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JEMC on 16 May 2024
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These are the Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Square Enix president bemoans weak Final Fantasy sales and says his restructure is existential: 'Our winning formula is no longer effective'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/square-enix-president-bemoans-weak-final-fantasy-sales-and-says-his-restructure-is-existential-our-winning-formula-is-no-longer-effective/
The relatively new Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu has been making some big decisions in reviewing the company's development process "from scratch". (...)
Square Enix says it expects operating income of ¥40 billion in this financial year, against an expectation of ¥57 billion. Its sales and dividend outlook were also down. Since the announcement of these results and the ongoing restructuring, Square Enix's shares have suffered badly, with Bloomberg reporting that the fall of 16% is "their biggest decline in 13 years" (and bear in mind, the Japanese stock market has a daily limit on how far a stock can fall).
Kiryu told shareholders and analysts that the company had failed to meet its expectations because of low sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI and Foamstars. Notably these games are all PlayStation 5 exclusives—the last estimate Square Enix gave for FF16 placed it at three million sales, with no further update here beyond Kiryu saying initial sales were good before tailing off.
Foamstars also fell short of expectations, though I'm not sure why Square Enix ever thought a B-tier Splatoon would set the world alight. Reading between the lines, however, what has really set the cat among the pigeons at Square Enix HQ is FF7 Rebirth. The second instalment of a trilogy remaking perhaps the company's most beloved RPG, Kiryu said only that sales were short of expectations and their internal targets.
What he didn't share were any sales numbers whatsoever. This game's been out for three months, it's the type of game that depends on that launch period for most of its sales, it's a major entry in the company's flagship series… Kiryu claimed sales weren't especially bad, but the absence of a sales figure says a lot.
The most relevant aspect of Square Enix's brave new world for PC gamers is that it has had enough of console exclusives (or is certainly talking like that—never underestimate what a big cheque can do). Kiryu is re-focusing the publisher on big-budget games, with the emphasis on quality, and more importantly wants them available on as many platforms as possible. The president reckons that over time FF16 will achieve what Square Enix expects, though with Rebirth he's not quite yet ready to say the obvious (it is definitely coming to PC).
>> So, either the games will be multiplatform since day one or Sony (and maybe Epic?) will have to give them a much bigger cheque.

Epic Store gives away Dragon Age: Inquisition – Game of the Year Edition: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/dragon-age-inquisition-game-of-the-year-edition-2f0cbd.
The free game(s) for next week is a mystery.

GOG has two new sales:

Steam has Blade: The Edge of Darkness on sale with a 60% deal until May 29: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1710170/Blade_The_Edge_of_Darkness/.

There’s a new Humble Bundle: The Monster Hunter World & Rise Saga Bundle, with up to 7 items (agems + DLCs) to get during 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/monster-hunter-world-rise-saga.

And Fanatical has three new 24h Flash Deals and a new bundle:

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 24.5.1 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-24-5-1
Highlights
New Game Support

  • Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT
  • Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
  • F1® 24

Expanded HYPR-Tune Support

  • Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT
  • Horizon Forbidden West™ Complete Edition
  • Starfield
  • The Last of Us™ Part I
  •  Enable HYPR-RX and get an instant boost in performance of up to 136% on the Radeon™ RX 7600XT GPU across games like Baldur’s Gate 3, F1 23, Resident Evil 4 and more! RS-643
  • Enable HYPR-RX and get an instant boost in performance of up to 86% on the Ryzen™ 8700G APU across games like Baldur’s Gate 3, F1 23, Resident Evil 4 and more! RS-64
  • Join the conversation by sharing how well HYPR-RX with AFMF is working on your system. This information across thousands of games helps us make further improvements.

AI on AMD

  • The latest version of AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition ensures optimal support and performance, providing the most refined enhancements and optimizations for the best user experience.
  • AMD Software can power AI functionality included with leading ISV applications. Content Creators can rely on AMD Software to accelerate AI-enhanced features in many content creation apps, including Adobe® Creative Cloud, Blender®, DaVinci Resolve, Topaz Photo & Video AI and many more.

AI Development on Radeon

  • AMD Software enables lower-level AI functionality with popular frameworks like PyTorch and ONNX Runtime on Linux®, enabling developers, enthusiasts and researchers to work with AI on select Radeon 7000 series desktop GPUs.

