The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has two daily deals and several other deals that will end by Thursday, when the Summer Sale begins:

• The first daily deal is Farm Manager 2021, 33% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123830/Farm_Manager_2021/
• The second daily deal is Patron, that has a demo, with a 50% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1538570/Patron/
• The first Midweek Madness deal is DayZ, 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/221100/DayZ/
• Ruined King: A League of Legends Story also gets a 40% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1276790/Ruined_King_A_League_of_Legends_Story/
• Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager will be 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/978520/Legend_of_Keepers_Career_of_a_Dungeon_Manager/
• A Plague Tale: Innocence gets an 80% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/
• The Relic Anniversary Sale comes with up to 85% discounts: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/relic25th
• And there are also some weeklong deals, but they're so few that it's better if you check them by yourselves.

The Humble Store has two new sales:

• The The Plot Thickens Sale features up to 85% discounts during 6 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG (2) and EGS (1): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/the-plot-thickens-sale/
• And the Tales Franchise Sale also features up to 85% discounts during 6 days. The keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/tales-franchise-sale/

Fanatical has two new flash deals and a new bundle:

• The first flash deal is Detroit: Become Human, 60% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/detroit-become-human
• The second flash deal is Devil May Cry HD Collection, 72% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/devil-may-cry-hd-collection
• And the new bundle is the BYO Play on the Go Bundle, with 17 games to choose for your 3, 5 or 8 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-play-on-the-go-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Resident Evil 7 gets a must-have 24GB 4K AI-upscaled Texture Pack
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/resident-evil-7-gets-a-must-have-24gb-4k-ai-upscaled-texture-pack/
Modder ‘Ashok’ has released a must-have 4K AI-upscaled Texture Pack for Resident Evil 7. This mod basically retextures 1,497 vanilla 1K and 2K textures in total. Moreover, and since the game does have some 4K textures, it does not make any changes to them.
Going into more details, wood, metal, and stone textures were AI upscaled and select paintings were replaced with high-resolution imagery. On the other hand, textures with very fine detail i.e. cloth, photographs, text, etc. remain untouched to prevent the game from having a “muddy” look.

Valheim gets a 2.3GB HD Texture Pack, featuring highly-detailed textures
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/valheim-gets-a-2-3gb-hd-texture-pack-featuring-highly-detailed-textures/
Modder ‘Corpse’ has released a brand new HD Texture Pack compilation for Valheim. This pack contains textures from numerous projects that came out over the last couple of years. As such, and if you haven’t downloaded any of the previous packs we’ve shared, we suggest using this one.
Going into more details, this pack uses a lot of textures from the HD Valheim and HD Grass by DJAurelius and zJIoDeI. It also uses the stones from the Peanuts 4K Stone Pack, and the foliage from Candymans HD Foliage. Finally, it uses the banners from the Wayside Custom Textures project.

GAMING NEWS

New trailer for Company of Heroes 3 focuses on its destruction system
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-trailer-for-company-of-heroes-3-focuses-on-its-destruction-system/
SEGA has released a brand new trailer for Company of Heroes 3 in which the development team at Relic gives us an in-depth look at and discusses the game’s new destruction system.

Tuesday news, part two:

Legendary Japanese studio Treasure is on the comeback trail
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/legendary-japanese-studio-treasure-is-on-the-comeback-trail/
If you're of a certain age and inclination, then the Tokyo-based Treasure is a name that always retains its lustre. Founded in 1992 by Konami veterans that were sick of working on sequels, the studio focused on original designs and over the 90s and 00s produced a string of all-time great shoot-em-ups including Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Bangai-O, Sin & Punishment, and Ikaruga.
As the requirements for high-end development increased, the more boutique Treasure began to focus its resources on Nintendo's portable platforms. Its last game was Gaist Crusher God in 2014, after which it mainly went quiet (although it did re-release Ikaruga on the Epic Games Store a few weeks ago). The studio's 30th anniversary was June 19, 2022, and this was greeted by an announcement from Treasure's social media accounts.
>> Xxain made a thread about this announcement.

