I have one very much like the Eluteng M.2 that i got from Aliexpress for about £5. Which Sony used in their reference guide for installing so that's one I'd go for if you have a fast (and hot) NVMe like a SN850 or 980Pro

Yea that's a good idea. I might get one once enough ps5 games come out like GoW. I will say that the space issues isn't as bad as I thought it would be on the ps5 thanks to some of the games being surprisingly small.

Yeah, space is not that much as an issue that I thought it would be. Like I bought one because I though I'd be constantly deleting stuff with only 667GB of space available but game sizes are manageable - discounting any Call of Duty games xD Holding might be also a good idea, in case of bugs etc and beta testers giving information as to what drives work best.

As for performance from running games on an NVMe, Tom Warren from the Verge (posted on Era) who's tested it though he said it works well and no hitches thus far from playing Ratchet and Clank. Didn't specify which drive though https://www.resetera.com/threads/official-ps5-m-2-storage-expansion-coming-in-the-next-update-for-beta-users.463941/page-5#post-70390977

"We, the undersigned, have had enough," it says. "It has been over a year since the first revelations of systemic discrimination, harassment and bullying within Ubisoft came out. At the time, you acted surprised to hear of these acts going on within your own company and we gave you the benefit of the doubt. However, we have seen nothing more than a year of kind words, empty promises, and an inability or unwillingness to remove known offenders. We no longer trust your commitment to address these issues at their core. You need to do more."

I'm glad this is reenergizing Ubisoft employees to hold their own management accountable and not tolerate the damage control and enablement resulting from their own scandal.

I don't know if the article from DF mentions it, but at the one from WccfTech they do: "It has also been confirmed that the PlayStation 5 console does not support Host Memory Buffer, so SSDs that support it may see slower than expected performance." It may be worth checking which drives meet the speed and size limits, and also if they use HMB to achieve those numbers.

Ratchet & Clank would be cool, and it wouldn't be surprising if the latest one comes to PC. And well, wouldn't it be great to have some Jack & Daxter remakes? I know, I know, that's near impossible, but let me dream a bit.

My biggest problem with the series is that I played them late and, by then, other games did the same things but better.

I haven't played a God of War game since the last one for the PS2. It would be awesome to play them on PC.

It's obvious that Ubi didn't do enough. Hopefully, the employees can force them to actually make the necessary changes.

Gotta disagree with other games doing it better, I found the Tomb Raider trilogy kinda lackluster. The first was okay and the others didn't rate much. Its like a mish-mash of other games with unnecessary RPG lite elements that didn't add much to the experience as to pad the game out. The characters, pacing and story in UC games are in another league. Opinions and all that though lol.

The whole SSD thing on PS5 is a bit of a mess.

I think I will just hold off for a few years and keep shuffling between the internal SSD and mechanical hard drive... Same thing for my Series X, will wait for 4TB cards to drop before I upgrade.

SSD's are only going to get faster, cooler and have more capacity...

In saying that... I can't tell much difference between my current Samsung 980 Pro nvme drive verses the old Crucial BX500 SATA SSD in my old rig in day to day use, it's only when you are doing big copies on internal storage that you go "oh shit".

I guess we are still living in a world where software is designed with mechanical storage in mind though, 64GB of DDR4 3600Mhz Ram probably doesn't help either with Windows using a big % of that as caching.

AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT with 2048 cores and 8GB G6 memory officially launches on August 11th at 379 USD

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6600-xt-with-2048-cores-and-8gb-g6-memory-officially-launches-on-august-11th

"3060 competitor... $379 USD... AIBs Only"



Is AMD serious right now? That's 3060 Ti money! AIBs will jack it up even more! Can't even make a Vram argument this time around cause a 3060 has 12GB of Vram and a 3060 Ti has 8GB (same as 6600 XT) but with almost twice the memory bandwidth. And you know that Nvidia has DLSS + Superior Ray Tracing and other goodies. What a trash tier card.

Yeah, would like to see Jak & Daxter...to be honest, I don't care much for any Snotty Hog game they made after Jak 3. ;)

Friday news, part two:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The two new free games at the Epic Store are MOTHERGUNSHIP and Train Sim World 2. Next week, the free games will be "A Plague Tale: Innocence" and "Speed Brawl".

GOG is also giving away a game: Wanderlust: Transsiberian will be free to get during the next 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/wanderlust_transsiberian

Fanatical has three new sales:

• The new Star Deal is Of Orcs And Men. 93% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/of-orcs-and-men-plugin
• As a warm-up to their Summer Sale, there are going to be some flash sales during the weekend. Today there's 4 of them, that will last 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/flash-game-sale
• And there's also a new bundle: the BYO Super VR Bundle, with 17 games to choose your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-super-vr-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam Client Beta overhauls downloads page and storage management, looks great
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/steam-client-beta-overhauls-downloads-page-and-storage-management-looks-great/
Participants in the Steam Client beta program just got access to a fancy new downloads page, but Valve buried the lede a bit: the downloads section is undoubtedly improved, but the real boon is the new storage manager. This lets you see which drive games are installed on, and lets you easily move games between drives.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Modders are working on Half-Life 2 Remastered Collection with Valve’s approval
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/modders-are-working-on-half-life-2-remastered-collection-with-valves-approval/
It appears that a team of modders is currently working on Half-Life 2 Remastered Collection with Valve’s approval. According to SteamDB, the team responsible for this Remastered Collection is the same one that developed Half-Life 2: Update.
Now in case this rings any bells, it’s the same remaster we mentioned back in 2020. However, it appears that its scope has been expanded. This mod will now cover the main game, as well as Episode One and Episode Two. However, it will NOT feature any of the upcoming fan games/mods for Half-Life 2: Episode Three. So, don’t expect to be playing Project Borealis or Boreal Alyph.

