Friday news, part two and last for the week:

Go on a road trip across China with your aunt in Road to Guangdong
https://www.pcgamer.com/go-on-a-road-trip-across-china-with-your-aunt-in-road-to-guangdong/
We need more road trip games. Jalopy, Final Fantasy 15 and a few others have been leading the charge—not quite carving out a genre, but at least making an argument for more of them. The latest is Road to Guangdong, from Just Add Oil Games and the publisher of Jalopy. Heading to Early Access in May, it follows aunt and niece Guu Ma and Sunny as they take a trip across ‘90s Guangdong.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey DLC is being changed to 'better reflect' player choices
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-odyssey-dlc-is-being-changed-to-better-reflect-player-choices/
Following an uproar over the decision to force Assassin's Creed Odyssey players into a heterosexual romance in the recent Legacy of the First Blade DLC episode Shadow Heritage, even if they'd opted for a same-sex relationship in the main game, Ubisoft has announced that it will make changes to the DLC to properly reflect players' choices in the game.

Here's all the Overwatch Lunar New Year skins
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-lunar-new-year-skins-2019/
Overwatch's seasonal Lunar New Year event is officially underway. This year we're celebrating Year of the Pig, and the in-game event brings with it eight new skins: six legendaries and two epics, for the likes of Reinhardt, Brigitte, Tracer, and more.

Let's see the GOG and Steam deals for this weekend:

+GOG

• The first of the three deals is the weekly sale, Choice Paralysis, with up to 80% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20190121_weekly_sale
• Let's follow with the visual novels sale, with up 55% deals: https://www.gog.com/promo/20190122_new_visual_novels
• And lastly, there's also the HOT Sale, with discounts that go all the way to 90% off.

+Steam

• The daily deal involves the Shadowrun franchise, with 75% discounts: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/shadowrun/
• AMPLITUDE and SEGA have put their Endless games (Space 2, Legend and Dungeon of) free to try during the weekend, and with discounts ranging from 10 to 90%: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/endless_free_weekend/'>Endless%20Franchise%20titles
• The weekend deal is the Dragon Ball franchise, with up to 75% discounts for Xenoverse, Xenoverse 2 and FighterZ: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/dragonballfranchise/
• And there's the Aussie Sale (guess where are the devs/publishers from?), with discounts that go from 10 to 90%: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/aussie-sale/
• And of course, there's also the weeklong deals

That's all. I hope you have a happy and gaming weekend.

The System Requirements of Metro: Exodus are out and pretty hefty, especially considering the VRAM: 8GiB are needed for the recommended settings and for High already, and 11GiB for Extreme.

http://metrothegame.com/PCSpecs

In other words, those who potentially just bought a 2060 to play this game with full details are fucked, they can't even go beyond medium

We'll see how those requirements translate to real world performance. They also list 8GB of VRAM for recommended, and yet they list the 2060 in that setting. That said, I agree that the system needs for this game are crazy high.

Maybe they want to have the new Crysis.

Metro has always been a bit of a hardware killer.
A Geforce 2060 is mid-range hardware, so it is nice not seeing it run ultra settings... Hardware was outstripping games by a significant margin.

...Now I just need AMD to release a GPU worthy of me upgrading towards!

Should be interesting to see how the 16GB Radeon RX 570 does in this game with that buffer.

I think for gaming this GPU is too weak to make use of that amount of VRAM. On the other hand I don't know what that VRAM is worth for mining, especially since the 4GiB version was more popular for that (though that could also depend on what you mine I think)

How the 16GiB of the Vega VII hold up in a couple years will be more interesting for me

Hence my "interesting" statement. - It all comes down to how that VRAM is used though... AMD for awhile started dumping geometry data into VRAM instead of caches or system memory back during the Terascale days... If it reduces the amount of data traveling over PCI-E, generally that is generally always far better.

The Monday news!

SALES & DEALS

Axiom Verge is the next free game on the Epic Games Store
https://www.pcgamer.com/axiom-verge-is-the-next-free-game-on-the-epic-games-store/
You’ll be able to get a free Metroidvania fix next month when 2D action romp Axiom Verge temporarily sheds its price on the Epic Games Store. It follows the Jackbox Party Pack, available until February 7, and will be free from February 6.
>> I guess I'll add another game to my backlog.

