i didn't even know they had their own launcher, quite sure i own everything they do on steam already

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has seven new sales, plus the new weeklong deals:

• The first daily deal is Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator, still in Early Access and 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1210320/Potion_Craft_Alchemist_Simulator/
• The second daily deal is Claire de Lune, with a 50% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/717110/Claire_de_Lune/
• The first Midweek Madness deal is Noita, 50% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/
• Superliminal also gets a 50% discount until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049410/Superliminal/
• Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 gets a 70% discount until the 24th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/573100/Battlefleet_Gothic_Armada_2/
• DRAGON BALL FighterZ is 85% off until Thursday 24: https://store.steampowered.com/app/678950/DRAGON_BALL_FighterZ/
• Hollow Knight will be 50% off until Friday 25: https://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • Zup! (like the other 15 games that followed it), is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/533300/Zup/
  • bit Dungeon gets a 41% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1120980/bit_Dungeon/
  • Verdun is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/242860/Verdun/
  • Röki features a 65% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1067540/Rki/
  • The Troma Project is 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/279640/The_Troma_Project/
  • And 9 Clues 2: The Ward comes with a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/369420/9_Clues_2_The_Ward/

The Humble Store has three new sales:

• The Watch_dogs franchise will be up to 80% off during the next 5 days. It's for UPlay, of course: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/watch-dogs-franchise-sale/
• Annapurna Interactive arrives at the Humble Store and celebrates it putting its games up to 85% off during the next 6 days. All the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/annapurna-interactive-publisher-sale/
• And the Co-OP Sale features up to 90% discounts during the next 6 days. There are keys for Steam. GOG and UPlay: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/coop-sale/

Fanatical has two new sales:

• The new Star Deal is Those Who Remain, 85% off during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/those-who-remain
• And the new BYO Ultimate VR Bundle 2 comes with 16 games to build your 2, 4, 6 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-ultimate-vr-bundle-2

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Unreal Engine 5 Preview 1 is now available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/unreal-engine-5-preview-1-is-now-available-for-download/
Epic Games has just released the first preview version of its latest engine, Unreal Engine 5, to the public. This new version is more stable and better optimized than its Early Access version. As such, developers can now experiment with it in order to create new projects.
Going into more details, Unreal Engine 5 Preview 1 packs improvements to previously exposed tools like Nanite, Lumen, One File Per Actor, World Partition, and MetaSounds. Additionally, it features new animation tools, groundwork support for Large World Coordinates, and much more.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Someone is working on a Resident Evil Code Veronica PSX Demake
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/someone-is-working-on-a-resident-evil-code-veronica-psx-demake/
YouTube’s ‘wiliammutazion’ is currently working on a Resident Evil Code Veronica PSX Demake. As the title implies, this project aims to demake the entire Code Veronica game, featuring the same fixed camera perspectives and tank controls.
In order to showcase the current state of the project, wiliammutazion shared a WIP gameplay video from it. This video will give you an idea of what you can expect from it.
>> I'd rather take the remake than this demake.

New SIFU mods allow you to play as Halo’s Master Chief, God of War’s Kratos & Marvel’s Spider-Man
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-sifu-mods-allow-you-to-play-as-halos-master-chief-god-of-wars-kratos-marvels-spider-man/
Some new mods surfaced last week for SIFU, allowing you to play as characters from different games. So, today we are presenting you the mods that allow you to play as Halo’s Master Chief, God of War’s Kratos, Marvel’s Spider-Man and more.

GAMING NEWS

Here is the launch trailer for Elden Ring
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-is-the-launch-trailer-for-elden-ring/
Bandai Namco has just released the launch trailer for FromSoftware’s upcoming action RPG, Elden Ring. Elden Ring is one of the most highly anticipated games of 2022 that will release on February 25th.

No Man’s Sky Sentinel 3.82 Update released, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/no-mans-sky-sentinel-3-82-update-released-full-patch-notes-revealed/
Hello Games has just released a brand new update for No Man’s Sky. According to the release notes, the Sentinel 3.82 Update packs numerous fixes for bugs and glitches. Moreover, it fixes some crashes and introduces a number of navigation optimisations.

