Wednesday news, the second part:

Crypto thieves rob adorable digital animal game for more than $617M
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/crypto-thieves-rob-adorable-digital-animal-game-for-more-than-dollar617m/
Axie Infinity looks like a cross between a Tamagotchi and Pokémon, a "digital pet universe where players battle, raise, and trade fantasy creatures called Axies," creatures that happen to be NFTs. A February 2022 writeup by Decrypt.co described it as "the play-to-earn NFT game taking crypto by storm," but in a shocking development the game has now been taken by hackers, to the tune of more than $600 million—making it one of the biggest crypto heists of all time.

Oops, Elden Ring accidentally made a dog stronger than 11 Radahns
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/oops-elden-ring-accidentally-made-a-dog-stronger-than-11-radahns/
Poison swamps and terrible dogs have one thing in common: FromSoftware absolutely cannot resist putting them in all of its games. Elden Ring is full of dogs that might have a better chance of becoming Elden Lord than you do, considering how often they launch into nearly unstoppable barrages of fangs that always seem to stagger you. And that's just Elden Ring's normal breed of terrible dog. The bleed-inflicting dog variant in Elden Ring is so, so much worse. These bleed dogs are currently bugged, causing them to deal over 11,000 points of damage in one attack animation.

Two weeks after workplace abuse allegations, Funomena is reportedly closing
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/two-weeks-after-workplace-abuse-allegations-funomena-is-reportedly-closing/
Less than two weeks after it was named in an investigation into possible workplace abuses at acclaimed indie studios, Wattam developer Funomena is reportedly closing its doors.
Update 03/30/2022: A tweet from Funomena now all-but-confirms the studio's imminent closure.

Every time a player pulls this sword from the stone, it gets heavier
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/every-time-a-player-pulls-this-sword-from-the-stone-it-gets-heavier/
Here's a simple yet intriguing concept for a game. There's a sword in a stone. Pull the sword out of the stone and you are crowned king. The sword is then returned to the stone, and the next player to pull it out is crowned king. Easy.
But there's a cruel twist in this free game on Steam, which is called in full: "The one who pulls out the sword will be crowned king." Each time a player pulls the sword out and is crowned king, it becomes slightly more difficult for the next player to pull the sword out. With each successful pull, the sword gets longer and heavier. The game launched yesterday, and this morning I tried to pull the sword out (you click and drag… and drag, and drag, and drag). After a full minute of pulling, I'd managed to raise the sword only about a centimeter.

Game developers in Ukraine hope Steam will be able to pay them soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/steam-ukraine-russia-payments/
Many game developers in Ukraine and Russia won't receive Steam revenue they were owed in March until sometime in April, or possibly later. Valve says that its bank added new rules after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, and as a result, it currently cannot wire money to accounts in either country. Steam publishers with Ukrainian or Russian bank accounts either have to wait for Valve to comply with the new rules—the company says it's working on a way to collect and transmit new information required by its bank—or use a foreign bank account for the time being.

Loop Hero studio encourages users affected by sanctions to pirate the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/loop-hero-studio-encourages-users-affected-by-sanctions-to-pirate-the-game/
Prospective buyers of Loop Hero based in areas affected by economic sanctions should pirate the game, studio Four Quarters has announced. Due to sanctions imposed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, some customers in Russia may be unable to use regular payment methods to purchase games on Steam.

Scott Bennie, writer on Interplay's Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Fallout, and others, has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/scott-bennie-writer-on-interplays-lord-of-the-rings-star-trek-fallout-and-others-has-died/
Scott Bennie, writer, producer, and designer of multiple videogames and tabletop roleplaying games, has died at the age 61 due to pneumonia complications, as confirmed on his Facebook page.

Activision Blizzard settles one sexual harassment lawsuit for $18M
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/activision-blizzard-settles-one-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-for-dollar18m/
A US judge has approved Activision Blizzard's $18 million settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), wrapping up one of the many discrimination lawsuits brought against the company. The lawsuit had outlined details of sexual harassment, sex discrimination relating to its handling of pregnancy and retaliation against its female employees.

Intel launches Arc Alchemist discrete GPU for laptops

https://videocardz.com/press-release/intel-launches-arc-alchemist-discrete-gpu-for-laptops

This is their low end GPUs which would go up against 3050/3050 Ti on laptops. We will see how it performs but their higher end GPUs coming out in summer really feels like it's taking too long to come out. Least Nvidia and AMD's next generation of GPUs won't be coming out until next year for laptops.

