There will be something for everyone.

Can we skip four days and go straight to Friday? No? *sigh* Ok, then. Let's see what do we have for the Monday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

Apex Legends sets new player records in wake of Season 14
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-sets-new-player-records-in-wake-of-season-14-drop/
There's surely been some corks popping on celebratory beverages and clinking of glasses at Respawn Entertainment this past month, as Apex Legends continues its steady climb among the peaks of gaming. The release on Season 14 last month saw the popular battle royale push to a new peak player count of 511,676 concurrent players, an approximately 47% increase over the prior month.
More subtle, but perhaps more important, the minimum and average daily peak players have grown significantly as well. That's not always true with peak player record breaking months, and a subtle look at this year's numbers for Apex show a steady trend. Apex Legends is now averaging a minimum of over 300,000 players at any given time—329,041 in August.
These are all numbers retrieved by SteamDB, so they don't include anyone playing Apex through the EA app on Windows Store, nor the undoubtedly larger number of people playing on consoles. I'd bet my hat these numbers are going up on other major platforms as well.

Y'all know about these huge lists of free, open-source game clones, right?
https://www.pcgamer.com/yall-know-about-these-huge-lists-of-free-open-source-game-clones-right/
It might surprise you to learn that there are very many free games that don't fit the modern free-to-play model. I say that because every time somebody posts a link to some impressive, public, open-source game project that minutely recreates some abandoned classic people seem shocked.
So here's some of the best, the big fat lists of open source games and open source game clones. What do I mean when I say that?
I mean these are free public projects that produce games inspired by and using the mechanics of old classics, games like Rollercoaster or Transport Tycoon, Doom, XCOM, Red Alert, Civilization, and Sim City—not to mention the classic roguelikes like NetHack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
>> Enjoy.

While the GOG Sale is in its last hours (less than 7 hours left), that hasn't stopped GOG from launching new sales:

• The first Deal of the Day is XEL, 45% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/xel
• The other DotD is ITORAH, with a 60% discount until Wednesday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/itorah
• And there's a new Weekly Sale, with up to 80% discounts on "Building Simulation Games" until next Monday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220905_weekly_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• The new daily deal is Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/
• And the rol games from EA/Bioware (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Jade Empire) will be up to 80% off until September 15: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/EA/sale/new-worlds-sale

There are three new deals at Humble:

• At Humble Bundle we find the Level Up and Learn Programing Games Bundle, with up to 7 games to get during 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/level-up-and-learn-programming-games
• At the Humble Store, we find two new deals:
  • The Summer 48h deal is DOOM, 80% during another 26 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/doom
  • By the way, those 26 hours are the same time remaining of the Summer Sale. Time is running out.
  • And the PDXCon Sale comes with up to 80% discounts during 7 days. Most keys are for Steam, but there are also some for GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/pdxcon-sale/

And Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Just Cause 4 Complete Edition, 83% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/just-cause-4-complete-edition
• And the new BYO Labor Day Bundle features 16 titles to choose for your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-labor-day-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

**Since they are on sale in the west, even if it's only in NA, it's time to make this with Intel drivers as well:

INTEL Arc Graphics Driver 31.0.101.3277
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-driver-31-0-101-3277
Highlights
The Intel® Arc™ 101.3277 driver is bundled with the latest version of Intel® Arc™ Control 4759 to streamline installation experience, resulting in a larger driver package file size.

Fixed Issues

• Marvel’s Spider-Man (DX12) may exhibit lighting corruption when looking towards the Sun.
• Marvel’s Spider-Man (DX12) may exhibit a soft lock when attempting to take a picture of the Empire State Building.
• Marvel’s Spider-Man (DX12) may exhibit missing lens flare effects with certain light sources.
• Saint’s Row (DX12) may experience an application crash after extended gameplay, or during game launch.
• Saint’s Row (DX12) flickering corruption may be observed on certain textures.
• Gears 5 (DX12) may experience an application crash, system hang or TDR during gameplay.
• Some third-party camera applications may exhibit video corruption when playing the recorded video in Fullscreen.
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (DX11) may exhibit shadow corruption in certain environments when observing from a large distance.

>> There are also lots of fixes for the drivers and software, but I'm not going to list those (too long).

