CP2077: Phantom Liberty got me more hyped for it than it should. Star Wars Outlaws looks quite good as well, for something new/different from Ubi and graphically looked really good too. Starfield too looked very impressive with a way better gameplay showing and is something I'd maybe consider getting day 1, depending on reviews. The other stuff was expected stuff and didn't really take a note of, or was shameless derivative copies from stuff I've already played - like the Bioshock and DS/Bloodborne(s) rip offs. There was some other new IP's as well that didn't really tickly my fancy.

And finally a bit of a bittersweet one, an update on Pragmata; which seems to be indefinately delayed. We did get a snippet of gameplay and that soundtrack and note left hit the feels.

Has ASUS nerfed the ROG Ally for better battery life?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ROGAlly/comments/1490t1u/the_verge_compares_bios_performance_changes_in/

Blizz now charging for OW2 PVe content and WoW's trading post got data mined, telling us that Blizz is likely going to let you buy "tendy" tokens to buy cosmetics within WoW's trading post.

Lmao, I can't with Blizz anymore. They don't care about goodwill anymore these days.

Not that it matters to me at this point, I just uninstalled OW2, since there's nothing for me there anymore (I don't do PVP since launch of OW1, only PVE, and they are charging money for what was once free in OW1). Also not buying into D4, so all that's left for me with Blizz in active games is WoW, and I will have to avoid the once nice feature that is the trading post.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/overwatch-2-pve-story-missions-cost-15-arrives-august-10th-333478#comments

https://www.wowhead.com/news/traders-tender-shop-assets-added-on-patch-10-1-5-ptr-333488?page=14#comments

Say what you want about EA, but I believe Blizz are just as bad as them these days.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has six new Deals of the Day, that will be available until Friday, and a new Giveaway:

• Courtesy of Paradox comes the he GIVEAWAY: Crusader Kings II. There's no mention of how long will this giveaway last or if it's permanent: https://www.gog.com/game/crusader_kings_ii
• The first DotD is Seed of the Dead: Sweet Home, 40% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/seed_of_the_dead_sweet_home
• SCARF gets a 45% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/scarf
• Chicken Police is going to be 55% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/chicken_police
• BioShock™ Remastered has a 75% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/bioshock_remastered
• Always Sometimes Monsters is 82% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/always_sometimes_monsters
• And Ethan: Meteor Hunter gets a 85% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/ethan_meteor_hunter

Steam has two new deals:

• Everhood is 50% off until June, 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229380/Everhood/
• And the Cat Quest franchise goes on sale with up to 70% discounts until the same 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/kepler/sale/catquestfranchise2023

The Humble Bundle presents the new Upload VR Showcase Bundle, with up to 7 games to get during the next 19 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/upload-vr.

And Fanatical's new Star Deal is THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIV STEAM EDITION, 80% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/the-king-of-fighters-xiv-steam-edition.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce 536.23 WHQL Driver available now for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-geforce-536-23-whql-driver-available-now-for-download/
NVIDIA has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce 536.23 WHQL driver provides the best day-1 experience for F1 23. Additionally, this Game Ready Driver supports the launch of Aliens: Dark Descent.
The NVIDIA GeForce 536.23 WHQL driver also resolves some crashes in Microsoft Flight Simulator when playing in DX12 mode. Moreover, it addresses some stability issues in Red Dead Redemption 2.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Elden Ring’s The Garden of Eyes overhaul mod adds a class-based progression system
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/elden-rings-the-garden-of-eyes-overhaul-mod-adds-a-class-based-progression-system/
The team behind The Garden of Eyes overhaul mod for Elden Ring has released a new update that adds a class-based progression system to it.
As the team noted, this new concept takes the idea of starting classes a step further, allowing each class to start from a completely different region in the game.
>> The article has an almost 7 minutes long video.

GAMING NEWS

Need for Speed Unbound Patch 3.0 will improve CPU performance & reduce VRAM usage, full changelog revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/need-for-speed-unbound-patch-3-0-will-improve-cpu-performance-reduce-vram-usage-full-changelog-revealed/
Criterion Games will release a major update for Need for Speed Unbound next week. According to the developers, Update 3.0 will improve CPU performance, will reduce VRAM usage, will update DLSS and FSR to their latest versions, and will pack a number of QoL improvements.

Unreal Engine 5-powered third-person co-op action RPG shooter, The First Descendant, gets an extended gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/unreal-engine-5-powered-third-person-co-op-action-rpg-shooter-the-first-descendant-gets-an-extended-gameplay-trailer/
NEXON has released an extended gameplay trailer for its Unreal Engine 5-powered third-person co-op action RPG shooter, The First Descendant.

The Last of Us Part I Title Update 1.1.0 released, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/the-last-of-us-part-i-title-update-1-1-0-released-full-patch-notes/
Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy have released Title Update 1.1.0 for The Last of Us Part I, and shared its complete changelog. According to the patch notes, Update 1.1.0 brings optimizations to improve global CPU and GPU performance throughout the game.
Moreover, Patch 1.1.0 promises to further improve the shader compilations times. Additionally, it packs overall improvements to texture and environment loading, brings a number of fixes, and resolves various crashes.

