I agree that a 15% improvement doesn't seem like much given the past increases we've seen from AMD, but we also have to keep in mind that AMD came from the bottom and had to massively improve its game to get on par with Intel, but that rate can't be sustained forever. So yeah, 15% may not look like much, but it's far from being a disaster. We spent generations with only 5 to 10% increases from Intel.

At least you don't need to get a mobo with the X670E to get PCIe5.0 for both the GPU and SSD, as long as the mobo makers want to do it, of course, and not force us to buy their more expensive X670E boards. Shame about B650, tho.

Thank you Microsoft

At least 8 months for an answer... well, at least they've approved it. Congratulations!

It was for "The Class Action lawsuits were commenced in British Columbia, Ontario and Québec, but include Canadian residents in all provinces and territories. The Class Actions alleged that Microsoft and Microsoft Canada were involved in a conspiracy to illegally increase prices for certain Microsoft products. "

You can find more info about it here:

https://www.thatsuitemoney.ca/en/settlement

Basically anyone in Canada could claim up to like $250 worth of Microsoft products that requires no proof. Anymore than $250, you need to show receipts. Each product claim would net you $6.50 CAD to $13.00 depending on the product. When I was filling it out, it showed my estimated total amount. So I filled out enough to go under the required amount to show proof. And boom, got the moneyy.

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has lots of new sales, including the weeklong deals:

• BIOMUTANT will be 67% off until May 26: https://store.steampowered.com/app/597820/BIOMUTANT/
• Train Sim World 2 gets a 35% discount until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282590/Train_Sim_World_2/
• The Steam Racing Fest brings up to 80% discounts until May 30: https://store.steampowered.com/category/racing/
• Destiny 2 puts its DLCs on sale, with up to 50% discount until the 6th of June: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1085660/Destiny_2/
• And here's a sample of the weeklong deals:
  • Kingdoms and Castles gets a 30% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/569480/Kingdoms_and_Castles/
  • Maneater is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/629820/Maneater/
  • GreedFall - Gold Edition gets a 60% deal: https://store.steampowered.com/sub/595711/
  • Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/241260/Sherlock_Holmes_Crimes_and_Punishments/
  • And Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, that has a demo, gets a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/801480/Agent_A_A_puzzle_in_disguise/

Fanatical has four new deals:

• The new Star Deal is The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series, 66% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/the-walking-dead-the-telltale-definitive-series
• The new bundles added to BundleFest are: BioShock: The Collection, XCOM: Ultimate Collection and Diamond Collection BYOB.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Operation Half-Real is a Half-Life-inspired free game in Unreal Engine 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/operation-half-real-is-a-half-life-inspired-free-game-in-unreal-engine-4/
Modder ‘gclocker’ is working on a Half-Life-inspired free game in Unreal Engine 4, called Operation Half-Real. As the title implies, this free game aims to create a Half-Life experience in Unreal Engine 4, and below you can find the first gameplay footage from it.
From what we can see, this fan game will be using the original assets of Half-Life. However, and thanks to Unreal Engine 4, the modder will also implement some modern-day techniques.

This Red Dead Redemption 2 Mod upscales all the textures of antagonists
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-red-dead-redemption-2-mod-upscales-all-the-textures-of-antagonists/
There is no doubt that Red Dead Redemption 2 remains one of the best-looking games on PC. However, the game does have a number of low-resolution textures here and there. In order to slightly address this issue, modder “AClassySliceOfToast” released an HD Texture Pack that overhauls the textures of the game’s villains/antagonists.
According to its description, this pack upscales all the antagonists to 2K. And while this mainly covers the skin textures, AClassySliceOfToast has also upscaled the clothing of some characters.
From the looks of it, this pack uses AI techniques in order to upscale the original textures. As such, the improved textures look identical to the original ones.

GAMING NEWS

The Division 2 Title Update 15.1 releases on May 31st, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-division-2-title-update-15-1-releases-on-may-31st-full-patch-notes/
Ubisoft has announced that Title Update 15.1 for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will release on May 31st. In addition, the team revealed its full patch notes that you can find below.

