The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

We're teaming up with Modiphius for an epic Skyrim board game giveaway!
https://www.pcgamer.com/were-teaming-up-with-modiphius-for-an-epic-skyrim-board-game-giveaway/
If you're anything like me, you've spent approximately 52,000 hours staring at the world map of Skyrim, gaily fast travelling between cities and landmarks. Well guess what? Now you can stare at it for another reason-defying amount of time, but on your actual, physical tabletop, because PC Gamer is teaming up with Modiphius to give away a Skyrim: The Adventure Game set, the board game version of the game you can play on your PC, your console, and your voice assistant.
Skyrim: The Adventure Game puts you and up to three friends in the shoes of the Blades—Tamriel's legendary spy organisation and those people you ignored when they told you to kill Charles Martinet—as they try to "defeat enemies, embark on intriguing quests and face the looming threat that seeks to destroy everything you swore to protect".
>> It's an unusual contest, but it may be worth it if you're into it.

The Epic Store gives away two new games (the second link will likely not work because Epic Store links with numbers in it almost never work):

• Black Book: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/black-book
• Dodo Peak: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/dodo-peak

Next week, they'll give away Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak.

GOG has launched a new Strategy Sale with up to 90% discounts until August, 28th: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_august_strategy_sale.

Steam has two new deals:

• Soulstice is 40% off until the 23rd: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1602080/Soulstice/
• And there's a new charitable War Child UK Sale, with up to 90% discounts until August, 23rd: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/gameaction2023

The Humble Store ha the new Spaced Out Bundle, with up to 8 items to get during the next 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/spaced-out.

And Fanatical's new 24 hours Flash Deal is Golf Gang + Embr Double Pack, 97% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/golf-gang-embr-double-pack.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam's cheapest games are getting pricier outside the US
https://www.pcgamer.com/steams-cheapest-games-are-getting-pricier-outside-the-us/
Remember last October, when Steam updated its pricing guidelines for non-US currencies, resulting in recommended price increases of anywhere from 18% to 485%? Well an update from Valve has announced that now the platform is changing its minimum price thresholds to match those recommendations, and the long and short of it is that any game at Steam's cheapest price point is about to get a little more expensive outside the US.
Steam's lowest possible base price point is 0.99 US dollars (not including free and free-to-play games). That's not changing, but what is changing is what $0.99 translates to in non-US currencies "to adjust for some currencies drifting significantly in value over time".
That means that games purchased using Euros, Pesos, or some other currency are getting a bit more expensive if they're currently priced at the lowest level Steam permits. What's more, how much they can be discounted is changing, too. The lowest price Steam will let you charge for a game on sale is 50% of its minimum base price, meaning 49 cents, but as with the base price itself, what 49 cents translates to outside the US is being revised upwards in line with its October pricing recommendations update.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Playstation 4 emulator RPCSX got even better, now supports audio and gamepad
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/playstation-4-emulator-rpcsx-got-even-better-now-supports-audio-and-gamepad/
The team behind the upcoming Playstation 4 emulator, RPCSX, has released a new version that adds support for audio and gamepads. And, below, you can find a video, showcasing Sonic Mania running in full speed on this promising PS4 emulator. Now as I’ve said before, Sonic Mania is a 2D game that does not really stress a modern-day platform like Playstation 4. Nevertheless, it’s really cool witnessing a PS4 game running without any visual glitches and with proper audio.
>> The video is almost 11 minutes long.

Zelda 64 aims to recreate the Ocarina of Time Spaceworld 1997 Demo
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/zelda-64-aims-to-recreate-the-ocarina-of-time-spaceworld-1997-demo/
The sw97-team has released a brand new version of the ZelN64 gda 64 Mod for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Zelda 64 aims to be a mostly accurate representation of the Nintendo Spaceworld 1997 demo of Ocarina of Time.
Since this is a mod for the original N64 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you’ll need an emulator to run it. Naturally, you’ll also need a ROM of the original N64 game.
>> The article has a 44 seconds trailer of this mod.

This Fallout 4 Mod improves the faces of all NPCs
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-fallout-4-mod-improves-the-faces-of-all-npcs/
Modder ‘EidoTv’ has released a new HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4 that improves and enhances the faces of almost all NPCs. Since this mod can noticeably improve the game’s graphics, we recommend giving it a go.
EidoTv has used Fallout Genetics Method in order to enhance the game’s NPCs. Other than that, though, the modder has not provided any additional details. However, you can find at the end of this article a couple of screenshots that showcase these new textures.
>> The article has three screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

Baldur’s Gate 3 Hotfix 4 released, resolves bugs & crashes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/baldurs-gate-3-hotfix-4-released-resolves-some-crashes/
Larian Studios released earlier today Hotfix 4 for its highly acclaimed RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3. According to the changelog, Hotfix 4 resolves some crashes.
Furthermore, this fourth Hotfix attempts to fix bugs, flow issues, and companions who keep trying to sleep in.
>> Be warned, tho, Larian has rolled back this update because of a bug.

