Probably would unironically have better thermals than their Strix cards

Maybe lol. Thinking these will be quite expensive, though maybe worth it for those who care for acoustics. But yeah I'm surprised its taken GPU manufacturers this long to look into co-developing with fan companies like Noctua. Since double and triple fans are so common now on high end and even mid range cards. These should at least make for great quiet(er) cards for silent builds. At least one should hope!

Not too sure about that colour though haha.

Where was this 10 years ago when I built a Military themed PC?

Noctua make the best fans on the market... And they are hesitant to change their aesthetics as it's easily brand-identifiable.

Part of the reason why I went Corsair Mag-Lev Pro white this time around...

What's more surprising is that Noctua haven't latched onto the RGB craze.

Meh... I don't like the brown color.

The shit was hitting the fans.

@Pemalite True.. those colours are instantly recognisable as 'Noctua's' and if they used those regular black, it would just look like a run-of-the-mill fan/cooler. Yeah, though RGB does nothing for performance they would make a killing in sales if they should release RGB ones since that's what people want now.

All I want, is for Capcom to take this into account (not as some afterthought, because this is often what it feels like each time I hear any company say something positive about PC sales), and well, stop treating PC as a second layer and more of the same layer as consoles, as in no more delays, settings for PC versions being tuned at launch (seriously Resi 2-3 still had that volumetric light issue with the "demand" and the hair problem) and no DRM crap holding back performance. 

Capcom aren't the first Japanese company to talk positive about PC sales, but still treat it as a second piggy bank to pilfer from. I really want them to improve on their PC ports more so than others (especially to show up SE, because SE has been pretty shit imo the past 508 yrs with their PC ports). 

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

A Plague Tale: Innocence and Speed Brawl are free on Epic Games Store this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/a-plague-tale-innocence-and-speed-brawl-are-free-on-epic-games-store-this-week/
Today, Epic is switching up its offering of free games, and lets you grab A Plague Tale: Innocence and Speed Brawl for free. This is a great time to grab A Plague Tale especially, since the sequel was announced at this year's E3. Plague Tale tells the story of siblings Amicia and Hugo, who find themselves hunted by the Inquisition in 14th century France. The game portrays the horrors of that time rather thoughtfully, from war to, well, the Plague, and the siblings have to face plenty of horrors on their journey.
(...)
Speed Brawl is a side scrolling brawler/racer hybrid with some seriously slick animations. In each course, you're supposed to reach the goal as fast as possible, but waves of enemies are trying to get in your way, naturally. I like the cartoon-y art style and there are many characters to meet—it even tells its story with visual novel-style conversation bits and comic book panel cutscenes. Definitely worth a look.
>> Since the article comes a day earlier than usual, we still don't know which game(s) will be given next week.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition sales exceeded EA’s expectations
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/mass-effect-legendary-edition-sales-exceeded-eas-expectations/
Mass Effect Legendary Edition remasters the first three Mass Effect games and came out in May. And, according to EA, its sales exceeded its expectations.
As EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson said during the company’s latest conference call.
“The launch of Mass Effect Legendary Edition – the remaster of the first three Mass Effect games – reignited the passion of fans around the world, driving sales performance well above our expectations.”
This is definitely good news as Mass Effect Legendary Edition only features single-player games. Not only that, but it does not have any micro-transactions. So, let’s hope that EA will get it this time, and start investing more in single-player games.
>> I doubt they'll get it.

GOG gets a new release and also a sale with extra steps:

• The game Haven Park launches on the store with a 15% discount until August 12: https://www.gog.com/game/haven_park
• Also, the store is giving a 85% redeem discount to purchase Hitman games during the next 72 hours. Check it out by yourselves.

There's a new Humble Bundle: the Remarkable Roguelikes Bundle, featuring 7 games to get during the next 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/remarkable-roguelikes.