Here are the PC system requirements for The Quarry
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/here-are-the-pc-system-requirements-for-the-quarry/
Supermassive Games has revealed the official PC system requirements for The Quarry. According to the PC specs, the game will require 50GB of free hard-disk space and, as we’ve already reported, it will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is coming to PC on September 1st
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-is-coming-to-pc-on-september-1st/
NACON and Daedalic Entertainment have announced that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will release on PC on September 1st. However, NACON has not shared any new screenshots or even a new trailer for it.

Tuesday news, part two:

Raven Software QA testers become first union at a major US developer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/raven-software-qa-testers-become-first-union-at-a-major-us-developer/
The quality assurance testers of Raven Software, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, have officially voted to unionize. The ballots were mailed in this month and counted today at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin office of the National Labor Relations Board, with a final tally of 19-3 in favor of forming a union.

Rainbow Six Siege will now remember if you're a bad teammate
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/rainbow-six-siege-will-now-remember-if-youre-a-bad-teammate/
Friendly fire enthusiasts be warned: Rainbow Six Siege's next update, Operation Vector Glare, will bring new sanctions against serial griefers. Players who repeatedly injure teammates enough to activate reverse friendly fire (a state in which damage to teammates is reflected back at you) will soon see the effect carry into their next matches automatically. In a presentation to press, Siege game director Alex Karpazis called this new rule "preemptive reverse friendly fire."

Stab sinners for the glory of Mean Jesus in this gnarly alt history RPG
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/stab-sinners-for-the-glory-of-mean-jesus-in-this-gnarly-alt-history-rpg/
"Jesus did not die on the cross, but came down and unleashed vengeance on all the nonbelievers," begins I, The Inquisitor's description on Steam. "1500 years later, an army of Inquisitors brutally enforce the faith." Alright, I'm in.
I, The Inquisitor is based on a dark fantasy, alternate history novel series by Jacek Piekara started in 2008. There don't seem to be English translations of his works yet, but I trust developer The Dust S.A.'s assertion that they're bestsellers in Poland—they really know their dark fantasy over there.
>> Maybe it's the setting, but I get some The Witcher 2 vibes from the trailer.

Vampire Survivors' 0.6.1 update adds a bonus stage and two new mechanics
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/vampire-survivors-061-update-adds-a-bonus-stage-and-two-new-mechanics/
Hit roguelite bullet hell extravaganza Vampire Survivors got a new update today, and while its 0.6.0 iteration will feature "less content than usual," there's still plenty of new material and adjustments to sink your pointy teeth into.

Once upon a time, the Deus Ex studio almost made Final Fantasy 15
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/once-upon-a-time-the-deus-ex-studio-almost-made-final-fantasy-15/
The year is 2011, and Final Fantasy is in a bad place.
Fans are eager to move on from the FF13 trilogy, FF14 is a failed MMO that hasn't been reborn yet, and Final Fantasy 15 is in limbo. At a time when the FF15 that we eventually got was nothing more than a spin-off of FF13, Square Enix was prepared to give its most successful western studio, Eidos Montreal, a shot at making the next great Final Fantasy.
>> I don't know if it would have been better or worse, but it would have been a very different FF game, that for sure.

The quest to make a great PC hockey game continues
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/tape-to-tape-kickstarter/
The last time a licensed NHL game released on PC, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid was 11 years old, and Patrick Marleau was only in his 11th NHL season. It was a long time ago.
(...)
Newcomer Tape to Tape is a hockey game in the style of NHL 94, with somewhat odd cartoony art: The arena is a 3D model, while the players are paper doll-like sprites. The developer's focus for now is on a singleplayer roguelike campaign inspired by Hades and Slay the Spire, and I love the background lore: "Each hockey team lives on barren islands surrounding the main continent. Teams fight relentlessly to win games and the precious mainland resources which are only allocated to the most dominant teams."

Destiny 2 Season 17 trailer confirms the Season of the Haunted
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/destiny-2-season-17-trailer-confirms-the-season-of-the-haunted/
Bungie has finally unveiled details for Destiny 2: Season 17, only a matter of hours before it's set to launch. This season is called 'Season of the Haunted', and the trailer above will no doubt provide plenty to speculate about ahead of launch tomorrow.

