True, but that's still a better deal than most pre-built PCs right now

Btw anyone find it suss that GPU's are finally coming back in stock. Lots of stock in the UK now.

I guess lots of GPU's were being sold directly to miners.

Another demo for Mesh Shaders. Can't wait to see devs use it in games, going to be a huge jump in performance and increase in detail for models.

The Tuesday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Knockout City already has over 2 million players
https://www.pcgamer.com/knockout-city-already-has-over-2-million-players/
EA's temporarily free-to-play ball-chucker Knockout City has amassed over two million players within a few days of release, the publisher announced last night.
Pardon me for being cynical, but I was sort of preparing for Knockout City to fall flat on arrival. The game's reveal trailer was widely ridiculed, and Tyler walked away from an early preview feeling unimpressed. EA had also just seen Rocket Arena (a similarly quirky arena shooter) fumble. What hope did 3v3 dodgeball have?
And yet, despite everything, it seems to have taken off.
>> We'll see what happens when it's no longer free.

Days Gone is another success for Playstation on PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/days-gone-did-well-on-pc-but-not-as-well-as-horizon-zero-dawn/
Although Days Gone on PC launched to middling reviews—Andy gave it a 63 when he took a look—it had a fairly strong launch week. It was the best-selling game on Steam that week, with 27,450 concurrent players over the weekend and a 92% positive rating.
This still wasn't quite enough to outperform Sony's other PC venture, Horizon Zero Dawn (thanks, VG24/7). Despite being a much worse port—with poor performance and crashes causing the game to initially launch to mixed Steam reviews—Horizon had almost double the players around its launch week. It hit a concurrent peak of 56,557 in its first few days, though took a pretty steep nosedive after.
Of course, numbers alone don't mean Days Gone's launch was 'worse' than that of Horizon, but sales are sales. It's also worth noting that Steam reviews for Horizon were much lower at launch, and sit at an 80% positive rating overall.

At GOG, and to celebrate the launch of its latest DLC, Ruins of Limis, The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos is 30% off until the 1st of June: https://www.gog.com/game/the_dungeon_of_naheulbeuk_the_amulet_of_chaos

Steam has two new daily deals and also new weeklong deals:

• The first daily deal is Sally Face - Episode One, 50% off (the complete game is 27% off): https://store.steampowered.com/app/541570/Sally_Face__Episode_One/
• Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is 66% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/596970/Sunless_Skies_Sovereign_Edition/
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • King of Retail, still in Early Access, is 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/968250/King_of_Retail/
  • Heroes of Steel RPG is 35% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/291190/Heroes_of_Steel_RPG/
  • The VR only game Winter Fury: The Longest Road gets a 50% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1033210/Winter_Fury_The_Longest_Road/
  • Nantucket gets a 66% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/621220/Nantucket/
  • Millie is 83% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/294230/Millie/
  • And Dino D-Day gets a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/70000/Dino_DDay/

The Humble Store has three new sales:

• Publisher Slitherine has put its games up to 80% off during the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/slitherine-publisher-sale/
• The new Hack and Slash Sale comes with up to 85% discounts for the next 6 days. The keys are for Steam and/or GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/hack-slash-sale/
• And the Daedalic Entertainment Publisher Sale features up to 90% discounts during the next 12 days (although some discounts will only last 5 days). The keys are for Steam and/or GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/daedalic-entertainment-publisher-sale/

Fanatical's May Madness Sale is about to end, and an Encore mode has been enabled until tomorrow (when a new Bundle Fest will start).
And there's also a competition to win GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-. Check it out here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/chance-win-steam-pc-key-copy-guilty-gear-strive-deluxe-edition-fanatical-giveaway

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Nvidia releases GPU hotfix for 120Hz 4K monitors and TVs
https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-hotfix-4k-120hz-466-55/
A hotfix has rocked up on Nvidia's support site that sorts out problems for those wanting to connect their gaming PC to high-refresh 4K TVs and monitors. The 466.55 hotfix is based on Nvidia's latest 466.47 driver and addresses two problems:

• [RTX 20 series][GTX 16/10 series][HDMI] 4K @ 120Hz display mode is not available from display settings
• If GPU is connected to a 4K UHD TV, system may freeze when launching a VR game

>> You'll find it at the hotfix support page.

