If you want older Ghost Recon games, GOG is the place to go.

Nice. This is great to see from Valve. Was going to wait for people to open it up and see to upgrade storage but an official step by step guide is really helpful and appreciated.

Also great that the thumb sticks are quite easily replaceable, which is quite frankly, awesome.

Sadly only the first one is on GOG, and I already own it - just haven't got around to playing it.

Oh... My bad. I did a search and several games from the franchise appeared, but it looks like thy're only there because some of th friends I have there have them in their libraries, proobably from the Xbox Live service.

I guess we're even now.

Ahh looks like this was posted already nvm.

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has three new deals:

• The first daily deal is Overcrowd: A Commute 'Em Up, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/726110/Overcrowd_A_Commute_Em_Up/
• The second daily deal is Northgard, 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/466560/Northgard/
• And the last new deal is a new Midweek Madness, Control Ultimate Edition, that will be 60% off until October 8 so... yeah, it's like a third daily deal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control_Ultimate_Edition/

Fanatical has a new bundle: the BYO Fall Bundle, with 19 games to choose your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-fall-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This mod adds The Witcher 3’s Geralt, Ciri, Triss & Yennefer to Valheim
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-mod-adds-the-witcher-3s-geralt-ciri-triss-yennefer-to-valheim/
SiennaMisa has released a pretty cool mod for Valheim that adds to it the main characters from The Witcher 3. What this means is that you can now play as Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer or Triss.
In order to play as one of them, you can create a new character called Geralt, Ciri, Triss or Yennefer to gain their appearance. Alternatively, you can rename the vrm file of the character you want to change your existing character’s appearance.
You can download this mod from here. Do note that it also requires Valheim VRM, otherwise it won’t work. Moreover, the characters will always keep their original outfits no matter what armour you have equipped.

GAMING NEWS

PlatinumGames plans to significantly improve the graphics of BABYLON’S FALL
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/platinumgames-plans-to-significantly-improve-the-graphics-of-babylons-fall/
In June 2021, Square Enix released the E3 2021 trailer for BABYLON’S FALL. That trailer featured underwhelming graphics, something that obviously disappointed a lot of PlatinumGames’ fans. Thankfully, though, the dev team is currently working on improving the game’s graphics.

Taxi Chaos is an arcade game inspired by Crazy Taxi, coming to PC on October 19th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/taxi-chaos-is-an-arcade-game-inspired-by-crazy-taxi-coming-to-pc-on-october-19th/
Lion Castle and Team6 Game Studios have announced that their cab driving game, Taxi Chaos, will release on PC on October 19th. In this game, players will get behind the wheel and experience a brand-new taxi experience.
>> They say inspired because total rip-off isn't polite.

Star Citizen’s CitizenCon 2951 airs on October 9th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-citizens-citizencon-2951-airs-on-october-9th/
Cloud Imperium has announced that CitizenCon 2951 will air on October 9th. CitizenCon is the number one destination for Star Citizen fans to connect with CIG developers as well as fellow players for engaging discussions, exciting reveals, and a first-look at what’s in store for the most ambitious and transparent game development project in history.

The news, part two:

Old School Runescape's first new mode in years is a hardcore co-op odyssey
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/old-school-runescapes-first-new-mode-in-years-is-a-hardcore-co-op-odyssey/
Introduced in 2014, Ironman mode let Old School Runescape players test their luck with an entirely self-sufficient challenge. Now, the throwback MMO will let you share that load with a full party, letting you and your friends taking on the world together without any help from outsiders.

New World remains offline as 'technical difficulties' force extended downtime
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/new-world-remains-offline-as-technical-difficulties-force-extended-downtime/
Amazon's MMO New World is a major hit, but it's also had some struggles since it went live last week. Long server queues have been the biggest issue, but it hit another bump in the road today with some unspecified "technical difficulties" that have forced multiple extensions to downtime for maintenance.

After 8 years, Rust is getting a mission system
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/after-8-years-rust-is-getting-a-mission-system/
Open world survival sandbox Rust is getting a bit of structure in its October update. In the new patch, which goes live Thursday, players will be able to visit NPCs and accept missions, complete them, and turn them in for rewards.

'Evolved Apes' NFT creator Evil Ape disappears with $2.7M
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/evolved-apes-nft-creator-evil-ape-disappears-with-dollar27m/
Evolved Apes is a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs available for purchase on the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Each of them was also meant to be a character in an Evolved Apes fighting game, in which NFT owners would pit their apes against one another in battles for Ethereum cryptocurrency rewards (just as ancient hominoids did thousands of years ago, as I understand).
But it's all gone disastrously off the rails: According to a Vice report, one week after Evolved Apes went live, the head of the project vanished, taking 798 Ether—worth roughly $2.7 million—with them.

Massive Hunt: Showdown update to add a powerful revolver, rifle variants, and a new way to heal
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hunt-showdown-update-162/
Hunt: Showdown's new 1.6.2 update, currently playable on the game's test server, will add a powerful new revolver, new variants for the Vetterli 71 Karabiner rifle, and a new health regeneration consumable that can automatically patch you up during a firefight.

This Fortnite skin combines Cuddle Team Leader and Tomato Head into an unholy abomination
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/curdle-scream-leader/
Fortnitemares 2021 has already added a handful of spooky new skins to buy, but the Curdle Scream Leader might be the one that takes the cake. Combining the original pink Cuddle Team Leader skin and the Tomatohead skin, it's a Frankensteinian abomination to science and religion.