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Over Jump is an unofficial remake of SEGA Rally in Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/over-jump-is-an-unofficial-remake-of-sega-rally-in-unreal-engine-5/
SAGE 2022 is currently under way, offering demos from numerous indie games. And one title that is more or less an unofficial remake of SEGA Rally Championship in Unreal Engine 5 caught my attention. And yes, there is a demo that you can download and play.
Over Jump is created by a single developer, Alessandro Schiassi, and is currently in an alpha stage. The ultimate goal of this project is to remake the entire first SEGA Rally game in UE5. As such, Over Jump promises to have great graphics but the same arcade driving style that players loved.
Currently, Schiassi plans to complete the Forest track with a basic Time Attack mode, and release it for free in October. Then, and provided SEGA approves this project, the artist may recreate the rest remaining stages.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Rebirth 6.0 is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind-rebirth-6-0-is-available-for-download/
It’s been a while since our last look at the Morrowind Rebirth project. Today, we are happy to report though that modder ‘trancemaster_1988’ has released a brand new version of it that you can download right now.
Morrowind Rebirth is a complete overhaul for Morrowind. This mod adds countless new details, weapons, armors and much more for you to see and do. Basically, this is a must-have mod for those that want to replay this classic TES game.
According to the modder, Morrowind Rebirth 6.0 features numerous bug fixes, graphical improvements, reworked interiors, new weapons and armor, and more.

This Skyrim Special Edition mod allows you to become the Predator and hunt Xenomorphs
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-skyrim-special-edition-mod-allows-you-to-become-the-predator-and-hunt-xenomorphs/
Veenix1998 has shared a must-have mod for Skyrim Special Edition/Anniversary Edition. Predators The Lost Tribe V115D adds to the game 3 playable Predators, new weapons, as well as xenomorphs to hunt.
Going into more details, this is basically a port of the same mod that came out for the original version of Skyrim. Players will discover over 42 New Predator weapons with dozens and dozens of new types of predator biomasks, armor and equipment. Moreover, players will travel Skyrim and find technology scattered around Tribes of friendly and hostile Predator Civilizations. And yes, you will be able to also fight Xenomorphs.
Players can choose between normal Yautja, Super Predator and Bad Blood Predator. As a Predator, players can use cloaking and heatvision to sneak up on their prey and take them down. And yes, the mod also has the iconic Plasma Caster.
>> Sadly, the article has no video of this mod in action.

New Zelda Ocarina of Time Fan Remake in Unreal Engine 5 video shows off Hyrule Field
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-zelda-ocarina-of-time-fan-remake-in-unreal-engine-5-video-shows-off-hyrule-field/
CryZENx has released a new video (and a new build) from his fan remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine 5. This video shows off the Hyrule Field, as well as some of the tweaks and improvements that the artist has implemented in it.
Going into more details, CryZENx has been working the whole month to further optimize the project. CryZENx has added new variables and fixed numerous stuff, as well as added the whole inventory and made it functional. Furthermore, he implemented some new water physics for the game when you slash with the sword.
Now the good news is that the artist has released a brand new version for his Patreon followers. Yeah yeah, this sucks for everyone else. However, you can head over to CryZENx’s Discord server and download its free Unreal Engine 4 version. Additionally, the artist plans to release a more polished version of this UE5 project to the public in the future.

GAMING NEWS

The Callisto Protocol will most likely support Ray Tracing Shadows & Reflections
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-callisto-protocol-will-most-likely-support-ray-tracing-shadows-reflections/
It appears that some new details have emerged for the Ray Tracing features that The Callisto Protocol will support. According to two interviews, the game will have ray-traced shadows and ray-traced reflections.

Sonic Frontiers gets an official overview trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/sonic-frontiers-gets-an-official-overview-trailer/
SEGA has released an official overview trailer for its upcoming Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers. As the press release reads, this trailer provides a look at the title’s new high-speed, open-zone gameplay, exhilarating combat system, intriguing puzzles, Cyber Space stages and more.

Here are 18 minutes of gameplay footage from New Tales from the Borderlands
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-18-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-new-tales-from-the-borderlands/
2K Games and Gearbox have shared a new trailer for New Tales from the Borderlands which features 18 minutes of gameplay footage.

Monday news, the very long part two:

Starfield composer says Bethesda's space RPG is 'huge' and 'philosophical'
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-composer-says-bethesdas-space-rpg-is-huge-and-philosophical/
The launch of Starfield has been delayed to 2023, and since the Microsoft and Bethesda Games Showcase back in June we really haven't heard anything new about the game. We're essentially stuck staring at the launch pad, waiting for Bethesda's big ol' rocket to start billowing out pre-launch smoke.
In the meantime, we'll take any new information we can get, and happily enough (via wccftech) an interesting new source popped up recently. Starfield's composer, Inon Zur, was interviewed by musician and podcaster Nikhil Hogan, and after a pleasant chat about Zur's extensive career the topic finally came around to Bethesda's upcoming space RPG.

Gizmo and Stripe are coming to Multiversus and are 'two separate characters'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gizmo-and-stripe-are-coming-to-multiversus-and-are-two-separate-characters/
Multiversus isn't done with its roster in the slightest, and keeps on expanding in unexpected ways. The surprisingly good fighting game from Warner Bros is adding in as many iconic characters as it can with weekly updates and the next friendly faces getting thrown into the battle are Gizmo and Stripe from the film Gremlins.

Valve once again insists that it 'has a lot of games in development,' wants to continue exploring Half-Life
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-once-again-insists-that-it-has-a-lot-of-games-in-development-wants-to-continue-exploring-half-life/
Valve has made some very big, influential games over the past 25 years, but it hasn't made a lot of games. You can literally count them on the fingers of one hand—and that number is mainly made up of sequels (Dota 2), spinoffs (Dota Underlords), and tech demos for new hardware (Aperture Desk Job). It's not really a problem on the business side of things because Steam is the proverbial money printer go brrr, but an awful lot of gamers sure would like it if Valve would get back to making the games they love, like it used to.
In what's sure to come as good news for those long-suffering fans, Valve's Greg Coomer told Famitsu (via Tweaktown, Google translated), that Valve remains deeply committed to making games, and in fact has multiple projects on the go at this very moment.
>> They always say the same, but nothing comes to fruition.

Splitgate dev is leaving 'Halo with portals' behind to make its next shooter
https://www.pcgamer.com/splitgate-dev-is-leaving-halo-with-portals-behind-to-make-its-next-shooter/
1047 Games, developer of free-to-play 'Halo with portals' FPS Splitgate, is ready to move on.
Not from portals, but definitely from the Halo comparison. The studio announced today in an interview with Digital Trends that Splitgate's next content drop would be its last.

One of our most anticipated games since 2020 is about to enter early access
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-of-our-most-anticipated-games-since-2020-is-about-to-enter-early-access/
The next release from the New Blood indie collective, the Thief-inspired first person survival horror game Gloomwood, is set to enter early access September 6. It's been a long wait since we first got to try Gloomwood's demo back in 2020, but the variety of new mechanics and locales creator Dillon Rogers has been teasing on Twitter make it seem like the wait was worth it.

Diablo Immortal players are facing massive 'orb debt' after Blizzard cracks down on resellers
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-immortal-players-are-facing-massive-orb-debt-after-blizzard-cracks-down-on-resellers/
A number of Diablo Immortal players are suddenly and unexpectedly facing crushing "orb debt" following what appears to be a massive revocation of Eternal Orbs purchased from resellers at cut-rate prices.

Co-op survival game Core Keeper is getting two new biomes and a boss
https://www.pcgamer.com/co-op-survival-game-core-keeper-is-getting-two-new-biomes-and-a-boss/
Back in June, co-op survival sandbox Core Keeper introduced a new biome, The Sunken Sea, which helped the game cruise its way to over a million sales in just three months of early access. But that huge success doesn't mean the developers at Pugstorm are taking it easy. Two new biomes are headed to Core Keeper, one coming later this year and another in 2023.

Do some imperial space politics, don't get deposed in Alliance of the Sacred Suns
https://www.pcgamer.com/do-some-imperial-space-politics-dont-get-deposed-in-alliance-of-the-sacred-suns/
Alliance of the Sacred Suns is a space-y blend of 4X and Grand Strategy RPG percolating out there in game land, and its developers have shared some interesting news about big changes to the core game ahead of its Early Access launch this year. They've revamped the in-game encyclopedia and tutorial functions, and beefed up the tooltips, to make the overall user experience better.

