Let's go with the Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Knockout City dips, dives and dodges its way into 5 million players
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/knockout-city-dips-dives-and-dodges-its-way-into-5-million-players/
I'm not sure anyone was expecting dodgeball brawl 'em up Knockout City to be a hit. But here we are, 5 million players later, just days after hearing that EA plans to keep the ball rolling with a permanently expanded free trial.
EA broke the milestone news in a new blog post, sharing that Knockout City hit the 5 million milestone 2 weeks after release, and a mere 10 days after crossing the 2 million mark. While not detailing specifics, the post also notes that over half a billion knockouts have been scored, while the game has been streamed for "millions" of hours.

Frostpunk is now available for free on Epic Games Store
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/frostpunk-is-now-available-for-free-on-epic-games-store/
11 bit studios and Epic Games announced that Frostpunk is available for free on Epic Games Store for a limited time. From today and until June 10th, PC gamers can visit its EGS page and acquire their free copy.
>> Claimed! And yeah, I also got a 10$ coupon with it.

GOG's Warhammer Skulls sale includes a free game and 'goodie pack' for everyone
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/gogs-warhammer-skulls-sale-includes-a-free-game-and-goodie-pack-for-everyone/
Today's the day of the big Warhammer Skulls showcase, which among other things has given us a look at the final Total War: Warhammer 2 DLC, and a new tactical RPG coming in 2022 that has a title so long it literally takes up three lines of text on our front page. GOG is getting in on the action too, with a Warhammer Skulls sale featuring discounts of up to 80% on an impressively extensive selection of Warhammer games, and a Warhammer Skulls Digital Goodie Pack that's free for everyone.
The goodie pack will actually show up in your GOG library in two parts, the 1995 strategy game Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, and the Goodie Pack itself.
>> Well, that definitely shots down the chance of the Summer Sale starting this week. No explanation, then, on why there was no Midweek Sale.

Fanatical has three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Total War: WARHAMMER II, 72% off during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/total-war-warhammer-ii
• The former deal is part of the Warhammer Sale, with up to 85% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/collections/warhammer
• And Team 17 also puts its games on sale, up to 80% off during the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/team17-digital-ltd

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Half-Life: Alyx multiplayer mod lets you join a friend as a useless floating robot
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/half-life-alyx-multiplayer-mod-lets-you-join-a-friend-as-a-useless-floating-robot/
An open-source Half-Life: Alyx mod will let you join a friend's VR journey through City 17. Just don't expect do be able to do much more than hang around and watch the fireworks.
As spotted by PCGamesN, alyx-multiplayer is a fairly simple mod that lets you invite a friend into Half-Life: Alyx in a very limited fashion—as the floating faceplate of a Combine scanner, drifting and jittering around Alyx as a kind of robot buddy.
>> You can download it from its official website.

GAMING NEWS

Warhammer 40K Shootas, Blood & Teef is a new 2D run & gun platformer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/warhammer-40k-shootas-blood-teef-is-a-new-2d-run-gun-platformer/
Rogueside has announced a new Warhammer game, Warhammer 40K Shootas, Blood & Teef. Warhammer 40K Shootas, Blood & Teef is a 2D run and gun platformer that will be coming soon on PC. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team released its debut gameplay trailer.
>> It's... not like you'd expect.

Cyberpunk 2077’s next patch will come out in the next couple of weeks
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cyberpunk-2077s-next-patch-will-come-out-in-the-next-couple-of-weeks/
During its 2021Q1 investor call, CD Projekt RED revealed some new details about the upcoming patches for Cyberpunk 2077. According to the team, the next patch is almost ready and will release in the next couple of weeks.

The new Dead Island, Saints Row, Metro & TimeSplitters games won’t be shown at E3 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-new-dead-island-saints-row-metro-timesplitters-games-wont-be-shown-at-e3-2021/
Deep Silver has just announced that its parent company, Koch Media, will make a new announcement at Summer Games Fest. However, and in order to keep expectations in check, the team confirmed that the new Dead Island, Saints Row, Metro & TimeSplitters games won’t be shown during that event (or in E3 2021).
>> Disappointing. I was hoping to see the new Saints Row.

Friday news, part two:

Dan Abnett wrote all the orc dialogue in both Mordor games and has never recovered
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dan-abnett-wrote-all-the-orc-dialogue-in-both-mordor-games-and-has-never-recovered/
Best-selling 40K novelist Dan Abnett has been announced as co-writer of Fatshark's forthcoming co-op game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. It's not the author's first time writing a videogame, however. He co-wrote Alien: Isolation, and was responsible for writing the orcs, and just the orcs, on both Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War.

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is a new tactical RPG coming next year
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/warhammer-40000-chaos-gate-daemonhunters-is-a-new-tactical-rpg-coming-next-year/
Frontier Developments has teamed up with Complex Games and Games Workshop for a new turn-based tactical RPG set in the Warhammer 40K universe called Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters.

Total War: Warhammer 2's final DLC is coming in July
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/total-war-warhammer-2s-final-dlc-is-coming-in-july/
The final DLC for the aged but excellent RTS Total War: Warhammer 2 was unveiled today as The Silence and the Fury, a pack featuring two new Legendary Lords: Taurox the Brass Bull at the head of the returning Beastmen, and the renowned chameleon skink Oxyotl the Unseen, who will lead the Lizardmen against them.

