Yea, especially as 4k 144hz monitors are finally coming down in price as you can get a pretty good one for $600... Once the stock issues go away that is... I think next year might be the year where 4k monitors will finally be affordable while having good quality screens and etc. And with the performance jumps coming from Nvidia and AMD GPUs... Maybe even the mid range can hop into the 4k bandwagon!

I doubt mid range cards will be able to handle 4K even with the performance gains we hope we'll get. After all, game demands will also start climbing once games designed for PS5/XsX start releasing.

But well, there's DLSS and FSR to help with that, right?

Yea that's true. The question is gonna be the price. If we get big performance gains for a similar price, that would be great. But if we get another price hike, that will be lame.

Syberia 1 + 2 are free right now on GOG to celebrate bastille day.

Resident Evil Village PC DRM: Cracked Code Really Does Run Better - Confirmed

Personally speaking, I did play through those areas and I haven't noticed anything that terrible on my setup. But that in itself is a problem with DRM as in some PCs, it's fine while others, you get shat on like that. Should be removed either way, especially as the game has been cracked.

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has two new deals:

• Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is 75% off until July 20: https://store.steampowered.com/app/418460/Rising_Storm_2_Vietnam/
• And Moving Out, that has a demo, will be 60% off until July 21: https://store.steampowered.com/app/996770/Moving_Out/

There are two new deals at Humble:

• There's a new Humble Bundle, the Humble Take Control Bundle, with up to 8 games to get during the next 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/take-control
• And at the Humble Store the For Honor franchise is on sale, up to 85% off during the next 4 days. Needless to say, the keys are for UPlay: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/for-honor-flash-sale/

And at Fanatical we find a new Star Deal and a new Sale:

• The new Star Deal is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands Year 2 Gold Edition, 80% off during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-wildlands-year-2-gold-edition
• And the new Fanatical About Gaming Sale brings lots of discounts from publishers like Bethesda, Square Enix, 2K, THQ Nordic and more. Check them out!

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Also Empty-

GAMING NEWS

NBA 2K22 will be old-gen on PC, won’t support cross-play
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nba-2k22-will-be-old-gen-on-pc-wont-support-cross-play/
Similarly to NBA 2K21, the PC version of NBA 2K22 will be based on its old-gen build. What this means is that the game will – more or less – look and play the same as last year’s offering. Moreover, NBA 2K22 will not support cross-play between different platforms.
>> Will they be surprised if this version sells worse than the previous one?

Here are 9 minutes of gameplay footage from the Dark Souls inspired game, Bleak Faith: Forsaken
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-9-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-the-dark-souls-inspired-game-bleak-faith-forsaken/
Archangel Studios has released a new video for their Dark Souls inspired game, Bleak Faith: Forsaken. This video shows 9 minutes of gameplay footage from its demo that will soon be available to its backers.

Doom Eternal Update 6.1 released, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/doom-eternal-update-6-1-released-full-patch-notes-revealed/
id Software has released a new patch for Doom Eternal. According to the release notes, Update 6.1 fixes a number of bugs and crashes on PC. Moreover, it comes with some BATTLEMODE fixes.

Resident Evil Re:Verse has been delayed until 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/resident-evil-reverse-has-been-delayed-until-2022/
Capcom has just announced that Resident Evil Re:Verse will not be coming out in July 2021. Instead, this delayed multiplayer mode for Resident Evil Village will release in 2022.

The news, the sequel:

Battlefield 2042's 'server-filling' AI soldiers won't be optional
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/battlefield-2042-AI-soldiers-optional/
Battlefield 2042 won't include a singleplayer campaign, but you'll still be able to play it by yourself, because DICE is including AI bots this time. Aside from making solo play possible, the bots will "backfill" the 128-player servers, and you won't be able to opt out of encountering them, EA said today. The publisher told The Verge something similar last month.

Battlefield 2042 will have crossplay between PC and consoles
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/battlefield-2042-crossplay/
EA says that DICE is "looking to build and test" crossplay for Battlefield 2042. That makes it sound like crossplay is a maybe, at best, but EA also says that PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S crossplay will be tested during the invite-only Battlefield 2042 technical alpha this summer. It's hard to test something you haven't built, and it's summer right now, so clearly DICE is doing more than "looking" at the idea. I'd go so far as to say that Battlefield 2042 will have crossplay, and EA is just giving itself room to delay the feature if needed.

Anyone can call in a robot dog, and other new Battlefield 2042 details
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/battlefield-2042-ranger-details/
After reading the coverage and comments about its Battlefield 2042 reveal, EA has published a new blog post clarifying misconceptions it's identified and answering a handful of frequently asked questions ahead of EA Play Live next week.

The source code for famed arcade bastard Defender has been posted to Github
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-source-code-for-famed-arcade-bastard-defender-has-been-posted-to-github/
Defender is an arcade classic and one of the most successful titles from what is now called the golden age of the arcades. Released in 1980, it was the first videogame co-designed by Eugene Jarvis and he was one of a team of four coders that developed it for the pinball company Williams (following the success of Space Invaders, it wanted to get into the arcade market).
>> Here it is.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl may be the Smash Bros. killer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/nickelodeon-all-star-brawl-may-be-the-smash-bros-killer/
(...)
Developed by Ludosity and Fair Play Labs, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is the Smash Bros. concept with Nickelodeon characters. As you'll see from the trailer above, it's not trying to hide that, and knows its greatest strength is in the huge roster of characters it can draw from. The trailer shows SpongeBob SquarePants, two of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as characters from Hey Arnold!, Invader Zim, Danny Phantom, The Loud House, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Rugrats, and more.
>> Ha! They wish.

