Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Beat Saber slashes VR sales records after shipping 4 million copies
https://www.pcgamer.com/beat-saber-slashes-vr-sales-records-after-shipping-4-million-copies/
Beat Saber has officially sold over 4 million copies, along with over 40 million paid DLC songs.
The game's team took to Twitter to thank everybody for playing the game, adding "this is just the beginning." Beat Saber has doubled its sales in less than a year after Oculus reported in 2020 that it had crossed the threshold of 2 million copies sold, two years after initial release.

Chinese open-world RPG rockets to the top of Steam with over 170,000 concurrent players
https://www.pcgamer.com/chinese-open-world-rpg-rockets-to-the-top-of-steam-with-over-170000-concurrent-players/
Tale of Immortal (or 鬼谷八荒) is an Early Access sandbox sim that's only been out a week, but that hasn't stopped it from becoming one of the most popular games on Steam. Earlier today, concurrent players peaked at just over 172,000 people, making it the fifth most popular game on Steam—beating out Grand Theft Auto 5 and Rust. Players seem to really enjoy Tale of Immortal too, as it now has over 15,000 positive Steam user reviews, giving it an 86 percent positive rating. Not bad for an Early Access game that just launched a few days ago with Simplified Chinese as its only available language option.

Steam has two new deals:

• The new daily deal is Opus Magnum, 66% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/558990/Opus_Magnum/
• And Citadel: Forged with Fire is free to try during the next 3 days and also 60% off until Tuesday 9th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/487120/Citadel_Forged_with_Fire/

Fanatical has the new Staff Picks Bundle 2, with 10 games at a 97% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/staff-picks-bundle-2

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam Game Festival has been launched, offering a lot of free game demos
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/steam-game-festival-has-been-launched-offering-a-lot-of-free-game-demos/
Valve has launched a new Steam Game Festival, offering a lot of free PC game demos. From today and until February 21st, PC gamers can find and download numerous indie game demos.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

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GAMING NEWS

The next Nioh could feature open-ended gameplay similar to Dark Souls
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-next-nioh-could-feature-open-ended-gameplay-similar-to-dark-souls/
Nioh 2: Complete Edition is only a couple of days away. (...)
The director of Nioh, Fumihiko Yasuda, has recently given an interview to Games Talk. According to the director the original plan for Nioh is to have open-ended gameplay similar to Dark Souls.
(...)
That was the original plan for Nioh, but never came through. Nevertheless, the third installment of Nioh might go that way.

Hellish Quart is a realistic sword dueling title developed by senior animator of Witcher 3
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hellish-quart-is-a-realistic-sword-dueling-title-developed-by-senior-animator-of-witcher-3/
Hellish Quart is a physics-based, realistic sword dueling game, set in the 17th century. The lead developer of the game is an ex-senior animator for the Witcher 3.

Subnautica 3 is a possibility along with multiplayer and VR support
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/subnautica-3-is-a-possibility-along-with-multiplayer-and-vr-support/
(...)
Subnautica: Below Zero is still on Early Access, and the developers are already working on another game. It will probably be something different. However the possibility of another Subnautica is very high.
According to the developers, multiplayer was not an option with Below Zero. It was initially meant as an expansion pack for the original game. So multiplayer and VR made no sense. However, all these features could be in the next Subnautica game.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition PC Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/mass-effect-legendary-edition-pc-requirements/
Electronic Arts and Bioware have revealed the official PC system requirements for Mass Effect Legendary Edition. According to the specs, PC gamers will at least need an Intel Core i5 3570 or AMD FX-8350 with 8GB of RAM. Moreover, EA has listed the NVIDIA GTX 760 and AMD Radeon 7970 / R9280X as the minimum required GPUs.

eFootball PES 2021 Season Update Data Pack 4.0 now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/efootball-pes-2021-season-update-data-pack-4-0-now-available-for-download/
Konami has released Data Pack 4.0 for eFootball PES 2021 Season Update. According to the team, this update adds over 70 face updates, including several from Partner Clubs.

Nioh 2 Complete Edition suffers from some annoying PC issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nioh-2-complete-edition-suffers-from-pc-optimization-issues/
Nioh 2 Complete Edition releases tomorrow and, unfortunately, it suffers from some PC issues. As such, we’ve decided to delay our PC Performance Analysis until Team Ninja releases its first post-launch update.