Fixed Issues

  • Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing World of Warcraft® or World of Warcraft® Classic on RDNA™ 3 series graphics products.
  • Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Overwatch® 2 on Radeon™ RX 5000 series graphics products.
  • Intermittent stutter immediately after alt-tab with Performance Metrics Overlay enabled.
  • Texture flicking may be observed while playing Hitman: Contracts.
  • Corruption around certain water elements may be observed while playing Alan Wake 2 with Radeon™ Boost enabled.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Here’s your first look at Splinter Cell with RTX Remix Path Tracing
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/heres-your-first-look-at-splinter-cell-with-rtx-remix-path-tracing/
Splinter Cell fans, here is something special for you today. YouTube’s ‘skurtyyskirts’ has shared a video, showcasing the classic Splinter Cell game with a WIP RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod.
The modder has used PBRify_Upscaler to add normal and roughness maps. As such, this WIP Mod looks better than most of the previous RTX Remix Mods we’ve shared.
Now what’s really cool here is that the video has some Before/After shots. These shots showcase perfectly the benefits of Path Tracing. And, as you will see, the lighting can completely change when using PT.
Since this is a WIP project, it does not really showcase the full benefits of RTX Remix. Not only that but there are some missing light sources. Take a look at 2:05. In that area, the devs added a fake light source (mainly for gameplay purposes). With the RTX Remix Mod, we get a more realistic lighting but this fake light source is nowhere to be found to highlight the path area.
In short, for a “first step”, this RTX Remix Mod looks really cool. However, it still needs a lot of work. So, let’s hope that the modder will put more work into it.
>> The article has an over 3 minutes video of this mod, plus another two videos with similar mods for Sonic Adventure and Tomb Raider.

Portrait of King Charles as rizzed-up final boss instantly modded into Dishonored
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/portrait-of-king-charles-as-rizzed-up-final-boss-is-instantly-modded-into-dishonored/
(...)
Anyway: last year saw the coronation of the UK's current monarch, King Charles III (for it is he). One of the many traditions the nation upholds (and frankly one of the less weird ones) is commissioning a top artist to paint the odd picture of them, and on Tuesday May 14 the first official portrait of Charles was unveiled by the king himself.
(...)
My first thought was Cainhurst. This location in Bloodborne can be summed up as 'FromSoftware does Castlevania' and is the now-ruined castle of a vampire-style monarchy, reviled by most other groups in Yharnam, and decked out in all the opulence and faded grandeur you can shake a ceremonial staff at. I think it's the deep reds from which the face emerges: this just looks exactly like the kind of thing you find on the wall in such places.
(…)
The other big comparison doing the rounds might be even better. "If you did an irl Dishonored playthrough on the British monarchy you would find this in king Charles' private quarters," observes Tate Paulson, "next to a stereograph playing a recording of him confessing to infidelity and making racist remarks about Meghan Markle."
(…)
Hero modder Timo did God's work by making this a reality: you can now download a mod that puts King Charles' portrait in Dishonored (stealing art is a mechanic). The video below shows it in-game.
>> The fact that I had to cut off so much of the article highlights how much unnecessary crap some PCGamer articles have. Anyway, there’s a short video of the mod in it.

GAMING NEWS

Old School Rally is a new racing game with PSX 32-bit graphics, created by a solo developer, that will immediately remind you of the classic Colin McRae Rally
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/old-school-rally-is-a-new-racing-game-with-psx-32-bit-graphics-created-by-a-solo-developer-that-will-immediately-remind-you-of-the-classic-colin-mcrae-rally/
Old-school rally fans, here is something really special for you today. Frozen Lake Games, a solo gaming studio, has announced Old School Rally; a new rally racing game that has 32-bit retro graphics.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been officially revealed and here are its first details, screenshots & cinematic trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/assassins-creed-shadows-has-been-officially-revealed-and-here-are-its-first-details-screenshots-cinematic-trailer/
Ubisoft has officially announced the next main AC game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on November 15th, and below you can find its first details as well as its cinematic trailer.
>> Here’s a PCGamer article where they highlight some bits of an IGN interview that indicate that stealth may make a comeback, at least in some parts of the game.

Starfield Title Update 1.11.36 released with over 100 fixes, tweaks, changes and improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/starfield-title-update-1-11-36-released-with-over-100-fixes-tweaks-changes-and-improvements/
Bethesda has just released Title Update 1.11.36 for Starfield. According to the release notes, this latest patch comes with over 100 fixes, tweaks, changes and improvements. So, let’s take a closer look at it.

Warner Bros has removed Denuvo from Back 4 Blood
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/warner-bros-has-removed-denuvo-from-back-4-blood/
Now here is a pleasant surprise. Warner Bros and Turtle Rock Studios have just removed the controversial Denuvo anti-tamper tech from Back 4 Blood.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 May 15th Patch Released and Here Are All Its Fixes, Tweaks & Changes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/dragons-dogma-2-may-15th-patch-released-and-here-are-all-its-fixes-tweaks-changes/
Capcom has released the May 15th Title Update for Dragon’s Dogma 2, and it shared its full patch notes. From the looks of it, this is a really small update. So, let’s take a closer look at it.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows will NOT require a mandatory internet connection at all times, it will be playable in offline mode
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/assassins-creed-shadows-will-not-require-a-mandatory-internet-connection-at-all-times-it-will-be-playable-in-offline-mode/
Ubisoft revealed yesterday the next part in its Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. And, from the looks of it, some rumors surfaced, suggesting that it would be an always-online title. However, that won’t be the case.
>> Well, taht’s a welcome surprise from Ubisoft.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.