The last round of news of the week (besides Yuri's ones):

Wasteland 3's first expansion is a Fallout factory revolt
https://www.pcgamer.com/wasteland-3s-first-expansion-is-a-fallout-factory-revolt/
Wasteland 3's first narrative expansion, The Battle Of Steeltown, is raising hell on the factory floor later this summer.
Announced earlier today, Wasteland 3's first expansion sees your band of Rangers sent off to sort out a worker uprising for The Patriarch (the ostensible ruler of California). Deliveries have gone cold, bandit raids are rife, and the factory boss seems increasingly incompetent, so you've been sent in to sort things out.

Dead Call of Duty: Warzone players are coming back as zombies
https://www.pcgamer.com/dead-call-of-duty-warzone-players-are-coming-back-as-zombies/
With Call of Duty: Warzone Season 3 on the horizon (all signs point to some sort of nuclear event kicking off next week), Verdansk's zombie problem is reaching a boiling point. After an update this morning, toxic zones are now turning players into zombies when they die.

Call of Duty: Warzone's new surprise pistol is terrifying
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzones-new-surprise-pistol-is-terrifying/
As has become something of a habit in Call of Duty: Warzone as of late, a new weapon has been added to the game without notice from Activision. But unlike the relatively harmless Shadowhunter crossbow, today's new Sykov pistol is very good at killing.

Call of Duty: Warzone Season 2 ‘outro cinematic’ sends the story back to Verdansk
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-season-2-outro-cinematic-sends-the-story-back-to-verdansk/
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War and Warzone season 3 is set to kick off on April 22, following a long-rumored "nuke event" that will take place the day before. But before any of that can happen, the events of Season 2 must be drawn to a close, a tale set up by a new "outro cinematic" released today by Treyarch.

Ubisoft's online E3 event set for June 12
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisofts-online-e3-event-set-for-june-12/
The season that begins with E and ends with 3 is rapidly approaching, and today Ubisoft confirmed that it will take part in the fun with a new "Ubisoft Forward" online press conference. The event will kick off at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET on June 12 "as part of E3 2021," and will feature updates on Ubisoft games "from our teams around the world."

Bungie is hiring for a ‘new franchise’ with a focus on competitive PvP
https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-is-hiring-for-a-new-franchise-with-a-focus-on-competitive-pvp/
A job listing that came to light in June 2020 seeking developers who want to "work on something comedic with lighthearted and whimsical characters" suggested that Bungie is working on at least one project that is very un-Destiny-like. But I don't think we need to worry too much that it is leaving its roots behind, as a newer listing spotted by DestinyNews+ points to a project that is very Destiny-like.

Square Enix is 'confident' the latest Outriders patch will fix the inventory wipe bug
https://www.pcgamer.com/square-enix-is-confident-the-latest-outriders-patch-will-fix-the-inventory-wipe-bug/
Square Enix says it is "confident" that a new Outriders patch that rolled out today will finally fix the nasty, persistent bug that’s been wiping out player inventories. There's still work to be done, however, and the announcement warned that players could encounter some odd post-patch behavior.

Resident Evil 4 VR announced for Oculus Quest 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/resident-evil-4-vr-announced-for-oculus-quest-2/
Resident Evil 4 VR will release for Oculus Quest 2 at some point in the future, Capcom and Oculus confirmed today. The port was announced during the Resident Evil Showcase, and while specific details are thin on the ground, we’re promised more at next week’s Oculus Gaming Showcase.
>> It's in FPS mode.

Mercenaries mode is back in Resident Evil Village
https://www.pcgamer.com/mercenaries-mode-is-back-in-resident-evil-village/
In its Resident Evil Village showcase today, Capcom dropped the news that Mercenaries, the series' long-running arcadey action mode, is coming back. Mercenaries was especially popular in RE5 and RE6 thanks to co-op multiplayer support, but it wasn't included in Resident Evil 7 or the remakes of Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 3. "It's back, with a few Resident Evil Village twists," said director Morimasa Sato.

