The Tuesday gaming news, part one:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

GOG has launched three new sales/promos:

• The Anything You Want Promo has a bit of everything with games up to 92% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20251014_anything_you_want_promo
• The old one is still around, but we have new Weekly Deals featuring up to 95% discounts during 7 or 8 days (it’s listed both ways): https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20251014_weekly_deals_2_october
• And the Fellow Traveler Publisher Sale presents games up to 90% off during 9 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20251014_fellow_traveler_publisher_sale

Steam has new deals and sales/events:

• Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 is still free to try until the 16th and now has a 45% discount until the same day: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2933620/Call_of_Duty_Black_Ops_6
• Gears of War: Reloaded is going to be 25% off until the 22nd of October: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2523720/Gears_of_War_Reloaded
• These are the new sales/events:
  • IGN Fall FanFest has upcoming titles, some with demos, and, at least for now, three games on sale, 10% off, 35% off and 60% off, ending on the 18th, 20th and 27th, respectively: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/IGNFallFanFest2025
  • Team17 Digital Hidden Treasure Sale has games up to 80% off. The deals will end between the 20th and the 27th of this month: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32941731/sale/T17HiddenTreasuresOct25
  • Publisher DONT NOD puts its game on sale with up to 80% discounts until October 27: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33977966/sale/publishersaleoctober2025
  • Daedalic Autumn Sale features demos, of course, and games with up to 90% discounts. The deals will end between the 21st and the 27th of October: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/1738300/sale/DaedalicOctoberAutumn2025
  • The Games Under 5 Hours is a sale featuring short games that are going to be up to 90% off. The deals will end between the 20th and the 27th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34635421/sale/gamesunder5hours
  • The Ada Lovelace Day Sale 2025 features games with up to 90% discounts. The length of the deals vary, between the 19th and the 27th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42589128/sale/AdaLovelaceDay2025
• And there are also new weeklong deals

We find two new deals at Humble:

• Humble Bundle presents the IGN FanFest Fall Edition, with up to 12 items to get (games and DLCs) during 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/ign-fan-fest-2025-fall-edition
• Humble Store presents the Devolver Digital Autumn Sale with up to 90% discounts during 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/devolver-digital-autumn-sale

Fanatical has the Age of Empires Franchise Sale, with the games and DLCs being up to 79% off during 9 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/age-of-empires

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 581.57 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/nvidia-geforce-game-ready-581-57

HIGHLIGHTS
Game Ready for ARC Raiders
This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 4 technology including ARC Raiders, Pax Dei, The Outer Worlds, 2, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.

FIXED ISSUES

Fixed Gaming Bugs

• Steam overlay may cause game stability issues [5521892]
• Hell is Us: Random red/green visual glitches during gameplay [5505371]
• Black Myth: Wukong: Minor graphical glitch may randomly appear during gameplay after updating to R580 drivers [5453535]
• Madden 26: Stability issues after updating to R580 drivers [5446236]
• Games may crash if the installed game directory contains Chinese characters while Smooth Motion is enabled [5537563]
• Total War: Warhammer III: Graphics corruption [5363634]
• Delta Force: game stability issues when Smooth Motion is enabled [5540567]
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: Display artifacts and stability issues when starting a game after waking PC from sleep [5467318]

Fixed General Bugs

• Black screen on Alienware AW2524H monitor after changing display settings [5430236]
• DxO Photolab 9: Stability issues when using the AI masks [5475130]

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

You can already play Pokemon Legends Z-A on PC with 60FPS
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/you-can-already-play-pokemon-legend-z-a-on-pc-with-60fps
Nintendo will release Pokemon Legends Z-A on Nintendo Switch on October 16th. And, to the surprise of no one, the game has been leaked, and it’s already playable on PC.
From what I can see, the game is playable on both the EDEN and the Ryujinx. And, although the Nintendo Switch version is locked at 30FPS, there is already a 60FPS patch you can download.
>> The article has two videos.

GAMING NEWS

PC demos released for Painkiller Remake, REANIMAL, Beneath, Ronin Awakening, and more
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pc-demos-released-for-painkiller-remake-reanimal-beneath-ronin-awakening-and-more
Steam’s Next Fest event is a go, and a number of PC demos have been released. As such, I’ve decided to share those I found interesting in one big article. So, let’s get started.
>> PCGamer has a similar article.

