Yes, let's saturate our own market with models that no one asked for, priced higher than their previous counterparts and assume everyone will buy them and everything will work out just fine...

Fuckin Nvidia man...

Stop Nvidia. I don't mind having different VRAM models of the same card but if the CUDA cores aren't the same then don't give them the same name. The 1060 3gb/6gb was dumb and it's still dumb.

It's not really all that surprising considering Nvidia's track record. With Ampere, you had 3060 8GB, 3060 12GB, 3060 Ti, 3060 Ti G6X. It think the way it will play out is the 4070 12GB will be the main version that will get released world wide, 4070 10GB will be Asia only and 4070 16GB could be a refresh. I doubt they will release all of them at once.

I think they will given Nvidias history. Kind of like 3060 8GB vs 3060 12GB or 3080 10GB vs 3080 12GB. But it wouldn't surprise me if some of those cards aren't available world wide such as 4070 10GB might be restricted to Asia only as Nvidia has done them in the past.

It's Wednesday and these are the news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Elden Ring has sold over 20 million in less than a year since release
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-has-sold-over-20-million-in-less-than-a-year-since-release/
Bandai Namco has announced that Elden Ring, FromSoftware's collaboration with George R. R. Martin and 2022's game of the year by a distance, has sold over 20 million copies in just under a year. The game was released on February 25, 2022, to near-universal praise and acclaim, a sentiment shared on Steam where just under half-a-million user reviews aggregate to 'very positive'.
>> Hiku has made a thread about this feat.

GOG has toned it down a bit and today there are "only" three new Deals of the Day and also two sales:

• The first DotD is Duel Princess, 32% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/duel_princess
• Starbound gets a 60% discount until Friday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/starbound
• And the third, and last, DotD is ART OF FIGHTING 2, 70% off until the 24th: https://www.gog.com/en/game/art_of_fighting_2
• The Midweek Sale features up to 80% discounts during 4 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20230222_midweek_sale
• And there's a Relieve the Stress sale/event with either relaxing or adrenaline relieving games to get, whatever suits you best. There's no mention of how long it will last: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_relieve_the_stress

And at Fanatical we find three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream, 46% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/atelier-sophie-2-the-alchemist-of-the-mysterious-dream
• Devolver Digital puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/devolver-digital
• And the The Jackbox Quintpack bundle is back, with a 40% discount during the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/the-jackbox-quintpack

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Hogwarts Legacy Accio Masochism mod makes everything a chore
https://www.pcgamer.com/hogwarts-legacy-accio-masochism-mod-makes-everything-a-chore/
Hogwarts Legacy isn't a hard game even on its hardest difficulty setting. As long as you learn how to block and parry with Protego, you're nearly untouchable in combat. And the rest of the game's puzzles and beast catching are just as simple, if a little grindy.
The Accio Masochism mod pack wants to make it all much, much worse.
Modder MBiggs2334 says Accio Masochism is aimed at making "the combat a little more Soulslike and the general pacing of the game a little slower." It includes 14 categories of mods, each tackling different parts of the game, including challenges, economy, creatures, enemies, experience, and spells. All of them make everything weaker and harder to obtain, which, if you ask me, isn't actually very Soulslike, but the creator encourages you to pick and choose which mods to enable.
>> No pics nor videos of the mod, for obvious reasons.

GAMING NEWS

First PC performance update released for WILD HEARTS, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-pc-performance-update-released-for-wild-hearts-full-patch-notes/
Omega Force has just released the first PC performance patch for WILD HEARTS. This patch is 840MB in size, and will improve overall performance on most high-end CPUs.
Going into more details, this first update fixes an issue where certain high-end CPUs were being unintentionally capped. Furthermore, it resolves an issue where some sounds were not playing or were being delayed, causing the audio to stack. This ‘audio stacking’ issue was also causing strain on players’ CPUs. Not only that, but the February 21st Update addresses a render issue (disco lights) when using an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

New Tekken 8 gameplay trailer focuses on Kazuya, featuring improved graphics
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-tekken-8-gameplay-trailer-focuses-on-kazuya-featuring-improved-graphics/
Bandai Namco has released a new gameplay trailer for Tekken 8 that focuses on Kazuya Mishima. Tekken 8 will be using Unreal Engine and compared to its previous Nina trailer, this new one features better graphics.

