The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has a new deal, plus the new weeklong deals:

• Out of the Park Baseball 22 will be 50% off until the 21st of July: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1455660/Out_of_the_Park_Baseball_22/
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • THE GAME OF LIFE 2 is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1455630/THE_GAME_OF_LIFE_2/
  • Touhou Luna Nightsgets a 33% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/851100/Touhou_Luna_Nights/
  • Hasbro's BATTLESHIP will be half its price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/893050/Hasbros_BATTLESHIP/
  • Dead Effect 2 VR is 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/646200/Dead_Effect_2_VR/
  • Titan Souls features a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/297130/Titan_Souls/
  • And Ultimate Racing 2D is also 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/808080/Ultimate_Racing_2D/

The Humble Store has three new sales:

• The Greatest Hits Sale comes with up to 88% discounts during the next 3 days. There are keys for most platforms (except UPlay): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/greatest-hits-sale/
• The World Builder Sale features up to 80% discounts during the next 6 days. The keys are for Steam, UPlay (Anno) and GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/world-builder-sale/
• And the Big in Japan Sale features Japanese games up to 85% off during the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/big-in-japan-sale/

Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Ultimate Edition, 81% off during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/assassin-s-creed-odyssey-ultimate-edition
• The new Build Your Own Blazing Bundle features 20 games to build your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-blazing-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Final Fantasy 7 gets a must-have complete audio overhaul mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/final-fantasy-7-gets-a-must-have-complete-audio-overhaul-mod/
Final Fantasy 7 fans, here is something really special for you today. Created by modder ‘Bonez’, Cosmo Theory is a complete audio overhaul mod for the PC version of Final Fantasy VII.
Going into more details, this mod replaces/updates all 724 original sound effects including battle, magic, enemy skills, limit breaks, summons, world. including looping and existing ambient sound effects. Additionally, it brings new ambient sounds for every field and battle scene in the game. Not only that, but it also adds ground-conditional footstep sound effects for every field.
Moreover, it replaces all sound effects in FMV’s (pre-rendered cut scenes). It also introduces voiced attacks or “grunts” for all party members. Furthermore, it brings 8 selectable menu sound sets; including FFVII Remake, Dissidia NT, FFXV, FFXIII-A, FFXIII-B, FFXII, FFX, FFVII(Vanilla).
Those interested can download the mod from here. However, do note that this mod requires 7th Heaven 2.3.1.78+ and FFNx 1.9.0.110+. You must also ensure the SFX option in 7th Heaven’s game driver settings is set to VGMStream.
>> There's a video in the article to let you appreciate the new sounds.

GAMING NEWS

First screenshot from The Coalition’s Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo, Alpha Point
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/first-screenshot-the-coalition-unreal-engine-5-tech-demo-alpha-point/
The Coalition has shared the first screenshot from its upcoming Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo, Alpha Point. Moreover, the team will officially unveil this tech demo on July 20th, during its GDC Developer Day virtual talk.

NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection Patch 1.0.0.2 adds graphics settings
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/ninja-gaiden-master-collection-patch-1-0-0-2-adds-graphics-settings/
Team Ninja and KOEI Tecmo have released a brand new update for NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection. According to the release notes, Update 1.0.0.2 adds some graphics settings to the game. So yeah, better late than never I guess.

Part two of the Tuesday news:

LeBron James joins Fortnite to promote Space Jam 2 and Taco Tuesday
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lebron-fortnite-skin/
Details on LeBron James' Fortnite skin have dropped, courtesy of data miners like HYPEX digging through Fortnite's upcoming update. So we've now got our first real look at the basketball legend's look in the battle royale multiverse. As you can imagine, Epic Games has been thorough, giving LeBron multiple outfit styles, including a very obvious marketing tie-in to Space Jam 2.

Warframe trailer teases its long-awaited new expansion being revealed this weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/warframe-trailer-teases-its-long-awaited-new-expansion-being-revealed-this-weekend/
Warframe's big TennoCon fan convention (which is online only this year because of Covid-19) is happening this week, but ahead of the event Digital Extremes revealed the biggest news of the show: The New War expansion.

