Pemalite said: I haven't bought a Ubisoft game on PC in years. Not until their stupid uDontPlay client deleted my games library, took them to the tribunal and got a refund on every purchase I made. Their PC ports are trash, just easier to simply avoid.

It just nuts me off how their ports are just straight up garbage on PC, compared to other AAA publishers out there. I can still play 2012 Activision games like War/Fall of Cybertron totally fine and at higher frames. No matter what I tried with FC3, it just either crashed or ran like garbage, not to  mention seriously horribly low LoD range (some textures like metal fences were displaying horrible mirror like images until you got up close to them, in which their actual texture would dissolve in).

I'm not a fan of Udon't play either. I hated when I bought assassins Creed 3, installed it on Steam after waiting a few hrs, then Ubisoft was like "oh you need to now install Uply to play the game". I did that, then it claimed I didn't have Creed 3 installed, so it forced me to download the game a second time, but via their own client, but if I uninstalled the Steam version, Uplay would be like "what game?, you don't own it on Uplay", so to play it I needed to have the damn game installed TWICE on my SSD. I was beyond annoyed and didn't bother touching Creed 3 since.

I just wish they'd stop being such a shithead towards the platform. It's like they hold some deep hatred for the platform, that hasn't surfaced since the time they called the platform users pirates, all those yrs ago. I know they're doing the usual AAA stunt of "showing off" PC settings like other publishers are hamfisting these days (seriously, I hate all of them treating PC setting like it's some shiny new token gimmick, it's really not, it's what we expect without having to see marketing of how said settings work), but their games are still garbage on the platform. I have honestly yet to see a game on PC, that's Crysis levels of detail above current gen, that actually has the right to be called demanding, because all I've been seeing for years now are games that just artificially demand more power from you, but don't actually look worlds apart from console settings. 

Pemalite said: I haven't bought a Ubisoft game on PC in years. Not until their stupid uDontPlay client deleted my games library, took them to the tribunal and got a refund on every purchase I made. Their PC ports are trash, just easier to simply avoid.

Pretty much yeah, Ubi's PC ports are generally terribly optimised at best and buggy at worst. This is a standout 'feature' in their AC games xP Its probably worth just buying the majority of games on a console if you have one, if you must play a Ubi game.

And Uplay is beyond terrible. The worst store and UI lol. I don't think I've ever used it other than to access or tie in DLC content.

id rank those that i use

1. Steam
3. battle.net
2. EGS
3. uplay
4. rockstar launcher
5. origin
6. windows store/xbox desktop app

origin just sucks at displaying owned games and windows store doesn't work regarding gamepass search functions

Thanks to AMD I still have lots of time to get a GPU. I expect there to be a big rush on the CPUs as well so I probably won't get anything until next year anyway.

The 5950X seems to demolish both it's predecessor 3950X and the i9 10900K in Passmark. The 3950X already was far above the 10900K and 10980XE in multicore score, but was lagging behind in singlecore. The 5600X already beat the 10900K in singlecore, but the 5950X even beats that by a considerable margin. Sadly, the score has been taken down in the meanwhile, so I can't get the exact numbers anymore. Edit: Here's a source: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-9-5950x-zen-3-cpu-benchmarks

Also, the 9th gen Intel chips are selling out at strongly reduced prices:  https://wccftech.com/intel-9th-gen-cpus-massive-price-cuts-microcenter-core-i7-9700k-219-core-i5-9600k-169/

kirby007 said: id rank those that i use 1. Steam 3. battle.net 2. EGS 3. uplay 4. rockstar launcher 5. origin 6. windows store/xbox desktop app origin just sucks at displaying owned games and windows store doesn't work regarding gamepass search functions

My ranking:

1. GOG
2. Itch.io
3. Steam
4. UPlay
5. Windows Store

Not using any other storefront right now.

Last edited by Bofferbrauer2 - on 26 October 2020

Here come the Monday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

NBA 2K21 was the top-earning game of September, Marvel’s Avengers sold 2.2 million digital copies
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nba-2k21-was-the-top-earning-game-of-september-marvels-avengers-sold-2-2-million-digital-copies/
Each and every year we hear NBA 2K fans express their disappointment and frustration about each and every new iteration of this basketball game. Yet, despite this fan backlash, NBA 2K manages to sell like hotcakes, each and every year. And, according to Superdata, NBA 2K21 was the top-earning game of September 2021. Moreover, Marvel’s Avengers sold 2.2M digital units in September 2020. Additionally, Crusader Kings III broke records for PC strategy games, selling 1.1M digital units in September 2020. Not only that, but Rocket League’s transition to a free-to-play business model paid off for developer Psyonix.

