It's hard to guess what's going on in the heads of the S-E execs, especially after launching this two times delayed mess, the last one in an alarmingly long series of failures that bring little money to S-E but damages its brand, but I'd say that they didn't want to release the demo but, after the terrible press from all the media, I think they've decided to launch it to try to counter all that negativity, giving users that were interested in the game, like you, the chance to try it and, hopefully, decide that it's not that bad and actually purchase it.

But, as I said, who knows what makes S-E do what they do?

As you say, there are objective reasons to justify a GPU price increase, from the newer nodes to useing more and more expensive memory, but it's very difficult to justify the cost of all the Ampere cards besides the 3080, much less the prices of Ada GPUs, except the 4090.

I wish AMD and Intel could force Nvidia to lower its prices and actually enter a price war like the one we have with CPUs (quite ironic how this comment could have been the opposite a few years ago), but we all know how unlikely this is.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has two new deals:

• Beyond: Two Souls will be 50% off until January, 31st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/960990/Beyond_Two_Souls/
• And Godhood gets a 70% discount until the same 31st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/917150/Godhood/

The Humble Store has a new flash deal: Ultimate Chicken Horse will be 60% off during 26 hours. The key is for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/ultimate-chicken-horse-winter-sale-featured-deals/.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.1.2 (RX 7900)
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-23-1-2-rx-7900
Highlights
Support for:

• Forspoken
• IREE compiler using MLIR interface on Vulkan.
• Additional Vulkan extensions. Click here for more information.

Fixed Issues

• AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition may fail to launch with the error message “Delayed Write Failed” on Microsoft® Windows® 11 version 22H2.
• Poor performance and load time may be observed while playing SpaceEngine™.
• Missing or flickering textures may be observed while playing Emergency 4™.

>> This is, once again, a driver update only for the new 7900 cards and, as TechPowerUp notes, there has been no driver updates for older cards for the last 48 days. Way to go, AMD!

INTEL Arc & Iris Graphics Driver 31.0.101.4090
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-iris-graphics-driver-31-0-101-4090
Highlights
Support for:

• Forspoken

Fixed Issues
Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (DX12) may experience application freeze and crash during gameplay.
• Need for Speed: Unbound (DX12) may exhibit box corruptions during gameplay.

Intel® Core™ Processor Products:

• Need for Speed Unbound (DX12) May exhibit screen-space color corruption during gameplay.
• Total War: Warhammer III (DX11) May exhibit an intermittent application crash when launching the game.
• Battlefield: 2042 (DX12) May experience color corruption on certain maps.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Mass Effect 3 Unofficial Patch 2022 is a must-have mod for the original 2012 version
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/mass-effect-3-unofficial-patch-2022-is-a-must-have-mod-for-the-original-2012-version/
Modder ‘Orikon’ has released a brand new version of the Unofficial Patch Project for the original Mass Effect 3 game. As said, this patch is for the original game that came out in 2012, and not for the remastered version that is available in Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
This Unofficial Mass Effect 3 Patch (UME3P) introduces a large amount of bug fixes, polish and visual corrections. Furthermore, it backports changes from the Legendary Edition, helps integrate DLC, and restores cut content in a careful and selective manner.
>> There are 2 videos of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

4A Games has released the Exodus SDK, allowing modders to create new free content for Metro Exodus
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/4a-games-has-released-exodus-sdk-allowing-modders-to-create-new-free-content-for-metro-exodus/
4A Games has just released the Exodus SDK for Metro Exodus and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. This SDK will allow modders to create new free content for these versions of Metro Exodus.

Fallout 76 January 24th Update released and here is its full changelog
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/fallout-76-january-24th-update-released-and-here-is-its-full-changelog/
Bethesda has just released a new update for Fallout 76. According to the release notes, the January 24th Update brings a host of bug fixes, gameplay improvements, and more. This patch is 5.6GB on Steam and 15GB on Microsoft Store.

Forspoken has frame pacing, audio & shader compilation stutters issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/forspoken-has-frame-pacing-audio-shader-compilation-stutters-issues/
Square Enix has just released Forspoken on PC and things are not looking particularly well. One of the biggest features of this title was its support for DirectStorage. And, after closer examination, it appears that DirectStorage support is available on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
>> By a WccfTech article, the DirectStorage implementation is the old one, so it doesn't support GPU decompression. Therefore, loading isn't as fast as in consoles.

