Same here :(

Its already bad enough you have to wait a year for it to come out on EGS and then another year for Steam release lol.

Dont be worried about Ms, be worried about Sony and their shitty practice of holding games from PC for a year or more and paying 3rd party's like SE to do the same.

This deal is great for me and many other users. Xbox games including now Activision ones are finally going to be coming back to Geforce now (the best streaming service). all them games are also going to be on Gamepass, the games are going to be going back to a Nintendo console (Ms has shown great support for Nintendo). All them games are finally most likely going to come back to Steam!. Heck if your a Pc gamer and not a Sony fan this deal is great!. I can understand how anyone who is a Sony fan might be worried.

?

Have you read my message ? This is exactly what I said.

You need to relax, all these rich brands that you love makes you very hateful.

It seems we will have the Samurai Cloud Outfit from Ever Crisis very soon as a mod for FFVII Remake



The modders still doing a fantastic job.

The way I look at ABK is that, yes it is bad, because the wars have stopped being about console sales and who can foster home grown studios into ecosystem wars.

The only good thing that comes out of this, is PC not getting screwed over via deals made by Sony, and in the case with MS being close to Steam, meaning less chances of even an EGS exclusivity deal, which knocks two contenders right off the table.

As a PC guy, I'd rather everyone get the games on their respective platforms, but in this case, I don't want a console denying me my ability to buy on PC day and date, and MS is so far the only one that's not denying me.

Sony could buy SE for all I care, since I've decided to stop buying from them after their repeated history of Sony exclusivity, delayed/stupidly demanding and expensive PC ports, as well as delaying Steam releases via EGS exclusivity, which tells me that SE just don't care about PC, they just want the short term money (Same reason why I stopped buying and caring about Ubisoft, as they have now gone back to doing Uplay/EGS only sales, while dumping their old catalogue on Steam with marked up prices).

I think people on this site (as well as the rest of the world) need to understand is that this isn't about who can sell the most consoles anymore, it's purely now about the ecosystem and who can absorb the most and have the most services/IP's combined. This is why we've been seeing Tencent and Embracer going on stupidly mad investments and spending sprees, all because they want a more permanent owned lot of IP's./studios that other companies would have to pay just to work with or do deals with, which in the end benefits the bigger owners either way (like Sony having to pay MS for CoD exclusivity or deals, MS wins regardless).

Not sure if this is the best place to bring this up.

Had a minor issue with my PC this morning. It was very clearly running, except the mouse, keyboard were unresponsive. And monitor was off, and not detecting input. Restarted the computer, it applied some updates, but everything seemed to be working.  

Kind of hard to google because most of the results were talking about immediate fixes to get the computer responsive again, but that's not an issue. So moreso just wondering if there are some long term issues I should be worried about. Or if there might have been something weird with the update. 

Likely not a big issue as I get that like once a year or so. If it's a frequent occurrence, then it might be a bigger problem.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has two new Deals of the Day and a new Sale:

• The first DotD is Legend of Grimrock 2, 78% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/legend_of_grimrock_2
• The second DotD is Panzer Dragoon: Remake, 90% off until Friday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/panzer_dragoon_remake
• The new French Day Sale features up to 90% discounts until July, 19th: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_french_days

A quick heads up: Steam's Summer Sale will end tomorrow. If you're still trying to decide if you purchase *that* game, think fast.

The Humble Store has a new sale: the Akupara Publisher Sale brings up to 85% discounts during 13 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG and EGS(2): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/akupara-publisher-sale/.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Half-Life 2 mod lets you finally experience the game as it was meant to be played: in Lego form
https://www.pcgamer.com/half-life-2-mod-lets-you-finally-experience-the-game-as-it-was-meant-to-be-played-in-lego-form/
Great news, friends, dedicated modders have finally restored Half-Life 2 to Valve's original vision. Freed from the fetters of 2004-era hardware, we can at last experience the genre-defining FPS classic as the good Lord intended: with every character replaced by a profoundly unlicensed Lego substitute.
Spotted by PCGamesN, the Lego Half-Life 2 Full Conversion mod (from author Not Dave or Daniel) does exactly what you'd expect something called the Lego Half-Life 2 Full Conversion mod to do, modelling a block-legged, claw-handed Lego alternative for every member of the game's cast. Gordon Freeman's HEV suit becomes a shiny paint job on his trapezoidal chest, Combine troops take on a shade of venomous yellow, and Dr. Wallace Breen—the game's chief antagonist—has been to Turkey for some hair plugs. So good for him.
(...)
It's not entirely seamless, you'll be astounded to hear. The mod only affects character models, not the levels themselves, which accomplishes the discombobulating effect of a realistic (ish) world inhabited solely by little plastic guys. I mean that literally, by the way, these Lego figurines are all like a fifth of the size of the game's defaults models, so that'll take some adjusting to if you decide to embark on a Lego playthrough.
>> There's a less than 2 minutes trailer for this mod.