Makers of The Hunter: Call of the Wild announce new open world fishing game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/call-of-the-wild-the-angler-fishing-game-trailer/
Fans of fishing games on PC should dust off their tackle boxes and stock up on bait because they have a big new open world filled with lakes and rivers to cast their hopes and dreams into. Expansive Worlds, makers of The Hunter: Call of the Wild, have announced a new freshwater fishing sim you can play solo or with friends. Check out the trailer for Call of the Wild: The Angler above.

Dune early access update spices things up with multiplayer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dune-early-access-update-spices-things-up-with-multiplayer/
Dune: Spice Wars received its first big early access update today, pitting players against each other as they fight over the spice and try to avoid becoming lunch for some big worms.

Riot brings back LoL's magical anime troupe, fans go bananas
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/riot-brings-back-lols-magical-anime-troupe-fans-go-bananas/
Riot has announced that it's bringing the Star Guardian theme back to League of Legends, which a colleague explained to me thus: "a line of skins that’s basically ‘What if LoL characters were in a Sailor Moon-style magical girl anime?’" Clearly this appeals enormously to elements of LoL's playerbase, because the reaction to this skin collection is somewhat over-the-top euphoria.

All that chanting in the Elden Ring soundtrack is gibberish
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/all-that-chanting-in-the-elden-ring-soundtrack-is-gibberish/
Playing Elden Ring, you might be forgiven for thinking, "Wow! Some of these soundtracks have super cool chanting. I bet that's some amazing Latin or some other ancient, dead language and the meaning really adds to what's going on." You'd be wrong, however, as one student of languages has discovered: It's just gibberish manipulated to sound like real words in an ancient tongue.

This indie strategy game is like a tiny Total War that only takes an hour
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/this-indie-strategy-game-is-like-a-tiny-total-war-that-only-takes-an-hour/
I like an indie strategy game, especially if it only takes about an hour to wrap up a campaign. Indie Roma Invicta hits that sweet spot with a game of little pixel art Romans fighting little pixel art Gauls and marching all over a little pixel art Europe eating little pixelated bushels of pixel art wheat.

Watery survival hit Raft splashes out of Early Access with its largest update ever
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/watery-survival-hit-raft-splashes-out-of-early-access-with-its-largest-update-ever/
Soon after launching in 2018, cooperative survival adventure Raft got real popular real fast. It came as a surprise to the three-person development team at the time, who were really just making a game for their university course, but they shook that off and parlayed their unexpected success into a whole development career as Redbeet Interactive.
(...)
Now, four years later, Raft is a much bigger game with a more to offer than when it first won some hearts: It's even finished! Launching today with the largest update in Raft's history, Version 1.0: The Final Chapter adds the last pieces of Raft's slowly-evolving storyline spread across three new locations to explore. One's a highrise building poking above the waves, another an arctic research station, and the third is a secret until you find it. To make all the new pieces fit, the developers have overhauled the existing story to be sure it's smoother than it was.

Outriders is free to play on Steam until Thursday
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/outriders-is-free-to-play-on-steam-until-thursday/
I liked People Can Fly's third-person shooter Outriders well enough when I played around with it last year, although I can't disagree too much with Morgan's assessment in his 63% review that it pales in comparison to the studio's previous games, Bulletstorm and Painkiller. I didn't stick with it after launch though, and plenty of others fell away with it: Its Steam numbers fell off from a peak concurrent player count of more than 125,000 in April 2021 to a little shy of 2,600 over the past 30 days.
Despite that decline (and that doesn't account for console and Game Pass players, don't forget), Outriders is still out there and still growing: In fact, the Worldslayer expansion, with new locations, gear, weapons, and endgame content, is set to go live on June 30. And because Square Enix would very much like new players to give it a shot (and lapsed players to come back), it's made Outriders fully free to play for the next three days on Steam: Until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on June 23, you can just pop over to the store page, punch the "play game" button, and, well, play the game.
>> And it's also 45% off.

