Cheers! Nice.. can see that lol. Yeah and its a super fast drive as well which will be really nice for games and apps. And should do nicely with upcoming games using DirectStorage.

Also may be the best time to get an SSD because of how much they have dropped due to lack of demand. So think you hit two birds with a stone there with needing more storage. But yeah, can only see them going up later on later this year, with people actually interested in PC building/gaming again. And with cheap storage SSD's basically available everywhere rn. Seen some crazy deals for some Gen4 stuff. Its just lack of ports for me that stop me from buying more. Its all about capacity now xD

Holy shit pickles!

Age of Empires 1/2/3 DE
Age of Mythology DE
Stronghold DE
Starcraft Remastered
C&C Remastered

If Blizzard didn't cuck up Warcraft Reforged

Yea Gen 4 SSD is all really anyone's gonna need until PS6. Especially since Ratchet and Clank still has Hard drives as a minimum requirement although I'd imagine anyone tried to play that game on a hard drive, the experience would be...

(Thanks gaf for gif)

I'm going to need more storage myself soon, but for different reasons....

Filled up 12 TB of HDDs with movies and TV shows.

"Movies". Sure...

Let's go with the Friday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Humble Store has launched the Square Enix Summer Sale, featuring up to 90% discounts during 12 days. All the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/square-enix-summer-sale/.

Fanatical's Star Deal is The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante, with a 70% discount. It started yesterday, but it will run for another 24 hours or until they run out of keys (50% remaining): https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/the-life-and-suffering-of-sir-brante.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

The Old West: Northwood Tech Demo gets a Next-Gen Update in Unreal Engine 5.2 with support for NVIDIA DLSS 3
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-old-west-northwood-tech-demo-gets-a-next-gen-update-in-unreal-engine-5-2-with-support-for-nvidia-dlss-3/
StunningVanilla has released a Next-Gen Update for The Old West: Northwood Tech Demo in Unreal Engine 5. This update ports the demo to the latest version of Epic’s engine, UE5.2, improves its graphics, and adds support for NVIDIA DLSS 3.
The Old West: Northwood Tech Demo features a lot of modern-day features, such as water ripples with character interactions, dynamic wind effects and snow trailers with VFX. Clothing, buildings and objects become wait in rain, and there are water drippings from the rooftops.
>> The article also has a video of this demo.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

WipeOut gets unofficial remaster on PC with uncapped framerates, increased draw distance and better controls
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/wipeout-gets-unofficial-remaster-on-pc-with-uncapped-framerates-increased-draw-distance-and-better-controls/
Remember WipeOut? You know, the futuristic racing game from Psygnosis that was released on the first Playstation console? Well, in case you weren’t aware, a PC version of it came out alongside the PSX release, and it was horrible. And, after almost thirty years, we can finally play it properly on our platform with this unofficial remaster.
WipeOut Phantom Edition is an enhanced PC source port of the original game. This unofficial remaster of WipeOut uses game data from the PlayStation version, and features numerous quality-of-life improvements.
WipeOut Phantom Edition supports uncapped frame rate and high resolution rendering. It also supports distant geometry fade, allowing objects to fade into view smoothly with minimal pop-ins. Not only that, but PC gamers can expect increased view distance, ship lighting, and “PSX-accurate rasterization and blending.”
What’s also cool here is that this unofficial remaster of WipeOut comes with three collision response options. The first one is similar to BallisticNG whereas the second is similar to WipeOut 2. And, as you may have guessed, the third one is the vanilla/default collision that the original version featured. Moreover, the game fully supports both Keyboard and Gamepad.
Lastly, WipeOut Phantom Edition features additional options menus, a new music and sound effect system, configurable aspect ratio and widescreen support, as well as a new config file system. And yes, you can also use custom music tracks.
>> The article has some screenshots.

