The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has a couple of new deals, plus new weeklong deals:

• STAR WARS™ Battlefront™ II is going to be 88% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1237950/STAR_WARS_Battlefront_II/
• NIS celebrates its 30th anniversary with a sale featuring up to 80% discounts until February 6: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/nisa/sale/30th
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • Lost Eidolons will be 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580520/Lost_Eidolons/
  • Townsmen VR gets a 40% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/749960/Townsmen_VR/
  • Tangledeep is going to be half its price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/628770/Tangledeep/
  • Battle Chasers: Nightwar features a 75% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/451020/Battle_Chasers_Nightwar/
  • And Atomik: RunGunJumpGun is going to be 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/440550/Atomik_RunGunJumpGun/

The Humble Store has a new Flash Deal: MAFIA: Trilogy will be 70% off during 26 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/mafia-trilogy.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Tomb Raider Caves HD Remaster Project available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tomb-raider-caves-hd-remaster-project-available-for-download/
A few days ago, ilariacroft released an HD remaster of the Caves map from the first Tomb Raider game using the Tomb Raider 4 Engine. This custom map is really faithful to the original map, and can give you an idea of what a faithful remaster of it could look like.
Going into more details, ilariacroft improved the geometry, textures, items, enemies and music. Furthermore, the mapper added more elements to the gameplay and some other improvements.
>> There's an almost 20 minutes video of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

First Dead Space Remake patch released, resolves the VRS issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-dead-space-remake-patch-released-resolves-the-vrs-issues/
EA Motive has just released the first patch for Dead Space Remake. As promised, this update resolves the game’s VRS issues by adding an option via which PC gamers can disable it.
This patch is 400MB in size on Origin (and according to reports it may be around 150MB on Steam). Naturally, both of the stores will download it the next time you launch their clients.

First Forspoken PC Patch released, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-forspoken-pc-patch-released-full-patch-notes-revealed/
Square Enix has released the first PC patch for its latest action RPG, Forspoken. This patch is around 190MB in size, and below you can find its complete changelog/release notes.
According to the changelog, this first update does not bring any meaningful improvements for desktop gamers. However, if you game on the Steam Deck, you’ll definitely see some improvements.

New Cyberpunk 2077 Update adds NVIDIA DLSS 3 & Reflex support
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/new-cyberpunk-2077-update-adds-nvidia-dlss-3-reflex-support/
CD Projekt RED has just released a new update for the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 that adds support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 and Reflex. However, this patch does not introduce the new Overdrive Ray Tracing effects that CDPR promised a while back.

Tuesday news, part two:

A major Street Fighter tournament is ditching PlayStations in favour of PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-major-street-fighter-tournament-is-ditching-playstations-in-favour-of-pc/
Head to any offline fighting game tournament and, for the most part, you'll find yourself playing on a console. PlayStations have been the platform of choice for a hot sec, with games like Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball FighterZ usually running sets on a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5. But Capcom's changing things up for its upcoming Capcom Cup.

Belarusian KGB adds World of Tanks studio boss to terrorist list
https://www.pcgamer.com/belarusian-kgb-adds-world-of-tanks-studio-boss-to-terrorist-list/
Nikolai Katselapov, the chief business development officer at World of Tanks studio Wargaming, appears to have been added to a list "of organisations and individuals involved in terrorist activities" by Belarus' Committee for State Security (or KGB, yes, as in that KGB). In a move which was likely sparked by Wargaming pulling out of Belarus following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he is accused under article 290-1—"Financing of terrorist activities"—of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.
>> Lol. How lame is that?

Life is Strange studio packs gaming nostalgia into a 'little glimpse' of its next game
https://www.pcgamer.com/life-is-strange-studio-packs-gaming-nostalgia-into-a-little-glimpse-of-its-next-game/
Life is Strange studio Don't Nod recently teased a new game in development at its Montreal studio, and it looks like this one will be taking us on a trip back into the distant past of the early 1990s.
>> "Distant past of the early 1990s"? I'm hurt.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2 seems to be headed to Japan
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-2-seems-to-be-headed-to-japan/
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is bringing back the popular Resurgence mode in season 2, and we just got the first teaser for the new map it'll take place on. By the looks of things, Warzone 2 is headed to Japan.

The Last of Us actor Annie Wersching has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-last-of-us-actor-annie-wersching-has-died/
Annie Wersching, who voiced Tess in The Last of Us and also appeared in numerous television series over a 20-year career, has died of cancer at age 45.
Wersching was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, according to a Deadline report, but continued to make appearances in multiple popular shows. One of her final roles was as the Borg Queen in six episodes of the second season of Star Trek: Picard, which came 20 years after her first appearance on television in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.