Steam client update code points to possible handheld console in the works
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-client-update-code-points-to-possible-handheld-console-in-the-works/
Valve's latest Steam client beta has pointed towards the possibility of a future hardware release, with suggestions that it's going to be a handheld console.
SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik tweeted about another appearance of a project codenamed Neptune. The name made its first appearance back in September, but this update coupled it with references to "SteamPal" and "SteamPal Games" (thanks, VGC). Djundik also pointed out references to a quick access menu and a power menu. There are also strings relating to a low battery notification, Bluetooth and airplane toggles, and the options to restart, shut down, and suspend...something.
Djundik says he reckons all the strings found in the update relate to Neptune, coming to the conclusion that Valve could potentially be making a handheld Steam console. It's not a far-fetched suggestion either, especially taking into account that a decent amount of the strings relate to things you'd often find on a handheld device.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty-

GAMING NEWS

Team Ninja is most likely working on an action-focused Final Fantasy spin-off
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/team-ninja-is-most-likely-working-on-an-action-focused-final-fantasy-spin-off/
According to some fresh leaks, Square Enix and Team Ninja are working together on an action-packed Final Fantasy spin-off. According to the rumors, this will be a Nioh-like game, will be called Final Fantasy Origin, and will be officially revealed next month.

Days Gone Patch 1.02 fixes mouse movement & dead zone issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/days-gone-patch-1-02-fixes-mouse-movement-dead-zone-issues/
Bend Studio has released Patch 1.02 for the PC version of Days Gone that addresses its mouse movement and dead zone issues. As such, the PC version should now control better with the mouse and keyboard.

Here's when Biomutant unlocks in your time zone
https://www.pcgamer.com/biomutant-release-date-unlock-time/
(...)
We've been waiting for Biomutant for a long time: it was first shown off back in 2017. The final game may not be a smash, but it does have a "genuinely stunning setting" to play around in and a crafting system that allows for truly overpowered builds. If you're still eager to check it out yourself, it releases on May 25, and we can tell you exactly when it unlocks.

Ubisoft says it's addressing workplace harassment, some fans aren't buying it
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-says-its-addressing-workplace-harassment-some-fans-arent-buying-it/
Last year, Ubisoft was the subject of numerous allegations of workplace abuse that included physical assault and sexual harassment. Along with specific incidents, the company was accused of harboring a culture in which sexism, overwork, and misconduct were normal. Multiple executives resigned as a result of the allegations, including vice president Maxime Beland. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot promised "profound" changes at the company. A year later, a number of fans don't believe that Ubisoft has kept that promise.

Apex Legends will finally punish players for abandoning Arenas matches
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-will-finally-punish-players-for-abandoning-arenas-matches/
I've been enjoying Apex Legends' new 3v3 Arenas mode quite a bit the last few weeks, but holy cow, the mode has a major leavers problem. Respawn is hoping to remedy this in a patch deployed today that will start handing down penalties to players who abandon their team.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator are getting official multiplayer support
https://www.pcgamer.com/euro-truck-simulator-2-and-american-truck-simulator-are-getting-official-multiplayer-support/
Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator are both getting official multiplayer support, and the experimental open beta for both is available now. Multiplayer comes in the form of the Convoy mode, which lets eight players drive together in the same world: AI traffic, time and weather are all synchronized, and all eight players can be on the same job.

Yea mining is starting to drop which is lowering demand. NA is still pretty goofed but hopefully it won't be long now!

A mockup of AMD Zen4 “Raphael” AM5 LGA1718 package has been leaked

Valve is possibly working on a handheld Steam console called "SteamPal" (codename Neptune).

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/nkn8hf/valve_is_possibly_working_on_a_handheld_steam/

AMD Milan-X rumored to feature stacked dies, X3D packing technology

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-milan-x-rumored-to-feature-stacked-dies-x3d-packing-technology

Yeah. Hopefully prices will come down to reasonable levels as well.

Also, ngl.. I'd be very interested in a handheld Steam console. If its like the AYA NEO or GPD Win 3, but can be bought locally and improved upon (UI etc via custom Big Picture mode ) that would be awesome.

KInda weird to consider HZD as a success, considering how it stumbled out the gate. Days Gone did a better job walking out the gate without many issues and memes made about it's graphical glitches/poor performance like HZD did.

Yea, hopefully they don't just pull another "Steam Machines" and call it a day. With some of the new CPU/GPUs that are coming out, handheld gaming PCs can be very viable if they don't goof it.

Not sure what I should think of Raphael

1. No DDR4 fallback means high memory prices guaranteed
2. 4 more PCIe lanes is great, but sadly still 4.0. Still not too shabby and those 4 extra lanes certainly come in handy.
3. The increased TDP doesn't bode well to me. Like, at all. Looks to me like AMD wants to out-Intel Intel in holding the clock speed crown, performance/watt and efficiency be damned.
4. Why change to LGA?