today gets players riled up about the reintroduction of a beautiful fox dragon that blows bubbles. I feel like I should be offering it half my harvest, not shooting it with the biggest gun I’ve ever seen.
>> And they’ve also revealed that the producer, director and executive director have joined hunts online, and one of them did poorly. Which one? Only one way to find out!

'We all got laid off', says former Deck Nine narrative designer, after no-one was around to pick up Life is Strange: Double Exposure's GDC Awards win
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/we-all-got-laid-off-says-former-deck-nine-narrative-designer-after-no-one-was-around-to-pick-up-life-is-strange-double-exposures-gdc-awards-win/
I'm not entirely sure Life is Strange: Double Exposure was a good idea conceptually—nor was series fan and PC Gamer writer Mollie Taylor, who played the thing and had a good, if "unnecessary-feeling", time.
(...)
Stephen Totilo, a journalist who was backstage at the time, wrote the following: "Nearly every game that won had people coming through, beaming with their trophy in hand. It stood out that, for Life is Strange, which won the Social Impact award, there was no one."
As to why? Well, according to former Deck Nine dev, narrative designer and writer Elizabeth Ballou on BlueSky, it was because no-one at the team expected it, because, well, "We all got laid off". She writes: "It's fitting that nobody was there to accept the GDCA award that Double Exposure won, because we all got laid off lol … (Don't be sad for me, I am very lucky and I work on BitLife now and I love it)."

Inzoi's 'Smart Zoi' AI system sounds great on paper but seeing it in a live demo didn't exactly wow me
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/inzois-smart-zoi-ai-system-sounds-great-on-paper-but-seeing-it-in-a-live-demo-didnt-exactly-wow-me/
It's an important part of any life sim: giving the characters life. No one wants to play a life sim where your friends and neighbors act like drones mindlessly following daily routines to meet their needs as if they're going step-by-step through a checklist.
The developers of early access life sim Inzoi are attempting to give their characters better reasoning skills and more realistic behavior through an AI system they call "Smart Zoi." At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, I attended a panel given by Kangwook Lee, Krafton's head of deep learning, where he explained the Smart Zoi system and gave a brief live demo of it in action.

'We made one big mistake': Destiny 2 developer reveals how a small team dedicated to player retention led to a 20 hour server outage and character rollback
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/we-made-one-big-mistake-destiny-2-developer-reveals-how-a-small-team-dedicated-to-player-retention-led-to-a-20-hour-server-outage-and-character-rollback/
Destiny 2 has had a turbulent history—it's a game that, since its release in 2017, has seen many ups, downs, and outright blunders. So a GDC talk from one of Bungie's developers titled "Rescuing a Playerbase from the Doldrums" could apply to any number of periods throughout the game's life.

REPO dev says it wasn’t actually inspired by Lethal Company, and started as a singleplayer cleaning game: ‘It was nice, but far from what REPO is now’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/repo-dev-says-it-wasnt-actually-inspired-by-lethal-company-and-started-as-a-singleplayer-cleaning-game-it-was-nice-but-far-from-what-repo-is-now/
You’d be forgiven for thinking REPO is a lot like Lethal Company. Both games involve fetching precious objects, hiding from things that go bump in the night, working cooperatively as nigh-identical, disposable grunts, and hollering over voice chat when things inevitably go wrong. Both games are also overnight phenomena, with REPO scrambling to adjust to its massive success and garnering the attention of Lethal Company’s very own creator.
But in a vlog dropped by REPO studio semiwork today, developer Pontus clarified that the game was never intended to resemble Lethal Company. In fact, it began as a solo horror game where players would have to clean a mansion while remaining hidden from Headman, one of many monsters that ended up in the final game. Pontus said in the video that a "deep dive" on the topic is coming in the future, but there are some brief snippets of footage peppered throughout today's vlog.

