Definitely don't regret still hanging onto my Ryzen 5950X+128GB DDR4 3600mhz.

...Mostly because I was being a cheapass and wanted 256GB DDR5 and didn't want to settle for 192GB.

I certainly understand early adopter pains like driver problems or bios issues. But between 4090 launch and X3D, the fact that we have to deal with melting issues of all things feels a bit extreme even for early adopter nonsense. Like both of these products are extremely efficient, especially X3D chips. Yet for some reason, they are melting and it's not even just X3D chips either. Zen 4 vanilla has been out for months and those are melting as well.

I don't know. It's not like one can do a scientific ascertainment of failure rates based on anecdotal internet reports (remember "cracking GPUs" and other nonsense like massively inflated RROD numbers). I'd wait at least for an extended warranty provider to speak up.

Yes, but like, are we going to remember both and hold them in equal regard?.

Like how rn, Nvidia has basically priced most folks out of the market, AMD is following because lack of market share (and because they are acting dumb at this point). 

I'm only making it clear here and now so we keep to the status quo for when the next team does something bad.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has three new Deals of the Day and two new Sale:

• These are the three DotD, that will be available until Friday:
  • Bear and Breakfast, 15% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/bear_and_breakfast
  • Project Wingman gets a 40% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/project_wingman
  • And This War of Mine will be 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/this_war_of_mine
• The Crab Day Sale brings up to 85% discounts on games that feature that, crabs. The sale will last 2 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_crab_day
• And the Midweek Sale features up to 85% discounts during 4 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20230426_midweek_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• Mage and Monsters will be 25% off until the 2nd of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1950440/Mage_and_Monsters/
• Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim gets a 30% discount until next Tuesday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/

And Fanatical's new Star Deal is GreedFall, 71% off for the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/greedfall.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc & Iris Graphics 31.0.101.4314
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-iris-graphics-31-0-101-4314
Highlights

• Vulkan Video Extension support for H.264/AVC and H/265/HEVC decode

Fixed Issues Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• Some USB audio devices may exhibit intermittent audio stuttering on certain system configurations

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Doom 3 Hi Def 4.0 Mod released, overhauling Imps, Cyberdemon, Pinky, Arch-vile and more
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/doom-3-hi-def-4-0-mod-overhauls-imps-cyberdemon-pinky-arch-vile/
Modder ‘y2keeth’ has informed us about a new version of the graphical mod for Doom 3, Hi-Def, that is currently available for download.
Although there isn’t any changelog, we can definitely see a huge improvement in the game’s Imps. For instance, their heads now have more polygons (they look way better than their vanilla version), and have more detailed textures. Furthermore, the modder has enhanced the Cyberdemon, the Arch-vile, and the Pinky, as well as numerous environments.
>> There are some screenshots.

This massive mod voice acts all of Hollow Knight, even the item descriptions
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-massive-mod-voice-acts-all-of-hollow-knight-even-the-item-descriptions/
A group of over a hundred dedicated fans has completed a project to add voice acting to the entirety of Hollow Knight, Team Cherry's beloved (and still sequel-less) Metroidvania whose NPCs have, up to now, been generally pretty quiet.
Spotted by TheGamer, Hallownest Vocalized has been in the works for a while now—its reveal trailer went up in August 2021—but it finally crossed the finish line last weekend. With the aid of a frankly unwieldy number of voice actors from the Hollow Knight fan community, it replaces the various warbles and meeps that constitute the sum total of standard Hollow Knight's voicework with actual, fully-voiced dialogue. You can get a taste of it in the launch trailer above.

GAMING NEWS

Microsoft Flight Simulator Update 13 released, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/microsoft-flight-simulator-update-13-released-full-patch-notes/
Asobo has released the thirteenth major update for Microsoft Flight Simulator which includes Polynesia, Melanesia, and the Galapagos Islands. Moreover, this update brings key regions of Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula to the game.

Forza Horizon 5 High Performance Update released, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/forza-horizon-5-high-performance-update-released-full-patch-notes/
Playground Games has just released the High Performance Update for Forza Horizon 5, and shared its complete changelog. According to the release notes, this update adds support for Intel’s XeSS AI upscaling tech on PC.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-wars-jedi-survivor-is-using-the-denuvo-anti-tamper-tech/
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases in a couple of days and from the looks of it, this new Star Wars game is using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.

Street Fighter 6 Demo is now available for download on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/street-fighter-6-demo-is-now-available-for-download-on-pc/
Capcom has just released the demo of Street Fighter 6 on PC via Steam. According to the devs, this demo lets you play through the beginning of World Tour and select modes in Fighting Ground.

First gameplay trailer released for Flashback 2
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-gameplay-trailer-released-for-flashback-2/
Microids has just released the first gameplay trailer for its upcoming sequel to a classic action platformer, Flashback. Developed by the game original creator Paul Cuisset, in collaboration with Microids Lyon/Paris studios, Flashback 2 promises to offer an experience faithful to the Flashback universe.

Part two of the news:

NetEase is not suing Blizzard—The Chinese court system confused one angry man with a corporate behemoth
https://www.pcgamer.com/netease-is-not-suing-blizzardthe-chinese-court-system-confused-one-angry-man-with-a-corporate-behemoth/
Time to put on the hairshirt. Yesterday it was reported by Chinese media that NetEase was suing its former partner Blizzard, whose games it published for 14 years, for around $43.5 million. That report was incorrect, and based on a Chinese court document that for reasons yet to be explained named NetEase in error.
>> Oopsie!

