That's true, they might choose to show it on a later Direct and closer to launch. But yeah it should be ready for launch this year by Q4. I remember there being leaks for PS5 from December '19 on Github and we're seeing several leaks from various sources on the Switch successor/Pro.

I don't think an earlier announcement will affect sales too much as I can imagine this being a premium device and priced as such ($350-400?).. As opposed to normal Switch, which could be seen their budget model. They could even do a small price drop for the NS prior to this.

I wouldn't hold my hopes for a much better device. Rumors can be exagerated or been confused with something else (Nintendo could be working on a refresh and a Switch 2 at the same time and the leaker took one for the other). We'll see if it's real and, if it is, what does it feature.

If the announcement would hurt or not the sales of the current model is something that remains to be seen. There is usually a part of the potential consumers that will decide to hold a bit longer and get the newer/more powerful model is possible, but that will depend on price and availability. A drop in price for the regular Switch would not only help to keep selling, but also past overdue.

Wondered when the Nvidia partnership would manifest. DLSS could be the especially attractive feature that allows the Switch to force handhelds to become the norm. 

Also, my game library is finally complete, up and running! I've successfully replaced my entire Xbox catalog and successfully tested it on PC. Will take time getting used to it, at least until my U-rage controller arrives. 

Yeah can see this just being a updated 4K switch and not much else. Tbf Nintendo did release a cheaper Lite but the original is still selling for the exact same price as it launched! Needs a price cut for sure.

@AsGryffynn 

The writing was on the wall for Nintendo. None of their home consoles sold anywhere near as close as their handhelds (bar the Wii) and Wii U did so abysmally they had to make a change. It makes perfect sense for them to go for that market first and combine the two devices into one.

Its a good partnership for sure. Having more Nvidia technologies on more devices will also help development of features like DLSS as more devs will have access to it particularly if its baked into the SDK.

Once again, the news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG sees the release of 8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure with a 20% discount until April 22: https://www.gog.com/game/8doors_arums_afterlife_adventure

Steam has two new deals:

• The new daily deal is Children of Morta, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/330020/Children_of_Morta/
• And Edge Of Eternity will be 33% off during the next 5 days: https://store.steampowered.com/app/269190/Edge_Of_Eternity/

And Fanatical has a new Build Your Own All Stars Bundle, featuring 22 games to choose your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-all-stars-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

You can now play as Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy in Resident Evil 3 Remake
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/horizon-zero-dawn-aloy-resident-evil-3-remake/
DarknessValtier has released a pretty cool mod for Resident Evil 3 Remake that lets you play as Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. This mod features full facial expressions/animations, though it does not pack any sound samples for Aloy’s voice.
Now as you may have guessed, this is a character swap mod and nothing more. Still, I’m pretty sure that Aloy’s fans will really appreciate it.
>> Head to Nexus Mods to get it.

Super Mario 64 Plus released, improves camera & controls, adds 60fps mode
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/super-mario-64-plus-released-improves-camera-controls-adds-60fps-mode/
MorsGames has released a must-have modification for the unofficial PC port of Super Mario 64. Super Mario 64 Plus focuses on customizability and aims to add features that not only fix some of the issues found in the base game but also enhance the gameplay overall with extra options.
Going into more details, Super Mario 64 Plus brings more responsive controls and improves the camera. Moreover, it brings a 60fps mode via interpolation. The original version runs at 30fps, so this is something that will interest a number of players.
>> You'll find it over here.

New Grand Theft Auto 4 Mod aims to improve all textures, first version out
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/new-grand-theft-auto-5-mod-aims-to-improve-all-textures-first-version-out/
Modder ‘Allaga’ is currently working on a new HD Texture Pack for Grand Theft Auto 4. This pack aims to improve/overhaul all of the game’s textures. Now while this is a difficult task, the modder aims to release smaller versions over time (until the mod is complete).
The first version of Grand Theft Auto 4 4K2K Allaga Graphics Mod that is available for download covers buildings and characters.

This mod aims to bring the world of World of Warcraft to Mount & Blade 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-mod-aims-to-bring-the-world-of-world-of-warcraft-to-mount-blade-2/
The Reborn Team has announced a complete overhaul for Mount & Blade 2 that aims to recreate the world of Azeroth in it. This mod is currently in a beta phase, and its first version is available for download.
The first version of Mount and Warcraft Reborn brings to the game one armor and a sword from WoW.
Now I’ll have to be honest here; I don’t know whether the team will be able to complete this mod. Bringing all the races, armors, weapons and environments of WoW to Mount & Blade 2 is a huge task. And, from what I could see, the Reborn Team is a bit small (at the moment). Not only that, but there is currently only one weapon and armor so yeah, the team should have waited until it had more on its hands.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is coming to PC on June 24th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/alex-kidd-in-miracle-world-dx-is-coming-to-pc-on-june-24th/
Merge Games has announced that Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX will be coming to PC on June 24th. In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher released a new trailer that you can find below.

