Monday news, part two:

Star Wars Battlefront 2's new mode starts on the ground and ends in space
https://www.pcgamer.com/star-wars-battlefront-2s-new-mode-starts-on-the-ground-and-ends-in-space/
Years ago, when Star Wars Battlefront 3 (prior to the reboot) was in development at Free Radical, the studio experimented with seamless planetary and space battles—you could be fighting on Tattooine while your mates were above you, grabbing a Tie Fighter from a Star Destroyer. It was cancelled and we never got to try it for ourselves. The upcoming Capital Supremacy mode for Star Wars Battlefront 2 doesn't go quite that far, but it will let you fight on Geonosis and then board a capital ship that's hanging out in orbit.

Cyberpunk 2077, and CD Projekt's next 'AAA RPG,' will both be out by 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-and-cd-projekts-next-aaa-rpg-will-both-be-out-by-2021/
CD Projekt's big thing right now is Cyberpunk 2077, but in case you'd forgotten, it's working on another major RPG too. And even though we have no idea what that second game is at this point, it's actually scheduled to be out pretty soon: The company said in a recent forum post that the plan is to have it (and Cyberpunk) released by 2021.
>> shikamaru317 made a thread about this.

Noob Saibot's Mortal Kombat 11 trailer will make you jump out of your skin
https://www.pcgamer.com/noob-saibots-mortal-kombat-11-trailer-will-make-you-jump-out-of-your-skin/
The Mortal Kombat 11 lineup has grown again, this time with the addition of Noob Saibot, a shadowy ninja who used to be Sub-Zero before Scorpion killed him in the original Mortal Kombat tournament as payback for killing Scorpion.

Overwatch's endorsement system has cut disruptive behavior by 40 percent
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatchs-endorsement-system-has-cut-disruptive-behavior-by-40-percent/
Blizzard introduced an "endorsements" feature to Overwatch last summer that enables players to rate others who are good teammates. The idea is to discourage toxicity by rewarding good behavior, rather than just punishing bad, and it worked: Just a few weeks after the system went live, game director Jeff Kaplan said that abusive chat in competitive matches had dropped by more than 26 percent in the Americas and 16 percent in Korea. The percentage of "daily players being abusive" was down even more dramatically.

Into the Breach originally had city-building and tech trees, creators reveal
https://www.pcgamer.com/into-the-breach-originally-had-city-building-and-tech-trees-creators-reveal/
Into the Breach, our game of the year for 2018, is a masterpiece of simplicity. But it wasn't always that way: it initially had city building, a tech tree and unit damage that persisted between missions, developer Subset Games has revealed.

Suda51 is writing a DLC story for Fire Pro Wrestling World
https://www.pcgamer.com/suda51-is-writing-a-dlc-story-for-fire-pro-wrestling-world/
Game designer Goichi "Suda51" Suda, of No More Heroes and Killer7 fame, is stepping back into the ring to write a DLC story for Fire Pro Wrestling World, developer Spike Chunsoft has announced.

Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines' composer returned for Bloodlines 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/bloodlines-composer-returned-for-bloodlines-2/
The soundtrack for Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines included plenty of licensed songs by the likes of Lacuna Coil, Chiasm, and the Genitorturers, as well as an original track by Ministry and Al Jourgensen, but its score composed by Rik Schaffer was also an essential part of its atmosphere. Fans were obviously concerned about whether he would be involved with the recently announced sequel.

Apex Legends Season 1 will add one more new character
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-season-1-will-include-one-more-new-character/
The start of Apex Legends' first season saw the introduction of a new character, Octane—and one more character will arrive before the season is over, according to Sony's website.
>> Oh! And it should crash less after the latest patch.

Zero Escape director's next game, AI: The Somnium Files, is out July
https://www.pcgamer.com/zero-escape-directors-next-game-called-ai-the-somnium-files-is-out-july/
The director of the Zero Escape series, which are some of the best visual novels you can play, has a new game in the works called AI: The Somnium Files, and it'll arrive on PC on July 25, developer Spike Chunsoft has announced.

Out of the Park Baseball 20 is out now
https://www.pcgamer.com/out-of-the-park-baseball-20-out-now/
Out of the Park Baseball 20, the latest installment to the addictive baseball management series, is now available on Steam, Origin and the developer's own website.

