I'm sure both Phoenix and Dragon Range will be very efficient and powerful. But right now, I wish Renoir was available in more laptops. I fear that they don't field many of them because of DDR5 prices, fearing that Renoir Laptops would become too expensive despite their performance. Specifically, there hasn't been a single U series Renoir Laptop in the wild yet.

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store is giving away Terraforming Mars: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/terraforming-mars-18c3ad
Next week, they'll give away Jotun: Valhalla Edition and Prey (the one from Arkane).

Steam has two new deals:

• The Early Access title JUNKPUNK will be 40% off until May 11: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1585020/JUNKPUNK/
• And Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite will get a 42% discount until the 16th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167680/Orbital_Bullet__The_360_Roguelite/

There's a new Humble Bundle: Game Over T1D: Games with links to the Diabetes Community, featuring up to 12 games to get during the next 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/game-over-t1d-games-with-links-to-diabetes-community.

And Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is the War Games Triple Pack, 92% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/war-games-triple-pack
• And Jackbox games puts its games up to 67% off during 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/jackbox

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Doom Voxel will turn all 2D sprites into 3D voxels, new gameplay video
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/doom-voxel-will-turn-all-2d-sprites-into-3d-voxels-new-gameplay-video/
Modder ‘Cheello’ has released a new video, showcasing their amazing Doom Voxel project. As the title implies, Doom Voxel aims to turn all of the game’s 2D sprites into 3D voxels. And, as you will see below, the results are quite stunning.
Since this project will turn the original 2D sprites into 3D voxels, it manages to retain their original art style and aesthetics. This is crucial for a classic Doom 3D project. Truth be told, some older projects attempted to turn Doom’s 2D sprites into proper 3D models, however, the results were mixed.
>> There's a video in the article, but I'd advise against watching it if you're prone to suffer motion sickness.

GAMING NEWS

Here is an hour of gameplay footage from Arkane’s canceled Half-Life game, Ravenholm
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/gameplay-footage-arkane-canceled-half-life-game-ravenholm/
Back in May 2020, NoClip shared a documentary video about Arkane’s canceled Half-Life game, Ravenholm. And today, NoClip shared a brand new video, showcasing almost an hour of gameplay footage from it.

Off The Grid is a new cyberpunk battle royale game using Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/off-the-grid-is-a-new-cyberpunk-battle-royale-game-using-unreal-engine-5/
Gunzilla Games announced today Off The Grid, an all-new Battle Royale third-person shooter that will be using Unreal Engine 5. This new battle royale game will only come out on current-gen platforms, and targets a 2023 release date.
>> This is the game from movie director Neill Blomkamp.

The Day Before delayed until March 2023, will be now using Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-day-before-delayed-until-march-2023-will-be-now-using-unreal-engine-5/
Fntastic has announced that its upcoming survival MMO game, The Day Before, has been delayed until March 1st, 2023. Furthermore, the team revealed that it will switch from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.

Dying Light Enhanced Edition is available for free to all owners of Standard Edition
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/dying-light-enhanced-edition-is-available-for-free-to-all-owners-of-standard-edition/
Techland has announced that the Enhanced Edition of Dying Light is now available for free to all owners of the Standard Edition. Starting today, every player that owns the Standard Edition will be automatically upgraded to the Enhanced Edition.

The news, the sequel:

New York City sues Activision Blizzard, says Bobby Kotick is 'unfit' to negotiate the Microsoft buyout
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/new-york-city-sues-activision-blizzard-says-bobby-kotick-is-unfit-to-negotiate-the-microsoft-buyout/
Activision Blizzard is facing yet another lawsuit, this one filed by the New York City Employees' Retirement System and pension funds representing the city's fire department, police, and teachers. The suit, available via Axios, claims that CEO Bobby Kotick was "unfit to negotiate a sale of the company" to Microsoft, and made the deal in part to "escape liability" for his role in enabling workplace misconduct and abuse.

The Stanley Parable developers highlight its new ultra deluxe accessibility options
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-stanley-parable-developers-highlight-its-new-ultra-deluxe-accessibility-options/
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has finally launched, remaking the meta-filled office adventure with a modern facelift and important new features like an in-world dialogue skipping button and a bucket of uncertain emotional value. Developers Crows Crows Crows did add some less satirical updates too though, like an exhaustive list of new accessibility features that it broke down on Twitter.

Bungie tells critics it will 'never' avoid politics as it declares support for Roe v. Wade
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bungie-tells-critics-it-will-never-avoid-politics-as-it-declares-support-for-roe-v-wade/
In the wake of a leaked draft ruling revealing that the US Supreme Court intends to overturn Roe v. Wade, Destiny 2 studio Bungie has issued a statement saying that it "supports essential healthcare rights'' and is "committed to safeguarding the freedom and privacy of its employees." It also took the opportunity to roast a few followers on Twitter who demanded that the studio "stick to making videogames."