GOG starts the week with three new deals:

• The usual weekly sale has been replaced with a Halloween Sale that brings up to 81% discounts on more than 850 games for the next 7 days. Check out the different sections (tricks, treats, Ghostly Indies, Spooky RPGs and Scariest Discounts) over here: https://www.gog.com/news/the_halloween_sale_on_gogcom_has_been_unleashed
• Pumpkin Jack launches on the store with a 20% discount until November 2: https://www.gog.com/game/pumpkin_jack
• The Outer Worlds also launches on the store with a 50% discount until the 2nd of November: https://www.gog.com/game/the_outer_worlds

And Fanatical has several deals:

• The new Star Deal is Blood: Fresh Supply, 90% off for the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/blood-fresh-supply
• Northgard is 60% off for the next 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/northgard
• SEGA has its games up to 77% off during the next 8 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/sega
• Devolver Digital also has its games on sale, up to 90% off during the next 9 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/devolver-digital
• There's a Scream Sale for Halloween with up to 92% discounts. Check out the deals here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/on-sale
• And there are two new bundles:
  • The Platinum Horror Pack features 3 games with a 83% discount for the next 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/platinum-horror-pack
  • And the Monster Mystery Bundle comes with up to 8 unknown games to grab for the next 13 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/monster-mystery-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Deleting or deactivating your Facebook does the same to your Oculus account
https://www.pcgamer.com/deleting-or-deactivating-your-facebook-does-the-same-to-your-oculus-account/
Facebook does not want you to stop using Facebook, it seems, because if you deactivate your account for a little break you'll also lose access to your Oculus Profile. Perhaps worse, if you delete your Facebook account you'll also delete your app purchases and achievements. "You will no longer be able to return any apps," says Facebook, "and will lose any existing store credits." So buyer beware: If you purchase an Oculus Quest 2 you'll need a Facebook account, and that account will have to be active at all times and, presumably, in good standing if you want to use your Quest 2.
>> Keep that in mind if you're thinking about getting a VR helmet.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Fallout 4 & Fallout: New Vegas mods add support for Vulkan via wrappers
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/fallout-4-fallout-new-vegas-mods-add-vulkan/
Fallout 4 and Fallout New Vegas fans, here is something special for you. We all know that these two games have performance/optimization issues on the PC. However, modders were able to improve performance by adding support for the Vulkan API via wrappers.
You can download the Vulkan mods for Fallout 4 and Fallout New Vegas from here and here, respectively. All you have to do is drop the contents of the zip files to your game’s root directory, and you are good to go. Do note that if you’re using an ENBSeries mod, you’ll have to do some adjustments/tweaks.
Do note that these mods do not add native support for the Vulkan API. These are just wrappers that could potentially improve performance. This can happen on AMD’s GPUs that have high memory overhead due to AMD’s mediocre DX11 drivers. And, according to a number of reports, these wrappers do indeed improve performance under various scenarios.

Portal Reloaded is a new mod for Portal 2, to be released in April 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/portal-reloaded-is-a-new-mod-for-portal-2-to-be-released-in-apirl-2021/
Jannis Brinkmann has announced a new free community mod for Portal 2, Portal Reloaded. The mod will release on April 19th, 2021, and will build on the concepts of the main game by allowing you to place a third portal, which enables traveling between two different timelines.
According to the modder, Portal Reloaded will have 25 brand new mind and time-bending puzzles. You play as test subject [4-5-0-9] that awakes from stasis by an automated AI.
In Portal Reloaded you get a hold of the Triple Portal Device, which allows you to shoot three different portals. The familiar blue and orange portals, connecting two different places in space and a third green time portal, which connects two different timelines.
>> There is a trailer for it.

UnrealHD v3.0 is now available, overhauls all classic Unreal & Unreal Tournament skins
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/unrealhd-v3-0-overhauls-all-classic-unreal-unreal-tournament-skins/
Unreal and Unreal Tournament fans, here is something special for you today. Lightning_Hunter has released a new version of his high-resolution skins pack for Unreal and Unreal Tournament, UnrealHD.
As you may have guessed, UnrealHD is a mutator that replaces all the old and blurry Unreal/RTNP skins with detailed, high-resolution versions. Do note that this pack only overhauls the skins of enemies, NPCs and weapons; it does not replace any of the environmental textures.
According to the modder, UnrealHD v3.0 comes with enhanced skins for Unreal Tournament, Unreal, and UT99. In addition to this, it includes many custom skins from popular single-player maps. Furthermore, it fixes the longstanding FOV issue of the weapons in widescreen.
>> Available from ModDB.

Someone made Among Us in VR and it actually kind of works
https://www.pcgamer.com/someone-made-among-us-in-vr-and-it-actually-kind-of-works/
Social deception game Among Us blew up recently, becoming one of the biggest games on Twitch. The resulting burst of creative energy—like cosmic rays from a supernova, except memes—has inevitably led to this: Among Us recreated in VRChat, with a full 3D version of the Skeld map, wires to connect, cards to swipe, and buttons to push. And you can actually play it like Among Us, with imposters, murders, and voting rounds.
Despite the name, you don't have to play VRChat with a VR headset, so it's possible to experience this 3D Among Us map on your monitor like any other game. First, you need VRChat, which is free-to-play on Steam. With it installed, you can launch the Among Us world here or just search for "Among Us" in the world browser.
The map was made by Jar, who builds VRChat game worlds with a bit of funding from Patreon. It isn't the entire game redesigned in 3D, but you can actually play rounds of Among Us in it. I tried it (without a headset), and as one of the two imposters, I managed to kill two crewmates. The players who were using their microphones for speaking and not just making weird noises (VRChat is a place for free expression) were speaking Russian (I think), so I don't know if they suspected me, but they didn't vote for me after either of my kills. I eventually won, even though my imposter partner left the game early and I'm not sure what triggered the victory—maybe a crewmate quit, or it was just a bug.

The fan-made Mario 64 PC port is getting ray tracing
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-fan-made-mario-64-pc-port-is-getting-ray-tracing/
I think the Mario 64 port might be the coolest thing to happen on PC in 2020. Yeah, yeah, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Cyberpunk 2020, blah blah blah—here's a beloved game that has been brilliantly reverse-engineered and programmed to run on the PC, inspiring a community of modders to learn how it works and do entirely new things with it. There are tons of texture mod projects giving it a better makeover than Nintendo is doing with its own re-release on the Nintendo Switch, but that's really just the beginning of it. Modder Darío has something more ambitious already working inside Mario 64: ray tracing.
As with Minecraft and Quake 2, there's something especially striking about ray tracing in an older, simpler graphics engine. I think in modern games that are already incredibly detailed, it's a lot harder for the reflections in a puddle or the beams of light coming through a window to really stand out. But a 25-year-old game suddenly getting realistic lighting and surface reflections? That is noticeable. Also, I think it's really funny.

GAMING NEWS

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Remaster versus Original Comparison Screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/need-for-speed-hot-pursuit-remaster-versus-original-comparison-screenshots/
Electronic Arts has released some comparison screenshots between the upcoming remaster and the original versions of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. These comparison screenshots showcase the graphical improvements that the team has made to this upcoming remaster.

Little Nightmares 2 gets an official Halloween trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/little-nightmares-2-gets-an-official-halloween-trailer/
Little Nightmares 2 is still a few months away, but Halloween is almost upon on. And since Halloween is known for the scary and creepy, Tarsier Studios decided to publish a new trailer.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies Onslaught will be timed-exclusive on PS4/PS5, coming to PC in 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-zombies-onslaught-will-be-timed-exclusive-on-ps4-ps5-coming-to-pc-in-2021/
I’m pretty sure that most of you saw this coming. Activision has released a new trailer for the Zombies Onslaught Mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, revealing that it will be timed-exclusive on PS4 and PS5.

“Silent Hills P.T.”-inspired horror game, Visage, fully releases on October 30th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/silent-hills-p-t-inspired-horror-game-visage-fully-releases-on-october-30th/
SadSquare Studio has announced that its psychological horror game, which is heavily inspired by Silent Hills P.T., will fully release on October 30th. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team has also released a new trailer that you can find below.

Viking City Builder will support Ray Tracing & DLSS 2.0, comparison screenshots released
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/viking-city-builder-ray-tracing-dlss-2-0-comparison-screenshots/
Roslagen, the creator of Viking City Builder, has announced that this upcoming strategy game will support Ray Tracing and DLSS 2.0. In order to showcase these Ray Tracing effects, Roslagen shared the following comparison screenshots.

Monday news, part two:

Disc Room designer on its granular difficulty options: 'accessibility helps everyone'
https://www.pcgamer.com/disc-room-designer-on-its-granular-difficulty-options-accessibility-helps-everyone/
Disc Room is a bloody hard game, but designer JW Nijman and crew chose not to be rigid about the challenge, acknowledging that what's merely difficult for one person may be untenable for another. To that end, the sawcore disc-dodger features a variety of settings to tweak the challenge.

