@green_sky 

First time I've heard of this game. Think I'll get it and go make the most gaudy PC's possible.

Surprisingly they have actual real names in there. Nice endorsements and branded DLC's :PP

One thing doesn't take the other .

And don't forget that it "needs" cards with more than 11GB of VRAM to use the best textures...

Yikes that looks pretty bad. Might a well use SSR at that point.

The fact you left in the monke reaction made me lul, ngl.

OT: Linus sounded salty at the start of the vid, since Valve wouldn't let him drop it (joking on that last part, but we all know he's prone to breaking tech easily).

The one part of his vid that stood out to me, was the fact that Valve are going to source for spare parts for the Deck (jotsticks etc), which is something hardly anyone does in the inudstry of gaming. I reckon that was Valve taking a direct stab at Nintendo for their shitty Joycon drift, and how they do fuck all about it, because they know ppl will just buy another set of Joycons for fucking £70.

Good on them for doing it though, hopefully that gets Nintendo to pull their head out of their arse when it comes to Switch 2, because fuck off having to pay upwards of £70 for a pair of joycons. 

Dear God, Phoenix Point: Year One Edition is free to try on Steam and I wanted to give it a go. The requirements as kfor 30GB but the install windows asks for more than 90GB. That's insane!

I wanted to give it a try and check what improvements the devs did since the reviews at launch were quite mixed, but f*ck that.

This is why I upgraded to my 750mbps download. I was getting triggered by the storage requirements and now, I can download large content without any issues.

The biggest urghhness was when I had 150mbps and someone in my family was downloading stuff, the audio sometimes cut out and sometimes the connection froze as I am working from home. These days? Smooth as butter. Doesn't matter how many people download or do any of that, it all works and it works fast.

Fuck this storage future though. SSDs are getting faster but capacity ain't getting cheaper. We need more capacity for cheaper prices damn it!

Download speeds aren't the problem, I have 600mbps, but it's the difference between the two values and that I'm not going to waste 90GB of space, even if it's temporal, just for curiosity.

Nintendo won't look at steam deck or such devices. Change their joycons or whatever looking at them. Nintendo and companies like Apple operate their business and design strategy in a way that other companies and products don't exist. When they announce their devices or features. It is always like whoa, look at this thing we did. Even though other companies might have done it before.

For good or bad ofcourse. I've liked and disliked their way of doing business over the years.

Thing is, Ninty's been around for over a hundred years, and Apple's for less, but those two companies have one thing in common, they are a popular and well known brand.

Both have been loved for a long, long time, and as such, they have enough brownie points that make Blizzard look evil (seriously, there are ppl out there that think the Steam Deck will fail/is inferior to the Switch, that's how strong Ninty's brand is, or an artist friend I have who now thinks Mac OS is superior to Windows for two examples of brand power from Ninty/Apple).

Because both are so big and so vastly rich, they are more than able to afford being able to ignore every other company and staying within their own bubble (occasionally we do see them slipping a hand from that bubble to take other existing ideas and then proceeding to further ignore the others again for a few years).

If this was a mom & pop company or an already lesser one in general, they wouldn't be able to afford ignoring every other competitor, because the ppl would leave them and well, they'd be utterly fucked and be forced to comply with what their competition is doing. Nintendo doesn't have to comply with whatever Valve does, because they have enough ppl to buy their products, regardless of quality or value. Nintendo has that horrid spell with the Wii U, but they were still a powerful enough brand that 3rd party didn't entirely ignore them, nor did everyone outright abandon Nintendo (they still managed to somehow make bank on the Wii U, while most other companies like Ouya flop and die). 

Personally, I loathe Nintendo's/Apple's away of doing business, because that leads to sub-par expensive products and as I've seen over the years, it has led to a growth of ignorant masses that are willing to die on the hills of those two companies, no matter the price, no matter the quality (Again, there are ppl out there who truly think the Deck will flop and that Switch is perfect, brand power withstanding, while ignoring what the Deck means and can do for those wanting one).

I also believe their way of doing business and ignoring others until it suits them to take a peek, is one that leads to slow innovation (Because we've had gyros for years and they had theirs since the Wii, which was well over a decade ago now and they still toss that around in their marketing as if it's new and revolutionary, while a company like Valve is wanting to venture into Brain VR, something entirely fucking new and not really commercial yet, but still something brand new).

