The Tuesday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Itch.io's abortion funds bundle offers hundreds of games for just $10
https://www.pcgamer.com/itchios-abortion-funds-bundle-offers-hundreds-of-games-for-just-dollar10/
Following the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, Itch.io has launched the Indie Bundle for Abortion Funds, a collection of more than 750 indie games, soundtracks, digital comics, books, and more, available for a minimum purchase price of $10.
As with previous major Itch.io bundles, the Indie Bundle for Abortion Funds is a mix of games you've likely heard of, like A Mortician's Tale, Hypnospace Outlaw, Calico, and Catlateral Damage, and a great many you probably haven't. But that's part of the fun of these things: Rolling the dice, picking something at random, and getting to discover what HookCat is. Or Son, Go Eat Soup! Or perhaps Ultimate Zombie Death Ball. It's fair to say that not all of it is going to be good, but there's definitely a lot to do here.

GOG has one new flash deal: Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Dry Twice is 80% off during 24 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/leisure_suit_larry_wet_dreams_dry_twice.

The Humble Store has a new sale: the Midsummer Madness Sale features up to 75% discounts during 6 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG (2), EGS, UPlay and the Rockstar thing: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/midsummer-madness/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Modders are busy hacking AMD's FSR 2.0 into a host of Nvidia DLSS games so we gave it a go too
https://www.pcgamer.com/modders-are-busy-hacking-amds-fsr-20-into-a-host-of-nvidia-dlss-games-so-we-gave-it-a-go-too/
The floodgates are open and the DLSS dominos are starting to fall, because AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 is now open and out in the wild. And enterprising modders have been jury-rigging the upscaler into any game they can find. The first was Cyberpunk 2077, where modder, PotatoOfDoom, figured out a way to inject the feature in place of DLSS to enable AMD gamers to enjoy FSR 2.0.
That same technique has now been modified to the extent that Nexus Mods is starting to see some games—Red Dead Redemption 2 and Dying Light 2—with their own versions of the mod, based on PotatoOfDoom's original. Gamers are also then using those files themselves to try and get the same effect on a number of other games, with Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition and Guardians of the Galaxy both popping up on Reddit recently.
The results seem to be that the games are a little softer than native, but generally deliver the performance uplift we're craving with little other fidelity problems.

GAMING NEWS

First leaked screenshots for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s Multiplayer Maps
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/first-leaked-screenshots-for-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2s-multiplayer-maps/
It appears that the first screenshots for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2‘s multiplayer maps have been leaked online. These MP maps were leaked via the COD Warzone Mobile alpha client, and they are legit.

Disco Elysium has dyslexia-friendly fonts now
https://www.pcgamer.com/disco-elysium-has-dyslexia-friendly-fonts-now/
Disco Elysium creators ZA/UM have released an update for Disco Elysium - The Final Cut that adds dyslexia-friendly fonts for most of the supported languages. That's a big addition to the game, and should complement The Final Cut's full voice acting quite well for those who like reading along with narration.

Summer Games Done Quick does more than $3M for charity
https://www.pcgamer.com/summer-games-done-quick-does-more-than-dollar3m-for-charity/
Summer Games Done Quick wrapped up its annual speedrunning extravaganza for charity over the weekend with a heroic half-hour run through Elden Ring and more than $3 million raised for Doctors Without Borders, an international organization that delivers emergency medical aid to people impacted by wars, natural disasters, and epidemics.

A boatload of old ZX Spectrum games are releasing on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-boatload-of-old-zx-spectrum-games-are-releasing-on-steam/
Anybody remember the odd top-down platformer Bounder, released in 1985? How about the platformers starring Monty Mole? How about anything else by British developers Gremlin Graphics for the ZX Spectrum?
You don't? Neither did I, until recently, when publisher Pixel Games UK started pushing a massive back catalog of old ZX Spectrum games to Steam spanning a variety of developers from the golden age of British computer game design on what, for many older gamers from the UK, was their first PC. Little-noticed, Pixel Games UK has been pushing out old games to Steam, consistently, for years now, but a recent burst of activity has seen dozens more added.

