RedGamingTech and MooresLawIsDead are two channels that should be avoided... They both have a history of using wide margins to make their leaks seem-legitimate. I.E. Perf increase gen on gen between 10%-30% is a wide margin that is hard to get wrong as that is historically AMD's gen-on-gen improvement anyway.

Both will delete old videos where their "leaks" ended up being false.

For example... RedGamingTech asserted that the Series X was going to have 48GB of Ram, 4TB SSD and that PS5 was based on Zen3/RDNA3.

These aren't "leakers" they are just making videos on every single outcome/possibility and trying to pass it off as "truth". - They appeal to a very specific fanbase... One that seems to lack any real technical understanding.

Yeah true. I remember the 2-2.5x 'leaks' for RDNA 3 and that aged like rancid milk. It was only around 1.5x, according to AMD and ended up only around 1.3X for the top SKU. Then we had the PS5 having infinity cache. And the whole MGS remake being a PS5 console exclusive, passing it off like they have insider info lol.

Think they get most of their stuff from rumors posted on Twitter and places like Chiphell forums and do some guesswork based off that. And pass it off as their 'sources'. They never really go back and address wrong predictions or 'leaks'.

I think only Kopite has a good enough record to be taken seriously. Least with lesser grain of salt than the mountains from MLID/RTG. It's the main reason I largely skip articles that site them as the source cause it's pointless.

I agree, for the most part, their leaks are not very often a hit.

That being said, the leaks for the 4050 and RDNA3 cards posted here do look realistic enough to be at least in the ballpark of what's possibly coming.

Even more power-hungry??? At that point a 64c/128t Threadripper will consume less power than an Intel i7/Ultra 7 (280W for the threadripper)

Man, we cannot catch a god damn break on PC, without something fucking up...

I was excited for the release of Farworld Pioneers, an indie game that was made by some vets that made Starbound, a game that was meant to be BETTER than Starbound in terms of colony simming. 

So what do they do when they launch in 1.0?, release a game that still required a very important patch, a patch that was meant to resolve the utterly garbage pathing and issues with the colony NPC's, you and the NPC's falling through the map, among other bugs, and this patch was apparently withheld just before 1.0, and they still haven't released that patch and it has now been 24hrs since launch and no word, no nothing from the devs on that patch.

All we've heard, is this one fangirl going above and beyond to apologise for the devs withholding said patch, but that it will arrive "soon™", and they are also trying to diffuse customer's anger levels at this launch state, which really makes me think they are just an employee or some shit trying to use an alternate account tot ry to diffuse the situation (It's happened before in the past multiple times on Steam, I'm not going to forget that devs can do that).

I'm just disappointed that the devs gave no real good reason as to why they couldn't just launch this game in EA. They stated that they "didn't feel like it was their thing", yet the game has some devs who worked on Starbound, a game that LAUNCHED IN EARLY ACCESS, back in 2013...

Like I dunno man, I'm just tired of devs knowing something bad exists within their game, but they withhold the shit that was really needed to make their main talked about point, work right off the bat (in this case it's the colony NPC's they keep boasting about). Now I'm not sure if it's TinyBuild being colossal dicks and forcing the devs to just release in 1.0, but if it's not, holy shit can I see that game getting abandoned in short time (because Starbound was abandoned 2 yrs after release).

I just want games to fucking work man, and be happy to play them, not "oh shit, another off my wishlist, better go back to my games that I usually play for years that work, and not play anything new for another 6 months".

I'm tired man.

This already started about 15 years ago - just not as egregious as nowadays. This is why I became a retrogamer with some Indies and A/AA games (like Hearts of Iron, Age of Wonders, Civ, Stellaris...) sprinkled in between, and those games I generally only get years after release.

It also comes with the benefit that my hardware lasts much longer. I'm still on a 1050Ti mobile (new laptop coming this month, see a few pages back in this thread) and really don't need that much powerful and power-hungry hardware. The 7600S or 4060 mobile (still undecided which one I'll choose) will probably last me for at least half a dozen years before they start becoming a limiting factor for me.

*** NEW CONTEST ***

Win 1 of 2 Philips Evnia ultra-fast 240Hz gaming monitors
https://www.club386.com/win-1-of-2-philips-evnia-ultra-fast-240hz-gaming-monitors/
or https://gleam.io/vmDaM/win-1-of-2-philips-evnia-ultrafast-240hz-gaming-monitors

You can check the specs from here.

