The Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away a game and a game content pack. The free game is Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, and the game content is a Paladins Epic Pack.
Next week, the free game will be "Among the Sleep: Enhanced Edition".

The Humble Store has a new sale featuring the games from publisher Curve Digital with up to 90% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/curve-digital-sale/

Fanatical has a new sale featuring publisher Armor Games with up to 90% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/armor-games-studios.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Annoyed with New World's lack of minimap, two players built their own
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/annoyed-with-new-worlds-lack-of-minimap-two-players-built-their-own/
As far as MMO interfaces go, New World's is remarkably sparse. But while getting rid of stacks of ability hotbars is a welcome change, replacing the genre-standard minimap with a Skyrim-style compass has left some players longing for more traditional navigation tools.
With that in mind, two players went ahead and built their own minimap themselves.
Spotted by GameRant, Redditor Morbrid and their friend built their own minimap that effectively shows a portion of the game's standard map within a small portion of the screen at all times, removing the hassle of having to open up the main map itself. It appears fully functional, showing the location of vendors, resource nodes and letting you zoom in and out at will.
>> You can download it through Overwolf.

GAMING NEWS

Official trailer released for Battlefield 2042’s Hazard Zone
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/official-trailer-released-for-battlefield-2042s-hazard-zone/
Electronic Arts and DICE have released a new trailer for Battlefield 2042, showcasing its Hazard Zone Mode. Hazard Zone will be a tense, squad-focused survival experience combining “edge-of-your-seat gameplay with the best of the Battlefield sandbox “.

Call of Duty’s kernel-level anti-cheat RICOCHET has already been leaked to cheat developers
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/call-of-dutys-kernel-level-anti-cheat-ricochet-has-already-been-leaked-to-cheat-developers/
Yesterday, Activision and Raven announced a new kernel-level anti-cheat system for Call of Duty Warzone and Call of Duty Vanguard, RICOCHET. However, it appears that this anti-cheat system has already been leaked to cheat developers.
>> How can this get leaked? And by who? Activision has work to do...

First teaser trailer for the first-person sci-fi thriller from former The Witcher 3 & Cyberpunk 2077 devs
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-teaser-trailer-for-the-first-person-sci-fi-thriller-from-former-the-witcher-3-cyberpunk-2077-devs/
Last month, we informed you about The Invincible; a new first-person sci-fi thriller from former The Witcher 3 & Cyberpunk 2077 developers. And yesterday, Starward Industries released the first teaser trailer for it.

Here are 8 minutes of new gameplay footage from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-8-minutes-of-new-gameplay-footage-from-marvels-guardians-of-the-galaxy/
IGN has shared a new video, showing 8 minutes of gameplay footage from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. This video shows an early mission of the game, so it can give you an idea of what you can expect from it.

Splash Damage is working on a new sci-fi IP
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/splash-damage-is-working-on-a-new-sci-fi-ip/
Splash Damage has announced that it is currently working on a new sci-fi IP. Unfortunately, though, we don’t know anything else about this new game. And don’t expect to be playing it anytime soon.

Microids has announced Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja Remake, coming to PC in 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/microids-has-announced-joe-mac-caveman-ninja-remake-coming-to-pc-in-2022/
Microids has announced the return of an iconic Japanese franchise as Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja will make its grand return to PC in 2022. The French publisher continues with its strategy of developing games based on Japanese licenses, such as the previously announced Goldorak and two games based on Taito franchise.

First screenshot released for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/first-screenshot-released-for-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league/
Although Warner Bros plans to reveal more about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League tomorrow, at DC FanDome 2021, Rocksteady shared the first official screenshot from this new Suicide Squad game.

Friday news, the second part:

The Master Chief Collection's latest update fixes Halo 2's broken PC port
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-master-chief-collections-latest-update-fixes-halo-2s-broken-pc-port/
Halo 2 was never much of a looker. But it certainly wasn't done many favours with the 2007 Vista port, whose many visual bugs carried over into the Master Chief Collection. But with this week's Season 8 update, Halo 2 is finally a somewhat nicer looking game—though I'd still rather play the Anniversary remaster.

Bloodlines 2 came close to being cancelled completely
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bloodlines-2-came-close-to-being-cancelled-completely/
It's been quite a ride for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, from the excitement of its long-overdue announcement in 2019 to the sad flameout two years later that led publisher Paradox Interactive to delay the project "indefinitely." It was a relief when Paradox announced earlier this month that development hadn't been cancelled outright, but in an interview with Swedish website Avanza (Google translated), CEO Fredrik Wester said it came awfully close.

EA will remove disgraced NFL coach from Madden 22
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/jon-gruden-madden-nfl-22/
Electronic Arts has announced that it will remove former NFL coach Jon Gruden from Madden NFL 22 in a future update. Gruden resigned from the NFL on October 11 following the surfacing of racist comments, homophobic slurs, and sexist remarks he made in emails sent between 2011 and 2018.

'Legacy code' in Diablo 2: Resurrected is causing widespread connection headaches
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/legacy-code-in-diablo-2-resurrected-is-causing-widespread-connection-headaches/
The first few weeks of Diablo 2: Resurrected have not gone especially smoothly. At launch, players reported troubles with disappearing or locked-out characters, and some were unable to start the game at all.
(...)
There are clearly serious problems with the game, and with fans growing increasingly antsy about Blizzard's apparent inability to fix them, community manager PezRadar has posted a lengthy forum update explaining what's gone wrong, what's being done about it, and why it might take some time to get things fully sorted.

