The real test will be in February when Biden announces his plans for Crypto. If it's stricter, then Crypto will probably stay low. But if it's a nothing burger... Urghh

We shall see though! The GPU prices are certainly continuing to drop, especially LHR versions.

It's the US, they won't ban some kind of business where no one gets hurt. Besides, whatever he proposes, the lobby of the electric companies (among others) will step in to avoid the approval of any law regarding that.

What a lukewarm announcement. Why not just keep it for Blizzcon or is that never happening again.

Oh well. Will play it in 3-5 years.

This year's con has been cancelled, and afaik, with the current bad rep they have going for them, it's likely they won't be bringing it back for quite some time.

Also doesn't help that we know OW 2 and D4 have been delayed all of this yr as well, so we won't be seeing those two games until at least 2023.

A Blizzcon for yet more tiny snippets of OW2/D4 and this new game, doesn't exactly warrant me paying for the digital ticket. Usually with their cons, they announce stuff that's practically around the corner or coming within the year/early start of the next one, but if they were to hold one this yr it wouldn't be giving us much to look forward to. 

I don't expect us to even see this survival game for another 2-3 years, so it's either a game that'll be due next year, or it's yet another wasted attempt at drumming up hype/interest way too early. I miss the days when they used to announce stuff that was months away from release, like the upcoming WoW expansions for example. 

Did we talk about the garbage AMD 6500 XT?

4GB of VRAM in 2022

No real raytracing support

No video de/encoding module

4 GPU lanes, bad performance with PCIe 3.0

Even at $199 it is inferior to the aged 2060.

https://youtu.be/ieLn5gSYSN0?t=1583

We did and yea, it's terrible.

Talking about WoW (Retail).. I wonder when they'll release the new expansion. They're usually on a bi-annual schedule with those, though tbf with all the crap going with the Blizz and all big scandals this one is likely to be delayed.

Wowhead have been data-mined some files which points to a new expansion coming - https://www.wowhead.com/news/datamined-encrypted-mount-pet-items-possible-10-0-expansion-deluxe-edition-325627?page=7

They have a habit of announcing the new expacs a month of few after the end raid/end story cinematic, because after the main end-game raid, there really isn't much for players to do (for those that were playing it the whole time, those like me playing catch up will have more to do), so Blizz would usually hold a con that yr and announce the new expac, but since that's not happening atm, I'm not entirely sure when they'll even announce it.

They could just shadow drop a trailer or sneak peak cinematic, but for a game like WoW, that's rather small (Even SE does more for marketing it's new expacs these days than Blizz does).

I'm a bit excited and disappointed that Blizz is going to go with the Dragon Isles, mostly because we knew since Cata that the dragon aspects lost all their immortality and left the "future of azeroth" to us, the players, so having us fight Dragon aspect battles for them on the Dragon isles like we did for Khadgar during WoD/Legion leaves me a bit frumpy. 

I guess this is them just dragging things out before Azeroth somehow takes some spiritual or physical avatar form, because I know the end-game for WoW is us, the light vs the Void, and then that's the ultimate end of WoW's story (There really isn't anywhere to take it afterwards, because we've done the whole faction vs faction, faction vs the light, faction vs the dark, faction vs the new unheard of bad guys etc). 

I just hope that with the new expac, that we actually get to go out and do more meaningful quests, instead of being glued to an anti-social mission table, that's mostly composed of fetch quests or timed ones, all to gather small drops of resources (seriously, I'm really sick of mission tables and resource gathering and they've been doing this kind of thing since the first Vanilla raid of Ahn'Qiraj).

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has two new flash deals:

• The first one is Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs, 80% off during the next 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/regalia_of_men_and_monarchs
• The second one is The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante, with a 45% discounts during the next 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_life_and_suffering_of_sir_brante

Steam adds a new Midweek Madness: Hacknet, with a 85% discount until Friday 28: https://store.steampowered.com/app/365450/Hacknet/

Fanatical's new Star Deal is Wasteland 3, 72% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/wasteland-3.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Half-Life 2 Overcharged is coming to Steam in February 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/half-life-2-overcharged-is-coming-to-steam-in-february-2022/
Modders ‘BriJee’ and ‘Mike Nov’ announced that Half-Life 2 Overcharged will release on Steam in February 2022. In order to celebrate this announcement, the modders released a new gameplay trailer that you can find below.
Half-Life 2 Overcharged is a mod that aims to fix, improve and enhance numerous features and gameplay elements of Valve’s classic shooter.
The mod will feature a completely reworked gunplay, extended maps, uncut locations and over 50 weapons. Moreover, it will have accurate player screen movement, and will allow players to slow down time.

GAMING NEWS

Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem suffers from major stuttering issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/serious-sam-siberian-mayhem-suffers-from-major-stuttering-issues/
Devolver has just released a standalone Serious Sam expansion on PC, called Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem. Powered by the latest version of the Serious Engine, Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem supports both DirectX 11 and Vulkan. However, the game currently suffers from major stuttering issues on both of these APIs.

Hidden Deep is a 2D sci-fi thriller inspired by Aliens, The Thing & Half-Life
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hidden-deep-is-a-2d-sci-fi-thriller-inspired-by-aliens-the-thing-half-life/
Daedalic Entertainment and Cogwheel Software have released Hidden Deep on Early Access. Hidden Deep is a 2D atmospheric sci-fi action game that is heavily inspired by Aliens, The Thing & Half-Life.

Quake 2 RTX Patch 1.6.0 released, adds AMD FSR support, fixes numerous bugs
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/quake-2-rtx-patch-1-6-0-released-adds-amd-fsr-support-fixes-numerous-bugs/
Lightspeed Studios has released a brand new update for Quake 2 RTX. According to the release notes, Patch 1.6.0 fixes a crash, numerous bugs/glitches, and adds support for AMD FSR.

First official gameplay trailer for Life is Strange: Remastered Collection
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-official-gameplay-trailer-for-life-is-strange-remastered-collection/
Square Enix has shared the first official gameplay trailer for Life is Strange: Remastered Collection. This trailer gives us a 5-minute sneak peek of the upcoming collection, which contains enhanced versions of the first two games.

Here are two new trailers for STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-two-new-trailers-for-stranger-of-paradise-final-fantasy-origin/
Square Enix has released two new trailers for STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN. The first trailer gives us an in-depth look at combat abilities, job classes, multiplayer, and more. On the other hand, the second trailer is the game’s “final” trailer.