Helldivers 2 composer recalls stomping around his apartment and channeling 'Super Patriotism' to capture Arrowhead's satirical vision in music: 'The satire works because the music believes it's a pure patriotic love without irony or criticism'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-composer-recalls-stomping-around-his-apartment-and-channeling-super-patriotism-to-capture-arrowheads-satirical-vision-in-music-the-satire-works-because-the-music-believes-its-a-pure-patriotic-love-without-irony-or-criticism/
Almost every element of Helldivers 2 is dripping with satire. The voice lines, story, and even individual armor pieces parody patriotism while telling a story of what could happen if corrupt governmental systems ran amuck. Well, everything except the music.
"It's jingoism, but it's amplified with uplifting modern synth productions, and without suggesting any nuance other than the valor of the soldiers' fight," said Helldivers 2 composer Wilbert Roget, II during a talk at Game Developers Conference 2025 in San Francisco. "The satire works because the music believes it's a pure patriotic love without irony or criticism."

Bethesda marks Oblivion's 19th with a sweetroll, a candle, and absolutely no happy birthday gift for fans eager for the still-unannounced remaster
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/bethesda-marks-oblivions-19th-with-a-sweetroll-a-candle-and-absolutely-no-happy-birthday-gift-for-fans-eager-for-the-still-unannounced-remaster/
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, the second or maybe third-best game in Bethesda's long-running Elder Scrolls RPG series, turned 19 yesterday. In Canada, 19th birthdays are traditionally a very big deal: 19 is the legal drinking age in most of the country, and so you can imagine how the celebrations typically go. But in the world of Tamriel, well, it's apparently a little less of a noteworthy milestone.

Seekers of Skyveil, the MOBA—extraction shooter mashup, is shutting down less than a month after release: ‘We have no choice but to bring this short journey to an end’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/seekers-of-skyveil-the-moba-extraction-shooter-mashup-is-shutting-down-less-than-a-month-after-release-we-have-no-choice-but-to-bring-this-short-journey-to-an-end/
Six years ago, a bunch of former BioWare, Blizzard, and Riot developers formed Elodie to work on a game that eventually became Seekers of Skyveil, a novel blend of MOBA action and the extraction format made popular by games like Escape From Tarkov. The team at PC Gamer had positive things to say about it, with former editor Tyler Colp saying it "might’ve cracked a new subgenre," but the game never climbed above a Mixed user rating on Steam since launching earlier this month. Today, only 18 days after it was released into early access, it was announced that the game and the studio behind it will be shutting down.

Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio's UI designer is open to accessibility options for players who find the stylish menus overstimulating: 'That is something we understand we'll need to work on and provide in the future'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/persona-and-metaphor-refantazios-ui-designer-is-open-to-accessibility-options-for-players-who-find-the-stylish-menus-overstimulating-that-is-something-we-understand-well-need-to-work-on-and-provide-in-the-future/
What defines Atlus's modern RPGs more: the characters you spend dozens of hours befriending and romancing, or the menus that pack more rizz into a single font than most entire games? If you're judging by presentations at this year's Game Developers Conference, Atlus knows what the people want: there wasn't a talk on the former, but lead interface designer Koje Ise was in attendance to talk about crafting Metaphor's user interface.

Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/nearly-2-years-after-its-last-update-the-excellent-battle-brothers-gets-a-bucket-load-of-fixes-and-free-new-content/
It's been eight years since the strategy-RPG Battle Brothers—turn-based Mount & Blade meets XCOM, as PC Gamer's Evan Lahti once described it—made its debut on Steam, and nearly two years since its last update. But despite that passage of time, and the fact that developer Overhype Studios has moved on to a new game called Menace, Battle Brothers isn't done getting updates just yet.
A new update for Battle Brothers, taking the game to version 1.5.1, rolled out yesterday with not only "a bucket load of fixes accumulated over the last year," but also some new content. "You heard that right," Overhype wrote. "There’s actual new content for Battle Brothers, for free."

'Players don't explore': former Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online designer lays out the perils of 'open world fatigue'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/players-dont-explore-former-grand-theft-auto-6-and-red-dead-online-designer-lays-out-the-perils-of-open-world-fatigue/
So there I am playing a game with a big, beautiful open world. It's got lovely scenery and eye-catching landmarks, it's stuffed with quests and missions and collectibles, and I'm free to go in any direction I choose. What's the problem?
Me. I'm the problem, or at least I'm part of the problem, as former Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online game designer Cameron Williams explained in a panel at the Game Developers Conference.
Williams opened the panel with a slide titled "Common Open World Problems," and the first bullet point read: "Players don't explore."
>> Guilty.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/warhammer-40-000-darktides-getting-a-new-roguelite-wave-defense-mode-that-sounds-a-whole-lot-like-a-souped-up-take-on-killing-floor/
Fatshark has done a fair bit of fooling around with Darktide’s format offerings lately, with the recent Havoc mode expanding the game’s difficulty options and variance. But while Havoc caters to endgame players looking for a challenge, Mortis Trials—laid out in the latest blog post from community manager StrawHat—are described as "chaotic, with easy access for immediate fun."