This is how you'll kill xenomorphs in Aliens: Fireteam Elite
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-is-how-youll-kill-xenomorphs-in-aliens-fireteam-elite/
You might think that a tough squad of mean marines—a fireteam, say—might be just a bunch of rugged guys with guns. But this is not actually the case in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, the co-op shooter coming in August, which will give players five different classes to choose from, three of which were detailed today.

Ninja is becoming a playable character in the free-to-play RPG Raid: Shadow Legends
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ninja-is-becoming-a-playable-character-in-raid-shadow-legends/
Raid: Shadow Legends is a free-to-play RPG originally released for mobile devices in 2018 by Plarium Games that was ported to PC in early 2020. Its graphics are quite well-regarded, but its marketing is a different matter: Its pervasive online promotional campaigns and influencer tie-ins resulted in enough memes to justify its own Know Your Meme page.
There will probably be even more memes in the very near future, as Plarium announced today that Tyler "Ninja" Blevins will become a playable character in the game, beginning on July 16.

New Minecraft Dungeons expansion takes the fight to the Endermen
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/new-minecraft-dungeons-expansion-takes-the-fight-to-the-endermen/
The latest in Minecraft Dungeons' paid expansions travels to The End, home of those creepy pole-like creatures the Endermen. This isn't a diplomatic mission: You'll be slaughtering them of course, turning them into charming little voxel gibs, along with plenty of other new enemy types.

Warner Bros denies report that NetherRealm and TT Games are for sale
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/warner-bros-denies-report-that-netherrealm-and-tt-games-are-for-sale/
In March, AT&T announced a $43 billion deal to spin off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery to create a "premier, standalone global entertainment company" aimed at competing with networks like Netflix and Disney+. As part of that process, it said that some parts of game publisher Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment would be sold off, although details about which parts would stay, and which would go, were not provided.
More recently, however, WBIE confirmed that two of the best-known studios in its stable, NetherRealm and TT Games, are not on the block. Following a report by the Xbox Two Podcast, which claimed to have seen documents indicating that both studios were no longer "in the scope" of Warner's future operations and were thus among the studios being dangled for potential buyers, a WBIE rep told TheGamer that it simply wasn't true.

A new Company of Heroes game might be revealed tomorrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/a-new-company-of-heroes-game-might-be-revealed-tomorrow/
Relic Entertainment, the studio responsible for Company of Heroes, is airing a countdown on its Twitch channel which seems to point to an imminent World War 2 themed announcement. At the time of writing the countdown will complete in 12 hours, which means you can expect something at 10am PST on July 13 (1pm ET, 6pm BST, or 3am on July 14 in Australia).

Shrek's house has been found on Hunt: Showdown's new map
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/shreks-house-has-been-found-on-hunt-showdowns-new-map/
Hunt: Showdown's spooky swamps are full of all manner of beasties. But none are so fearsome as the great green ogre that supposedly lives in the game's new DeSalle map.
The bayou royale's new map recently hit test servers, giving players the run of the place before its official release later this summer. But Redditor zzilla8 spotted an unexpected resident of DeSalle, posting that he'd found the shack of Dreamworks' big green mascot Shrek on the new map.

This retro horror demo has some of the best first-person platforming around
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-retro-horror-demo-has-some-of-the-best-first-person-platforming-around/
(...)
Lorn's Lure, from developer Rubeki, is a terrifying descent into a brutalist, bottomless pit. It's not strictly horror, but the infinite void you're descending feels impossibly foreboding, a sense only added to by the game's sparse, throwback aesthetics.

Atlus announces Persona has sold 15 million, offers merch hinting at Persona 6
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/atlus-announces-persona-has-sold-15-million-offers-merch-hinting-at-persona-6/
"It's starting!" says Atlus' announcement of a year-long Persona celebration, doing absolutely nothing to dampen down the heart-fires of weebs worldwide. The series developer will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first game in September 2021, and has announced it's working on seven new projects that will be announced separately until Autumn 2022. The event's website also has various bits of anniversary merchandise to offer and, rather charmingly, adds: "If you don't mind, please take this opportunity to purchase it!"