Here’re six minutes of gameplay footage from Forza Motorsport
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/herere-six-minutes-of-gameplay-footage-from-forza-motorsport/
A lot of racing fans were disappointed with the Xbox Showcase trailer of Forza Motorsport. This trailer did not feature any gameplay sequences at all, something that puzzled a lot of Forza fans. Thankfully, though, we now have a video that shows off six minutes of proper gameplay footage from it.

The Crew Motorfest will be exclusive to Ubisoft & Epic Games stores, not coming to Steam
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-crew-motorfest-will-be-exclusive-to-ubisoft-epic-games-stores-not-coming-to-steam/
The Crew Motorfest is another game from Ubisoft that will be skipping Steam at launch and will release exclusively on Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store.

Madden NFL 24 gets official PC system requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/madden-nfl-24-gets-official-pc-system-requirements/
EA Sports has revealed the official PC system requirements for Madden NFL 24. The PC version of this new Madden game will be based on the current-gen console version, and these PC specs will give you an idea of the PC system you’ll need to run it.

The second part of the Wednesday news:

New steampunk RPG criticised for 'borrowing' from Bioshock Infinite, but why is that a bad thing?
https://www.pcgamer.com/new-steampunk-rpg-criticised-for-borrowing-from-bioshock-infinite-but-why-is-that-a-bad-thing/
(...)
"I've never seen a game take from another game as directly as Clockwork Revolution took from Bioshock Infinite," said Butmac. "I mean, that was IP infringement levels of borrow".

Star Wars: Outlaws' stupid little companion is played by the go-to Star Wars voice actor
https://www.pcgamer.com/star-wars-outlaws-stupid-little-companion-is-played-by-the-go-to-star-wars-voice-actor/
Ubisoft has announced Star Wars: Outlaws and, judging by the Star Wars nerds on the PCG team, it's made quite the impression. The game is an original tale about smuggler Kay Vess, set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and the devs are amping up the seedy Han Solo vibe they're going for. But as is almost de rigeur for the series these days, the scene-stealer was Vess' cutesy little companion called Nix.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty adds cyberware that lets you air-dash, see through walls, and 'change your appearance to lose the heat'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-phantom-liberty-adds-cyberware-that-lets-you-air-dash-see-through-walls-and-change-your-appearance-to-lose-the-heat/
Well, well, well. It looks like Cyberpunk 2077 is finally about to come full circle.
When it launched in 2020 it was utterly baffling that you couldn't alter your character's appearance after creating them—you couldn't even change your hair style or nail polish once you started playing. The reason, we discovered soon after launch, was that the game wasn't finished, and it would take until the huge 1.5 update in 2022 for CD Projekt to add the feature to Cyberpunk 2077 that finally let you change your appearance.
And in September's Cyberpunk 2077's expansion, Phantom Liberty, you'll be able to change your appearance on the fly, thanks to some interesting new cyberware. At the Xbox Games Showcase Extended today, Paweł Sasko, quest director, gave us a little look at the expansion's new location, Dogtown, and mentioned some of the new cyberware you'll be able to buy on the black market.

BattleBit Remastered, a 254-player shooter with vehicles and destructible maps, is out this week for $15
https://www.pcgamer.com/battlebit-remastered-a-254-player-shooter-with-vehicles-and-destructible-maps-is-out-this-week-for-dollar15/
Who among us does not like a present-to-near-future military shooter with 254 players per server, vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, and a role-based class system set on destructible maps? Certainly not us, which is why we called BattleBit Remastered one of the most interesting shooters coming out this year.

Electronic Arts didn't cancel Titanfall 3, Respawn did—and it didn't even tell EA for six months
https://www.pcgamer.com/electronic-arts-didnt-cancel-titanfall-3-respawn-didand-it-didnt-even-tell-ea-for-six-months/
Titanfall 3 is simultaneously a sad tale of what might have been, and an undying dream of what may one day be. It's widely known that the success of the nominally Titanfall-based battle royale Apex Legends is what ended its planned development, but in an interview with The Burnettwork, former Call of Duty and Titanfall designer Mohammad Alavi said it wasn't EA executives chasing a trend who made the decision to pull the plug—it was the Titanfall 3 dev team.

Hopes are high: Starfield rockets to second place in Steam's global bestsellers list
https://www.pcgamer.com/hopes-are-high-starfield-rockets-to-second-place-in-steams-global-bestsellers-list/
Starfield is available for pre-purchase now, and Bethesda's space RPG is already the number two bestseller on Steam, beneath only Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

FTC wins a temporary restraining order blocking the Microsoft—Activision deal
https://www.pcgamer.com/ftc-wins-a-temporary-restraining-order-blocking-the-microsoftactivision-deal/
The US Federal Trade Commission has been granted a temporary restraining order against Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This means the deal is now officially on hold until the courts can rule on the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction against the closure of the deal—which is itself a temporary measure aimed at halting the deal until the FTC's legal challenge against the acquisition is completed.