XMG to launch X-Series gaming laptop with high-end Intel Arc Alchemist GPU in late Q2

https://videocardz.com/newz/xmg-to-launch-x-series-gaming-laptop-with-high-end-intel-arc-alchemist-gpu-in-late-q2

Intel teases desktop Arc A-Series Limited Edition graphics gard

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-teases-desktop-arc-a-series-limited-edition-graphics-gard

AMD Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” reportedly enters mass production soon

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-7000-raphael-reportedly-enters-mass-production-soon

Intel Launches Arc Control, An All-In-One Graphics Software Experience Suite For Gamers & Creators With No Login Requirement

https://wccftech.com/intel-launches-arc-control-an-all-in-one-graphics-software-experience-suite-for-gamers-creators-with-no-login-requirement/

Certainly a shot against Nvidia's Geforce Experience

Honestly anything 300W+ plus and I'm going to start feeling it so a RTX 4070/RX 7800 is probably going to be my upper limit (the former estimated to be around 350W). I won't be going anywhere near high end/flagship cards. Saves me from upgrading my PSU as well xP

So, you say that but, almost right after that, you come up with

Looks to me that you already have your mind set on what to get.

You don't fool me, mate. Even if AMD manages the miracle of being on par with Nvidia on RT while using less power, you'd look at DLSS vs FSR 2.0 or the drivers or any other bit.

So that means that they'll launch in about four or five months. I'd bet on November, and maybe launch along their new GPUs to sell the idea of a full system upgrade.

I think most of us will have to get a new PSU, because I fear that most cards will feature the new 12+6 connector.

Loll I think you missed the part where I said:

"Assuming Lovelace comes out first, my plan is to get a 4080 or 4090 and then wait and see how RDNA 3 performs. If it's comparable, it will be easy to flip it and get RDNA 3."

But yes, I do typically favour Nvidia over AMD. Nvidia's innovation with Ray Tracing and DLSS among other things like RTX voice and Reflex are insane where as AMD's GPU decision feels like a shady salesmen with subpar Ray Tracing and FSR which was terrible until FSR 2.0. But even then, AMD is basically just taking existing tech, adding in a few tweaks and rebranding it as their own where as Nvidia does feel like they are bringing in real innovations in the PC space.

But at the end of the day, I did switch to AMD for Ryzen because AMD brought quite a lot of innovations to the CPU space that Intel was lacking in. If AMD's GPU division can pull a Zen 3 against Nvidia's Lovelace, I would switch. But Nvidia is a different beast than Intel and yes, AMD does need quite a lot to get me to switch. But if AMD is competitive against Nvidia in Ray Tracing and Raster, it should hopefully mean 4k 60fps native in games like Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing. And at that point, the lack of DLSS would be easier to swallow.

I saw that bit, but it felt more like a cover up .

In another note, Phison warns that PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives could face heat issues and demand active cooling: https://phisonblog.com/turn-down-the-heat-on-ssds/
(other articles at Guru3D or Club386).

Not entirely surprising, but it could be a nuisance or even a problem in some boards with the air cooler.

The amount of things that are increasing in wattage/heat is going to be insane next gen.

CPUs, GPUs, SSDs, RAM are all increasing in requirements when it comes to wattage/heat. Not only does this mean the power supplies need to be capable but the case that you have will need to provide sufficient enough airflow. Heck we have some reviewers struggling to remove the heat from the 3090 Ti from the Evolv X case. Granted that case doesn't have the greatest airflow but it goes to show the toaster oven the top end PCs will be next gen.

I can picture the execs of EKWB, Bitspower and the rest with huge grins on their faces, thinking of how much money they'll make.

So I assumed i could hop in on that FH5 update, surprise 105GB download and here i hoped it was only CoD doing that shit

No login requirement and possibly better hw/settings detection than GFE could be a nice advantage for intel.

After yrs of using GFE, I can say I'm satisfied with the fps counter, shadowplay and shader presets, but the login requirement and auto settings dept really suck (despite having a 1080ti, GFE claims I can run games like FFXV and other AAA games at ultra settings/4k, despite the fact that it logs my other hw and ignores it at the same time, especially if the PC port sucks as well, which is never taken into account).