Well, they're late, but here are the "Tuesday" news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

(Click here for the top 100)

GOG has launched a jRPG Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 8 days. There are keys for Steam, EGS and direct downloads: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20231205_jrpg_sale.

Steam has new deals, sales and the weeklong deals:

• The Tales of franchise is on sale, up to 90% off until the 8th of December: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/TalesofFranchise
• The Indie Live Expo Winter 2023 has up to 75% discounts. Several deals will last until the 9th, but I've seen more ending in the 8th, 11th and even longer than that:: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/indieliveexpowinter2023
• The Steam VR Fest has up to 80% deals until the December, 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/vr/
• The The Game Awards Sale, with nominees and winners of this and past years, features up to 90% discounts. Most of them will last until the 11th, but some may last a bit longer than that: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/thegameawards2023
• Hidden Deep, still in Early Access, will be 64% off until the 18th of December: https://store.steampowered.com/app/976890/Hidden_Deep/
• The Metro Franchise goes on sale with up to 90% deals until the 18th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/MetroFranchiseSaleDec2023
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • Kukoro: Stream chat games, still in Early Access, is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1166990/Kukoro_Stream_chat_games/
  • 1428: Shadows over Silesia has a 40% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1228500/1428_Shadows_over_Silesia/
  • SPRAWL is half its usual price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1549690/SPRAWL/
  • Florence has a 67% deal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1102130/Florence/
  • Darkwood gets a 75% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/274520/Darkwood/
  • And the last one, ONE PIECE World Seeker, is 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/755500/ONE_PIECE_World_Seeker/

The Humble Store has the new Better Together Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/better-together-sale/.

Fanatical has several new deals:

• The new Star Deal is PAYDAY 3 - Gold Edition, 23% off during 48 30 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/payday-3-gold-edition
• Publisher Beamdog puts its games on sale, up to 70% off during 5 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/beamdog
• And these are the two bundles:
  • The BYO Infinity VR Collection features 17 titles to choose from for your 2, 3 or 4 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-infinity-vr-collection
  • The BYO Best of Bento Bundle comes with 20 games to select for your bundle of 3, 5 or 10 titles: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-bento-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA Hotfix driver addresses Discord streaming issues and V-Sync stutter
https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-hotfix-driver-addresses-discord-streaming-issues-and-v-sync-stutter
The 546.31 driver builds upon the Game Ready 546.29 release from the previous day. NVIDIA has swiftly responded to two issues impacting Discord and V-Sync users within less than 24 hours of the initial release. For gamers utilizing Discord for streaming, there was an observation of muted colors with the latest Game Ready driver. This particular issue has now been resolved with the introduction of the Hotfix.

Another issue that was addressed is the stutter when using V-Sync. This issue is more likely to impact the larger playerbase as V-Sync is still quite popular on systems that do not have any variable synchronization.

GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 546.31

• [Discord] When streaming gameplay, colors may appear muted [4349586]
• Intermittent stutter may be observed when V-SYNC is enabled [4379096]

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-No mods-

GAMING NEWS

Cyberpunk 2077 Title Update 2.1 Detailed, Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/cyberpunk-2077-title-update-2-1-detailed-full-patch-notes/
CD Projekt RED has detailed Title Update 2.1 for Cyberpunk 2077 which will be available tomorrow, and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s take a look at all the fixes and changes that this new patch brings to the table.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf just got its first in-engine trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/dragon-age-dreadwolf-just-got-its-first-in-engine-trailer/
Electronic Arts and Bioware have just released the first in-engine trailer for their new Dragon Age game, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be powered by the Frostbite Engine and this trailer can give us a glimpse at what Bioware aims to achieve.

To the surprise of no one, Grand Theft Auto 6 will skip PC at launch
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/to-the-surprise-of-no-one-grand-theft-auto-6-will-skip-pc-at-launch/
Take-Two has just announced Grand Theft Auto 6 for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X. Yeap, to the surprise of no one, GTA 6 will skip the PC at launch, and will release exclusively on consoles in 2025.
>> No surprises, only disappointments.

Ten minutes of gameplay from Cyberpunk 2077 with Path Tracing, ReSTIR GI & DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/ten-minutes-of-gameplay-from-cyberpunk-2077-with-path-tracing-restir-gi-dlss-3-5-ray-reconstruction/
CDPR has just released Update 2.1 for Cyberpunk 2077. This new update introduced ReSTIR GI to the PC version, making Path Tracing even better. As such, we’ve decided to capture ten minutes of gameplay from the game, using Path Tracing, ReSTIR GI, and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction.

