That sure is some curation going on there...

Well that didn't take long. Only a few years and the gates were opened to this and NFT games (one of which launched in March of this year and is currently inaccessible). 

I smell horseshit:
https://www.gamersubculture.com/tech/Fortnite%20Is%20Now%20Officially%20an%20Olympic%20eSport/1CFKCSPZDIN4eCAt5Iyd

I remember seeing the Olympics having a rule where no game could be added, let alone count as an Olympic video game, if it involved killing other people/players in the game itself, and Fornite is 100% about you killing other players, and if you count it's OG game mode from when it first launched, killing undead humans, that were once alive (should still count regardless).

The way it's written in as a sport seems sketchy as hell with lines like "testing their target aiming accuracy", like wtf else are they going to aim at?. If they've completely retooled the game to have an ultra exclusive mode that can only be played at the Olympics, then it's not really Fornite then is it, it's a game retooled so it can exclusively be played at a sports competition, just so Epic can rake in ad revenue. Like be true to yourself, you're a game designed around Battle Royale and that involves killing other players, no retooling is going to take away what is and was established for years.

If they can get in, then why shouldn't the mobas, or CSGO, or Rainbow Six S, or CoD, because all those games involve what Fornite does "testing their target aiming accuracy". I wish they'd just come out and say "yeah we were bribed to do this, because we like money and can't make up shit to save our skins".

"testing their target aiming accuracy" is possibly the cringiest, most stupidest line for an excuse to skirt the rules I've ever seen for the Olympics.

It's extremely difficult to compete with Steam in the current PC market without having loads of money to support you. CDP found out that the hard way and, in my opinion, they've learned that it's better to be the king in a niche (with caveats) market like the one they've mastered. Hopefully, once their financials have recovered, they'll try again to grow the store, most likely using another approach.

At the end of the day, it's the publishers who decide if they want to launch their game with no DRM in it, and CDR can do nothing to change their minds.

Congratulations! Was it easy or the case surprised you with extra problems you hadn't taken into account before-hand?

If DLSS is important to you, a 3060 could be a good upgrade, as long as you go with one of the 12GB models, so it can last longer.

To be frank, I still don't understand why there are videogames in the Olympics. I'm old fashioned and I can't bring myself to put in the same category these two things. That's not to say that I can't see the skill that goes into mastering any specific game, but to make it an Olympic sport? Nope, sorry, I don't buy it.

So yeah, taking that into account, that they've decided to include Fortnite to the rooster of games only to modify it into something that's not Fortnite, seems surreal and, therefore, quite fitting in this weird world we live in.

Phil Spencer admits defeat in console space, and doesn't think great games would help Xbox's market share.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/phil-spencer-admits-defeat-in-console-space-and-doesnt-think-great-games-would-help-xboxs-market-share.1656206/

While not strictly a PC thing, I don't think I have seen such a defeatist stance from a head of a big company for quite a while. Usually they like to sugar coat it but it really feels like things aren't going the right way for Xbox and Phil. Personally I think that Phil has done more for PC gaming than arguably any other xbox head has done in the past. He brought xbox exclusives to PC day 1, he started gamepass on PC and most importantly for me, all of the first party games are available to purchase on Steam instead of only the janky Windows store.

At the sametime, it does feel as though he is too soft on developers. 343 screwed up Halo not once, not twice but at least 3 times. The way MCC was handled at it's launch on xbox one and then it's launch on PC needed months-years of fixes. Halo Infinites single player to me wasn't all that great but multiplayer certainly had a lot of potential which was ruined by delays, cosmetics and battlepass. And Halo 5 wasn't all that well received not to mention all the false promises of co-op and etc. And I think that shouldn't have gone unpunished for so long.

I also don't agree with his stance on making great games won't change anything cause the problem is that they haven't made enough great games to justify the stance imo. Their highest profile game this entire generation thus far has been Forza Horizon. Every other game has either been mid to skippable. Starfield feels like the first AAA title that feels like a must have for people in the box but then you look at how many games Sony has been able to turn out within since launch and it's like, come on man. It's time to rule xbox with an iron fist instead of just letting devs do what they want. Cause otherwise, just go full multiplatform and let Playstation/Nintendo/PC handle the hardware business.

I've never built in an ITX case before so I was expecting a difficult build as one of the youtube videos I watched said it was. But it was really the easiest build I've ever done, probably helps that I have no 2.5" drives so that saves space. CPU Cooler is very restrictive so at the moment I just have a stock AMD cooler.

I'm glad the build went better than expected.

Coolers for a case that short must be hard to find. I know Noctua and beQuiet have good top down coolers, but I'm sure not all of them can fit in your case.

The only low profile cooler I can thin of is from Noctua. I think a 5700 is about the extent of it's cooling capacity.

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-L9a-AM4-chromax-Black-Low-Profile-Cooler/dp/B083LQVX5W/ref=psdc_11036281_t1_B075SG1T3X

Looks like AMDs greed is catching up to them after the awful Zen 4 launch. They were trending upwards with Zen 3 then Zen 3X3D but decided to get a tad too greedy with Zen 4s awful pricing and mediocre performance uplift until Zen 4X3D. I suspect with Zen 4X3D, it could change but with the recent debacle, who knows.

They are doing much better in datacenter however which is where the big bucks is.

I would even go bigger on the CPU to the 5800X3D if you don't care about threads. (Provided your motherboard supports it.)
The 5900X/5950X can be found heavily discounted if you shop around if you need the extra threads.

I would aim bigger than the 3060/6600XT, but that's just me. Keep an eye out for deals, some really cheap 6700/6750XT cards dropping around the place which are stupidly cheap and probably the best bang-for-buck cards at the moment.

Played 2 hours of Borderlands GOTY today.

Doing all the side missions and optional missions before I tackle the main story missions (got lucky the last few ones lol).

Focusing on upgrades and all - on lv 18 now.

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Finished Street Fighter Alpha arcade mode in SFV.

Started on Street Fighter III New Generation Arcade mode - 4 characters done, 8 more to go.