The Tuesday news, part two:

Destiny 2's latest bug was caused by a ship that Bungie can't stop spawning in a rock
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/destiny-2s-latest-bug-was-caused-by-a-ship-that-bungie-cant-stop-spawning-in-a-rock/
Destiny 2 is gearing up for the climax of its Season of the Lost, which has been gradually rolling out in the runup to The Witch Queen. The reception to it so far seems pretty positive, except there is one glitch that is (or I should say was) annoying a lot of players: after completing a step in a mission called Exorcism, Guardians were discovering that the game would often progress for the Fireteam leader, but not the rest of the Fireteam.
Bungie has kinda-sorta fixed the issue for the moment, while acknowledging that this is a bit of a botch job and a 'proper' fix will only come when it can be sure it won't put the kibosh on the whole expansion. Bungie community manager Dmg04 took to a thread in the Destiny subreddit to explain.

Elden Ring, latest in an infamously vague RPG series with few definitive answers, warns players about spoilers
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/elden-ring-latest-in-an-infamously-vague-rpg-series-with-few-definitive-answers-warns-players-about-spoilers/
Days before launch, and as hype for the game reaches critical mass, FromSoftware has issued a public statement asking players to be careful about posting Elden Ring spoilers.

Increasing Lost Ark's EU server capacity is 'not possible,' Amazon says
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/increasing-lost-arks-eu-server-capacity-is-not-possible-amazon-says/
Lost Ark players in Europe have been dealing with lengthy queues since the game went live in the EU and North America earlier this month. Last week Amazon Games set up a new region called Europe West to help alleviate the strain, although it warned that the Europe West servers would only "reduce, not eliminate, queue times for Europe Central."
Unfortunately, it appears that's about as good as it's going to get. In a new update, the Lost Ark team acknowledged that there's not much it can do for Europe Central itself, apparently because of the game's underlying structure.

Fallout 76 will be invaded by aliens this spring
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/fallout-76-will-be-invaded-by-aliens-this-spring/
Bethesda has teased its plans for Fallout 76 in 2022, which will begin this spring with an alien invasion and end the following winter with "The Fizziest Show on Earth."

Microsoft initiated Activision purchase just after saying it was 'deeply troubled' by scandal reports
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/microsoft-initiated-activision-purchase-just-after-saying-it-was-deeply-troubled-by-scandal-reports/
With Microsoft planning to purchase Activision Blizzard this year, new filings with American regulatory agencies have given more details to the purchase, including a timeline that certainly makes it look like Microsoft decided to make the purchase due to the continuing scandal around Activision Blizzard. The filing with the Securities and Exchange commission details the timeline of the acquisition before it was announced, starting November 19th and ending January 17th.
>> Like a lot of predators, they smelled blood and went for it.

Euro Truck Simulator 2's next update will put hidden roads on the map when you discover them
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/euro-truck-simulator-2s-next-update-will-put-hidden-roads-on-the-map-when-you-discover-them/
SCS Software has revealed the first new feature of its upcoming 1.44 update for American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2, and it's a big one. Unmarked roads, once explored, will no longer be unmarked.
If that previous sentence made your brain hurt a bit, let me explain. Unmarked roads are essentially little exploration opportunities that crop up during play in both ATS and ETS2. As you haul freight along the games' meticulously crafted roads and highways, you'll occasionally come across small dirt tracks leading off into the wilderness. Following these tracks will reward players with shortcuts and environmental surprises.

Yikes, Street Fighter 6's awful new logo looks just like an $80 Adobe stock image
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/yikes-street-fighter-6s-awful-new-logo-looks-just-like-an-dollar80-adobe-stock-image/
Street Fighter 6 was officially announced on Monday with a short teaser trailer, toes galore and a painfully basic logo that's already had fans despairing. It's a far cry from the usual bombastic, dynamic logos of games past and it turns out there may be a good reason for that—it looks a lot like a slightly altered version of an $80 Adobe stock logo.

Square Enix claims Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy has 'undershot' sales expectations
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/square-enix-claims-marvels-guardians-of-the-galaxy-has-undershot-sales-expectations/
You could set your watch to it by this point. Square Enix is claiming a game published by its western arm has failed to meet sales expectations. This time it's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy on the chopping block. In a newly published outline of a financial results briefing, representative director Yosuke Matsuda said that "despite strong reviews", sales of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy "undershot our initial expectations."

That's excellent news! Also, it could mean that MSoft has no plans to stop putting its games on Steam anytime soon. Otherwise, they wouldn't go through all the work and hassle of closing this launcher and moving it to Steam.

Yep, they launched it some years ago. They even tryed to put their games exclusively on there, but they commit a small mistake: they chose Fallout 76 to do that, and that game had a very rough launch.

