Funny how all those announcements involve Steam releases and next to nowt for EGS, which makes me wonder just how those sales went on the storefront.

Also 29% discount would make £70 down to £50, which is still kinda shit, imo, since it's only part 1 of a 2-3 yr old game, a port with basic graphics options on top of that.

Also Rebirth is likely to be exclusive to Sony for a yr, while still likely to retain a high price when it hits PC after that yr.

SE just love delivering to PC later on and asking for more, meanwhile Capcom announces DD2 and it's going to be on consoles + PC at the same fucking time, like why do SE have to be so damn greedy lol?.

So far, out of all the Jap publishers, Sega/Capcom have my interest and likelihood to buy from, Sony is in the distance, but waiting for discounts for their ports, and SE I'm just not buying from, because they just don't care about port quality, pricing and love doing exclusivity deals, while continuing to ignore me for yrs on end. 

I'm honestly more on board with what Capcom's doing than whatever the fuck SE decides to do. Also Capcom just reversed their REmake 2-3 Raytracing update, or should I say, made it optional, so those on Windows 7/10 can rollback their versions back to DX 11 support, something which SE wouldn't bother with (Esp since it took yrs and yrs of fans complaining about NA PC port being in shambles and in need of a fix). 

Yea it mainly depends on if you are a fan of the series or not. I'll buy it on Steam cause it's the release I have been waiting for but if it was the full asking price, I probably would have waited for a discount or go through greenmangaming.

I think Sony is probably paying large sums to SE cause the amount of studios they can do exclusivity with at this point is pretty limited. But yea, SE's tactics are annoying af. Hopefully FFXVI will come to steam instead of SE whoring out to EGS. But Forespoken is coming to Steam day 1. So I think the only time SE goes to EGS is when EGS pays for it.

And yea, Capcom is doing a lot of right things in the PC space while SE is urghhing.

I like how Valve is like "here, have a neat user feature (the ignore button):

Meanwhile, on the storefront page:

I feel like that feature is fake, because it's seemingly been in "beta" for some yrs now, and yet I feel like it's directly clashing with how Valve push devs to leave their pages up, even if said games are temp exclusive, which means it has to push through ignore blocks on Steam, in order to still remain visible at all times.

I think they should just get rid of the ignore feature, if they clearly care more about a greedy publisher/devs visibility over me just wanting to completely wipe a pub's games from my view forever.

Steam is so far the only client I know that has such a feature, and it feels useless 80% of the time. Big picture mode is alright, still needs more work, Steam connect is fine, remote play, etc, all nice, except for this one feature, which is getting dicked into oblivion because of an obvious conflict between consumer/publisher interests (it has to be, because why is this feature still in beta, still broken and allowing for total visibility, despite ignoring games/publishers at the same time?). 

Featured and recommended isn't user specific, so you should send feedback if you want that

The Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

V Rising shifts 2 million in a month, gives horselords a big 'ol nerf to celebrate
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/v-rising-shifts-2-million-in-a-month-gives-horselords-a-big-ol-nerf-to-celebrate/
V Rising is one of the year's surprise hits, swooping out of the darkness and sucking in 500,000 players within a few days of release. Now Swedish developer Stunlock studios has announced that the game has, after one month on the digital shelves, sold over 2 million copies on Steam.
That level of success brings with it expectation, particularly because there's a large PvP element to V Rising (you can of course just co-op on private servers if you want to opt out). Stunlock Studios has had a hell of a lot of feedback to sift through, and has been gamely fixing the more serious bugs (the game is still in early access) while also doing things like making stairs easier to find.
The latest patch adds a major building improvement, allowing players to dismantle floors and borders that are next to a wall or pillar in their castle without first dismantling the wall itself. It also adds localization for the Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Turkish languages, and has updated existing localizations thanks to community feedback.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Epic's free multiplayer tools let developers enable Steam crossplay
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/epics-free-multiplayer-tools-let-developers-enable-steam-crossplay/
In 2019, Epic made the online services developed for Fortnite freely available to any game developer who wanted to use them. The software development kit included systems for friends lists, matchmaking, lobbies, leaderboards, stat-tracking, and cross-platform multiplayer. Recently, it brought crossplay between PC and PlayStation to Fall Guys in all its playlists. And now, Epic Online Services lets developers enable crossplay between Epic and Steam.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Playstation classic Jak and Daxter gets an unofficial native PC port
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/playstation-classic-jak-and-daxter-gets-an-unofficial-native-pc-port/
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a 3D platform game that came to Playstation 2 in December 2001. Developed by Naughty Dog, this is the first part of the Jak and Daxter series. And although Sony does not plan to bring this classic game to our platform, a team of indie devs has basically ported the game to PC.
This indie team has decompiled around 400,000 lines of GOAL code, out of an estimated 500,000 total lines. This unofficial PC port of Jak and Daxter uses an OpenGL renderer (which renders most of the game world and foreground). The team claims that all levels are fully playable, and you can finish the game with 100% completion. The only downside is that there isn’t currently any audio.
It’s also worth noting that the team aims to port both Jak II and Jak 3.
>> Cool! Shame about the missing audio, tho.