The first fan-made story for gloomy psych-horror Amnesia: The Bunker is, of course, a Doom mod
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-first-fan-made-story-for-gloomy-psych-horror-amnesia-the-bunker-is-of-course-a-doom-mod/
Amnesia: The Bunker—the latest in Frictional's string of psychological horror games—is excellent. Set during the First World War, the immersive sim-esque entry in the series wedded gameplay and theme perfectly: The sheer pointless horror of one of the greatest inter-imperial wars in history laid bare as you navigated an ink-black charnel house pursued by creatures dread and unknowable. It was a real bummer, basically. It did not shred at all.
Well fie to that, I say. Let's get some electric guitars in here and zhuzh things up a bit. Thankfully, the hard work's already been done. The game's been out for a little over a month now, so someone's naturally gone and built Doom in it. It's the game's first custom story, in fact, at least on the Steam Workshop, proving that players still have their priorities in order in 2023.
It's called Doom (E1M1), it was made by a creator called Can't Afford a Name, and it's a mod for Amnesia: The Bunker that turns protagonist Henri Clément from poilu to predator, transplanting him from No Man's Land to Mars and drenching him in enemies and ammo. "Play as Henri 'Doom Guy' Clément in this Custom Story for Amnesia: The Bunker!" reads the description, which I suppose is pretty much everything you need to know.
>> There's an over 3 minutes video of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

Atlas Fallen PC System Requirements Revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/atlas-fallen-pc-system-requirements-revealed/
Focus Entertainment and Deck13 have revealed the official PC system requirements for their upcoming fantasy action RPG, Atlas Fallen.
According to the PC specs, Atlas Fallen will be using the Vulkan API and will require 35GB of free hard-disk space.
Now before continuing, I’d like to address something. In a previous article, we claimed that this game will be using Unreal Engine 5. This UE5 rumor surfaced a while ago when IGN claimed in a preview video that the game will be using it. However, it appears that Atlas Fallen will be using Deck13’s FLEDGE Engine. After all, Deck13 used FLEDGE Engine for both The Surge and The Surge 2. For what it’s worth, Focus Entertainment and Deck13 have not revealed yet the engine that the game is using. Since there is no UE logo, though, we can assume that it’s powered by the next iteration of the FLEDGE Engine.

Friday news, part two:

Bungie wins $500,000 from ‘racist shitstain’ who harassed and threatened Destiny 2 community manager
https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-wins-dollar500000-from-racist-shitstain-who-harassed-and-threatened-destiny-2-community-manager/
A Destiny 2 player who subjected a Bungie community manager to threats, harassment, and racist abuse has been ordered to pay the studio more than $489,000 in damages as a result of his behavior. The incident occurred after the community manager shared some art created by UhMaayyze, a Black Destiny 2 and creator, which the ruling says "incensed" defendant Jesse James Comer and led him to start "his campaign of racist, stochastic terrorism" against the CM and Bungie.
>> Shouldn't part of the money go to the community manager, not all to Bungie?

EA Sports FC 24 gets its first gameplay trailer and fans don’t like it any more than the jankass cover art
https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-sports-fc-24-gets-its-first-gameplay-trailer-and-fans-dont-like-it-any-more-than-the-jank-ass-cover-art/
After revealing the cover art for the upcoming EA Sports FC 24 earlier this week (which did not make a particularly good impression on PC Gamer's resident football fan Rich Stanton, who said it featured "the most jankass footballer faces you've ever seen"), Electronic Arts has now shared the first trailer for the game, and revealed that it will be out on September 29—or a whole week earlier, if you spring for the ultimate edition.

Diablo 4 players are clowning on its hardest boss using ungodly broken builds
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-players-are-clowning-on-its-hardest-boss-using-ungodly-broken-builds/
Uber Lilith. Now there's a scary combination of syllables. It's enough to send shivers down your spine. It's the colloquial name for Echo of Lilith, the amped-up version of Diablo 4's final boss that foolhardy players can take on if they feel up to the challenge. She can deal—and take—massive damage, making her a challenge that only the hardiest players can take on. It's a landmark. It's a milestone. It's a final, brutal test of your build. It's… comically easy? What?
As spotted by GamesRadar, overcoming Uber Lilith hasn't been quite as tough as it's cracked up to be for a player going by the name Struth Gaming. Using a Necromancer specced for Blood Orb use and the Blood Artisan's Cuirass, Struth managed to pretty much one-shot Uber Lilith in both of her phases, obliterating her first life bar with a lazy flick of the wrist and reducing her to a razor-thin sliver of HP when she popped back up for round two.