Unreal Engine 5-powered body-cam FPS, Unrecord, gets new short gameplay video
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/unreal-engine-5-powered-body-cam-fps-unrecord-gets-new-short-gameplay-video/
Remember Unrecord? You know, the Unreal Engine 5-powered body-cam FPS that took everyone by storm? Well, Alexandre Spindler has just released a new short gameplay video from it that you can find below.

"Tuesday" news, the second part:

Withers wasn't joking—ruining the vibe in Baldur's Gate 3's new epilogue is punishable by death
https://www.pcgamer.com/withers-wasnt-jokingruining-the-vibe-in-baldurs-gate-3s-new-epilogue-is-punishable-by-death/
A little while before the fifth Patch of Baldur's Gate 3 came along, I wrote up this news post about a teaser image Larian Studios had shared on Twitter, featuring Withers in a silly little hat warning "fun is mandatory".
I joked about being scared at the time. Little did I know, I was very right to be. If you rain on Withers' carefully constructed parade, his cosmic wrath is mighty. This was actually brought to my attention by camilams on the Baldur's Gate 3 subreddit, but I figured I'd boot up my save to test it myself. (Sorry, Volo. You were the only person I could bring myself to harm.)

Elden Ring's producer says development of its Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is 'going well', compares it to Bloodborne with 'new battles and new characters'
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-rings-producer-says-development-of-its-shadow-of-the-erdtree-expansion-is-going-well-compares-it-to-bloodborne-with-new-battles-and-new-characters/
FromSoftware recently received a gong for Elden Ring at the Japanese PlayStation Partners awards, as part of which producer Yasuhiro Kitao picked up the trophy and said a select few words to the press. The conference was reported on by the publication Game Watch and, as Kitao was speaking in Japanese, this is a lightly edited machine translation of his remarks.
(...)
Then the question about Elden Ring's DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, which doesn't even have a release date yet. Kitao doesn't really say anything of substance, but the exciting point is that he uses the 'B' word. "I'll talk about the DLC another time," says Kitao. "It's still a little ways off, but progress is going well. Like Bloodborne's expansion, it has new battles and new characters: So please look forward to new things."

Payday studio Starbreeze is working on a co-op multiplayer D&D game, and the more I think about it the more it makes sense
https://www.pcgamer.com/payday-studio-starbreeze-is-working-on-a-co-op-multiplayer-dandd-game-and-the-more-i-think-about-it-the-more-it-makes-sense/
If you've ever thought to yourself that the Payday games are great but they'd be even better if they replaced the guns and bank vaults with swords, spells, and treasure chests, Starbreeze Studios has some oddly-specific good news. Its next big project is a "co-operative multiplayer" game set in the fantasy RPG world of Dungeons and Dragons.
To be fair, I don't know if Project Baxter, as the new game is known internally, will really be something akin to Payday: D&D. Starbreeze described Baxter as "the next AAA title in our niche of cooperative multiplayer games" in its August financial report, when it was still negotiating for the license, but also seemed eager to differentiate it, saying "it is a completely new project, in a completely new genre, compared to Payday."

Ark: Survival Ascended lead designer Jeremy Stieglitz admits 'the servers are ass, they run like ass, and their stability is ass'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ark-survival-ascended-lead-designer-jeremy-stieglitz-admits-the-servers-are-ass-they-run-like-ass-and-their-stability-is-ass/
(...)
"Firstly, I wanna say the servers are ass, they run like ass, and their stability is ass," Studio Wildcard co-founder and Ark co-creator Jeremy Stieglitz said on a recent Extra Life charity Twitch livestream. (The full stream is here.)
"We need to improve it," Stieglitz added. "It's gonna be improved imminently."

EA announces layoffs at F1 developer Codemasters 'to meet evolving business needs and priorities'
https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-announces-layoffs-at-f1-developer-codemasters-to-meet-evolving-business-needs-and-priorities/
2023 isn't over yet, and neither are the game industry layoffs that have been such an ugly hallmark of the year. Electronic Arts has confirmed with IGN that it has laid off an unspecified number of employees from Codemasters, the developer of the Grid, F1, and EA Sports WRC racing games.