This upcoming Korean tactical shooter features 'situational awareness AI' that reminds me of the uber-smart clones from Monolith's FEAR
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-upcoming-korean-tactical-shooter-features-situational-awareness-ai-that-reminds-me-of-the-uber-smart-clones-from-monoliths-fear/
It doesn't take much to get me thinking about Monolith's classic FPS FEAR, but it's barely left my thoughts since Warner Bros' baffling decision to shut down the veteran studio, which also created games like No One Lives Forever and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Yet it's Monolith's 2005 shooter that is my favourite of its games, mainly thanks to its landmark AI design. Its army of clones was eerily capable of outflanking and outfoxing you as you battled through the game's office complexes and research labs.
Hence, any game that strives to create genuinely smart-seeming enemies is likely to grab my attention, which is why this unassuming development video of a Korean tactical shooter caught my eye. Project TH (short for 'Project Two Hearts') is a third-person stealth-action game with shades of Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon: Wildlands. But it was a recent overview of the game's enemy navigation and movement systems that got me thinking about Monolith's classic FPS.
>> And since the article mentioned them, Monolith’s Nemesis system came to be because of… second hand sales.

Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/former-age-of-empires-2-dev-claims-microsoft-demanded-its-first-expansion-should-have-a-korean-faction-because-starcraft-sold-3-million-copies-in-korea/
Age of Empires 2 fans are no strangers to the game receiving new factions. The Definitive Edition's curators, Forgotten Empires, have regularly updated the game with new playable civs for years. But it turns out the game's history of adding unexpected dynasties stretches much farther back in time than 2017, at least according to one of the sequel's original designers.
That designer is Sandy Petersen, who joined Ensemble Studios after leaving id Software where he worked on both Doom and Quake. As Petersen explained in a lengthy thread on X (via Windows Central), he was assigned to design the sequel's first expansion pack, The Conquerors. As was the case for the original game's expansion, Rise of Rome, Petersen opted to include four playable civs, the Spanish, the Aztecs, the Huns, and the Mayans.
(...)
According to Petersen, Microsoft urged him to add a fifth faction to the expansion, the Koreans. Petersen pointed out that Korea is not known for its history of conquest. "Koreans, greatly to their credit, were not conquerors. They stayed in their lane. While they're cool, they don't fit the Conquerors theme."
In Peterson's recollection, Microsoft then argued that "StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea". To this, Peterson pointed out, "StarCraft doesn't have any Koreans in it, so those sales had zero to do with a Korean civ." Microsoft then reiterated the 3 million figure, at which point Petersen relented. "Once someone simply repeats a previous argument, it's clear they are no longer functioning from logic or intelligence."

And the third part of the news:

An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/an-fps-studio-pulled-its-game-from-steam-after-it-got-caught-linking-to-malware-disguised-as-a-demo-but-the-dev-insists-it-was-actually-the-victim-of-a-labyrinthine-conspiracy/
First reported by TheGamer, a Steam listing for a game called Sniper: Phantom's Resolution has been pulled from the storefront by the developer after players discovered malware being distributed as a "demo" from the dev's official website. Though the site had a link on Steam, the malware was not distributed through Steam itself like last month's PirateFi fiasco.
The case against developer Sierra Six seems almost airtight, but someone purporting to be one of the developers has surfaced on Reddit to claim that they were set up, and that their domain was hijacked before they had the chance to secure it.

Wreckfest 2 has hit early access for your car-obliterating combat racing enjoyment
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/wreckfest-2-has-hit-early-access-for-your-car-obliterating-combat-racing-enjoyment/
Last August I came before you to announce, gleefully, that Wreckfest 2 was on the way. Now I say to you that Wreckfest 2 is here. In early access, at least, you can take developer Bugbear's sequel to the beloved car-smashing destruction derby/battle race game for a spin.
>> Since the article doesn’t provide it, here’s the link to the game at Steam.