No Man’s Sky Fractal Update released and here are its full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/no-mans-sky-fractal-update-released-and-here-are-its-full-patch-notes/
Hello Games has released the Fractal Update for No Man’s Sky, and revealed its full patch notes. In addition, the team shared a new video that highlights the key features of this update.

Part two of the news:

Atomic Heart has launched without ray tracing despite featuring in multiple Nvidia tech demos
https://www.pcgamer.com/atomic-heart-has-launched-without-ray-tracing-despite-featuring-in-multiple-nvidia-tech-demos/
Whatever your take on it, there's no denying Atomic Heart is a very pretty game. So pretty, in fact, that it's been the subject of several Nvidia showcases demonstrating the latest and greatest in the GPU-maker's graphics tech, including an "RTX On" demo as recently as a month ago. But now Atomic Heart is finally here, and it seems RTX is not, in fact, on.

Destiny 2 cheat maker owes Bungie $4.4M after judge rules it violated the DMCA
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-cheat-maker-owes-bungie-dollar44m-after-judge-rules-it-violated-the-dmca/
Bungie has won a $4.4 million arbitration award against AimJunkies after a judge found that the cheat maker violated the DMCA by bypassing Destiny 2's protections and reverse-engineering the game in order to develop cheats which it then sold to players.

Hogwarts Legacy director says there are 'no current plans for DLC'
https://www.pcgamer.com/hogwarts-legacy-director-says-there-are-no-current-plans-for-dlc/
Hogwarts Legacy is a huge hit, but fans probably shouldn't hold their breath waiting for DLC to arrive. Game director Alan Tew told IGN that developer Avalanche Software doesn't have plans for it right now.

Survival game Sons of the Forest shows off co-op base-building, fleshy nightmares
https://www.pcgamer.com/survival-game-sons-of-the-forest-shows-off-co-op-base-building-fleshy-nightmares/
Survival game Sons of the Forest launches into early access on February 23, and as you explore, craft, build, and fight against a horrifying cannibalistic tribe on a mysterious island, take some small comfort in the fact that you won't have to do it alone.

After Elden Ring released, The Lords of the Fallen devs realized one of their bosses was 'nearly identical to Malenia'
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-elden-ring-released-the-lords-of-the-fallen-devs-realized-one-of-their-bosses-was-nearly-identical-to-malenia/
2014 action RPG Lords of the Fallen was obviously inspired by FromSoftware games, and so is its upcoming reboot, The Lords of the Fallen (a name that will torment Google searchers forever). According to creative director Cezar Virtosu, however, while it might look like they cribbed certain ideas directly from Elden Ring for the new game, they were as surprised as anyone by them.

The film studio behind Get Out and The Purge is going to make 'original, horror-themed' games
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-film-studio-behind-get-out-and-the-purge-is-going-to-make-original-horror-themed-games/
Blumhouse, the production studio behind legendary films like Get Out, M3GAN, and Tooth Fairy starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, is getting into videogames. The company's new division, Blumhouse Games, will "partner with independent game developers to bring their creative vision to life via original, horror-themed games" (via VG247).
>> Ryuu96 has a thread about this.

Atomic Heart criticised for racist caricature in one of its Soviet-era cartoons
https://www.pcgamer.com/atomic-heart-criticised-for-racist-caricature-in-one-of-its-soviet-era-cartoons/
Atomic Heart is being criticised (via Resetera) for the presence of a racist caricature in one of the old Soviet cartoons that air in the game's Resident Evil-style save rooms. Those rooms, which serve as a brief respite from the game's robo-bashing combat, offer players a chance to kick back for a bit and watch old episodes of Nu, Pogodi! (Well, Just You Wait!) a beloved Soviet children's cartoon that first aired in 1969. But at least one of the episodes featured might be a bit too reminiscent of its era.

Apple Orders Entire Supply of TSMC's 3nm Chips for iPhone 15 Pro and M3 Macs

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/02/22/apple-secures-tsmc-3nm-chips/

Apple is probably AMDs biggest issue when it comes to TSMC. The fact that Intel is rumoured to delay ArrowLake because they are also going with 3nm TSMC for their iGPUs doesn't bode well for AMD. Meanwhile we know for a fact that Nvidia has switched to Samsung for their next generation GPUs. It will be interesting to see if AMD will will delay RDNA 4 and move it to 2025 release or if they can refine 5nm like they did with 7nm by going from Vega VII > RDNA 1 > RDNA 2. Or perhaps they will just stick with 4nm. They will need one hell of an uplift though if they want to keep up with Nvidia.

