Fallout Just First: Latest Updates and Analysis

Steam just cracked 40 million concurrent users for the first time⁠, meaning Valve's user count was bigger than 80% of the countries in the United Nations

Is Steam bigger than the Beatles, or Jesus, for that matter? I'm not qualified to answer that, but Valve's ubiquitous PC gaming platform is definitely bigger than Uzbekistan. As spotted by Blue's News, Steam surged past 40 million concurrent clients for the very first time today. Steam broke the 39 million concurrents barrier back in December.

Steam's new high water mark is slightly different depending on who you ask. Valve's own charts list it as 40,273,982 people, while SteamDB pegs it at 40,270,997. Even with this slight discrepancy, both authoritative reports show Valve crossing the 40 million mark. On this day 10 years ago, Steam clocked in at [website] million concurrent people and already felt like an inextricable part of PC gaming.

Back to the countries comparison, Steam's [website] million concurrents this morning would constitute the 38th-biggest in the United Nations, just behind Canada's 41 million, and smoking Uzbekistan's 37 million person population. For a more zoomed-out view of Steam's user base, we have to go back to Steamworks' 2021 year-in-review⁠—not to be confused with the Spotify Wrapped-style breakdown of individual player stats Valve has started offering. Valve reported 132 million active monthly players (that is, they used Steam within the month, as opposed to being logged in at exact the same time) at the end of 2021, with a peak concurrent record of [website] million at the time.

This isn't scientific, but if the same ratio of active monthly to peak concurrent individuals held through to today, back of the napkin math would put Steam's current active monthly individuals at [website] million, more people than live in Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Japan, or the United Kingdom.

This is another handy example of the health and growth of PC gaming, particularly compared to the relative stagnation in the console sector. Valve's sheer influence in the industry is only more shocking when you consider the size of the business: 336 employees in 2021, smaller than many triple-A developers, let alone major multinational publishers like EA and Ubisoft which failed to make a dent in the digital storefront arena.

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Blind Squirrel Games has acquired Colombian-based studio, Distributed Development.

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Hisashi Koinuma is Koei Tecmo's new CEO.

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The New Vegas remake of the Fallout 3 that never was just got its first demo, not to be confused with the straight-up remake of the cancelled Fallout 3 or, indeed, Fallout 3

First , the United West Team modding group has released its first demo for Revelation Blues, an attempt to tell the story of Black Isle Studios' canceled Fallout 3 project, code named Van Buren, as a mod for Fallout: New Vegas. Van Buren has a deep connection to New Vegas' story, and even before 2010, was a bit of a "what might have been" source of fascination for a certain brand of RPG sicko.

The demo centers on a particularly interesting area that was slated for Van Buren, "Burham Springs," a largely abandoned town located on top of a perpetually burning coal seam that resembles the real-life Centralia Mine Fire. The town's formative disaster was caused by NCR soldiers attempting to smoke out fleeing powder gangers after an assault on the Hoover Dam, and the resulting mutants were deemed "gehennas" and "molechs" by residents of New Canaan.

Already, you can see how Obsidian, itself founded by Black Isle veterans, formed New Vegas with ideas from Van Buren. With Burham, we've got a mature NCR blundering into imperial atrocities, powder gangers, the Hoover Dam, and New Canaan. Van Buren was also to feature Caesar's Legion, Joshua Graham, and the Big MT as part of its story. That intrinsic connection makes New Vegas a fun, fitting host for a reimagining of what Van Buren might have been.

Revelation Blues also isn't the only game in town for Van Buren revivals: Developer Adam Lacko has been working for years on Project Van Buren. Rather than a reimagining, PVB looks to reconstruct Van Buren with its original mechanics, perspective, and art style using Black Isle's development documentation and a leaked build of the game.

Lacko's shared an upgrade on the project as in recent times as this January on X, but I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that Lacko was brought on as lead developer for New Blood's Fallout-inspired, retro-futurist CRPG. The bad news is that this is understandably his primary focus over PVB, and the project is likely still a ways away from completion.

Before coming back for air to the Fallout 3 we actually got, there's one more layer to the canceled Fallout 3 iceberg: Troika Games' pitch that was reworked into a standalone RPG when Bethesda secured the rights, and ultimately canceled when the firm went under. Troika was founded by Fallout 1 devs Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson, and the studio produced three of the most inventive, unique, and replayable CRPGs ever.

I don't necessarily mourn Troika's Fallout 3 as much as I do the incredible-sounding sci-fi setting it pivoted into with the project, one that combined magic with retro-futurism on an alien world very different from Earth. The primary evidence of it that remains is a short demo video on YouTube, and a video by Tim Cain on the subject.

Steam now warns players when games released in early access have not been in recent times updated.

As spotted by SteamDB, early access games that have not r......

User-generated content (UGC) studio Voldex has acquired the Roblox life simulation game Brookhaven.

Obsidian's latest RPG Avowed just launched this week, and it sounds like its director is already thinking about what's next for the new RPG.

Wait a minute, Geralt of Rivia actor Doug Cockle was in Baldur's Gate 3 this whole time

While doing some research on Baldur's Gate 3's sick assassin armor that you no longer have to kill a baby elephant to wear, I made the shocking discovery of some readily available, not secret at all information: Doug Cockle of The Witcher fame had an crucial, but somewhat-hidden performance in Baldur's Gate 3. I figured if it was news to me after 400 hours, it'd be news to at least some people, but spoilers ahead for Baldur's Gate 3's third act and Dark Urge origin.

Doug Cockle plays no less a role than Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, in Baldur's Gate 3. The bloodthirsty deity was the reason for the season in the original Baldur's Gates, and he still plays a big part in BG3's story as a patron/father to both Orin the Red and Dark Urge player characters.

Bhaal names The Dark Urge as his chosen one | Baldur's Gate 3 - YouTube Watch On.

It's only as a Dark Urge that you get the scene featuring Cockle as Bhaal. The Lord of Murder takes over capering goblin butler Sceleritas Fel as his mouthpiece, delivering a final ultimatum for Dark Urge player characters to either reject Bhaal entirely, or come back into the fold. I never once clocked this as being Cockle even after two playthroughs as the Dark Urge, but of course now, rewatching the scene, I can totally hear it.

It's a real playing against type moment for Cockle, who's just giving a full send of sinister, venomous contempt. Also, leave it to Larian to hide a cameo by a beloved voice actor at the end of a path through the game a majority of players won't even see.

If you need more Doug Cockle in your life, he's 100% guaranteed to make an appearance as Geralt in The Witcher 4⁠—hopefully as the final boss of the Gwent minigame, but if he pulls a Vesemir and dies I will be retreating to the hills and forests with a trusted cadre of guerilla fighters. In the meantime, Cockle already reprised his role as Geralt in the animated Netflix show, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, which we liked well enough, and he also spoke to PCG associate editor Lauren Morton about returning to his iconic role.

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Atomfall - Official Extended Gameplay Deep Dive Overview Trailer - YouTube Watch On.

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