Minecraft players build touching tribute to server owner who died of cancer
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-players-build-touching-memorial-to-server-owner-who-died-of-cancer/
Minecraft players have turned the hub area of a once-popular server into a tribute to the server's founder, who recently lost his battle with cancer.
Players have left tribute signs all over the hub of the Emenbee Minecraft server to Bryan, known in-game as Pendar2, who started the server back in 2011. At its peak, Emenbee contained 10 separate servers and had more than 1,500 concurrent players. More than one million players logged on during its lifespan. Pendar2 shut most of the server down—save for the hub—in October of last year.

Stunning strategy game Overland out this fall
https://www.pcgamer.com/stunning-survival-game-overland-out-this-fall/
Overland first appeared on our radar three years ago, when Tim spent some time with it and described the survival strategy game as "X-Com meets The Road". After a few years in itch.io's Early Access equivalent, called the Refinery program, it's nearly ready to go, and will be out this fall/autumn, developer Finji has announced.

Here's how loot trading will work in WoW Classic
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-how-loot-trading-will-work-in-wow-classic/
Originally, World of Warcraft didn't have loot trading. It was only added when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion came out. But last year, when Blizzard discussed WoW Classic at Blizzcon, they explained that loot trading was one of the features it would have at launch. Players were worried about this, as the potential exists for the system to be exploited by groups of players collaborating to deny loot to solo players who've joined them. In response, Blizzard community manager Kaivax posted to the Blizzard forum to explain the limits on how it will work as, "we've decided that the two-hour loot trading system in WoW Classic will only apply to soulbound gear that drops in raids. Soulbound loot that drops in five-person content will not be tradeable at any time."

PUBG celebrates its two-year anniversary by giving out a dusty cap
https://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-celebrates-its-two-year-anniversary-by-giving-out-a-dusty-cap/
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds turned two over the weekend. The official launch wasn't until December 2017, but it appeared on Steam Early Access in March. To celebrate, everyone gets a dirty denim cap for free. Quality clothing is hard to find in PUBG, so even a baseball cap you might find discarded in the middle of lonely desert road should be treasured.

Final Fantasy 14 is getting the Dancer job, a race of lion bros and more
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-is-getting-the-dancer-job-a-race-of-lion-bros-and-more/
Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival was full of reveals this weekend, with game director Naoki Yoshida dropping some big announcements during his keynote, now accompanied by a host of trailers. Check out the updated expansion trailer above.

Battlefield 5's battle royale mode, Firestorm, is now live
https://www.pcgamer.com/battlefield-5s-battle-royale-mode-firestorm-is-now-live/
Battlefield 5's battle royale mode, Firestorm, is now live, and while we can't help you choose from the veritable bevy of battle royales currently up for grabs we can fill you in on what we know, so far, about DICE and and Criterion Games' spin on the hugely popular shooter genre.

Elder Scrolls Online celebrates its 25th anniversary with a Free Play Event
https://www.pcgamer.com/elder-scrolls-online-celebrates-its-25th-anniversary-with-a-free-play-event/
We've already had celebrations for PUBG and Warframe today, but now it's Elder Scrolls Online's turn to get the party started as the franchise celebrates its 25th anniversary.
In honour of the milestone, ZeniMax Online Studios has announced an Elder Scrolls Online free play event running across all platforms from Thursday, March 28 until Wednesday, April 3.

I can't believe I am downloading yet another god damn launcher. Thanks Bethesda. But free games are free games, right?

I tend to prefer ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI over anything else when it comes to GPUs, and EVGA, from my memory, does tend to have ocassional problem or two.

Not sure what the prices are there for 1060, but have you considered 1660, which tends to go for about the same and has slight to not so slight edge over it?

https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2301?vs=2456

The 1060 6GB is still a fine card. If you can find an RX 580/590 cheaper, I would even go for that.

End of the day though, I would personally go with whatever was cheaper.

If you really want the card to last a few years, I think you should go for a RX 580/590 card. But not because of performance, as they're very close, but because the extra 2GB of VRAM those cards have.

I honestly think that, in order to play the ports from the next gen consoles, we'll see how the system requirements ask for cards with at least 6 if not 8GB of video RAM.

As for noise, nowadays most cards come with aftermarket coolers that allow for better temps and noise so, as long as the airflow on your PC is good, almost any card will work well. That said, it's never a bad idea to look for reviews of the cards you're interested in.

