The guys at PCGamer had time to spend the Holidays so, thankfully, there haven’t been many articles:

Commander Shepard actors will return for the new Mass Effect game 'with bells on' if BioWare asks them: 'Email the powers-that-be who make these games and say, Give us more Shepard'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/commander-shepard-actors-will-return-for-the-new-mass-effect-game-with-bells-on-if-bioware-asks-them-email-the-powers-that-be-who-make-these-games-and-say-give-us-more-shepard/
We don't know much about the next Mass Effect game in development at BioWare except that it's happening, and even that feels a little soft right now, what with all the layoffs and looming sale of Electronic Arts to Saudi Arabia. But one thing we do now know, thanks to a Fall Damage interview on YouTube with Commander Shepard actors Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale, is that they're both pretty eager to return to the role.
>> If they haven’t been approached yet to do some lines, I don’t think that will change.

Blade director reassures suffering fans with soothing words: 'Please be patient, it will be a special game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/blade-director-reassures-suffering-fans-with-soothing-words-please-be-patient-it-will-be-a-special-game/
Arkane revealed Blade at The Game Awards 2023, PC Gamer associate editor Ted Litchfield lost his gourd, and not a whole lot has happened since then. The silence has gone on long enough to make PCG's Fraser Brown nervous: Its no-show at Xbox Games Showcase this summer "makes me wonder if there have been some major road bumps," he wrote earlier this year, noting that troubled development would be particularly bad news for a studio that's already very clearly under the gun.
With Blade also failing to put in an appearance at the recently-passed Game Awards 2025, some folks are getting antsy. The plaintive pleading of one such fan led Arkane co-creative director Dinga Bakaba to pop in on X with some soothing reassurance.

Star Citizen is on course to reach $1 billion in player funding in 2026, and we still might not get to play its singleplayer campaign next year
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/star-citizen-is-on-course-to-reach-usd1-billion-in-player-funding-in-2026-and-we-still-might-not-get-to-play-its-singleplayer-campaign-next-year/
In 2026, gaming will (almost certainly) reach a huge, seemingly inconceivable milestone. No, I'm not talking about the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 . I'm referring to how Star Citizen's ridiculously successful, seemingly unstoppable, ethically debatable funding model is set to surpass $1 billion next year.
We last checked in with Star Citizen's Godzilla-sized money magnet in April, at which point the game had just crossed the $800 million mark. But that number has grown substantially in the last eight months. At the time of writing, Star Citizen is sitting pretty atop a mountain of 925,647,996 simoleons.

'Our fans have been very passionate': How player feedback has been at the core of the first six months of Persona 5: The Phantom X
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/our-fans-have-been-very-passionate-how-player-feedback-has-been-at-the-core-of-the-first-six-months-of-persona-5-the-phantom-x/
Persona 5: The Phantom X has just kicked off its half-anniversary celebration marking a whole six months since the release of the gacha spin-off (at least in Japan and the Western world, anyway). It's not been an easy journey, to say the least. The game's launch was criticised for stark differences between reward distribution in the Chinese version versus the global release and was arguably (and very surprisingly) eclipsed by horse girl gacha Umamusume: Pretty Derby releasing just one day sooner.
In the time since global launch, the teams at both Sega and Atlus have been hard at work on The Phantom X to bring the standards up to what gacha gamers have come to expect. When I asked what the team's biggest initial challenge was, operations director Yuta Sakai told me: "It was definitely the game balance or the balance of the events. So when we created the Japanese and English versions, we made various adjustments from the original release—the Chinese and Asia versions—and it was mostly focused on the quality-of-life and making sure that the game would fit new players because we had some extra features that were not originally present when it was first released.
>> There has been a couple more articles about this game: “Persona 5: The Phantom X had a hard time doing away with the series' iconic calendar system: 'It was very difficult to convince the team'” (link) and 'It was definitely interesting': Persona 5: The Phantom X developer was surprised that people outside of Japan were 'cheering' for the Subway Slammer” (link).

Peak devs were ready to go 'into vacation mode' after releasing it, but then it sold 1M copies in the first week: 'That quickly became a pipe dream'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/peak-devs-were-ready-to-go-into-vacation-mode-after-releasing-it-but-then-it-sold-1m-copies-in-the-first-week-that-quickly-became-a-pipe-dream/
One of 2025's surprise hits was Peak, a co-op climbing game that was created in a mere four months by studios Aggro Crab and Landfall. It caught fire on Twitch and in every friend group hooked on so-called "friendslop" since 2023's Lethal Company.
Even though there has been a strong trend of co-op games in the past few years, Aggro Crab and Landfall weren't expecting Peak to explode in popularity.