Ark devs distance themselves from AI-generated trailer: 'we did not know that they were doing it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/ark-devs-distance-themselves-from-ai-generated-trailer-we-did-not-know-that-they-were-doing-it/
The reaction to the clearly AI-generated trailer for Ark's upcoming underwater DLC Aquatica was divided, in the sense that some people hated it and some people really hated it. "This is disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourselves" is the first comment underneath the trailer on YouTube, and it comes from an Ark YouTuber with more than a million subscribers.
The Aquatica DLC is being made by Snail Games, as opposed to Ark's original developers at Studio Wildcard, who are focused on Ark: Survival Ascended and have been quick to distance themselves from the controversy. "ARK: Aquatica is being developed by Snail Games USA Colorado, please follow them for more updates," they posted on the hatesite formerly known as Twitter. "Studio Wildcard remains entirely dedicated to the production of ARK: Survival Ascended & ARK 2, and we're excited to bring ARK: Lost Colony to you later this year!"

Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/another-round-of-baldurs-gate-3-unearthing-reveals-minthara-can-end-up-living-in-a-sewer-an-unused-beach-ending-and-more/
YouTube Baldur's Gate 3 expert SlimX, who brought to our attention developer secrets like the offscreen "asylum" where plot-critical NPCs hide, is back with another chunky set of secrets and cut content from our favorite fantasy RPG/wiki deep dive subject. This time he's highlighting the endgame, finding things we'd never have seen otherwise in the game's finale and epilogue.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard gets a crumb of support as EA offers free weapon skins to coincide with a 50% discount
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/dragon-age-the-veilguard-gets-a-crumb-of-support-as-ea-offers-free-weapon-skins-to-coincide-with-a-50-percent-discount/
The Steam Spring Sale may be over but, like rain in Scotland, the discounts never truly end. If your wallet survived the tsunami of cheap games over the last couple of weeks, then you can currently grab BioWare's fantasy RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard at a 50% discount.
That's not all, either. To coincide with the sale, publisher EA is offering a free cosmetic DLC, somewhat clumsily named Rook's Weapons Appearance Offer. Annoyingly, the store page doesn't actually explain what said Weapons Appearance offer entails, simply stating that "The items will appear in Rook's Room when you log into Dragon Age: The Veilguard" for players who download it.

'You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening': Myst remake adds a whole new world to the classic adventure, one originally introduced in another overhaul from 25 years ago
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/youve-been-asking-and-weve-been-listening-myst-remake-adds-a-whole-new-world-to-the-classic-adventure-one-originally-introduced-in-another-overhaul-from-25-years-ago/
Time is a flat circle, and Myst has new content. Developer Cyan Worlds had added another area to its modern remake of the classic 1993 adventure game. The Age of Rime update expands the game with a "snowy, mountainous seascape", which becomes available to players after completing the main story of Myst, bringing "all new narrative beats, new lore, and new sights to behold".

Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/eagle-eyed-streamer-spots-that-roberta-williams-portrait-in-kings-quest-4-is-based-on-her-author-photo-on-the-back-of-the-game-box-i-never-noticed-it-before/
Ever had that feeling that something's been staring you in the face for years and you simply never realised? Like the fact that Simon Pegg is in Band of Brothers. Or the fact that Andrew Scott is also in Band of Brothers. In fact, I get this feeling pretty much every time I rewatch Band of Brothers, because it's stuffed to bursting with young actors who went on to become massive stars.
Anyway, a similar flash of recognition recently happened to adventure game streamer Mike Piontek, who discovered an interesting fact about the Sierra classic King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella that was staring him in the face twice at the same time. And it's all to do with a picture of the game's designer Roberta Williams. Two pictures, in fact.

Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/medieval-colony-sim-norland-is-getting-a-damn-big-update-that-completely-overhauls-the-games-mechanics-were-rolling-out-some-radical-changes-to-the-core-gameplay/
I mostly enjoyed Norland and its randy lords when I previewed it last summer, but the medieval colony sim definitely had its problems. Getting monarchs and nobles to do what you needed to ensure your colony's survival could be tricky when all they cared about was getting laid and acquiring holy rings as status symbols, and this often led to your colonies collapsing in ways you couldn't avoid.
It appears developer Long Jaunt wasn't happy with how Norland's early access build played either. The studio has just released a "damn big update" (literally what it is called) that not only adds a bunch of stuff to the game, but completely reworks the core mechanics to make it more enjoyable.