D&D game Solasta: Crown of the Magister leaves Early Access on May 27
https://www.pcgamer.com/dandd-game-solasta-crown-of-the-magister-leaves-early-access-on-may-27/
A week ago Tactical Adventures announced that Solasta: Crown of the Magister, its RPG based on the rules of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, would be leaving Early Access with its next update, and that we wouldn't have long to wait. And we do not: Solasta will hit version 1.0 on May 27, after seven months of Early Access.

Baldur's Gate 3 rolls out a hotfix for players who have 'angered the RNG Gods'
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-rolls-out-a-hotfix-for-players-who-have-angered-the-rng-gods/
In a February Baldur's Gate 3 update, the one that added druids who can turn into massive badgers, Larian also added an option to play with loaded dice. The idea was to "smooth out the extremes of the bell curve", adjusting the randomness so that players who have a few bad rolls in a row are guaranteed a good one, and vice versa. Even after that, complaints about the dice continued to roll in: "We've seen the dice described as being harsh, cursed, rigged and someone said the RNG was downright evil," Larian writes.
And so the latest patch, hotfix #10, adjusts the behind-the-scenes math of those loaded dice so that the uncaring d20 will continue to reward players who suffer a string of bad luck, but never punish them for enjoying a few crits in a row. As Larian says, "This one goes out to all of you (and us) who have clearly angered the RNG Gods in a former life and been cursed to fail dice rolls at every turn."

Former Switch exclusive Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection is coming to PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-switch-exclusive-ghosts-n-goblins-resurrection-is-coming-to-pc/
Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection released on Nintendo Switch in February to divided reviews, with the old school difficulty being the main point of contention. That’s in the series’ DNA of course, but it did look like a pretty conservative take on the run-and-gun platformer formula. Whatever the case, we’ll be able to try it for ourselves because it’s “coming soon” to Steam.

Skyrim mod turned standalone mystery The Forgotten City arrives this summer
https://www.pcgamer.com/skyrim-mod-turned-standalone-mystery-the-forgotten-city-arrives-this-summer/
Time-travelling murder mystery The Forgotten City will now begin its temporal investigation this Summer.
A standalone adaptation of the award-winning Skyrim mod of the same name, The Forgotten City retains the same setup. Relive the final day of a utopian underground society, and untangle the events that led to its inhabitants becoming solid gold statues—and if you're smart enough, potentially prevent them entirely.

Skate City rides out for some gorgeous street sessions next month
https://www.pcgamer.com/skate-city-rides-out-for-some-gorgeous-street-sessions-next-month/
As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as too many skateboarding games. Next month, we're getting a scorcher, as Skate City shreds a line away from Apple Arcade exclusivity onto PC and consoles.

Before we finish, let's take a look at the deals we'll find this weekend at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The first one is the Weekly Sale full of games from publisher Mangagamer up to 70% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/mangagamer_week
• The Midweek Sale and its up to 85% discounts will last another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210414_midweek_sale
• The Weekend Sale comes with up to 75% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210416_weekend_sale
• The Focus Home Interactive Sale, with up to 80% discounts, will last another 5 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/focus_home_interactive
• The titles from HandyGames with its up to 80% discounts will last another 5 days as well: https://www.gog.com/promo/handygames_anniversary
• To celebrate the launch of a new expansion, Stellaris and its add-ons are up to 75% off during the next 6 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210415_stellaris
• Publisher Raw Fury is putting its game up to 80% off during the next 6 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/raw_fury_spring_sale
• And there are also 3 new releases:
  • Ashwalkers is 15% off until April 22: https://www.gog.com/game/ashwalkers
  • Shadow Man Remastererd is 25% off until April 22: https://www.gog.com/game/shadow_man_remastered
  • And Fishing: North Atlantic launches with a 15% discount until April 23: https://www.gog.com/game/fishing_north_atlantic

+Steam

• The new daily deal is Lumberjack's Dynasty, 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/968970/Lumberjacks_Dynasty/
• Zombie Army 4: Dead War will be 30% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/694280/Zombie_Army_4_Dead_War/
• The Forest will be 60% off until the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/242760/The_Forest/
• Mortal Kombat 11 is getting a 70% discount until Monday 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/976310/Mortal_Kombat11/
• Capcom puts its games up to 80% off until the 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/CapcomPubSale
• The Indian Harvest Sale comes with games made in India with up to 75% discounts: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/indianharvestfestival
• And EA's FPSale comes with up to 78% discounts until April 26: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36135791/sale/FPSALE
• Finally, we can't forget the weeklong deals.