Crytek warns against using revolver glitch in Hunt: Showdown, says fix is coming soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/crytek-warns-against-using-revolver-glitch-in-hunt-showdown-says-fix-is-coming-soon/
Crytek has warned that Hunt: Showdown players who take advantage of a glitch that gives the LeMat Mark 2 revolver an unintended power boost could face serious consequences for their actions.
The LeMat is a nine-round revolver that also packs a secondary barrel capable of firing shotgun shells. What this means, basically, is that it has the relatively accuracy of a pistol (or high rate of fire, if you're fanning), and can also absolutely ruin your day up close. The problem, as explained by PCGamesN, is that the gun can be glitched so that when the shotgun is fired, each pellet is treated as a full metal jacket pistol round, without the usual spread of a shotgun shell. That means it hits like an absolute truck, way above and beyond what it's meant to, as you can see in the video below.

More Tony Hawk remakes were planned, but then shelved
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/more-tony-hawk-remakes-were-planned-but-then-shelved/
For those with fingers crossed that the third and fourth instalments of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater might get a remake, there's bad news. According to Tony Hawk himself, speaking on a Twitch livestream, remakes for both were still planned as late as the release date of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, but due to the merging of remake studio Vicarious Visions with Blizzard, the project was shelved.

Fall Guys now free on Epic but de-listed from Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/fall-guys-now-free-on-epic-and-de-listed-from-steam/
Last month it was announced that Fall Guys would be going free-to-play today, June 21, as well as coming to the Epic Games Store. Squirrelled-away at the bottom of the press release was the minor detail that it would also be disappearing from Steam: Although those who already own a Steam copy will continue to receive the same updates as Epic Store players.
It has come to pass, and you can now download Fall Guys for free on EGS. It's also making its debut on several consoles, which I mention because the game now has cross-play and cross-progression across all platforms. So if you enjoy the game, and it's a lot of fun in small doses, there's likely to be be a huge crowd of people trying it out for the next few weeks.

If you look at the image that Basil posted, you'll see at the top that it says "SEGA Trilogy Star Deal" but, as Conina pointed out, it's not a SEGA franchise but from Capcom.

I'm currently using a 25" 1440p monitor. Please, for the love of God, don't even think about getting a 24" 4K screen unless you have eagle vision. You'd have it.

Also, i fI may ask, how do you plan to play on a single 4K monitor given your reluctance to get GPUs with high power consumption? Or you'll keep gaming on one of your screens?

Intel Arc A380 desktop GPU reviews should go live tomorrow

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-arc-a380-desktop-gpu-reviews-should-go-live-tomorrow

Tomorrow should be a fun day if true

AMD rumored to be working on another Navi 3X GPU with 16384 Stream Processors

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-rumored-to-be-working-on-another-navi-3x-gpu-with-16384-stream-processors

Take it with a grain of salt. AMD leakers have been very wrong lately.

Intel seeks $624 million in interest from EU after antitrust fine win

https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-intel-antitrust-idCAKBN2O1120?utm_source=reddit.com

I am currently using a PG32UQ as my primary screen. It's a 32 inch 4k 144z IPS panel with full bandwidth HDMI 2.1. It's a pretty good screen but it depends on your budget. I am currently using an LG 27GP83B as a secondary screen for work which is a 27 inch 1440p 165hz monitor.

If you are planning to go triple 4k screens, the cheapest option would be to go with the Gigabyte M28U. They are very cheap 28 inch IPS 4k 144hz monitors that's very well reviewed with it's only downside being a bit less color accurate against the Asus, having slightly worse HDR and having lower bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports. However the monitor does support HDMI 2.1 DSC so as long as the consoles support DSC, you should get the usual benefits.

https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/gigabyte/m28u

The biggest draw back to both however is the HDR implementation is shat. The Asus one has the better HDR due to it's higher brightness but because of it's lack of local dimming zones, you really don't get the true benefit of HDR. Believe me as a Macbook Pro 16 M1 owner which has a Mini-LED display over 10,000 dimming zones + 1600 nits peak brightness that there difference is insane.

