Today, we have an important update for a NES emulator that turns the games into 3D dioramas, a remaster of a classic first-person computer RPG with horror elements, and the Gex series has come to Steam!
3dSen Reaches Version 1.0 on Steam
Starting off our Monday’s News is the announcement of 3dSen for PC leaving Early Access and becoming a full Version 1.0 release. As some of you may already know, 3dSen is a NES emulator that takes roms of NES games, and represents them in 3D. With it, the games look like interactive diorama scenes, where you can move the perspective of the game all you want. If you want to view the game looking down from above, you can. If you want to look at the back of the level’s walls, you can. If you haven’t seen it, it is truly impressive!
To celebrate the release, Geod Studio released a gameplay video showing off many of the more than 100 games that can be played on the emulator. Note: Not every Nintendo game works on this emulator; each one has to be manually configured to run. Furthermore, some reviewers complain that titles are glitchy or don’t play as well as more traditional forms of emulation.
Finally, to be honest, the announcement for this version doesn’t actually say what is new, but I am actually OK with that. It’s because this solo developer has been working on this project for 10 years, and frankly, he has made a ton of progress!
You can check out the complete announcement of the release on Steam by clicking here. To celebrate the achievement, 3dSen is currently 30% off on Steam during the Sumer Sale. The emulator’s Steam page is here, while the itch.io location for 3dSen Maker (not the same thing) is linked here.
System Shock® 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster Is on GOG
Another big news item for today is that a new System Shock 2 remaster has been released on GOG.com! It is the System Shock® 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster which came out on June 26, 2025, and currently has a retail price of $29.99. According to the sales page, some of the key features of the game include,
- Cross-Play Co-Op multiplayer.
- Choose from 3 branches of the Military; O.S.A, Marines or Navy and experiment with different play styles.
- Additional Mod Support
- Up to 144FPS performance with ultra-widescreen support.
- 50 Achievements to unlock.
- Enhanced Characters, Weapon Models and Animations.
- Optimized Controller support.
- Quality of Life Improvements.
Skimming the reviews, people are quite enthusiastic about this release, and apparently the remaster still keeps the feel and style of the original game, while not completely replacing the graphical elements. As in, it is not a remake, so the graphics are not amazing or mind-blowingly improved. They are just slightly touched up to a bit better than the original.
You can find out more by checking the GOG.com page for it.
Gex Trilogy Released on Steam
Our last bit of news concerns the GEX Trilogy which was recently released on Steam. This is a collection of the mainline games in the series, presumably the PlayStation releases. The games include,
- Gex
- Gex: Enter the Gecko
- Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko
When I first learned about this collection, I was quite excited about it. I’ve been interested in playing the first Gex game since I first heard of it for the 3DO, but have never given the series any serious playtime. I don’t think I even rented any of the games on PlayStation. Unfortunately, the current average rating for this release is Mixed. From skimming the reviews, it seems that much of this stems from different expectations for the games than what was delivered.
To be clear, the trailers show two main improvements over the original versions. These are,
- Native widescreen support for Gen 2 and 3
- Analogue support for them as well
The trailer I watched did not speak about remastering the games or remaking them. The textures are muddy and of what one would expect for a PS1 game. For me, the biggest issues I’ve read about are audio stuttering and that the analogue controls aren’t implemented that well. For the audio problems, this (negative) review makes mention of it, while this other (positive) review describes the control problems in length.
While not related to those two problems, to their credit, Limited Run Games did a quick update on the collection to include UK voice actors to the games shortly after release. I’m hoping that they will take the release’s criticisms to heart, and further patch the game so that the sound issues can be resolved and the controls are better. In the meantime, you can check out Gex Trilogy on Steam by clicking here.
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