Lollipop Chainsaw is getting a remake next year
https://www.pcgamer.com/lollipop-chainsaw-is-getting-a-remake-next-year/
After vaguely announcing in June that Lollipop Chainsaw was "back," we now have confirmation that a remake is in the works and set to release sometime next year.
Yoshimi Yasuda, former CEO of Kadokawa Games and producer on the original Lollipop Chainsaw, is returning to remake the game under his new studio Dragami Games. According to FrontlineJP, some of the original development team is returning to work on the game alongside new Dragami developers.

Intel 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake-S” officially supports DDR-5600 and DDR4-3200 memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-13th-gen-core-raptor-lake-s-officially-supports-ddr-5600-and-ddr4-3200-memory

On one hand, it's great they are continuing to support DDR4 for the more budget buyers. On the other, not having PCI-E Gen 5 storage is a bit cringe for high end buyers. As a platform, AM5 is clearly superior but we will see how Zen 4 is in terms of performance.

The New AOKZOE A1 Ryzen 6800U Hand-Held Handles High-End Emulation Like A Pro?

Very impressive that it can emulate switch games at 1080p 60fps. Most emulators, you can keep the wattage at 15 but for some like the switch, you need to increase it to 23 watts if you want a more fluid 60fps unless you are willing to lower the resolution below 1080p.

FINALLY! USB4 Worked On An AMD Laptop!!

Pretty huge news as USB4 enabled AMD Ryzen laptops get full Thunderbolt 4 support which means you can officially hook up eGPUs to them. Also MS has mandated that for all officially licensed Windows 11 laptops that have USB4, that they need ensure they have all of the options enabled such as eGPU support going forward.

Come on Dell, stop being in bed with Intel and give us an XPS 17 with Ryzen option. Keep the 3060 though.

Linus has gotten his hands on a PS3 dev kit

Interestingly, it comes with a 1000 watt power supply... The ponies did always say Sony was forward thinking /s

M2 MacBook Pro - Top 7 Problems after 1 week..

Normally I don't post videos like this but I feel like it's worth mentioning as the Apple's 13 M2 Macbook Pro launch has had quite the controversy.

Firstly the M2 uses 36% more power (19.7 watts vs 14.48 watts) to get 13-18% more multi-core performance. The higher wattage M2 SoC is causing huge thermal throttling issues with the M2 Macbook Pro. When running at max load, the M2 CPU heats up to 108C and then thermal throttles drastically when the last years M1 never thermal throttles. This leads to M2 only being 10% faster despite the workload being GPU limited which is supposed to be 35% faster. The other main issue is the M2 Macbook pro SSD has half the speed as last gen if you choose the base model. It's slower than the ipad air which costs $600 vs $1300 of the Macbook Pro. And since the Macbook Pro base model only has 8GB of RAM, it becomes super yikes as it needs to swap applications in and out of the SSD.

If that wasn't enough, the SSD they use in the M2 Macbook Pro is also lower quality. When doing a large file transfer, it slows down much faster than a 2019 Macbook Pro. When M2 Macbook Pro ran out of SLC cache, it slowed down to 300 MB/s vs 2019 slowed down to 950 MB/s.

And if you go with 16GB + 512GB version, you are within spitting distance of the M1 Macbook Pro 14 inch which has the MiniLED screen. Looks like Apple made a woopsie.

The games for Humble Choice July 2022 have been revealed:

• Deep Rock Galactic + coupon for 65% off Ultimate Bundle
• Necromunda: Hired Gun
• Legion TD 2
• Legend of Keepers
• Lawn Mowing Simulator
• Banners of Ruin
• Yes, Your Grace
• ATOM RPG Trudograd

Lawn Mowing Simulator is the real masterpiece of them all.

Thanks for sharing.

For karl!

