I never really played it but i always thought PVP was something upi had to opt into?. i remember them making a big deal about it in one of their videos.

Here is a Minecraft comuper running Minecraft. 

https://youtu.be/-BP7DhHTU-I

Late 90's/early 00's LAN gaming for me, and it wasn't until Halo first coming out and doing online that I started seeing people rely more and more on those type of tactics. 

I know we've seen videos since Quake and co of the bunny hopper, but not everyone I played with or ran into was as spammy as the videos suggest. Funnily enough, my first time during Halo's early online was a different experience to me compared to now. Back then people actually used terrain for their advantage, or the tank, or go for the spartan laser, but they would normally go for the biggest OP thing, and that was the go-to tactic, but that was all I had to mainly deal with in that game as one example.

My experiences from back then are completely different from today's, because current time PVP feels extremely sweaty and janky in terms of strat/movement (like that one dude 2 nights ago literally hugging around my body in circles while throwing fire bombs in my face, like dude can take some distance to circle strafe me?).

I mean tbf, you leaving is but one of the reasons I also left. PVP is mostly about the win, we are mostly coded like that as a species, it's not like we love to lose a lot, we love winning, because it gives you that dope hit, increases your morale, but winning all the time can also bore you quickly, which is why it is often best to seek a higher challenge.

I will say to you nw, that I absolutely do not fucking miss the 360 days, where I'd hop on MW2 online and get wasted over and over again by some kid using a lag switcher and using the scout knife/desert mag akimbo, while also tea bagging your corpse and yelling down his poorly bought store mic "in yo face, eat it sucka".

Like we still get that today, and that's kinda when online gaming to me felt like it had grown and become more juvenile, and that to me is when being a gentleman and playing by some rules (not all of them), stopped being thought about entirely. There is a super rare chance out there, where you will find that one nice friendly guy who will want to rematch with you or simply spar with you, and to that I say "go for it", because those ppl are rare in today's PVP, and make worthwhile friends. 

Gods no. You are plonked into the open seas with up to 16 players per server (this means a total of 4 crews), and though you do not show up on the map entirely, those that opt for carrying emissary flags will (which was my first mistake), or those flying the Reaper flag (think of them as bounty hunters that go against other players hoisting other trading alliance flags, or simply stealing player goods to sell to the Reaper's Bones alliance).

Let me start off how my usual login with my friend goes:

Me: Can I get an inv?

San: ere ya go

Me: cool, we stockin up on supplies?

San: Could do, you wanna go grab some Q's? (quests/maps)

Me: You wanna check the map real quick?

San: 2 reapers on the map

Me: where at?

San: one is docked at Reaper's hideout, other is a few clicks away

Me: Great, let's grab and dash then.

And in this game, if you can see a ship in the horizon, they can also see you (unless their render mesh distance/model quality are set to the lowest, god knows why you would turn those down in a game like this). If there is a reaper nearby, and we aren't flying an Em Alliance flag, we'll be semi fine, just as long as they don't se us leaving port, because if they see us leaving port, chances are they will actually chase us down to end us, even if they don't know that all we just supplied on was fruit and ammo and planks.

btw you have to pay that Em Alliance 20k to fly their flag, but in doing so you will earn tons more rep with them, and earning rep means you rank up with them, which means they pay you more money, but in doing so you will show up to a reaper on the map via a shadowy outline:

"A Ship sailing with the Reaper’s Bones Emissary Flag will be marked on the Map Table for all Crews to see as if they were sailing with a Flag Of The Reaper’s Mark. A Grade V Reaper's Bones Emissary Ship can see shadows of all other Company Emissary Ships on the Map instead."

Also, once a reaper or other player ship spots you, they can sink your ship and take your Em flag to sell for money/rep gains at the Reaper's hideout (log book included).

As far as I know, there is no absolute way to create a private session for you and your friends, but I did hear that Rare cheekily made an option for Twitch streamers to have that ability, which I feel isn't fair to regular players like myself. 

I see a shitstorm on the horizon when thousands of Monkey Island fans get this shitty behavior when they just want to enjoy the Monkey Island content of the announced expansion in their own pace. Maybe this will lead to an PvE mode.

It's Thursday, and this is the first part of the news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away GRIME: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/grime
Next week, they'll give away Train Valley 2.

GOG has added two new Deals of the Day, that will last until tomorrow's refresh:

• Noita is 50% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/noita
• Shadowrun Trilogy gets an 82% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/shadowrun_trilogy

And Fanatical has launched the Platinum Collection BOYB for July, with 16 titles to choose from to build your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

RPCS3 0.0.28 brings numerous GPU performance improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rpcs3-0-0-28-brings-numerous-gpu-performance-improvements/
The team behind the best Playstation 3 emulator, the RPCS3, announced that version 0.0.28 brings numerous GPU performance improvements.
As the team noted, these improvements can result in a massive speedup in games (such as the Gran Turismo series) on smaller GPUs without super-fast GDDR6X memory. However, the team states that there might be diminishing returns on high-end GPUs (like the RTX 4090).
Unfortunately, the RPCS3 team has not shared any official video for version 0.0.28. However, YouTube’s ‘Emulator + PC Gameplay’ shared three videos. In these videos, we get to see Dante’s Inferno, Demon’s Souls and Asura’s Wrath running on this latest version of RPCS3.
>> The article includes those three videos.

