For me it's a case of:

If the game is stupidly monetised, or I can see the Skinner's box a mile away, I'll outright avoid it. I've found over time that my own personal time gaming isn't being respected by AAA these days.

If the game is good, isn't taxed to hell in MT's, but is buggy and needs more refinement, then I'll wait a year until it's cheaper (like I did with HZD/Days Gone). If the game still isn't fully improved/fixed nearly a year later, I likely just won't but it at all.

Dope list as usual !

The Monday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has a new giveaway, new Deals of the Day and new games added to the Summer Sale:

• The new GIVEAWAY, Eschalon: Book II, will be free to get during the next 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/eschalon_book_ii
• These are the six ne DotD, available until Wednesday:
  • Nebuchadnezzar gets a 50% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/nebuchadnezzar
  • Streets of Rage 4 is also 50% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/streets_of_rage_4
  • Re;Lord 2 ~The witch of Cologne and black cat~ features a 60% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/relord_2_the_witch_of_cologne_and_black_cat
  • Seed of the Dead will also be 60% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/seed_of_the_dead
  • Overload has a 83% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/overload
  • The Whale Rock All Games Bundle is 91% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/whale_rock_all_games_bundle
• And the Summer Sale now has added 7 Yakuza games, with discounts that range from 60 to 75%. Learn more here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/yakuza_titles_are_here_7_entries_from_the_legendary_series_up_to_75_and_another_summer_sale_giveaway

Steam has two new deals:

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R, that has a demo, will be 40% off until June, 25th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1372110/JoJos_Bizarre_Adventure_AllStar_Battle_R/
• My Lovely Wife gets a 45% discount until the same 25th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1251930/My_Lovely_Wife/

We find two new deals at Humble:

• At Humble Bundle there's the Payday 2: Return of the Ultimate Score Bundle, with up to 64 items to get between the game, DLCs and a coupon during the next 9 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/payday-2-return-of-the-ultimate-score-bundle
• Meanwhile, the Humble Store has the Valor & Victory Sale, with up to 90% discounts. There are keys for Steam, EGS, UPlay and 1 for GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/valor-victory-sale/

And Fanatical has several new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Resident Evil Village Gold Edition, 49% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/resident-evil-village-gold-edition
• The former is part of a Capcom Sale, featuring up to 89% discounts during 13 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/capcom
• The Diamond Collection BYOB has 16 titles to choose from to build your 3, 4 or 5 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
• And there's a chance to win AAA games with a new contest: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/rewards-week-contest

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Mass Effect Legendary Edition gets a cool first-person mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/mass-effect-legendary-edition-gets-a-cool-first-person-mod/
Mass Effect fans, here is something special for you today. Modder ‘Aphar’ has released a first-person mod for the first game of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition collection.
By using this mod, you can play the entire first game via a first-person perspective. This mod supports both combat and exploration, and we are pretty sure that most ME fans will appreciate it.
As the modder noted, cover and visibility are now an important part of gameplay, as all combat cameras have been adjusted for the new perspective. This includes multiple depths of corner peeking/shooting and a dynamic lean feature.
Additionally, the game’s movement in exploration mode has been modified to feel more responsive. The turn speed of sprinting has also been increased, and sprinting does not change the FOV.
For those wondering, yes. Even the elevator rides are now in first-person mode. However, conversions will be similar to those of the vanilla version.
The only downside is that Shepard’s hands and gun will also not appear when in first-person perspective. However, that’s a small price to pay for such an unofficial FPS Mode.
>> There's an almost 5 minutes video of the mod.