Battle across a hand-drawn cyber wasteland in this stylish puzzle platformer
https://www.pcgamer.com/battle-across-a-hand-drawn-cyber-wasteland-in-this-stylish-puzzle-platformer/
Amid a pretty good year for games in that nebulous puzzle-platformer genre the metroidvania you might have been forgiven for missing the release of Haak, stylized as HAAK, a stylish example of it that dropped a little over a week ago on Steam. Haak's vibe is a kind of cyberpunk world that's gone to absolute apocalyptic wasteland trash.

Scope the free demo for this tasty blend of Vampire Survivors and Risk of Rain
https://www.pcgamer.com/scope-the-free-demo-for-this-tasty-blend-of-vampire-survivors-and-risk-of-rain/
Soulstone Survivors is an upcoming action roguelike that just dropped a demo last month, a free prologue where you can check out the blend of wildly over-the-top builds and classes that power the bullet heaven. You know, a reverse bullet hell where you're the hell.

Here's a chunky new Homeworld 3 gameplay trailer about an ambush
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-a-chunky-new-homeworld-3-gameplay-trailer-about-an-ambush/
The latest look at Homeworld 3 beats out past eyefuls of gameplay by about three minutes, which I like quite a bit. You know why? It has lots more nice sweeping space ships and gravelly radio comms chatter and ancient, arcane megastructures.
>> If you've read recent previews of the game, you'll know what to expect from this trailer.

A new Torchlight game has begun playtesting on Steam, but it may not be what you expect
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-new-torchlight-game-has-begun-playtesting-on-steam-but-it-may-not-be-what-you-expect/
Torchlight Infinite, the latest game in the ARPG series after 2020's mixed bag, Torchlight 3, has entered a closed playtest on Steam ahead of a planned October release. Infinite is free-to-play, loot-focused, and also releasing on mobile.

An autobattler with refrigerators, wizards, and mecha cerberus comes this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/an-autobattler-with-refrigerators-wizards-and-mecha-cerberus-comes-this-month/
A pretty cool game with a pretty unwieldy title comes out on September 15th, as Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder bursts out of Early Access. The Steam demo was a highlight of Next Fest last year, and since it released last October its been pretty positively received.

Images allegedly from Bloober Team's pitch for a Silent Hill 2 remake have leaked
https://www.pcgamer.com/images-allegedly-from-bloober-teams-pitch-for-a-silent-hill-2-remake-have-leaked/
Rumors that new Silent Hill games are in the works were all but confirmed when Konami issued a DMCA strike on a previous leak. That leak, which included concept art signed by the original games' art director Masahiro Ito, seemed to come from a new Silent Hill set in Britain. However, there have also been rumors of a Silent Hill 2 remake being developed by Bloober Team, the divisive studio behind The Medium, Blair Witch, and the Layers of Fear series.
Now a set of images purporting to come from a demo created by Bloober Team as part of an internal pitch to secure the remake have appeared. The low-resolution pictures show Silent Hill 2's protagonist James Sunderland exploring buildings from a third-person perspective, with the third depicting a bubble-head nurse—one of the game's iconic enemies.

Callisto Protocol director appears to glorify crunch culture, then walks it back
https://www.pcgamer.com/callisto-protocol-director-appears-to-glorify-crunch-culture-then-walks-it-back/
Striking Distance CEO and The Callisto Protocol director Glen Schofield has walked back a tweet appearing to glorify crunch culture after it received backlash online.
It's since been deleted, but was screenshotted and uploaded to Twitter by Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier. "We are working 6-7 days a week, nobody's forcing us. Exhaustion, tired, Covid but we're working," Schofield's tweet read. "Bugs, glitches, perf fixes. 1 last pass through audio. 12-15hr days. This is gaming. Hard work. Lunch, dinner working. You do it 'cause you love it."

