And to think that not long ago you were praising Sony for its excellent PC ports full of PC features, only to now be faced with "another shit port from Sony". Oh, how times change... But well, if you hire the studio that made the God awful PC port of Arkham Knight, this is what can happen.

Lol.

Sony doesn't need any outsider sabotaging their games, they're capable of doing it by themselves just fine.

Can we all give JEMC a big hands up. The guy deserves a medal. He has kept this thread running for so long now and his name isnt even in the OP.
I believe it is time for a new PC Nation thread so JEMC gets that OP place he deserves. Who else thinks so?.

Maybe some mod can change the thread title?

I totally agree!

Alright bois, I am back in business. Thanks @JEMC for filling in!

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 to retail at $599

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4070-to-retail-at-599

Like I said, that MLID rumour about 4070 being priced at $750 was peak retardism. At best, the Strix 4070 could be priced that high but majority would be priced lower. If this turns out to be legit, then my prediction of $600 was also correct. Not great mind you but not terrible. If you have a 3070, I wouldn't upgrade until 5070 at the very least with the hopes that it will come with 16GB of Vram.

ASUS ROG XG Mobile RTX 4090 GPU launches in China at $2,600

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-rog-xg-mobile-rtx-4090-gpu-launches-in-china-at-2600

In order words, spend $2600 on a power limited 4080 just so you can have a portable gpu. No thanks.

DRAM Prices Dropped 20% in Q1 2023, Will Keep Falling in Q2

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/dram-prices-dropped-20-in-q1-2023-will-keep-falling-in-q2

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away two titles:

• Tunche: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/tunche
• The Silent Age: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/the-silent-age

Next week, they'll give away Blazing Sails and Dying Light Enhanced Edition.

GOG has launched a new Deal of the Day, The Entropy Centre, with a 33% discount. But it looks like GOG still doesn't get what day means, because this deal will last for another 94 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_entropy_centre.

Steam has The Storyteller's Festival, full of Visual Novels and narrative games with up to 80% discounts until this Sunday: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/TwoHalfStudios/sale/thestorytellersfestival.

There's a new Humble Bundle: the Best of Boomer Shooters: Bigger and Boomier, with up to 8 titles to get during the next 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/best-boomer-shooters-bigger-and-boomier.

And Fanatical has the new Discovery Bundle, with7 games and a 96% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/discovery-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD releases Radeon driver optimized for The Last of Us Part 1
https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-releases-radeon-driver-optimized-for-the-last-of-us-part-1
The company is expected to release a 23.4.1 driver early next month, but that update is probably still a few days away, which is why AMD is releasing a new driver “22.40.43.05” today. This driver has game optimizations only for one game and no issues fixed listed.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Final Fantasy 7 Remake gets a lore-friendly 8K Texture Pack for Tifa
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/final-fantasy-7-remake-gets-a-lore-friendly-8k-texture-pack-for-tifa/
Modder ‘SweetFluff3D’ has released a must-have lore-friendly 8K Texture Pack for Final Fantasy 7 Remake that overhauls Tifa Lockhart. This is an incredible Texture Pack, and we highly recommend downloading it.
This pack does not contain any new mesh data, meaning that it’s compatible with other Tifa mesh mods that don’t use custom textures. Furthermore, it fixes a small issue with Tifa’s earring color found in the original game.
>> There are a couple of screenshots and a 2 minutes video of the mod.

Skyrim Special Edition gets The Witcher 3 Ciri/Geralt Voice Mods
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/skyrim-special-edition-gets-the-witcher-3-ciri-geralt-voice-mods/
Here is something really cool for all our Skyrim and The Witcher fans. Modder ‘FearTcb’ has released two voice-over mods for Skyrim Special Edition that will allow your character to speak with the voices of Geralt or Ciri.
These mods are based on the Dragonborn Voice Over Mod, and require it to work properly. If you haven’t installed it, these The Witcher 3 mods won’t work.
>> There's a short video of the Ciri one.

Why not turn Left 4 Dead 2 into some kind of kawaii anime nightmare?
https://www.pcgamer.com/why-not-turn-left-4-dead2-into-some-kind-of-kawaii-anime-nightmare/
Left 4 Dead is just another victim of Valve's almost comical antipathy towards the number three, with the series seeing two brilliant entries in quickfire succession over 2008/2009 before it was left 4 modders. Who over the years have done quite the job, it has to be said, with a particular favourite being the mod that added Jaden Smith's tweets to the game as deranged graffiti (also a shout-out to the one that replaces the Charger enemy type with Homer Simpson in his car).
Now, a new challenger approaches. Eight of them, in fact. The Blue Archive mod by HCHA for Left 4 Dead 2 adds protagonists and extensive stylings from Blue Archive, a popular gacha-style tactical RPG from Nexon Games that casts you as the "sensei" of an apparently all-female academy city, in search of that classic combination: "military action, love and friendship!" Yep, it's one for the weebs.