The most ambitious and flawed Total War has just received its first update in years
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-most-ambitious-and-flawed-total-war-has-just-received-its-first-update-in-years/
I was convinced Total War: Empire was going to be a game-changer. A Total War in the age of muskets, with naval battles and a map that would let us fight across the world—how could it be anything less than amazing? Unfortunately, it didn't live up to those admittedly big expectations when it launched in 2009. It was rough and buggy, the naval battles couldn't hold a candle to the ones on land, and the scale was just too much.
What it was, though, was incredibly ambitious, and unlike any of the Total Wars that had come before. Now that I've put some distance—14 years—between me and that initial disappointment, I find myself a lot less critical of the risks Creative Assembly took. And now that it's just received its first update in years, which should improve performance on modern PCs while also fixing an issue that affected 12th gen Intel CPUs, maybe it's time to take it for another spin.

FTX collapse has done lethal damage to an up-and-coming card game
https://www.pcgamer.com/ftx-collapse-has-done-lethal-damage-to-an-up-and-coming-card-game/
Storybook Brawl is a free-to-play fairytale card game designed by former Magic: The Gathering pros that showed real promise when it debuted in 2021. It still needed work—we said in a preview later that year that it felt "unfocused," and was "struggling for a unique identity among the varied mechanics of what is still an unexplored game genre"—but it was in early access, which is exactly when those sorts of issues are supposed to be worked out.
Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Developer Good Luck Games announced on Twitter today that the servers will be taken offline for good on May 1.

Former World of Warcraft lead developer hints at something big coming to Classic
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-world-of-warcraft-lead-developer-hints-at-something-big-coming-to-classic/
World of Warcraft Classic may soon be getting a major update, and former lead engineer Brian Birmingham hinted—very vaguely—that it could be the World of Warcraft "Classic Plus" that some players have been calling for.

Star Trek: Resurgence is now set to arrive in May
https://www.pcgamer.com/star-trek-resurgence-is-now-set-to-arrive-in-may/
Star Trek: Resurgence looked like the real deal when we checked it out in March 2022: It's "the first Trek anything to capture the spirit of the '90s shows in a long, long time," senior editor Wes Fenlon declared. Sadly, six months later it was delayed from its planned release in 2022 to April 2023.
With April 2023 now in its final throes, I come to you with good news and bad news. The bad news is, it won't be out this month. The good news is, it will (barring unforeseen and extremely last-minute delays) be out next month.

Trombone Champ gets truly nasty, adds the hellish Flight of the Bumblebee
https://www.pcgamer.com/trombone-champ-gets-truly-nasty-adds-the-hellish-flight-of-the-bumblebee/
Trombone Champ, the fast-paced rhythm music game filled with nasty toots, just got even nastier by adding Flight of the Bumblebee to its roster of hits. That means as of today's update 2022's best comedy game is even funnier, because the famously difficult piece of music is absolute hell to play on a mouse-controlled trombone.

UK regulators block Microsoft's Activision acquisition in potentially fatal surprise blow
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk-regulators-block-microsofts-activision-acquisition-in-potentially-fatal-surprise-blow/
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has unexpectedly moved to block Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard over concerns the merger would "alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market".

After 9 months, Warzone 2's chillest mode returns to the game today
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-9-months-warzone-2s-chillest-mode-returns-to-the-game-today/
Rejoice all you pirates, because Call of Duty: Warzone's chillest and most ear-splitting mode makes its triumphant return today. Plunder was a staple of Warzone 1 until it was unceremoniously stripped from the game in July last year, creating an absence that endured into Warzone 2 to the disappointment of more than a few players.

42 years on, The Oregon Trail gets free DLC
https://www.pcgamer.com/42-years-on-the-oregon-trail-gets-free-dlc/
The Oregon Trail is a pioneering videogame, first conceived of by teacher Don Rawitsch as a means of getting across the realities of 19th century pioneer life to schoolchildren. Alongside two colleagues and some students, Rawitsch's game arrived pretty fully formed: It was used by te class, before Rawitsch deleted it from the machine and saved one paper copy of the code. Three years later, when working for an educational software company, he re-typed The Oregon Trail, and the rest is history.
The game became a classroom fixture and much more, because the truth is this is a great game: Resource management, adventure, peril, and the black humour of watching your little pioneers die in various manners. Its success has seen countless new versions over the years, and in 2022 Gameloft released a faithful but spruced-up version.
Amazingly enough, The Oregon Trail is getting some DLC: And for a short while, it's free. The new Cowboys and Critters DLC brings a wagonload of content including a whole new journey to make: The Chisholm trail, where you have to drive cattle from Texas to Kansas.
>> I didn't know they had launched a new version last year. Interesting...

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Prices Continue To Fall In Europe As Sales Remain Stagnant

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4070-prices-continue-to-fall-in-europe-as-sales-remain-stagnant/

NVIDIA forces MSI to ‘unlaunch’ GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ‘SUPER 3X’ series after just one week

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-forces-msi-to-unlaunch-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-super-3x-series-after-just-one-week

AMD Ryzen 7 7840U 15W APU Benchmarks Show Core i9-12900 Single-Core & Ryzen 9 5900X Multi-Core Performance

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-7-7840u-15w-apu-benchmarks-show-core-i9-12900-single-core-ryzen-9-5900x-multi-core-performance/

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT price drops to $762, now 15% below MSRP

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-7900-xt-price-drops-to-762-now-15-below-msrp

Now that's a lot better. Much closer to the price it always should have been.

That AMD mobile chip is a beast. Impressive results.

And it's so refreshing to see consumers give the middle finger to Nvidia and AMD's GPUs, forcing them to come back to reality. It should happen more often.

Apparently you don't even need Expo. I feel like there has to be a manufacturing defect on at least some of these. It doesn't make any sense for them to die right out of the gate. Who knows at this point.

My GPU upgrade arrived today. I had expected a much bigger box than the box of my last GPU: