The Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Valheim sells three million in less than three weeks
https://www.pcgamer.com/valheim-sells-three-million-in-less-than-three-weeks/
You may have noticed Valheim in the last few weeks, the co-op survival game that appeared out of nowhere and is now on-track to become Steam's fastest-growing hit of all time. Less than three weeks after launching into early access, developer Iron Gate AB announced that "Valheim has now been purchased by over three million brave Vikings looking to survive the 10th world of the Yggdrasil—or die trying—probably crushed by a falling tree."

RAGE 2 and Absolute Drift are free to own on Epic Games Store
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rage-2-and-absolute-drift-are-free-to-own-on-epic-games-store/
Epic Games has announced that RAGE 2 and Absolute Drift are free to own on Epic Games Store for a limited time. From today and until February 25th, PC gamers can visit their EGS pages and acquire their free copies.
>> And next week, "Sunless Sea".

Fanatical has a new Platinum Collection BYOB, with 18 games to choose your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Here are 47 minutes of gameplay from the Resident Evil fan remake in Resident Evil 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-47-minutes-of-gameplay-from-the-resident-evil-fan-remake-in-resident-evil-4/
YouTube’s ‘Residence of Evil’ has shared a video, showcasing 47 minutes of brand new gameplay footage from Resident Evil Remux. In case you weren’t aware of, Resident Evil Remux is a fan remake of the first Resident Evil game in Resident Evil 4.

This Mod for Skyrim Special Edition adds a non-combat animation system
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/this-mod-for-skyrim-special-edition-adds-a-non-combat-animation-system/
Smooth Combat – Non Combat Animation System is a new mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. In vanilla Skyrim whenever you pull out a weapon, the character gets locked in a fight stance idle animation. This mod separates the idle animation from combat and non-combat, whenever a weapon is unsheathed.
Furthermore, when an enemy is detected and enters battle, depending on the player’s weapon, an idle animation is displayed according to that situation.
Lastly, when the enemy is no longer a threat, and becomes a non-combat situation, the character will switch back to the non-combat idle animation.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

Half-Life: Blue Shift fan remake in Black Mesa gets new comparison screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/half-life-blue-shift-fan-remake-in-black-mesa-gets-new-comparison-screenshots/
HECU Collective has announced that it is working on Black Mesa: Blue Shift, a free remake of Half-Life: Blue Shift in Black Mesa. The team has also released some comparison screenshots that you can find below.
These screenshots showcase the graphical improvements that you can expect from this remake. Do note that the game is in an early stage so these screenshots are not representative of its final quality.

STALKER Fan Remake in Unreal Engine 4 gets new screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/stalker-fan-remake-in-unreal-engine-4-gets-new-screenshots/
Back in July 2020, we shared some screenshots from an upcoming fan remake of the first STALKER in Unreal Engine 4. And yesterday, Ivan_Sorce shared some brand new screenshots from it.
These latest screenshots showcase the first part of Cordon which appears to be a lot bigger than the original. The landscape uses 4K textures, tessellation, and an incredible amount of grass.

Valheim Plus mod adds shared map system, advanced building modes, and more
https://www.pcgamer.com/valheim-plus-mod-adds-shared-map-system-advanced-building-modes-and-more/
Valheim's developer Iron Gate Studio states in its FAQ that it "won't have official support" for mods. But, as we know by now, modders gonna mod anyway, and mods for the co-op survival game have already begun to appear.
The biggest so far is Valheim Plus, a mod that makes loads of changes to the game, tweaking everything from item weight values to the speed and output of furnaces, kilns, and fermenters. It increases item stack sizes, allows you to carry unprocessed metals through portals, and even speeds up the production rates of your bees.

GAMING NEWS

Hitman 3 players can now import locations from the previous Hitman titles
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hitman-3-players-can-now-import-locations-from-the-previous-hitman-titles/
(...)
Players who own Hitman 1 or Hitman 2 will now be able to import locations into Hitman 3 at no additional cost. All you need to do is to sign in to your IOI Account, and follow a simple 3-step process in order to import their locations into Hitman 3.

MotoGP 21 releases on April 22nd, gets debut trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/motogp-21-releases-on-april-22nd-gets-debut-trailer/
Milestone has announced that MotoGP 21, the next chapter of its two-wheeled racing simulation game, will release on April 22nd. In order to celebrate it, the team released its debut trailer that you can find below.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World gets a brand new trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/wonder-boy-asha-in-monster-world-gets-a-brand-new-trailer/
ININ Games and STUDIOARTDINK have released a new trailer for Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World. This trailer focuses on Pepelogoo, Asha’s trusted blue sidekick and one of the main characters.

SEGA & Atlus accidentally release a Denuvo-free version of Persona 5 Strikers
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/sega-atlus-accidentally-release-a-denuvo-free-version-of-persona-5-strikers/
SEGA and Atlus have released Persona 5 Strikers for those that have pre-ordered its Deluxe Edition. However, and while its Steam store page lists Denuvo, it appears that the companies have released a Denuvo-free build of it.

Latest Portal 2 Update adds support for Vulkan, fixes numerous bugs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/latest-portal-2-update-adds-support-for-vulkan-fixes-numerous-bugs/
Valve has released a brand new update for Portal 2 that adds support for the Vulkan API. According to the team, the Vulkan render backend is currently accessible exclusively through the “-vulkan” command line parameter. In other words, there isn’t any in-game setting for it.

First details for Diablo 2 Remastered, Diablo 2 Resurrected, leaked
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/first-details-diablo-2-remastered-diablo-2-resurrected-leaked/
A couple of days ago, we informed you about the upcoming announcement of the Diablo 2 Remaster, Diablo 2 Resurrected, at BlizzCon 2021. And today, Reddit’s PracticalBrush12 has shared the first details about it.

Friday news, part two:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fixes a bug that gave players the wrong footstep sounds
https://www.pcgamer.com/counter-strike-global-offensive-fixes-a-bug-that-gave-players-the-wrong-footstep-sounds/
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has received an update fixing various minor bugs, as well as a fairly major one that's been around for quite a while: except no-one really noticed. A key element of the game is the sound of footsteps, which are different depending on the surface being walked on. Hold your heavy weapons close, because it turns out certain surfaces have been resonating in the wrong way.

Turns out you can beat Hades by smashing apart a pomegranate
https://www.pcgamer.com/turns-out-you-can-beat-hades-by-smashing-apart-a-pomegranate/
In Hades, a pomegranate will upgrade one of the Boons bestowed upon you by the Olympian gods. While such supernatural gifts don't apply to our lowly mortal poms, one determined streamer discovered that the lowly fruit can be used to escape the underworld—assuming you're willing to put up with the mess.

Legends of Runeterra's next expansion is Empires of the Ascended
https://www.pcgamer.com/legends-of-runeterras-next-expansion-is-empires-of-the-ascended/
Riot's digital CCG Legends of Runeterra is about to get 110 new cards, nine new champions, and a new region, which is what its factions are called. All that's coming in Empires of the Ascended, an expansion you can see the slick trailer for above.

WoW: Burning Crusade Classic and the next Shadowlands update have leaked ahead of BlizzCon
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-burning-crusade-classic-and-the-next-shadowlands-update-have-leaked-ahead-of-blizzcon/
BlizzCon 2021 is happening tomorrow, but two big World of Warcraft announcements have apparently been leaked accidentally by Blizzard itself. Early this morning, users discovered press releases for World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic and World of Warcraft's 9.1 update, Chains of Domination, on the Blizzard press portal. Those links have already been taken down, but the screen shots and press releases are now circulating on Reddit and Wowhead.
>> As it uses to happen, the conference is today.