Leaked dates say Steam Lunar New Year Sale will run February 4 to 11
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-steam-lunar-new-year-sale-is-returning-in-early-february/
Update: An image leaked to PC Gamer from the Steam Partner site shows more details for the upcoming Steam Lunar New Year Sale, including the dates and sale requirements, most of which will only matter to developers putting their games up at a discount. We've corroborated the information with another source, so unless Valve changes things up last second, expect these dates to be the dates.
According to the image, the Steam Lunar New Year Sale will run from February 4, starting at 10 am PT and end on February 11 at 10 am PT.

GOG's new weekly sale, Don't let them escape, offers up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20190128_weekly_sale

Steam's daily deal is a sale from Playdead publisher with its two games, LIMBO and INSIDE, from 60 to 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/playdead/

And at Fanatical, there are a bunch of new deals:

• The Star Deal is the Injustice vs Mortal Kombat Pack for less than 5 € during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/injustice-vs-mortal-kombat-pack
• Publisher 505 Games has its games on sale for the next 2 days and up to 90% discounts: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/505-games
• Osiris: New Dawn is 40% off for the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/osiris-new-dawn
• Skullgirls will be 92% off for the next 3 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/skullgirls
• And there's a ne bundle, the Onslaught Bundle, with 8 games 97% off for the next 10 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/onslaught-bundle

SOFTWARE/DRIVERS

Capcom has removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from Resident Evil 7
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/capcom-has-removed-the-denuvo-anti-tamper-tech-from-resident-evil-7/
Now here is something really interesting. While Resident Evil 2 Remake came out with, from what looks like, a new version of Denuvo, Capcom has removed this controversial anti-tamper tech from Resident Evil 7.
Although we don’t know the reasons behind this removal, Resident Evil 7’s Steam store page has also been updated in order to reflect this change (similarly to Resident Evil 2 Remake, Resident Evil 7’s page listed Denuvo on the right).

MODS/EMULATORS

Someone is working on a fan remake of Star Wars Episode 1: Racer in Unreal Engine 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/someone-is-working-on-a-fan-remake-of-star-wars-episode-1-racer-in-unreal-engine-4/
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer was a quite cool futuristic racing game that, as its title suggests, was based on the pod racers that were featured in Star Wars Episode 1. This racing game was released in 1999 and YouTube’s ‘stefano cagnani’ is currently working on a fan remake in Unreal Engine 4.
This project is currently in a really early state, however there is a lot of potential here for a great fan game (or at least a cool tech demo). Since this is a racing game, we believe that it could be possible to polish one map and release a demo for it (provided Cagnani is willing to release it to the public once it’s finished).

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines unofficial patch 10.2 final is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-unofficial-patch-10-2-final-is-available-for-download/
Modder ‘Wesp5’ has released the final version of the unofficial patch 10.2 for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. The unofficial patch mod is a restoration project adding a lot missing content, including new quests, levels, weapons, items, characters, dialogue, graphics, models, sounds and original music. In other words, it’s a must-have mod for everyone that wants to replay this classic title.
>> Download this mod from ModDB.

Modders working on a Fallout 2 remake using Fallout 4’s Engine, first screenshots released
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/modders-working-on-a-fallout-2-remake-using-fallout-4-engine-first-screenshots-released/
A team of modders is currently working on a mod that aims to recreate the world of Fallout 2 in Fallout 4. This project is called Project Arroyo and the team’s goal is to give to the old fans of the Fallout games, and to the new, Fallout 2 with brand new visuals and a first-person perspective. And while this mod is still in an early phase, the team has released its first screenshots that you can find below.
The team will be adding the skills, perks, weapons, locations, NPCs, and everything in between for the full Fallout 2 experience in Fallout 4’s engine. While the team has finished the first town, Modoc, it is currently open to new members who are experienced with the creation kit, esm/esp merging, programmers, level designers, artists, and modelers.

First proper nude mod for Monster Hunter World, with boobs physics, available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/first-proper-nude-mod-for-monster-hunter-world-with-boobs-physics-available-for-download/
Modder ’00dude00′ has released a proper female nude mod for Monster Hunter World. Now the reason I’m saying this is a proper nude mod is because some initial mods simply re-textured the default armour model, resulting in some really awful and flat results. Similarly to a mod that is also available for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, those nude mods made the female character look unnatural and fake as hell.
On the other hand, this brand new mod replaces the main model with a naked high polygon model with textures and normal maps to go with it, and comes with a version that features boobs physics. Furthermore, there are hair/no hair options, making this mod… well… quite unique.
>> As always with these kind of mods, no links are provided, but you can find it at Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

Anthem demo is a clusterf*k, with numerous connection errors and loading issues on Expedition
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/anthem-demo-is-a-clusterfuck-with-numerous-connection-errors-and-loading-issues-on-expedition/
The VIP demo for Anthem was released a little more than one hour ago and things are not looking good. Electronic Arts and BioWare claimed that this demo is not a beta and would represent the experience that gamers would be getting at launch, however this definitely feels like a beta.

