Yea it feels like a lot of what made gaming great is so rare these days. Gems like Guardians of the Galaxy where it's a solid single player game with great characters and no microtransactions, no dlc, no lootbox or any of the other bs is so rare its sad. I remember when I used to be very excited for AAA games but a lot of them feel souless these days.

I am normally a big AMD supporter as I love supporting the underdog.

But my retro PC with Windows 98, Radeon 9700Pro and 2x 3DFX Voodoo 2 in SLI, 512MB of Ram, 512GB Crucial SSD, Athlon 1,400mhz has been an absolute headache on the driver front.

The latest drivers have corruption in Morrowind... But the AMD card causes the voodoo 2's to have corruption in Glide... All those issues went away when I dropped in a Geforce 4 Ti 4600.

...But I don't want the Geforce, I wanted tessellation from the Radeon. Can't win.


You would think they would have some focus on the 6000 series considering it's a full stack of GPU's and is in integrated graphics, but it may be highlighting a lack of software engineers on the project as well.

Well, given how every tech company is firing employees, it would be a good time for AMD to hire some of them to improve their staff.

Mind you, they won't do it, but it would be a great time to do so.

I am personally mixed with it comes to AMD. I don't have any particular need to support them because personally, I don't care if a company is in the underdog position or not. I will support companies that try to bring innovation into the market generally avoid companies that don't. With AMD, I bought Ryzen 1700x + X370 because while I knew that Intel was faster in gaming, they were lacking in innovation and dragging down the market. The idea of 2 generation CPUs per socket, up to quad core for consumers and anything more means going the expensive HEDT route has always rubbed me the wrong way. But with Ryzen, 4 years of cpu support (ended up being 5) while bringing good 8 core CPUs to the mainstream showed how greedy Intel really was. Hence why I bought 1700x > 3900x > 5950x.

Radeon on the other hand never felt quite as innovative and that's not necessarily their fault because Nvidia unlike Intel doesn't drag their feet. Nvidia knows that if they don't continue to innovate, others will overtake them. Nvidia showed how great Variable Refresh Rate tech was with G-sync. They showed us how Ai can be used to upscale from low render resolutions with relatively minimal quality loss. They showed us how GPUs outputting the fastest frames doesn't actually mean you get the lowest input latency and instead, managing the render queue with Reflex can significantly lower input latency instead. Now they are doing things like their eye contact technology where during streaming games or in a meeting, your eyes in real life can look somewhere else but to the viewers, it will look like you are looking at them. And the list goes on with Ray Tracing and etc. While I am sure you can find plenty of examples of other companies doing those things first, Nvidia popularized them and brought them to the mainstream.

So for me, it's like if I want the standard gaming experience, I would just get a $500 console. But if I am going to spend over $700 on a GPU, I don't want the standard experience... I want cutting edge features and Nvidia gives me that. While Radeon does attempt to copy those features, they are generally worse quality and sometimes a lot worse. And if they are going to charge Nvidia prices... Well at that point I don't see much of a reason to support them.

Absolutely, especially as how AMD's staff/engineer numbers literally imploded during the Phenom/Bulldozer era and driver update cadence slowed.

Good time to go shopping for some quality and skilled employees, especially as Ryzen has made them relevant again, so they have the funds.

Don't get me wrong, supporting and buying are two separate things. - I always opt for the best price/performance.

For CPU's, I abandoned AMD after the Phenom 2 x6 series as they just stagnated (Even went backwards), I went with Intel HEDT, but came back with Zen 3... As Intel did not offer anything compelling even with their HEDT platforms.

For GPU's, AMD has always had an edge in price/performance... Even if their GPU feature sets and capabilities are behind, which is why for the last 10~ or so years I have almost exclusively ran with AMD GPU's in my main system.
I am competent enough where if there is a bug/driver issue I can resolve it, but that isn't to say nVidia's drivers have been perfect either, my Q9650 system with a Geforce 1030 has had periods where Geforce drivers were absolute hot garbage.

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away two gamese:

• Adios: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/adios
• Hell is Others: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/hell-is-others

Next week, they'll give away City of Gangsters and Dishonored®: Death of the Outsider™.