The highly anticipated FPS, Atomic Heart, will be using Denuvo
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-highly-anticipated-fps-atomic-heart-will-be-using-denuvo/
Mundfish has confirmed that its highly anticipated first-person shooter, Atomic Heart, will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech. What’s really annoying here is the excuse Mundfish presented, as well as the fact that Denuvo is not listed on the game’s Steam store page.
Mundfish claims that it doesn’t know whether Denuvo will impact the game’s performance. If it does though, the developer claims that DLSS 3 will win back those loses.
>> I wasn't sold on the game, but that lame, piss poor excuse is enough for me to give them the middle finger.

Unreal Engine 5-powered MMO, The Day Before, has been delayed until November 2023
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/unreal-engine-5-powered-mmo-the-day-before-has-been-delayed-until-november-2023/
Fntastic was originally planning to release its survival MMO game, The Day Before, on March 1st. However, and due to a trademark/copyright claim, the team has now delayed the game until November 10th, 2023.

Wednesday news, part two:

This indie adventure has you playing the hapless security guard from every horror movie
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-indie-adventure-has-you-playing-the-hapless-security-guard-from-every-horror-movie/
Oh yeah, I'm thinking it's time for a new indie genre name: the night shift sim. Interference: Dead Air is building off the likes of Five Nights at Freddy's or Security Booth to tell a new tale of after hours supernatural woe in a first person adventure releasing February 2.

Everyone's favorite sandbox murder-fest is getting Nvidia's Frame Generation magic
https://www.pcgamer.com/everyones-favorite-sandbox-murder-fest-is-getting-nvidias-frame-generation-magic/
Nvidia announced today that Hitman 3 and Marvel's Midnight Suns are getting some extra frame rate-boosting love in the form of DLSS 3 support on January 26th for systems equipped with RTX 40-series graphics cards. The timing works out because both games have some pretty neat DLC launching on the same day.

Riot says it won't pay ransom after League of Legends source code stolen by hackers
https://www.pcgamer.com/riot-says-it-wont-pay-ransom-after-league-of-legends-source-code-stolen-by-hackers/
Riot Games says the source code for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and a "legacy anticheat platform" were stolen in a "social engineering attack" that occurred last week, and are now being held for ransom.
>> F*ck them.

Why Tiger Woods' golf ball is a grenade, and other amazing videogame trivia
https://www.pcgamer.com/why-tiger-woods-golf-ball-is-a-grenade-and-other-amazing-videogame-trivia/
This weekend a tweet from the Super Pod Saga podcast went viral, asking simply: "What is the most useless piece of video game knowledge you know?"
It turns out that people have remembered a lot of bizarre, funny and in some cases amazing pieces of trivia, the kind of knowledge that you're very unlikely to stumble across outside of a thread like this. We open with this absolute stunner from Jan Bart van Beek, the studio director and art director at Guerrilla Games.

Fatshark pauses Darktide content updates as it apologizes for botched launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/fatshark-pauses-darktide-content-updates-as-it-apologizes-botched-launch/
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide developer Fatshark has issued an "open letter" to players apologizing for the state of the game and announcing that it will delay the launch of future content updates, and the Xbox Series X/S release, in order to focus on improving the game's underlying systems and performance.
>> Good.

Blizzard is sounding out how much players will pay for a Hearthstone subscription
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-is-sounding-out-how-much-players-will-pay-for-a-hearthstone-subscription/
A few years ago I sat down and worked out how much I'd spent on Hearthstone. I wish I could say I was shocked, but I've been playing since beta and have always known the game was expensive to keep up with. But when the number came out around $2,500, what I actually felt was a kind of grim resignation. Anyway, I stopped counting and kept playing, so shame on me I guess. I mention this as a preamble because this week Blizzard has been sending around a survey asking Hearthstone players, amongst other things, whether they would be willing to pay a monthly fee to access various subsets of the game's card collection.

Overwatch 2 is questioning if one-shot kills belong, starting with Roadhog
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2-is-questioning-if-one-shot-kills-belong-starting-with-roadhog/
Overwatch 2's latest patch significantly changes two heroes at the center of the community's recent discussions around one-shot kills.
Sojourn and Roadhog have had their power reduced just enough to add more predictability to the most lethal parts of their kit. Roadhog's hook is no longer a death sentence and Sojourn's railgun shot will now charge at a slower, steady rate, unaffected by Mercy and other heroes' damage boosts.