Action RPG players will exploit anything in the name of efficiency, which is why Path of Exile 2 players are locking themselves in the campaign for profit
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/action-rpg-players-will-exploit-anything-in-the-name-of-efficiency-which-is-why-path-of-exile-2-players-are-locking-themselves-in-the-campaign-for-profit/
In a lot of ways, action RPGs like Diablo are an open invitation by the developers for players to find all the things they didn't expect you could do. Ideally, that is limited to powerful skill interactions and builds, but it's often the case that it includes somewhat game-breaking exploits that go against the spirit of the game.
I'm not sure I'd call what Path of Exile 2 streamer Fubgun is doing with the new seasonal mode "game-breaking", but it's clearly not supposed to work like that.

I don't know if this can be interesting to some of you but, just in case:

Shader Beam brings CRT-style motion clarity to high-refresh monitors
https://videocardz.com/newz/shaderbeam-brings-crt-style-motion-clarity-to-high-refresh-monitors
ShaderBeam is a new open-source Windows overlay that runs Blur Busters BFI and CRT Beam Simulation shaders on top of your desktop and fullscreen games. The first public beta, v0.1, was released on December 28, 2025.

The main goal for this project is motion clarity. CRTs look clearer in motion because they behave like an impulse display: each pixel lights up briefly as the beam scans, then it fades, instead of holding a full frame steady for the whole refresh. On modern LCD and OLED panels, that "sample-and-hold" behavior creates blur when your eyes track moving objects, even if pixel response times are fast.

(...)

ShaderBeam is fullscreen-only, requires VSync, and it is sensitive to timing and GPU scheduling, so missed frames can show up as irregular flashing. So what's recommended is to use two graphics cards, one fully devoted to Shader Beam. Iti s also suggested to turn off off HAGS, VRR (G-Sync and FreeSync), and HDR, and it warns that multi-monitor setups and other overlays can make things worse.

Interesting: "GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder".

Can't say I was expecting this, but it did kind of feel like GOG had been in a bit of an odd position for a while already. I'm cautiously optimistic myself but as always, change doesn't come without risk as well.

It's a surprising move. A couple years ago it would have made some sense since GOG was losing money, but they managed to turn that around and last year they were profitable (no info about this year, tho).

It kind of feels like CD Projekt has decided to focus on making games and not worry about also dealing with running a store.

We'll see what happens in the future.

Thanks for sharing.

That's my thought as well. In the discussion on GOG, someone said CD Projekt has had to do some explaining in their fiscal reports or something because they have games, which are apparently quite profitable, and GOG, which is... not even nearly as profitable. Anyway, this seems like something companies often do, shedding the less profitable parts of business that aren't really their core business.

River City Ransom: Underground will be delisted soon, currently on sale as part of the Winter sale.

Dear God. They've even removed the trailers and screenshots for it already.

Anyway, thanks for sharing, Rhonin.

It’s Tuesday and these are the gaming news. All in one post (as they always should aspire to be):

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10
 
(Click here for the Top 100 of, apparently, the first week of sales of 2026 XD)

Today, the Epic Store gives away Trine Classic Collection : https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/bundles/trine-classic-collection.
(The link gives me a Page Not Found error, but I hope they fix that soon). They've fixed it.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Nope-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild VR Mod Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-vr-mod-released/
Zelda fans, get ready for a treat. Flat2VR has just released an amazing VR Mod for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that is exclusive to PC. By using it, you can experience and play the entire game in VR.
Going into more details, this VR Mod packs fully stereo-rendered with 6DOF. There is also full support for hands and arms. This means that you can deck yourself out in all the fanciest clothes.
Players can wield weapons, torches, and bokoblin arms in combat. They can also use gestures to equip and throw weapons. Plus, they can use motion controls to interact with the world to solve puzzles or start fires.
The app uses OpenXR, which works with all major VR headsets, like the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Meta Quest, and Windows Mixed Reality. However, right now it only has controller settings made for Oculus Touch controllers.
You can go ahead and download this VR Mod from this link. To use it, you’ll need the ROM file of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a Nintendo Wii U emulator. (…)
Now, although we can’t share a link for the ROM file, we can share a link for the Nintendo Wii U emulator that is compatible with the VR Mod. According to Flat2VR, Cemu will work perfectly with it. You can download its latest build from here.
>> The article has a less than 3 minutes video of the mod.

