Can you review it and also what benefits are there to go with one of these Asus router alien things. Thanks.

Wishlisted it.

I remember playing a demo of the first one (Beta..alpha...whatever it was) years ago.

Since this is coming to Steam and its F2P - I'll try it out again....might have fun getting destroyed still (like in CSGO lol).

Fixed it for you*

If there's anything more I'd like to see changed, it's that Nvidia stop trying to Titan-fy the flagship model and go back to how it I supposed to be, with the 80 model actually being an 80 model and being the main flagship, not the 90 being an 80, 80 being 70, 70 being 60, etc, it just muddles everything up for those who aren't in the know and I believe suckers ppl into buying the wrong model, simply going by how Nvidia currently numbers them.

if we ever needed a Ti variant, at best a 4080ti/4070ti, nothing more than that really (just like how we had the 1080ti and 980ti, and both were great cards I owned at those times). 

It's Thursday, and these are the news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Diablo 4 is Blizzard's fastest-selling game of all time
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-is-blizzards-fastest-selling-game-of-all-time/
In case there was any doubt (and I'm pretty sure there wasn't, but just in case), Activision Blizzard said in its latest financial report that Diablo 4 is Blizzard's fastest-selling game of all time, and helped the company reach $1 billion in net bookings (that's total sales, basically) in a single quarter for the first time ever.

The Epic Store gives away two games:

• Murder by Numbers: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/murder-by-numbers
• The Elder Scrolls Online: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/the-elder-scrolls-online

Next week they'll give away Homeworld Remastered Collection & Severed Steel.

GOG goes steamy with a new NSFW Sale featuring over 200 games at up to 90% discounts until July, 31st: https://www.gog.com/en/promo.

Steam has two new deals:

• Abalon (formerly Summoners Fate), that has a demo, is going to be 40% off until July, 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1681840/Abalon_formerly_Summoners_Fate/
• And the Crashlands Franchise Sale features an 80% discount until next Wednesday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/crashlands_franchise

Humble Bundle has launched the new Whimsy & Wonder, a Cozy Games Collection Bundle, with up to 9 items to get during the next 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/cozy-games.

Fanatical hosts a Frontier Developments Sale, with up to 83% discounts during another 5 days (it may have started yesterday): https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/frontier-developments.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition gets a new HD Texture Pack
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/mass-effect-2-legendary-edition-gets-a-new-hd-texture-pack/
Last month, we shared an HD Texture Pack for the first Mass Effect game of the Legendary Edition Trilogy. And today, we present you a brand new lore-friendly HD Texture Pack for Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition.
Created by modder ‘Catachrism’, this pack contains many LE-specific bug fixes including resolving upscaling artifacts left over in vanilla LE2 textures, UV mapping issues, unaligned character teeth, specular channel miss-mapping, normal map miss-mapping, Asari color correction (removes the neon blue), environmental texture enhancements and more.
Going into more details, the modder upscaled all textures at stage 1 manually or via Cupscale to remove DXT artifacts. Then, Catachrism handcrafted and painted the textures using promotional art as references, his personal texture detail libraries, and manual touch-ups. The modder attempted to preserve the specular channels and normal map details of the original textures in addition to the diffuse maps. Moreover, he added new details and features ensuring the new textures work in any lighting scenario.
>> The article has some screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

PC is currently more profitable to Activision Blizzard than consoles
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pc-is-more-profitable-to-activision-blizzard-than-next-gen-consoles/
During its Second Quarter 2023 Financial Report, Activision Blizzard stated that PC is currently a more profitable platform than both Xbox Series X and PS5.
According to the publisher, for the 6 months of the year, PC made $1.25 billion. For comparison purposes, all consoles combined made $1.19 billion in that same period. However, even the PC platform was no match for mobile. Mobile is currently the golden cow of Activision Blizzard as it brought in $1.9 billion.