Rockstar devs react to Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer leak: 'This f***ing sucks'
https://www.pcgamer.com/rockstar-devs-react-to-grand-theft-auto-6-trailer-leak-this-fing-sucks/
It's not fun for developers when trailers leak early for their games, but I imagine even less so when your studio has something new to share as rarely as Rockstar does. The studio planned to premiere the first GTA 6 trailer tomorrow morning. People were so excited about it that thousands were sitting around in the livestream chat 24 hours ahead of time to get hyped about the game. Then, earlier today, the full trailer leaked onto X with an ugly crypto watermark glazed over the center of the screen.
This forced Rockstar's hand: The leaker's account was suspended, but rather than let that pixellated, partially obscured version of the trailer circulate for the next 12 hours, Rockstar went ahead and posted the official trailer on YouTube early. It's a good trailer, but some Rockstar employees are annoyed that their big reveal was moved forward by a leak, and I can't blame them.
>> Looking at the bright side, the trailer had over 60 million views in 12 hours... now likely a lot more.

Those are the cards and all companies cannot ship them. Maybe Dell was the only company exporting them. Besides, China will just use other third party's anyway.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has two new deals:

• Espresso Tycoon, that has a demo, will be 27% off until the 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1543280/Espresso_Tycoon/
• The Road 96: Mile 0 – Full Journey bundle has a 71% discount. There's no mention of how long it will last, but the individual games are on sale until the 12th, so... https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/30911/Road_96_Mile_0__Full_Journey/

Fanatical has one new bundle and a contest:

• The BYO Premiere Bundle features 23 titles to choose from for your 3, 5 or 8 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-premiere-bundle
• And there's a contest to win one of five bundles or $2 coupons for the store. Learn more here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/win-your-own-bundle-contest

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.12.1 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-23-12-1
Highlights

• New Game Support
  • Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
• NEW AMD Software UI Redesign –The Home and Gaming tab have undergone a UI redesign in this latest update of AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition.
  • HYPR-RX profiles can now be enabled easily on a global basis, or per-game on the Home Tab; additionally, games on the Home tab now will display key art for a more vibrant experience
  • When users go to the Graphics section within the Gaming tab, they will be able to learn more about specific features in each HYPR-RX profile by clicking on individual features to display a content block that contains more information about what benefits each feature enables
  • Now when you view your performance metrics in AMD Software, you can choose to customize elements such as the background or text colours, default enabled metrics through profiles, as well as select options such as showing the metrics overlay only while a game is open.
• Introducing: AMD HYPR-RX Eco – designed with power savings in mind, when HYPR-RX Eco is enabled, AMD Software will enable a suite of features for gamers to experience power savings with one click
  • HYPR-RX Eco will launch initially with support for Radeon™️ 7000 Series graphics support and RDNA™️ 3 platforms
• Expanded OpenGL Interop Support - AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.12.1 expands support for FRTC, Radeon™ Super Resolution, Overlay, Record and Stream features to OpenGL games.
• Additional OS Feature Support
  • Support for Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling for Radeon RX 7900/7800/7700 series GPUs. Click HERE for more information.
• Additional SDK Support
  • Additional Vulkan® extensions. Click HERE for more information.
• AI and Machine Learning
  • DirectML improvements and optimizations for Topaz AI and DaVinci Resolve on AMD Radeon RX 600M, 700M, 6000, and 7000 series graphics.

Fixed Issues

• Improvements to high idle power when using select dual monitor display setups with mixed resolutions and high refresh rate displays (such as 1440p @ 120/144Hz + 1080p @ 120/144Hz or 2160p @ 120/144Hz + 1080p @ 120/144Hz) on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Intermittent micro-stuttering may be experienced when running Chromium-based browsers on systems that pair a Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPU with a secondary display connected to an AMD Ryzen™ 7000 series processor.
• Stars may intermittently fail to appear while playing Crysis Remastered.
• Certain textures may become invisible while playing Final Fantasy X HD Remaster on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Intermittent corruption may be observed on the racetrack while playing EA Sports WRC.
• Intermittent stutter while playing Overwatch 2 on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 6900 XTX.

>> The article also mentions support for the game The Finals, but there's no mention of it in AMD's notes. Also Videocardz has another article explaining some of the changes.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty-

GAMING NEWS

Layers of Fears Patch 1.6.1 adds support for NVIDIA DLSS 3
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/layers-of-fear-patch-1-6-1-adds-support-for-nvidia-dlss-3/
Bloober Team has released Title Update 1.6.1 for Layers of Fears which adds official support for NVIDIA DLSS 3. By enabling DLSS 3 Frame Generation, owners of the RTX 40 series graphics cards can get a significant performance boost.