GAMING NEWS

HD-2D RPG LIVE A LIVE is coming to PC on April 27th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/hd-2d-rpg-live-a-live-is-coming-to-pc-on-april-27th/
Square Enix has announced that its HD-2D RPG, LIVE A LIVE, will be coming to PC on April 27th. In order to celebrate this announcement, the company released a new gameplay trailer that you can find below.

Fantasy action RPG, Atlas Fallen, delayed until August 10th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/fantasy-action-rpg-atlas-fallen-delayed-until-august-10th/
Focus Entertainment and Deck13 have announced that their upcoming fantasy action RPG, Atlas Fallen, has been delayed until August 10th. According to the teams, this will give the developers enough time to further polish it.

Square Enix has removed Denuvo from VALKYRIE ELYSIUM
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/square-enix-has-removed-denuvo-from-valkyrie-elysium/
Square Enix has released a new patch that removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from VALKYRIE ELYSIUM. VALKYRIE ELYSIUM is a third-person action RPG that came out in November 2022.

Thursday news, part two:

Bloober Team wants you to know it never said Silent Hill 2 is done, no matter what Google Translate says
https://www.pcgamer.com/bloober-team-wants-you-to-know-it-never-said-silent-hill-2-is-done-no-matter-what-google-translate-says/
Bloober Team has poked its head up to let us all know that no, actually, the Silent Hill 2 remake isn't on the verge of release mere months after its official announcement back in October (opens in new tab). In a post to Twitter, the studio behind the upcoming SH2 remake said that some of its recent comments had been "taken out of context" and subject to "inaccurate translations," and that it did not, in fact, say Silent Hill 2 was "ready for release". Update: A Polish-speaking reader reached out on Twitter to add a bit of context to the original Bankier.pl interview. Gehirknipsulat clarified that "the word 'technically' in Polish doesn't have this particular meaning as it does in English, It only means "on a technical/mechanical level, relating to technology". So, while Google wasn't completely off-base when it translated the phrase "technicznie gotowy" to "technically ready," that translation adds a shade of meaning in English—that the game is 'pretty much done'—that's absent in Polish.

D&D is coming to Minecraft
https://www.pcgamer.com/dandd-is-coming-to-minecraft/
Minecraft is getting Dungeons & Dragons DLC. Revealed during the D&D Direct livestream on Tuesday, the DLC pack will include themed tilesets, locations, enemies, and a ten-hour narrative adventure set in the Forgotten Realms.

Tony Hawk almost put his name on a 'more technically difficult' skating sim before Activision called
https://www.pcgamer.com/tony-hawk-almost-put-his-name-on-a-more-technically-difficult-skating-sim-before-activision-called/
According to Tony Hawk, the billion dollar, 20 game legacy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was very close to not happening at all.
On a recent podcast, Hawk said that, months before he got the call from Activision that led to the Pro Skater series, another company contacted him with an idea for a "more technically difficult" skating game.

Finally, a game that lets us fight the human menace as goblins
https://www.pcgamer.com/finally-a-game-that-lets-us-fight-the-human-menace-as-goblins/
Earlier this week, Orc Chop Games announced a new turn-based RPG roguelike, Goblin Stone. Having spent a not insignificant portion of my life battling the little blighters, I’m happy to say that instead of farming them for XP or taking their treasure, this time around we’ll be playing as the goblins. It's about time.

You can try Nexon's new tactical shooter for free this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/you-can-try-nexons-new-tactical-shooter-for-free-this-week/
Veiled Experts is a 5v5 third-person tactical shooter being developed by Nexon that's set to come out later this year, but you can try it for free starting tonight (or early in the morning, depending on your time zone situation) in the game's final beta test, which will be open to all on Steam.

Nightdive reassures fans about the Atari deal: 'Not only will we be doing as much as we ever did, but we'll be doing more of it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/nightdive-reassures-fans-about-the-atari-deal-not-only-will-we-be-doing-as-much-as-we-ever-did-but-well-be-doing-more-of-it/
(...)
But Larry Kuperman, Nightdive's director of business development, said in an interview with PC Gamer that those concerns are misplaced. "The new Atari," as he put it, "is dedicated to the same principles of bringing back classic and classic-style games that Nightdive has always pursued." And to that end, Nightdive will continue to do what it's always done, effectively independent of Atari.

Electronic Arts is laying off 6% of its workforce
https://www.pcgamer.com/electronic-arts-is-laying-off-6-of-its-workforce/
Electronic Arts has become the latest tech-related company to make significant cuts to its workforce, as it announced today that it is laying off roughly six percent of its workforce.

The Chinese versions of Blizzard's games may have been shut down over a big misunderstanding
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-chinese-versions-of-blizzards-games-may-have-been-shut-down-over-a-big-misunderstanding/
In January, gamers in China lost access to Blizzard games, including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo 3, and Overwatch, as a result of a falling out between Activision and its Chinese partner, NetEase, a few months earlier. But a New York Times report says that while the relationship between the two had been strained for some time, the incident that finally ended it may have been a misunderstanding.

