LMAO

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away Cris Tales: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/cris-tales
Next week, there will be three free items: Black Widow: Recharged, Centipede: Recharged and an Epic Slayer Kit for Dauntless.

Steam brings two new daily deals:

• The first one is Garden Story, 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1062140/Garden_Story/
• The second is Shadow Warrior 2, with a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/324800/Shadow_Warrior_2/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Mod for Skyrim, Skyblivion, gets new beautiful screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-mod-for-skyrim-skyblivion-gets-new-beautiful-screenshots/
The team behind Skyblivion, a mod that aims to recreate The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in Skyrim, has released a new set of screenshots. These screenshots are from the latest build of this mod, and will give you an idea of its current art style and graphics.

Sekiro: Dream of the Damned is a new overhaul mod for FromSoftware’s action adventure game
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/sekiro-dream-of-the-damned-is-a-new-overhaul-mod-for-fromsoftwares-action-adventure-game/
Modder ‘Nuffly’ has released an overhaul mod for FromSoftware’s action-adventure game, Sekiro. Titled Modder Sekiro: Dream of the Damned, this mod focuses on adding new content to the final invasion state of the game.
Going into more details, this mod adds reworks for Gyoubu, Genichiro, Isshin Ashina, and more. Additionally, it reworks every enemy in the final invasions. For instance, it reworks Red Guard, Generals, Lone Shadows, and Fencers. Furthermore, players can expect some new minibosses to fight.

Halo 2 Uncut Mod aims to restore the game’s cut content, first version released
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/halo-2-uncut-mod-aims-to-restore-the-games-cut-content-first-version-released/
Modder ‘the_vengeful_vadam’ has released the first version of a mod that attempts to restore as much cut content from Halo 2 as possible. This mod is for the Halo: The Master Chief Collection version of Halo 2, and I’m certain that a lot of Halo 2 fans will find it cool.
Halo 2: Uncut features pre-release elements such as cut weapons, cut weapon and vehicle functionalities. Additionally, it aims to restore cut encounters and map scripts, and features Director’s Cut-style cutscenes.

Stardew Valley mod adds viral kitty stars Jean and Jorts as NPCs
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/stardew-valley-mod-adds-viral-kitty-stars-jean-and-jorts-as-npcs/
Jean and Jorts are a pair of cats you may have heard of. They came to fame by way of an Am I The Asshole thread on Reddit about a minor workplace beef over two cats, one smart and one, well, not, that among other things involved one of the parties applying margarine to the dumb cat—Jorts—as a teaching aid. The very funny, oddly uplifting story quickly went viral: Jean and Jorts now have their own Twitter account with more than 144,000 followers, and recently appeared on CNN.
They are also now unofficial NPCs in Stardew Valley, courtesy of the Jorts and Jean the Helper Cats mod. "They are giftable, friendable, have a plethora of things to say, cross-compatible with many other custom NPCs, and feature two events tied to the Reddit AITA post that started it all," the NexusMods description says. "If you follow JortsTheCat on Twitter, you'll also probably see some familiar lines too."

First Nude Mods released for The King of Fighters XV
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/first-nude-mod-released-for-the-king-of-fighters-xv/
Well, we all saw that coming. The King of Fighters XV has just been released on PC and since it uses Unreal Engine 4, it’s really open to mods. As such, the first mods that came out for it are… wait for it… nude mods.
Created by Modder Zai, this nude mod supports Mai Shiranui, Kula, Angel and Yuri. Additionally, Alma2076 has released a nude mod for Asamiya Athena.
(...)
Modder Larilith also released a mod for Cyberpunk 2077 that adds breast physics to pretty much all NPCs. Yeah, this isn’t related to The King of Fighters XV. However, I’ve decided to add it here (instead of posting a new story for it). You can download this Citizen Breast Mod from here.
>> No links provided for the first mod. You'll have to find it by yourselves.