Bioware comments on the PC version of Anthem; mouse acceleration, performance, FOV slider and more
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bioware-comments-on-the-pc-version-of-anthem-mouse-acceleration-performance-fov-slider-and-more/
The PC demo of Anthem let down a significant amount of gamers as it has some ridiculous mouse acceleration issues, has mediocre performance on high-end machines, and lacks some PC-specific features like a FOV slider. Thankfully, BioWare has shed some light on the final PC version of the game, revealing the improvements that will be coming to it.
>> And it won't support DLSS at launch, with Ray Tracing maybe coming later.

Free to play version of the battle royale game, PUBG, is currently in beta testing
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/free-to-play-version-of-the-battle-royale-game-pubg-is-currently-in-beta-testing/
PUBG Corporation has announced that a free to play version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, PUBG Lite, is currently in beta testing. Unfortunately, though, this beta testing is exclusive for a limited time to Thailand and it will help the team determine if this is a viable product for other regions.

JUMP FORCE gets a story trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/jump-force-gets-a-story-trailer/
Bandai Namco has released the story trailer for JUMP FORCE. JUMP FORCE is an anime/manga 3D brawler, featuring the world’s most popular and classic manga/anime franchises including DRAGON BALL Z, ONE PIECE, NARUTO, and many others.

Dragon Ball Z Action RPG is officially coming to the PC in 2019, first gameplay trailer released
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dragon-ball-z-action-rpg-is-officially-coming-to-the-pc-in-2019-first-gameplay-trailer-released/
Earlier this month, Bandai Namco announced that it is working on an action RPG game based on Dragon Ball Z. And today, the publisher confirmed that the game will be coming to the PC and has released its debut gameplay trailer.
>> Hiku has a thread about this subject.

Monday news, part two:

Fortnite Save the World's loot boxes will let you see what's inside them before you buy
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-save-the-worlds-loot-boxes-will-let-you-see-whats-inside-them-before-you-buy/
Llamas, for some reason, are the loot boxes of the Fortnite world—technically llama pinatas, so you don't have to feel bad about smashing them open to get the goodies out. Today, Epic Games announced that it's changing Llamas purchased with V-Bucks in Fortnite Save the World to "X-Ray Llamas" that will enable players to see what's inside before opting to buy them.

A Plague Tale: Innocence video tells a tale of orphans in the time of the Black Death
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-plague-tale-innocence-video-tells-a-tale-of-orphans-in-the-time-of-the-black-plague/
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a game about two children in 14th-century France struggling to escape the soldiers of the Inquisition in a world overrun by deadly swarms of plague-ridden rats. It was unveiled at E3 2017 with a trailer that creeped Joe out pretty thoroughly, and earlier this week publisher Focus Home Interactive announced that it will be out on May 14 and released the first of a series of videos going behind the scenes of the game's development.

Subnautica: Below Zero early access release set for January 30
https://www.pcgamer.com/subnautica-below-zero-early-access-release-set-for-january-30/
Subnautica: Below Zero is a followup to last year's outstanding underwater sci-fi survival game, set in a different region of the same planet after the events of Subnautica. I won't get into that too much in order to avoid spoilers, but it means that Below Zero could be a good bit different from its predecessor in some ways.

PlanetSide Arena delayed until March, closed beta launches next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/planetside-arena-delayed-until-march-closed-beta-launches-next-week/
Multiplayer FPS PlanetSide Arena, which was due to launch next week, has been delayed until March 26, developer Daybreak Games has announced.
The shooter is set to launch with a 150-player battle royale mode and a 250v250 team fight, and while Daybreak has made "significant strides" towards getting it where it needs to be, there are still "crucial feature enhancements and core systems improvements we can make that will lift PlanetSide Arena to the level it deserves", it said in a blog post.