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The recent Monster Hunter games have sold very, very well
https://www.pcgamer.com/monster-hunter-rise-sunbreak-sales/
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is an excellent expansion for one of the year's best PC releases, and has seen Steam's playercounts for the game go through the roof. Our review said that "Monster Hunter Rise is as good as this series has ever been, and Sunbreak is much more of the same" (even if it is a bit of a tough nut.)
Sunbreak also brings a whole boatload of new monsters to Rise, including one which our Wes Fenlon found to be a profound and targeted personal affront.
Capcom has now announced that, less than a week after the full-price expansion launched, it has sold over two million copies. In the same press release, the company says that lifetime sales for the base game also stand at over ten million copies. Those figures obviously incorporate sales on Nintendo Switch, where Rise made its debut, but Capcom cites the PC version as one of the reasons it hit those milestones.

GOG has two new flash deals and a new Midweek Sale:

• The first flash deal is The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series, 50% off until Friday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_walking_dead_the_telltale_definitive_series
• The second flash deal is Edge Of Eternity, 55% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/edge_of_eternity
• The Midweek Sale features water themed games up to 90% off during 4 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220706_midweek_sale

The Humble Store has a new Konami Publisher Sale, featuring up to 90% discounts during 5 days. All the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/konami-publisher-sale/.

And once the Red Hot Sale is over (tho there are still some deals remaining worth checking), Fanatical goes back to its usual business with a new Star Deal: Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is 40% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/persona-4-arena-ultimax.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Nothing-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Also Nothing-

GAMING NEWS

Capcom has removed Denuvo from Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/capcom-has-removed-denuvo-from-monster-hunter-stories-2-wings-of-ruin/
Capcom has issued a new patch for Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin that removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from it. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin came out on PC in July 2022, meaning that it took the Japanese company almost a year in order to remove it.

Battlefield 2042 Update 1.1 is now available for download, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/battlefield-2042-update-1-1-is-now-available-for-download-full-patch-notes/
DICE has released a brand new update for Battlefield 2042. According to the release notes, Update 1.1 brings new fixes, Quality of Life improvements and balance changes.

Square Enix has delayed Forspoken until January 24th, 2023
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/square-enix-has-delayed-forspoken-until-january-24th-2023/
Square Enix has announced another delay for its upcoming action RPG, Forspoken. The publisher now aims to release this game on January 24th, 2023.

VALKYRIE ELYSIUM is coming to PC on November 11th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/valkyrie-elysium-is-coming-to-pc-on-november-11th/
Square Enix has announced that VALKYRIE ELYSIUM will be coming to PC via Steam on November 11th. In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher has also released a new trailer that you can find below.

The news, the sequel:

Starfield fans are already reverse-engineering the game's map
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-fans-are-already-reverse-engineering-the-games-map/
It's going to be a fair bit longer before we finally get to explore Starfield's galaxy. Unless, of course, you're dedicated enough to reverse engineer Bethesda's star-map based on six fleeting seconds of trailer footage, compile it into a 3D executable, and release it into the wild for curious fans.

The Netherlands moves toward an outright loot box ban
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-netherlands-moves-toward-an-outright-loot-box-ban/
Representatives of six political parties in the Netherlands have filed a motion calling for more stringent regulation of loot boxes in videogames, and possibly even an outright ban. The motion (via Google Translate) describes loot boxes as "addictive," and says that they're a form of gambling that are designed to manipulate children into spending money.

The Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 remake is changing the battle system, and I demand to see the manager
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-remake-is-changing-the-battle-system-and-i-demand-to-see-the-manager/
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion was recently announced at the FF7 25th anniversary livestream, and Square Enix has now dropped some new details about the project, which is doing a lot more than just sprucing-up the graphics.

After a year of silence, Ubisoft might finally tell us about its big games
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-a-year-of-silence-ubisoft-might-finally-tell-us-about-its-big-games/
For a studio with a bunch of major games in the works at all times, Ubisoft sure hasn't told us much about them over the past year. It didn't participate in not-E3 last month, there were no trailers or announcements from Ubisoft at The Game Awards back in December, and even the Ubisoft Forward showcase in 2021 was pretty underwhelming.
(...)
Hopefully we'll be given more to chew on this summer, because the dates for Ubisoft Forward 2022 have finally been announced. First up is an appetizer on July 7, with an "in-depth look" at Skull and Bones, Ubisoft's repeatedly delayed open world multiplayer pirate game that will (probably) come out before the end of the year.