Here are 17 minutes of gameplay from The Crew Motorfest
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-17-minutes-of-gameplay-from-the-crew-motorfest/
GameInformer has released a new video, showcasing 17 minutes of gameplay footage from Ubisoft’s The Crew Motorfest. This new The Crew game feels like a new Forza Horizon game, and this gameplay video can give you a glimpse at its vehicle driving mechanics.

First screenshots for Skull Island: Rise of Kong leaked online
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/first-screenshots-for-skull-island-rise-of-kong-leaked/
It appears that Amazon Spain has leaked a new Kong game, called Skull Island: Rise of Kong. Skull Island: Rise of Kong will be published by GameMill Entertainment, and you can find below its first screenshots.

Bandai Namco shuts down GUNDAM EVOLUTION in just a year
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/bandai-namco-shuts-down-gundam-evolution-in-just-a-year/
And another one bites the dust. Bandai Namco has just announced that it will shut down the servers of GUNDAM EVOLUTION on November 29th, 2023.
GUNDAM EVOLUTION was a team-based FPS in which you pilot Mobile Suits from the smash hit Gundam anime. This was another “Games as a Service” product that had lots of microtransactions and forced players to grind so that they could upgrade their mechs. Thus, we’re not that surprised by this news.

Thursday news, part two:

Fans reached out to Microsoft to save a 2000s-era FPS from the brink, and it paid off: 'it actually kinda works better'
https://www.pcgamer.com/fans-reached-out-to-microsoft-to-save-a-2000s-era-fps-from-the-brink-and-it-paid-off-it-actually-kinda-works-better/
I just found out that Shadowrun, Dungeons & Dragons' cyberpunk cousin, had a Counter-Strike style FPS game. I also just found out that you can still play it, thanks to some determined fans and an active Discord community.
(...)
This group of ride-or-die fans got a small community up and running, though things grew dire when a surprise update threatened to knock it all down. "A few days ago Microsoft updated some [Xbox 360] matchmaking services, which fixed Call of Duty games on the platform, but actually ended up nuking the Shadowrun Matchmaking service," Wwm0nkey wrote.
"Well a few people (myself included) reached out and Microsoft actually ended up fixing it … it actually kinda works better."

Bungie seems to have 'accidentally' leaked a glimpse at Destiny 2's next subclass
https://www.pcgamer.com/bungie-seems-to-have-accidentally-leaked-a-glimpse-at-destiny-2s-next-subclass/
I don't normally cover Destiny 2 leaks, but the timing of the latest one is so suspicious that I think it's worth a look. Yesterday, a redditor posted a short video to r/Destiny2Leaks that showed a guardian beaming into the H.E.L.M. social space. What's remarkable about the clip is that at the two-second mark we see a few frames of UI that show a completely new super icon. The UI also uses a red colourway not currently found in the game, leading pretty much anyone who watched it to speculate that this might be a glimpse of the game's next subclass.

To build words you first have to craft each letter in this clever factory puzzle game
https://www.pcgamer.com/to-build-words-you-first-have-to-craft-each-letter-in-this-clever-factory-puzzle-game/
If you really think about it, the letter L is just the letter I with another letter I lying down in front of it. What's a T? Maybe two letter Ls that have been welded together after being turned upside down? A V is just an I that's leaning over and has been welded together at the bottom with another leaning I, so an X… that's either two Is crossing each other, or maybe two Vs, one flipped upside down and welded together at the pointy bits. Maybe?
That's the concept in puzzle game Word Factori. You have a small factory that can produce the letter I, and using only that letter you have to create words like OX, CAT, and IVY, and then eventually tougher constructions like DOCTOR, VOXEL, and AXOLOTL.
>> If you're wondering how you get an O from an I, the article explains it.