The Crew 3 is real and an announcement is coming tomorrow
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-crew-3-is-real-and-an-announcement-is-coming-tomorrow/
The Crew 3 is in development and will be announced tomorrow, according to the official The Crew Twitter account. Ubisoft's open world racing series has never been a real hit with critics, but it must have its players: The Crew 2 still receives updates and seasonal events nearly five years after its 2018 release, which is a longer period of care than its main competitor—the Forza Horizon series—ever receives.

Horror maestro John Carpenter weighs in on 'refurbished' Dead Space: 'Great game!'
https://www.pcgamer.com/horror-maestro-john-carpenter-weighs-in-on-refurbished-dead-space-great-game/
Our own positive review of EA Motive's recent Dead Space remaster has been joined by an illustrious voice: John Carpenter, horror legend and director of Halloween, The Thing, They Live, and many, many more.

Dead Space fans think 'indecipherable' New Game+ log points to more remakes in the future
https://www.pcgamer.com/dead-space-fans-think-indecipherable-new-game-log-points-to-more-remakes-in-the-future/
Like many games these days, the Dead Space remake has a New Game+ mode that becomes available after the game is finished for the first time. It enables players to start a new game loaded up with all the weapons, suits, and upgrades they've already earned, ostensibly making for an easier experience, and it also adds a number of new text logs that provide additional narrative background to life aboard USG Ishimura.
One of those NG+ logs is a supposedly "indecipherable" scrawl of marker symbols—basically a Dead Space hieroglyphic. But it's actually very translatable: It's a straight character-for-character exchange that was decoded not long after the original Dead Space was released.

This hilarious game is made of 56 frantic minigames that you only need a single button to play
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-hilarious-game-is-made-of-56-frantic-minigames-that-you-only-need-a-single-button-to-play/
(...)
Super 56 is a game where you only use one button. The A button. (Or the A key on your keyboard, if you'd prefer.) And weirdly enough, though it only needs a single button, Super 56 isn't a single game. It's a collection of 56 frantic minigames that you need to race through, tapping, hammering, and/or holding that A button to win. Heck, even to navigate the menus, customize your profile and avatar, or change your settings, you'll only ever be using that one button. Simple!

American Truck Simulator is going where the buffalo roam in its upcoming expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/american-truck-simulator-is-going-where-the-buffalo-roam-in-its-upcoming-expansion/
Friends, what if I told you that, just over the horizon, past yonder hill and dale, lies a land rich in sorghum and soybeans, where sunflowers grow like wheat, and wheat also grows like wheat? What if I told you that, pretty soon, you'd be able to roam that land from the comfort of a virtual truck? What if I told you that the folks at American Truck Simulator have just announced they're adding Kansas, is what I'm asking.

Japan officially designates today Final Fantasy 7 Day
https://www.pcgamer.com/japan-officially-designates-today-final-fantasy-7-day/
To commemorate Final Fantasy 7's major significance as a cultural export, Japan has officially designated today—January 31—as the official Final Fantasy 7 Day, marking the anniversary of the game's PS1 release in Japan. The listing for the anniversary on the Japan Anniversary Organisation (JAO) website describes the game as "a huge hit in Japan and overseas," and hopes that "more people will enjoy FF7, which is newly developed with the latest technology as the REMAKE series". Feels like it gets earlier every year, right?
>> Weirdos...

I know that it's from the camera lenses (and how it's abused in desert scenes), but that's why it bothers me, because in videogames there's no camera. It's all fake, just for that "cinematic experience" BS that has been a plague to the videogame industry since some studios/persons became so full of themselves that videogames became not big enough for them, but didn't had the balls to change their careers and go make movies or TV shows.

NVIDIA Titan RTX “Ada” Graphics Card Spotted In Shipping Manifest, 48 GB GDDR6X Memory & PG137 Board

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-titan-rtx-ada-graphics-card-spotted-in-shipping-manifest-48-gb-gddr6x-memory-pg137-board/

Likely won't be less than $3000, especially with them doing the unique vertical pcb. Most likely the 4090 Ti will be 142SMs while the Titan is the full 144SMs. There's a good chance it will be 35-45% faster than a 7900XTX which means Radeon has a lot of work to do for RDNA 4 cause Blackwell will likely be at least 40% faster on top.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Non-Ti Features 2475 MHz Boost, OC Variants At 2.5 GHz+ Clocks

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4070-non-ti-features-2475-mhz-boost-oc-variants-at-2-5-ghz-clocks/

Certainly won't be competing against the last gen flagship like the 3070 was vs 2080 Ti. Likely the prices won't be all that great either but we will see.