Dead by Daylight's graphical overhaul is halfway done, here's what's coming next
https://www.pcgamer.com/dead-by-daylights-graphical-overhaul-is-halfway-done-lots-more-to-come/
Dead By Daylight is officially getting old. It first shambled out to PCs on June 14, 2016, and in the years since, Behaviour Interactive has embellished its bloodsoaked 4-versus-1 slasher simulator with new killers, new maps, new perks, and a shockingly comprehensive interlocking metagame. Five years later, Dead By Daylight is one of the best multiplayer experiences in the world, despite the flat textures, spartan environments, and technical fumbles that have sometimes made it hard to love.

GDC is going digital in 2021 with online events running throughout the year
https://www.pcgamer.com/gdc-is-going-digital-in-2021-with-online-events-running-throughout-the-year/
Last year's Game Developers Conference, like most in-person game industry events in 2020, was postponed, and then converted to an online-only event, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic still raging, GDC has announced that it will take "a new approach" for 2021 with a series of online events that will run throughout the year.

Outriders is getting a generous demo next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/outriders-is-getting-a-generous-demo-next-week/
A demo for Outriders, People Can Fly's sci-fi cooperative third-person shooter, will hit Steam on February 25. It'll be a substantial chunk of the game, too: there's no time limit, it'll feature all four classes and six character slots, and you'll be able to keep your progress when the game launches proper.

This ridiculous Valheim seed places every boss a short jog from the starting point
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-ridiculous-valheim-seed-places-every-boss-a-short-jog-from-the-starting-point/
I love the Valheim map I've been playing in, but the procedural generation hasn't been especially generous. (...)
Not that this is a bad thing! It's led to tons of exploration, several base constructions, and plenty of exciting sailing expeditions, and that's what Valheim is all about. But someone's found a seed where every boss and biome is just a stone's-throw from the starting point of the map.

Electronic Arts completes the acquisition of Codemasters for $1.2 billion
https://www.pcgamer.com/electronic-arts-completes-the-acquisition-of-codemasters-for-dollar12-billion/
Electronic Arts has completed the acquisition of Codemasters, one of the UK's longest-running and most-storied studios. A press release confirmed that the sale price was "604 pence (approximately US$8.37) in cash for each ordinary share of Codemasters with an implied enterprise value of US$1.2 billion."

Crusader Kings 2's wealth of DLC is now available as a monthly subscription
https://www.pcgamer.com/crusader-kings-2s-wealth-of-dlc-is-now-available-as-a-monthly-subscription/
It's a common truism that Paradox games don't really get good until they're a few expansions deep. But if you're not certain which of Crusader Kings 2's many DLCs are worth keeping, Paradox will now let you try the lot for a modest monthly subscription.

Apple subpoenas Valve as part of its legal battle with Epic: Valve fights back
https://www.pcgamer.com/apple-subpoenas-valve-as-part-of-its-legal-battle-with-epic-valve-fights-back/
A new court filing has revealed that, as part of the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, Apple subpoenaed Valve Software in November 2020, demanding it provide huge amounts of commercial data about Steam sales and operations going over multiple years.

Shovel Knight is in For Honor, without a shovel
https://www.pcgamer.com/shovel-knight-is-in-for-honor-without-a-shovel/
The man who would call a spade a spade, Oscar Wilde once observed, should be condemned to use one. Yet I find myself drawn to the concrete, the literal, the spade-iness of spades. I have this idea that if a character is called Shovel Knight, then their defining characteristic will be a shovel.

Final Fantasy 14 director says Endwalker's climax is what you don't get from other MMOs
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-director-says-endwalkers-climax-is-what-you-dont-get-from-other-mmos/
MMO stories don't get to end. The demands of a live-service game require there to always be more content, the worlds of Destiny 2 and World Of Warcraft bound to never know peace until their servers finally go dark. Which is why it came as such surprise when Square Enix revealed that Final Fantasy 14 would be closing the book on a ten-year plot with its next expansion, Endwalker.
Speaking to PC Gamer, game director Naoki Yoshida explains that it's precisely because of FF14's strong emphasis on story that it needs to wrap things up. While Square Enix could easily trail things off indefinitely, the game's story would ultimately suffer not being brought to a close.