I want the Switch 2 to now catch up to what the Deck is doing (especially in terms of sourcing replacement parts for customers, because they royally fucked up and flat out did not care for the Joycon drift situation, outside of a South Park insulting style "we're sorry", which really pissed me off, because Joycons here cost fucking £70 a pop), but I know Nintendo is likely to just ignore the device and just roll with 4k and some other stupid gimmick with slightly off the shelf parts (because for years now they've dropped wanting cutting edge or just better hw in general since the GC days).

The Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Humble Store has a new sale, the Two Point Hospital Sale with up to 66% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/two-point-hospital-sale/

Fanatical's new Star Deal is Frostpunk: Game of the Year Edition, 70% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/frostpunk-game-of-the-year-edition

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

A 17-year-old coder found a way to unlink your Facebook account from your Oculus Quest 2 headset
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/a-17-year-old-coder-found-a-way-to-unlink-your-facebook-account-from-your-oculus-quest-2-headset/
Earlier this week, a massive outage took down Facebook and related services for most of the day. During the outage, anyone who wanted to use their Oculus Quest 2 had to put their VR adventures on hold because you need to be logged into a Facebook account to use the headset or access the Oculus Store. If Facebook is down, the headset becomes a $300 sci-fi prop.
Some people (myself included) are always looking for ways around the Quest's Facebook requirement for occasions like this, or so we can delete our Facebook accounts and still use our headsets. Enter a 17-year-old coder who created an interesting way around the requirement.
Oculess is a sideloadable tool that unlinks your Facebook account from your Quest 2 VR headset (thanks UploadVR for finding this). To sideload anything on the Quest 2, you need to access Developer Mode on the device, which requires a phone number or payment details (you won't be charged) for verification by Facebook.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This 18GB Mod for Fallout 4 improves the faces of all NPCs
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-18gb-mod-for-fallout-4-improves-the-faces-of-all-npcs/
Fallout 4 fans, here is something for you today. Modder ‘ZPascalionZ’ released a must-have HD Texture Pack that improves the faces of all of the game’s NPCs.
According to the modder, this HD Texture Pack covers the NPCs from the base game, and its DLCs.In other words, this pack improves over 1400 characters. By using AI techniques, ZPascalionZ has upscaled the vanilla textures to 2K. As such, the improved textures retain the same art style with the original textures.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

First look at Crysis 3 Remastered with Ray Tracing on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/first-look-at-crysis-3-remastered-with-ray-tracing-on-pc/
Crysis Remastered Trilogy releases next week and Crytek has just released the first PC screenshot for Crysis 3 Remastered. This screenshot showcases the Ray Tracing Reflections that will be featured in the PC version.

Here is Far Cry 6’s secret/alternate ending
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-is-far-cry-6s-secret-alternate-ending/
As with Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 5, Ubisoft has included an early secret/alternate ending in Far Cry 6. So, below you can find a video showing this ending.

First gameplay trailer released for Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-gameplay-trailer-released-for-doctor-who-the-edge-of-reality/
Maze Theory has released the first gameplay trailer for Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality. This trailer showcases a first-person sci-fi adventure focused on story, puzzles and exploration.

Third major update for The Ascent fixes bugs & improves stability, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/third-major-update-for-the-ascent-fixes-bugs-improves-stability-full-patch-notes/
Neon Giant has released the third major update for The Ascent. According to the team, this new patch improves stability, fixes some crashes, and resolves a number of bugs and glitches.

Despite promises, Marvel’s Avengers now has gameplay-related microtransactions
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/despite-promises-marvels-avengers-now-has-gameplay-related-microtransactions/
Prior to the release of Marvel’s Avengers, Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics were stating that the game would not feature lootboxes or pay-to-win mechanics. The teams were claiming that the game would only feature cosmetic microtransactions. However, the latest update for Marvel’s Avengers introduced paid XP boosters.

Battlefield 2042 Beta is one of the best looking games on PC at 4K/Ultra
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/battlefield-2042-beta-is-one-of-the-best-looking-games-on-pc-at-4k-ultra/
Electronic Arts and DICE have launched the Open Beta phase for Battlefield 2042. The game uses the latest version of Frostbite Engine and looks absolutely glorious on PC at 4K/Ultra.