Let's now check the deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The Weekly Sale features Sci-Fi games up to 90% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211011_weekly_sale
• The Special Sale featuring classic games from Activision and Blizzard up to 67% off during the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/activision_blizzard_sale
• The Midweek Sale contains "games with rich stories" up to 85% off during another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211013_midweek_sale
• The Aspyr Sale features up to 80% discounts during the next 5 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/aspyr_sale
• Publisher SNEG offers its games up to 50% off during the next 6 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/sneg_sale
• The Weekend Sale brings top rated games up to 80% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211015_weekend_sale
• And there's a Special Sale with games from the DC universe up to 75% off during the next 3 days. All the games are based on Batman: https://www.gog.com/promo/dc_fandom_sale

+Steam

• The first daily deal is Retro Machina, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127970/Retro_Machina/
• The second daily deal is the Early Access title Wild Terra 2: New Lands, 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1134700/Wild_Terra_2_New_Lands/
• The first of the Weekend deals is Disco Elysium - The Final Cut, 45% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/
• Publisher Jackbox Games, Inc puts its games up to 50% off until the 18th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1552350/The_Jackbox_Party_Pack_8/
• The Halo MMC games are free to try during the weekend (all 6 of them) and also 50% off until Monday 18: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/XboxGameStudios/sale/halomccfreeweekend2021
• The Torchlight franchise is up to 80% off until October 18: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/torchlight
• Publisher Aspyr celebrates its 25 years with up to 85% discounts until Monday 18: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/aspyr25
• And Curve Digital also puts its games on sale, with up to 80% discounts. Be careful, some of the deals end Monday 18 while others will last until Thursday 21: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/curvedigital/sale/weeklongdeal
• Finally, we can't forget about the weeklong deals, can we?.

And that's it. Until next time, I wish you all a happy and gaming weekend.

only king shark looks cool, rest is pretty meh

Intel confirms Alder Lake-P & H mobile specs, publishes hybrid architecture optimization guide for developers

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-confirms-alder-lake-p-h-mobile-specs-publishes-hybrid-architecture-optimization-guide-for-developers

[LTT] Linus and team test digital cable quality with new equipment

This is pretty interesting as it shows that not all cables are equal or do as they are advertised.

Dragon Age 4 Will Be Made Only for PC and Next-Gen Consoles

https://wccftech.com/dragon-age-4-will-be-made-only-for-pc-and-next-gen-consoles/

Can't wait for the cross gen period to be over

So the other day, I was curious how my sister was using her gaming laptop. You know, the one with 5800H and a 3070... It turns out, she has been playing browser based games this entire time.



Now I am not here to dictate what she does with her laptop but I did find it funny that all that horse power is not really being used. I suppose I shouldn't be the one talking since I do play Starcraft 2 a lot with my 5950x and a 3080 so maybe it runs in the family...

Leaving the usual goofyness aside that box to test cables has a lot of potential, but we'll see how they can use it. There are so many brands of cables that it will be hard to find the exact set of cables outside the US and Canada.

Maybe they should focus on well known brands first that can be found around the world, or at least in the biggest markets.

GTA Trilogy remaster PC requirements leak - rumor. Taken from a post and user on GTA forums - "alloc8or" here. Higher than GTA V supposedly https://wccftech.com/gta-the-trilogy-definitive-edition-pc-requirements/

Minimum requirements:

Intel Core i5-2700K / AMD FX-6300
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB / AMD Radeon R9 280 3GB
8 GB RAM
45 GB Storage Space
Windows 10

Recommended:

Intel Core i7-6600K / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB / AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB
16 GB RAM
45 GB Storage Space
Windows 10

Some more details on the release -

"Three iconic cities, three epic stories. Play the genre-defining classics of the original Grand Theft Auto Trilogy: Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas updated for a new generation, now with across-the-board enhancements including brilliant new lighting and environmental upgrades, high-resolution textures, increased draw distances, Grand Theft Auto V-style controls and targeting, and much more, bringing these beloved worlds to life with all-new levels of detail."

"By purchasing Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition from store.rockstargames.com or the Rockstar Games Launcher by January 5th, 2022, you’ll receive a $10 discount on your next purchase through the Rockstar Games Launcher or Rockstar Web Stores on qualifying products of $15 or more (exchange rates apply). Discount expires January 16th, 2022. For complete details/terms, https://support.rockstargames.com/articles/4407663218067."

Doesn't sound like a massive overhaul tbh, though the QoL changes like updated controls, textures and lighting isn't bad. Will probably end up getting it down the line in a deep Steam sale.

With an i7-6600K, 970 and 16GB of ram as a recommended requirement... It better have visuals that are on par or above GTA V otherwise it's gonna be one shittily optimized game considering the requirements are higher than GTA V...

If I had to guess its going to be badly optimized on PC. Iirc the trilogy is also coming on Switch and mobile as well so it won't be too far from the originals. I'm kinda expecting a freshened up versions of the original games along the lines of the Alan Wake remaster (maybe not to that extent). They might have used a new engine, which would kinda explain the relativity high requirements for such old games.

Still have the original games on Steam if it ends up being a lazy up port xP

Thanks for the leak, hinch.

Since the high requirements aren't due to the engine, we know it's using the Unreal engine (4),  I guess Rockstar (or whoever did the port) didn't pay too much attention to the optimization part.

One thing tho, I know we're calling them remasters but shouldn't we call them remakes? New engine, higher requirements, the improvements listed by hinch, etc. point to a much bigger work behind this than just better textures and lightning.

In any case, it's a shame it won't release on Steam or any other major stores (maybe the EGS in time), because this could be the perfect platform for a new GTA mod with all the cities connected. But I doubt modders will bother knowing what's happened the last months and that it will only be available on their own launcher.