It will be but it depends on your target. If you are going to buy purely based on class such as a 4080, you are gonna need to prepare to spend the big bux. And that's before the retailer markup and combos and stuff and you need to try and get one before mining boom happens.

But if you buy based on performance, it could be a different story. In theory, a 4060 Ti could be as powerful as a 3080 for lets say $450. Do you need more performance than a 3080? How about a 3090 performance for $600? Really depends on your needs but all I can say is, if you are on Pascal or earlier, upgrade to whatever Lovelace GPU will be available. Cause the crypto clock will be ticking and anything above a 4060 will be a massive upgrade.

In a lot of ways, this is actually big. They could have went to Battle.Net now that MS is buying Activision/Blizzard but instead, they are going to Steam. Maybe one day, they can ditch Battle.net as well.

NVIDIA RTX LHR BIOS v2 Unlocker supposedly removes mining hashrate limit from Ampere cards

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-rtx-lhr-bios-v2-unlocker-supposedly-removes-mining-hashrate-limit-from-ampere-cards

LHR has officially been defeated. It was of course, never meant to be a permanent solution but rather just to make the ROI worse in the hopes to stop miners from buying GPUs. Hopefully they will bring out a revision 2 for Lovelace since it's better than no solution.

Sony shows off PlayStation VR2 virtual reality headset

https://videocardz.com/newz/sony-shows-off-playstation-vr2-virtual-reality-headset

Intel ARC desktop cards to feature A300/A500/A700 performance tiers

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-arc-desktop-cards-to-feature-a300-a500-a700-performance-tiers

As always, need to wait for the drivers

DF will not be showing off any performance metrics for Elden Ring until post Day One patch

Considering the crazy CPU requirements, it's probably gonna run like arse.

Let's hope that the next cards have som form of hardware limiter to mining (if that's even possible), that puts and end to this nonsense.

And the PSVR2 looks good enough, but we'll see how it performs.
By the way, I'm surprised no one has made a thread about it yet.

I don't think waiting for it is reasonable, at least not without putting the performance without that patch in the same article/video to show the changes.

I know that this ship sailed a long time ago, but if a game reaches Gold status, it should be bug free and run at the desired performance levels, otherwise it's not Gold but a polished Beta.

Here are a couple of news that may interest or even shock you:

Update your motherboard with caution: AMD's latest BIOS is causing trouble for some users
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/update-your-motherboard-with-caution-amds-latest-bios-is-causing-trouble-for-some-users/
AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.2.0.5 is AMD's new firmware update for Athlon and Ryzen APUs and processors, as well as AM4 motherboards, and reportedly it has been causing some concerning problems for users. Coupled with the fact that once you install the update, there's no way to revert, you should think carefully before making the leap.

As issues with the new BIOS update are cropping up all over the net, some manufacturers are even choosing not to push the update out to their users, due to its instability, yet others are taking it on despite the complaints flying around.

According to Computerbase, feedback from the AMD forums, along with a few Reddit posts, suggests the firmware is tanking performance and throwing up a bunch of hurdles in terms of usability. 

Microsoft will begin developing Windows 12 in March
https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/microsoft-will-begin-developing-windows-12-in-march.html
The following Windows must be Windows 12, and it looks as though we are on pace, as Twitter user and Microsoft MVP award-winning security expert @SwiftOnSecurity claims that work on the new operating system has begun.

This was also confirmed by the Deskmodder website, which provides us with a date of establishment. Windows 12 is on the horizon with various sources indicating that development would begin in March of this year.

Yep, though I haven't used it in some time at least now its all in one place. There weren't that many games on that store anyways so one less thing for MS to maintain. Hoping the same thing will happen to Battle.net as well, eventually. Though I don't see that going away any time soon (unfortunately).

I can see the upper end cards shuffled in price again. Nvidia definitely didn't want to sell the RTX 3080 at $699 this gen, as we can see from those variants - 12GB and Ti's so they'll price these ones according.

If Lovelace bring big IPC gains, cost to performance for lower mid range cards could make 4060Ti the new upper mid ranged for consumers. And if leakers are to be believed RNDA 3 cards are going to be even more pricey (an sounding more performant in raster) than Nvidia counterparts. So we'll be getting a quite substantial jump in performance either way, its just the high end tier may be priced out of reach for some consumers or PC gamers. Hoping the Crypto bubble will burst and people stop buying overpriced cards so prices of current GPU's will go down.

Granted I don't need a GPU now, in the next upcoming year and beyond I'm going to want a strong card that has RT and DLSS so will try and get a RTX 4070 at the very least.