Friday news, part two:

Hearthstone's United in Stormwind expansion will add Mounts, Tools, Questlines and Tradeable cards
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hearthstones-united-in-stormwind-expansion-will-add-mounts-tools-questlines-and-tradeable-cards/
I must admit I did a double take when I initially read the blurb sent over by Blizzard for Hearthstone's next expansion and saw 'Tradeable' cards among the bullet points. Had the maniacs finally gone and done it? As it turns out, they have not. These are not cards you can swap with other players—instead, Tradeable is a new keyword that lets you swap that card with a random one from your deck. So you're effectively trading with yourself. Forever alone, etc.

Valheim patch re-tweaks monster AI so they won't hate your fort more than they hate you
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/valheim-patch-re-tweaks-monster-ai-so-they-wont-hate-your-fort-more-than-they-hate-you/
Back on June 23, Valheim was patched with a tweak to monster AI. "We tried to make monsters slightly more aggressive and attack your buildings etc. When they are not able to attack you," the devs at Iron Gate Studios wrote.
But that tweak went a little further than expected, (...)

Rust DLC gets loud with boom boxes, megaphones, and a disco
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/rust-dlc-gets-loud-with-boom-boxes-megaphones-and-a-disco/
Rust's July update has arrived, and it's bringing the noise. New DLC for Facepunch Studio's popular multiplayer survival game is a loud one, featuring audio cassettes you can use to make recordings, boom boxes for playing cassettes or streaming internet radio, and megaphones and microphones that amplify and modify your voice.

Bungie is hiring someone to help tackle Destiny 2's cheater problem
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bungie-is-hiring-someone-to-help-tackle-destiny-2s-cheater-problem/
Bungie is looking to hire a Data Scientist to help develop anti-cheat systems for Destiny 2. The job listing was spotted by DestinyNews+ on Twitter, who shared the link alongside a screenshot of the job description.

There's a shiny new trailer for Destiny 2 event Solstice of Heroes
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/theres-a-shiny-new-trailer-for-destiny-2-event-solstice-of-heroes/
A new trailer just dropped for Destiny 2's upcoming "Solstice of Heroes" event running from July 6 to August 3.

Call of Duty: Warzone cheaters don't even have to aim anymore
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/call-of-duty-warzone-silent-aim-cheaters-dont-have-to-aim-anymore/
Call of Duty: Warzone cheaters have evolved. Since May, a type of cheat new to Warzone has been slowly gaining steam, with examples of its use popping up here and there on YouTube and the game's subreddit. The cheat is called Silent Aim, and turning it on lets you kill someone by looking in their general direction and pulling the trigger.

You'll be able to shoot Death in hand-drawn horror Kingdom of the Dead
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/youll-be-able-to-shoot-death-in-hand-drawn-horror-kingdom-of-the-dead/
Kingdom of the Dead is an upcoming "old school FPS" that tasks you with killing Death—and his armies—in a black and white, pen-and-ink rendition of 1867 America.

Rumor has it a Dead Space reboot is in development
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dead-space-reboot-motive/
One of my favorite games ever is being rebooted, according to Gematsu, Eurogamer, and Venture Beat, who all say they've heard that a Dead Space revival is in development.

This company is putting video ads in games, and EA has already signed up
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-company-is-putting-video-ads-in-games-and-ea-has-already-signed-up/
A new advertising platform will allow companies to include video ads in PC and console games, similar to those seen in mobile games or on free-to-air TV. Dubbed playerWON and owned by Simulmedia, the tech is based around rewarding in-game items and currency to players who watch ads, and targets free-to-play games, according to an Axios report.

Another classic Apogee platformer just got the HD treatment
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/another-classic-apogee-platformer-just-got-the-hd-treatment/
Classic shareware publisher Apogee Entertainment has surprise-released an HD remaster of Secret Agent, an action platformer originally released in 1992. Like last year's Crystal Caves HD revamp, this new version brings a lot more than just HD graphics: in addition to the original levels there are 16 new ones featuring new enemies, powerups and more. There's also a level editor via Steam Workshop, online leaderboards and a new soundtrack, but never fear: you can toggle between the old AdLib soundtrack and the new one, and the same goes for the graphical overhaul.
>> If you have the original at GOG, you can get the HD version with a 25% discount.

The scaly lads and hairy boys of Total War: Warhammer 2's last DLC have been detailed
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-scaly-lads-and-hairy-boys-of-total-war-warhammer-2s-last-dlc-have-been-detailed/
A month ago the final DLC for Total War: Warhammer 2 was announced, and now Creative Assembly has shared a closer look at what's going to be in it—as well as the free DLC being given away alongside it.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey's planetside missions can now be shared with friends
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/elite-dangerous-odysseys-planetside-missions-can-now-be-shared-with-friends/
Bounty hunting's always been better with friends—and with this week's massive update to Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, you can now share the spoils of your planetside missions with the rest of your crew.

Rockstar's Dan Houser has set up his new studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/rockstars-dan-houser-has-set-up-his-new-studio/
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has registered what appears to be a new game development studio, posters on GTA Forums discovered earlier this week (via VGC).

And now, the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The first one is the Weekly Sale with its up to 80% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210628_weekly_sale
• The Summer Sale Encore, with its up to 85% discounts, will also last until Monday: https://www.gog.com/promo/summer_sale_encore
• The Midweek Sale and its up to 90% deals will last another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210630_midweek_sale
• The Weekend Sale is full of action games up to 90% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210702_weekend_sale
• And Ziggurat has brought back two new games with a 33% discount until July 9. Find out the games here: https://www.gog.com/news/enjoy_the_two_classic_puzzle_games_from_ziggurat_interactive

+Steam

• Do I really need to remind you that the Summer Sale is going on?