Hogwarts Legacy Ultra+ Mod adds “Insane” graphics, improves performance, fixes stutters/hitches
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/hogwarts-legacy-ultra-mod-adds-insane-graphics-improves-performance/
Modder ‘SammiLucia’ has released a new version of her Ultra+ Mod for Hogwarts Legacy which adds an “Insane” graphics preset. This is a must-have mod for everyone that wants to play this latest “Harry Potter” game, and we highly recommend using it.
For those unaware, the Hogwarts Legacy Ultra+ Mod enables global illumination (you can either select RTGI or SSGI), adds ray-traced water, and brings better graphics for the whole game. Moreover, it fixes texture loading, blurriness, disables Chroma DLL, and increases view distance and LODs.
Perhaps what’s more interesting here, though, are the performance improvements that this mod brings to the table. For instance, it fixes broken LOD definitions in Hogsmeade and elsewhere, reduces memory usage and improves stability. Not only that, but the modder has reworked the texture streamer to fix hitches/stutters, and addressed some slow texture loading issues.
What this ultimately means is that you’ll get a smoother overall performance with this mod. Not only that, but you can also improve its visuals.
>> There's an over 10 minutes long video of the mod.

The Grimace Shake has arrived in Skyrim, because of course it has
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-grimace-shake-has-arrived-in-skyrim-because-of-course-it-has/
This Skyrim mod makes me want to go and lie down for a bit. Uploaded by user MissleMann, the Grimace Mead mod is simply credited to "He watches". Great. On the plus side, NexusMod's virus scan feature has designated the Skyrim Grimace Shake as "safe to use", which somehow fails to be reassuring when faced with the prospect of downloading this purple eldritch horror.
If you're unfamiliar with the Grimace Shake, it's one of those infectiously weird TikTok trends that there's just no escape from. The premise is as follows: you receive a McDonalds Grimace Shake. You wish Grimace a happy birthday. You drink it. You are then found in a puddle of Grimace-coloured blood by your camera person, presumably dead. It's also spawned more Twitter memes than you can shake a Grimace at.
This version of the Grimace Shake, named the Grimace Mead, can be bought from Belethor for the staggering price of 170 septims. That's about 18 loaves of bread, or 28 potatoes. Mercifully, I didn't have to download this cursed artefact onto my machine to give it a test drive, as a channel named Jackary on YouTube has already done that for me.

GAMING NEWS

Witchfire won’t be coming to Steam at launch
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/witchfire-wont-be-coming-to-steam-at-launch/
The Astronauts has announced that Witchfire will release exclusively on Epic Games Store at launch, and will be skipping Steam.

Waking Tides is a new adventure game in Unreal Engine 5
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/waking-tides-is-a-new-adventure-game-in-unreal-engine-5/
AirshipFx, a one-man dev team, is currently working on an interesting first-person adventure game in Unreal Engine 5, called Waking Tides. This game promises to feature a cool AR hybrid gameplay element, and you can find its debut in-engine trailer below.

TEVI is a cool metroidvania game that has NOTHING to do with The Elder Scrolls 6
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tevi-is-a-cool-metroidvania-game-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-elder-scrolls-6/
CreSpirit has shared an official combat trailer for its upcoming metroidvania 2D game, TEVI. And while the game looks kind of cool, its title was cleverly used to remind you of one of the most highly anticipated triple-A games. But no, TEVI has NOTHING to do with The Elder Scrolls 6.

It's still Thursday, and this is the second part of the news:

Unlucky player snags Diablo 4 legendary that's so bad it feels spiteful: 'if you surround yourself with infinite enemies you could reach that 8 life per second'
https://www.pcgamer.com/unlucky-player-snags-diablo-4-legendary-thats-so-bad-it-feels-spiteful-if-you-surround-yourself-with-infinite-enemies-you-could-reach-that-8-life-per-second/
Diablo 4's many high-tier drops were not created equal. Yeah, there are the Barbarian gloves that turn the game into a kind of euphoric slot machine, and there's the Necromancer gear that renders the Corpse Explosion ability completely ungovernable, but they're just one side of the coin. The other side has, well, stuff like this.
That, reader, is the Boneweave Helm of the Crowded Sage. Uncovered by a Diablo player who goes by LavusVincere on Reddit, the helm is a largely unremarkable bit of legendary headgear in every aspect but one: Its, um, Aspect. That's the text in orange next to the star, if you're not sure, and in this helm's case it reads "You Heal for 0 Life per second for each Close enemy, up to 8 Life per second".