Apex Legends comes to Steam with the start of season 7 on November 4
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-comes-to-steam-with-the-start-of-season-7-on-november-4/
Electronic Arts' big shift to Steam will continue in November with the long-awaited launch of Apex Legends, which will take place with the kickoff of season 7 on November 4.

Genshin Impact changes its troublesome Resin system, but not everyone is happy about it
https://www.pcgamer.com/genshin-impact-resin-patch-changes/
Genshin Impact is a tremendously popular game, but there's one aspect of it that's unpopular among diehard players: The way it distributes Resin, an in-game resource that's used to enable end-game activities. We explained the problem in detail in Steven's story about Resin in Genshin Impact, but the short version is that if you want to do cool endgame stuff, you need a lot of Resin, and Genshin Impact metes it out sparingly.

The Brotherhood Of Steel is coming to Fallout 76
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-brotherhood-of-steel-is-coming-to-fallout-76/
After biding their time, the Brotherhood Of Steel is finally ready to make their presence known in multiplayer wasteland Fallout 76. Announced earlier today, the fan-favourite techno-zealots are set to trample their way through West Virginia in the Steel Dawn update later this year.

Valorant skin pricing: 'The type of content that we make isn't meant to be cheap'
https://www.pcgamer.com/valorant-skin-pricing-the-type-of-content-that-we-make-isnt-meant-to-be-cheap/
Valorant skins are expensive. Take, for instance, the Elderflame set, released in July, which costs roughly $100 for the full collection of five, and then even more to level them up with additional eye candy and effects by spending a separate currency. The more recent Nebula collection is a little cheaper, but not much: It'll set you back $70 if you want the whole thing. That's more than the launch-day cost of a new game from a major studio.
In a recent interview, Riot told us that Valorant's weapon skins aren't cheap, but also said that they're not supposed to be.
>> It's an easy way to see who has more money than brains.

Sekiro's free game of the year update drops this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/sekiros-free-game-of-the-year-update-drops-this-week/
Much-beloved ninja action game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice gets its big, free game of the year edition update this week. The update adds a boss-rush styled boss challenge mode, unlockable character skins, and player recordings. This free update comes about a year and a half after From Software's most recent creation released, and was first announced earlier this year. The Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice game of the year update will be free to all owners, and it will release on October 29th.

A PC version of G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is in development, says GameMill Entertainment
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-pc-version-of-gi-joe-operation-blackout-is-in-development-says-gamemill-entertainment/
Third-person shooter G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout released on Switch, Xbox, and PS4 this month, but there was no sign of a PC version and no mention of one in the trailers. Developer GameMill Entertainment has clarified on Twitter that a PC version is being developed, though they say, "We don't have a release date".

The Dungeon Experience is a fantasy theme park run by a mudcrab
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-dungeon-experience-is-a-fantasy-theme-park-run-by-a-mudcrab/
Here's the pitch for in-development indie game The Dungeon Experience: A level-one common crab like you probably killed five of in your first hour of Skyrim becomes an entrepreneur and builds an adventure holiday destination. It's a first-person guided tour through a dungeon where the NPCs are all played by out-of-work theme park actors and the only refreshment available is "crab juice". Things may not all be as they appear.

Among Us developers are trying to prevent a hack from disrupting games
https://www.pcgamer.com/among-us-developers-are-trying-to-prevent-a-hack-from-disrupting-games/
For several days now, players of Among Us have been regularly encountering a hack that fills lobbies with bots who spam the same message repeatedly, despawns everything leaving players in a black room, and finally disconnects them from the game. The messages have had various versions of similar text, typically telling players to subscribe to the hacker's YouTube channel "or else we will kill your device", followed by a link to either their Discord or Twitter, signing off "Trump 2020".
Developers Innersloth pushed out an emergency server update to deal with the issue and advised players to "Please play private games or with people that you trust!!!" People continued seeing the hack, now with messages like "You're mad I'm back" and "Paid by Putin from Russia". A second round of fixes followed, and the back-and-forth is likely to continue.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is an upcoming adventure game about just that
https://www.pcgamer.com/turnip-boy-commits-tax-evasion-is-an-adventure-game-about-just-that/
Every once in a while I think I'm definitely completely jaded and will not be surprised by whatever weird game idea someone thinks up next, but then someone like developers Snoozy Kazoo are like "I am making a game called Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion" and we just go ahead and restart the clock.