The Walking Dead: Betrayal is a game about avoiding zombie hordes and murdering your fellow survivors
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-walking-dead-betrayal-is-a-game-about-avoiding-zombie-hordes-and-murdering-your-fellow-survivors/
The team behind the snowbound survival-and-murder game Project Winter is turning its talents to the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead: Betrayal, a new game in which players must work together to complete objectives, avoid the undead, and ferret out the "traitors" who for some reason are trying to get everyone killed.

Riot cracks down on Valorant app that gives players a significant advantage before the match even begins: 'It's hard to describe how disappointed I am'
https://www.pcgamer.com/riot-cracks-down-on-valorant-app-that-gives-players-a-significant-advantage-before-the-match-even-begins-its-hard-to-describe-how-disappointed-i-am/
Riot is shutting down a third-party Valorant app that gives players an early advantage in character selection.
Unofficial companion apps for multiplayer games usually exist to provide enhanced (and harmless) stat tracking or live ranking insights. Recon Bolt, made by Swiss developer Julian Dunskus, attracted Riot's ire for its most unique feature: the ability to lock-in characters on your phone before the option is available on PC (as spotted by Dexerto).

40K's edgelord assassins are coming to turn-based tactics game Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters
https://www.pcgamer.com/40ks-edgelord-assassins-are-coming-to-turn-based-tactics-game-chaos-gate-daemonhunters/
In a setting as self-consciously dark as Warhammer 40,000 you really have to go out of your way to seem like "a bit much", but the black-clad killers of the Officio Assassinorum pull it off. They look like something a teenager who read too many Wolverine comics would come up with, and I love them. After going under-represented in 40K videogames they'll be joining the ranks of Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters in the Execution Force expansion.

EA responds to fan criticism of women players in Ultimate Team by reminding them it's 'fantasy football'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-responds-to-fan-criticism-of-women-players-in-ultimate-team-by-reminding-them-its-fantasy-football/
EA's big reveal of EA Sports FC took place last week, the first non-FIFA entry in its long-running football series, and aside from some dodgy box art seemed to go down quite well. There's always criticism of a game on this scale, of course, but one big theme EA's been pursuing for years is integrating the womens' game into the experience, and with this game it's introducing women players to its hugely popular Ultimate Team mode.
The decision has led to some pushback from players, based on the fact that female players' stats will be competitive with equally rated male players' (though UT also takes account of things like height). The objection boils down to whether female players could realistically compete with male players, with some fans calling for the game to split men and women into their own UT modes, and some even going full basement dweller and suggesting women players shouldn't be in the mode at all.

Starfield's economy is already in shambles—a spaceworthy ship can go for as little as 25 sandwiches, 48 steaks, or ten plates of bugs
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfields-economy-is-already-in-shamblesa-spaceworthy-ship-can-go-for-as-little-as-25-sandwiches-48-steaks-or-ten-plates-of-bugs/
An unexpected connection of the dots—as discovered by Reddit user Mr_Twiddles—has given us a window into the fascinating moon logic of Starfield's economy. While Mr_Twiddles was misled by an admittedly convincing fan-made ship I wrote about earlier this month, they weren't far off.
The patty melt, which restores a whole 15 health, is priced at 295 credits. One starship from the gameplay deep dive is priced at 15,950 credits. That prices the starship at around 54 sandwiches, which either means starships are dirt cheap, or these melts are the equivalent of gold bars.
>> That explains why that dev at Bethesda collected so many sandwiches.

Diablo 4's sorcerers just can't catch a break—their new ultra-rare item rewards hours of grinding with motion sickness
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4s-sorcerers-just-cant-catch-a-breaktheir-new-ultra-rare-item-rewards-hours-of-grinding-with-motion-sickness/
The sorcerer's had a bad week. Thanks to a scorched-earth style nerfing of defensive stats, Diablo 4's magic user has turned from glass cannon to a pile of shattered glass. This is due to Blizzard's wide-net philosophy hitting them harder than other classes, while not buffing their barrier generation or stats to compensate.
To add insult to injury, the sorcerer's new ultra-rare unique—The Oculus, a rare wand—is barf-inducing, literally. The Oculus gives you the teleport enchantment for free, replacing your evade with a short-range teleport. However, this also causes it to teleport you to a completely random location. As PC Gamer's Tyler Colp witheringly put it: "maybe it'll teleport you to an action RPG that loves you."