GOG has new Deals of the Day, that I forget to post yesterday, and some new deals:

• These are the Deal of the Day, that will last another 22 hours:
  • Death Trash, still in development, is 20% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/death_trash
  • Master of Magic - Caster of Magic for Windows gets a 50% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/master_of_magic_caster_of_magic_for_windows
  • Dungeons 3 Complete Collection is 52% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/dungeons_3_complete_collection
  • Cossacks Anthology, with 3 games, sports a 77% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/cossacks_anthology
  • Red Faction: Armageddon Path to War is 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/red_faction_armageddon_path_to_war
  • And the last one is Styx: Master of Shadows, with a 90% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/styx_master_of_shadows
• The Fallout series go on sale, with up to 75% discounts until January 30. Check them out here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/fallout_series_up_to_75_off_revisit_the_most_cult_postapocalyptic_universe
• GOG has added more games to its NSFW Week. Check out which ones here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/nsfw_week_coming_in_hot_with_a_bunch_of_new_steamy_releases_with_special_discounts
• Also, it's not a sale, but GOG has releases some statistics about the site that you may find interesting. You can check them here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/how_many_games_we_released_which_were_your_favorites_how_long_you_spent_playing_and_more_check_out_gog_numbers_for_2022

Steam has two new sales:

• The Iceberg Publisher Sale features up to 90% discounts. Some of its deals will last until the 31st, but others will last one extra day, until February 1st: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/iceberg/sale/iceberg2023sale
• Ultimate Fishing Simulator 2, still in Early Access, will be 40% off until February 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1136380/Ultimate_Fishing_Simulator_2/

Fanatical has a couple new deals for us:

• The new Star Deal is DYNASTY WARRIORS 9 Empires, 47% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/dynasty-warriors-9-empires
• The BYO Strategy Bundle January 2023 comes with 16 titles to choose from to make your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-strategy-bundle-january-2023

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This 4K Mod for Skyrim Special Edition overhauls all of its dungeons
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-4k-mod-for-skyrim-special-edition-overhauls-all-of-its-dungeons/
XilaMonstrr has released an enhanced version of T4GTR34UM3R’s “Underground – a dungeon texture overhaul” mod for Skyrim Special Edition.
For those unaware, “Underground – a dungeon texture overhaul” project is a complete retexturing of all dungeons except the ships and the clutter. The mod covers Caves, Ice Caves, Mines, Nordic Ruins, Dwemer Ruins, Imperial Forts, Riften and the Apocropha dungeons.
XilaMonstrr has cleaned the textures of compression artifacts and upscaled them using chaiNNer and ESRGAN models to a maximum of 4K. The end result is amazing, and we highly recommend downloading it.
>> There are half a dozen screenshots.

New Zelda: Ocarina of Time Fan Remake in Unreal Engine 5.1 video showcases Lon Lon Ranch & Hyrule Market
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-zelda-ocarina-of-time-fan-remake-in-unreal-engine-5-1-video-showcases-lon-lon-ranch-hyrule-market/
CryZENx has shared a new video for his fan remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine 5.1. This new video shows off updated versions of the Lon Lon Ranch and Hyrule Market maps.
Alongside some environmental improvements, the artist has also updated the character model of Malon. This is a really cool showpiece, so be sure to watch the video.
This fan remake looks great and from what we know, this UE5.1 version uses both Lumen and Nanite.
>> The mod is behind a Patreon wall, but there's an 11 minutes video of it in the article.

Justice for Miranda finally achieved, thanks to Mass Effect mod
https://www.pcgamer.com/justice-for-miranda-finally-achieved-thanks-to-mass-effect-mod/
Mass Effect 2's suicide mission—which you're about to read some spoilers for, by the way—is a much-loved finale to an excellent RPG. Forced to split your squad and assign appropriate specialists for a series of dangerous tasks, it's a test of how well you got to know your team over the course of the game. (And whether you completed all their loyalty missions.) Going in blind, it's entirely possible to make choices that result in some of your beloved squadmates dying, meaning they'll be absent in Mass Effect 3. Which is a pretty big consequence for failure.
If you're not following the suicide mission flowchart, you might think there's one choice that's a bit unfair. During a section called The Long Walk, where you have to choose a biotic specialist to maintain a force field bubble as you walk through a swarm of killer bugs, picking Miranda will get somebody killed. Unless you install the Miranda's Long Walk mod for Mass Effect Legendary Edition, that is.
>> There are neither screenshots nor a video of it.