8 minutes of leaked gameplay from the PC version of Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/8-minutes-of-gameplay-leaked-from-the-pc-version-of-avatar-frontiers-of-pandora/
Ubisoft will release Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora tomorrow. However, it appears that someone has leaked 8 minutes of gameplay from its PC version. Not only that but this leaked gameplay video has performance statistics. As such, it can give you an idea of how the game performs on an NVIDIA RTX 4070Ti.

Grand Theft Auto 6 vs Grand Theft Auto 5 Early Graphics Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/grand-theft-auto-6-vs-grand-theft-auto-5-early-graphics-comparison/
YouTube’s ‘Cycu1’ has shared a comparison video between Grand Theft Auto 6 and Grand Theft Auto 5. This early graphics comparison video will give you an idea of how much better the sequel to GTA5 will be. So, go ahead and take a look at it.
>> And here's an announcement of mine: since the game hasn't (yet) been announced for PC and this is the PC thread, this is the last GTA VI article I'll post in the news until it gets announced for our platform.

The second part of the news:

The Embracer spiral continues as Insurgency: Sandstorm studio New World Interactive lays off employees
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-embracer-spiral-continues-as-insurgency-sandstorm-studio-new-world-interactive-lays-off-employees/
Saber Interactive, a division of Embracer Group, has confirmed that it has laid off employees at its New World Interactive studio, the developer of Insurgency: Sandstorm.

Baldur's Gate 3 tool discovers there's around 1,888 characters with dialogue in the game—though 'justice for Karlach was actually the main reason' it was made
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-tool-discovers-theres-around-1888-characters-with-dialogue-in-the-gamethough-justice-for-karlach-was-actually-the-main-reason-it-was-made/
Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot of words—and even 'a lot of words' is a major understatement. In a Steam post before the game's release, it was revealed the game's total script is about 2 million words long. For context, all five books in the current Game of Thrones series add up to about 1.7 million words. Big. It's a big game.
>> And Larian Studios has launched some new stats.

Steam's second most-wishlisted game puts out bizarre set of 'revelations' ahead of release: 'Please don't accuse us of scamming; that's not true'
https://www.pcgamer.com/steams-second-most-wishlisted-game-puts-out-bizarre-set-of-revelations-ahead-of-release-please-dont-accuse-us-of-scamming-thats-not-true/
Some time in the 14th century, an English anchoress named Julian of Norwich beheld a series of visions of Christ's passion while mortally ill, after which she miraculously recovered. Eventually, she would write her visions up into the Revelations of Divine Love, a groundbreaking work of mystical theology that would come to be regarded as a classic.
Anyway, it's got a sequel now, in the form of "Revelations from Fntastic," an incredibly odd PR statement in a long line of incredibly odd PR statements from the studio behind The Day Before, the zombie survival MMO (and Steam's second most-wishlisted game) that had go into deep freeze after it drew the ire of a calendar app.
Although the game's survival (and even existence) has looked questionable at various points over the course of this year, it's set to finally release this Thursday, December 7. Ahead of that, Fntastic has put out a statement aiming to address, well, a whole bunch of vaguely defined groups, from future players to people "who didn't believe in us" to the studio's own business partners.

Skyrim's latest patch has pissed off players for two reasons: It broke old mods and added new paid ones
https://www.pcgamer.com/skyrims-latest-patch-has-pissed-off-players-for-two-reasons-it-broke-old-mods-and-added-new-paid-ones/
Bethesda has released a big new update for Skyrim Special Edition that has managed the impressive feat of annoying players for two entirely separate reasons. Some are irritated by what they see as a renewed focus on paid mods for Skyrim, while others are chapped that the update has apparently broken a large number of existing mods.
>> Bethesda is on a roll.. or maybe rolling down the hill, I don't know.

Oops! Blizzard accidentally nerfs every Diablo 4 player on the same day its brutally hard new dungeon releases
https://www.pcgamer.com/oops-blizzard-accidentally-nerfs-every-diablo-4-player-on-the-same-day-its-brutally-hard-new-dungeon-releases/
Today, Blizzard opened the gates to Diablo 4's hardest endgame dungeon, a seasonal event called the Abattoir of Zir. Experienced players have been gearing up for this moment for weeks, perfecting their builds to tackle the first tier of a dungeon that the developer teased might be completely impossible at its highest difficulty level. But in an absurdly unfortunate piece of timing, the update also introduced a bug that has reduced the power of almost every endgame player in the game.
Update: Blizzard has now resolved this issue via hotfix, restoring Glyphs to their original levels, and also the radius of those Glyphs if the bug caused a drop from level 15 to 14.