Look at all these games currently being made in Doom
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/look-at-all-these-games-currently-being-made-in-doom/
Doom: You can play it on a toaster. You can also play other games made of it. Sixty of them, at current count, according to Dominic Tarason, who rounded up all the standalone indie games made using variants of the Doom engine in the spreadsheet Descendents of Doom (disclosure: Dominic writes for PC Gamer on occasion).

GTA modders pull their own 14-year-old-project over takedown fears
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/gta-modders-pull-their-own-14-year-old-project-over-takedown-fears/
Grand Theft Auto modders have pulled a 14-year-old mod for San Andreas thanks to worries of a Take-Two takedown.
The GTA United mod has been around since 2007, originally starting as two separate projects. One worked on converting Vice City's map for use in San Andreas, while the other was working on bringing Grand Theft Auto 3's Liberty City map over. GTA United then married the two in one mega-project, with a major update following in 2012 (thanks, Eurogamer).
The project has been quietly existing for well over a decade, but a recent wave of Take-Two taking down even the oldest of GTA mods has prompted its makers to pre-emptively take it down themselves. A post titled "Final Chapter" went up on the GTA United website last weekend, explaining the reasons behind the decision.

Skyrim mod lets you pay your respects to fallen friends and enemies
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/skyrim-mod-lets-you-pay-your-respects-to-fallen-friends-and-enemies/
Corpses in Skyrim can be an awkward thing. They hang around for a while, and some of them don't disappear at all. Sure, you can do the old fast-travel-and-wait trick, but it's not very polite. Of all the death rituals across all cultures, 'wait for the body to despawn from the worldstate' isn't one of the more involved ones. Which is perhaps why someone has made a Pay Your Respects for Skyrim, to let you bury and say goodbye to the fallen.
On burying your pal—or murder victim—you can choose to create a grave for them, showing their name, the date of the burial, and an engraving. "You can choose to have a preset engraving, but you can also write your own," notes the mod description. I'm sure I'm not the only person thinking of those go-to joke tombstones: "I told you I was sick."
A word of caution, however: Burying an NPC with the mod disables them entirely, so if you plan to resurrect them, or if they aren't supposed to be disabled, you may end up encountering some issues. Perhaps zombies. I hope for zombies.

GAMING NEWS

Escape from Naraka is the first game using NVIDIA DLSS Ultra Quality Mode [UPDATE]
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/escape-from-naraka-is-the-first-game-using-nvidia-ultra-quality-mode/
Headup Games has just released Escape from Naraka on PC. Escape from Naraka takes advantage of both Ray Tracing and DLSS, and it’s the first game that supports NVIDIA’s DLSS Ultra Quality Mode.
UPDATE: XeloGames included the DLSS Ultra Quality Mode which – at the moment – is not available to anyone. The developer issued an update via which it removed it.
>> And here are some benchmarks and comparisons.

You can now play Marvel’s Avengers for free until August 1st
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/you-can-now-play-marvels-avengers-for-free-until-august-1st/
Square Enix has announced that Marvel’s Avengers can be played for free this weekend. From today and until August 1st, PC gamers can download and play it.
>> It's also 40% off.

Stray has been delayed until early 2022, gets new gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/stray-has-been-delayed-until-early-2022-gets-new-gameplay-trailer/
After Ghostwire: Tokyo, Resident Evil Re:Verse, Warhammer 40K: Darktide, Rainbow Six Extraction, Riders Republic, Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Crimson Desert, here is another game delay. Annapurna has just announced that Stray has been delayed until early 2022.
>> That paragraph felt like rubbing salt to a wound.

Nintendo Switch exclusive Mononoke Slashdown is coming to PC in August 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nintendo-switch-exclusive-mononoke-slashdown-is-coming-to-pc-in-august-2021/
Flyhigh Works has announced that the Nintendo Switch exclusive Mononoke Slashdown will be coming to PC next month. Mononoke Slashdown is a 2D scrolling action game in which you control Kagemaru the ninja.

Achilles: Legends Untold is a new isometric souls-like action RPG, inspired by old-school hack&slash games
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/achilles-legends-untold-is-a-new-isometric-souls-like-action-rpg-inspired-by-old-school-hackslash-games/
Dark Point Games has announced a new isometric souls-like action RPG, Achilles: Legends Untold. The game is also inspired by the old-school hack&slash games, such as Titan Quest.

The Dark World: KARMA is a new story-driven horror game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-dark-world-karma-is-a-new-story-driven-horror-game/
Gamera Game has announced a new story-driven horror game, The Dark World: KARMA. In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher released the game’s first in-game trailer that you can find below.