So the best route to go imo and it depends on your budget of course is to get a main monitor that's 4k Mini-LED/QD-OLED and then two side monitors that are the same size. Then get a color calibrator and have them all be similar so it doesn't look off. But if you don't care about that stuff and on a budget build, then I'd choose either M28U as the main 4k display for your gaming needs or LG 27GP950-B but keep in mind LG is more expensive.

Alternatively you could go 1440p, especially as you are getting a 6800XT since a 3080 performs better at 4k. Especially as the 3080 12GB model is usually with in $50-$100 of the 10GB model.

It will be interesting to finally have some real data from an Intel card. If it happens, of course.

I'm getting tired of AMD leaks.

First we got, for months, that Navi 31 & 32 would use chiplets and have up to 16384 cores. Then came RedGamingTech a month or so ago saying that no, that we should forget about chiplets, that the cards would still use monolithic designs and have up to 12288 cores.

Yet one of the few things we learned during those AMD's financial days is that RDNA3 will use chiplets, putting that last "leak" to rest.

Now comes greymon again with a Navi 3x GPU featuring the originally rumored 16384 cores, kind of putting another nail at RedGamingTech's coffin, that answers this new "leak" with a "rumor" of his own: that this is for a Pro card because chiplets aren't coming until RDNA4/Navi4x... which still goes against what AMD themselves said. I call this bullsh!t.

We should forget anything that came out from RedGamingTech and go back to the previous rumors.

Mind you, they are still rumors and must be treated as such, but at least they aren't going against what AMD says.

It's worth to remember that the MSRP of a 3060Ti is $399, therefore those $300-350 are a good deal. Or they would if the cards hadn't been on use 24/7 during who knows how long.

Yea as far as what I think are reliable sources, youtubers are generally the least reliable. The main reason is what a youtuber's purpose is at their core which is to make money hence they do frequent videos with no sources. Then comes the twitter only leakers. As far as confidence in leakers go, there's generally a difference between a reliable leaker vs an unreliable one. Greymon imo is generally unreliable but sometimes, he hits the mark. Kopite is the most reliable leaker and the big difference you see between the two is Kopite rarely posts anything until we get close to launch where as Greymon posts very frequently.

Of course, there are somethings Kopite and every other leaker gets wrong like price, release date and announcement date. Any leaker that claims they know it is full of shit. Because even if they do, the reality is those things are never set in stone. But the specs of GPUs and such, those are hard to change.

But the main thing is always to make sure that while the leaks and rumours make for a fun discussion, never to use them as facts until the fat lady sings so to speak.

I think Linus Tech Tips did a pretty good video back in the day to see how mining cards performed and assuming the miners weren't stupid and undervolted their GPU which they should as it saves on electricity bills and gives a better ROI, getting a card that has been mined on isn't the worst thing in the world. These cards are designed to run for 5-7 years even under terrible conditions. As long as they were smart enough to undervolt them, then I suspect there won't be any issues even long term.

But the biggest thing this will do is hopefully force some actual sales from retailers. Back when Pascal had the GPU sell off, you could have bought a 1080 Ti for like $400-$500 even brand new which was insane at the time. And in the used market, some were going for as low as $300 from what I saw. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a 3080 12GB for $600 soon enough.

Yeah, I'm not contributing to the miners getting any decent price for their GPUs. The prices we're seeing now might maybe just perhaps, with a bit of a strech, been acceptable a year ago for mining cards, but I'm not paying that much for a mining card when the RTX 4000 is probably coming so soon. I'm very tempted, but I've been very patient for like two years now, so what's perhaps even a year more? It's not like I need a new GPU, or would even benefit a lot from one. The miners can suffer their crash for all I care. Maybe they'll have the last laugh when cryptocurrencies rise again, but in the meantime, I'm happy to see what's going on.

Don't forget that high-end gamers typically rush in or pre-order the high-end GPU's, so it makes financial sense to release high-end parts with the largest profit margins as they will sell in volume during the initial launch window and taper off later.