Yeah, we got Batman Arkham nothing and Horizon Zero done lol. I still can't believe pubs don't learn from this, like at all. Each time this happens it makes for bad press, and in this particular case, it's a curve ball for MS(watch them just let that easy one slip by though).

I know people also like to account for the marketing budget, but with HZD there was like one youtube trailer and a few pictures shown off, so there def wasn't a budget issue here. 

The PS4 version of HZD was shit, so they're kinda right when they say the PC version is Playstation quality. It's really on us expecting PC quality from a PS4 game.

Hey vivs, Nvidia is playing with your patience:

NVIDIA teases upcoming GeForce RTX 30 “Ampere” Series

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-teases-upcoming-geforce-rtx-30-ampere-series

Let's go with the Monday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has sold 2 million copies on Steam in its first week
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/fall-guys-ultimate-knockout-2-million-copies-first-week/
Devolver Digital has just announced that Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has sold a lot of copies in its first week. According to the publisher, Mediatonic’s game has sold 2 million copies on Steam in just a week.

GOG has two sales, one of them new:

• The new one is the weekly sale featuring "games perfect for white nights", whatever that means, up to 90% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200810_weekly_sale
• The old one is the Quakecon sale, that will still last another 7 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200804_quakecon_sale

Steam has two new daily deals:

• The first one is Whispers of a Machine, 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/631570/Whispers_of_a_Machine/
• And The Town of Light is 85% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/433100/The_Town_of_Light/

Fanatical has a new Star Deal, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - Standard Edition, 69% off for the next 24 hours. The keys are for UPlay: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/tom-clancy-s-rainbow-six-siege-year-5-standard-edition

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Fans have gotten Hawken on PC working again... in singleplayer
https://www.pcgamer.com/fans-have-gotten-hawken-on-pc-working-again-in-singleplayer/
Cult free-to-play Mech shooter Hawken shut down on PC at the beginning of 2018, was removed from Steam, and its fans mourned. Despite its troubled development history, Hawken was unique in both the free-to-play and mech game spaces. Various statements and rumors about the game's revival have proven false so far, the official website is completely dormant, and its social media accounts have either gone dormant or been deleted.
Fans, however, can't be deleted. A group referring to themselves as Hawakening have been laboring to get the game running again and have finally met some success. It's back up, at least in limited fashion, thanks to a method devised by Hawakening team. You can boot it up, but since there are no multiplayer servers nor code to enable them, you can only play the game's modes that work in offline singleplayer vs the game's AI.
Still, if you're nostalgic for Hawken that might do the trick. The modding community has said they'd like to speak to publishers 505 Games or developers Hawken Entertainment Inc about reviving the game's PC multiplayer.
To be clear, backing up your software and using this method to play the game in Singleplayer is only legal (in the United States, other nations may vary) if you have own a license to the game. If you played the game on Steam, you have a license.
>> If you want to learn more, go to hawakening.com.

GAMING NEWS

New Command & Conquer Remastered patch adds LAN support, brings QoL improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-command-conquer-remastered-patch-adds-lan-support-brings-qol-improvements/
Petroglyph has released the second major update for Command & Conquer Remastered that adds support for LAN play. LAN Play can be accessed directly from the Main Menu, and includes the ability to play LAN games with Mods enabled and over certain VPN networks.

Acclaim Austin pitched a new Turok game in 2004, TUROK 5: Resurrection
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nightdive-studios-pitched-a-new-turok-game-in-2004-turok-5-resurrection/
Stephen Kick, CEO of NightDive Studios, has shared the documents for a game Nightdive Studios Acclaim Austin pitched back in 2004. As you may have guessed, this game never saw the light of day and was cancelled. This new Turok game would be called Turok 5: Resurrection, and would retain its first-person perspective.

Focus Home Interactive issues official statement about Limestone Games and Aeon Must Die!
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/focus-home-interactive-issues-official-statement-about-limestone-games-and-aeon-must-die/
Focus Home Interactive released yesterday the debut trailer for Aeon Must Die!. However, it appears that most of the Limestone’s developers have quit the studio due to crunch and lack of payments. And, since this caught the eye of the media, Focus Home Interactive decided to issue an official statement about this whole situation.

Horizon Zero Dawn supports AMD FidelityFX SPD, AMD TressFX and Asynchronous Compute
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/horizon-zero-dawn-supports-amd-fidelityfx-spd-amd-tressfx-and-asynchronous-compute/
Horizon Zero Dawn has finally been released on the PC. As we’ve already reported, Guerrilla Games and Virtuos partnered with AMD in order to bring this game on PC. And, AMD has detailed all the new AMD PC features that the game packs under its hood.
>> Not the best showcase for those features, right?

Despite reports, the PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn is not a debug build
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/horizon-zero-dawn-pc-version-not-debug-build/
Horizon Zero Dawn has just been released on the PC and there has been a big controversy surrounding its PC version. Yesterday, a report surfaced on Reddit, suggesting that the PC version is actually a debug build of the game. However, it appears that this report was inaccurate.