Tuesday news:

SALES & DEALS

At Steam, there are two new daily deals as well as the weeklong deals:

• The first daily deal is Groove Coaster, 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/744060/Groove_Coaster/
• The other one is LASTFIGHT, 66% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/443450/LASTFIGHT/
• RIDE 3 is 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/759740/RIDE_3/
• FIGHTING EX LAYER is half its price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/871200/FIGHTING_EX_LAYER/
• ELEX is 60% off (and the Gothic series is on sale too): https://store.steampowered.com/app/411300/ELEX/
• Bethesda has put its The Elder Scrolls games on sale, up to 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/bethesda/list/35536
• And Eidos Montreal has its games (Tomb Raider, Deus EX, Thief) on sale: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/EidosMontreal

On the Humble Store there are two new sales:

• The new Spotlight deal is Kerbal Space Program, 50% off for the next 5 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/kerbal-space-program/
• And Bethesda is the star of the publisher week sale, with up to 67% discounts for the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/bethesda-publisher-week/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce 419.67 WHQL driver is optimized for Battlefield 5 Firestorm, Sekiro and Anthem DLSS
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-geforce-419-67-whql-driver-is-optimized-for-battlefield-5-firestorm-sekiro-and-anthem-dlss/
NVIDIA has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce 419.67 WHQL driver is optimized for the battle royale Firestorm mode for Battlefield 5, the upcoming DLSS version of Anthem, the recently released ray tracing effects for Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Furthermore, this driver includes support for G-SYNC compatible surround mode and two new G-SYNC compatible monitors (ASUS VG278QR and ASUS VG258).
Moreover, NVIDIA’s latest driver addresses the performance drops in DaVinci Resolve, the screen corruptions issues in APEX Legends when switching from windowed mode to fullscreen mode when Windows HDR is enabled, and the poor performance issues when using antialiasing in Total War: Warhammer 2.
>> Available from here.

This stunning cinematic uses UE4 to blend real-life with machine-human hybrids
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-stunning-cinematic-uses-ue4-to-blend-real-life-with-machine-human-hybrids/
Real-time photorealism specialist Quixel has shared a stunning new teaser called Rebirth, a cinematic that blends "the power of Unreal Engine" with real-world scans from the Megascans Icelandic collection that "represents a new way of crafting computer graphics".
>> It does look stunning. Maybe we'll get those kind of graphics in two gens or so.

MODS/EMULATORS

-empty-

GAMING NEWS

RAGE 2, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Fallout 76 and DOOM Eternal are all coming to Steam
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rage-2-wolfenstein-youngblood-fallout-76-and-doom-eternal-are-all-coming-to-steam/
Bethesda has confirmed that all of its upcoming games will be coming to Steam. This basically means that RAGE 2, Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Doom Eternal will be available on both Bethesda’s launcher and Valve’s digital store.
>> Great news for all!

Beyond a Steel Sky, sequel to 90’s dystopian cyberpunk adventure Beneath a Steel Sky, releases in 2019
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/beyond-a-steel-sky-sequel-to-90s-dystopian-cyberpunk-adventure-beneath-a-steel-sky-releases-in-2019/
Revolution Software has announced it has reunited with legendary comic book artist Dave Gibbons to create Beyond a Steel Sky – the long-awaited follow-up to classic 90’s dystopian cyberpunk adventure Beneath a Steel Sky.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.5 is available on PTU and here are some beautiful screenshots from it
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/star-citizen-alpha-3-5-is-available-on-ptu-and-here-are-some-beautiful-screenshots-from-it/
Cloud Imperium has released Star Citizen Alpha 3.5 on PTU (Persistent Test Universe) and our reader ‘Sean’ has shared with us some screenshots from it. These screenshots will give you an idea of some of the new areas and features that Cloud Imperium has implemented in it.

Hitman 2 will get official DX12 support on March 26th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hitman-2-will-get-official-dx12-support-on-march-26th/
IO Interactive has announced that Hitman 2 will be receiving official DX12 support on March 26th. The game’s latest update will add support for Microsoft’s latest API so it will be interesting to see whether the game’s CPU optimization issues will be resolved with it.

The Lords of the Rings – Gollum is a new narrative-driven action adventure game from Daedalic
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-lords-of-the-rings-gollum-is-a-new-narrative-driven-action-adventure-game-from-daedalic/
Daedalic Entertainment has announced a new narrative-driven action adventure game based on the Lord of the Rings universe, called The Lords of the Rings – Gollum. The Lords of the Rings – Gollum promises to stay true to the original metarial and will feature new events and details related to Gollum’s journey.

New Mortal Kombat 11 trailer showcases the game’s old/classic and new timelines
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-mortal-kombat-11-trailer-showcases-the-games-old-classic-and-new-timelines/
Warner Bros and NetherRealm Studios today revealed the new Mortal Kombat 11 Old Skool vs. New Skool Trailer, showcasing a variety of past and present characters from the rich Mortal Kombat history who meet up as part of the time-bending new narrative.