GAMING NEWS

New environmental screenshots for Immortals of Aveum
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/new-environmental-screenshots-for-immortals-of-aveum/
Ascendant Studios has shared a new set of screenshots for its Unreal Engine 5-powered single-player magic FPS, Immortals of Aveum.

SPRAWL is a Quake-style retro FPS, inspired by Akira and Ghost in the Shell
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/sprawl-is-a-new-quake-style-retro-fps-inspired-by-akira-and-ghost-in-the-shell/
Rogue Games has announced a new Quake-style retro first-person shooter with environments heavily inspired by Akira and Ghost in the Shell, called SPRAWL.

The news, the sequel:

After 2,000 hours in Stardew Valley, one player has the earth-shattering realisation: they can tuck their plushies into bed
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-2000-hours-in-stardew-valley-one-player-has-the-earth-shattering-realisation-they-can-tuck-their-plushies-into-bed/
Code red, code red: you might have been keeping your Stardew plushies cold for no good reason. In a thread that hit over 7,000 upvotes on the Stardew subreddit, user youkaymelis writes: "I have over 2,000+ hours in this game and just accidently found out you can tuck in your plushies," accompanied by a picture of their discovery.

PUBG dev says it bans up to 100,000 accounts a week, and now it's deploying AI models to hunt the cheats
https://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-dev-says-it-bans-up-to-100000-accounts-a-week-and-now-its-deploying-ai-models-to-hunt-the-cheats/
PUBG developer Krafton has a new blogpost from its anti-cheat team, discussing the omnipresent problem of cheating in the game and what it's doing to tackle the villains. It begins with a pretty astonishing demonstration of the scale of the problem: "Every week, the PUBG: Battlegrounds Anti-Cheat Team identifies and imposes permanent bans on an average of 60,000 to a maximum of about 100,000 accounts involved in the use, distribution, or sale of illegal software."

7 years after hitting it big on Kickstarter, Battalion 1944 developers are offering full refunds for everyone
https://www.pcgamer.com/7-years-after-hitting-it-big-on-kickstarter-battalion-1944-developers-are-offering-full-refunds-for-everyone/
More than seven years after finding major success on Kickstarter, Battalion 1944 studio Bulkhead Interactive is offering full refunds to backers, regardless of their platform or pledge tier.

Diablo 4 players are doing literally billions of points of damage in single shots with bonkers 'Shred Druid' builds
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-players-are-doing-literally-billions-of-points-of-damage-in-single-shots-with-bonkers-shred-druid-builds/
Diablo 4 is all about builds: How your class, stats, skills, and equipment come together to enable you to kick the most demon ass in the least amount of time. Some builds are very powerful, others not so much, but one—the "Lightning Shred Druid 2.0," as streamer Moxsy calls it—is doing so much damage, it might as well be broken.

Ultima Online is grilling, chilling, and still thriving all these years later
https://www.pcgamer.com/ultima-online-is-grilling-chilling-and-still-thriving-all-these-years-later/
Classic MMO Ultima Online's scribe-and-abacus-driven official servers were pushed to their limits on July 7 to host a celebratory Summer Solstice cookout boasting games, prizes, and "a nice cold root beer drink".

Co-president of Naughty Dog, Evan Wells, announces retirement after 25 years
https://www.pcgamer.com/co-president-of-naughty-dog-evan-wells-announces-retirement-after-25-years/
Evan Wells is stepping down as co-president of Naughty Dog—creators of The Last of Us and Uncharted series—after 25 years, according to a blog post on the Naughty Dog website yesterday.