Star Citizen looks unbelievably beautiful in its latest in-engine trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/star-citizen-looks-unbelievably-beautiful-in-its-latest-in-engine-trailer
Cloud Imperium has released a new in-engine trailer for Star Citizen that highlights some of the key features of Alpha 4.4. And, although the game has been in development for a long time, it at least looks incredibly beautiful.

PUBG Battlegrounds Update 38.1 Releases Tomorrow – Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/pubg-title-update-38-1-releases-tomorrow-gets-full-patch-notes
PUBG Corporation announced that Title Update 38.1 for PUBG: Battlegrounds will be released tomorrow and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s see what this new patch brings to the table.

Tuesday gaming news, part two:

Randy Pitchford says sifting through the loot in Borderlands 4 is tickling a fundamental part of you: 'Our brains need to do it, and our brains like doing it, and we’re better off when we do it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/randy-pitchford-says-sifting-through-the-loot-in-borderlands-4-is-tickling-a-fundamental-part-of-you-our-brains-need-to-do-it-and-our-brains-like-doing-it-and-were-better-off-when-we-do-it/
Borderlands 4 is here, it's a hit, and… oh. On PC it continues to be plagued by performance issues, is currently sitting at "Mixed" reviews on Steam, and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford still has access to his X account and is still giving out bad advice.
Pitchford can't help himself, but he comes across way better in an actual conversation than his social media persona might suggest. He recently did an interview with the BBC to discuss Borderlands 4, and Gearbox's history more generally, in which he basically humblebrags about what Borderlands gets right, during which I think he claims it basically encapsulates the human experience?

A new co-op RPG is coming for World of Warcraft by offering endless MMO dungeons without the MMO grind
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-new-co-op-rpg-is-coming-for-world-of-warcraft-by-offering-endless-mmo-dungeons-without-the-mmo-grind/
I've been impressed by Fellowship ever since I first got my hands on it last year. The pitch for the game is one I'm surprised nobody ever thought of: MMO dungeons without the MMO.
Imagine a typical MMO party—one healer, one tank, and some damage-dealers—and then give them names and characteristics that resemble MOBA heroes. That's Fellowship, a hero-based co-op RPG where parties of four clear through increasingly difficult dungeons and collect loot.

RPG vet Josh Sawyer keeps things like Fallout and D&D grounded in history because 'Once things get too magical… it's impossible to bring it back down to Earth'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/rpg-vet-josh-sawyer-keeps-things-like-fallout-and-d-and-d-grounded-in-history-because-once-things-get-too-magical-its-impossible-to-bring-it-back-down-to-earth/
Slap Josh Sawyer's name in the credits of a game and I will, at the very least, pay attention to it. The guy's earned it: with directorial credits on Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, and Pentiment, his batting average on 'helming games that enter the Joshua Wolens pantheon of faves' is Gibson-level high (I admit it, I Googled 'highest batting average ever').
A big reason for that is a shared approach to history and worldbuilding. The games Sawyer's worked on feel believable and grounded in a way many other fictional settings don't*, and the man himself says he takes a consciously materialistic approach to worldbuilding, one that has defined his career for a long time. "As weird as it would sound", he told our Ted Litchfield at this year's GDC, "going all the way back to Icewind Dale, I at least thought about it.

The original Fallout's lead developer says China nuked first, vault suits were meant to be 'extruded' by a machine, and yes Sugar Bombs are a Calvin and Hobbes reference
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/the-original-fallouts-lead-developer-says-china-nuked-first-vault-suits-were-meant-to-be-extruded-by-a-machine-and-yes-sugar-bombs-are-a-calvin-and-hobbes-reference/
The original Fallout's lead developer Tim Cain has dropped another in his long-running series of videos discussing the earliest games in the series, and with this one, he's definitively answered one of the big questions about how everything kicked off. Well, kinda.

