Pricey, as expected.

The resolution is great, the fact that it uses speakers and not headphones will likely be a problem, especially if you're going to use it in public (you'll need guts for that), but that won't be a problem with that poor battery life.

I'm not sure Sony will appreciate Apple using their PS5 controller for their own headset, tho.

I mean, it's the same price on release as Hololens 2 but with 4 times the resolution. So... not bad in that regard?

That being said, the AR through VR thing will probably look flat AF, and the screen within the screen is a 'yo dawg' meme-worthy idea.

It may not be worth it in its current form, but I'm glad this product exists to keep moving the technology forward. Some day it'll be cheap, convenient, and useful enough for mass adoption (probably closer to glasses than goggles by that point).

Apple is pretty much a company reserved for those with the most money to spend, not those who are middle class or lower.

Also:

3:19: "Nvidia is still leaning heavily on DLSS 3.0 & Frame generation to demonstrate gen on gen performance improvements".

Thank god I'm not crazy, they are relying on it like a band-aid, one you rip off and oh look, worse off performance.

I'm actually expecting the 4060 to be weaker than the 3060 without DLSS3 in a wide range of games.

Just like the 4060Ti did compared to the 3060Ti, The 4060 looses 4 Streaming Multiprocessors compared to the 3060. However, while the 4060Ti could compensate most of the drop from 38 to 34 SM with clock speed and IPC improvements, this will be much harder for the 4060, who drops from 28 to 24SM, which is by percentage a much bigger loss. Worse, the clock speed increase over Ampere is smaller than with the 4060Ti, and the latter already got beaten by it's predecessor in several games...

I saw some shots from the slide performance before, it was doing worse with the Witcher 3 Remaster, and that was with DLSS and frame generation...

Imagine not using either and the 4060 will just perform worse outright, and that's why I hate that these cards are having to rely on both those techs, just to make perf look semi decent.

It's just annoying to see them rely so heavily on both DLSS/Frame gen, when we know without it, the cards get worse off perf. It's like they are trying to sell a a triple beef burger, but by the time you get it, it only contains a single patty and looks nothing like what was advertised. 

At this point, NVidia's low end seems like a "why did you guys bother with this?" moment. I just wish we could go back to having the 80ti,80,70,60, not:

90ti, 90, 80ti, 80, 70ti, 70, 60ti,60 and "Super" variants in between, it's so saturated and almost pointless. 

bolded: I compare it more to a double Cheeseburger being replaced by a triple... but with the burger patties being wafer-thin and instead of normal-sized, resulting in less meat overall.

italic: Kepler and Fermi were even worse. Not only had they confusing x60/x50 versions designed to rip off customers (an OEM-only 760 with 192bit bus instead of 256 and lowered clock speeds for Kepler, a "boost" 650 with wider bus and higher clock speeds that came close to the 660 - the ones you could buy that is (with 2 very different memory options), as this time around the (much!) better 660 versions were OEM-only), they also had a plethora of cards under the x50, as in a x45, x40, x30, x20, x10 and even an x5 that were all under $100 - and even at that, they were overpriced as they just lured budget gamers into buying stuff not fit for gaming.

The Tuesday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

(Click here for the top 100)

Dead Cells sells over 10 million
https://www.pcgamer.com/dead-cells-sells-over-10-million/
Dead Cells launched in early access in 2017, and developer Motion Twin's brilliant mashup of roguelite and Metroidvania quickly found an audience. It was an excellent game when it launched, but its subsequent support through the early access period and beyond has been exceptional, and mostly free to boot. Most recently we were treated to the wonderful Castlevania DLC and there's no sign of slowing down with its current developer Evil Empire.
That studio has now announced that Dead Cells has sold over 10 million copies, which is a remarkable milestone for an indie title like this to hit. That's not all on PC of course, with the the game being ported to consoles and mobile, but it says everything about the quality of Dead Cells and its multitude of free and paid updates. I still load this up every so often and every time have a blast, and there's now so much stuff in there it's a delight to see what wacky combinations of buffs and weapons each run turns up.

GOG has a couple of new deals for us:

• To celebrate the launch of Amnesia: The Bunker, there's a GIVEAWAY: Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs will be free to get during the next 64 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/amnesia_a_machine_for_pigs
• And, for Pride Month, GOG has launched a page with all the games with inclusive elements. Note that not all the games are on sale: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_gog_pride_month_collection

Steam has new sales and weeklong deals for us:

• The Monument Valley: Panoramic Collection, with the two games, will be 40% off until next Monday. The individual games are also on sale, 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25548/Monument_Valley_Panoramic_Collection/
• The Orcs Must Die! franchise is on sale, with up to 80% discounts until June, 12th. Check it out over here
• Inkulinati, still in Early Access, will be 30% off until the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/957960/Inkulinati/
• No Man's Sky, that has launched for Mac, is going to have a 50% discount until Monday, June, 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/
• And here's a small sample of the weeklong deals:
  • Unusual Findings, that has a demo, will be 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1605320/Unusual_Findings/
  • Builder Simulator gets a 30% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1120320/Builder_Simulator/
  • The Signal State, that also has a demo, is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1577620/The_Signal_State/
  • Operation Thunderstorm features a 60% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/837590/Operation_Thunderstorm/
  • Ghost 1.0 is going to be 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/463270/Ghost_10/
  • And the last one, Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, that also has a demo, brings a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/801480/Agent_A_A_puzzle_in_disguise/

Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Bing in Wonderland, 20% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/bing-in-wonderland
• The Far Cry franchise is on sale with up to 86% discounts during the next 5 days. The keys are for UbiConnect: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/far-cry

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion gets a new 8K Texture Pack
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-gets-a-new-8k-texture-pack/
Modder ‘Arthas’ has released a new 8K Texture Pack for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion that overhauls the game’s sewers. This pack is 760MB in size, and you can also find below a video that showcases its new highly detailed textures.
Going into more details, this pack has 13 diffuse maps and 13 alpha normal maps. In order to create these textures, Arthas used Gigapixel AI and Adobe Photoshop. In other words, the modder has upscaled the original textures, which means that these new textures retain the art style of their original versions.
>> The video is a bit over 3 minutes long.