Demo released for Streets of Rage 2 New Era, a fan remaster of SEGA’s classic brawler
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/demo-released-for-streets-of-rage-2-new-era-a-fan-remaster-of-segas-classic-brawler/
Streets of Rage is SEGA’s iconic 16-bit brawler series and from the looks of it, a team of fans is currently reverse-engineering its second part. Not only that, but there is a demo that you can download and play right now.
Contrary to other Streets of Rage projects, Streets of Rage 2 New Era is not using any emulation tricks. As such, it can use the full power of modern technologies. Additionally, devs/modders can add new levels, new characters, high-quality SFX and HD graphics.

GAMING NEWS

Capcom has officially announced Dragon’s Dogma 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/capcom-has-officially-announced-dragons-dogma-2/
Capcom has just announced the sequel to Dragon’s Dogma, Dragon’s Dogma 2. According to the Japanese company, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is currently in development, and there is no ETA on when it will come out. Unfortunately, the team did not share any screenshots or trailer, though it at least gave us a look at its logo. It’s not much but hey, at least it confirmed that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is happening. Thus, I went ahead and included below the entire 10th-anniversary video of Dragon’s Dogma.

Friday news, part two and last:

Apex Legends' resident healer opens a new clinic on Olympus next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/apex-legends-resident-healer-opens-a-new-clinic-on-olympus-next-week/
Earlier this week, Apex Legends' neglected medic Lifeline was treated to a flashy Stories from the Outlands trailer. But it continues to be a big week for Ms Che, as Respawn today announced that she'll be getting her own clinic as an update to Olympus in the Awakening Collection Event next week.

Overwatch 2's new tank hero Junker Queen is a bowling ball of carnage
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/overwatch-2-junker-queen-hero-abilities/
Overwatch 2's Junker Queen, the game's newest tank hero, sounds like she'll be a nightmare for healers. Her kit resembles that of a DPS hero in original Overwatch, but in Overwatch 2's 5v5 world, tanks can rack up damage too.

Overwatch 2 will get 3 to 4 new heroes and maps every year
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/overwatch-2-will-get-3-to-4-new-heroes-and-maps-in-its-first-year/
Overwatch has been in a grim place for the past several years. (...)
Blizzard wants to change that. At the Xbox showcase, it announced that Overwatch 2 PvP will be free-to-play, and today it announced a complete roadmap for the launch and beyond.

Valorant is dropping one of its oldest maps
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/valorant-is-dropping-one-of-its-oldest-maps/
Riot is planning to remove Split from Valorant's map rotation for the foreseeable future and I'm sad about it. With the imminent start of Episode 5 Act 2 and the release of new map Pearl, Riot has decided there is such thing as too many maps at once, so it's deleting one for the foreseeable future.

Here's Valorant's new underwater map, Pearl
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/heres-valorants-new-underwater-map-pearl/
Riot Games has revealed Valorant's eighth map, Pearl, and it's an underwater adventure. With the release of Episode 5 Act 1, Pearl acts as the most "straight-forward" map released since Valorant's initial launch, stripping away many of the gimmicks seen in previous locations. Not only that, but Pearl is a showcase of how Valorant's alternative earth is dealing with climate change. Hardcore.