Intel Confirms Battlemage, 2nd Gen Arc Discrete Graphics Cards, To Feature Cool New Technologies & Architectural Fixes, Bulk of Team Working On It

https://wccftech.com/intel-confirms-battlemage-2nd-gen-arc-discrete-graphics-cards-to-feature-cool-new-technologies-architectural-fixes-bulk-of-team-working-on-it/

I think a lot of people are looking into Battlemage to be the saviour of what is essentially a duopoly in the GPU space. I really hope they get this right as the circus between Nvidia and AMDs essentially price fixing as gotten to nonsense levels. We need proper competition to bring the GPU prices at least closer to where they once were and Nvidia vs AMD really just feels like Nvidia setting their own prices and AMD following with slightly lower. Where as in the CPU space, Intel is bringing stiff competition.

Intel Xeon W9-3495X “Sapphire Rapids” CPU Sets New World Record, Overclocked To 4.2 GHz & Pulls Over 1000W

https://wccftech.com/intel-xeon-w9-3495x-sapphire-rapids-cpu-sets-new-world-record-overclocked-to-4-2-ghz-pulls-over-1000w/

Gigabyte AORUS Gen5 10000 2 TB SSD Listed For $339 US, Same Price As Gen4

https://wccftech.com/gigabyte-aorus-gen5-10000-2-tb-ssd-listed-for-339-us-same-price-as-gen4/

Not an unreasonable price to be fair. The question is does it really need that big of a heatsink for a SSD cause GPUs certainly take up a lot of space

Intel Begins Z690 & B660 Chipset Discontinuation In March, Will Focus On 700-Series PCH

https://wccftech.com/intel-begins-z690-b660-chipset-discontinuation-in-march-will-focus-on-700-series-pch/

It also partly due to their naming scheme not being flexible anymore.

Just have a look at the 8800 back in 2005. They had an Ultra, a GTX, 3 GTS variants (320MB, 640MB and a later model with another chip and 512 MB), a GT version and a GS version. But now all are RTX by default and the only naming addon they still use is a Ti

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Baldur's Gate, one of my favourite CRPGs of all time, will be free-to-keep for Prime subs next month
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-one-of-my-favourite-crpgs-of-all-time-will-be-free-to-keep-for-prime-subs-next-month/
Forget free delivery on all your, I don't know, microSD cards and mass-produced pantaloons, the real benefit of Amazon Prime is the games the company hands out on its Prime Gaming page once a month. For anyone as hopelessly dedicated to 90s RPGs as me, next month's headline offering is a doozy: Prime subscribers can pick up Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition completely for free from March 2 through the end of the month.

The Epic Store gives away Duskers: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/duskers
Next week, they'll give away Rise of Industry.

GOG has a new Puzzle and Point & Click Sale with up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_click_to_adventure.

Steam has two new deals:

• The Last Oricru is 55% off until March 1st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1663640/The_Last_Oricru/
• And Dreamscaper is 70% off until the 1st of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040420/Dreamscaper/

And Fanatical has launched its Safe in Our World Charity Bundle, with 24 games + 1 soundtrack: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/safe-in-our-world-charity-bundle-2023.
You can learn more about it here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/2023-safe-in-our-world-charity-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.2.2
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-23-2-2

Highlights
Support for:

• Atomic Heart
• Company of Heroes 3

Fixed Issues

• Corruption may be briefly observed when moving Netflix video between displays or minimize-to-fullscreen on some AMD Products such as AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800U.
• Maximum encode bitrate is limited to 100Mbps for certain applications.
• AMD Bug Report Tool pop-up or system hang may be observed after driver upgrade on some hybrid graphics notebooks.
• Application crash may be observed while playing Hitman 3™ with ray tracing settings enabled.
• Valve Index® VR headset may show a blank screen with 144Hz refresh rate setting on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Certain videos played with Movies and TV may briefly show corruption when moving the window between displays on some AMD Graphics Products such as AMD Radeon™ RX 6700 XT.
• Situational performance drop may be observed in DirectX® 11 based games on Radeon™ RX 6000 series GPUs using Ryzen™ processors.

>> Do note that this is a WHQL driver, not a beta one. Also, still no sign of a Hogwarts Legacy profile, which is strange.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Half-Life gets a Full Path/Ray Tracing Mod, available now for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/half-life-gets-a-full-path-ray-tracing-mod-available-now-for-download/
Modder ‘sultim_t’ has released a must-have mod for all Half-Life fans. As the title suggests, this mod brings real-time full path tracing to Valve’s classic first-person shooter.
sultim_t is the man behind the Path Tracing mods for Doom, Serious Sam TFE and Quake. This is an incredible mod and below you can find a video that showcases it in action. The fact that the modder has made it without using RTX Remix is also something that impresses me.

This fan remake of a Star Trek text game from 1978 is way better than it has any right to be
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-fan-remake-of-a-star-trek-text-game-from-1978-is-way-better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be/
Lay in a course, Mister Sulu. You can almost hear the voice. And now, thanks to the enterprising programmer Emanuele Bolognesi, wannabe Captain Kirks can play the 1978 game Super Star Trek in a gorgeously overhauled audiovisual form.
Super Star Trek 25th is a remake / conversion of the strategy game Super Star Trek, written by Bob Leedom and David Ahl and published in the book BASIC Computer Games in 1978. Bolognesi has gone back to this title and overhauled it with the visuals and UI of the awesome 1992 Interplay game Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, following on from an earlier project that ported the 1978 original to PICO-8 (a virtual machine that mimics the 8-bit consoles of the 1980s).
"The result is Super Star Trek but played on the Enterprise's bridge," said Bolognesi. "In short, you will be playing the strategy game on the main screen of the Enterprise, but you will issue commands by interacting with Sulu, Chekov, Spock, Scott, and Uhura. Additionally, I added original voices from the TV series to make things even more nostalgic." In this blogpost the programmer goes into more detail about re-developing what was initially a text game.

GAMING NEWS

WILD HEARTS remains a technical mess and you should stay away from it
https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/wild-hearts-remains-a-technical-mess-and-you-should-stay-away-from-it/
Yesterday, Omega Force released a performance patch for the PC version of WILD HEARTS. The developers claimed that this patch would greatly improve CPU performance, however, it appears that the game is still a technical mess. WILD HEARTS currently suffers from some of the most annoying stutters we’ve witnessed in any game, and you should stay away from it.

First gameplay trailer for UFO Robot Grendizer – The Feast of the Wolves
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-gameplay-trailer-for-ufo-robot-grendizer-the-feast-of-the-wolves/
Microids has shared the first gameplay trailer for the video game adaptation of Go Nagai’s popular manga UFO Robot Grendizer, UFO Robot Grendizer: The Feast of the Wolves.

Hogwarts Legacy and the latest version of Denuvo have been cracked
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hogwarts-legacy-and-the-latest-version-of-denuvo-have-been-cracked/
Hogwarts Legacy came out almost two weeks ago. The game uses the latest version of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech and from the looks of it, this latest version has already been cracked.
>> Oh, no!...

Thursday news, part two:

Valve lured 40,000 Dota cheaters into a trap before banning them in one day
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-lured-40000-dota-cheaters-into-a-trap-before-banning-them-in-one-day/
With more than a little braggadocio, Valve has announced that it's permanently banned over 40,000 Dota 2 accounts for cheating. In a post to the official Dota 2 blog yesterday, the company revealed that it had constructed a cunning trap to catch thousands of players that were using "third-party software" to "access information used internally by the Dota client that wasn't visible during normal gameplay," lending them an unfair advantage in-game.

New World is switching to a seasonal model and, yep, that means a season pass
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-world-is-switching-to-a-seasonal-model-and-yep-that-means-a-season-pass/
Amazon's New World MMO is moving to a seasonal format on March 28, which the studio says will deliver "more frequent content like new features [and] gameplay experiences," and—of course—a season pass with separate free and premium reward tracks.

Here's when Sons of the Forest releases in your time zone
https://www.pcgamer.com/sons-of-the-forest-release-date-time-steam-unlock/
The long wait to play co-op survival game Sons of the Forest is nearly over, and soon you'll be able to set foot on a mysterious and dangerous island, either on your own or with up to eight players in co-op. You'll need to gather resources, find food and fresh water, craft weapons and gear, build a base, and defend it from the island's terrifying cannibals in this sequel to Endnight Games' The Forest.
If you're a survival fan you're probably eager to play, especially since the release of Sons of the Forest has already been delayed a few times. Here are the Sons of the Forest release times, broken down by region.

Dark and Darker dev denies theft accusation: 'As far as we know you cannot copyright a game genre'
https://www.pcgamer.com/dark-and-darker-dev-denies-theft-accusation-as-far-as-we-know-you-cannot-copyright-a-game-genre/
Dark and Darker developer Ironmace has denied allegations that the game uses stolen assets and code, saying in a statement on Discord that all of Dark and Darker's code was "built from scratch," and its assets were either purchased from the Unreal marketplace or designed internally.

Amazon is bringing another big Korean MMO to the West
https://www.pcgamer.com/amazon-is-bringing-another-big-korean-mmo-to-the-west/
As Amazon Games works to tweak, tune, and dig for a bigger audience for New World, it's also continuing to enter into publishing agreements with other companies on delivering competing MMOs. The most recent addition to that lineup is NCSoft's upcoming Throne and Liberty, which will be published in North and South America, Europe, and Japan—everywhere but Korea, basically—by Amazon.

This battle royale game could win two DICE awards five days before it shuts down
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-battle-royale-game-could-win-two-dice-awards-five-days-before-it-shuts-down/
It's a sad day when a cool multiplayer game shuts off its servers forever. It's an even sadder day when that game is still so new that it may win an award just days before it's scheduled to die.
Such is the case of Rumbleverse, the free-to-play battle royale brawler developed by Iron Galaxy and published by Epic Games. Rumbleverse came out just six months ago in August 2022, and on February 28, Iron Galaxy is shutting it down. That makes its nominations for best fighting game and best online game at tomorrow's annual DICE awards a little bittersweet.

Here's when Company of Heroes 3 unlocks in your time zone
https://www.pcgamer.com/company-of-heroes-3-unlock-times/
Relic and Sega are poised to kick open the doors to World War 2 again today with the arrival of Company of Heroes 3. Preloading has already started, so if you've already done that all you'll need to do is wait just a wee while longer. In the meantime, you can find out when it unlocks in your time zone below.

Legendary designer Shinji Mikami to leave Tango Gameworks and Xbox
https://www.pcgamer.com/legendary-designer-shinji-mikami-to-leave-tango-gameworks-and-xbox/
Tango Gameworks' co-founder and legendary game director Shinji Mikami is to leave the studio within the coming months, Bethesda has confirmed. Mikami set up Tango after leaving Platinum Games, which he had also co-founded with several Capcom alumni. His career began at Capcom where he was quickly recognised as a singular talent, and he cut his directorial teeth on a licensed 16-bit game (Goof Troop, of all things) before going on to design and direct the game that would make his name: Resident Evil.

AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX 16-core laptop CPU trades places with Intel 13th Gen Core i9 HX series in Geekbench leak

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-9-7945hx-16-core-laptop-cpu-trades-places-with-intel-13th-gen-core-i9-hx-series-in-geekbench-leak

Pretty crazy times for high end laptops where you can have a desktop 16 core 32 thread CPU + a desktop 4080 inside a laptop. Granted both are power limited and the laptop is expensive but boy do they perform.

AMD To Introduce Radeon RX 7800, RX 7700 & RX 7600 “RDNA 3” GPUs At Competitive Prices But Consumers Might Have To Wait A Bit

https://wccftech.com/amd-to-introduce-radeon-rx-7800-rx-7700-rx-7600-rdna-3-gpus-at-competitive-prices/

Sounds like a June launch as that is when the festival should be occuring. In the past when Radeon says competitive prices, it used to mean a good thing. These days, it usually just means slightly undercut Nvidia... Hopefully that won't be the case so we will see.

GALAX GeForce RTX 4090 “Vladilena Milizé” anime-inspired Special Edition GPU pictured

https://videocardz.com/newz/galax-geforce-rtx-4090-vladilena-milize-anime-inspired-special-edition-gpu-pictured

I do like that some of these GPUs are getting more varied designs instead of that typical gamer look

NVIDIA Soars By 8% As Gaming Revenue Picks Up During Quarter

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-soars-by-8-as-gaming-revenue-picks-up-during-quarter/

Pretty good results. While they are down year over year, so is everyone else. But they are trending backup upwards and with good Lovelace sales and their continued investments into Ai, it is looking like they are starting to recover. It does show how inflated "gaming" (cough crypto cough) was during the mining boom.