The news, part two:

Destiny 2 goes Tron in Season of the Splicer
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-goes-tron-in-season-of-the-splicer/
Previously, Destiny 2 dipped a toe in abstract, geometric colourscapes in last year's Prophecy dungeon. Now, in the Vex-themed Season of the Splicer, due next Tuesday, Bungie is going all-out Tron with a series of simulations that Guardians will be tasked with bringing down.

FIFA 21 lets players buy standalone cosmetics for the first time
https://www.pcgamer.com/fifa-21-lets-players-buy-standalone-cosmetics-for-the-first-time/
For the first time, EA is letting FIFA 21 players purchase cosmetics without forking out for a loot box first.
The items were added at the start of May—a tifo, stadium theme and both a home and away kit are all available to purchase either individually or as a bundle. The bundle costs 700 FIFA points all together, around $7/£6. Individually, you're looking at 150 FIFA points for a tifo, 200 points for a stadium theme and 300 points for each kit (thanks, Eurogamer).

The Witcher 3 director leaves CD Projekt Red after workplace bullying investigation
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-3-director-has-left-cd-projekt-red-after-workplace-bullying-investigation/
Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who served as director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and as second director and head of production on Cyberpunk 2077, has left CD Projekt Red. Bloomberg reports that Tomaszkiewicz was the subject of a lengthy internal investigation based on accusations of bullying. While a commission formed for the investigation found him not guilty, Tomaszkiewicz still chose to resign from his job.

Apex Legends servers are recovering after a Season 9 player surge
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-servers-are-down-because-so-many-people-want-to-play-season-9/
If you're struggling to get past the main menu to try out all the cool stuff in Apex Legends Season 9, you're not alone. Servers appear to be down all over the place at the moment, but Respawn says it's on the case.
Update: Some players are now reporting that they can sign in and play matches hours after servers Apex Legends servers initially went down. That said, you may have a problem trying to unlock any new Legends or view their cosmetics. The entire 'Legends' tab is still greyed out for me, as is the Marketplace section.

Activision finally confirms Sledgehammer Games is making the next Call of Duty
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-finally-confirms-sledgehammer-games-is-making-the-next-call-of-duty/
After a few months of rumors that sounded increasingly likely, Activision confirmed today in its quarterly earnings report that the next Call of Duty is being developed by Sledgehammer Games. In addition to providing support on Black Ops – Cold War, the studio's last major project was 2017's Call of Duty: WWII.

Activision plans to 'triple the size' of some development teams by the end of 2022
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-plans-to-triple-the-size-of-some-development-teams-by-the-end-of-2022/
Activision didn't reveal anything new about the state of Overwatch 2 or Diablo 4 during today's quarterly earnings call, but it did tease some very big plans for the future, including more frequent game releases and an increased focus on live operations, which will require significant levels of new hires over the next couple of years.

Epic Games has spent at least $1 billion on exclusives
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-has-spent-at-least-dollar1-billion-on-exclusives/
As of September 2019, Epic Games had signed up 105 exclusives for the Epic Games Store, amounting to a total of just over $1 billion spent securing them. That’s according to documents released as part of the ongoing Epic vs. Apple trial, which is unearthing some very interesting business dealings indeed.

Manga series Made in Abyss is getting adapted into an action RPG
https://www.pcgamer.com/manga-series-made-in-abyss-is-getting-adapted-into-an-action-rpg/
Spike Chunsoft has announced that the manga series Made in Abyss is getting an action RPG next year.
Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness is based on Akihito Tsukushi's manga which has been running since 2012, with nine volumes currently published. It was adapted into an anime back in 2017, which was then edited into a two-part film in 2019. Another film debuted at the beginning of last year, with a second anime series planned for release in 2022.

Back 4 Blood's new trailer shows that deckbuilding is the best way to kill zombies now
https://www.pcgamer.com/back-4-bloods-new-trailer-shows-that-deckbuilding-is-the-best-way-to-kill-zombies-now/
At the end of March, we saw Turtle Rock Studios showcase Back 4 Blood at the Future Games Show. One of the more interesting aspects shown off was the introduction of the card-based roguelite elements, plonked straight into a zombie survival.
We didn't get to see a whole lot of it then, but now Turtle Rock has released a new video with additional details on how the card system will work, as well as a deeper look into the 'Game Director' AI system.