Arrowhead is delaying Helldivers 2 updates to fix its performance problems: 'We're focusing way more on addressing these issues to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arrowhead-is-delaying-helldivers-2-updates-to-fix-its-performance-problems-were-focusing-way-more-on-addressing-these-issues-to-make-sure-this-sort-of-things-doesnt-happen-again/
The last major update to Helldivers 2, Into the Unjust, caused all sorts of performance problems that developer Arrowhead said were a result of unaddressed technical debt. As the game grew in size and complexity, it became increasingly unstable, and Arrowhead said in September that it had plans to address it.
Arrowhead dropped a new video today that covers how future updates will roll out. In order to fix the most egregious issues and to keep the game stable, game director Mikael Erikkson says major new updates will be a little slower to appear.

Skyrim's lead designer reckons open world games are 'almost a cliché statement' these days, and that Skyrim owes its continued popularity to a focus on player agency: 'We didn't put anything off limits'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/skyrims-lead-designer-reckons-open-world-games-are-almost-a-cliche-statement-these-days-and-that-skyrim-owes-its-continued-popularity-to-a-focus-on-player-agency-we-didnt-put-anything-off-limits/
Few games enjoy such a long stay in the conversation as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one of the biggest and most celebrated fantasy RPGs ever released. And release it did, again and again—but it's hard to blame Bethesda for all those re-releases. The game's community is so enthusiastic that modders are practically making entire games in the snowiest slice of Tamriel, and there's no sign they'll slow down any time soon.
It's something that leaves Skyrim's lead designer Bruce Nesmith "eternally shocked," as he told FRVR: "By all rights, a year later, some other game should have eclipsed it. And then two years later, three years later, five, ten. It’s like ‘what the hell is going on here?"

World of Warcraft Legion Remix is suffering from a problem MMO players rarely experience: Too many tanks
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-legion-remix-is-suffering-from-a-problem-mmo-players-rarely-experience-too-many-tanks/
Blizzard recently opened the gates on a renewed version of an old World of Warcraft expansion, giving players the opportunity to blast through familiar quests and dungeons with way more power than they had back in 2016.
For many players, WoW Legion Remix is an opportunity to collect achievements and cosmetics they previously missed—or the new ones Blizzard added on top. Many of them require completing raids and dungeons that take full groups, but finding parties has proven to be a problem in the early stage of the event.

Minecraft's Mounts of Mayhem drop is now available to test, including sailing with the nautilus and a brand new weapon enchantment
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/minecrafts-mounts-of-mayhem-drop-is-now-available-to-test-including-sailing-with-the-nautilus-and-a-brand-new-weapon-enchantment/
Minecraft's Mounts of Mayhem drop will mark the game's fourth update this year, and even though we've only got surface-level information about what's included, a few of its most appealing features are now available to test with Java edition. This includes getting hands-on with the brand new Spear weapon, alongside a new weapon enchantment we haven't heard about yet: the Lunge.

Tavern Keeper's Next Fest demo, which now has an endless mode, might just steal hours of your time making custom decor alone
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/tavern-keepers-next-fest-demo-which-now-has-an-endless-mode-might-just-steal-hours-of-your-time-making-custom-decor-alone/
Tavern Keeper is a game I've been excited about for a while and, in fact, have raved about on this very site before. It's had a long old development, taking around 10 years on the path to release—and will continue to amble into Early Access.
But it's a cosy sort of amble, the kind a hobbit might take on the cobbled path to their humble hole, because let me tell you: I think this game is going to be very good. The demo, which you can play as part of Steam Next Fest, already promises a really endearing management sim.
>> The game already had a demo during another Steam Next Fest, but it didn’t have an endless mode.

Battlefield 6's already mountainous grind is being stifled by assignments failing to track
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-6-assignments-not-working-tracking/
One of the biggest pain points of Battlefield 6's launch (second only to broken weapon bloom) is just how much of a grind you've got to get through to unlock all the best guns, their attachments, and the remaining class gadgets. It's no wonder the Portal has been inundated with XP farms to the point that it quite literally doesn't function properly right now.
Of course, there are the assignments. Ahh, the assignments. Completing odd and often challenging tasks has always been one of the highlights of the series for me, but Battlefield 6's assignments are very grindy, and there are a good few that are very hard to complete by yourself.
The biggest issue right now, however, is that it's a Sisyphean task: there's a prevalent bug preventing assignments tracking whatsoever for some players, or not tracking accurately in other cases. Healing 5,000 damage from teammates or getting kills while buffed by a stim is one thing, but when none of it is counted and you're not making any progress at all, it's a frustrating mess.
>> Let’s hope they fix it soon, like the bug that killed your momentum when jumping with melee weapons, that has been dealt with (link). Oh, and here’s a fix for its blinding brightness (link).