And these are the weekend deals from GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The first one is the Weekly Sale with its platformers up to 90% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/platformers_galore
• The Midweek Sale with its games set in space up to 90% off will last another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210217_midweek_sale
• The Weekend Sale features a plethora of Batman games up to 75% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/batman_weekend
• And the Imperator: Rome Sale with its up to 75% discounts will last another 5 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/imperator_rome_sale

+Steam

• The first of the two new daily deals is Windbound, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1162130/Windbound/
• The other one is Out of the Park Baseball 21, 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1087280/Out_of_the_Park_Baseball_21/
• The first of the weekend deals is Blasphemous, that has a demo, 60% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/
• Street Fighter V is also 60% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/310950/Street_Fighter_V/
• There's a Batman Sale with discounts that go from 50 to 80% until the 22nd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/2021batmansale
• Electronic Arts puts its games up to 85% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/EA/sale/publishersale
• The Guilty Gear franchise is on sale, up to 90% off until Monday 22: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/arcsystemworks/sale/guiltygearfranchisesale
• And of course, there's also the weeklong deals.

Nothing else to add, except wishing you all a happy and gaming weekend.

It actually goes even deeper than that.

"On Twitter, Bryan Del Rizzo (Director of global PR for GeForce) confirmed that the anti-crypto technology works as a secure handshake between the driver, the GPU silicon, and BIOS."

So their "nerf" is even implemented at the silicon level. The key to Nvidia's strategy will more or less be three fold.

60 series cards have an anti mining drm
CMP cards will hopefully be cost effective enough to entice miners to go for them
Mining craze will die down soon enough for hackers to not come up with a bypass

The ways that Nvidia goofs this up is if their anti mining solution is terrible and gets hacked shortly after launch and the CMP series cards are not priced effectively thanks to Nvidia's greed. As the CMP series cards are based on Turing, they should be a lot cheaper to produce so if Nvidia prices similar to Ampere, they goofed as Ampere's efficiency is a lot higher.

Of course, those that don't want a 60 series card and want something higher will continue to get screwed unless Nvidia implements this for those cards as well.

The other thing to note is:

"What is particularly interesting here is that according to the tweets, NVIDIA would relaunch its existing SKUs under a new Device ID. This means that future RTX3090/3080/3070/3060Ti models would carry a different ID and feature the anti-crypto algorithm. It is unclear when and if NVIDIA will even announce this change."

But that's more of a rumor.

Intel Core i9-11900K “Rocket Lake-S” series packaging leaked

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-core-i9-11900k-rocket-lake-s-series-packaging-leaked

There are others but the rest are standard boxes... All I can say is... wtf

[NSFW] Subverse will launch on March 26th, 2021

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1034140/announcements/detail/3031456220371396248

[CDKeys] Cyberpunk 2077 PC GOG $26.59 USD

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/cyberpunk-2077-gog-pc?mw_aref=discounts&data1=cyberpunk

As the article says, AMD will have it harder to do someting like this because most mining rigs use Linux and AMD's Linux drivers are open source. They'd be hacked in a day.

Honestly shouldn't be hard to spoof what ever ID the silicon spits out and roll back the drivers and edit the bios.
Done a fair amount of BIOS editing in my past for GPU's (I.E. To unlock shader pipelines) and it's not as hard as people think.

The other way is to approach it from the other direction and trick the GPU into thinking it's not a mining workload.

Either way, I don't see this restriction actually stopping miners for any length of time, but it is good PR for nVidia...
Hopefully it will mean a slight relaxation on GPU supplies too, if for a short time.

So funny story. I was playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare and the mode is called Search and Destroy. You either need to plant the bomb or prevent the enemy from planting the bomb to win the round. There's also no respawn so if everyone dies, you also win the round.

So we started the match and my computer managed to load the map so fast that I won the first round because the enemy couldn't load the map in time. It was glorious!

Blizzcon lets goo!

Gimme more Diablo and WoW goodness :D