This year's Team Fortress 2 Halloween event features a real cursed Scout cosmetic
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-years-team-fortress-2-halloween-event-features-a-real-cursed-scout-cosmetic/
Valve continues running annual Halloween events in Team Fortress 2, with the latest edition, Scream Fortress 13, now live. As has been the trend with Scream Fortress for a while now, the focus is on community-created content, adding six maps, five taunts, 13 war paints, 28 unusual effects, and 20 cosmetics, all made by members of the Team Fortress 2 community.

Next Baldur's Gate 3 patch is its biggest yet, adds 'equippable salami'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/next-baldurs-gate-3-patch-is-its-biggest-yet-adds-equippable-salami/
Baldur's Gate 3 development continues, and Larian has announced that patch 6 will be its "biggest ever". It'll be a download of approximately 60GB, though of course some of that will overwrite original files so don't expect the install size to jump up that much.

Deathloop has at least one undiscovered secret left, says level designer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/deathloop-has-at-least-one-undiscovered-secret-left-says-level-designer/
There's a lot you can miss in Deathloop. It's spread across four regions, each with four time periods, and given the reactivity between these regions and time periods, it's possible to complete a playthrough without discovering heaps of stuff. It's been nearly a month since Arkane's latest release though, and it's fair to say that the internet's collective efforts have probably uncovered everything. Right?

World of Warships gets spooky in time for Halloween
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/world-of-warships-gets-spooky-in-time-for-halloween/
It’s the time of the year that candy-hungry children and aging goths look forward to: Halloween. Along with chocolate and ghost tours comes the traditional World of Warships update, bringing spooky new game modes—and some old faves—along with it.

Randy Pitchford is leaving Gearbox games to focus on Gearbox movies, is still head of Gearbox overall
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/randy-pitchford-is-leaving-gearbox-games-to-focus-on-gearbox-movies-is-still-head-of-gearbox-overall/
Gearbox president and CEO Randy Pitchford is stepping back from games to focus on the company's broader efforts to break into film and TV, as president of the publisher's new Gearbox Studios subsidiary.
>> I could almost hear the breath of relief of some of you after finding about this news.

FIFA might not be FIFA next year, says EA
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/fifa-might-not-be-fifa-next-year-says-ea/
FIFA might be synonymous with football videogames, but EA is strongly considering dropping the branding for its long-running kickabout as it rethinks its licensing agreements with football leagues.
>> With PES, now eFootball, being a total mess, EA can do almost anything they want with the franchise and still succeed.

War Thunder fan leaks classified military documents to win an argument about tanks—again
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/war-thunder-fan-leaks-classified-military-documents-to-win-an-argument-about-tanksagain/
(...)
The War Thunder forums see many arguments about the accuracy or otherwise of particular hardware, and this weekend saw one about the French Leclerc Main Battle Tank and its variants: which at one stage, got down to the exact speed of rotation of the tank's turret. Player __RED_CROSS__ got rather annoyed with a user saying that the turret's rotation speed was 40 degrees a second, among other things, and so decided to try and win the argument by—under the title 'Sekrit Document'—posting portions of the gunner manual for the Leclerc to prove their point (thanks, UK Defence Journal).

Halo: The Master Chief Collection goes medieval for its final season next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halo-the-master-chief-collection-goes-medieval-for-its-final-season-next-week/
What is Master Chief if not a big daft knight questing his way across outer space? 343 certainly thinks so, with Season 8 of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection dressing our far-future soldiers up in historical cosplay when it arrives next week.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Rumored To Be Priced Close To $300 US, Will Tackle Entry-Level AMD RDNA 2 GPUs

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2060-12-gb-rumored-to-be-priced-close-to-300-us-will-tackle-entry-level-amd-rdna-2-gpus/

Kind of meh if true but least the 2060 won't be gimped like the lower end RDNA 2 cards

Intel Core i7-12700K 12 Core Alder Lake CPU-z Benchmark Leaks Out, Up To 45% Faster Than AMD Ryzen 7 5800X & Core i9-11900K

https://wccftech.com/intel-core-i7-12700k-12-core-alder-lake-cpu-z-benchmark-leaks-out-up-to-45-faster-than-amd-ryzen-7-5800x-core-i9-11900k/

Crazy if true

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti rumors: 450W TDP, 21Gbps memory … and new power connector?

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090-ti-rumors-450w-tdp-21gbps-memory-and-new-power-connector

I doubt the 3090 will get this many variations but we will see

The Witcher 3 Steam Deck Version Showcased by CD Projekt RED

https://wccftech.com/the-witcher-3-steam-deck-version-showcased-by-cd-projekt-red/

While it's off screen and the video is pretty compressed.... It's pretty easy to tell how vastly improved it is compared to the switch version. In a lot of ways, I hope that Nintendo is paying attention and makes the right decisions with the Switch 2 so that it doesn't end up like a Switch U.

Ultra vs. High Settings in PC Games

https://www.techspot.com/article/2338-ultra-vs-high-settings/

The jist of it is that most people shouldn't be using Ultra settings due to diminishing returns for the performance hit that you get. Of course, they don't factor in Ray Tracing or DLSS which imo is different. Ray tracing in games that are properly implemented combined with DLSS will give you a pretty noticeable visual upgrade while maintaining decent performance. If you turn on Ray Tracing on AMD sponsored games like RE or Far Cry 6, then yea, it's useless and you really need a magnifying glass to see the difference. But with something like Cyberpunk? Oof. Looks incredible! And of course, if you play something like Spiderman or Ratchet and Clank on PS5 with RT on, it can show you what console optimization can do with RT.

I never use Ultra settings anymore. I can't tell the difference between that and high in most games and it usually halves your fps going from high to ultra. The biggest impact in performance for the least impact in visuals. High settings and then crank the resolution as high as I can get it without dropping frames is what I do.