Complaints about Cyberpunk 2077 being too linear are 'completely justified' says quest director
https://www.pcgamer.com/complaints-about-cyberpunk-2077-being-too-linear-are-completely-justified-says-quest-director/
Cyberpunk 2077's quest director Pawel Sasko has said that players criticizing the open world RPG for being too "linear" are "completely justified."
Via PCGamesN, The comment came up while Sasko was taking viewer questions during a recent Twitch stream. One viewer asked what he thought about people criticizing the open world RPG as being "linear."
>> Be warned, there may be spoilers in the article.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is slowly turning back into Warzone 1
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-2-is-slowly-turning-back-into-warzone-1/
Infinity Ward is hitting backspace on some of the most interesting changes it made to Call of Duty: Warzone 2. Starting in season 2, key adjustments to the gulag, loot system, and in-game economy will roll back to how they worked in Warzone 1.

Everyone agrees this Genshin Impact character should never rap again
https://www.pcgamer.com/everyone-agrees-this-genshin-impact-character-should-never-rap-again/
Most Genshin Impact fans agree that Hu Tao should stick to writing poetry after her embarrassing rap performance during the game's new Lantern Rite event.
Genshin Impact is celebrating the Chinese New Year with the return of its annual Lantern Rite event. Like a lot of limited-time events in the game, Lantern Rite is an opportunity to learn more about the culture of the world and its characters. It's sort of like a sidequest where you get to hang out with your favorite characters and see them interact with each other.
>> There's a video with the song, in case you're curious.

Obsidian once had plans for a Rick & Morty game
https://www.pcgamer.com/obsidian-once-had-plans-for-a-rick-and-morty-game/
Life is filled with paths not taken. Careers unpursued, loves unrequited, games based on massive media properties unmade. Games like Obsidian's take on Rick and Morty, for instance, which studio boss Fergus Urquhart casually mentioned was planned by the company during a recent interview with NME.

Updated: After 20 hours of downtime, Destiny 2 is back online with a hotfix and a rollback
https://www.pcgamer.com/whoops-the-latest-destiny-2-hotfix-deleted-a-bunch-of-incredibly-hard-to-earn-achievements/
'Shadow'. 'Conqueror'. 'King-Slayer'. These are things absolutely nobody will ever actually call me, but I proudly display all three on my guardians when playing Destiny 2. Each is a cosmetic title which has to be earned by completing a checklist of triumphs required for a particular "seal." (...)
As you can imagine, there's a moderate amount of prestige attached to the more rare ones, or at least grudging respect in the case of the lunatics who actually grinded out the 'Reckoner' title from the Gambit mode. Thus there was no small amount of consternation today as players logged after hotfix 6.3.0.5 to find that some of their titles were missing.
Update: As of 7 pm PT the game is still offline, and Bungie says it'll remain that way "into the evening." I called correctly that a full roll back of player accounts would be required, so bad news if you managed to get Hierarchy of Needs to drop in the limited time the game was live before the problem was identified. I'll update again once Destiny 2 is live.
Update: Welp. As became increasingly clear as the evening wore on, this one isn't going to be fixed tonight. Per the Bungie Help Twitter account, the studio is aiming to resolve the issue in the early hours of Thursday (Pacific time), but right now I wouldn't set your watch by that. As things stand, this is not the first rollback in the game's history, but it feels like a major one.
Update: As of 7 am PT—slightly later than predicted—a hotfix has been released to fix the issues that caused players to lose Seals, Triumphs, Medals and other achievements. Hotfix 6.3.0.6 is available now.
In addition to the deployment, Bungie has rolled back player accounts to their state as of yesterday, January 24, at 8:20 am PT—just after the weekly reset.

Attention to those of you that have a Paypal account:

Almost 35,000 PayPal accounts breached using known credentials
https://www.pcgamer.com/almost-35000-paypal-accounts-breached-using-known-credentials/
Another friendly PSA to update those passwords, especially if you use the same ones across multiple accounts. Another breach has occurred, and it looks like attackers are using known login information used across multiple websites to get your data. This means an innocent little login on a long forgotten website might give bad actors access to more important things like your PayPal account.
According to Bleeping Computer, 34,942 PayPal users have been affected by this latest credential stuffing attack on its systems. Credential stuffing is an automated approach where as many known logins as possible are stuffed into a website, which is why password recycling is a problem.