Fans are getting excited about a Suikoden announcement, but they might be in for disappointment
https://www.pcgamer.com/fans-are-getting-excited-about-a-suikoden-announcement-but-they-might-be-in-for-disappointment/
The scheduled Konami event at next week's Tokyo Game Show has become a kind of video game Rorschach test. Everyone looking at it sees something different: surely it's going to be about Metal Gear remasters, or Silent Hill remakes, or maybe they'll just dedicate the entire thing to announcing they're finally porting Symphony Of The Night to PC (it won't be this, but it should be)?
But a slowly growing collection of circumstantial evidence has one neglected community excited that they might finally get a new entry in a series that's been silent for a decade. Suikoden hasn't seen a new game since Suikoden: Woven Web Of The Centuries released on PSP in 2012, but fans are daring to dream that the "world-loved series" that will get a new game at TGS might actually be the fondly remembered JRPG cult classic.

NVIDIA Retained 80% Discrete GPU Market Share Versus AMD’s 20% In Q2 2022 Despite Gaming Revenue Losses

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-retained-80-discrete-gpu-market-share-amd-20-in-q2-2022-despite-gaming-revenue-losses/

Looks like while Nvidia did lose a bigger % of shipments compared to Radeon, Radeon wasn't shipping anywhere close to Nvidia's level to begin with. So Nvidia continues to retain that 80% while AMD remains unchanged with 20%. It's interesting that despite being more competitive than ever before, RDNA 2 has seen some of the lowest market share in Radeons history even after the Crypto hype has ended. Goes to show when charging Nvidia prices while only being competitive in Raster but falling behind in many other features does in fact mean most people aren't willing to buy your product over Nvidia.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Reportedly Features 16 GB & 12 GB Flavors, RTX 4090 PCB Details Revealed

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-4080-pcb-details-16-gb-12-gb-24-gb-memory-models-rumor/

Sounds like we could be getting two 3080 versions similar to Ampere. 3080 with 9728 cuda cores and 12GB of Vram and 3080 Ti with 14848 cuda cores and 16GB of Vram.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Ti “Full-Fat AD102” Graphics Card Pictured With Massive Triple Fan Cooler

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-ti-full-fat-ad102-graphics-card-pictured-massive-triple-fan-cooler/

Vega, is that you?

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Stock & 5.6 GHz OC CPU Benchmarks Leak Out, On Par With Core i9-12900K In Single-Threaded Tests

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-5-7600x-stock-5-6-ghz-oc-cpu-benchmarks-leak-out-on-par-with-core-i9-12900k/

Yep, the same domination Intel has (or had) in the CPU market, is found in the GPU one with Nvidia. Which is the reason that AMD's competitiveness in both markets is so impressive at times.

I said it before and I'll say it again: knowing the specs of the mid-cycle refresh cards before the original cards launch is depressing. Why would someone, in a regular, non-crypto booming market, buy a 4080 when it launches when, in 12-18 months you know that you'll get something more powerful, with more VRAM and, again, in a non-crypto hell situation, for the same or only slightly more money?

OIh, and yes, that card resembles the old Vega cards.

Looks like someone posted something he shouldn't have and received a phone call, because that article is nowhere to be found.

I think one reason is that NVidia is flooding the market, which makes is more difficult for AMD to get a shoe in.

Here in Luxembourg (and close-by in Belgium), finding an AMD GPU is an impressive feat, even from e-tailers. Alternate.lu for instance has currently 103 different GPUs for sale; but only 5 of them are from AMD, and even then, 2 of those are just RX 550 and the other ones are much more expensive than in other countries (for instance, 6650XT at Alternate.lu: 536€, Mindfactory: 399€ (same price as cheapest 6600XT, which isn't available at Alternate)), while the 6500, 6700 and 6800 are totally unavailable. In other words, I need to import an AMD GPU to get one either at all or for a cheaper price.

The other reason is notebooks. How many notebooks have you seen with AMD GPUs inside outside of the APU? I haven't seen a single one lately, and Notebooks is where the bulk of the GPU sales are these days with the shrinking Desktop market.

I went to notebooksbilliger.de to check and could find a grand total of 12 Laptops with RX 6000 discrete GPUs. for comparison, most quadro cards have more available laptops than off of the AMD ones together.

That being said, AMD could also be at fault here. Either the laptops are old and not adjusted to the end of the chip crunch, or laptops with the 6700M or 6800M are overpriced compared to NVidia Laptops with 3070 or 3080 chips inside; with one exception all laptops with a 6800M (or 6800S) cost 2000€ or more while you can get the same laptop with a comparable NVidia GPU for at least 200€ cheaper by now.