King Pins is a micro-RTS inspired by Age of Empires
https://www.pcgamer.com/king-pins-is-a-micro-rts-inspired-by-age-of-empires/
Game development collective Sokpop's latest is a $3 real-time strategy game with a neat concept: Boiling down the Age of Empires-style RTS to its absolute basics. The result is King Pins, a micro-RTS that forces you to quickly figure out a detailed economic strategy while reacting to your opponents' maneuvers. The object of a match is simple: Kill the enemy's king unit before they kill yours.

Crashed submariners fight cosmic horrors when Stirring Abyss releases this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/crashed-submariners-fight-cosmic-horrors-when-stirring-abyss-releases-this-week/
How about a cosmic horror tactical strategy game set at the bottom of the sea during the Cold War featuring crashed submariners desperate to get home while maintaining their humanity in the face of ever-growing evil from beyond space and time? Well, that's what Stirring Abyss is, and it's due to release on October 29th.

There's a bug in FIFA 21 making players bounce into the air
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-a-bug-in-fifa-21-making-players-bounce-into-the-air/
There's a bug in FIFA 21 making players jump, but not in a normal athletic leap-in-the-air kind of way. Instead it sends them straight up like a character in a platformer, sometimes flying high into the air. As a commenter on Reddit put it, "I’m playing FIFA and this guy is playing Space Jam."

Vermintide 2 devs reveal Bardin's getting a new career, Victor a new gun
https://www.pcgamer.com/vermintide-2-devs-reveal-bardins-getting-a-new-career-victor-a-new-gun/
As part of the recent five-year anniversary event in Vermintide 2, the Fatshark development team spoke about what's coming up for the co-op hack-and-slasher during a Twitch livestream. Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund and narrative director Mårten Stormdal discussed the forthcoming Chaos Wastes expansion as well as mentioning the next premium career they're adding will be for Bardin the dwarf, and although they say it's coming soon they didn't reveal what the career will be. (Engineer, maybe?)

Cyberpunk 2077 dev defends decisions to remove features
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-dev-defends-decisions-to-remove-features/
With less than a month to go until the long-anticipated release of Cyberpunk 2077, fans are busily anticipating what the finished game will really be like—and what won't be present. In light of conversations around content cut from the game during the development process, the game's senior level designer Miles Tost has made a statement, in which he explains that fans' heightened awareness about features that didn't make it into the final game can be put down to CD Projekt Red's openness around the development process. This began with a demo shown at E3 in 2018 that featured pre-alpha gameplay, which was always going to be a far cry from the game on release.

Due Process is brutal, gorgeous and hitting Early Access this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/due-process-is-brutal-gorgeous-and-hitting-early-access-this-week/
Due Process is a competitive FPS where lots of little bits feel familiar, but the experience is new. Developed by Giant Enemy Crab and published by Annapurna Interactive, the game has been in a beta phase for some time but, as of this week, enters Early Access on Steam.

Also, new Server Roadmap from Intel: https://wccftech.com/intel-xeon-cpu-roadmap-2020-to-2022-leaked/

Looks like Intel will go big into Multi-Chip Modules and chiplets, too.

Bofferbrauer2 said: kirby007 said: id rank those that i use 1. Steam 3. battle.net 2. EGS 3. uplay 4. rockstar launcher 5. origin 6. windows store/xbox desktop app origin just sucks at displaying owned games and windows store doesn't work regarding gamepass search functions My ranking: GOG Itch.io Steam UPlay Windows Store Not using any other storefront right now.

Mine would be:

1. Steam
2. EGS
3. GOG Galaxy (I don't like the new library and it lacks a "Home" button to go back to the front page of the store)
4. UPlay
5. Origin

Looks like Nvidia might be coming out with a new model that could slot in between 3070 and 3080 to combat Big Navi.

10GB GD6X
TGP 320W
PG132-SKU35
device id 2207
It's an emergency product for 6800XL, seems like a new GTX 465.
Face with tears of joy

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti goes on preorder in China

"The RTX 3060 Ti is a new mid-range graphics card that should sell for under 400 USD. The listings at Taobao are currently between 2049 to 2999 Yuans (305 to 446 USD). Our sources claim that NVIDIA MSRP should not exceed 400 USD.

The graphics card offers 4864 CUDA cores paired with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The retailers seem to believe that the new Ampere SKU should be faster than GeForce RTX 2080"

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-goes-on-preorder-in-china