The contest is limited to UK and Europe.

Good  luck!

An art friend of mine (one year older than me and also an 80's dude) has recently gone back into retro gaming, while also trying to limit his own gaming sessions to around 2hrs per week (like booting up his old SNES for example).

His main issue, is how bogged down gaming has become, and how little it respects your time, while also asking for more money, and well...the bugs and broken promises are another, and I've been letting that build up within my own tolerances, but that has pretty much reached a fine point to me now, where I just feel like I'm only ever semi-happy to play at least one new game a year, not 20-30 that everyone is apparently feasting over (funny enough, most of these games ppl are excited to collect all have a form of Battlepass or list of MT's/huge grinds).

I always end up falling back onto games I know I can play for a short while (Heroes of the Storm literally allow for 15 min or less vs AI matches with friends, which is a nice short burst), but new games these days are either riddled with bugs, crappy mechanics, huge grinds, or just too expensive for my tastes.

I feel like retro gaming is where I am also headed, I mean look at Angry Video Game Nerd, that guy is still playing retro games to this day and he's older than me by a few years. I feel like gaming is going to be altered completely within the next decade, to a point where it forces me out, with me having to find a new hobby entirely. 

Indies are still grand to play, but I was really looking forward to that Offworld game, and it was indie, also co-created by some Starbound vets, and they still manage to screw up their launch and have one of their main points of their game, being completely fucked over for launch. I've checked their reddit, Steam, Twitter, etc, their game has almost no fanfare of word of mouth and they are selling it at a 10% discount, and it's got mixed reviews... It really feels like their game is going to sink due to their fuckup, huge lack of social awareness and not having used Steam's early access route. 

it's sad, because I really liked Starbound, but their colony system was barebones and almost non existent, and I just wanted a game like Starbound with a good colony system. As for ymself, I'm still sporting my 1080ti, I think I'll try to somehow upgrade my CPU/RAM this yr to make up for both those shortcomings (I know my perf is degrading right now due to my RAM speed falling behind, and my CPU despite being OC'd, only has a few threads and cores). 

The Thursday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away Midnight Ghost Hunt: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/midnight-ghost-hunt
The next free game is a mystery.

GOG wants to bring us some peace, and has launched the Indie Chill Sale with up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_chill_indie_sale.

Steam has two new deals:

• Electrician Simulator will be 50% off until June, 7th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1080020/Electrician_Simulator/
• Cultist Simulator gets a 70% discount until the same 7th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/718670/Cultist_Simulator/

There's a new Humble Bundle: the Must-Play Metroidvanias Bundle, with 9 games to get during 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/must-play-metroidvania.

And Fanatical has launched the new Platinum Collection BYOB for June, with 15 titles to choose for your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc & Iris Graphics 31.0.101.4382
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-iris-graphics-31-0-101-4382
Highlights
Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics for:

• Diablo IV
• Street Fighter 6

Game performance improvements versus Intel® 31.0.101.4369 software driver for:

• Total War: Warhammer III (DX11) – Mirror of Madness Benchmark
  • Up to 4% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings

Fixed Issues

• Certain applications using Vulkan API may experience an application crash.
• The Last of Us Part 1 (DX12) may experience an application crash during gameplay.
• Unreal Engine 5.2 Editor may experience an application crash.
• Street Fighter 6 (DX12) – Battle Hub Benchmark may exhibit lower than expected performance

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.5.2
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-23-5-2
Highlights

• Support for:
  • Diablo 4
• Performance optimizations for Microsoft Olive DirectML pipeline for Stable Diffusion 1.5.
  • Boost your performance by an average of 2x in Microsoft Olive Optimized DirectML Stable Diffusion 1.5 using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition™ 23.5.2 on the AMD Radeon™️ RX 7900 XTX graphics card, versus the previous software driver version 23.5.1. RS-579

>> There are no fixed issues.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty-

GAMING NEWS

Witcher 3 director and Cyberpunk producer launch a new studio: 'After working for years in an increasingly conservative industry, we’re ready to make bold, impactful projects'
https://www.pcgamer.com/witcher-3-director-and-cyberpunk-producer-launch-a-new-studio-after-working-for-years-in-an-increasingly-conservative-industry-were-ready-to-make-bold-impactful-projects/
A team of CD Projekt veterans including Witcher 3 co-director Mateusz Kanik, producer Jędrzej Mróz, and Cyberpunk 2077 senior producer Marcin Jefimow, have launched a new studio called Blank that is currently working on "a character-driven game set in an apocalypse, with a twist or two."