Ubisoft is trying to save Anno 2070 from Ubisoft
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-is-trying-to-save-anno-2070-from-ubisoft/
Ubisoft announced last week that it's pulling the plug on online support for a number of its older games, including multiple Assassin's Creeds, Driver San Francisco, Far Cry 3, and several others. But Ubisoft Mainz, the studio behind the city-sim strategy game Anno 2070—which is also on the list of games losing online support—isn't letting it go without a fight.

Rockstar reportedly halts Red Dead Redemption remaster because of GTA Trilogy mess
https://www.pcgamer.com/rockstar-reportedly-halts-red-dead-redemption-remaster-because-of-gta-trilogy-mess/
Nothing succeeds like success, as the old saying goes, and nowhere is that more true than in videogames. Sequels have been a foundational part of the business for years, and more recently remakes and remasters have become big, bringing our favorite games from years gone by onto new hardware. But two huge and obvious candidates for the remastering treatment—Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto 4—have reportedly been halted by Rockstar.
>> "Oh. no! We made a crappy port that no one liked. That means no one is interested in remasters anymore" - some very smart exec at Rockstar/Take Two.

To bring attention to climate change, Ubisoft will burn down virtual forests
https://www.pcgamer.com/to-bring-attention-to-climate-change-ubisoft-will-burn-down-virtual-forests/
Later this year, Riders Republic players will log into their extreme sports sandbox and be greeted not by idyllic California cliffs and trails, but by grim orange skies choked by smoke. They'll find that a gas mask has been put on their character. And they won't be able to access certain map areas deemed "unbreathable" as a result of local wildfires.

History's weirdest shotgun is coming to a videogame near you
https://www.pcgamer.com/historys-weirdest-shotgun-is-coming-to-a-videogame-near-you/
Hunt: Showdown, a tactical cowboy FPS known for its arsenal of cool, absurd, and forgotten weapons of the 1800s, is only getting weirder. According to a detailed leak outlining an upcoming update, Hunt will soon receive a peculiar historical shotgun design long requested by fans: the Alofs device.

Singleplayer Battlefield game announced in the modern style: with a job posting
https://www.pcgamer.com/singleplayer-battlefield-game-announced-in-the-modern-style-with-a-job-posting/
Last December, we heard that a new Seattle studio headed by Halo trilogy art director Marcus Lehto will be exploring "narrative, storytelling, and character development" in the Battlefield series. EA didn't directly say that the studio is making a singleplayer Battlefield campaign, but it seemed pretty obvious. Now we have explicit confirmation.

In Immortal Empires, Total War: Warhammer's vampire couple are 'staying together in undead matrimony'
https://www.pcgamer.com/in-immortal-empires-total-war-warhammers-vampire-couple-are-staying-together-in-undead-matrimony/
As we get closer to the August release of Total War: Warhammer 3's Immortal Empires DLC, Creative Assembly has been explaining how the revised mega-sized campaign of conquest will work. We've seen a new map taking in the entire Warhammer World, with revised starting positions, and in the latest blog Creative Assembly introduces a new legendary lord and some changes to old ones.

Sonic creator still pissed about 'no good' Square Enix
https://www.pcgamer.com/sonic-creator-still-pissed-about-no-good-square-enix/
In April this year Yuji Naka, the celebrated designer best-known for his years at Sega and the creation of the first Sonic the Hedgehog games, posted an extraordinary condemnation of Square Enix. Among other things he said "I don't think Square Enix cares about games."
This bust-up all relates to the development of a game called Balan Wonderworld, on which Naka was once the project director before being removed by the publisher. Naka subsequently brought a lawsuit against Square Enix for his treatment. The legal stuff is all over now and, as part of the outcome, Naka is free to say what he thinks.