Unreal Engine 5-powered Fort Solis gets official PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/unreal-engine-5-powered-fort-solis-gets-official-pc-requirements/
Black Drakkar Games and Fallen Leaf have shared the official PC requirements for their Unreal Engine 5-powered horror game, Fort Solis.

Thursday news, part two, filled with Starfield articles:

More than 10 years after it began, To the Moon's story is ending with a 'Beach Episode'
https://www.pcgamer.com/more-than-10-years-after-it-began-to-the-moons-story-is-ending-with-a-beach-episode/
In 2011, Freedbird Games released To the Moon, a dramatic narrative adventure about life, death, memories, and regret. It was a hit, spawning spinoffs and sequels including A Bird Story, Finding Paradise, and Impostor Factory, and later this year the main story of the series will conclude with a new game called To the Moon: Beach Episode.

Activision pushes back on rumors that Modern Warfare 3 is a glorified expansion: 'Our vision to deliver back-to-back Modern Warfare games has been years in the making'
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-pushes-back-on-rumors-that-modern-warfare-3-is-a-glorified-expansion-our-vision-to-deliver-back-to-back-modern-warfare-games-has-been-years-in-the-making/
Something has smelled a little off about this year's Call of Duty since the earliest rumors of its development. For the first time in series history, CoD is going back to the sequel well after just one year with a new Modern Warfare 3. In another break in tradition, all multiplayer guns, cosmetics, and progression from Modern Warfare 2 (2022) will carry over into MW3.

Starfield has gone gold, preloads are coming
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-has-gone-gold-preloads-are-coming/
Lest you still be carrying worries about a really last-minute delay, you can now rest easy: Bethesda has announced that its upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield has officially gone gold. To mark the big moment, lead designer Emil Pagliarulo and lead quest designer Will Shen held a Q&A session on the Bethesda Discord.

Starfield won't support full pacifist runs, but 'there are some good non-lethal options,' says quest designer
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-wont-support-full-pacifist-runs-but-there-are-some-good-non-lethal-options-says-quest-designer/
In a Q&A to celebrate Starfield's symbolic "gone gold" milestone (which has been reposted to the subreddit), lead quest designer Will Shen was asked if entirely non-lethal playthroughs will be possible in Bethesda's space RPG. They won't be, although Shen says that Bethesda did consider the possibility of supporting pacifist playthroughs early in development.
>> If that disappoints you, this will make it worse:

Starfield will tantalise you with a bunch of mechs you can't use
https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-will-tantalise-you-with-a-bunch-of-mechs-you-cant-use/
Remember last month, when Bethesda put out a series of animated Starfield shorts that, presumably, contained some kind of important narrative content? I've kind of glossed over that stuff, because all I paid attention to were the battling mechs it showed off: Bipedal, human-operated war suits caked in grease and diesel that look incredibly cool as they pummel the hell out of one another. It led me, and plenty of others, to ask if we might get a shot at piloting these titans ourselves when Starfield finally releases.
Well, the answer's no, in short. As part of yesterday's Discord Starfield Q&A with lead quest designer Will Shen and lead designer Emil Pagliarulo, Bethesda revealed that Starfield's mechs are more of an ornamental feature. A kind of battlefield mood piece that will pockmark some of the game's many, many planets but that will never actually become pilotable. I'm inconsolable.
>> Let's not worry. I'm sure there'll be a mod to let you use them soon after launch.

Sign me up for Starfield's snake worshipping death cult, which communes to its god via cool low-grav jumps
https://www.pcgamer.com/sign-me-up-for-starfields-snake-worshipping-death-cult-which-communes-to-its-god-via-cool-low-grav-jumps/
A Starfield Q&A has dropped to celebrate the RPG's pre-launch gold status, first taking place in a Discord server, and later kindly transcribed by user ninjabell on the Starfield subreddit. While it has some juicy revelations, such as the fact there'll be no full pacifist runs, I'm far more fascinated by its brief look into the game's main three religions.

This free, PS1-style Twin Peaks demake absolutely nails the dreamy vibes of the show
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-free-ps1-style-twin-peaks-demake-absolutely-nails-the-dreamy-vibes-of-the-show/
Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see, one chants out between two worlds: Twin Peaks is on PC. Not officially, mind you; I'm talking about the demo for Twin Peaks: Into the Night, a fan game based on the classic David Lynch and Mark Frost soap opera that's just hit Itch.io.