There's officially too much going on in the Ark: Genesis - Part 2 launch trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ark-genesis-part-2-dlc-launch-trailer/
Dinosaur survival game Ark: Survival Evolved has been on a long and eventful six-year journey, growing from a rough-around-the-edges Early Access game to one of the most successful survival games ever.
And judging by the launch trailer for Ark: Genesis - Part 2—which is out today and marks the final installment before Ark 2 releases sometime next year—that journey is coming to an extremely busy and dramatic end.

PvP MMO Crowfall is finally launching in July
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/pvp-mmo-crowfall-is-finally-launching-in-july/
We've been waiting on the PvP MMO Crowfall for a long time now. The first time we looked at it was in early 2015, just ahead of its hugely successful $1.8 million Kickstarter campaign; most recently was in January 2020, when it announced a nearly $12 million investment to support its launch later in the year.
That launch didn't happen, although a closed beta began in August 2020. Now a full release is just around the corner: Developer ArtCraft Entertainment announced today that Crowfall launches on July 6.

Now you can trigger your real home's alarm when your Rust base is raided
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/now-you-can-trigger-your-real-homes-alarm-when-your-rust-base-is-raided/
We're in a new month, which means a new Rust update. There's some pretty interesting stuff going on with Rust's June update, but maybe the weirdest is the Rust+ app now supports IFTTT—which means you can essentially wire up the brutal survival game to some real-life services, apps, and smart home devices.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive kicks free players out of ranked matchmaking
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/counter-strike-global-offensive-kicks-free-players-out-of-ranked-matchmaking/
Free-to-play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players will no longer be able to earn XP, ranks, drops, or have skill groups assigned to them, following Valve's latest changes to the game's Prime system.
Going free just over three years ago, CS:GO separates its paid players from non-paid with Prime status. Initially, while their paid counterparts benefited from Prime-exclusive matchmaking and special rewards, non-Prime players would still have access to ranked play, and could eventually earn their way into the prestigious Prime pool.
>> Is this move really because of the bad behavior, or because Valve thinks that there's not enough Prime players?

Injustice 2 dev apologises for celebrating Pride in the worst way possible
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/injustice-2-dev-apologises-for-celebrating-pride-in-the-worst-way-possible/
Look. As a queer woman, I don't really expect (or even want) much from game developers out of Pride. Maybe we'll get a little in-game badge, or some nice art of all the game's confirmed queer characters. But then there's DC punch-up Injustice 2, whose mobile version chose to celebrate Pride by, err, challenging its players to beat up a bisexual character.
>> *facepalm*

Let's end the news with a summary of the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The first one is the Weekly Sale, with games from Headup Games up to 90% off; https://www.gog.com/promo/headup_sale
• And two new classics land on the store courtesy of Ziggurat:
  • Sabre Team arrives with a 33% discount until June 11: https://www.gog.com/game/sabre_team
  • And Shadoworlds also arrives with a 33% discount until June 11: https://www.gog.com/game/shadoworlds

+Steam

• The new daily deal is Intruder, still in Early Access, 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/518150/Intruder/
• Little Nightmares II, that has a demo, is 20% off during the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/app/860510/Little_Nightmares_II/
• ARK: Survival Evolved is free to try and 80% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/ARK_Survival_Evolved/
• The Assetto Corsa franchise is on sale, between 20 and 80% off until the 7th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/AssettoCorsaFranchiseSale
• Chuclefish celebrates its 10th anniversary offering its games up to 80% off until Monday, 7th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/Chucklefish2021
• The Klei Entertainment Publisher Sale features between 20 and 83% discounts until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/klei
• And lastly, there's also the weeklong deals.

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

ASUS ROG STRIX G15 Advantage Edtion is underperforming due to lack of MUX switch and low-quality stock ram

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-rog-strix-g15-laptop-with-radeon-rx-6800m-performance-crippled-by-stock-ram-and-lack-of-gpu-switch

The ram problem seems to be an on going issue with a number of Ryzen based laptops even with Nvidia GPUs. I did post a similar issue with the Legion 5 Pro with Ryzen + 3070 that had the exact same problem a while back. You would think an AMD advantage laptop would mean these things wouldn't exist as AMD themselves would work with these companies but I guess AMD needs to work on their approval process. The lack of MUX switch is not abnormal for Asus (and others) as they do the same thing on the their 3000 series laptops as well.

AMD Radeon Pro W6800 to be the first Navi 21 graphics card with 32GB memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-pro-w6800-to-be-the-first-navi-21-graphics-card-with-32gb-memory


E3 2021’s test list of banned words includes ‘Canada’ for some reason

https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/06/02/e3-2021-test-list-banned-words-canada/

Sorry?

is it canada or canadian?

who doesn't hate canadians

It's Canada. Now I believe in the actual list, Canada is not being banned but I find it amusing that it's even in their test list...

Maybe because with some German dialects, it sounds like "keiner da" - Nobody here...

*** ALERT FREE GAME ***

If you go to Steam, you'll be able to grab Warhammer Underworlds: Online for free. The deal will last until June 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1022310/Warhammer_Underworlds_Online/

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