Fanatical has launched the Platinum Collection BYOB for August, with 20 games to build your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Skyrim third-person mod looks dope
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-skyrim-third-person-mod-looks-dope/
One of the truisms about Bethesda games, and I love them for it, is that they look hilariously bad in third-person. The default first-person perspective? You can almost hear the deep voiceover booming "epic fantasy adventure!" Stick it in third person, and almost immediately the voice transforms into yakety sax music as your avatar stiffly bumbles o'er the landscape.
There are already, of course, a ton of Skyrim mods that make various tweaks to the third-person view (here's the best of the best Skyrim: SE mods). The big deal with the True Directional Movement mod (first clocked by Eurogamer) is not just that it allows full 360° movement, though this is the core feature. It's ended up layering a bunch of other additions on top to make it feel like a more contemporary third person action game: such as, for example, a target lock which can also be used for aiming projectiles.
>> You can find it at Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

New PC demo released for F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-pc-demo-released-for-f-i-s-t-forged-in-shadow-torch/
TiGames and bilibili have released a new PC demo for F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch on Steam. This new demo showcases the game’s early stages, and will be available until August 10th.
>> Available from here.

Here are six minutes of gameplay from Tom Clancy’s XDefiant
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-six-minutes-of-gameplay-from-tom-clancys-xdefiant/
The closed beta phase for Tom Clancy’s XDefiant is currently underway and IGN has shared a video, showing six minutes of gameplay footage from it.

Aliens Fireteam Elite Day-One Update will add Horde Mode, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/aliens-fireteam-elite-day-one-update-will-add-horde-mode-full-patch-notes/
Aliens Fireteam Elite releases on August 24th and Cold Iron Studios has detailed its day-1 update. According to the team, this first patch will a Horde Mode to the game.

Thursday news, part two:

A huge FPS documentary is in the works, featuring key figures from the genre's history
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/a-huge-fps-documentary-is-in-the-works-featuring-most-key-figures-from-the-genres-history/
Just last week, an independent production company called Creator VC successfully raised the funds for the "definitive FPS documentary". Simply called "FPS—First Person Shooter", this documentary wants to be nothing less than the "ultimate celebration of the FPS genre". Once finished, it's supposed to be at least three hours long, and tells the story of the genre from the 1970s to now.

'90s Amiga mascot Zool is being exhumed for reasons unknown
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/90s-amiga-mascot-zool-is-being-exhumed-for-reasons-unknown/
(...)
Sumo Digital has now announced Zool Redimensioned will be released soon, a project from its Sumo Academy, and it's kind of half a remake and half not. It says it's been "rebuilt from the ground up for modern audiences" but from the trailer this looks like the same game in HD. I do admire how it optimistically tries to turn the worst element of Zool, the ridiculous difficulty, into a selling point though: "Zool's old school platforming action will challenge the most hardcore gamers!" I mean yeah, it will. Then you'll play something else instead.

Less than one month before launch, New World is delayed again
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/less-than-one-month-before-launch-new-world-is-delayed-again/
Less than one month before it was set to go live, the fantasy MMO New World has been delayed yet again. Amazon announced today that based on feedback received during the recent closed beta, it has decided to take a little more time to tighten things up, and push the launch back until the end of September.

Destiny 2 assistant director reassures PvP players that they have not been abandoned
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/destiny-2-assistant-director-reassures-pvp-players-that-they-have-not-been-abandoned/
Destiny 2's Witch Queen expansion will be revealed to the world on August 24, but ahead of that assistant game director Joe Blackburn shared some thoughts on the game's PvP mode in a lengthy thread on Twitter. Blackburn said the team has put a lot of work into "plussing up the current Crucible experience," and promised that changes will continue in next season, including in a revamp of the Trials of Osiris mode.

Defensive Activision Blizzard executive deletes her Twitter account
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/defensive-activision-blizzard-executive-deletes-her-twitter-account/
Activision Blizzard chief compliance officer Frances Townsend, who earned the ire of Activision employees and fans with her defensive response to a lawsuit alleging widespread sexual harassment and a "frat boy" culture at the company, has deleted her Twitter account. Townsend pulled the plug after retweeting last week an Atlantic article on "the problem with whistleblowing," which sparked an immediate and furious backlash.
>> What she should do is leave, not delete the proof of her stupidity.

Use your texting skills to catch a serial killer in this detective game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/use-your-texting-skills-to-catch-a-serial-killer-in-this-detective-game/
(...)
Nothing to Remember is an interactive fiction game that gives off a bit of the same vibe as Her Story. But instead of typing search terms into a fragmented database, you're texting to solve the mystery. Several mysteries, in fact, as there's both a cold case to investigate and a fresh murder to solve. Luckily, there are plenty of suspects, too.