AMD Navi 4X Halo GPU Renders Show What A Possible RDNA 4 MCM Chip Might Look Like

https://wccftech.com/amd-navi-4x-halo-gpu-renders-show-what-possible-rdna-4-mcm-chip-might-look-like/

It is a render without any official info so take it with heaps of salt

AMD Inception Mitigations Can Lower Performance of CPUs By Up To 54%

https://wccftech.com/amd-inception-mitigations-can-lower-performance-of-cpus-by-up-to-54-percent/

In some tests that is

AMD To Unveil Next Major Products At Gamescom 2023, Radeon RX 7800 XT & 7700 XT Expected

https://wccftech.com/amd-unveil-next-major-products-gamescom-2023-radeon-rx-7800-xt-7700-xt/

The thing is that I think Linus and his team needed a wake up call and a change in their attitude towards how reviews are handled. Many of us watch LTT including me from time to time. Their shows are entertaining and reviews are much easier to swallow than GamersNexus and Hardware Unboxed. With GN, I mainly just watch the into/conclusion and skimp through the graphics. With HUB, I mainly do the same just go directly to the average. With Linus, I can watch the entire review without falling asleep unlike the other two.

But their attitude towards having mistakes in their videos has always been uncaring. Sure they have a new CEO and they claim they will improve but with virtually every review video, they contentiously made mistakes. But that in itself isn't the worst thing, the worst thing is how Linus himself openly admitted to not wanting to redo testing even if the data was wrong because it would cost them money. That is an unacceptable attitude and it clearly shows the culture being LMG and it essentially all culminated into the Billet Labs video where Linus was perfectly okay with testing a water block that was not designed for the GPU and coming to the conclusion that it was bad even though he tested on a GPU the waterblock was not made for. Billet Labs even sent Linus the proper GPU with the proper waterblock but guess what? They lost it...

So imo, the reason why this blew up so much is because Linus and his team needed an intervention. Many people posted in the comments through a ton of their videos over various years about issues that were not getting better. Many people during the WAN show told Linus directly that they should retest Billet Labs video because it was tested improperly. And what did Linus do? Double down on making excuses as to why even though he had bad data, he wasn't going to retest it. This is why I am glad GN made the video because Linus was not getting the message regardless of how many times the community told him.

And yes, they got a new Ceo... But he's from Dell... One of the worst companies on the planet... So I am not going have confidence until I see actual proof but I do agree about the Madison thing.

I guess Linus could have avoided this mess had he just listened to his regular viewers! Linus and even the LMG community (and lets face it the PC community at large) tend to be on the arrogant side of things, which is what pushed me away from the WAN show, LTT Forums and other content. That being said I generally feel like he doesn't have malice in any of his takes or actions ( even when I go through what happened with this Billet situation). I hope he and the rest of the group recover from this and come back strong. 

Looks like AMD went too much ahead of themselves and came up with a revolutionary design. It's no wonder that they may not launch high end parts by next time because this looks too difficult to turn into a product in time for the 8000 series, too expensive to manufacture right now or both at the same time.

Same is true for the Intel mitigations for their own troubles. It doesn't matter which side you picked, you're f*cked.

By the way, let's hope with bit of info is true so we can have nice and good priced GPUs in the near future:

IBM is developing an analogue AI chip that might just save our GPUs for gaming
https://www.pcgamer.com/ibm-is-developing-an-analogue-ai-chip-that-might-just-save-our-gpus-for-gaming/
IBM claims to have cooked up a new mixed-signal part-analogue chip using a combination of phase-change memory and digital circuits that it's claiming will match GPU performance when it comes to AI inferencing but do so at much greater efficiency.

No, we don't entirely understand that either. But the implications are easy enough to grasp. If this chip takes off, it could put a cap on the skyrocketing demand for GPUs used in AI processing and save them for, you know, gaming.

According to El Reg, this isn't the first such chip IBM has produced. But it's on a much larger scale and is claimed to demonstrate many of the building blocks that will be needed to deliver a viable low-power analogue AI inference accelerator chip.

Good old analogue. People have been trying to bring it back for this sort of computing task since the 90s. Even Intel tried but it didn't work.

In theory, it would make sense for inference since it's so low precision but integrated digital circuits have become just too good. Especially now that one might come to rely on CPUs as well if sparse FP8/INT8 becomes an industry standard.

Some even envision a future for FP2/INT2, and neural networks that would work basically on binary logic, but it's doubtful any meaningful data could be retrieved at such low precision.

^Yup. Exactly what I was thinking...

It still reeks of them not wanting to just take the loss fully and redo the tests, instead now they want to monetise it and hide it so less eyes can see the errors, which just comes off as a double negative, because now they've been caught with their pants down, so now they want to close the curtains.