Realism mod for Fallout 4 fixes its most unbelievable part: your ability to survive the intro
https://www.pcgamer.com/realism-mod-for-fallout-4-fixes-its-most-unbelievable-part-your-ability-to-survive-the-intro/
As a stubborn and insufferable Fallout: New Vegas fan, I actually liked Fallout 4 more than I thought I would, but I still think it has its problems. Chief among them has got to be that intro, which sees the nukes drop at the exact moment the Sole Survivor and their family begin descending into the vault, narrowly avoiding doom. It's totally unbelievable, but there's a mod to fix it. More Realistic Intro for Fallout 4 gives the game a much more plausible start, incinerating the protagonist and their family well in advance of their entry to Vault 111, and ending the game about five minutes in. Sorted.
The mod comes from a creator called UnrealSeptim, who describes the mod's "two major gameplay effects" like so: "one, it makes the intro sequence much more believable. Two, it effectively prevents your character from progressing beyond the intro sequence, making the game essentially unplayable". That second effect, says the creator, "makes the mod ideal for New Vegas fans".
>> There's a short video of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

Redfall releases on May 2nd, gets a gameplay deep dive trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/redfall-releases-on-may-2nd-gets-a-gameplay-deep-dive-trailer/
Bethesda has announced that Arkane’s open-world, single-player and co-op FPS, Redfall, will release on May 2nd. Additionally, the publisher has shared an official gameplay deep dive trailer that you can find below.
>> The video is almost 12 minutes long.

Forza Motorsport will have over 500 cars, 20 environments, tens of thousands of fully animated 3D spectators
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/forza-motorsport-will-have-over-500-cars-20-environments-tens-of-thousands-of-fully-animated-3d-spectators/
Microsoft has shared some new tech details about the next Forza Motorsport game, and has released a new in-engine video. This video showcases some truly amazing visuals, so be sure to watch it if you are fans of the series.
>> All that talk about realism scares me a little because it can make it less fun to play. Anyway, the video is over 6 minutes long.

Hi-Fi RUSH is a new action game where the world syncs to the music from the creators of Evil Within & Ghostwire Tokyo
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hi-fi-rush-is-a-new-action-game-where-the-world-syncs-to-the-music-from-the-creators-of-evil-within-ghostwire-tokyo/
Bethesda has announced the latest game from Tango Gameworks, creators of Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo, called Hi-Fi RUSH. Hi-Fi RUSH is a new action game where the world syncs to the music, and below you can find its debut gameplay trailer.
>> It's very different from its previous games. The video is over 5 minutes long.

The news, part two:

Activision Blizzard studio drops its union vote, claiming 'free and fair election impossible'
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-studio-drops-its-union-vote-claiming-free-and-fair-election-impossible/
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has dropped its request for a union vote at Activision Blizzard's Proletariat studio after accusing CEO Seth Sivak of "making a free and fair election impossible". In a statement released yesterday, the CWA accused Sivak of responding to the union push with "confrontational tactics" that "demoralized and disempowered the group," so the vote won't go ahead at all.

Minecraft Legends PvP will 'embrace chaos and fun,' says Mojang
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-legends-pvp-will-embrace-chaos-and-fun-says-mojang/
Mojang and Blackbird Interactive shared a proper look at the PvP mode in their upcoming spinoff strategy game Minecraft Legends today, along with an April 18 launch date. Ahead of the reveal at Microsoft's showcase, Mojang executive producer Dennis Ries and Blackbird executive producer Lee McKinnon Pederson spoke to me about what it actually feels like to play a round of head-to-head Legends.

Disney Dreamlight Valley is getting multiplayer this year
https://www.pcgamer.com/disney-dreamlight-valley-is-getting-multiplayer-this-year/
Disney Dreamlight Valley has shared its roadmap for the first half of 2023 including some new characters, several star path season passes—oh, and multiplayer too. Gameloft has not given any further explanation about what kind of co-op or online multiplayer DDV will have, but it sure is right there on the plan for the year so keep your ears peeled.

The Elder Scrolls Online is returning to Vvardenfall in Shadow Over Morrowind
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scrolls-online-is-returning-to-vvardenfall-in-shadow-over-morrowind/
The Elder Scrolls Online is headed back to the magical island of Vvardenfall in Shadow Over Morrowind, a new adventure announced during today's Xbox—Bethesda Developer Direct livestream.

Genshin Impact studio announces final beta for its new game, you can sign up now
https://www.pcgamer.com/genshin-impact-studio-announces-final-beta-for-its-new-game-you-can-sign-up-now/
Signups are now open for the final closed beta test for Honkai: Star Rail, the next game from Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo.
Announced in October 2021, Honkai: Star Rail is a "space fantasy RPG" that promises to let players explore "immense worlds of the unknown." Associate editor Tyler Colp described it last year as "anime Mass Effect," with thematic and potential direct ties to Honkai Impact 3rd, MiHoYo's pre-Genshin Impact game.