Here's a closer look at Biomutant's bonkers customization and dangerous world
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-a-closer-look-at-biomutants-bonkers-customization-and-dangerous-world/
Even though it's out May 25, we still haven't played Biomutant. But during a short preview event we did get a closer look at some of its wild customization options, RPG systems, and learned how we'll explore the dangerous biomes in its massive open world. Biomutant looks rad, but it always has in its rare, piecemeal trailers over the last few years. We've still yet to see how everything comes together and feels in the hands, which is a bit concerning a few weeks from release.

Looks like a catch-up from Intel CPU tbh. More cores for better multi-core performance. I wouldn't be surprised if it just matched Alderlakes performance in gaming.

Saying that, this the right step in direction for power efficiency using big little . That PL2 is yikes though..

Yea, I do think that it will be maybe 10-15% faster than Zen 3 in gaming for the 8 big cores otherwise it really will be Intel's Piledriver or something. The problem is those small cores as they are Atom cores. That means anything applications that use more than 8 cores is gonna get killed by Zen 3.

The question will also be the price as Zen 3 should get discounted by the time Alder Lake comes out. The future of Intel looks pretty yikes for now.

^We'll have to wait and see. After all, this came from the mind of Jim Keller, and he knows a thing or two about designing CPUs.

By the way, we have good news regarding the new crypto BS:

New storage-based cryptocurrency loses half its value on launch day
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-storage-based-cryptocurrency-loses-half-its-value-on-launch-day/
The newest cryptocurrency on the block(chain?), Chia coin (XCH), launched yesterday with an initial price of just under $1,600, but after a brief climb quickly bottomed out at $700. Less than half of its launch price. Maybe, just maybe, the latest cryptocurrency isn't everything it's been hyped up to be.

Lol at the $1600 starting price. It's gonna go down to $1 if not lower and then if it still has support, it will continue to grow. Those poor suckers that actually bought Chia at $1600.

Linus did a video where he has people play a few games and see if they could tell the difference between which games has Ray Tracing and which games don't.

The conclusion is, the technical people were able to tell but the more casual ones weren't. Of course the problem with the entire comparison is that he mainly used games that has very light uses of Ray Tracing instead of something modern like Cyberpunk. He did use Minecraft RTX as well but he also left it at a base map instead of creating something that could showcase Ray Tracing.

So while the video could have been interesting, I think that was poor execution.

Also GN made a video where it shows off the price creep of GPUs at MSRP:

Gone are the good old days of $200 GPUs

Already hitting 228W with those clock speeds? I'd say Intel's problem is not just their process node having fallen being, but it also looks to me like the core architecture is hitting it's limits here.

Yea it feels like there's something wrong with Alder Lake. Especially as this is Intel's first high end 10nm desktop CPU. There's gonna be some fun times ahead when this comes out.

It absolutely should have major ramifications on the console side if they win. Epic is arguing in favour of Sony and the rest, because it knows that if they won the case, that would put them at odds with MS and especially Sony, since not only would it also Activision to slap their store onto the consoles, but at the same time, it'll pave the way for MS to inject Xcloud on it's two competitor systems, allowing them to eat away at both userbases from the inside, and adding to MS's Xbox ecosystem (Like the EEE strat, but using an ecosystem instead of buying out). 

Timmy really doesn't understand just how big of a deal this really is. He thinks he's going to just gut Apple, but he's going to end up gutting everyone and pissing them all off. There are already publishers not being happy with their laundry being aired out for all to see, especially the money deals that were made before and soon to be made. Nintendo was smart to redact theirs ahead of this case. 

Still, I firmly believe (and could give less of a fuck what any company says) that company dealings like this should be viewed by the public, because if you're going to be secretive and are known to be scummy, you deserve to have your secrets revealed.