Activision Blizzard finds 'no evidence' of widespread misconduct at Activision Blizzard
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/activision-blizzard-finds-no-evidence-of-widespread-misconduct-at-activision-blizzard/
Activision Blizzard says that an investigation conducted by Activision Blizzard has found no evidence of systemic gender-based misconduct at Activision Blizzard, or that Activision Blizzard management "intentionally ignored or attempted to downplay" incidents of harassment at Activision Blizzard when they occurred.
>> A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha *inshales* ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

$13.5M settlement puts the cost of one Destiny 2 cheater at $2,000
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dollar135m-settlement-puts-the-cost-of-one-destiny-2-cheater-at-dollar2000/
As reported by TorrentFreak, Destiny 2 developer Bungie has scored a major win in its campaign against cheat developers, with the unfortunately named Canadian companies Elite Boss Tech and 11020781 Canada agreeing to a $13.5 million settlement and permanent injunction on their Destiny 2 cheat programs.

The Fallout-style RPG teased by New Blood last week features big names in the classic Fallout scene
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-fallout-style-rpg-teased-by-new-blood-last-week-features-big-names-in-the-classic-fallout-scene/
New Blood Interactive CEO Dave Oshry threatened to kill a puppy if he got bumped from the PC Gaming Show this past weekend, so we made sure he got his time and then he used it to say that the studio isn't actually ready to talk about any of the new stuff that it's working on (except Gloomwood, which we already know about). He did offer the briefest of glimpses at three games, though, including a top-down shooter, a car combat game, and a "Fallout-style RPG" that Oshry described as his "dream game."
What a difference three days makes, apparently, because yesterday New Blood revealed a little more about its "retro futurist isometric CRPG," and while there's no detail yet, even at this early stage it sounds very promising.

Zachtronics is making its final game: Last Call BBS
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/zachtronics-is-making-its-final-game-last-call-bbs/
Redmond-based indie studio Zachtronics was founded by Zach Barth, designer of sandbox builder Infiniminer, AKA the game Notch ripped off to make Minecraft. After that, Zachtronics made a name for itself with 2011's SpaceChem, which dresses like a game about synthesizing chemicals for space colonies but sneakily teaches you programming and circuit-building. It, and other Zachtronics puzzle games that are either explicitly about programming (like TIS-100, Shenzhen I/O, and Exapunks), or sneakily about programming (like alchemical device-builder Opus Magnum), have been dubbed 'Zach-likes' by fans. The studio has made games in other genres though, like AI-themed visual novel Eliza, and alternate-history strategy game Ironclad Tactics.
Last Call BBS seems like a culmination and combination of everything Zachtronics has done over the last decade-plus of indie game development. It's a collection of eight puzzle minigames ("although some of them are quite big, at least the size of TIS-100"), all accessed through a fictional retro computer called the Sawayama Z5 Powerlance. A BBS administrator called The Barkeep has filled this chunky red PC with games for us, and helpfully they're "all fully cracked and ready to enjoy!"

Atari shocks the world with decent-looking game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/atari-shocks-the-world-with-decent-looking-game/
Towards the end of the Dreamcast's lifespan, when those in charge at Sega knew things were unlikely to go well, one of the most unusual firstparty games in history was commissioned: Segagaga. This was a game where you controlled Sega and, playing through its classic titles and managing the Dreamcast's fortunes, could change the world and 'defeat' a poorly-disguised Sony Corporation and its PlayStation.
(...)
Atari Mania is essentially a huge collection of minigames, based on classic titles from the company's history, framed by an RPG-lite structure where you play as the caretaker of the Atari vault. The vault is a storehouse for old Atari games until one night "a dead pixel appears and soon enough, all heck breaks loose!!"

Let's check the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The Summer Sale is still going on, and will last until June 27.
• And there's a new GIVEAWAY: BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION will be free to get during 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/beautiful_desolation

+Steam

• The first of the new deals is an Assassin's Creed Franchise Sale, with up to 85% discounts until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/franchise_ac
• Publisher 11 bit studios puts its games on sale with up to 85% discounts until June 20: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/11bitpublishersale
• The LEGO CON brings up to 90% deals on all LEGO titles until Monday 20: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/lego-con-2022
• GTFO will be free to try during the weekend and 25% off until June 23: https://store.steampowered.com/app/493520/GTFO/
• Amazing Frog ? , still in Early Access, will also be 25% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/332570/Amazing_Frog/
• Cat Cafe Manager also gets a 25% discount until Thursday 23: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1354830/Cat_Cafe_Manager/
• Jurassic World Evolution 2 will be 50% off until the 23rd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1244460/Jurassic_World_Evolution_2/
• And theHunter: Call of the Wild will be 75% off until the same June 23: https://store.steampowered.com/app/518790/theHunter_Call_of_the_Wild/

Enough said. Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

Intel Arc desktop GPUs may be slower than previously expected, a new performance prediction for the whole series suggests

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-arc-desktop-gpus-may-be-slower-than-previously-expected-a-new-performance-prediction-for-the-whole-series-suggests

"According to the site, the actual performance difference based on the price of both cards is somewhere around 21%. The actual performance (not based on pricing) is just 4% better, so almost within the margin of error of being identical to Radeon RX 6400."