Diablo 4's worst type of dungeon is now griefing players via a bug
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-worst-type-of-dungeon-is-now-griefing-players-via-a-bug/
A nasty bug when entering Cellars is ruining Diablo 4's high-level Helltide events for some players.
Update: A Blizzard representative said, "The team is investigating these reports, but we do not have any specific details to share about it at this time."

Baldur's Gate 3 dev clarifies that only PS5 players will get a 3-day head start for pre-ordering, but PC players get a 34-day head start anyway so it's fine
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-dev-clarifies-that-only-ps5-players-will-get-a-3-day-head-start-for-pre-ordering-but-pc-players-get-a-34-day-head-start-so-its-fine/
Baldur's Gate 3 is making the rare, bold choice of moving up its release date by a full month to August 3, giving players about five weeks to crank through 100+ hours of D&D roleplaying before Starfield arrives. Larian has now clarified one confusing bit of information around the new release date, which is when players who pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition will actually be able to get started. That version promised "72-hours Early Access to Act 1," but it turns out that's only for the PlayStation 5 version of the game, which releases on September 6.
"The PC Digital Deluxe Edition does not include a 72 hour head start, which would have essentially made the game’s release date July 31st," Larian said in a community update on Wednesday. Larian said that bumping up its release date "came with a few complexities that we didn't manage to communicate very well" and that "a 72 hour head start on PC wouldn't have been plausible."

Baldur's Gate 3 devs say don't bother playing Early Access now because your progress gets wiped in 3 weeks
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-early-access-saves-do-not-carry-over-full-game/
At this point, you might as well not bother starting Baldur's Gate 3 in early access, and that's according to its own developer. Progress in the early access version of the lengthy RPG will not carry over to launch on August 3, so at this point "a purchase of early access is essentially a pre-order," Larian Studios says. Players have been tackling Act 1 since its early access launch in 2020, but if you go make your dream character and start the story right now you'll be stuck redoing it all very soon.

Stray Gods has changed its release date to avoid Baldur’s Gate 3, which changed its release date to avoid Starfield
https://www.pcgamer.com/stray-gods-has-changed-its-release-date-to-avoid-baldurs-gate-3-which-changed-its-release-date-to-avoid-starfield/
Remember back in late 2020, when the looming behemoth of Cyberpunk 2077 caused a bunch of other game developers to change their release dates to avoid being steamrollered? It's happening again, sort of: Summerfall Studios, the developer of David Gaider's upcoming musical RPG Stray Gods, announced today that it's delaying the game slightly, from August 3 to August 10, so it doesn't get murdered by Baldur's Gate 3.

You'd better believe House Flipper 2 was the most played Steam Next Fest demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/youd-better-believe-house-flipper-2-was-the-most-played-steam-next-fest-demo/
What's the better hustle: flipping houses or making media about flipping houses? The dozens of house flipping TV shows suggest it could be the latter, as does House Flipper the game, which released on Steam in 2018 and has over 68,000 user reviews on the platform, largely positive. The sim sensation clearly isn't out of juice yet, either, because its upcoming sequel had the most-played demo in the recent Steam Next Fest.
To take first place in the Next Fest most-played demos list, the House Flipper 2 demo beat the demo for Lies of P, a more-wishlisted action RPG that more or less puts Pinocchio in Bloodborne, trippy puzzle game Viewfinder, and hundreds of others.

It’s not just you: Warzone 2 PC players are having serious performance issues after this week’s update
https://www.pcgamer.com/its-not-just-you-warzone-2-pc-players-are-having-serious-performance-issues-after-this-weeks-update/
If Call of Duty: Warzone has been feeling sluggish over the last few days, it’s probably not your PC’s fault. Players far and wide have been reporting serious drops in performance since the Season 4 Reloaded patch released yesterday, with many experiencing framerate drops between 20-30 fps on Warzone’s newest map, Vondel.