Red Dead Online's latest expansion will once again make you wish it was singleplayer DLC
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/red-dead-onlines-latest-expansion-will-once-again-make-you-wish-it-was-singleplayer-dlc/
"Experience civilized crime in Frontier America!" Yes! "Robberies, shakedowns, and more new lawless activities!" YES! "In Red Dead Online: Blood Money!" Dagnabbit it.
OK, I'm being a little harsh. Blood Money is a fairly major (and free) update to Red Dead Online that's now live, and adds a bunch of new story missions to the multiplayer component of the game. Players work for the NPC Guido Martelli to amass a currency called Capitale in robberies, shakedowns and increasingly tough crime contracts that lead to 'Opportunities'—the expansion's showpiece events.

World War 3, the 'more hardcore Battlefield,' comes back from the dead
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/world-war-3-the-more-hardcore-battlefield-comes-back-from-the-dead/
We said in late 2018 that World War 3, a multiplayer modern military shooter being developed by The Farm 51, is "a more hardcore Battlefield." (...)
Development proceeded apace for a while, with new content and free weekends to attract new players and keep them around, until June 2020 (...)
But it turns out that work has in fact been continuing on World War 3, and today the studio dropped a new video—the first in more than a year—showcasing all that's changed.

Priest and Druid get the shaft in the latest round of Hearthstone nerfs
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/priest-and-druid-get-the-shaft-in-the-latest-round-of-hearthstone-nerfs/
In our recent interview with the Hearthstone dev team, the topic of what to do about the game's turbulent Priest class came up. "We want to make sure that the people playing against [Priest] aren't tearing their hair out," senior game designer Liv Breeden told us, and so it is that a new Hearthstone patch is set to arrive tomorrow, bringing with it a new round of nerfs for the Priest.

Hit the open road with your friends in American Truck Simulator's new 'Convoy' mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hit-the-open-road-with-your-friends-in-american-truck-simulators-new-convoy-mode/
Back in May, SCS Software announced that Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator would be getting official multiplayer support in the form of Convoy Mode, enabling up to eight players to hit shared virtual roads. After a couple months of "experimental'' open beta, it's finally time to take your place in that big ol' online convoy: The multiplayer update is now live.

The Ramp makes faceplanting down a wooden cliff look utterly serene
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-ramp-makes-faceplanting-down-a-wooden-cliff-look-utterly-serene/
Dropping into even a small quarterpipe in real life is enough to give me the fear. Which is why it's miraculous that The Ramp developer Paul Schnepf has somehow managed to make faceplanting down a sheer wooden cliff look utterly serene.

Call of Duty Black Ops and Warzone's huge season four is live and here's everything in it
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/call-of-duty-black-ops-and-warzones-huge-season-four-is-live-and-heres-everything-in-it/
Today sees the launch of 'Season Four reloaded' in both Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone, and it brings a boatload of new content, modes and weapons across the games. There's a new Zombies experience Mauer Der Toten, a new objective mode in Warzone, a classic map returning and new modes in Blops multiplayer, and more.

Specifications of Intel Core i9-12900K, i7-12700K and i5-12600K Alder Lake CPUs leak out

https://videocardz.com/newz/specifications-of-intel-core-i9-12900k-i7-12700k-and-i5-12600k-alder-lake-cpus-leak-out

While better than Rocket Lake in terms of PL2 wattage which was 250W... It's still quite high compared Zen 3.  Still as Zen 4 is supposed to be upping the wattage as well and the next gen GPUs are rumored to require even more power, don't let go of your high wattage PSUs just yet!

Intel 10nm Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 Workstation CPUs Leak Out, Up To 38 Cores To Tackle AMD Threadripper Pro

https://wccftech.com/intel-10nm-ice-lake-xeon-w-workstation-cpus-leak-up-to-38-cores-tackle-amd-threadripper-pro/

If you wanted to see a DoA product... Well here it is!

Lenovo laptops silently stripped of H.264 encoder in BIOS updates in Germany

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-laptops-silently-stripped-of-important-feature-in-BIOS-updates.550673.0.html

"The lack of this encoder causes numerous issues on user's devices, such as Shadowplay crashing, OBS failing to record/stream, and even the Oculus Quest 2 failing to stream video from the laptop to the headset over USB. This also makes many major use cases for high-power gaming hardware (streaming, video editing, or just recording your screen) difficult to do on these laptops. "

"The issue only seems to affect Lenovo gaming laptops sold in Germany, potentially due to a legal battle between Nokia and Lenovo that had been ongoing for some time"

Between Alienware's missing Cuda Cores and now this with Lenovo, it keeps getting harder to trust these laptop companies! Of course, you can always flash an older BIOS in to re-enable the feature.

Sometimes Dell Actually Tries: Dell RTX 3090 Review, Tear-Down, & Benchmarks

Dell made a 3090 that have certain elements which perform better like 4 slot AIB coolers?

Confirmed MUX. Alienware M15 R5/6 and Dell G15 got mux through latest bios update.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/oiuo0p/confirmed_mux_alienware_m15_r56_and_dell_g15_got/

Not sure why this wasn't enabled from the gecko but it should give a nice 10 fps boost to Dell G15 and Alienware M15 R5/6 owners with the 1080p screen that's not supposed to have this

Ummm....

Steam Deck is coming December 2021

Quad Core Zen 2 + RDNA 2 at 1.6TF with a screen resolution of 800p is actually a very good pairing! Looks like it is running Linux out of the box but I am sure you can install Windows on it. The prices are surprisingly good as most PC handhelds are like $800+ for specs that have Vega GPUs.

There's also a dock!

But it's sold separately

I am very interested bois!