JRPG Edge of Eternity will be fully released on June 8th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/jrpg-edge-of-eternity-will-be-fully-released-on-june-8th/
Midgar Studio has announced that its open-world turn-based RPG, Edge of Eternity, will leave Steam Early Access on June 8th. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team has also released a new trailer that you can find below.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection April 2021 Update is 24GB/50GB on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/halo-the-master-chief-collection-april-2021-update-is-24gb-50gb-on-pc/
343 Industries has released the April 2021 Update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC. According to the team, the Steam Patch is 24GB in size, whereas the Microsoft Store Update is 50GB in size.
>> After the massive CoD update, this one almost looks small.

The Emperor’s Own: Alpha Teaser is now available for free on Steam
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-emperors-own-alpha-teaser-is-now-available-for-free-on-steam/
Volga Studios has announced that a free, three-hour long alpha teaser for its non-linear, narrative-driven adventure game with RPG elements, The Emperor’s Own, is now available on Steam.

New beautiful screenshots from Diablo 2 Resurrected Technical Alpha
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/new-beautiful-screenshots-from-diablo-2-resurrected-technical-alpha/
The first Technical Alpha testing for Diablo 2 Resurrected will start tomorrow and PureDiablo has shared some new screenshots from it. These screenshots showcase the new graphics of this Diablo 2 Remake, and we highly suggest viewing them.

First Oddworld: Soulstorm patch released, fixes several Abe soft-lock issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-oddworld-soulstorm-patch-released-fixes-several-abe-soft-lock-issues/
Oddworld Inhabitants has released the first patch for Oddworld: Soulstorm. According to the release notes, Update 1.05 changes the News Soundbite VO in Train Hijack level. Moreover, it packs fixes for several cases of Abe becoming soft-locked in rare circumstances.

Turbo Overkill is a new retro cyberpunk FPS, coming soon on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/turbo-overkill-is-a-new-retro-cyberpunk-fps-coming-soon-on-pc/
Trigger Happy Interactive has announced a new retro cyberpunk FPS for the PC, Turbo Overkill. Turbo Overkill will be coming soon on PC, and below you can find its first gameplay trailer.

PUBG Update 11.1 available for download, reintroduces Paramo
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/pubg-update-11-1-available-for-download-reintroduces-paramo/
PUBG Corporation has announced that PUBG Update 11.1 is available for download on all platforms. This new update reintroduces Paramo, the popular 3x3 map set in the highlands of South America. The update also marks the start of a new ranked season, introduces the new Emergency Pickup items, expands the Master Medal system, and more.

The news, the sequel:

Hot damn, this game looks exactly like a stop motion Wes Anderson movie
https://www.pcgamer.com/hot-damn-this-game-looks-exactly-like-a-stop-motion-wes-anderson-movie/
Wes Anderson, eat your heart out. Everything in the new story trailer for adventure game Harold Halibut is rendered in real time in Unity. Bonkers, how closely Harold Halibut hews to the look of stop motion film. Everything looks like it's made of real materials, be it wood or clay or fabric, and lit convincingly. It's truly impressive. But streamlining the traditional stop motion stuff doesn't mean the designers get to skip the model-making bit.

Respawn to Titanfall players: ‘Help is coming’
https://www.pcgamer.com/respawn-to-titanfall-players-help-is-coming/
Generally, when games come to Steam after exclusive stints on other storefronts, it’s a cause for celebration. In the case of Titanfall, however, the opposite was largely true. (...)
The problem is a lack of functional servers: The original Titanfall is multiplayer only, and without servers the game is effectively unplayable. The core issue, as broken down in this Reddit megathread, is that Titanfall suffers from numerous unpatched vulnerabilities that can be used to crash or overload servers and disconnect players.
(...)
“We're aware of ongoing DDOS attacks affecting @Titanfallgame,” Respawn tweeted. “To the Titanfall community: Help is coming ASAP.”

Cliff Bleszinski is 'working on some new stuff'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cliff-bleszinski-is-working-on-some-new-stuff/
(...)
"Yes, for the record, I'm working on some new stuff, and you should know every damned day it's agonizing to not talk about it," Blesinzski tweeted. "Deal with it. Love y'all."

Ghosts promises to be FMV horror, only good
https://www.pcgamer.com/ghosts-promises-to-be-fmv-horror-only-good/
The people behind quarantine Zoom-call horror movie Host are working on a new production, and this time it's "a real-time live action game" called Ghosts. You play the producer of a TV show about ghost hunters who sits in a van controlling camera feeds from a haunted house, choosing which footage to broadcast as your intrepid crew explore.

Muslim advocacy group calls on Valve to drop Six Days in Fallujah from Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/muslim-advocacy-group-calls-on-valve-to-drop-six-days-in-fallujah-from-steam/
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington DC-based civil rights and advocacy group for Muslims, is asking Valve, Microsoft, and Sony to refuse to distribute Six Days in Fallujah, an upcoming tactical FPS based on the Second Battle of Fallujah, one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq War.

The first act of Baldur's Gate 3 has 'significant changes' still to come
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-first-act-of-baldurs-gate-3-has-significant-changes-still-to-come/
In a recent interview with Destructoid, Larian CEO Swen Vincke discussed the state of Baldur's Gate 3 and how its journey through Early Access is going. "I know that the community wants us to go faster than we can," Vincke said. "It does take time to implement things, especially for a game that's as vast as Baldur's Gate 3—also a game that we're still developing".