NetEase launches its first US-based studio, led by former Daybreak Games chief
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/netease-launches-its-first-us-based-studio-led-by-former-daybreak-games-chief/
(...)
NetEase announced the launch of its first US-based studio today, Jackalope Games, headed up by Jack Emmert, formerly of Cryptic Studios and Daybreak Game Company. Jackalope's debut project hasn't been revealed yet—NetEase said only that it "will be creating new and exciting PC and console games"—but Emmert's history makes an MMO a good bet. His previous credits include City of Heroes, Champions Online, Star Trek Online, Neverwinter, and DC Universe Online.

Halo Infinite's Warthog just put on 170 pounds
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halo-infinites-warthog-just-put-on-170-pounds/
Halo Infinite's Warthog is a lightweight. That might sound like a diss, but I say it with love—of all seven iterations of Halo's iconic four-wheeled gun truck, I actually like Infinite's best. It's fast, looks cool as heck, turns corners on a dime, and doesn't flip over every time I bound over a medium-sized rock. But I have to admit that it doesn't really feel like a classic Warthog. Infinite's hog is so quick and light that it glides across dirt. It feels more like a zippy supercar than Bungie's original big-boned humvee, and 343 is trying to do something about that in Halo Infinite's Season 2 update.
That's right, Halo Infinite has Warthog patch notes, and they're surprisingly extensive.

Halo Infinite removes weird melee quirk that didn't make much sense
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halo-infinite-removes-weird-melee-element-that-didnt-make-much-sense/
Halo Infinite's second season has begun, bringing a clutch of new maps, modes and tweaks to the game—including, oddly enough, making the Warthog 170 pounds heavier. Some of the more notable changes that will change-up the game's feel are in melee, and there's one change buried in the patch notes that is weird in its own way: seven months on from launch, Infinite is changing one of the principles of up-close combat.

I hate that I noticed something wrong in your post but I didn't know what it was, so I had to go and search a bit to find that it's not Renoir you're talking about but Rembrandt. I curse you AMD and your painter names! And the same goes for Intel and its unlimited number of Lakes.

Intel rumored to announce Arc A750, A580 desktop cards in late May/early June for 350/280 USD respectively

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-rumored-to-announce-arc-a750-a580-desktop-cards-in-late-may-early-june-for-350-280-usd-respectively

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti gets unlocked to 890W with XOC BIOS

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090-ti-gets-unlocked-to-890w-with-xoc-bios

3090Ti really is a beta test for Lovelace

AMD preparing Smart Access Storage technology, coming to Corsair Voyager laptop

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-preparing-smart-access-storage-technology-coming-to-corsair-voyager-laptop

Sounds like AMD's branding of DirectStorage

AMD CEO Lisa Su To Host ‘High-Performance Computing’ Keynote at Computex 2022 on 23rd May

https://wccftech.com/amd-ceo-dr-lisa-su-high-performance-computing-keynote-at-computex-2022-23-may/

GeForce NOW Brings 4K Streaming to PC and Mac, 3 New Star Wars Games, and 120 FPS Support to More Mobile Devices

https://wccftech.com/geforce-now-brings-4k-to-pc-and-mac-3-new-star-wars-games-120-fps-support-to-more-mobile-devices/

I thought something was off myself, but I didn't want to double-check. I should have, as it seems...

It's quite confusing, specially when they launch so close in time.

In any case, I agree that the lack of laptops with AMD's 6000 series CPUs is very unfortunate, wheter that's from DDR5 or not.

By the way, I didn't post it in the news but someone could be interested in this:

Boot your Oculus headset directly into SteamVR with this free tool
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/boot-your-oculus-headset-directly-into-steamvr-with-this-free-tool/
In good news for Oculus Quest 2 users, a clever open-source tool called OculusKiller has been released that allows players to bypass the Oculus Dash and load straight into Steam VR. For users who mostly play Steam games in VR, it removes that one little level of frustration on launch.

According to Upload VR, OculusKiller replaces the Oculus dash executable, and instead loads in Steam VR as soon as you turn on the headset. This nifty solution was developed by ItsKaitlyn03 and is available to download on GitHub. You can find more details about this straight-to-Steam workaround there.

What's especially nice about this little fix is it's not too difficult to implement. It only requires one file to be downloaded and placed in the Oculus directory while another one gets renamed. From there it  should all work pretty seamlessly.

While it could be of great use, I'd advise you to wait a bit before downloading it, in case there's an article in the next days saying that there's some malware or things like that. You never know.

AMD Radeon RX 6950XT to cost $1099, RX 6750XT $549, RX 6650XT $399

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6950xt-to-cost-1099-rx-6750xt-549-rx-6650xt-399

Same Core Count
Slightly higher frequency
Slightly higher memory bandwidth
Higher TDP
Higher MSRP
6750XT costs $50 more than a 3070
6650XT now costs the same as a 3060 Ti

Wtf is AMD smoking?