Making Call of Duty a Battle.net exclusive was apparently a 'resounding failure'
https://www.pcgamer.com/making-call-of-duty-a-battlenet-exclusive-was-a-resounding-failure-argues-microsoft/
Activision Blizzard stopped releasing new Call of Duty games on Steam in 2018, opting to make Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 exclusive to Blizzard's Battle.net platform on PC. That store exclusivity strategy ended just last year with Modern Warfare 2, and according to Microsoft's lawyers, the whole thing was a "resounding failure." That might be a slight exaggeration, though.
In a court document filed today (related to the recent hearing over Microsoft's pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard), Microsoft's legal team affirms the notion that Call of Duty's Battle.net exclusivity ended because it wasn't performing like Activision Blizzard had hoped—but what success would've meant is stated in terms of Battle.net's success, not CoD's, which leads me to quibble with it a bit.

WoW Classic troll obliterates max-level hardcore raiding team in 'legendary and degenerate' act that truly belongs in EVE Online
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-classic-troll-obliterates-max-level-hardcore-raiding-team-in-legendary-and-degenerate-act-that-truly-belongs-in-eve-online/
A group of unfortunate World of Warcraft Classic players have fallen victim to a troll in a scheme that took a truly villainous level of dedication, planning, and sociopathy. The event has been dubbed The 5th Horseman incident, and the most horrible detail of all is that it took place in WoW Classic's Hardcore mode with a max-level raid team that got wiped. Their characters, and the unimaginable amount of time it must take to hit level 60 in WoW Classic Hardcore, are now lost, like tears in rain.
>> You can't be a good person and do this.

WoW's new specialisation deals damage by buffing everyone else, so of course it's getting booted from groups for 'low DPS'
https://www.pcgamer.com/wows-new-specialisation-deals-damage-by-buffing-everyone-else-so-of-course-its-getting-booted-from-groups-for-low-dps/
The Augmentation Evoker came to World of Warcraft with patch 10.1.5 last week, bringing a whole new type of DPS to the game. For the uninitiated, this new spec works by buffing party members to bump their damage numbers rather than melting faces itself. It's comparable to the Dancer from Final Fantasy 14 or the Bard from Dungeons & Dragons—basically, when an Augmentation Evoker's in the group, everyone does better.
So obviously they've been getting kicked out of groups for no reason. A reddit thread on the World of Warcraft subreddit emerged with a compilation of screenshots from the Wyrmrest Temple discord, community server for Evokers. Typing "!augdps" in the augmentation channel will have Carlygos, the server's friendly bot, drop an ever-evolving montage of people missing the point

44 years later, Atari's making a new Lunar Lander game
https://www.pcgamer.com/44-years-later-ataris-making-a-new-lunar-lander-game/
(...) Lunar Lander was Atari's first vector graphics game and came from a decade-old lineage of early sims all about, well, landing on the moon. That's the whole game: you have to manoeuvre a craft to land safely on inhospitable terrain before you run out of fuel.
Atari's tapped up the studio Dreams Uncorporated to develop the successor to this, and the game's going to be called Lunar Lander: Beyond and will, per the press release, add "simulation and a deep narrative to the recipe along with precision gravity flier mechanics."

Starfield's studio design director pleads for people to stop asking questions because 'only Todd Howard is authorised to talk'
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfields-studio-design-director-pleads-for-people-to-stop-asking-questions-because-only-todd-howard-is-authorised-to-talk/
Emil Pagliarulo, Studio Design Director at Bethesda Studios, a man who has been with the company for over 21 years, had to take to Twitter yesterday to say that he cannot, under any circumstances, spill the space beans on Starfield. This comes after relentless online questioning that, in the run up to the game's release, has clearly reached fever pitch.