GAMING NEWS

Syberia: The World Before releases on March 18th, gets new screenshots
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/syberia-the-world-before-releases-on-march-18th-gets-new-screenshots/
Microids has released a new set of screenshots for its upcoming adventure game, Syberia: The World Before. This new Syberia game will release on March 18th, and these new screenshots will give you a glimpse at what you can expect from it.

New Dragon Age is in the mid-production development stage
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-dragon-age-is-in-the-mid-production-development-stage/
BioWare has issued a new development update, stating that the new Dragon Age game is in its mid-production development stage. This basically means that, according to the team, the game is not in development hell. Moreover, it appears that BioWare is quite happy with the game’s development.

Gameplay teaser trailer for the Unreal Engine 5-powered game, Mictlan: An Ancient Mythical Tale
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/gameplay-teaser-trailer-for-the-unreal-engine-5-powered-game-mictlan-an-ancient-mythical-tale/
Meta Studios has released a gameplay teaser trailer for its upcoming Unreal Engine 5-powered game, Mictlan: An Ancient Mythical Tale. Mictlan: An Ancient Mythical Tale will be an action-adventure open-world game, that currently targets a 2025 release date.

Elden Ring Day-1 Update is 13GB, fixes framerate drops, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/elden-ring-day-1-update-is-13gb-fixes-framerate-drops-full-patch-notes/
Bandai Namco has revealed the changelog for Elden Ring’s day-1 update. This patch is 13GB in size and will be applied automatically to the Steam version (so you won’t have to separately download it).

Thursday news, part two:

Elden Ring preloading is live
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/elden-ring-preload-live-now/
Elden Ring reviews are out, and they are astoundingly good. We scored it 90% in our own review, calling it a "brilliant" open-world action-RPG whose only real failing is that it falls back on the familiar a little too often. The aggregate critical review score on Metacritic is even higher.
There's a good chance you already had your mind made up about diving into Elden Ring on launch day, but if you had any doubt, that likely settles it. And with that resolved, you are now officially clear to begin preloading the game on Steam.

Dragon Age 4 executive producer has left BioWare
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dragon-age-4-executive-producer-has-left-bioware/
BioWare says development of the next Dragon Age game is coming along well, but has also lost a significant leadership figure. Christian Dailey, who took over as executive producer following the departure of Mark Darrah in December 2020, has left the studio.
>> It's curious how so many producers leave Bioware, right?

Lots of Lost Ark players are losing out on a 'premium account benefit' they purchased
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lots-of-lost-ark-players-are-losing-out-on-a-premium-account-benefit-they-purchased/
It's safe to say Lost Ark's launch has exceeded the expectations of both publisher Amazon and developer Smilegate, to the point where it's causing some major problems. We've already reported on the massive server queues players are having to wade through to get onto the game. But there's another, less reported issue that is also impacting player experiences, and it all surrounds a feature of the game known as Crystalline Aura.

EA CEO goes in on FIFA: 'four letters on the front of the box'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ea-ceo-goes-in-on-fifa-four-letters-on-front-of-the-box/
Last year EA announced it would look to re-brand the long-running FIFA series. Reports at the time suggested FIFA wanted too much money, EA executives were increasingly aware that the game is bigger than the license, and the cherry on the cake came when EA trademarked 'EA Sports FC'.
EA's current licensing deal with FIFA means that we will see a FIFA 23 later this year, but beyond that? Things are looking very dicey, and a new report by VGC quotes CEO Andrew Wilson's words from an internal meeting held in November last year—shortly after the news became public.
>> They should release the game without any Fifa license, then we'll see how many copies they sell when no one can choose their favourite players and teams.

Lost Ark players from Australia and New Zealand are begging Amazon for Oceania servers
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lost-ark-players-from-australia-and-new-zealand-are-begging-amazon-for-oceania-servers/
Lost Ark players from Australia and New Zealand are flocking to the game's official forums to ask Amazon for region-specific servers, citing latency issues and long server queues.