Metal Gear Online 2 will get back its Survival Mode on PC in 2023
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/metal-gear-online-2-will-get-back-its-survival-mode-on-pc-in-2023/
The team behind the Metal Gear Online 2 PC project has announced that it will bring back the Survival Mode in 2023. In order to celebrate this announcement, the team has also shared a new trailer that you can find below.
But what is Metal Gear Online 2 PC? Basically, it’s a project that attempts to restore the online functionalities of Metal Gear Online 2 via the Playstation 3 emulator, RPCS3.
In order to make the game’s Survival Mode to work, the team had to devise a way to implement dedicated server hosting for as cheap as possible. And they succeeded.
>> The trailer is less than 2 minutes long.

These Valheim mods add new free content to the game
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/these-valheim-mods-add-new-free-content-to-the-game/
Valheim fans, here is something for you today. Modder ‘Marlthon’ has released a few new mods for Iron Gate’s exploration and survival game, Vahelim, that add new free content to it.
Marlthon has shared four new content packs for Valheim. These packs add air animals, sea animals and… cats. Yes, we finally have cats in Valheim.
Going into more details, Air Animals pack adds the Harpy Eagle, Swan, 6 ButterFly types and 4 Beetle types. On the other hand, the Sea Animals pack adds Orca, Dolphins, Sharks, Crocodile, Turtles, Seal and Penguin. There is also a Fisher pack that adds 37 new fish species, 7 starfish and 1 crab to the fishing system.
>> There's no video nor screenshots.

Doom creator John Romero finally plays its most mind-blowing mod
https://www.pcgamer.com/doom-creator-john-romero-finally-plays-its-most-mind-blowing-mod/
Newly famous among the Doom community for its mind-bending map (including a terrifying hallway that takes six-and-a-half-minutes to get through), the innocently-named MyHouse.wad is certainly the Doom mod of the year. It immediately earned itself a spot on the all-timer list back in March, in spite of the game's long modding history. MyHouse.wad is a surreal, enthralling narrative, and my first encounter with it took place via a feature-length long video essay that gnawed its way through my entire afternoon. I'd recommend you play it yourself, however, as it's far more fascinating to delve into firsthand. A close second would be watching the creator of Doom try it for himself. John Romero, co-founder of id Software, has finally given it a proper go, streaming his playthrough on Twitch. "Well here it is, my house," he begins, tucked away into a cosy corner screen after running through his microphone checks. "I don't know anything about it, other than people said it's really cool, and that I should [play it]."
>> If you're interested in watching it, the video is in the article, and it's over one hour long.

Skyrim mod gives you a fully voiced ex-Thalmor companion
https://www.pcgamer.com/skyrim-mod-gives-you-a-fully-voiced-ex-thalmor-companion/
I normally have a "kill on sight" policy when it comes to Skyrim's Thalmor, because to hell with fantasy Nazis. But I suspended that policy for a new mod called The Thalmor's Shadow – Taliesin, which lets you recruit an NPC companion after encountering him surrounded by dead followers of Talos and wearing those distinctive Thalmor shoulderpad robes.
Taliesin is an ex-member of the big elven bigot club, to be fair. As the mod's description says, "A former member of the Thalmor wants a clean start, and only you can save him from his past life." Taliesin is a fully voiced companion in the vein of Vilja or Inigo, one who has his own storyline and will comment on locations you visit and quests you're involved in to a degree that someone like Lydia usually won't. He's also a dab hand with an ice spike spell, and carries a named magical dagger. The way he cackles after killing a frost troll or faltmer is kind of unsettling.
>> There's a less than two minutes teaser of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

Starfield 2022 vs 2023 Video Graphics Comparison shows noticeable downgrades
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/starfield-2022-vs-2023-video-graphics-comparison-shows-noticeable-downgrades/
YouTube’s ‘Cycu1’ has shared an early graphics video comparison between the 2022 and 2023 demos of Bethesda’s upcoming triple-A title, Starfield. And, as the title implies, there have been some noticeable downgrades.