PUBG teams up with hugely popular K-pop group Blackpink
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/pubg-teams-up-with-hugely-popular-k-pop-group-blackpink/
Blackpink is a humongously popular K-pop group best known for songs like 'Kill This Love' (over 1,300,000,000 views on YouTube) and 'How You Like That' (over 900,000,000 views). PUBG is a gritty battle royale shooter that has recently retitled to the inexplicable PUBG: Battlegrounds. You see where I'm going here: Blackpink and PUBG are together at last.

Allegations of 'toxic culture' at acclaimed indie studio Fullbright
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/allegations-of-toxic-culture-at-acclaimed-indie-studio-fullbright/
Steve Gaynor, co-founder of Fullbright, is no longer creative lead or manager on its current project, Open Roads, though he remains involved as a writer. A report published by Polygon claims that Gaynor was a "controlling" and "demeaning presence" who saw himself as embodying the studio, and who ultimately drove away multiple employees—especially women.

EA doesn’t get enough credit for how it handles acquisitions, apparently
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ea-doesnt-get-enough-credit-for-how-it-handles-acquisitions-apparently/
EA CFO Blake Jorgensen reckons the publisher should get more credit for how it handles its studio acquisitions, in a line that's likely to send chills down the spine of anyone still reeling over the loss of countless studios axed by the company.
>>**Double facepalm**

Don't count on Supergiant making a direct Hades follow-up
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dont-count-on-supergiant-making-a-direct-hades-follow-up/
I'm not sure who expected a Hades sequel from developer Supergiant anytime soon. But while studio co-founder and designer Greg Kasavin hasn't written off the idea entirely, it's probably not worth making plans for a future trip into the Greek underworld.

Here's when you can watch Gamescom's Opening Night Live
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/heres-when-you-can-watch-gamescoms-opening-night-live/
We've known for a while that Gamescom would once again be an all digital event. But, as with 2020, that won't stop Geoff Keighley from holding his Opening Night Live. The live 2 hour-long show of upcoming games will take place on Wednesday, August 25 at 11 AM PT / 7 pm BST.

Duke Nukem studio 3D Realms and eight other studios just got bought up
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/duke-nukem-studio-3d-realms-and-eight-other-studios-just-got-bought-up/
Embracer Group, formerly known as THQ Nordic AB and parent to companies such as THQ Nordic GmbH, Gearbox, and Koch Media, has announced its acquisition of eight more studios for a total sum of SEK 2.7 billion ($313 million USD). The likely most well-known acquisition out of the lot is Danish developer 3D Realms, makers of the Duke Nukem franchise, for an undisclosed sum.

AMD Ryzen 5000G Desktop APUs Now Available For Purchase, 8 Core Ryzen 7 5700G For $359 US & 6 Core Ryzen 5 5600G For $259 US

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-5000g-desktop-apus-now-available-8-core-ryzen-7-5700g-for-359-us-6-core-ryzen-5-5600g-for-259-us/

Realistically, because of how AMD gimps these CPUs, most people shouldn't be getting these. An i5 11400 costs $182 and is faster in CPU gaming performance against the 5600G. Same goes for the i7 vs 5700g. And Intel has the benefit of giving you pci-e gen 4 instead of gen 3. The only reason to get these is if you don't have a GPU budget as the GPUs on both of these APUs are much faster than the Intel version. Or if you plan on one day upgrading the CPU to a proper Zen 3 CPU. But if you plan on one day getting a good GPU and have no plans to upgrade the CPU, it's better to stick with Intel.

Mysterious AMD Radeon RX GPU Based on Navi 21 & 8 GB GDDR6 Memory Spotted

https://wccftech.com/mysterious-amd-radeon-rx-gpu-based-on-navi-21-8-gb-gddr6-memory-spotted/


U.K. Considers Blocking Nvidia Takeover of Arm Over Security

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-k-considers-blocking-nvidia-154848795.html

Hopefully they do as this take over would have huge precautions for the industry

DF Direct Special: Halo Infinite Technical Preview Tested on Xbox Series X|S, PC, Xbox One X|S

Looks like the PC version is pretty Janky at the moment with the frame rate and frame time. Hopefully they will get it sorted out before the game launches. Least the online is free to play so you don't have to commit to buying the game.

Sony states PC release of Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone has been successful

Yea pretty much. It's pretty nonsense how long it took for Capcom to fix the PC version of RE Village. Like DF of all people even went on a rant about this which is something they rarely do as they are more kind on devs. But if people keep buying em, Capcom won't care. Least there's a lot of ways to get discounts on new releases on PC though through sites like cdkeys.