I played that $2,000 Steam game, and its ridiculous price is probably for the best
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-played-that-dollar2000-steam-game-and-its-ridiculous-price-is-probably-for-the-best/
A game called The Hidden and Unknown released on Steam this week with an absurd $1,999.90 price tag. The twist is that the self-published game is purposefully shorter than two hours, which means it can be finished without exceeding Steam's playtime limit for no-questions-asked refunds. If you don't have two grand to temporarily blow on this game, though, don't worry: I've played it, and you're not missing anything.

Sierra's classic city builder returns next month with Pharaoh: A New Era
https://www.pcgamer.com/sierras-classic-city-builder-returns-next-month-with-pharaoh-a-new-era/
Those of us of a certain age—or with a certain impeccable taste—will be interested to hear that Pharaoh: A New Era has finally gotten a release date. A remake of Sierra's 1999 city-builder Pharaoh (and its expansion Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile), the game promises a slick and prettied-up new version of the old classic when it releases on February 15.

Here's when Dead Space releases in your time zone
https://www.pcgamer.com/dead-space-release-times/
The Dead Space release time is almost here. The remake of the 2008 original was first announced back in 2021, with developers from the now-closed Visceral Games heading it up, and the first gameplay trailer surfaced in October, last year.

Naughty Dog is done with Uncharted, but The Last of Us is an open question
https://www.pcgamer.com/naughty-dog-is-done-with-uncharted-but-the-last-of-us-is-an-open-question/
It still feels weird to write about Uncharted in the sacred pages of a PC gaming site, but I guess I won't have to much longer. In an interview with Buzzfeed (via GamesRadar), Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann said that the studio is "moving on" from the series, so I guess Nathan Drake's adventure over to the PC is set to be the least one he has for the foreseeable future.

Deadspace Remake Benchmarks

https://www.computerbase.de/2023-01/dead-space-remake-benchmark-test/3/

Raster:

Ray Tracing:

So this was another one of those games that suggested 6700XT vs 2070. While we see that like before, it's not that bad, like before we see that it's still a poor showing for RDNA 2 as a 6800 is performing worse than a 3070 and a 6900XT is performing worse than a 3080 in Raster. If you spent $1000 for a 6900XT, you won't be a happy camper after seeing the recent trends, that's for sure.

Family fight: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is up to 7% faster than RX 6950 XT but costs 28% more

https://videocardz.com/newz/family-fight-amd-radeon-rx-7900-xt-is-up-to-7-faster-than-rx-6950-xt-but-costs-28-more

The funny thing is... This is AMDs own marketing slide that shows this

DirectStorage in Forspoken has up to 10% average FPS impact on RTX 4090

https://videocardz.com/newz/directstorage-in-forspoken-has-up-to-10-average-fps-impact-on-rtx-4090

This certainly needs proper testing but from what I have seen on user videos on youtube, the Sata SSD takes much longer to load and I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of an issue streaming which is making the fps go up because it's not processing the game correctly. I wouldn't doubt that there will be a certain GPU hit when using direct storage as it does require some compute. Hopefully DF does a lot more indepth testing on this.

Samsung unveils Odyssey Neo G7 43″, its first 4K 144Hz Quantum Mini-LED gaming monitor

https://videocardz.com/press-release/samsung-unveils-odyssey-neo-g7-43-its-first-4k-144hz-quantum-mini-led-gaming-monitor

The brightness is pretty low compared to their other miniLED screens coming in at 600 nits peak. It also doesn't say the number of zones.

Intel reportedly preparing another major driver update with increased performance

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-reportedly-preparing-another-major-driver-update-with-increased-performance

Personally I am cheering for Intel cause the circus that is the GPU market needs a disruptor, especially in the entry level to mid range space.

I must say, this is some horrible optimization from devs between Forspoken and Dead space. Like 68fps at 4k native on a 4090? Excuse me? Feels like devs are taking upscaling for granted and using that as an excuse for their poor optimization work. We will see how consoles perform hopefully soon enough with DF but Forspoken on PS5 went as low as 720p sub 60fps so it feels more of a fuck you all around. The sad part is that none of these games come close to being as visually striking as Cyberpunk yet for some reason, they perform worse in Raster.

Does anyone know where to activate DLSS3 / DLSS frame generation in Cyberpunk 2077?
It works on Geforce Now in the Witcher 3 and A Plague Tale: Requiem, but I can't find that setting in Cyberpunk.

Oh, and "Portal with RTX" is offline in Geforce Now currently. :(