Ubisoft surprise-revives its neglected Splinter Cell middle child on Steam, puts it on sale, then slaps a Uplay requirement on it so you don't get too excited
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/ubisoft-surprise-revives-its-neglected-splinter-cell-middle-child-on-steam-puts-it-on-sale-then-slaps-a-uplay-requirement-on-it-so-you-dont-get-too-excited/
In what I've chosen to interpret as a reward for all my good deeds on Earth, Ubisoft has inexplicably revived the neglected middle child of the Splinter Cell series (which is, itself, the neglected child of Ubisoft's franchise line-up). Pandora Tomorrow is back, baby: it's been wordlessly listed on Steam at a 40% discount (and even cheaper on Ubisoft Connect) without so much as a how'd-you-do. It is officially Pandora Today.

RPG developer Owlcat launches free game dev learning resource: 'A rising tide truly lifts all ships'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/rpg-developer-owlcat-launches-free-game-dev-learning-resource-a-rising-tide-truly-lifts-all-ships/
Cyprus-based game studio Owlcat, which is currently working on a sci-fi RPG set in the world of The Expanse, has partnered with other studios and publishers to launch GameDev Learning Drop, a free directory of resources for game developers.
(...)
The directory can be found on a dedicated webpage hosted by Owlcat, and the current offering includes "over 350 learning resources" which cover "game design, programming, narrative design, project management, and more," says the studio.

Those 12-pin cables are an absolute disaster, how could they even get past any quality control - or even just scrutiny during the standard's Inception???

In all likelihood, the failure rate is very low overall and enough for commercial release... it's just noticeably above that of former standards.

Of course, one would expect that a new standard would need to at least match the existing ones in that regard, so yeah.

Been catching up with this Steam on Android via translation layers thing that's been going on lately, either Winlator or Gamehub.

Now, it's been known for a while that Valve is working on Proton for ARM, but man, I'm excited to see if they'll release actual Steam for Android...or even maybe SteamOS for ARM.

Oh boy...

ADATA's Chen Libai has said that supplies of all the major memory and storage technologies—DRAM, NAND, and HDD—are now in shortage. Chen says it's the first time that has happened in 30 years.

The reason is clear enough: demand from AI. "Our competitors in the fight for supply are no longer our peers, but giant CSPs (cloud service providers)," Chen said. By way of example, OpenAI alone (yeah, it's always OpenAI) has signed a deals with Samsung and SK Hynix for fully 900,000 DRAM wafers per month, which is equivalent to 40% of current global DRAM output.

Moreover, the AI-driven surge in demand is prompting manufacturers to prioritise production capacity for high-margin applications. Sound familiar? It's all rather too reminiscent of the GPU market for comfort, and we know what happened to graphics card prices in the last few years. Ouch.

In terms of ADATA's own business, which majors in memory modules, Chen says the company has had to instruct sales staff to "sell sparingly and support key customers." He also thinks unprecedented demand from the AI industry means that the usual boom-and-bust DRAM cycle has been broken.

As for what this means for we poor PC gamers, well, it looks like there's a good chance that RAM and SSD prices are set to join GPUs as significant pain points. Indeed, it's already happening.

By way of example, this popular Crucial 32GB DDR5 kit was ticking along at $84.99 for much of 2025 on Amazon. Now it's $119.99. How high it will go in the coming months is hard to say.

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/memory/uh-oh-its-happening-adata-chairman-says-the-perfect-storm-of-simultaneous-dram-ssd-and-hdd-shortages-is-already-upon-us-and-it-looks-like-prices-are-only-going-in-one-direction

Several games from CITY CONNECTION will be removed from sale on 31 October due to license expiration.