GTA 2-inspired cyberpunk action game Glitchpunk hits Early Access on August 11
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/gta-2-inspired-cyberpunk-action-game-glitchpunk-hits-early-access-on-august-11/
This top-down action game is inspired by Grand Theft Auto 2, the weirdest GTA. Set in a neon-lit dystopian city, it's a game about driving cars, brawling with gangs and cults, and causing chaos in the colourful urban sprawl of a dark, distant future. Today, publisher Daedalic revealed that the game would be hitting Steam Early Access on August 11—and it accompanied the announcement with a new trailer, which you can watch above.

Hell yeah, Nier: Automata's official Steam fix is finally dropping
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hell-yeah-nier-automatas-official-steam-fix-is-finally-dropping/
It's been a long four years, but the patch to fix Nier: Automata's janky Steam port is finally ready, with Square Enix dropping the update later this week.

Fifa 22 PC can only be installed and played on one machine

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/fifa-22-pc-can-only-be-installed-and-played-on-one-machine.1612961/

What an absolute joke of a company

[Rumour] Intel Core i9-12900K “Alder Lake-S” Qualification Sample allegedly offers 5.3 GHz turbo clock

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-core-i9-12900k-alder-lake-s-qualification-sample-allegedly-offers-5-3-ghz-turbo-clock

• Core i9-12900K (ES2): 9300+
• Core i9-12900K (QS calculated): 11300+
• Core i7-12700K (QS?): 9500+
• Core i5-12600K (QS?): 7400+

For comparison a 5950X scores around 10400 points. Now the only one that has been leaked is the ES2 and the rest are "calculated" based on that leak. So take it with a grain of salt. Still, impressive multicore scores if true.

AORUS FI32U 32-inch and the AORUS FO48U 48-inch 4K HDMI 2.1 to be available soon

https://videocardz.com/press-release/aorus-fi32u-32-inch-and-the-aorus-fo48u-48-inch-4k-hdmi-2-1-to-be-available-soon

Red Dead Redemption 2 DLSS Update is out

https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/6994682/

Remember, kids. Don't think about getting a new PC if you want to keep playing the masterpiece that Fifa 22 last gen is.

If only Konami hadn't screwed PES so bad...

Yeah some amazing stuff even on UE4. Can't wait for more devs to get to grips with UE5.

@HoloDust for sure. With mesh shaders and other tools/techniques the new generation of games will be a huge leap for sure. Also helps that game publishers won't have to worry about making games with craptastic Jaguar cores in mind too!

So Linus made a couple of interesting videos

Ryzen 5800H vs i7 11800H

The i7 wins slightly but sometimes up to 25% however 5800H is limited to 60 Watts peaking at 80 watts where as i7 can peak up to 100 watts with 80 watts average.

Now personally, the wattage doesn't matter very much when the laptop is plugged into the wall assuming the cooling system can handle it. But when on battery, it does matter. In their test, Ryzen laptop gave 31% edge in battery life over Intel i7.

So overall, for my laptop upgrade, I am leaning towards getting an Intel i7 + Nvidia GPU. The main reason is based on the laptop and the battery capacity, I have seem Intel laptops lasting up to 8 hours vs AMD lasting up to 10-11 hours. Considering the performance + PCI-E 4.0 SSD + 16 GPU lanes and Thunderbolt, the Intel ones seem to have a lot of advantages over AMD and realistically, I'll be near a plug most of the time. So while battery matters to me, I think Intel laptops gives too many advantages this generation.

The other interesting video was about Windows 11. They show you ways to bypass Windows checks and gives you quite a lot of other info.

And for the love of god, don't forget to UNPLUG the battery!. Last thing you want is to constantly overcharge the battery and short out it's lifespan. Trust me I've been there twice before. 

Lol that's true. Although most laptops these days come with software that can limit your battery charging capacity. For my Dell XPS 17 that I got last year around August, I have been using Dell Power Manager to limit it to 80% and the wear level has been excellent even though it has mostly been plugged in thanks to covid.

My Dell Inspiron 15 bypasses the battery when fully charged, so the battery isn't getting charged further once it hits full charge. Of course over time, it looses some charge, and when it drops below 90% it charges again until full.

At least something Dell can do right it seems...