PGA TOUR 2K21 Official PC System Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pga-tour-2k21-official-pc-system-requirements/
2K Games has revealed the official PC system requirements for its upcoming golf game, PGA TOUR 2K21. PGA TOUR 2K21 will feature PGA TOUR Career Mode, licensed courses and more, and will release on August 21st.

Warner Bros Games is no longer up for sale, will remain part of AT&T
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/warner-bros-games-is-no-longer-up-for-sale-will-remains-part-of-att/
Some reports surfaced earlier this month, suggesting that Warner Bros Interactive was up for sale. However, that’s no longer the case. Warner Media has issued an official statement in which it states that Warner Bros Games will remain part of AT&T.
>> Blood_Tears made a thread about this.

Monday news, part two:

The cheerful new gameplay trailer for Bugsnax has a surprise sinister ending
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-cheerful-new-gameplay-trailer-for-bugsnax-has-a-surprise-sinister-ending/
Octodad developer Young Horses has released a gameplay trailer for its upcoming adventure game Bugsnax, and, for the most part, it's an upbeat look at the world's part-bug, part-snack ecosystem. It's an overall chipper trailer which ends on an abrupt and surprising note. Check out the trailer above and you'll see what I mean.

A vampire army threatens The Elder Scrolls Online later this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-vampire-army-threatens-the-elder-scrolls-online-later-this-month/
Bethesda kicked off QuakeCon today with—among other things—a new trailer for Stonehorn, the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online DLC. The expansion will continue the year-long adventures of the Dark Heart of Skyrim with the tale of a looming vampire invasion that threatens Skyrim—and possibly all of Tamriel.

Guild Wars 2's Skimmer mounts are going underwater
https://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2s-skimmer-mounts-are-going-underwater/
The eighth anniversary of the fantasy MMO Guild Wars 2 is coming later this month, and to mark the moment ArenaNet is making a big change to the Skimmer mount. The manta-like Skimmers, introduced in the Path of Fire expansion in 2017, normally skim a few feet above the surface—that's where the name comes from, see—but soon, they'll also be able to carry their riders deep underwater.

Ghostwire: Tokyo features yet another dog you can pet
https://www.pcgamer.com/ghostwire-tokyo-features-yet-another-dog-you-can-pet/
The "can you pet the dog?" thing that every game is now subjected to is teetering on the line between cute and annoying—it used to be a charming measure of a game world's interactivity, but now it's something you put in a game to make Twitter squeal. Still, I'm going to call it cute in the case of Ghostwire: Tokyo. It's a good dog that you can pet, and of the various dog-petting animations we've seen recently, it's at least in the A tier.

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods teaser turns up at QuakeCon
https://www.pcgamer.com/doom-eternal-the-ancient-gods-teaser-turns-up-at-quakecon/
Have you ever wondered if it's possible to kick too much ass? The answer, apparently, is "yes." Bethesda dropped the first teaser for the upcoming Doom Eternal expansion today at QuakeCon, and it turns out that your antics as the ultimate apex predator went a little overboard, and made a mess of the entire cosmos.

Here's a great free strategy game about medieval water supplies
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-a-great-free-strategy-game-about-medieval-water-supplies/
Waterworks! is a free card-based strategy game from veteran indie developer Scriptwelder, which you may know from a variety of old Flash games. It's about providing water to the medieval city of Grudziądz, which I can barely pronounce and which statistically speaking you likely can't pronounce either. It sounds educational—which it is—but it's also a superbly designed resource-management strategy game. It's free on itch.io and I'd recommend it, if any of that sounds good.

A peculiar message in Warzone seems to be hinting at the next Call of Duty
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-peculiar-message-in-warzone-seems-to-be-hinting-at-the-next-call-of-duty/
Hat-tip to Eurogamer for spotting this, and finding the video above in which a player charmingly describes the event as "very peculiar". Players of Call of Duty: Warzone have begun seeing a brief message appearing in the middle of matches which reads "KNOW YOUR HISTORY", words that appear in a burst of static and are accompanied by Russian text which apparently translates as "doomed to repeat it".

For its three-year anniversary, West of Loathing received a patch
https://www.pcgamer.com/for-its-three-year-anniversary-west-of-loathing-received-a-patch/
Stick-figure cowboy adventure West of Loathing was our pick for best comedy game of 2017, thanks to its impressive descriptions of horrifying spittoons, silly-walking protagonist, and spot-on parody of RPGs. Three years later it's received a new patch from developers Asymmetric, which addresses what they're calling "obscure bugs" as well as adding even more jokes.