Diablo 4 players furious that Blizzard 'learned nothing from D3' as its best XP farms get nerfed to hell
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-players-furious-that-blizzard-learned-nothing-from-d3-as-its-best-xp-farms-get-nerfed-to-hell/
Hey, remember the Ruins of Eridu? The Diablo 4 dungeon that provided an excellent venue for power levelling thanks to its surfeit of elite enemies? Well purge it from your mind, because Blizzard's ninth hotfix for Diablo 4 is nerfing its most easily exploitable dungeons, sending elite spawn rates plummeting and ensuring you have to really work for those extra paragon points after level 50.

Starfield ships have a literal 'rage quit' button
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-ships-have-a-literal-rage-quit-button/
One of the reassuring things about Bethesda's Starfield Direct was the evidence that the gargantuan space epic still had time for a bit of whimsy and silliness, like one developer's personal quest to steal lots of space sandwiches. Over on the subreddit, the eagle-eyed ninjasaid13 has also spotted a neat easter egg in the ship's cockpit.

That's... messed up. Just delist/remove the DLC and keep the game on sale. It shouldn't be that hard.

Well, Asus already tinkered with the software not too long ago, Yuri posted about it and how it improved performance. Maybe they've realized the extra peformance brought extra heat or something else and they've toning it down a bit.

We'll see once there's more testing done.

Yea Cyber Punk does look great. Star Wars Outlaws, Prince of Persia, New Assassin's Creed and heck even that Avatar game looked better than i was expecting. So decent Ubi conference. They even had the funny meme potential with the creator of Castlevania Netflix show coming and doing interesting way of talking and announcing new animated Netflix show. 

Rest happy to see Alan Wake 2. Sad to hear about Pragmata but didn't know what it was about.  

Lot of the Bioshock/Souls type game look decent but they don't have what the originals offered. They were just cut above. 

Starfield ofcourse needs to do well for Bethesda and Microsoft. Looks good but as long as it plays well. From Sony side, i quite liked the Spiderman 2 but will have to wait for pc version. That should be far away. 

Agree on Mirage and your take on the rest too. Some of the recent AC games have been so big. Almost feels like you are working a 2nd job on them. The expanse and to some extend the bloat is insane. Need to trim it down. 

True they got to show some of the more interesting 3rd party games at their conference. Like a Dragon should be good fun. Didn't understand one bit about Kunitsu Gami but nice and colourful. 

Yea Spiderman and announced Wolverine should be great to play but while away from pc release. If even. 

There are some pvp games am interested in too. Xdefiant if if is like old call of duty. Made by ex COD dev. 

Also Arc Raider and The finals. Both made by ex Battlefield devs.

Simulated Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU ends up 4% to 13% faster than RX 6800 XT

https://videocardz.com/newz/simulated-radeon-rx-7800-xt-gpu-ends-up-4-to-13-faster-than-rx-6800-xt

PCIe Express 7.0 Specifications Draft Released, 512 GB/s Speeds & Expected by 2027

https://wccftech.com/pcie-express-7-0-specifications-draft-released-512-gb-s-speeds-expected-by-2027/

Jeez the advancements have been nuts

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB Graphics Card Confirmed To Launch on 29th June For $299 US

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-8-gb-graphics-card-confirmed-launch-29th-june-299-usd/

Most likely it will be better to get the 3060 12GB for less or RDNA 2 offerings. I would focus on the "without frame gen" section but even then, I'd take it with a grain of salt until real reviews come out.

AMD Discloses Zen 4C Architecture Details: Same Design As Zen 4, 35% Smaller, 2x Density & Cores

https://wccftech.com/amd-zen-4c-architecture-detailed-same-design-as-zen-4-35-percent-smaller-2x-density-cores/

AMD Unleashes 3D V-Cache Powered EPYC Genoa-X CPUs: Up To 1.1 GB Cache, 2.9x Gain Over Xeon

https://wccftech.com/amd-unleashes-3d-v-cache-epyc-genoa-x-cpus-up-to-1-1-gb-cache-2-9x-gain-over-xeon/

AMD Unveils Instinct MI300 APUs In MI300A & MI300X Flavors: CDNA 3 GPU, Up To 24 Zen 4 Cores, 192 GB HBM3, 153 Billion Transistors

https://wccftech.com/amd-unveils-instinct-mi300-apus-mi300a-mi300x-flavors-cdna-3-gpu-up-to-24-zen-4-cores-192-gb-hbm3-153-billion-transistors/

If you were watching the press conference, AMDs approach to comparing their products against Intel and Nvidia was quite fascinating. Against Intel vs Epyc, it was all about performance and numbers. AMDs Epyc CPUs are blah x faster, blah x more efficient, etc. Against Nvidia on the other hand, their spin was essentially, thanks to our chiplet design, we can add more cores and vram which allows you to have better total cost of ownership as Nvidia only gives you 80GB on their hopper GPUs while we are giving you 192GB. Like there was no performance comparisons even against Nvidia's previous gen GPUs or anything. Really goes to show the state of things.