Dragon's Dogma 10th anniversary website raises a lot of questions
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dragons-dogma-10th-anniversary-website-raises-a-lot-of-questions/
Released in 2012, Dragon's Dogma was a brilliant, rough around the edges RPG with some really interesting ideas. Chief among those was the Pawn system, which let you customize party companions and then share them online to be levelled up by other players, and vice versa. Oh, and you could climb enemies mid-combat, Shadow of the Colossus-style. Oh, and you could also pick people up and throw them off cliffs.
>> The article speculates that, given the anime series and the effort put in the website, a new game may be in the works.

Hitman 3, F1 2022, Deep Rock Galactic, and more to get RTX On
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hitman-3-f1-2022-deep-rock-galactic-and-more-to-get-rtx-on/
The keynote for Nvidia's Computex presentation this year largely focused on AI and Cloud solutions, but there were still a few interesting announcements for gamers. One of these was a list of games soon to achieve the RTX On treatment.
>> DSOGaming has tested Hitman 3 and... at 1440p, a 3080 struggles with RT, even with DLSS.

Take-Two and Zynga merge in the biggest deal in gaming history
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/take-two-and-zynga-merge-in-the-biggest-deal-in-gaming-history/
Take-Two and Zynga have merged in what, for the moment, is the biggest corporate deal in gaming history. The stockholders of each company approved all proposals last Thursday, and shares of Zynga ceased trading after market close on Friday. Yesterday Zynga shareholders received $3.50 and 0.0406 Take-Two shares for every share in Zynga, adding up to an enormous $12.7 billion, and the deal is done.

Samsung Unveils Odyssey Neo G7 & G8 4K Mini-LED Gaming Monitors: Up To 240 Hz Freesync Premium Pro Support

https://wccftech.com/samsung-reveals-odyssey-neo-g7-g8-4k-mini-led-gaming-monitors-amd-freesync-premium-pro/

"1196 dimming zones locally, NVIDIA G-Sync compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification, 2,000 nits of brightness. While the Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 does not have a release date or pricing, the Odyssey Neo G8 does have a launch date for June of this year and will sell with an MSRP of $1,500."

The prices are certainly much better than last year but still a tad too expensive. The biggest issue is that it's a curved screen. Ultrawide + Curve, you can deal with. 32 inch 16x9 + curve is pretty cringe.

PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 Emulator Kity Version 0.1.0 Released; Runs Some Commercial Games

https://wccftech.com/playstation-4-playstation-5-emulator-kity-version-0-1-0-released-runs-some-commercial-games/

Runs worms at like 5 fps but hey, gotta start somewhere!

APACER/ZADAK announce first consumer PCIe Gen5 SSDs with up to 13,000 MB/s read speed

https://videocardz.com/newz/apacer-zadak-announce-first-consumer-pcie-gen5-ssds-with-up-to-13000-mb-s-read-speed

Personally, I think having SSDs with higher than gen 4 speeds is useless for most people. I'd rather have more capacity.

DF Direct Weekly #62: Last of Us Remake PS5, Hitman 3 RT Is Heavy, Starfield Delayed!

According to DF, the reason why Hitman Ray Tracing is so demanding is cause it was supposed to showcase Ray Tracing features of Arc and supposedly, Arc has more advanced hardware Ray Tracing features than Ampere. But Intel is having the opposite problem that Turing had where Turing released with hardware but no Ray Tracing games where as Arc is releasing with games but no hardware.

At this rate, Alchemist's great RT capabilities will have to face what Ada and RDNA3 will offer and, given what we've seen the lastr months, with better availability and support.

Ngl really want a Neo G8. Yeah the curved 16:9 is meme-worthy and not great for productivity though its decent for entertainment and casual use. Sadly this looks to be the only decent offering at this size and at a kind of reasonable price rn, though there are others getting into the mini LED market. Also disappointing that the Neo G7 doesn't support HDMI 2.1 and even downgraded to 165hz.

About ARC, its pretty much doa seeing as there is no firm date for outside Asia. Crazy how they've got partners on board and they can't even get the product out lol. A bit embarrassing tbh.

Talking about monitors Asus announces its first 500hz monitor.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/24/23139263/asus-500hz-nvidia-g-sync-gaming-monitor-display-computex-2022

Albeit it runs on a 24" 1080P screen. Which also begs the question how many frames or hz is the limit to which our eyes can perceive, considering the limitations of LCD motion handling and tech.