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare just removed two of its newest maps
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-just-removed-two-of-its-newest-maps/
Last week, Infinity War quietly added three new maps to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, a game that hasn't seen significant additions in months. But it appears that silence wasn't entirely misplaced, because Infinity Ward has since removed two of those new arenas from the game.

Final Fantasy 14 is bringing back the Rainmaker hairstyle
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-is-bringing-back-the-rainmaker-hairstyle/
After disappearing for nearly three years, the Rainmaker hairstyle is returning to Final Fantasy 14 in Patch 5.5 as a Gold Saucer prize.
The hair—originally belonging to Final Fantasy Type-0's Sice—was a special reward made available in 2017's Make It Rain event. It returned in 2018 but then vanished when 2019's event rolled around, continuing its absence last year. While quite a few event-exclusive items usually make their way to the real-money Mog Station store, Rainmaker was never added.

The PC Gaming Show and Future Games Show return on June 13
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-pc-gaming-show-and-future-games-show-return-on-june-13/
PC Gamer is delighted to announce the return of our annual summer showcase, the PC Gaming Show, broadcasting on June 13.
The PC Gaming Show will be part of an exciting double-header digital show with GamesRadar's Future Games Show. The PC Gaming Show is the biggest broadcast event dedicated to PC gaming, drawing 5.9M viewers in 2020 across platforms.

Cyberpunk slasher Ghostrunner is getting a photo mode and time trials
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-slasher-ghostrunner-is-getting-a-photo-mode-and-time-trials/
Cyberpunk slash 'n' sprinter Ghostrunner has been acquired by publisher 505 Games—and while letting yourself be bought out isn't very punk, there's a healthy future in store for the razor-sharp wallrunner.

Deathloop delayed to September
https://www.pcgamer.com/deathloop-delayed-to-september/
Deathloop, the groundhog day FPS from Arkane Lyon, has been delayed until September.
Game director Dinga Bakaba and art director Sebastien Mitton released a video on Deathloop's Twitter page announcing the delay. "We've made the very hard decision to delay the launch of Deathloop to September 14, 2021," Bakaba said. "At Arkane we have a strong vision for Deathloop, and we don't want to compromise on that."

Lots of Intel stuff today...

Intel i5-11400F Review - $175 Killer Value Gaming CPU

Kinda nuts as if you get the 11400F or 11400 instead of the k or 5600x, you would save enough money to get a 3060 Ti instead of a 3060 or 3070 instead of a 3060 Ti with minimal performance loss. If the cards were in stock that is... Still, pretty nice to see the crazy performance and value that competition can bring us.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 laptop to feature 16-inch 16:10 display with 94% screen-to-body ratio

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-rog-zephyrus-m16-laptop-to-feature-16-inch-1610-display-with-94-screen-to-body-ratio

I do like the fact that so many new gaming laptops are offering 1440p instead of 1080p or 4k. Looks like there won't be a Ryzen version as of right now for their 16 inch but Tiger Lake should be faster than Ryzen 5000 mobile.

Intel Sapphire Rapids to feature up to 56 cores, 350W TDP and 64GB of HBM2 memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-sapphire-rapids-to-feature-up-to-56-cores-350w-tdp-and-64gb-of-hbm2-memory

This is Intel's next gen 10nm based DDR5 and PCI-E 5 server CPU. It's good they upped the core count. We will see how Zen 4 and next gen Eypc does but till it comes out, I am sure the current gen Epyc will remain top.

Gear 1 can Lead to Performance Loss on Intel "Rocket Lake" 11th Gen Processors

https://www.techpowerup.com/280720/gear-1-can-lead-to-performance-loss-on-intel-rocket-lake-11th-gen-processors

The memory controller in Gear 2 uses less power which allows for more aggressive turbo boosting of CPUs that are TDP constrained. Although currently, gaming workloads prefer Gear 1 while production workloads prefer Gear 2 if you are using DDR4-3733mhz or higher.

Just to add context to the Alienware M15 (and it's sister model Dell G15), it's the first time since freaking 2007 that Dell and Alienware are using AMD CPUs in their Laptops

True at $175, its insane at what performance you can get for your money. 11400F is surely the best bang for buck CPU you can get rn. Even topping the 3600 for value/performance. Intel did itself a disservice by not giving these to reviewers instead of just the 11600K and 11900K. The 11600K and 5600X isn't that much faster than either one and costs $100 or more! Lucky I got my 5600X and motherboard on offer or I'd be looking at Intel for my new build.

But yeah if gaming is someones focus, getting the best GPU as your budget allows is the main thing as CPU's are already powerful enough for playing games. And if playing at 1440P and above the difference between low and high end is even more negligible as you become more GPU bound.

Yea pretty much. And the 5600X is objectively faster and can also trade blows with Intel's flagship in certain games so there are good reasons to still get that. But for those that are very budget limited, this CPU really is that current sweet spot for budget builders.