Fallout 76's new boss fight will literally scare your characters into fleeing
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76s-new-boss-fight-will-literally-scare-your-characters-into-fleeing/
At QuakeCon 2020, which is naturally taking place online only, we got a look at the upcoming Fallout 76 boss fight event called A Colossal Problem. The boss fight (available on test servers now, though it's been delayed for the general population) takes place in an 8-player instance you can enter once Monongah mine has been nuked.

Bethesda confirms that Fallout 76 is still getting official mod support
https://www.pcgamer.com/bethesda-confirms-that-fallout-76-is-still-getting-official-mod-support/
The team behind Fallout 76 has reaffirmed their commitment to official mod support in a panel during QuakeCon's broadcast to the Netherlands. When asked about the possibility of mod support in a Q&A, Fallout 76 project lead Jeff Gardiner said, "We are definitely still working on mod support, it's coming." Gardiner notes that adding mod support to Fallout 76 is a lot of work because of the client-server architecture at the core of the game, as opposed to previous singleplayer Fallout games.

The intricate strategy of Grand Tactician: The Civil War comes to Steam this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-intricate-strategy-of-grand-tactician-the-civil-war-comes-to-steam-this-month/
Ambitious strategy game project Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) will release into Early Access on Steam on August 21st. A real-time grand strategy game with tactical battles, Grand Tactician: The Civil War looks to blend the kind of grand strategy of a game like Europa Universalis with the real-time battles of a game from the Total War series.

Developers respond to complaints about Horizon Zero Dawn's PC port
https://www.pcgamer.com/developers-respond-to-complaints-about-horizon-zero-dawns-pc-port/
Developers Guerrilla have released a statement regarding these complaints, saying that "we are investigating your reports as our highest priority." They go on to say, "We appreciate those who have already taken the time to report their issues on Steam, Reddit, or via our website. If you are still encountering crashes or bugs, please continue to use those spaces, or refer to our FAQ if you are unsure of how to proceed. Your reports are, and have already been, incredibly helpful for our teams."

Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono leaves Capcom
https://www.pcgamer.com/street-fighter-producer-yoshinori-ono-leaves-capcom/
Yoshinori Ono, executive producer of the Street Fighter series, has stepped down after almost 30 years of working for Capcom. He announced his departure on Twitter, where he wrote, "I've been with the Street Fighter brand for a long time, experiencing good times, bad times, and even non-existent times. My heart is filled with appreciation to those players who've been giving warm and kind support on the brand especially little over the past decade or so as all the activities on the Street Fighter brand regained sunshine and grew its liveliness."

Injustice 3, featuring the Watchmen, has been seemingly teased by BossLogic
https://www.pcgamer.com/injustice-3-featuring-the-watchmen-has-been-seemingly-teased-by-bosslogic/
Artist BossLogic (AKA Nikolai Baslajik) has posted an intriguing image on Twitter that teases Injustice 3. Technically it's 'Injustic3', but I can't bring myself to type that more than once.

Reading up on those AMD added pieces from one of your links, JEMC, reminds me about the time we got Mankind divided, and how that ran with Nvidia GPU's. We've had times where AMD GPU's ran like trash with Nvidia sponsored games or AMD based ones for Nvidia, but I honestly just want this crap to end. Each time we see this happen, it ends up mucking things for both sets of brands. The benchmarks for HZD with AMD vs Nvidia GPU's isn't exactly stellar and that Asynchronous isn't exactly helping them either, but also does nothing for Nvidia as well.

Alright got a refund for Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam. Might get it when it's on sale and gets fixed. From the hour and a half I played with it, it hovered around 40-60fps mostly in the 50 range with my 3900X + 1080 at 3440 x 1440 with DF's optimized settings. The visuals doesn't really blow me away. The pre-rendered cutscenes look nice but they are pre-rendered. The game itself looks good but I'd say Red Dead Redemption 2 looked better and the world was a lot more interactive for sure. Too bad though as the other ports have been pretty good from Sony.

I'll be waiting until it's completely fixed and probably priced down to at least £25. That'll probably have me waiting well into 2021, but I've more or less come to terms with the fact that games these days have stopped coming out as complete feature set ones, but now being treated like common software, release out the door and fix up as you go along (which is sad that gaming has come to this sort of point). 

I watched a video comparing PS4/PC textures and in some cases PS4's textures up close were still smudge-like, but that bit better than PC's, which was a weird thing to see. Rope textures in the game look god awful and something out of a PS2 game. I definitely feel like that game was over-hyped at launch, and 3 years later we actually get to see things simmer and and see the game for what it is visually speaking, and it isn't doing as much as I'd thought. 

As bad as RDR2 runs, I'd have to agree, it seems to be doing more in terms of visual detail than HZD. 

I hope this misstep tells Sony that they shouldn't be doing this and expecting us to pay full price for less quality. They are the one brand out there so far that boasts about quality fidelity and cinematic stuff, yet seeing this just proves the opposite happens when you boast and you're just all talk and no bite. 

They're really trying hard to make me buy AMD out of spite.

I'll buy a big Navi out of spite instead of Ampere.