And these are the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:

+GOG

• First things first: there's a new GIVEAWAY:The Whisperer will be free to keep during 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/the_whisperer
• There are seven Deals of the Day, that will last until Monday:
  • Empire of the Ants (2000) is 25% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/empire_of_the_ants_2000
  • The Whispering Valley gets a 35% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_whispering_valley
  • Martha Is Dead features a 40% deal: https://www.gog.com/en/game/martha_is_dead
  • ΔV: Rings of Saturn, still in development, is 55% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/dv_rings_of_saturn
  • The Agatha Christie Collection, with two games, also gets a 55% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_agatha_christie_collection
  • Apotheon is 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/apotheon
  • The last DotD is Cold Waters, also with an 80% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/cold_waters
• And the META Publishing Sale features up to 85% discounts during the next 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_meta_publishing

+Steam

• Super Mega Baseball™ 4 will be free to try during the weekend and also 30% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1487210/Super_Mega_Baseball_4/
• ASTRONEER gets a 60% discount until the 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/361420/ASTRONEER/
• Scorn will also be 60% off until July 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/698670/Scorn/
• King's Bounty II sports an 80% discount until the Thursday, 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135300/Kings_Bounty_II/
• Prison Architect will be free to try during the weekend and 80% off until the 20th of July: https://store.steampowered.com/app/233450/Prison_Architect/
• The LEGO Franchise Sale comes with up to 90% discounts until July, 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/lego-franchise-sale-2023
• Barotrauma is going to feature a 50% discount until July, 27th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/602960/Barotrauma/
• It Takes Two is going to be 60% off until the 27th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1426210/It_Takes_Two/
• And there are also some Weeklong Deals, that will last until Monday, the 17th.

Uf! I'm no longer used to the GOG and Steam weekend deals. At least I'm done for this week.

Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

ASUS launches PROART RTX 4060 Ti series with 16GB VRAM

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-launches-proart-rtx-4060-ti-series-with-16gb-vram

While this GPU is a turd, the ProArt series is certainly catching my eye. Maybe next time, I'll go with ProArt instead of the usual ROG line...

GIGABYTE to launch GeForce RTX 4060 low-profile GPU with THREE fans

https://videocardz.com/newz/gigabyte-to-launch-geforce-rtx-4060-low-profile-gpu-with-three-fans

Really outing that 50 class in disguise

MSI Ventus 2X is the first GeForce RTX 4060 Ti to drop below $335

https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-rtx-4060-ti-temporarily-drops-below-rtx-3060-ti-to-334

$300 or lower would be the best price

AMD’s Phoenix Ryzen 7040H APUs Limited to China, Ryzen 7040HS For Global Market

https://wccftech.com/amd-phoenix-ryzen-7040h-apus-limited-to-china-ryzen-7040hs-for-global-market/

ACER Preps AMD Custom GPUs With The Radeon RX 7600 Predator BiFrost Being Its First

https://wccftech.com/acer-preps-amd-custom-gpus-with-the-radeon-rx-7600-predator-bifrost-being-its-first/

Certainly one of the more unique looking coolers

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart page updated with PC features

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1895880/Ratchet__Clank_Rift_Apart/

• Wrap your eyes around delightful, diverse dimensions, with ultra-wide support for 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9 (triple monitor support) resolutions!*
• See the omniverse brought to life with the option of unlocked frame rates! You can also enjoy ray-traced reflections, as well as newly added, ray-traced shadows for exteriors.**
• Witness the latest upscaling technologies, including NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 2, Intel XeSS and Insomniac Games’ Temporal Injection. NVIDIA Reflex and image quality-enhancing NVIDIA DLAA are also supported. Tailor a variety of graphics quality options to a range of devices, from high-end PCs to portable PC gaming devices.
• Play with the DualSense™ controller to experience haptic feedback and dynamic trigger effects.*** Or choose mouse and keyboard – with a wide range of control customization options.
• Includes support for achievements and cloud saves on PC game launchers.

As usual with Nvidia sponsored titles, the game includes technologies for every vendor such as FSR for Radeon and XeSS for Intel along with DLSS/DLAA for Nvidia of course. Something that Radeon refuses to do with their sponsored titles and instead continues to force FSR on everyone even though it's inferior.

Warcraft Reforged was THE remake/remaster of a classic RTS game that I was looking forward to the most and Blizzard had to mess it all up! If the deal goes through, I want Phil on Blizzard's ass on fixing that remake!

WHAT?!?!?!