[DF] Elden Ring performance: what to expect on PS5, Series X/S and PC

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2022-02-24-elden-ring-performance-first-impressions

"The performance metrics we saw in the game's network test last year seem largely unchanged on PS5 and Series X. Both continue to offer two modes - a frame-rate mode and a quality mode. However, even running on the launch day patch 1.02, the frame-rate mode continues to run at a range of 45-60fps on PS5 and Series X, while the quality modes on each range between 30-60fps. Both machines run with entirely unlocked frame-rates, and much like the network test, there's still no 30fps cap to even out the wavering reading in quality mode. The result? A highly variable performance for the quality mode in particular, where 60fps is rarely - if ever - achieved on PS5 or Series X."

"[On PC] First there are stutters of up to 250 milliseconds in length when new effects, enemies, and areas appear on screen. These types of stutter lessen as the play experience goes on and enemies, areas, and effects are revisited by the player. A second and more pervasive stutter appears to be tied to loading new game areas - when traversing the terrain, moving from one area to the next can cause minor one-off frame drops a few times a minute, or at worst, tumbling frame-time issues that drop the frame-rate from a steady 60 into the 40s. Other issues to note are the lack of ultrawide screen support, no support for frame-rates above 60fps, and unintuitive graphical options that lack visible scaling. "

Sounds like Day 1 Patch doesn't give you the perfect experience on any platform. On consoles, you can play Elden Ring on ps4 mode on ps5 and get as close to a locked 60fps but then you get ps4's graphical settings.

Elden Ring - Patch Notes Version 1.02

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1245620/view/3101295627260268915

Steam Deck launch day details

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1675180/announcements/detail/3113680526234449024

"Starting at 10am Pacific, we'll be sending emails out to the first batch of reservation holders via the address tied to their Steam account. Those folks will then have 72 hours to complete their purchase on Steam for the specific model they reserved. If they cancel or do not purchase in this time frame, we'll release their reservation to the next person in the queue.

Around the same time is when you'll start seeing coverage from the roughly 100 media outlets we sent early review units to, so there will be a ton of interesting content and coverage for everyone to check out.

We are also looking forward to getting the official Dock for Steam Deck into customers' hands. It won't be happening as early as we wanted, but we're excited to talk more about it soon and are planning to make them available in late spring."

With Elden Ring running like sh!t right now, I dread to think how it will run once RT is added to it.

On another matter, Jon Peddie Research released its Q4 2021 stats for GPUs: https://www.jonpeddie.com/store/market-watch-quarterly1

Here are some notes:

+The PC GPU market shipments increased by 0.8% sequentially from last quarter and decreased by -15% year-to-year.
Overall GPU unit shipments increased by 0.8% from last quarter: AMD shipments increased 4.7%, Intel's shipments rose 0.6%, and Nvidia's shipments decreased by -2.2%.

+Jon Peddie Research reports the growth of the global PC-based Graphics Processor Units (GPU) market reached 101 million units in Q4'21 and PC CPUs shipments decreased by -21% year over year. 

+AMD's overall market share percentage from last quarter increased 0.7%, Intel's market share decreased by -0.1%, and Nvidia's market share decreased by -0.60%, as indicated in the following chart.

+If we only look at GPU cards, we get

Doesn't surprise me that Nvidia is still at 80% vs AMD is still sub 20%.

The only time it makes sense to get an AMD gpu is a 6800 vs 3070 Ti. Every other time including on laptops, it's better to get Nvidia.

I have noticed the 6500XT being close to MSRP in Canada cause most people don't want it. 3050 is very expensive but in stock. It costs as much as a 6600 which costs pretty close to a 3060.

Least we are heading towards the end of the tunnel. Let's just hope we aren't greeted by another tunnel.

Not to downplay or mock a horrible situation, but:

Some of you probably have it already.. (stupid time zones) and/or playing but LETS GO!!

9 Minutes left!!!!