Call of Duty's new operator looks like a popular Rainbow Six Siege character with the exact same name, and Ubisoft has taken notice: 'Seriously?'
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-dutys-new-operator-looks-like-a-popular-rainbow-six-siege-character-with-the-exact-same-name-and-ubisoft-has-taken-notice-seriously/
Rainbow Six Siege fans did a collective double take last week when Activision shared the next slate of operators coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. Meet Dokkaebi: a "skilled spy and robotics engineer" available in the Season 1 battle pass. Call of Duty's Dokkaebi immediately drew comparisons to popular Siege operator Dokkaebi: a skilled hacker who disrupts and steals enemy intel.

A new Tribes game is coming next year and it's not free to play: 'We made some mistakes in how we monetized Ascend'
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-new-tribes-game-is-coming-next-year-and-its-not-free-to-play-we-made-some-mistakes-in-how-we-monetized-ascend/
It's been 25 years since the original Tribes—formally known as Starsiege: Tribes—made a splash in the world of online shooters, and more than a decade since the release of the most recent entry in the series, the ill-fated Tribes: Ascend. Now a new one is on the way called Tribes 3: Rivals, which is taking signups for "limited playtests" planned to be held over the next several months.

A cool PvP event in WoW Classic's Season of Discovery has spiralled into a complete zergfest—with huge swarms of players ending it in minutes
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-cool-pvp-event-in-wow-classics-season-of-discovery-has-spiralled-into-a-complete-zergfestwith-huge-swarms-of-players-ending-it-in-minutes/
I really like the idea of WoW Classic's Season of Discovery (SoD)—it's a genuinely fresh take on what it means to make a classic server. Not just rehashing the old, but remixing it too.
In case you haven't been keeping tabs, WoW Classic's new seasonal realms will go through a Diablo 4-style cycle of seasonal adjustments which raise the level cap bit-by-bit. SoD currently has a level cap of 25, turning Blackfathom Deeps into a whole new raid, and has added runes which can be collected and applied to your gear for funky effects.
It's a neat concept that's turned WoW Classic into its own unique MMO, built out of recycled old expansion content. Though with that innovation comes the danger of players figuring out the most efficient way to break something. As is the case with SoD's new world PvP event in the ye olden zone of Ashenvale.

Armello studio lays off over half its staff and 'indefinitely' pauses development on its ongoing early access game because 'almost all funding and investment has evaporated from the videogame industry'
https://www.pcgamer.com/armello-studio-lays-off-half-its-staff-and-indefinitely-pauses-development-on-its-ongoing-early-access-game-because-almost-all-funding-and-investment-has-evaporated-from-the-videogame-industry/
One more grim notch for the 2023 games industry meat grinder. Australian indie studio League of Geeks is laying off over half its staff and pausing development "indefinitely" on early access starship management game Jumplight Odyssey.

AMD Instinct MI300A APUs Power French “Adastra” Supercomputer, MI300 Expected To Ship 400,000 Units In 2024

https://wccftech.com/amd-instinct-mi300a-apu-adastra-supercomputer-mi300-to-ship-400000-units-2024/

NVIDIA preparing GeForce RTX 3050 with 6GB VRAM, 8GB model to be phased out

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-preparing-geforce-rtx-3050-with-6gb-vram-8gb-model-to-be-phased-out

Lol da hell? If it costs $100, maybe a good deal. Anymore, worthless.

AMD announces Ryzen 8045HS, 8040HS and 8040U “Hawk Point” series powered by Zen4, RDNA3 and XDNA

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-announces-ryzen-8045hs-8040hs-and-8040u-hawk-point-series-powered-by-zen4-rdna3-and-xdna

AMD next-gen “Strix Point” series with XDNA2 NPU to offer 3x performance boost for generative AI

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-next-gen-strix-point-series-with-xdna2-npu-to-offer-3x-performance-boost-for-generative-ai

AMD new GPU driver adds HYPR-RX Eco mode, HAGS support and UI update

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-new-gpu-driver-adds-hypr-rx-eco-mode-hags-support-and-ui-update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUT4d5IVY0A
Good vid.

Can you imagine how amazing it would be if Geoff Keighley or someone from Valve took stage to tell the people of this contest and then turned to the live audience, full of devs and managers of the different publishers and console makers, saying "get the Deck, where you'll be able to play all their games in one platform... even yours Nintendo!"?

Nothing would ever beat that.

Yep, saw it this morning. Hypocresy at its finest. But well, that shows that some folks at Intel are desperate.

At least Intel has realized the mistake and has put down their video.