GAMING NEWS

Yikes, the new Robocop shooter does not look very good
https://www.pcgamer.com/yikes-the-new-robocop-shooter-does-not-look-very-good/
IGN has shared a 10-minute preview of the upcoming future-of-law-enforcement FPS Robocop: Rogue City, and I'm sorry to say that despite our 2022 optimism, it really doesn't look very good.

Astonished Diablo 4 players discover they've been moving their horses wrong this whole time
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-horse-speed-slow-pc-mouse-controls/
Has this ever happened to you: You're an up-and-coming necromancer, 100% on his grind, and you mount your noble Friesian or Clydesdale expecting to break out into a vigorous trot, only to find it hobbling along like a gotdamn bob-tail nag? Assuming this is happening to you in Diablo 4, you may just be holding your mouse too close to your filly.

Diablo 4 is finally, officially live
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-is-finally-officially-live/
After beta tests, server slams, and a pre-order early access period, this is it: the full, official, no-takes-backsies launch of Diablo 4. The game is now live as of 4 pm PST on Monday, June 5.

Diablo 4 servers finally start to buckle under launch strain, Blizzard's working on it
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-server-issues-queue-launch/
For a minute there, I thought Blizzard was going to do the impossible: launch an online game without any significant server problems. I should've known better!
At about 8 pm Pacific on Monday, Blizzard said on Twitter that it's "currently investigating an issue" that's causing "failed or slow login attempts."
Update (11:30 pm PT): Blizzard said on Twitter that the previous login issues have been resolved, but when I tried to play Diablo 4 just now, I got a timeout error: code 300008. (See screenshot above.) We'll update this story when we learn more.

Jurassic Park management game marks the film's 30th anniversary by adding nostalgic set dressing and literal poop
https://www.pcgamer.com/jurassic-park-management-game-marks-the-films-30th-anniversary-by-adding-nostalgic-set-dressing-and-literal-poop/
Frontier's dino-wrangling management game and cautionary tale about the hubris of man, Jurassic World Evolution 2, is getting a special update to mark the series' 30th anniversary (the original Jurassic Park premiered on June 9, 1993). It brings along all sorts of memorable landmarks and knick-knacks from the original film, it releases June 8, and it's free.

Fans despair about 'putting your hope in Epic' as the publisher purges all mention of Unreal Tournament game it accidentally announced last year
https://www.pcgamer.com/fans-despair-about-putting-your-hope-in-epic-as-the-publisher-purges-all-mention-of-unreal-tournament-game-it-accidentally-announced-last-year/
Remember late last year when Epic took a scythe to its back-catalogue, delisting almost every single Unreal game? At the time, the blow was softened by the news that Unreal Tournament 3 would become Unreal Tournament 3 X, a free version of the classic with full crossplay between PC storefronts, zero microtransactions, and "no strings attached".
It was never really announced by Epic, mind you. Fans got wind of it thanks to the Steam description for UT3 (visible in this https://store.steampowered.com/app/13210/Unreal_Tournament_3_X/">archived version), which was updated around the time Epic was going on its delist spree to include a full description of the new version. I guess there was a reason Epic never made a big splash about it, though, because it now appears to have been memory-holed.

Reddit API Changes, Subreddit Blackout, and How It Affects You

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/141lsip/reddit_api_changes_subreddit_blackout_and_how_it/

While it's not hardware news, it is something that is important imo. Many subreddits are protesting reddits upcoming changes to their policies and API. In Summary:

a) Reddit is not only requiring a fee for their API for third party app developers but they are quoting them $2 million per month which is insane
b) NSFW content will only be avaliable through the official reddit app/site and third party apps even if they pay the fees do not get access to it
c) Modders that rely on third party tools will be severely limited as to what they can do

Imo the default reddit app is complete ass and while I understand they trying to make money since it's their site, the amount their asking is obviously meant to completely shutdown other apps since I highly doubt any of the third party apps get anywhere close to 2 million in revenue. So it is designed to simply force people to use their horrid app. So in protest, you may see tons of reddits shutting down temporarily. Hopefully reddit reverses their decision.

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 mishap causes havoc with AMD graphics cards

https://www.techradar.com/news/microsofts-latest-windows-11-mishap-causes-havoc-with-amd-graphics-cards

I have been seeing this being an on going issue in the AMD subreddit. Not sure why it doesn't happen with Nvidia drivers tho but Radeon team needs to communicate with Microsoft so this doesn't happen.

AMD Radeon RX 6800 16GB is now available for €399, cheaper and faster than RTX 4060 Ti

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6800-16gb-is-now-available-for-e399-cheaper-and-faster-than-rtx-4060-ti

Apple introduces M2 Ultra SoC with 24 CPU and 76 GPU cores, 192GB of memory

https://videocardz.com/press-release/apple-introduces-m2-ultra-soc-with-24-cpu-and-76-gpu-cores-192gb-of-memory

I don't know. It's still just a high-end VR device with a lot of frills.

Imagine if this used a ClearBright display instead. Now that'd be moving the technology forward. Maybe in 5-10 years...