Dune: Awakening promises us a breath of fresh air, skipping early access for a full launch with no monthly subscription in May
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/dune-awakening-promises-us-a-breath-of-fresh-air-skipping-early-access-for-a-full-launch-with-no-monthly-subscription-in-may/
Dune: Awakening is only a couple months away from release, and its dev team just gave us a few new reasons to get excited, including a promise of free updates and no monthly subscription. This weekend, Funcom posted a video on Steam sharing more details on Dune: Awakening, which will open for pre-orders on Monday.
>> And here are the system requirements.

One of the worst games ever made is coming to Steam, but we won't know how cruel this joke is until we see the price tag
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/one-of-the-worst-games-ever-made-is-coming-to-steam-but-we-wont-know-how-cruel-this-joke-is-until-we-see-the-price-tag/
Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, a canonical "bad videogame" with a 1/10 review from GameSpot and 8/100 score on Metacritic, is set to be re-released on Steam some time between April and June this year.

Silent Hill f is not messing around – now it's been banned in Australia
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/silent-hill-f-is-not-messing-around-now-its-been-banned-in-australia/
Silent Hill f may not release in Australia thanks to a decision by the country's Classification Board. The horror reboot has been "Refused Classification", which means its content is too extreme for an R18+ rating and is thus banned. As of right now, the organisation hasn't explained what's behind the ban.

Hollow Knight: Silksong gets SteamDB updates, and at this point I can't tell if the end is nigh or if I'm just hope-poisoned
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/hollow-knight-silksong-gets-steamdb-updates-and-at-this-point-i-cant-tell-if-the-end-is-nigh-or-if-im-just-hope-poisoned/
I have something to admit to you, dear reader—I came late to the Silksong cope party. I've been writing for our illustrious website for almost two years now, but before then, I pretty much tucked it in the back of my mind. I liked Hollow Knight, I just had other games to play and get excited for. But with this latest bit of Hollow Knight: Silksong news, I'm starting to wonder if I've been bitten by the bug.
There've been several updates to the game's Steam listing, seen here via SteamDB. First up, the game's copyright has been updated from 2019 to 2025. It's also been added as eligible for use on NVIDIA's cloud gaming service, GeForce Now, and there's been some fiddling with its library assets.

The latest Minecraft Live uncovered the tragic truth of the Nether's most bothersome mob, which has unlocked new levels of guilt
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/the-latest-minecraft-live-uncovered-the-tragic-truth-of-the-nethers-most-bothersome-mob-which-has-unlocked-new-levels-of-guilt/
I wasn't expecting too much from Minecraft Live 2025. We've already got new cow and pig variants coming in different biomes, and with A Minecraft Movie just weeks away from release, I was sure that this broadcast from Mojang would just be a recap of what's coming out and not much else. But it appears I was wrong.
Alongside the upcoming Spring to Life update, which will bring the new warm and cold animal variants and ambient features like crunchy leaves and fireflies, Mojang Studios' Agnes Larsson and Jens Bergensten revealed that we'll be getting built-in shaders, some Minecraft Movie-inspired minigames, and a new mob—the happy ghast.

TCG Card Shop Simulator finally adds the ability to decorate our stores, and suddenly all my profits are being spent on adorable Pigni posters
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/tcg-card-shop-simulator-finally-adds-the-ability-to-decorate-our-stores-and-suddenly-all-my-profits-are-being-spent-on-adorable-pigni-posters/
I am fashionably late to the TCG Card Shop Simulator party, having only begun building my Tetramon empire over the weekend. If you ask me though, I've chosen the perfect time to dive in, since the game's just added perhaps its most crucial feature yet: The ability to slap fun posters all over my store.

If you thought those were all the news, you're mistaken:

Noctua's pumpless 'thermosiphon' liquid cooling unit is expected to be released in 2026 and has already given me a free lesson in basic thermodynamics
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/cooling/noctuas-pumpless-thermosiphon-liquid-cooling-unit-is-expected-to-be-released-in-2026-and-has-already-given-me-a-free-lesson-in-basic-thermodynamics/
Noctua is perhaps best known for its brown fans and conventional air coolers, but it might not be long until it makes its move into the liquid cooling world, too. Noctua founder, Roland Mossig, showed off the prototype of its pumpless thermosiphon cooling unit in Japan this weekend, and according to Japanese tech outlet Hermitage Akihabara it's expected to be released in 2026.