Ubisoft targets Rainbow Six Siege's 'crouch and lean spam' for future fix
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-targets-rainbow-six-sieges-crouch-and-lean-spam-for-future-fix/
If you've recently seen Rainbow Six Siege players moving in peculiar ways, they may well be "crouch and lean spamming"—basically, mashing those commands to make their characters jerk in unnatural ways, making them difficult to hit. Ubisoft is aware that the problem is on the rise and is "actively working on how we want to approach [it] and planning our next steps", it said in a Reddit post.

Wargroove will have cross-play between PC, Switch and Xbox One at launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/wargroove-will-have-cross-play-between-pc-switch-and-xbox-one-at-launch/
Chucklefish's strategy game Wargroove will have cross-play between PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One when it launches next week, the developer has announced.
The strategy game, which is out on February 1, will have a campaign as well as PvP multiplayer battles (including asynchronous play) and co-op. You can play with up to three other players, so the announcement is good news if you have friends that plan to play on console.

Peter 'Durante' Thoman opens his own studio for PC ports
https://www.pcgamer.com/peter-durante-thoman-opens-his-own-studio-for-pc-ports/
Peter 'Durante' Thoman, known for his famous PC Dark Souls fix as well as for porting games such as The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel to PC, has launched his own studio called PH3 games.
On the Metacouncil forum, Durante said PH3 has been around in an unofficial capacity since September last year, but that "we just very recently got the final bureaucratic IDs required to consider it fully complete".

Cyberpunk RTS Re-Legion gets a release date, and it's next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-rts-re-legion-gets-a-release-date-and-its-next-week/
Cyberpunk RTS Re-Legion, in which you start your own cult, will be out on Thursday, January 31, developer Ice Code Games has announced.
It was initially due to release last year, but was delayed in October to give Ice Code more time to polish it. The original plan was to release it with both singleplayer and multiplayer modes, but the release version will only contain the singleplayer campaign, with multiplayer to follow at a later date.

Sequel to Anodyne, the excellent Zelda-a-like RPG, gets May release date
https://www.pcgamer.com/sequel-to-anodyne-the-excellent-zelda-a-like-rpg-gets-may-release-date/
The sequel to dream-like 2D RPG Anodyne, which Tom scored a hearty 84/100 in his 2013 review, will be out in May, the development team has announced.
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust is very different—you'll still be crawling through dungeons from a 2D perspective, Zelda-style, but it also switches out to 3D view during some sections, giving you a clear look at some wonderfully strange surroundings.

Stories Untold dev will make Pekken, a pigeon fighting game, if it gets 10,000 retweets
https://www.pcgamer.com/stories-untold-dev-will-make-pekken-a-pigeon-fighting-game-if-it-gets-10000-retweets/
Sometimes as a game developer you’ve just got to wing-it, stop trying to feather the nest for a while and let your imagination soar. That’s what Stories Untold dev NoCode has been up to lately, prototyping a fighting game called Pekken.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is three times more popular than Resident Evil 7 on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/resident-evil-2-remake-is-three-times-more-popular-than-resident-evil-7-on-steam/
Capcom’s remake of Resident Evil 2 appears to be doing well for itself on PC, already boasting more than three times the number of players of the previous mainline entry in the series, Resident Evil 7.

Try Europa Universalis IV’s expansion Mandate of Heaven free for a week
https://www.pcgamer.com/try-europa-universalis-ivs-expansion-mandate-of-heaven-free-for-a-week/
Paradox is offering existing Europa Universalis IV owners the chance to try the Mandate of Heaven expansion for free for a week, the publisher has revealed.
The trial runs from right now until 13:00 CET on the 4th of February. Anyone who owns EU IV can download Mandate of Heaven from the DLC tab in their Paradox Account launcher. Once the trial week is over, Mandate of Heaven will be deactivated once again.

One Overkill’s The Walking Dead developer says they 'knew it was going to tank'
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-overkills-the-walking-dead-developer-says-they-knew-it-was-going-to-tank/
Overkill’s The Walking Dead was one of 2018’s flops, selling just a few hundred thousand copies when it was expected to sell millions, a failure that forced its publisher Starbreeze into effective administration. Now, Eurogamer has published an in-depth feature that says some designers on the project were fully aware of the game’s problems well before release, but were not given appropriate time to fix them.

Metro Exodus is now an Epic store exclusive. Steam pre-orders will still be honored.

Well, between that and the higher than usual system req., I don't see this game doing well on PC. They're betting it all on the console versions.