Monday news, the long part two:

Xbox boss on Redfall studio Arkane Austin staying open: 'That is the plan right now'
https://www.pcgamer.com/xbox-boss-on-redfall-studio-arkane-austin-staying-open-that-is-the-plan-right-now/
Redfall's launch back on May 1 was a disaster. It was panned by audiences and critics (including our own Tyler Colp, who scored it 44% in his Redfall review) and riddled with performance issues. The game's situation is so dire that, when it got its first major patch earlier this week, there were under 100 people still playing to see it, a shocking number for a major release from a big studio.
(...)
Responding to a question about fan concerns regarding Arkane Austin staying open, Booty said "That is the plan right now". The studio is "hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall," and it sounds like Microsoft doesn't want to upend that work with a sudden closure.

Skyrim Grandma shoots down rumors of Starfield NPC appearance: 'I'm not in the game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/skyrim-grandma-shoots-down-rumors-of-starfield-npc-appearance-im-not-in-the-game/
Shirley Curry, better known to gamers as Skyrim Grandma, said in a new video that despite the apparent Easter egg in the recent Starfield Direct showcase, she's not going to appear in Starfield as an NPC. She's also not going to play Starfield, because she's "too angry" that she (and the rest of us) are still waiting for Elder Scrolls 6.

Diablo 4 gems will be moved out of the inventory
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-gems-will-be-moved-out-of-the-inventory/
"Pleas give us a gem pouch," pleads a highly-upvoted Diablo 4 subreddit post from January, and a gem pouch we will get.
During the first Diablo 4 Campfire Chat stream today, game director Joe Shely acknowledged that Diablo 4 gems, which can be refined and slotted into gear as upgrades, cause "inventory tension"—they take up a lot of space, more or less—and said that they will be removed from the inventory in a future update.

Diablo 4 director: 'It is time for the buffs'
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-director-it-is-time-for-the-buffs/
The Druid and Necromancer have gotten some buffs, but otherwise Diablo 4's first two weeks have been characterized by big nerfs as Blizzard weakened builds that were outside its "bounds for what is reasonable" and downgraded the best XP farming sites with hotfixes. Now it sounds like things will be swinging the other direction.
>> And there will be changes to the endgame as well.

Overwatch 2's bad times continue as it's forced to disable two new maps
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2s-bad-times-continue-as-its-forced-to-disable-two-new-maps/
"We have disabled the Paríaso and Antarctica: Pennesula [sic] map as we investigate an issue with performance when certain heroes are played," says a relatively staid line from this week's Overwatch 2 Known Issues post.

Kigndoms and Castles gets a nice update as devs announce new Rome-based city builder
https://www.pcgamer.com/kigndoms-and-castles-gets-a-nice-update-as-devs-announce-new-rome-based-city-builder/
It might be six years old, but indie city builder Kingdoms and Castles has gotten regular updates since it released in 2017, and this year's apparently going to be no exception. Just today an update released, the Infrastructure & Industry update, adding all manner of community-requested buildings to streamline the making and supplying in your kingdom.

One of the best shooters around finally has a mondo creepy first look at its final act
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-of-the-best-shooters-around-finally-has-a-mondo-creepy-first-look-at-its-final-act/
Developer Arsi "Hakita" Patal has finally shown off some of New Blood shooter Ultrakill's final act with a brief, unnerving peek at "The Garden of Forking Paths," the first of its final sequence of 10 levels.

A free Vermintide 2 update adds three dwarven delights from the first game
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-free-vermintide-2-update-adds-three-dwarven-delights-from-the-first-game/
A free update has remastered an entire DLC from the first Vermintide and released it (again, for free) for every Warhammer: Vermintide 2 owner to enjoy. The three remastered levels are Karak Azgaraz, a dwarven fortress under siege and occupation by villainous Skaven rat-men.

Here are the updates coming to Valorant's progression system
https://www.pcgamer.com/here-are-the-updates-coming-to-valorants-progression-system/
Valorant's Episode 7 release on June 27th will come with a bunch of changes to how you earn and unlock in-game rewards. Riot says they're pretty simple stuff that you'll figure out as you go, but if you like me want to understand things before you try them here's the short story on what's changing.