Good old Snake oil Koduri. I will say that even if the A380 ends up being just 4% faster than a 6400, I'd still recommend the A380 over 6400 assuming the drivers are up to snuff purely because how shitty the 6400 is with it's lack of decoders, limited vram, limited pci-e lanes and etc. Especially as the A380 in cheaper than the 6400 and Nvidia has no GPUs below $250. But once Arc gets over the 6600 GPU range, that's when it becomes hard to recommend it over AMD not to mention Nvidia. But we will see. If they can price it below AMD's offerings, then maybe but the drivers will really matter at that point.

According to Intel, Arc GPUs must use Resizable BAR for optimal performance

https://videocardz.com/newz/according-to-intel-arc-gpus-must-use-resizable-bar-for-optimal-performance

Three GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1630 graphics cards appear on EEC website

https://videocardz.com/newz/three-gigabyte-geforce-gtx-1630-graphics-cards-appear-on-eec-website

Last time I posted about the 1630, I said it wasn't a bad idea as the 1050 Ti needed to be refreshed with modern features. Now with Arc offering more features than 16 series for pretty cheap prices, it will probably be useless.

AMD Possibly Readying A Van Gogh Successor Based on Phoenix Point APU Design, Could Power Next-Gen Valve Steam Deck Handheld Console With Zen 4 & RDNA 3 Cores

https://wccftech.com/amd-possibly-readying-a-van-gogh-successor-based-on-phoenix-point-apu-design-could-power-next-gen-valve-steam-deck-handheld-console-with-zen-4-rdna-3-cores/

Take it with a grain of salt cause MLID

There is one thing about these whole Intel Alchemist cards that has been bothering me since the first units arrived in China and Korea: they're the lower end ones.

You see, with Nvidia and AMD we always get the top cards first to blow us away with its power and record fps, only to follow that with the rest of the bunch that are where they usually make more money from. And Intel does the same thing when it comes to their CPUs as well. But here we are, with Intel "launching" their first GPUs in decades and what do they do? They only show the 300 series.

Why? Why are they doing that?

I think it's actually the best idea tbh. Nvidia hard largely ignored the budget GPU market and AMD has released laughably bad GPUs in the budget segment. So either you have to buy either some of the worst GPUs that have been released in the history of PCs by going with 6400/6500XT or you have to spend more to get Nvidia. Both are shitty choices, especially for places like China.

So for a new player like Intel, this is easy pickings cause all they need to do is release a GPU that's cheap and has modern features. What Intel needs right now for it's GPUs isn't profit but market share. It needs to put Arc on the map because without market share, game developers will not bother to optimize for your GPU. Them releasing higher end GPUs is a fools errand because Nvidia and AMD has both high end and mid ranged covered, especially as Lovelace is so close. But what Lovelace and RDNA 3 won't have at least until late next year is their budget GPUs. And no, Ampere/RDNA 2 will not go down in price but rather, just get discontinued when their successors come out.

So Intel will essentially have free reign in the budget GPU segment at least until late next year while Nvidia and AMD will battle it out in the high end and mid ranged. So I think it's overall a good plan, just the execution feels like it's lacking. While the hardware looks good and the price is also looking really good, their drivers will make or break Arc.

Intel's Arc will be the third choice for most people but for sub $250 GPUs, they just might be the first choice.

What you say makes perfect sense from a corporate point of view, but there are so many reasons that have brought us to this situation that I can't help feeling that there's more to it.

The countless delays that have put Alchemist in a situation where it's not just facing the current cards, but also the next ones, is something Intel couldn't foresee. Also, neither Nvidia nor AMD could predict the pandemic, the components shortage and the mining craze that shook the whole industry, something that afected their lineups, because I want to believe that we would have gotten more (and better!) hardware in the low end if that hadn't happened. That is something that Intel couldn't predict either.

But well, maybe I'm overthinking.