Hideo Kojima says Metal Gear Solid 2 had to make 300 changes and was almost cancelled in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks
https://www.pcgamer.com/hideo-kojima-says-metal-gear-solid-2-had-to-make-300-changes-and-was-almost-cancelled-in-the-wake-of-the-september-11-terrorist-attacks/
Hideo Kojima recently gave an interview to the magazine Weekly Tokyo Keizai, in which he talked a little about the run-up to the release of Metal Gear Solid 2 and how real-world events almost scuppered the game's release. At the time MGS2 was probably the most anticipated game in the world, and was due to release in November 2001. Then two months before the game's release, the September 11 terrorist attacks happened, killing just under 3,000 people and changing the course of the world.

Activision Blizzard CEO audaciously claims that sexism and harassment problems were made up by an 'aggressive labor movement' trying to 'destabilize the company'
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-ceo-audaciously-claims-that-sexism-and-harassment-problems-were-made-up-by-an-aggressive-labor-movement-trying-to-destabilize-the-company/
In a new and frankly embarrassing interview with Variety, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said there's actually never been a problem with "systemic" harassment at the company, and that reports of such things were mainly the result of unions trying to cause trouble.
>> The balls of this guy...

Diablo 4 dev corrects day 1 patch statement, says the launch version will have 'very few' changes from the Server Slam build when it goes live
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-dev-corrects-day-1-patch-statement-says-the-launch-version-will-have-very-few-changes-from-the-server-slam-build-when-it-goes-live/
Day 1 patches are a very common thing in the videogame industry: You buy a game, preload it, and then before you can start playing it on launch day you have to download an often-massive update filled with all sorts of last-minute fixes and tweaks. Diablo 4 will presumably have its own day 1 patch when it goes into early access launch tomorrow, but we've now learned that not much is changing for the launch.

Stardew Valley's developer tweeted 'iridium scythe' and everyone is losing it
https://www.pcgamer.com/stardew-valleys-developer-tweeted-iridium-scythe-and-everyone-is-losing-it/
Stardew Valley developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has a habit of being pretty quiet on social media, so when he does speak up everyone pays attention. Today he tweeted just two words: "iridium scythe" which is a nod to a tool upgrade apparently long-desired by way more players than I'd anticipated.

Start your tiny engines, a Hot Wheels Unleashed sequel is on the way
https://www.pcgamer.com/start-your-very-small-engines-a-hot-wheels-unleashed-sequel-is-on-the-way/
Milestone's big racing game about tiny cars is getting a sequel: Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged will launch on October 19, 2023 across PC and consoles. The sequel will have a ton more cars, 130 at launch, and five environments to race in. It'll also add motorcycles and ATVs, as well as new customization options for your rides, all of which can be shared with others online.

'No signs of remorse'—Sonic creator faces prison sentence and over $1 million fine in ongoing trial
https://www.pcgamer.com/no-signs-of-remorsesonic-creator-hit-with-2-and-a-half-years-in-prison-and-over-dollar1-million-in-fines-after-insider-trading-trial/
Prosecutors in the Tokyo District Court are pushing for a heavy punishment for Sonic and Balan Wonderworld creator Yuji Naka, Abema Times (via VGC) reports. They want to hit Naka with a 2.5 year sentence and a ¥2.5 million fine (around $18,000/£14,000), as well as a "supplementary penalty" of ¥170 million (around $1.2 million/£975,000). Prosecutors have lambasted the game designer for showing "no signs of remorse" over his actions.

Firaxis hit by layoffs after Midnight Suns disappointment and departure of iconic creative lead
https://www.pcgamer.com/firaxis-hit-by-layoffs-after-midnight-suns-disappointment-and-departure-of-iconic-creative-lead/
Civilization and XCOM studio Firaxis has been struck by a round of layoffs, Axios reports. Around 30 developers at the company have lost their jobs so that Firaxis can perform a "sharpening of focus, enhancements of efficiencies, and an alignment of our talent against our highest priorities," which I'm pretty certain is just a hyper-corporate way of saying 'we need to spend less money'.