Park Beyond, the gravity-defying park sim, gets beta ahead of June release
https://www.pcgamer.com/park-beyond-the-gravity-defying-park-sim-gets-beta-ahead-of-june-release/
Having played a bunch of Theme Park back in the '90s, I feel well-qualified to say that running a real life theme park would suck. It might be lucrative, but it would not be fun, because there's a lot of vomit involved, and thrill seekers have a great propensity to whinge. But I feel like I could get used to the vomit and whinging if the theme park were more like the ones in Park Beyond, which are not anchored by the tyrannical laws of gravity.

Naughty Dog investigating The Last of Us's poor PC performance
https://www.pcgamer.com/naughty-dog-investigating-tlous-poor-pc-performance/
Seasoned PC gamers are used to dealing with the wonderful world of very buggy ports. Sometimes they're infuriating game-breaking issues, but more often than not they're just dumb, or annoying. The PC port for Naughty Dog's hit The Last of Us had fans very excited when it was announced last year, but it seems we've been offered helpings of both kinds of bugs in equal measure. While this has left many fans upset with their experience, the good news is Naughty Dog is aware and already at work investigating many common problems.
Update: Naughty Dog has since released a hotfix to address the performance issues.
>> Judging by a Wccftech article, the hotfix doesn't seem to do much.

Forspoken will get its DLC 25 days after Square Enix eats its developer
https://www.pcgamer.com/forspoken-will-get-its-dlc-25-days-after-square-enix-eats-its-developer/
Here's the good news: Forspoken's DLC is coming out earlier than the previously predicted "Summer 2023" release window, which optimists among you might consider a chance for it to live up to the potential it failed to reach in the main game. Here's the bad news: It's coming on May 26, 25 days after the game's developer, Luminous Productions, gets swallowed up by Square Enix and snuffed out forever.

Square Enix goes full Shinra with Final Fantasy 7 NFTs
https://www.pcgamer.com/square-enix-goes-full-shinra-with-final-fantasy-7-nfts/
Final Fantasy 7 is a remarkable game for many reasons, not the least of which is the game's big theme of environmental destruction. It uses the wibbly-wobbly Lifestream conceit sure, but from that rollicking opening sequence this is the story of eco-warriors taking on the evil and planet-destroying megacorporation Shinra. I'm not sure that Final Fantasy 7's original developers could have imagined that, 26 years after release, the game's parent company would be the one shilling energy-wasting junk off its back.
The irony-free zone that is Square Enix has announced a set of Final Fantasy 7 trading cards that incorporate NFTs (thanks, VGC). The collection of 207 cards is called Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Art Museum: Digital Card Plus, and are being sold in packs of six physical cards which also contain one digital exchange card. The latter can be redeemed for an NFT version of one of the 207 physical cards on the Enjin NFT platform (which means users will need to create an Enjin wallet).

Bobby Kotick says Sony's being a baby about Microsoft deal: 'They would just like to prevent our merger from happening'
https://www.pcgamer.com/bobby-kotick-says-sonys-being-a-baby-about-microsoft-deal-they-would-just-like-to-prevent-our-merger-from-happening/
Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard now looks very likely to go ahead, (...)
Sony is beginning to sound like a bit of a whiner here, and Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has had enough. In an email sent to staff earlier this week with the subject line "A March update on the Microsoft deal," Kotick addresses the deal's progress generally, before going in on Sony with both feet.

MMO gets its first new skill in 17 years, or it will when players stop fighting over which one should be added
https://www.pcgamer.com/mmo-gets-its-first-new-skill-in-17-years-or-it-will-when-players-stop-fighting-over-which-one-should-be-added/
Old School RuneScape (OSRS) was just 'RuneScape' the last time it got a new skill. Back in November 2006, developer Jagex added the Hunter ability, bringing the game's roster of skills up to 23. While modern RuneScape (also called RuneScape 3) has added five new skills since then, OSRS has stuck stubbornly to the 23 from 2006 ever since it released ten years ago. But now Jagex wants to add another, and debate is raging among the playerbase.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

I'm fine the way things are, honestly. There's no need to change things.

Welcome back!

I hope you had a great time with the family.

That price is less awful than the rumored one, but that doesn't make it good, only less bad.

Honestly at that point, it's best just to buy a 3060 12GB or Radeon offerings. 4050 will likely cost around $300 anyway.

Or an Intel card, if you're daring. A 750 (or 770 for the extra VRAM) should performs in the same ballpark and cost a lot less because, as saddening as it would be, I can't see the 4050 costing less than those $300. At least for now.

One thing that may be interesting to see with the cut down Ada cards, tho, is how they age. Have you seen Techpowerup's RE4 tests? The 4070Ti goes from being 6% faster than the 3090Ti at 1080p to be 10% slower at 4K. And both are Nvidia cards here, so the "it's an AMD sponsored title" excuse doesn't apply. Is this an odd result that won't be anything more than an anecdote, or iit's a sign of what may happen with future games?

We'll see how the 4070, and especially the 4060s with their 128-bit bus memory, fare in the long run.