Dragon Blaze - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279420/Dragon_Blaze
GUNBARICH - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1342240/GUNBARICH
GUNBIRD - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1261970/GUNBIRD
GUNBIRD 2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279410/GUNBIRD_2
Samurai Aces - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1261980/Samurai_Aces
Samurai Aces III: Sengoku Cannon - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279390/Samurai_Aces_III_Sengoku_Cannon
SOL DIVIDE -SWORD OF DARKNESS- - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279450/SOL_DIVIDE_SWORD_OF_DARKNESS
STRIKERS 1945 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1261960/STRIKERS_1945
STRIKERS 1945 II - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279380/STRIKERS_1945_II
STRIKERS 1945 III - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279400/STRIKERS_1945_III
TENGAI - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1279370/TENGAI
ZERO GUNNER 2- - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1342250/ZERO_GUNNER_2

Intel Crescent Island GPU Unveiled: Features Next-Gen Xe3P Graphics Architecture, 160 GB LPDDR5X For AI Inference

https://wccftech.com/intel-crescent-island-gpu-next-gen-xe3p-graphics-160-gb-lpddr5x-ai-inference/

Intel Core Ultra X9 388H “Panther Lake” iGPU Shows Up to 50% Higher Performance vs. Lunar Lake in Early Benchmarks

https://wccftech.com/intel-core-ultra-x9-388h-igpu-shows-up-to-50-higher-performance-vs-lunar-lake/

NVIDIA Unveils Development On ‘Kyber’ Rack-Scale Generation, Scaling Up To 576 Rubin Ultra GPUs In One Platform By 2027 To Bring Immense AI Power

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-unveils-development-on-kyber-scaling-up-to-576-rubin-ultra-gpus-by-2027/

AMD Showcases Its “Helios” Rack-Scale Platform Featuring Next-Gen EPYC CPUs & Instinct GPUs; Ready to Target NVIDIA’s Dominance

https://wccftech.com/amd-showcases-its-helios-rack-scale-platform/

Apple says MacBook Pro with M5 chip is a “breakthrough for Intel-based upgraders”

https://videocardz.com/newz/apple-says-macbook-pro-with-m5-chip-is-a-breakthrough-for-intel-based-upgraders

AMD next-gen “Zen 6” CPUs rumored to support 600/800-series motherboards with both 32 MB and 64 MB BIOS

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-next-gen-zen-6-cpus-rumored-to-support-600-800-series-motherboards-with-both-32-mb-and-64-mb-bios

MSI denies involvement after pallets of GeForce RTX 5090 cards spotted in China

https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-denies-involvement-after-pallets-of-geforce-rtx-5090-cards-spotted-in-china

The Wednesday gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

GOG has two new promos:

• Open World Games Promo features games with up to 95% discounts during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20251015_open_world_promo
• Turn-Based Promo will also have games up to 95% off during the same 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20251015_turn_based_promo

Steam has two new deals:

• Tennis Manager 25 will have a 55% discount until the 21st of October: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3549220/Tennis_Manager_25
• Superliminal is going to be 70% off until October 28: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049410/Superliminal

And Fanatical also has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is The Medium, with a 62% discount during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/the-medium
• The BYO Capcom Horror Bundle will feature 14 games to choose for your 2+, 3+ or 4+ game bundles during 14 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-capcom-horror-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Also empty-

GAMING NEWS

The Spiritual Successor to GTR, Project Motor Racing, Finally Gets an Official Gameplay Trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/the-spiritual-successor-to-gtr-project-motor-racing-finally-gets-an-official-gameplay-trailer
IGN has shared an official gameplay trailer for Project Motor Racing. For those who did not know, this is the spiritual successor to GTR. So, if you were a fan of it, you should definitely check it out. This trailer packs 3 minutes of raw gameplay footage, so it will give you a pretty good idea of the game’s sound, visuals, and driving.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Gets Final PC Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-gets-final-pc-requirements
The Chinese Room has revealed the final PC system requirements for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. These extended PC specs list the framerate, graphics settings, and resolution these PC requirements target. So, let’s take a look at them.