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has a new sale and also a giveaway!

• The Giveaway involves Syberia and Syberia II, free during the next 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/syberia_i_ii
• The Midweek Sale brings up to 90% discounts until Saturday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210714_midweek_sale

Steam has two new daily deals and three Midweek Madness deals:

• The first daily deal is Session: Skateboarding Sim Game, still in Early Access, with a 25% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/861650/Session_Skateboarding_Sim_Game/
• The second one is Xuan-Yuan Sword VII, that has a demo abd ut's 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1249800/XuanYuan_Sword_VII/
• The first Midweek Madness deal is Evil Genius 2: World Domination, 25% off until Friday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/700600/Evil_Genius_2_World_Domination/
• The second one is DEATH STRANDING, 60% off until Friday 16: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1190460/DEATH_STRANDING/
• The last one is Maneater, 40% off until July 20: https://store.steampowered.com/app/629820/Maneater/

And Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is UNO Ultimate Edition, 59% off during the next 24 hours. Keep in mind that it's an Ubi game, so it's an UPlay key: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/uno-ultimate-edition
• And Degica has put its games on sale, up to 90% off during the next 8 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/degica

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New Bloodborne PS1 Demake video shows the Gascoigne Boss Fight
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-bloodborne-ps1-demake-showcases-the-gascoigne-boss-fight/
In March 2021, we informed you about a PS1 fan demake of Bloodborne that is currently under development. And yesterday, Lilith Walther released a new gameplay video for it, showcasing the Gascoigne Boss Fight.
As Walther said, the level has some new additions, like the clocktower and its bell tolling, and the green lighting which was common in the leaked Project Beast footage. It also feels a lot more retro compared to Bloodborne PS4’s pale blue/monochrome lighting.

Mafia modder spends 15 years filling the Titanic with mobsters
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/mafia-modder-spends-15-years-filling-the-titanic-with-mobsters/
Mafia: Definitive Edition put in a lot of work to update the ageing 2002 crime story. But what it didn't do, and what it perhaps should've done, was add a fully-realised model of the H.M.S. Titanic for Tommy Angelo to explore.
Spotted by Eurogamer earlier today, modder Robin Bongaarts has actually been working on-and-off on the mod since 2006. Starting with the humble goal of adding the ship as a 3D model to Mafia's world, the discovery of better modelling tools like Sketchup and Cinema4D compelled Bongaarts to model the Titanic in its entirety.
>> While not available yet, you can check its progress at ModDB.

GAMING NEWS

Company of Heroes 3 announced, first details, screenshots & gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/company-of-heroes-3-announced-first-details-screenshots-gameplay-trailer/
SEGA and Relic announced today the next part in their Company of Heroes series, Company of Heroes 3. In addition, the teams shares its first screenshots, as well as a gameplay trailer.

New Forza Horizon 5 gameplay video highlights some of the new car sounds
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-forza-horizon-5-gameplay-video-highlights-some-of-the-new-car-sounds/
Microsoft and Playground Games have released a new, short, gameplay video for Forza Horizon 5. According to the teams, this new gameplay video highlights some of its new car sounds.

Latest Rainbow Six Extraction gameplay trailer focuses on cross-play
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/latest-rainbow-six-extraction-gameplay-trailer-focuses-on-cross-play/
Ubisoft has released a new gameplay trailer for Rainbow Six Extraction that focuses on its cross-play features. According to the team, alongside cross-play between all different platforms, the game will also support cross-save and cross-progression.

Open beta phase launched for the F2P sci-fi themed multiplayer shooter, Splitgate
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/open-beta-phase-launched-for-the-f2p-sci-fi-themed-multiplayer-shooter-splitgate/
1047 Games has launched the open beta phase for its F2P sci-fi themed multiplayer shooter, Splitgate. In order to celebrate this launch, the team also released a new gameplay trailer that you can find below.

Ghostwire: Tokyo has been delayed until early 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ghostwire-tokyo-has-been-delayed-until-early-2022/
Tango Gameworks has announced that its next-gen action-adventure game, Ghostwire: Tokyo, has been delayed until early 2022. According to the team, this delay will give it extra time in order to further polish it.