Fallout 76 looks like it's chasing New Vegas vibes in its next big addon
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-looks-like-its-chasing-new-vegas-vibes-in-its-next-big-addon/
In a teaser at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase, Bethesda revealed that Fallout 76's next Expedition will take vault dwellers on a vacation to the Atlantic City boardwalk. Bethesda only showed off a small slice of what Atlantic City has in store as part of a commemorative video celebrating Fallout 76 crossing the 15 million player mark, a figure likely helped a great deal by the game's addition to Xbox and PC Game Pass.

World of Horror will actually finally release in October
https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-horror-will-actually-finally-release-in-october/
Honestly I should know better by now than to publish stories with titles like "World of Horror will finally release in Summer 2023" because that is a guarantee that the game in question will not finally release at whatever time or date I have said. This is a tempting opportunity that the universe will use to humble me, something I have failed to learn after ten years of writing about games.
Anyway, cult-hit indie survival horror RPG World of Horror will release on October 19th, 2023, says publisher Ysbryd Games. October being in, of course, the fall.

Gunpowder soulslike Flintlock delayed into 2024
https://www.pcgamer.com/gunpowder-soulslike-flintlock-delayed-into-2024/
Developer A44 has delayed Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn to a 2024 launch date, which means you'll have to wait until next year to make some flintlock devices and use them to blow up the gods and their undead army in a soulslike open world. That's a delay of a year from the previous release date of "early 2023" on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Game Pass.

Here's space corporations doing things they shouldn't in the Aliens: Dark Descent story trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-space-corporations-doing-things-they-shouldnt-in-the-aliens-dark-descent-story-trailer/
Aliens: Dark Descent has released a story trailer with a couple minutes of teasing as to what we're going to be getting up to on our squad-based RTS adventures on the planet Lethe. I bet it's a nice vacation and everyone's going home happy.

A departed Rockstar cofounder is finally teasing what's next with a music video and a big ole' creepy eyeball
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-of-rockstars-cofounders-is-finally-teasing-whats-next-with-a-music-video-and-a-big-ole-creepy-eyeball/
Two years since Rockstar games co-founder Dan Houser filed a UK trademark for "Absurd Ventures in Games", the company has launched a website with the tagline "Storytelling. Philanthropy. Ultraviolence." There's an accompanying promotional reel that's currently selling vibes in place of products, with a promise to "polute minds and damage souls in every medium imaginable.

Players claim to have worked out the hellish details underpinning Diablo 4's timed events
https://www.pcgamer.com/players-claim-to-have-worked-out-the-hellish-details-underpinning-diablo-4s-timed-events/
Diablo 4's nature as a live service game means that players have since launch been trying to work out how it handles recurring events: when and where the world bosses spawn, when helltides are due to occur, and the same for legion events. A rough consensus formed pretty early, but now they've only gone and blown the bloody doors off.
>> And they've also find a way to overcome the limited character creation tools.

Blizzard says Overwatch matches sometimes turn into 'stomps' because that's, like, just the nature of things
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-says-overwatch-matches-sometimes-turn-into-stomps-because-thats-like-just-the-nature-of-things/
Make no mistake about it, Blizzard is in triage mode on Overwatch 2. The seasonal announcements come-and-go with smooth regularity but beneath the surface this is a game paddling madly away from its original concept, much of which has now been cancelled, towards an uncertain future of mini events and trying to reinvent itself on-the-fly.

