The official Steam Charts show that Steam hit a new peak of 40,234,722 concurrent users this morning. This is a slight disagreement with SteamDB, as the third-party site states the peak was actually 40,270,997 users. The minor discrepancy notwithstanding, this marks the first time Steam has had 40 million users logged in at once. This new milestone comes not even four months after Valve's online service passed 39 million CCUs for the first time.

• HYPERxFANTASY on Steam (Windows). "Explore a brutalist dystopia, slay lost souls and experience the insanity of near-singularity future!" Here's a Demo Release Trailer.
• Vortica on Steam (Windows). "Vortica is a 2D action roguelite set in a solar system overrun by hostile aliens. Suit up, loot up, and shoot up as you battle against enemy hordes, explore derelict outposts, and hunt giant bosses. Each mission gets you one step closer to returning to Earth and saving the human race."

• Save 94% on Due Process on Steam.
• Save 75% on Curse of the Dead Gods on Steam.
• Save 20% on Motor Town: Behind The Wheel on Steam.
• Save 34% on The Ranch of Rivershine on Steam.
• Save 67% on Stronghold: Definitive Edition on Steam.
• Save 22% on 近畿霊務局 - Kinki Spiritual Affairs Bureau on Steam.

• Avowed may reach nearly 6 million players on Xbox and PC in first month - TweakTown.

• Team Ninja Head, Fumihiko Yasuda, Celebrates Ninja Gaiden's 21st Anniversary In New Message - Noisy Pixel. Thanks Reddit.

• Call of Duty Shop Launching Verdansk Collection - GameRant.
• LAFC And Bandai Namco Group Introduce Level Up Arcade at BMO Stadium - Los Angeles Football Club. Thanks Reddit via Ant.

Unofficial games, patches, and mods.

• Demo released for Fallout Revelation Blues, a mod that aims to recreate Black Isle's canceled Fallout 3 game in Fallout- New Vegas - DSOGaming.
• Download and play an unofficial PC port of Sonic Unleashed - DSOGaming.

• Capcom rushes to fix game-breaking Monster Hunter Wilds bug blocking story progress - VGC.
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PC Mod Brings Massive Gameplay Feature That We Hope Becomes Official - MP1st.

• Ashes of Creation - February Development Update Livestream.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• This Game is WILD! - Monster Hunter #1 - Carbot. Thanks Ant.

• Dransik Season 3 Underway! – Dransik. Thanks Bill.

• Call of Duty could still come to PS4 and Xbox One this year - VGC.
• Official PlayStation Social Media Now Promoting Shovelware Using AI-Made Art - MP1st.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Windows 11 24H2 might quietly throttle and slow your system when you aren't paying attention - Neowin.
• Investigating NVIDIA’s Defective GPUs: RTX 5080 Missing ROPs Benchmarks - Gamers Nexus (video).
• AMD RX 9060 Series- Q2 2025 launch set to challenge NVIDIA's RTX 4060/4060 Ti GPUs - Neowin.
• 'Fire the Intel board and rehire Pat Gelsinger,' argues former Intel CEO Craig Barrett - Tom's Hardware.
• 8 technologies using NVIDIA GPUs that you may not know about - Android Police.
• HP to move 90% of North American production out of China by 2025 - TechSpot. Oddly worded.
• Windows 11 Task Manager update will show accurate CPU utilization, align with industry standards - Tom's Hardware.

• OpenAI May Have Really Screwed Up With GPT-4.5 - Futurism.

• Hundreds of your Warner Bros DVDs probably don't work anymore - JoBlo. Thanks The Flying Penguin.

• Case: Thermaltake The Tower 600 Review - PCMag. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Headset/Earbuds: Meze Audio 99 Classics Headphones - Nikk Tech.
• Mouse: SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless Review- More buttons - less weight - Tom's Hardware.

So the Oscars are tonight. These are almost always a confusing wild card in the BlueTower. Often when I think we won't watch, we end up tuning in, while skipping the broadcast after thinking we would check it out. We do love movies, and this can make the Academy Awards seem important. But competitive art is a weird concept, and in the end such judgments are subjective, so from that angle, it's hard to take them that seriously.

Obituary: David Johansen of the New York Dolls has died at 75 - AP News. The last of the New York Dolls.

Oscar-worthy Round-up
Thanks Ant, Neutronbeam, and Max.

Brunch Link

• Jason "loonyboi" Bergman: "It seems awfully trivial in the face of everything else that's going on today, but hey, here are my Oscar picks" - BlueSky.

Stories

• Woman's Mysterious Burning Feet Traced to Worms in Her Brain - ScienceAlert.

Science

• Life-Extending Drug For Senior Dogs Reaches Key FDA Approval Milestone - IFLScience.
• Firefly's Blue Ghost becomes second private spacecraft with moon landing - BBC. Thanks brother19.
• Shortsighted Taiwan may have lessons for the world as a preventable disease skyrockets - Taiwan - The Guardian.

Media

• 10 TV Characters That Appeared Outside Their Own Shows - WhatCulture.
• What Really Happened To McDonald's Fried Apple Pie - Weird History Food.

Follow-up

• Cracks In Boeing KC-46 Tankers Halt All Deliveries - The Warzone.