No Man’s Sky Virtual Reality announced; free VR mode that will be released alongside BEYOND in Summer 2019
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/no-mans-sky-virtual-reality-announced-free-vr-mode-that-will-be-released-alongside-beyond-in-summer-2019/
Hello Games has announced that No Man’s Sky: BEYOND will bring full VR support to the game, and will be free for all existing players. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team has released a new trailer that you can find below.

Xenon Racer releases later today on Steam, gets a launch trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/xenon-racer-releases-later-today-on-steam-gets-a-launch-trailer/
SOEDESCO has announced that its futuristic arcade racing game, Xenon Racer, will be available on Steam later today. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team has also released the game’s launch trailer that you can find below.
>> Here's the link to the Steam Page of this game, in case you want it.

Metro Exodus Ranger Update adds New Game+, further improves RTX and DLSS, and more
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/metro-exodus-ranger-update-adds-new-game-further-improves-rtx-and-dlss-and-more/
4A Games has released a brand new update for Metro Exodus. According to the changelog, this March 2019 update adds a New Game+ mode, adds DualShock and Steam Controller support, and packs general Karma system improvements as well as Localization fixes and improvements.

Journey to the Savage Planet will be exclusive to Epic Store, gets new trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/journey-to-the-savage-planet-will-be-exclusive-to-epic-store-gets-new-trailer/
Following the first-look hands-off demos of Journey to the Savage Planet at the Game Developers’ Conference (GDC) last week, 505 Games and Typhoon Studios have released a short environmental teaser trailer showcasing the colorful, vibrant and even humorous world of their debut game.

Remedy’s Control will officially release on August 27th, gets brand new gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/remedys-control-will-officially-release-on-august-27th-gets-brand-new-gameplay-trailer/
505 Games and Remedy Entertainment today announced that Control will release on August 27th on the Epic Games Store. In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher has released a new gameplay trailer that will take viewers further into the game’s supernatural world.

Devolver Digital’s Observation is the latest Epic Games Store exclusive, official PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/devolver-digitals-observation-is-the-latest-epic-games-store-exclusive-official-pc-requirements/
Back in October 2018, we informed you about a new new sci-fi thriller game, called Observation. And even though Devolver had a Steam page for it, though it was not taking pre-orders like Deep Silver did with Metro Exodus, it has taken that store page down and revealed that the game will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Tuesday news, part two:

Blizzard reveals 12 new Hearthstone: Rise of Shadows cards
https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-the-first-hearthstone-rise-of-shadows-card-reveal-here/
The first reveal livestream for the upcoming Hearthstone expansion Rise of Shadows will take place at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on March 25, and yes, that's today! So why not watch it with us?
Update: The stream is now over, and here are the cards Blizzard revealed, including a trio of new Legendaries: Khadgar, Heistbaron Togwaggle, and Blastmaster Boom. What do you think?

Fortnite's next limited time mode, The Floor is Lava, is 'coming soon'
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnites-next-limited-time-mode-the-floor-is-lava-is-coming-soon/
Fortnite Season 8 is in full swing and sees the world stuffed with pirates, ninjas, and all that lovely loot to boot. But if you thought the island's lava-spewing volcano and volcanic vents were just for show, though, think again—turns out lava will be the theme of the next limited-time mode, too.

Rainbow Six Siege players want Apex Legends' pinging, and Ubisoft likes the idea
https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-players-want-apex-legends-pinging-and-ubisoft-likes-the-idea/
Whatever you make of Apex Legends' meteoric rise, everyone can agree that it gets non-verbal communication right. With a simple button press, players can quickly make specific callouts (“enemy was here” or “need light ammo,” for example). The hugely positive feedback of contextual pinging has left Rainbow Six Siege players understandably jealous, and Ubisoft is taking notes.

Divinity: Original Sin 2's locations were initially all part of one big map
https://www.pcgamer.com/divinity-original-sin-2s-locations-were-initially-all-part-of-one-big-map/
A lot went wrong during the development of Divinity: Original Sin 2. In the end, it was hard to tell: Larian's RPG was our 2017 game of the year, and is one of the deepest, most enthralling RPGs in years. But in a GDC panel last week, Larian founder Swen Vincke went over the challenges his team faced during development. It turns out writing a massive and extremely open-ended RPG is pretty tough.

Final Fantasy 14 players are upset that its two new races are both gender-locked
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-players-are-upset-that-its-two-new-races-are-both-gender-locked/
What's worse than one gender-locked race? Final Fantasy 14 answered that question this weekend when, at its annual Fan Festival in Japan, it was announced that the MMO would get two gender-locked races in its upcoming Shadowbringers expansion.