I don't think it's too big of a deal mainly cause we always had an idea of the refreshes of cards cause Nvidia always launches their expensive flagships. For example, when Nvidia used to do their titans, many people would wait for the xx80Ti variants because you could get Titan level performance for sometimes half the price. I think it's mainly about the cycle you are in. You buy a 4080 now, you are in the launch cycle where as if you buy a 4080 Ti, you are in the Ti cycle. Personally I like to be on the 80 cycle cause you always get that massive leap over last gen while getting the crucks of the technologies and you get the full cycle of the GPU gen... Where as the 80Ti versions are 20-30% faster than the 80 series but will get "outdated" sooner by the next gen.

But on the other hand, if you want to keep the GPU the longest, the 80Ti is usually the better choice cause it generally gets most amount of Vram and Cuda cores for that generation while being at a reasonable price pre-Turing. So it depends whether you upgrade every two or so years or if you want to keep it for a long time.

Well imo it more so depends on the consumer demand than anything. If the consumer wants a certain product that they are willing to wait for, they will wait for that product and retailers will secure shipments for it. For example when Ryzen 5000 came out vs 10th gen. Ryzen 5000 was very high in demand along with the shortages made it very hard for people to get their hands on it for a good 6 or so months. 10th gen from Intel on the other hand was readily available... Yet when you looked at the sales charts and what not, what you saw was Ryzen topping the carts everywhere. The reason is Ryzen 5000 was worth waiting for because of all the advantages it had.

The issue with Radeon is that most people wouldn't actually chose it over Nvidia because it has less features. People see Nvidia has the GPU to get and because majority are not demanding to get Radeon GPUs whether it be on desktops or laptops, the retailers are not going out of their way to secure shipments. You can especially see this on the depreciation of the value of cards. During the crypto boom, both Nvidia and AMD cards were priced very high but now you see Radeon cards being significantly cheaper. I seen 6900XTs go for cheaper than 3080s but why do you think that is? It's not because AMD wants to make them so cheap, it's because not enough people are buying them. And if not enough people are buying them, retailers are not going to secure shipments for them.

Lies of P on Steam has some weird system requirements:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1627720/Lies_Of_P/

"Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6700 / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060"

Either it will be horribly optimized for AMD which would be a surprise since they demod it during their press event or they are just randomly throwing out GPUs as place holders.

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has a Special Sale featuring Ubisoft games up to 80% off during 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220829_ubisoft.

Steam has four new deals and also new weeklong deals:

• The first Midweek Madness deal is Death's Door, 50% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/894020/Deaths_Door/
• Trailmakers gets a 70% discount until September 8: https://store.steampowered.com/app/585420/Trailmakers/
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands will be 80% off until Thursday, 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/460930/Tom_Clancys_Ghost_Recon_Wildlands/
• Need for Speed Payback is going to be 90% off until the 15th of September: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262580/Need_for_Speed_Payback/
• And here's a very small sample of the weeklong deals:
  • Old World gets a 20% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/597180/Old_World/
  • ATOM RPG Trudograd is 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1139940/ATOM_RPG_Trudograd/
  • Patron, that has a demo, gets a 50% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1538570/Patron/
  • The Longest Journey is going to be 60% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/6310/The_Longest_Journey/
  • Orcs Must Die! gets a 75% discount (other games in the franchise are also on sale): https://store.steampowered.com/app/102600/Orcs_Must_Die/
  • And GET EVEN is 85% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/299950/GET_EVEN/

And Fanatical's new Star Deal is Unrailed, 85% off during 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/unrailed

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Halo Reborn is a custom Halo campaign that will cover the entire trilogy with re-imagined missions and better graphics
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/halo-reborn-is-a-custom-halo-campaign-that-will-cover-the-entire-trilogy-with-re-imagined-missions-and-better-visuals/
A team of modders is working on an ambitious project that aims to cover the entire trilogy of the Halo games, called Halo Reborn. Halo Reborn will be using the Halo: The Master Chief Collection Engine, will take advantage of photogrammetry, and here are its first screenshots.
Halo Reborn will be using photogrammetry, 1k-4k textures, new foliage, skyboxes, and more to create beautiful vistas and environments. Furthermore, the team plans to revamp/improve all characters, vehicles, and weapons.
The modding team will be creating completely new levels and level layouts. As such, some things will appear in different places. The team also claims that it may cut some things (like for instance the large amount of backtracking in the first Halo game).