James Gunn and Suda51 'don't know anything' about the Lollipop Chainsaw remake
https://www.pcgamer.com/james-gunn-and-suda51-have-nothing-to-do-with-the-lollipop-chainsaw-remake/
Lollipop Chainsaw is getting a remake if you somehow haven't heard my incessant yelling about its return for the past few weeks. The original is a bombastic, colourful zombie-sawing action game packed with witty dialogue co-written by James Gunn back when he was just "the Scooby-Doo guy" and not "the Marvel guy."
Unfortunately, any hopes of Gunn making a return to freshen up and add new dialogue have been dashed by the man himself. "Neither I nor Suda 51 are currently involved in this," he tweeted in response to an article written about the remake. "I heard about it for the first time from Suda a couple weeks ago."

UK competition watchdog to investigate Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk-competition-watchdog-to-investigate-microsofts-acquisition-of-activision-blizzard/
The year's biggest news so far has been Microsoft's proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard, in a deal that could be worth $68.7 billion. Activision Blizzard's shareholders have approved the deal, but due to its sheer size (this would be the biggest acquisition in the industry's history by some considerable distance) is attracting the attention of regulators worldwide.
The acquisition is currently being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission, and now the UK's equivalent body has followed suit. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority, essentially an antitrust watchdog that drinks a bit more tea than the FTC, today announced it would be opening an investigation into the deal.

A new Witcher game releases tomorrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-new-witcher-game-releases-tomorrow/
Tomorrow we're going to get an all new Witcher game and honestly, I'm as surprised as you are. Obviously it's not The Witcher 4, which CD Projekt Red confirmed earlier this year. It's actually a deckbuilding roguelike based on the card game Gwent.

Riot to increase price of League of Legends microtransactions worldwide
https://www.pcgamer.com/riot-to-increase-price-of-league-of-legends-microtransactions-worldwide/
Riot has announced that it's soon going to increase the price of League of Legends' in-game currencies. From August 19 the prices of RP and TFT coins will increase in "most" regions in which the game operates, and the publisher has a laundry list of reasons why: "worldwide inflation, currency fluctuations, maintaining fair prices between and within regions, consistency across our products, and other associated cost increases."

Vital TSMC Supplier Warns of Chip Material Price Hikes Into 2023

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-04/vital-tsmc-supplier-warns-of-chip-material-price-hikes-into-2023

Similar to Ampere/RDNA 2 launch, if you wait until the following year to buy GPUs, you will most likely be paying more

Intel adds 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake-S” (desktop) and “Raptor Lake-P” (mobile) support to the latest Media Driver API

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-adds-13th-gen-core-raptor-lake-s-desktop-and-raptor-lake-p-mobile-support-to-the-latest-media-driver-api

Forespoken gets delayed.

"it's cus they scared of GoW, I don't blame them"

>3rd party game delay
>really bad visuals

>1st Party game on one console

Yeah, nah. It's because the game looked so fucking bland and looked like trash, that's why it's being delayed, because it's also a new IP and SE saw what happened with P*'s Babylon's Fall and they obviously do not want another repeat of that.

Why the fuck would a third party game selling on multiple systems, be fucking scared of Sony... I'm sorry that just sounds smug and retarded to hear at the same time, at least from my Pov. The world ain't revolving around Sony.

It just makes more sense to delay it in order to polish it up and make it not look like ass, not because they wanted to avoid a 1st party game being sold on one console system.

Yea I haven't seen anything about Forspoken that makes me even want to try out a demo. The trailers makes the combat seem very loose and floaty and it costs $70. The problem with SE is their marketing has been very shit of late. I almost skipped Guardians of the Galaxy because of how generic the trailers made it seem and I am glad I didn't. But I don't think this will be another Guardians situation though.

And yea, I doubt SE is delaying it cause of GoW. If anything, it got delayed cause of Call of Duty MW2 and Overwatch 2 releasing around that time. But overall, I don't see it being very successful.