Nothing else to add. Have a happy and gaming weekend.

Intel, Nvidia, TSMC execs agree: Chip shortage could last into 2023

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/intel-nvidia-tsmc-execs-agree-chip-shortage-could-last-into-2023/

One does have to wonder at some point as to whether or not this chip shortage is real or if it's like the Nand shortage where they were short cause the companies were doing nonsense. Still, gonna be a while regardless before everything stabilizes.


Netac begins research and development phase of 10GHz DDR5 memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/netac-begins-research-and-development-phase-of-10ghz-ddr5-memory


GPU memory latency comparison

https://chipsandcheese.com/2021/04/16/measuring-gpu-memory-latency/




Intel roadmap with Alder Lake-S workstation CPUs planned for Q3 2021 has been leaked

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-roadmap-with-alder-lake-s-workstation-cpus-planned-for-q3-2021-has-been-leaked

If it's only up to 38 cores... Might be DoA against AMD's current lineup.

As an unrelated news but interesting...

Budget for Amazon's Lord of the Rings Season 1 is over $450m USD ($650m NZD) and they can get an additional rebate of $160 million from the government

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/440587/government-to-give-amazon-over-100m-boost-for-lord-of-the-rings-filming

For comparison, the most expensive season for Game of Thrones was 100 million. Either this will be one god tier season or one of the biggest miss steps from a company.

this so damned much, i cant imagine how long this flying under the radar

Okay so been a long day trying to figure stuff out but finally got it all running. AIO installation was a nightmare (threw away the supplied back bracket) and used the motherboard one. Plus had a tonne of issues with BIOS and RAM compat. But yeah I mean seriously, fuck screw back plates that are held in by little brackets that don't do jack.

But yeah CPU idling at 38 C and 60 or under while gaming. Left it on auto OC and the CPU is boosting to 4.65Ghz. A tad louder than my setup before due to open top and AIO though pretty happy with the results.

Glad you got it running! Building a pc can be very frustrating for sure but once you get it running, oof so good!

While that sucks for obvious reasons, I wouldn't give it more value than it has: it's a forecast of what could happen. It's not even about what is happening right now.

There are a lot of things that can change and alleviate the problems, from Ethereum and other cryptos to face another crash, to lowering demand in significant numbers once business and particulars have updated the systems they had been using for too long, to bottlenecks moving to somewhere else (like DDR5 memory).

In short, we'll have to see how it goes.

Interesting to see how Infinity cache actually helps AMD, and how Nvidia seems to be getting worse with each new architecture. It will be interesting to see if they make another test like that when modular chips hit the market.

Thanks for sharing.

At least you got it running. Horray! Now it's time to enjoy it.

By the way, I remember from other AIO reviews that the loudest part is usually the pump. I don't know if there's a software in the package or any other way to lower it a notch, but that could get you a quieter system without a noticeable increase in temps.

Cheers. Yeah and you end up troubleshooting for tiny things that can stop it from booting. Fnargh. But its worth it when its all done. PC feels way snappier now.

@JEMC

Yup definately relieved xP Dealing with more budget motherboards and you miss out on things and quality of components. Also who designs a motherboard with the CMOS battery directly under the first PCI-E slot!

And yeah, think I will do that. I just slotted everything in nice and tidy (all cable managed - aka route everything on the other side of the board) and left the pump header unconnected so its running all out. Going to see if I can route it around so it doesn't look messy.

GlobalFoundries, do your thing! 

They already are:

CEO of largest U.S. chip foundry explains why semiconductor shortage could last through 2022
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/02/globalfoundries-ceo-on-semiconductor-shortage-and-ipo.html
GlobalFoundries, the third-largest foundry, is planning to invest $1.4 billion in its chip factories this year, and will likely double that investment next year, CEO Tom Caulfield told CNBC in an interview.

Caufield said the company’s manufacturing capacity is completely booked and that industrywide semiconductor supply could lag behind demand until 2022 or later.

“Right now all our fabs are not only more than 100% utilized, we are adding capacity as fast as we can,” Caulfield said.