One million people have checked out Lies of P's mash-up of Pinocchio and Bloodborne thanks to its demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/one-million-people-have-checked-out-lies-of-ps-mash-up-of-pinocchio-and-bloodborne-thanks-to-its-demo/
Round8 Studio's Lies of P demo has hit one million downloads, as per the Lies of P official twitter account. This shows a surprising amount of interest for a game that initially seemed a bit of a clone—and having played the demo myself, the studio hasn't done a huge amount of tinkering to FromSoftware's formula. They have, however, capitalised spectacularly on the lack of a PC Bloodborne port, a barrier-to-entry that's kept me from playing the Lovecraftian death grinder to this very day.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti is now available at $379, 5% cheaper in a month

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-ti-is-now-available-at-379-5-cheaper-in-a-month

Needs to be at least $100-$150 dollars cheaper imo

ASUS ROG Ally 319 firmware lowers gaming performance of the console

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-rog-ally-319-firmware-lowers-gaming-performance-of-the-console

I think the Asus team is trying to better tune their power profiles as even when you set them at say 25 watts, the actual wattage can be higher. But at the same time, I think they should leave that for 15 watts mode and keep the 25 watts mode the same as before.

GeForce RTX 4090 crosses 3.93 GHz for the first time and breaks a world record

https://videocardz.com/newz/geforce-rtx-4090-crosses-3-93-ghz-for-the-first-time-and-breaks-a-world-record

So close yet so far

NVIDIA Hopper H100 AI GPU Benchmarked – Slower Than AMD 680M iGPU In Gaming But Destroys RTX 4090 In AI Tests

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-hopper-h100-ai-gpu-benchmarked-slower-than-amd-680m-igpu-in-gaming-but-destroys-rtx-4090-in-ai-tests/

Unsurprising as it's not a gaming GPU. The 4090 can hold it's own in some of these Ai tests though considering it costs $1600 vs $40,000 for H100 but in other Ai tests, the H100 slaughters it.

AMD FreeSync Panel Replay In Works: Lower Power Consumption When Viewing Static Content

https://wccftech.com/amd-freesync-panel-replay-in-works-lower-power-consumption-when-viewing-static-content/

"AMD's FreeSync Panel Replay Will Automatically Decrease The Refresh Rate to Save Power & Reduce GPU Workload"

Sounds like what the LTPO panels on phones do

The 4060Ti needs to lower its price, that's for sure, but I think Nvidia will prefer to leave it selling poorly rather than cut the price aggressively. It's the high end with the bigger margins they're going after, not the low end with its "tiny" profits.

The main issue here is likely the lack of RAM. Nvidia knows what it's doing by not releasing a 48 GB Titan, much like Intel won't release i9s with ECC RAM support to compete with the overpriced Xeons.

Still, for most companies, the hardware costs are just a small part of their operations, so I suppose they probably just don't care.

I just hope this doesn't affect consumer GPU VRAM in the future...

As long as consumers will ignore AMD and/or Intel's offerings, even if they are far superior for the same price, Nvidia has economically speaking no reason to drop the prices much. The current price cuts are mostly just to avoid the GPUs clogging up storages, which in the end would have come them more expensive tha dropping the price slightly.

Nvidia's market position is simply too dominant now. And like Pemalite explained a few pages back, even when AMD had clearly the better product and for a better price, people were still mainly buying NVidia, meaning that this isn't a new thing - it's just so much more obvious now.

I am sure it will whether it be by the actual vram or the price. Like a 4070 has more vram than a 3070... For extra $100. Or a 4060 Ti can have more vram than a 3060 Ti... For Extra $100. Etc. I doubt they will lower the vram on the 5090 however but it wouldn't surprise me that if Radeon doesn't compete against Nvidia's BW103 next gen, the 5090 could be further gimped or even be released as AD103 die.

Not only are they dominant, but their mindshare is simply far too big and far too unbreakable at this point.

Like last two gens when they started with "RTX", now most casual gaming folk see Nvidia as the place, the company for Raytracing, all because they jumped on RT with their cards first and happened to name their brand RT and callo0ing an X on the end to sound cool.

The only time they will lose on this, is if they care so little so fast, that ppl get super fed up and done with their shit, that they take whatever Intel/AMD can offer, but that won't be for a good while yet.