The second part of the gaming news:

Peak dev's next co-op game—Crashout Crew—is like spinning a plate, except the plate has a bunch of dynamite on it, and also somebody put bees in the road
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/peak-devs-next-co-op-game-crashout-crew-is-like-spinning-a-plate-except-the-plate-has-a-bunch-of-dynamite-on-it-and-also-somebody-put-bees-in-the-road/
Aggro Crab, the developer of hit co-op game Peak and arbiter of "friendslop" (although we're still undecided on that phrase here at PC Gamer), have released a demo for its new game for Steam Next Fest—and it's already utter chaos. Though it's of a different flavour.

After 5 years Phasmophobia is closing in on its 1.0 release with immersive updates and more plans to come: 'If players are still there, we'll still be there'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/after-5-years-phasmophobia-is-closing-in-on-its-1-0-release-with-immersive-updates-and-more-plans-to-come-if-players-are-still-there-well-still-be-there/
It's been a big year for Phasmophobia, not only did the ghost-hunting multiplayer horror game celebrate its fifth anniversary last month but the dev team are also gearing up for its highly anticipated 1.0 launch.

One the the best parts of Phasmophobia's success is the new wave of co-op horror games, 'There was nothing, now there's obviously quite a lot'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/one-the-the-best-parts-of-phasmophobias-success-is-the-new-wave-of-co-op-horror-games-there-was-nothing-now-theres-obviously-quite-a-lot/
One of Phasmophobia's greatest successes is its lasting effect on the horror genre. Multiplayer horror has always had a foothold amongst the subgenres' finest, but after Phasmo's release five years ago, the scene has totally exploded with more horror games, both intense single-player experiences and wacky multiplayer romps.

The story for Paradox's original, canned Bloodlines 2 has gone the way of the dodo, and its fired narrative lead says no one's spoken to him about it, but the good news is he's working on 2 games at once right now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-story-for-paradoxs-original-canned-bloodlines-2-has-gone-the-way-of-the-dodo-and-its-fired-narrative-lead-says-no-ones-spoken-to-him-about-it-but-the-good-news-is-hes-working-on-2-games-at-once-right-now/
If there's a recent game-dev story I'm ravenous to hear more about, it's this: what the hell happened with Hardsuit Labs' version of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2? If you can cast your mind back to the heady days of 2019, you might remember the game's initial announcement, when Paradox got Brian Mitsoda—writer on the original Bloodlines and narrative lead on HSL's Bloodlines 2—on stage to announce the series' revival with all manner of hullabaloo. The game was due out the following year.
A year later and the game was not out, but Mitsoda and creative director Ka'ai Cluney were suddenly and shockingly fired. In 2021, Hardsuit lost the project entirely. In 2023, Paradox revealed it had given it over to The Chinese Room, which had dramatically overhauled the game in its own image. Today, we are six days away from that game's release, and hoi polloi like us still don't know any more about what went down with HSL's Bloodlines than we did several years ago.
And it's likely to stay that way for some time. Maybe forever. The wounds still seem too fresh for anyone to go blabbing too much about it, but in a recent post on his blog Mitsoda shined at least a little light on where he's at with his feelings on the game, the varieties of work he did on it, and the contact he's had with the game's new dev and Paradox. That last one is easy: there's been none.

'Death Stranding, but Norman Reedus is a horse in 13th-century Mongolia' is the pitch for this demo with the most detailed steed mechanics I've ever seen
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/death-stranding-but-norman-reedus-is-a-horse-in-13th-century-mongolia-is-the-pitch-for-this-demo-with-the-most-detailed-steed-mechanics-ive-ever-seen/
I was a little late, but I finally got into Death Stranding earlier this year. Reader, it seized me and wouldn't let go. Not because I had any idea what was going on (I didn't), but because I discovered that, deep in the recesses of my heart, I yearn for nothing more than to be a postman.
Well, I can feel the old Yearn To Deliver a-calling again, friends. I've been playing a bit of the Steam Next Fest demo for The Legend of Khiimori, which is a lot like Death Stranding, but with a non-Sony budget and you control a beautiful steed (Mongolian horses, about which the game goes into literally medical detail) instead of a beautiful steed (Norman Reedus).