GAMING NEWS

The Last of Us Part I Remake – In-Game Graphics vs Real-Life Locations Video Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/the-last-of-us-part-i-remake-in-game-graphics-vs-real-life-locations-video-comparison/
YouTube’s ‘ElAnalistaDeBits’ has shared a video in which they compare the in-game graphics of The Last of Us Part I Remake with their real-life locations. The Last of Us Part I takes place in numerous cities, such as Boston and Colorado. Thus, this video can give you an idea of how close to the real locations the game came.

Tuesday news, part two:

2K's 'quality of life' change for BioShock is that Linux users can't play it anymore
https://www.pcgamer.com/2ks-quality-of-life-change-for-bioshock-is-that-linux-users-cant-play-it-anymore/
Recent updates to the remastered versions of BioShock 1 and 2, plus BioShock Infinite, have rendered the games unplayable for Linux users. The patches, which are called "Quality of life updates" in the accompanying patch notes, only make two deliberate changes: adding 2K account linking, and forcing the games to run through the 2K launcher "which includes a Store to purchase new content" after they boot from Steam.
>> Oh, c'mon! For f*cks' sake.

Dwarf Fortress Steam Edition threatens to make it playable for just about anyone
https://www.pcgamer.com/take-a-good-long-look-at-how-accessible-dwarf-fortress-steam-edition-will-be/
PAX West 2022 was in full swing last weekend, and for Dwarf Fortress developers Tarn and Zach Adams, plus publisher Kitfox Games, that meant it was time to show off an hour of the new Dwarf Fortress Steam Edition in all its unscripted glory, complete with imported barrels of crow blood. For those who know DF by its reputation as intimidating and hard to play it'll be a real revolution in how you view this venerable simulator.

Phasmophobia custom difficulty coming this month on its updated roadmap
https://www.pcgamer.com/phasmophobia-custom-difficulty-coming-this-month-on-its-updated-roadmap/
Phasmophobia developer Kinetic Games has released an updated roadmap outlining its development plans for the remainder of 2022 into 2023. It has also revealed that the game's long-awaited custom difficulties are coming this month alongside a big update.

Famous tabletop game Munchkin is going digital
https://www.pcgamer.com/famous-tabletop-game-munchkin-is-going-digital/
Love it or hate it, Munchkin has been a fixture of the tabletop gaming scene for 20 years, a take-that backstabbing card game where players seek to be the first, richest, most horrible little person to get level 10. It's finally coming to digital, as Dire Wolf has announced an adaptation in partnership with Munchkin publisher Steve Jackson Games.

River City Ransom creator dies
https://www.pcgamer.com/river-city-ransom-creator-dies/
Mitsuhiro Yoshida, a Japanese designer best-known in the west for River City Ransom, has died at the age of 61. Yoshida's career will always be associated with the titles he worked on at Technōs Japan in the '80s and '90s, directing games like as Nekketsu Super Dodge Ball (Kōkō Dodgeball-Bu) and River City Ransom (Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari). He also worked on titles including Double Dragon and Nintendo World Cup (his softography is here)

Here's when Disney Dreamlight Valley unlocks in your timezone
https://www.pcgamer.com/disney-dreamlight-valley-release-time-unlock/
With Disney Dreamlight Valley's release almost upon us, you might be wondering exactly when you can jump into this magical sim. In a world shared by both Pixar and traditional Disney characters, you'll need to complete quests and overcome challenges and puzzles as you unlock different Realms in a bid to save the valley.
If you've already sunk some time into the character creator and you're itching to get started, here is a list of the Disney Dreamlight Valley release times broken down by region.

WoW Classic players facing 6 hour queue times to get into the game's biggest servers
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-classic-players-facing-6-hour-queue-times-to-get-into-the-games-biggest-servers/
Players trying to get into World of Warcraft Classic's more popular servers have found themselves faced with queues of tens of thousands and wait times measured in hours, as Blizzard's classic MMO gears up for the release of Wrath Of The Lich King on September 26. Yes: it's just like the good old days.