Baldur's Gate 3 will let you treat your companions terribly, including biting off their limbs
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-will-let-you-treat-your-companions-terribly-including-biting-off-their-limbs/
(...)
We recently sent mag editor Robert Jones to the current home of Baldur's Gate, in Ghent, Belgium, to see just how reactive the RPG actually is. He got to play with The Dark Urge, a newly announced potential companion who, like all of them, you can also play as. Choosing this background means you'll spend the game as a dragonborn with voices in their head compelling them to do rather nasty things, which in Rob's playthrough was bad news for magical companion Gale.

Here's an up-close look at Vampire Survivors' chaotic couch co-op mode, set to arrive in August
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-an-up-close-look-at-vampire-survivors-chaotic-couch-co-op-mode-set-to-arrive-in-august/
In June, poncle announced that the reverse bullet hell Vampire Survivors will finally be getting a couch co-op mode in August. Today we got a closer look at how it will work, along with the surprise announcement of new Steam-specific features that are actually live today.

Vampire Survivors set for hefty FPS boost as its new engine finally gets a release date: 'It's like a completely different game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-survivors-set-for-hefty-fps-boost-as-its-new-engine-finally-gets-a-release-date-its-like-a-completely-different-game/
I'll be honest: I don't think of Vampire Survivors as much of a resource hog, given that it consists mostly of lightly-animated sprites roaming a 2D plane, but that might just be because I'm not very good at it. As rounds drag on, sprites pile up and the weapon effects grow ever-more vivacious, meaning even a game as elegant and humble as this can start chugging. Good news, then, that Vampire Survivors has finally put a firm date on its switch to Unity almost a year after it was first announced.

Respawn's recruiting for a third game in its Star Wars Jedi series
https://www.pcgamer.com/respawns-recruiting-for-a-third-game-in-its-star-wars-jedi-series/
Respawn Entertainment has put up several job ads relating to a new entry in its Star Wars Jedi series, following the well-received Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. It's currently looking for a principal game writer, senior VFX artist, and audio engineer, all of which roles are listed specifically as being for Star Wars Jedi.

A coalition of Halo modders and developers have been digging up the series' forgotten history—including an adorable set of RTS vehicles
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-coalition-of-halo-modders-and-developers-have-been-digging-up-the-series-forgotten-historyincluding-an-adorable-set-of-rts-vehicles/
Last year, it was announced on the Halo: Waypoint website that 343 Industries would be working with a coalition of modders from the community to dive into "the darkest depths of ancient folders" and salvage what they could from the cutting room floor of 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved, then bring those scraps to the Master Chief Collection, which came to PC in 2019.
They released a three-part blog series: "Cutting Room Floor", "Cutting Room Corps" and "Cutting Room Lore", then went dark until last week, tinkering away with what community writer Alex Wakeford calls "the secret tenth circle of Hell (the cutting room floor of game development)". Fortunately they survived Cortana's Inferno, and came out with some real gems.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs With Updated 16-Pin Power Connector Pictured, Shipping To Gamers Now

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-gpus-updated-16-pin-power-connector-pictured/

Hopefully it's more fool proof

Intel 14th Gen Raptor Lake-S Refresh Desktop CPUs “Alleged” Specs Show Up

https://wccftech.com/intel-14th-gen-raptor-lake-s-refresh-desktop-cpus-alleged-specs-show-up/

Not unreasonable. Although if an i5 has 8P cores, that would be nutty so take it with a grain of salt.

Intel Brings Gaudi2 AI Accelerators To China As An Alternative To NVIDIA A800 Chips

https://wccftech.com/intel-brings-gaudi2-ai-accelerators-to-china-as-an-alternative-to-nvidia-a800-chips/

AMD FidelityFX SDK Available For Download: Making FSR & Other Tools Open-Source With One Easy-To-Integrate Solution

https://wccftech.com/amd-fidelityfx-sdk-available-download-making-fsr-open-source-easy-integrate-solution/

Between lack of official Radeon drivers and SD cards overheating, I would not be buying the Asus Ally right now

Certainly improvements to shader comp but there is still some stutters to be had, especially traversal stutter which continues to affect not only PC but consoles as well based on UE4. It also doesn't utilize multicores all too well. By going from 4P cores to full 12900K, you gain 30% increase in performance where as say with Cyberpunk and RedEngine, you gain 88% performance by going from 4P cores to full 12900K.