Hi-Fi Rush update includes a new 'blistering 200 BPM' challenge mode and a 'not so little' secret
https://www.pcgamer.com/hi-fi-rush-update-includes-a-new-blistering-200-bpm-challenge-mode-and-a-not-so-little-secret/
Hi-Fi Rush was an early surprise in 2023, being announced and released on the same day as well as being a cartoony rhythm-action brawler from a studio known for horror. (...)
The game's latest free update has arrived and brings two new modes, both of which are unlocked after you've beaten the main story. BPM Rush sees guitar-wielding protagonist Chai facing enemy waves with the beats per minute (BPM) of the music increasing as you progress, increasing both the speed of Chai's combos and the enemy movesets up to what Tango Gameworks calls a "blistering 200 BPM".

Nicolas Cage brings the secret power of 'Dramaturgy' to the Dead by Daylight PTB
https://www.pcgamer.com/nicolas-cage-brings-the-secret-power-of-dramaturgy-to-the-dead-by-daylight-ptb/
Academy Award-winning thespian Nicolas Cage was recently announced as an upcoming addition to the long-running survival horror game Dead by Daylight. And let there be no doubt, it's 100% the Full Nic. He said in June that he doesn't just appear in the game, he'll be "fused" with players who assume his digital persona: "I want you to know when you're playing the Nic Cage survivor, I want you to know that we're one."
That's pretty over-the-top, which I suppose is appropriate, and now players can finally discover how close the in-game character comes to living up to that billing. The Dead by Daylight: Nicolas Cage Chapter won't be fully live until July 25, but the character is playable today in the Dead by Daylight public test build that's available on Steam.

Ubisoft is smashing hackers by the thousands with 'QB,' and we may never find out exactly how it works
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-is-smashing-hackers-by-the-thousands-with-qb-and-we-may-never-find-out-exactly-how-it-works/
Ubisoft is becoming quite the anti-cheat innovator as of late. In a Rainbow Six Siege community update published today, the studio went in-depth on the performance of its two newest anti-cheat initiatives: the widely-publicized "MouseTrap" tech that counters mouse and keyboard spoofing devices on consoles, and another mysterious feature known only as "QB" that apparently makes cheat development so difficult that some cheat developers are giving up.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 creative director Emile Morel has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/beyond-good-and-evil-2-creative-director-emile-morel-has-died/
Ubisoft game designer Emile Morel, who recently took over as creative director on Beyond Good and Evil 2, has died at the age of 40.
Morel's death was reported by game industry colleagues on LinkedIn (via IGN). "Rest in peace my dear Emile Morel," Ubisoft Montpellier producer Greg Hermittant wrote. "You've been such a great and kind partner during all these years at Ubisoft. I'm grateful to have worked with you on so many projects.
>> That sucks. D.E.P.

Here's how to watch today's Diablo 4 season 1 announcement livestream
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-watch-diablo-4-season-1-livestream/
We're exactly a month out from Diablo 4's full release, so it's time to change everything up. With season 1 of the game right around the corner, Blizzard is set to host a Diablo Developer Update Livestream today, July 6, giving some of the game's devs a chance to chatter about upcoming updates, answer questions, and—crucially—reveal the date when Diablo 4's first season will finally drop. I hope they announce an even bigger Butcher.

Starfield sleuths are combing through game footage for spoons
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-sleuths-are-combing-through-game-footage-for-spoons/
Starfield is releasing in September, which is only about two months away, but the wait for Bethesda's space opera has fans on the Starfield subreddit combing through the gameplay deep dive for anything from information on skill trees and gear to spoons, apparently. A thread made by a since-deleted user (which is concerning in itself—what are you trying to hide, Todd?) gathered 1.2k upvotes.

Peter Molyneux returns promising not to hype his next game, before hyping the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/peter-molyneux-returns-promising-not-to-hype-his-next-game-before-hyping-the-game/
(...) "So in days gone by, I would just start telling you about the whole game and the whole game design and why it was going to be the most brilliant game in the world," Molyneux told GameReactor in a new interview. "And people looking at this would then get very annoyed and angry. So I'm not going to do that."
It seems to me Molyneux has rather missed the point, and things don't get much better. "I do think, though, we have stumbled, and it feels like stumbling on a mechanic that has never been seen in a game before," said Molyneux. "I feel like we are exploiting that mechanic in a world and an environment which may be familiar to people. And because it is in a familiar environment, it'll be a lot fresher. And a lot of this is very mystical because I'm trying to avoid to tell you what it's like. But it's going to be a lot more like a kind of Fable / Black and White / Dungeon Keeper kind of experience."

Really goes to show how much of a scam Zen 4 vanilla was when Zen 3X3D could either come very close or even beat Zen 4.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti with 16GB memory launches on July 18th

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-ti-with-16gb-memory-launches-on-july-18th

Skip

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-core AM5 CPU now costs 557 USD

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-9-7950x3d-16-core-am5-cpu-now-costs-557-usd

You can never have too much good games.

Today I added a few classics for my Steam Decks: the Halo MCC (Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, ODST, Reach) and the Dragon's Lair Trilogy (Dragon's Lair 1 had its 40th birthday two weeks ago, Space Ace will reach its 40th anniversary next year).

Also the Colossal Cave remake for SteamVR + Steam Deck... the original is nearing its 50th anniversary.

You're trully insatiable.

Meawnhile, I still haven't bought a single game.