Elden: Path of the Forgotten is a stylish, lonely RPG full of Lovecraftian monsters
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-path-of-the-exile-is-a-stylish-lonely-rpg-full-of-lovecraftian-monsters/
Elden: Path of the Forgotten bills itself as a Lovecraftian ode, and while he's the last person that needs another videogame ode, the trailer has piqued my interest. It's a medieval cosmic horror RPG that's light on exposition and heavy on handsome pixel art.

Cthulhu-in-space horror game Moons of Madness is coming later this year
https://www.pcgamer.com/cthulhu-in-space-horror-game-moons-of-madness-is-coming-later-this-year/
Low-ranking technician Shane Newehart has a simple job: Watch over a secret research station on Mars to ensure that nothing goes too terribly wrong before the replacement crew arrives. But things are going wrong. Systems are breaking down, there's a weird mist floating around, and the rest of the team is taking an awfully long time on that EVA mission. Is he going insane? Or is some insidious, malevolent force piercing the gossamer veil that separates our blinkered reality from the multi-dimensional horrors of... the Great Old Ones?

Killing Floor 2 and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam are free to try this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/killing-floor-2-and-rising-storm-2-vietnam-are-free-to-try-this-week/
Tripwire's Killing Floor 2 and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam are both getting their first major updates of 2019 today, and anyone can check them out on Steam this week. Both games will be free to try from 10 am PT today until 10 am PT on Friday, and both series will be on sale for the duration.
>> The discounts aren't live yet, at least in Europe. Maybe they're part of the Midweek Madness deals.

Fallout 76 survival mode beta arrives today, 'slap damage' removed from adventure mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-patch/
The long-awaited survival mode beta for Fallout 76 arrives today, effectively splitting the game in two. Upon starting the game, you will now choose to play in adventure mode, for the standard Fallout 76 experience, or the new survival mode beta, where PvP is the default setting, there are fewer restrictions, and greater rewards.

Final Fantasy 15 ends with Episode Ardyn, out now
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-15-ends-with-episode-ardyn-out-now/
With the launch of its prequel episode and final bit of DLC, Episode Ardyn, that's Final Fantasy 15 over as of today. You can show off as flamboyant bad guy Ardyn Lucis Caelum in events set before the main game. It was meant to be one of a series of one-shot, character-focused DLC episodes, but lamentably the rest were cancelled.

EA lays off around 350 people
https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-lays-off-around-350-people/
Electronic Arts is laying off 350 people across its marketing, publishing and operations teams, as well as reducing its presence in Japan and Russia. CEO Andrew Wilson announced the layoffs today.
>> Sad news for those involved.

I think i saw this yesterday (could've sworn it was in news already, maybe on Unreal from GDC)...it is indeed really stunning.

But evetyime I see something like this, or CGI posts something in his thread, first thing that pops to my mind is something in the line of "ok, so if I fire an RPG into that wall/tree, will it break realistically, and will debris remain on ground and be still affected by physics?".

I honestly don't think there's future in polygon+texture based worlds, and while I'm aware that something like simple cathedral rendered at 5mm precision in voxels takes about 2.7GB of data, I do hope to at least some experiments in next gen and full paradigm shift gen after that one. Cause, as much as this look beautifil, it's still just textures slapped on underlying polygon geometry.

You're right, I posted it on Friday from a DSO article. My bad.

Also, while I agree that polygons and textures won't last forever, I think they'll stay around far more than a couple of generations. First we'll have to wait for full Ray Tracing, and that will take a time.

In any case, you could already shoot an RPG to a tree in Crysis and see how it (quite realistically) fall into the ground, so it's not as much as a technical limitation rather than a limit in the money and time studios are allowed to use to achieve that.

Personally, I would prefer realistic worlds where, for example, you could enter any building you want (I have an axe or a machine gun but can't break a wooden door or a window to get inside until I find a key, if at all?).

Oh, no doubt about it, there are games that have destructible things, Red Faction Guerilla probably being my favourite among them. But that is not physics I want, limited cases on certain things in game world.

In your example, door in voxel based world, where materials behave like their real world counterparts, doesn't have any special case physics applied to it. It just is. So depending on what you use on it, it will abide the laws of physics of that world and react accordingly. Every piece of it that is broken, will keep on reacting. Just like every piece of that world will abide to those laws. I don't think polygon based worlds will ever be able to achieve that...at least not on any significant scale.