Blizzard admits Overwatch 2's 'engagement and player investment' is in decline, while crossing its fingers for the Invasion update
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-admits-overwatch-2s-engagement-and-player-investment-is-in-decline-while-crossing-its-fingers-for-the-invasion-update/
In a recent earnings report, Blizzard celebrated Diablo 4's meteoric rise as its highest-earning game of all time, even while community sentiment around the latest patch hasn't been stellar.
The report itself celebrates this over the span of four bullet points, even noting that net bookings for Diablo: Immortal have been at the "highest level since January." Overwatch 2 only gets one bullet point, presumably as punishment.
"While engagement and player investment in Overwatch 2 declined sequentially in the quarter, the Overwatch team is looking forward to the August 10 release of Overwatch 2: Invasion. This will be the largest seasonal update yet, planned to include new PvE Story Missions, a new game mode, and a new hero progression system as well as an additional hero."
>> It's also the same day the game will launch on Steam.

Basil, if I had enough money to waste it buying a console to play just one game, you can bet you ass that I'd waste that money on something else first.

For one reason or another, my history with Gears of War ended in Gears 3... like Dom's.

Plenty of other games like Rare Replay (which isnt on PC) lol

I didnt buy my Xbox for one game :(

Hello my fellow Gabenites.

I have betrayed thee by playing/trying out Fall Guys on Epic Game Launcher.



(Btw, what a shitty launcher lol - I had to refresh the store page 5 times just for the Fall Guys store page to load and when I tried to download it, it failed so I had to restart the whole app).

After downloading Fall Guys and trying it for the first time, it was okay. I can see myself playing it again, probably make some videos off of it lol.

Fall Guys has actually become kind of a comfort game for me. If I just want to relax for an hour but would still rather play something than watch something I'll play a few rounds. Good for catching up on podcasts and the like, too.

That's true. Especially now since their GPU's are quite sought after with the Ai boom. Still some wierd configurations considering (for the consumer grade DGPU's). Like the 16GB 4060Ti; that's really low bandwidth and VRAM amount doesn't match at all. I just think they are just too slow to react to the market where more and more games are using more memory but the progress in offerings just doesn't suffice. Even seeing 8GB cards released today at $300+ is just pure stagnation. Then I look at the actual specs and its all so lul-worthy. I just worry with the advent of both new cutting edge tech with TSMC's 3nm and GDDR7 release it will again go up, yet again. But also performance upgrade will also be decent.

That's a good prediction. Still would like Nvidia to move on from 8GB lol.. but yeah sadly can see yet another 8GB 60 tier card. 12GB should really be the minimum for a mainstream 1080P card, that can do 1440P in 2024/2025. 16GB is probably the sweet spot for games and can't see that being a limitation any time soon. So that's a good choice for the 70 and 80. Would be crazy if either AMD or Nvidia decides to put 32GB in their flagship(s).

Should be a good time to jump in. 7900XT will drop to sub $700 at the rate its going and the 7800 and 7700XT will be out. Lots of choices for good performance and a good amount of VRAM for current and future games.

Yeah, this time they used a totally different SKU for the 4080, which sucks. And to add insult to injury, charged several hundreds on top of that. They did boost the VRAM but that's like what $40-60 extra cost to the board. Which leaves a bad taste for consumers, hence why people aren't interested in them.

And unfortunately since the 4090 has sold so well, as did the 3090. I very much doubt they'll get rid of that moniker and name. They should really go back to the 80 tier offering top SKU for the money and the titan class being well workstation/professional grade, but people have voted with their wallets and Nvidia aren't going to go back.