The First RTX 4090 Gaming Laptop With 16GB GDDR6 VRAM Is Up For Pre-Order On Amazon For Quite A Large Chunk Of Change

https://wccftech.com/the-first-rtx-4090-gaming-laptop-with-16gb-gddr6-vram-is-up-for-pre-order-on-amazon-for-quite-a-large-chunk-of-change/

At a low low price of $3,899 /s

"Since Halo Infinite was released, fans had assumed that in addition to new multiplayer modes, 343 was working on new content for the story. But that wasn’t the case, according to the people familiar with the situation. Developers were making prototypes in the Unreal Engine and pitching ideas for new Halo games rather than working on new missions for Halo Infinite. Many of those developers were laid off this month and the company isn’t actively working on new story content, the people said. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment."

Good thing I played this one on gamepass and didn't buy into 343s bs. The story was frankly meh at best and it ran like a turd. If they are moving onto Unreal Engine, slipstream engine was pointless, especially considering how it ended up looking like an xbox one title on a next gen console. So moving to Unreal Engine is a good move but what the studio really needs is people who a) Don't make false promises and b) Understand what made the originals so good c) Competent team to execute goals.

Halo is supposed to be a flagship franchise for Xbox. It's on the Box of the Series X while being backed by Microsoft, one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. It should not only be visually stunning and well optimized but the single and multiplayer should wow people. Should be a technical master piece that showcases what a 12TF console can really do like what we have seen from Sonys first party. While the multiplayer from a gameplay standpoint is well executed enough, all the bs behind battlepass and other nonsense goofed it hard. Hopefully the new management will fix it but it will be a believe it when I see it sort of a deal.

I honestly hope AMD doesn't try to catch up Nvidia in the high end.

Yes, it's a lucrative market and being able to brag about having the fastest card in the world is relatively important, but that market isn't really that big. AMD should focus on the mid-high and below market, where bang for buck is more important, and where, historically, AMD has done best.

Leave the $1000+ segment to Nvidia and focus on the $600 and below one. There are far more people that can buy $400 cards than those that can buy $1000 ones.

Forspoken PC - DF Tech Review - DirectStorage Tested, RT Upgrades and More

TLDR: It's shit and anyone with less than 10GB of vram won't load the textures properly as par for the course of AMD sponsored games. In his testing, Forspoken maxed out vs Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing set to Ultra performs similarly. But there is an interesting test to be found and that is with Direct Storage. Keep in mind its using CPU based decompression so it's already outdated in that sense but still:

12900k with Gen 3 SSD faster than PS5s SSD in this game:

Direct storage is about 1.27 seconds faster than with Direct Storage off in this game:

However there is a big difference when it comes to GPU limited vs CPU limited. When the game is GPU limited and DS is off, there is no difference but when it's CPU limited, direct storage being on and off makes a big difference. However he does mention to take this result with a grain of salt.

CPU performance matters a lot in loading speed:

Windows 10 vs 11 does make a difference in Direct Storage Performance:

Highest he has seen so far is around 300 MB/s SSD usage when streaming but he may found a glitch that after loading a save, it's goes up to 533 MB/s which transferred 90GBs of data in 3 minutes.

He compared a screenshot of Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing set to Ultra + DLSS vs Forspoken set to Max with DLSS and... They performed similarly.

Yea they need to go back to their roots. Them trying to chase the premium market while not providing premium features and even falling behind with drivers for last gen GPUs is not a good outlook. A lot of their faults can be overlooked if the GPUs were cheap but expensive GPUs while behind in a lot of features and performance? I ain't touching that, that's for sure.

If Nvidia were skimping on 3080 drivers after I paid $1200 CAD for them, I'd be pissed.

The GeForce Now servers already are updated to the new GOG Galaxy and Cyberpunk versions.

A great fps boost thanks to  DLSS frame generation... now over 100 fps in 4K and the "Raytracing Ultra" preset:

Very nice, now I can play Portal with RTX, The Witcher 3 RT and Cyberpunk 2077 all maxed out the next five weeks of my "GeForce Now Ultimate" subscription.

Congratulations. I hope you're enjoying them. Now it's a matter of time before they add the overdrive ray tracing effects so you can experience Cyberpunk in all its glory.