Thursday news, part two:

Minecraft eye-tracking software EyeMine receives major V2 update
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-eyemine-v2-specialeffect/
Gaming charity SpecialEffect has announced a new version of its eye-tracking software for Minecraft, EyeMine. The free software allows anyone to play Minecraft using just their eyesight, and has already brought the much-loved game to thousands of players, but with version 2.0 the small team behind the program have made some big improvements.

Fortnite's 'Illegal Restart' Explained: The new rule players need to know
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnites-illegal-restart-explained-the-new-rule-players-need-to-know/
Fortnite Competitive has always been, true to the name, a hotly competitive realm. When millions of dollars, accolades, or even just special skins are on the line, it turns out people and companies get pretty serious about rules. Epic Games has released a statement clarifying a rule that could significantly impact how players join tournaments and other competitions.

Activision is being sued over the Modern Warfare character Mara
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-is-being-sued-over-the-modern-warfare-character-mara/
Activision is facing a copyright infringement suit brought by writer, photographer, and videographer Clayton Haugen, who alleges that the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare character Mara is based on a character he created in 2017 for November Renaissance, a story that he hoped to build into a feature film.

After banning 91K accounts in 2020, Rainbow Six Siege is taking more steps to dunk on cheaters
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-banning-91k-accounts-in-2020-rainbow-six-siege-is-taking-more-steps-to-dunk-on-cheaters/
Ubisoft is reinforcing Rainbow Six Siege's anti-cheat in 2021. The developer revealed in a blog post yesterday that, while hacking continues to be a big problem at the highest levels of Siege, account bans are on the rise. Last year Ubi banned almost 100,000 players for cheating (a 44 percent rise over 2019). This year a new automated process for detecting cheaters could raise that figure even higher.

Mass Effect's Pinnacle Station DLC won't be in the Legendary Edition because its source code was lost
https://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effects-pinnacle-station-dlc-wont-be-in-the-legendary-edition-because-its-source-code-was-lost/
Mass Effect Legendary Edition will include over 40 DLC from across the series, but that's still not all of the original DLC packs. Since Mass Effect 3's remaster is skipping the multiplayer mode, DLC related to that is being left out. And so is Pinnacle Station, an add-on for the first Mass Effect.

Amazon's next CEO says they're going to keep trying to make a hit game
https://www.pcgamer.com/amazons-next-ceo-says-theyre-going-to-keep-trying-to-make-a-hit-game/
(...)
There are also reportedly internal problems at Amazon Game Studios: A Bloomberg report published in January claims that the studio "cultivated a 'bro culture'" and suffered from a lack of experience in upper management, including from studio head Mike Frazzini, who got his start in Amazon's books department.
Despite all that, incoming Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who will take over from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this summer, expressed support for Frazzini in an email sent to staff (via Bloomberg) and said that Amazon remains committed to the game business.

The new Minecraft snapshot has cave vines, glow berries and drip leaves
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-new-minecraft-snapshot-has-cave-vines-glow-berries-and-drip-leaves/
The latest in Mojang's Caves & Cliffs snapshots for Minecraft is out, and it's good news for players who like stuff to glow. Last month we got glowing squids, now we get glowing berries, which grow from cave vines. Not only do these babies glow, but you can eat them too, making for a very versatile delicacy.

Codemasters has approved EA's $1.2 billion acquisition bid
https://www.pcgamer.com/codemasters-has-approved-eas-dollar12-billion-acquisition-bid/
EA's acquisition of Codemasters is all but sealed, after the studio's board of directors voted in favour of approving the buyout this week.
In a court meeting, 63 of Codemasters' 76 shareholders (representing 99% of held shares) approved EA's takeover bid. With the board's approval sealed, the acquisition deal now awaits a formal court hearing on February 16th. Should all go to plan, EA's acquisition should be cemented by the end of Spring.

Call of Duty: Warzone's infinite stim glitch just keeps recurring
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzones-infinite-stim-glitch-just-keeps-recurring/
The size of its audience means that the extent of cheating and bugs in Warzone can, at times, be overstated. But there's one problem with the game that, no matter how many times it seems to have been squashed, keeps rearing its ugly head again and again, ad infinitum. Yes, come on down, it's the one and only infinite stim glitch.