Fallout 4 now has higher-quality voices with less audio compression
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/fallout-4-now-has-higher-quality-voices-with-less-audio-compression/
Modder “SkyBorik” has released a cool new mod for Fallout 4 that many audio fans will love. This mod adds higher-quality voices with less compression, so the characters sound clearer. It’s a great mod for anyone still playing Fallout 4.
Going into more details, the PS4 version of the game featured better sound quality as it used Sony’s proprietary audio format. So, this mod basically ports the PS4 audio to PC.
As the modder has showcased, the vanilla version has a lot of data missing. And any sound higher than 12kHz is completely cut off. Below, you can find two graphs that showcase how much better the mod is compared to the vanilla PC version. At the end of the article, you can find a comparison video between the vanilla and the modded voices.
From what I can see, this mod is 12GB in size. So, for some of you, these improvements may not be worth it. On the other hand, those who want a better audio experience should download it right now. You can get the mod from here.

The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Mod Aims to Restore the E3 2013 Lighting
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-witcher-3-next-gen-mod-aims-to-restore-the-e3-2013-lighting/
At E3 2013, CD Projekt RED showed a “gameplay” trailer for The Witcher 3 that looked much better than the final game. Now, more than ten years later, a modder has used REDkit to recreate lighting that comes very close to what we saw in that trailer.
Going into more details, the VGX Lighting Mod aims to modify The Witcher 3’s visual style to match how it looked when it was shown during the VGX 2013 trailer. The modder has used uncompressed screenshots as a reference when making this mod.
Some areas of the game have been reimagined to better match some areas from the trailers. The mod was also made from the ground up, using no other lighting mods as a base. Now, the good news is that VGX Lighting Mod Next Gen can be played with raster graphics (no RT), and on DX11 mode. So, those without a high-end GPU will be able to use it.
To showcase his results, -Crasher- recreated the iconic E3 2013 trailer. This video will give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect from it. So, be sure to watch it. I’ve also included the original E3 2013 trailer so that you can compare them.
From what I can see, the modder was able to come really close to it. There are some areas in which the E3 2013 trailer looks better. Not only that, but you will see that the E3 2013 had a lot more of particles effects that are not present in the final version of the game. That was one of the biggest downgrades we saw with the game when it came out. Still, compared to the vanilla launch version, this modded lighting looks way better.
>> The video is almost 2 minutes long.

GAMING NEWS

Rainbow Six Siege servers are back after hackers randomly doled out bans, unbans, rare skins and 'billions' in in-game currency
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/rainbow-six-siege-servers-are-back-after-hackers-randomly-doled-out-bans-unbans-rare-skins-and-billions-in-in-game-currency/
On December 27, the official Rainbow Six Siege account posted on X that it was "aware of an incident" affecting the game, but that sort of undersells it. Hackers went berserk in Siege over the weekend, and players reported a range of anomalies: receipt of billions of credits and ultra-rare or developer-only skins, and chaotic bans and unbans, including cheeky messages sent via the global ban ticker. (For instance, the lyrics to Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me.")
The bedlam carried on until Ubisoft brought the servers down entirely, as was confirmed on X. A follow-up shared that while no players would be punished for spending the random credits, all transactions from the time the incident started would be rolled back.

Fallen Aces's second episode won't be out this year, but it will feature a first-person car chase with a tommy gun in both hands and a foot-operated steering wheel
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/fallen-acess-second-episode-wont-be-out-this-year-but-it-will-feature-a-first-person-car-chase-with-a-tommy-gun-in-both-hands-and-a-foot-operated-steering-wheel/
If you haven't played Fallen Aces, I highly recommend it whether you're a dedicated immsim sicko or an FPS greenhorn. It's Dishonored by way of Dick Tracy: an immediate and stylish neo-noir FPS dripping with pulpy comic art and a tantalizingly interactive goon sandbox. And that's just the first episode, which launched into early access last year.
Fans have been eagerly awaiting the second episode since then, but a development update on Steam confirmed yesterday that it won't hit its old release window of "before the end of 2025." That said, it did share some exciting details, as well as a brief teaser.

Somewhat related: GOG has now a patron program for the game preservation, 5 bucks a month and you're in!

That's definitely been a curious thing. I've considered joining, but... I don't really know what the money is used for. I don't really know it's money they're using for game preservation and wouldn't be otherwise, it's all too vague for me. Also, I'm worried Windows 12 is going to make me a Linux-only user, and since GOG Galaxy doesn't support Linux (even though many games on GOG do!), I'm a bit more reserved with GOG than I've been before. I kind of wish Microsoft announced Windows 12 (and especially its main features) already so I would know where we're heading.