Activision anti-cheat team goes on another victory lap after 'the strongest beta results in Call of Duty history', brags '99% of matches were cheater-free' and warns that every day they get 'faster'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/activision-anti-cheat-team-goes-on-another-victory-lap-after-the-strongest-beta-results-in-call-of-duty-history-brags-99-percent-of-matches-were-cheater-free-and-warns-that-every-day-they-get-faster/
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat; Black Ops 7 says it's nailing cheaters, and that's that.
Fresh off a humblebrag earlier in the beta, Activision-Blizzard's Team Ricochet has returned to provide some more stats on dirty rotten cheaters that, on the surface at least, make for some impressive reading. "We’ve crunched the numbers for Black Ops 7 Beta, and Ricochet Anti-Cheat achieved the strongest Beta results in Call of Duty history," says a message from Team Ricochet on X. "Each day, our cheat detections got faster and your matches got cleaner."

Road to Vostok finally has a playable demo on Steam and it's the most terrified I've ever been of getting shot at in a videogame
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/road-to-vostok-finally-has-a-playable-demo-on-steam-and-its-the-most-terrified-ive-ever-been-of-getting-shot-at-in-a-videogame/
Perhaps to our collective detriment, guns in games don't feel as threatening as you'd otherwise expect from implements capable of firing hundreds of lethal projectiles per minute. In a medium where regenerating health, respawn mechanics, and multiplayer balance expectations can turn fully automatic fire into a minor inconvenience, a firearm can signal character archetype, combat playstyle, cosmetic preference, customizability—but it's rare for one to feel like an existential threat.
Road to Vostok, however, manages to make the sound of a single gunshot feel like a small apocalypse.

Steam Next Fest's most popular demo is an old Half Sword tech playtest, which just proves the timeless appeal of physics-based swordfights
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/steam-next-fests-most-popular-demo-is-an-old-half-sword-tech-playtest-which-just-proves-the-timeless-appeal-of-physics-based-swordfights/
Steam's Next Fests are a magical time, where we get to delight in the latest bite-sized demo appetizers for upcoming games from developers of every scale—or at least, that's what usually happens. According to Steam's charts, what's getting the most attention in the current Next Fest is an old tech demo for Half Sword.
But really, can you blame anyone? Videogames are nothing if not proof of a near-universal fascination with the idea of people hitting each other with objects, and Half Sword's physics-based simulation of 15th century martial combat takes that grisly spectacle to a bloody, often clumsy extreme.

It's not just you: Hit registration is bugged in Battlefield 6 and DICE is working on it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/its-not-just-you-hit-registration-is-bugged-in-battlefield-6-and-dice-is-working-on-it/
After a handful of days to really dig into Battlefield 6, folks are starting to identify some bugbears. There's the slow progression, the wonky server browser, the high CPU usage, and oh yea—there's something deeply wrong with hit registration.
If your gun isn't always shooting straight, that's partly by design—Battlefield 6 guns have "bloom," an accuracy penalty that increases bullet spread the longer you fire continuously. While some Call of Duty transplants are gobsmacked by the mechanic on principle, DICE is currently investigating instances where bloom is working a little too well.
>> How could they miss that during the playtests is beyond me. At least they know what to do if you’re having problem with land mines (link).

Battlefield boss Vince Zampella: 'The only reason that Call of Duty exists is because EA were dicks'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/battlefield-boss-vince-zampella-the-only-reason-that-call-of-duty-exists-is-because-ea-were-dicks/
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was a big deal back in 2002. Its cinematic take on World War II, and especially the Omaha Beach landing, earned it our Best Action Game of the Year award, and made it one of 2002's must-play games. The third in the Medal of Honor series, it had been farmed out to a new developer called 2015, Inc. Publisher Electronic Arts decided not to keep 2015 on for the inevitable follow-up, however, bringing the series in-house.
Which left 2015 at a loose end. Having been given a tight deadline to crank out a franchise entry and then absolutely smashing it, the studio assumed it would be allowed a second chance. When EA decided not to keep them around, a chunk of 2015 including Allied Assault's development director Vince Zampella went to EA's rival Activision, started a new studio called Infinity Ward, and invented Call of Duty.
If EA had kept them around, 2015 would presumably have happily kept making Medal of Honor games for them and Call of Duty wouldn't have become a thing. Or, to put it another way, "The only reason that Call of Duty exists is because EA were dicks," as Zampella recently told GQ Magazine.