Our Jacob first took a look at the thermosiphon prototype at Computex last year, and came away impressed. Essentially it creates a vapour chamber-like effect by using heat emitted from the CPU to evaporate a refrigerant, which then moves up a vapour tube into a fan-cooled condenser, where it cools off, condenses back to a liquid state, and makes its way back to the CPU to be heated again—no pump required.
>> It’s Noctua. If they say 2026, expect at least one extra year.

MSI shuns AMD GPUs with some of its newest power supplies
https://overclock3d.net/news/power_supply/msi-shuns-amd-gpus-with-some-of-its-newest-power-supplies/
Yesterday, we reviewed the new MPG A1000GS PCIE5 power supply from MSI, and it left us confused. Unlike almost all other high-wattage PSUs on the market, it only features one 8-pin (6+2-pin) PCIe power connector. As such, it cannot power GPUs that require multiple 8-pin PCIe power connectors. In fact, this problem seems to affect two newly released MSI power supplies.

Upon further investigation, we found that the MSI MPG A1250GS (the 1250W version of the MPG A1000GS) also has only one 8-pin PCIe power connector. This means that two of MSI’s high-end PSU models cannot support most of AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 series GPU lineup, with Sapphire’s 16-pin powered RX 9070 XT Nitro+ being the only exception that we know of.

While we have highlighted AMD’s RX 9070 XT series as unsupported, this is the case for all GPUs that require more than one 6+2-pin PCIe power connector. This includes older Nvidia GPUs (most RTX 3090 GPUs, for example) and some Intel ARC graphics cards.
>> I don’t really see it as a problem. Very few people will buy a PSU for an existing system, and if you need 2 or 3 8-pin connectors, there are plenty other brands to choose from.

Gabe Newell had his eyes on a social network in the '90s that 'was not in a games context at all'—meaning Valve-owned social media could've been a very real thing
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/gabe-newell-had-his-eyes-on-a-social-network-in-the-90s-that-was-not-in-a-games-context-at-all-meaning-valve-owned-social-media-couldve-been-a-very-real-thing/
During the Game Developer's Conference 2025, Monica Harrington—one of Valve's founders and its first chief marketing officer, who once outright threatened Sierra over the rights to Half-Life—gave an illuminating talk on the company's infancy. Before, of course, it became the goliath-felling company it is today.

While this is interesting in itself—another fascinating snippet she shared was about how Gabe Newell, circa 1998 to the early 2000s, had his eyes set on a social network. Y'know, like Facebook, Instagram, or X. "Gabe had interesting ideas that had nothing to do with software," Harrington said. "I mean, with games—and some of those would have been really interesting."

Really interesting indeed, which is why PC Gamer's Ted Litchfield asked about it when he sat down for an interview with her after the talk. Harrington revealed the bombshell that, if a time traveller had gone back and stepped on a butterfly, we could all be yelling at each other on a Valve-owned social media platform instead.
>> Well, it couldn’t have been worse than what we have now, right?

Mars Attracts Demo Is Here
https://www.techpowerup.com/334480/mars-attracts-demo-is-here
The upcoming park management sim Mars Attracts has just released a playable demo of the game on Steam. The demo release coincided with the release of an all-new trailer featuring an in-depth look at the gameplay, which sees the player building whacky rides, managing the needs of fickle Martian guests, and abducting humans to serve as the star attractions. This latest trailer reveals all new experiments and amenities for messing with the unfortunate human captives.
>> It’s like Theme Hospital or the recent Two Point “something” games. Here’s the link.

But wait! There's one extra thing!

https://store.steampowered.com/category/strategy_cities_settlements/

Nice!

Right now I'm playing both Saints Row, the last one, and Arcade Paradise. Saints Row is good/ok, the other is ok but can be a bit boring at times.

I've only played Saints Row the Third - loved it so much, I need to play more games in the series and The Third again since they remastered it.

I've played all of them.

The first one was good, but it became so popular because it was the first game to be a true contender for GTA. The second and third ones were great and moved the franchise forward. The fourth one with the superpowers fell a bit short of the third, at least in my opinion, and Gat of of Hell followed the same path.