Loop Hero launches in March, and there's a demo on Steam right now
https://www.pcgamer.com/loop-hero-launches-in-march-and-theres-a-demo-on-steam-right-now/
Loop Hero is a pixel-art roguelike but don't click away just yet—it's a unique one. Morgan was glowing in his early appraisal last month, describing it as a mash-up of "traditional roguelike, autobattler, deckbuilder and match-3 puzzle game." He added that it's "easily the coolest game to emerge in 2021 so far," which is not a negligible claim in a year that has already gifted us Wobbledogs.
The good news is that it's not far away: Loop Hero launches on Steam on March 4 for $15 (£12.49 / AU$20), and there's a playable demo right now. If you fancy that demo, it's available to pre-order, too

Barf grenades and ninja blades are coming to Hitman 3 this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/barf-grenades-and-ninja-blades-are-coming-to-hitman-3-this-month/
You messed up, 47. While you were off sabotaging one biological superweapon under Sapienza, another was left to develop unimpeded. Now, we have to live in a world where anyone can turn a public crowd into a sanitary nightmare thanks to Hitman 3's new emetic grenades—a disastrous gadget that forces anyone in its blast radius to make an emergency bathroom visit.

4 million sales for Beat Saber, well deserved! I contributed with 4 or 5 music packs and still play it regularly. It's actually a curse. Every time I feel like VR gaming I turn on Beat Saber first, get the headset sweaty, then don't play anything else lol. Holographic projectors need to be invented!

So, there's this ad covering the post reply button. Doop ti doop ti doo. Ok it's gone

ASUS ROG forum administrator confirms resizable BAR updates are currently in development for additional motherboard models (e.g. Z390).

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/lbthtj/asus_rog_forum_administrator_confirms_resizable/

Looks like more and more platforms are getting resizable bar support! Thank you AMD for giving us free performance on certain games

So the one thing that has been annoying me to no end other than the long arse waiting for pc components... Is the fact that so many PC component companies are trying to force you into their nonsense eco system while giving you meh worthy products.

Take Corsair for example.

I was looking at their h150i 360 AIO. The problem I have with Corsair is while their AIO pumps and etc are pretty good, their fans are noisy at high rpm. Like very noisy. So it's like, alright, what if I replace those fans? Well then the problem is that Corsair's iCue software and command core controller only supports Corsair fans so the RGB would be out of sync. And worst of all, even if I keep those corsair fans, unless I buy more corsair fans for the rest of my case, nothing will Sync up. And this applies to a lot of other companies as well.

So after a lot of research... I just wanted to say... Thank fuck for Lian Li. Their Lconnect Software has the ability to pass on the RGB control over to the motherboard software in which case, it doesn't matter what type of RGB stuff you have, as long as those things can connect to the motherboard, you can have it all sync up nicely. And on top of that, Lian Li's SL120 Unifans are actually good instead of Corsair's lack of innovation with their ML series fans... This also applies to Lian Li cases vs Corsair cases.

TLDR: Lian Li is shitting on other RGB fan companies and their stupid nonsense with true innovation while allowing the motherboard to control all the RGB and etc

It really is one of the most popular games as of late, and not just in terms of VR.

I though most case fans and AIOs could be connected to the motherboard and be controlled through the mobo software.

If Corsair doesn't allow that, then it's a dick move on their part.

What happens when you sell all you can produce and reach almost a million CPUs sold in a single quarter? That competition sells more than you and gain marketshare

Intel Claws Back Desktop PC and Notebook Market Share From AMD, First Time in Three Years
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-claws-back-desktop-pc-market-share-from-amd-for-the-first-time-in-three-years
The Mercury Research CPU market share results are in for the fourth quarter of 2020, with the headline news being that, during the quarter, Intel has clawed back share from AMD in the desktop PC market for the first time in three years. Intel also stopped its slide in notebook PCs, gaining share for the first time in three years. AMD lost share in the overall x86 market during the quarter, but notched a solid gain for the year. Meanwhile, AMD continued to make slow but steady gains in the server market.

You can connect the PWM cable to the mobo but not the RGB cable. You need a Corsair Command Core controller for that

I see. Then it's option two, Corsair are being dicks on this. And there's only one thing to do with dick companies.

Pretty much. Now technically, Lian Li does the same thing with their Unifans as you need to connect them to the Controller but the difference is that the Controller can be used by the Motherboard's own RGB software where as with Corsair and a few other companies, you need can only use their own software.

The cool thing about the Lian Li other than their fans being better is the way that they can be daisy chained as it's quite unique.