AMD Software Adrenalin 23.1.2 for RX 7900 Series Third Straight Exclusive Driver, No New Driver for RX 6000 Series Since 48 Days

https://www.techpowerup.com/304024/amd-software-adrenalin-23-1-2-for-rx-7900-series-third-straight-exclusive-driver-no-new-driver-for-rx-6000-series-since-48-days

I don't know what is going on at Radeon but they are on a mission to completely ruin their brand image. If you go to Nvidia's driver page and search up the latest driver for Maxwell, it's on the exact same driver level as Lovelace that was released yesterday even though Maxwell came out in 2014. Meanwhile Radeon can't be bothered for some reason to update their 6000 series? I know 7000 series has had a lot of issues and is their top priority but drivers are the life line of GPUs. I really hope they update it soon.

Almost 200 Intel Core i9-13900KS processors have been tested in large scale binning test

https://videocardz.com/newz/almost-200-intel-core-i9-13900ks-processors-have-been-tested-in-large-scale-binning-test

Apple Cuts SSD Performance for Entry-level 2023 MacBook Pro, M2 Mac Mini

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/macbook-pro-m2-pro-mac-mini-ssd-downgrade

Apple gonna Apple...

I got a voucher for one month "GeForce NOW Priority Membership" from Ubisoft "because of the Stadia Shutdown".... no idea why.

Since the GFN servers in Frankfurt are already upgraded to RTX 4080 I activated the voucher, then upgraded to GFN-Ultimate for 20 € and then cancelled the subscription immediately. The GFN priority month was credited with 15 additional days, so the next 45 days I can try out "Geforce Now RTX 4080".

My first games will be Portal with RTX, The Witcher 3 with RT and Cyberpunk 2077 with RT Psycho... maybe also an Ubisoft game

Seems to confirm my theory that NVidia's Ada cards forced AMD's Hand and they had to release a yet unfinished card to not let NVidia take the entire market for themselves. As such, they are now rushing to get the 7000 cards working properly, at the cost of not upgrading the drivers for the 6000 and older cards until it's at an acceptable level.

Edit: This is probably also why we didn't hear anything from lower-end RDNA3 GPUs outside of Laptop GPUs yet, as they already have desktop GPUs in that performance level out there with the RDNA2 cards. I don't expect any RX 7800 or below to be released before spring, with late April being the earliest I can think of.

Whatever the reason may be, this is unacceptable. RDNA 2 is still on sale. I recommended RDNA 2 to people during the holiday season and now that they aren't getting any driver updates makes me look bad. When people buy a new GPU, they don't want to hear excuses as to why the product they bought isn't getting any driver updates when the competitors GPUs from 2014 is on the latest driver. I get delaying drivers for older GPUs generations that are not on sale like RDNA 1/Vega/Polaris but RDNA 2? Seriously?

Personally I won't be recommending Radeon after the amount of nonsense they are putting people through at any price. Because at the end of the day, when you recommend something to someone and the product turns out to have problems, the blame goes back to you.

I honestly fail to see the need to criple the performance of your newest product over the old one, even more so on a $2000 product. But yeah, as you said, Apple gonna Apple.

By the way, a warning to any of you who may be considering getting a new, fast NVMe Drive: Don't go with Samsung for now

Samsung 990 PRO Flagship SSD Has an Endurance Problem, Users Notice Rapid Drive-Health Drops
https://www.techpowerup.com/303984/samsung-990-pro-flagship-ssd-has-an-endurance-problem-users-notice-rapid-drive-health-drops
Samsung 990 PRO is the company's flagship client SSD, which is among the fastest Gen 4 NVMe SSDs you can buy. It also commands a very high price premium, with the 1 TB variant priced at $170, and the 2 TB variant at $290. When you're buying in this segment, you expect the highest endurance figures for your SSD. Client SSD endurance figures are already on the rise, as NAND flash technology evolves. Neowin noticed that their 990 PRO isn't meeting this vital expectation, and with a little digging, found that there are others with this problem, and they didn't just get a bad drive.

Wait, you've cheated the system? Congratulations!

I hope you'll tell us your experience with it.

Even if AMD has work to do with RDNA3, that's no excuse to leave the older cards in the dust. C'mon, it can't be too difficult to at least add support for the newer games that have launched these last weeks.

It's unacceptable, simple as that.

As for the lack of news regarding the rest of the lineup, well, there's something of that, of course, but Nvidia doesn't seem to have problems and the latest rumors also point to a Spring or Computex launch for the rest of their cards. The amount of Ampere and RDNA2 cards on the market, especially in the used market, probably pays another important role in this delay.

Funny enough, YT literally just recommended this to me this morning:

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who feels this.

AAA at this point are the Indie devs, and indie devs are approaching AAA quality (super slowly, but they are making strides).