Nothing more to add, except wishing you all a happy and gaming weekend.

British right to repair law comes into force today, but excludes smartphones and computers

"For now, the right to repair laws only cover:

• Dishwashers
• Washing machines and washer-dryers
• Refrigeration appliances
• Televisions and other electronic displays"

"Cookers, hobs, tumble dryers, microwaves or tech such as laptops or smartphones aren’t covered."

https://9to5mac.com/2021/07/01/british-right-to-repair-law/

One step forward, two steps back. Very cool Britain...

Motherboard vendors are releasing their support list for Windows 11.

https://wccftech.com/msi-announces-full-list-of-windows-11-tpm-2-0-ready-amd-intel-motherboards/

https://wccftech.com/gigabytes-intel-300-400-500-series-amd-ryzen-300-400-500-series-motherboards-compatible-windows-11-tpm-requirements/

As it goes back to X370 and Z170. While it's not clear whether or not those CPUs will be supported, I think there is a very high chance that Zen 1 and Skylake will be supported. You might need a BIOS update for the older series to get TPM 2.0 or firmware based TPM enabled.

1usmus Unveils Project Hydra: A Brand New Overclocking & Tuning Utility For AMD Zen 3 & Zen 3+ Ryzen CPUs

https://wccftech.com/1usmus-unveils-project-hydra-a-brand-new-overclocking-tuning-utility-for-amd-zen-3-zen-3-ryzen-cpus/

More GPUs in stock in Canada. This time, it's the 3060 from Canada Computers:

https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=195323

A bit too expensive for my liking but it's much better than having 0 in stock just a week ago!

It's a shame that the owners of Humble don't realize that, if they try to press their customers into giving them more money, they'll push them away to other stores like Fanatical, Green Man Gaming or the same platforms they sell keys for, Steam, GOG, UPlay, etc. After all, what's the point of buying there instead of through other stores if you can't decide where your money goes?

The NIS America situation is... troublesome, to say the least. I could understand some price increases due to fluctuations in the currency exchange, and so increases of $5 like the ones in some games are kind of acceptable. But the increase for some games is twice the original price! This smells as dire need for money.

Humble bundle has been going down hill ever since they got bought by IGN. I figured eventually, this would happen but honestly, I haven't bought a bundle in a very long time from them as their competitors are often cheaper.

For better or for worse, I did buy half of those games after seeing their tweet about it as many are on sale for less than $5. Hopefully they won't go down as a company as they did make some great games but it is worrying.

New leak about future AMD Athlon APUs: There will be some coming out this year based on Zen 3... but made in GlobalFoundry's 12LP process to not remove any capacity from the current 7nm production.

It would be an interesting move from AMD to say the least. It would allow AMD to continue honoring the wafer agreement with GF and produce a new chip without straining production capacity of the already very limited in that regard 7nm process at TSMC. With the chip obviously gaining in size due to the older process, it would be interesting to know if the die doesn't get too big and thus too expensive for a simple low-performance chip. But for a simple 4c/8t or even 2c/4t die with 3-4 CU, it could be worth it since those are not big to begin with.

Also, being on the 12LP process will hamper performance in terms of clock speeds, but on such a chip that should hardly be an issue. What could be an issue is however power consumption if AMD decides to make a mobile version out of it.

It will certainly be interesting to see how it performs against the i3 and Pentiums. Ironic how the roles have changed.

Intel SSD DC P5800X 800GB Review - World's Fastest SSD

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/9856/intel-ssd-dc-p5800x-800gb-worlds-fastest/index.html

This SSD costs about $2000 because it's a datacenter SSD that consumers can buy. With that, you gain some benefits like 146,000 TDW... By comparison a 2TB 980 Pro has only 1,200 TDW. But it also smokes every other SSD in the market in a ton of other tests. They also compare Z590 vs X570 and yea, the X570 is behind and sometimes really behind but still smokes the normal SSDs in most tests regardless... Not that most people would notice a difference...



Intel Sapphire Rapids HEDT appears in a roadmap with W790 chipset

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-sapphire-rapids-hedt-appears-in-a-roadmap-with-w790-chipset

We will see if their next gen HEDT will actually be useful against threadripper as Intel's HEDT line has been killed by AMD.


The original camera angles from Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 have finally been restored via modding

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/ocue0y/the_original_camera_angles_from_mass_effect_2_and/

The booty is back on the menu boys!

We all knew it was only a matter of time before someone put them back. I may have even said that when I posted the article about the new cameras, but I'm too lazy to look for it (plus God knows when that article came up).

The SSD is crazy, insanely fast... and, as you said, useless for any home user. I'd take that 2TB WD Black over the Intel one every single time. Hell, even that 4TB drive at the bottom of the chart will feel almost as fast as the Intel one, but with 5 times the capacity.

Considering how Intel sold the server chip to investors, I doubt it.

To be clear, the 56-core was shown to be ~25% faster in Intels chosen applications compared to a 64-core Epyc Milan... while also consuming ~25% more with 350W compared to 280W. So outside of cherry-picking, AMD should still be faster at equal power consumption, but at least no more ridiculously so.

The big question is, since Sapphire Rapids is still a monolithic chip with smaller versions for consumers who need less cores, will they keep to biggest die(s) exclusively for the servers (and possibly Xeon W) or will they bring them also to their HEDT platform?

I don't see how they can compete with Threadripper if they won't but who knows from Intel as they like resting on their laurels even if it's clear that the competitor is better.