Yeah, it looks like a dedicated entrance for the seven dwarfs. Hay-ho, hey-ho...

I wasn't aware you were an artist, but holy hell, that tablet must not be cheap (and I've seen some artist dunk well over 1k on tablets of that size).

Also I really need to get myself a chair like that, seeing as how gaming chairs have been debunked at this point in time. 

It's Monday and these are the news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has two new Deals of the Day, that will last 46 hours:

• The first one is Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection, 79% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/jazz_jackrabbit_2_collection
• The second one is Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation + Chronicles, 86% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/tomb_raider_the_last_revelation_chronicles
• By the way, GOG's Winter Sale will start in two days, and there's already a page up for it: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_winter_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• Blood West will get a 30% discount until the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1587130/Blood_West/
• Contraband Police, that has a demo, gets a 25% discount until December, 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/756800/Contraband_Police/

Time to check the deals at Humble:

• At Humble Bundle there's the Valiant VR Encore, featuring 8 items (7 games + 1 coupon) during only 27 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/valiant-vr-encore
• Humble Store has three sales:
  • The VRcade Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 4 days. All the keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/vrcade-sale/
  • Raw Fury's Rawcember lands here with up to 90% discounts during 11 days. All the keys are for Steam, except for one that's also for EGS: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/rawcember-2023/
  • Daedalic puts its games on sale, up to 90% off, during 14 days. There are keys for Steam and direct downloads: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/daedalic-publisher-sale/

Fanatical has started its Winter Sale, but that's not all:

• Check here to find the deals for the Winter Sale: https://www.fanatical.com/en/on-sale
• The new Star Deal is Saints Row, 55% off during 48 hours. There are keys for Steam and EGS: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/saints-row
• And there are five new bundles:
  • The Jackbox Quintpack, 40% off during 10 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/the-jackbox-quintpack
  • NeuroVoider - Deluxe Edition, 72% off during 14 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/neurovoider-deluxe-edition
  • Rimworld with all expansions, with a 20% discount during ??? days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/rimworld-with-all-expansions
  • S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete Bundle, with an 81% discount during ??? days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/stalker-complete-bundle
  • And Batman: Arkham Collection, with an 88% deal during an unknown amount of time: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/batman-arkham-collection

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Cyberpunk 2077 Gets a 4K Texture Pack for Architectural Surfaces
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/cyberpunk-2077-gets-a-4k-texture-pack-for-architectural-surfaces/
XilaMonstrr recently launched a 4K Texture Pack for Cyberpunk 2077, designed to enhance the look of all architectural surfaces. The modder used AI tools to upscale the original textures. As such, the modded textures retain the game’s art style.
This 4K Texture Pack is 3GB in size and improves over 1000 textures. In short, it overhauls all of the game’s architectural surface textures.
>> The article has some screenshots.

This Fallout 4 Mod adds ragdoll physics & collision to dead bodies
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-fallout-4-mod-adds-ragdoll-physics-collision-to-dead-bodies/
Modder ‘WasteTheLand’ has released a cool mod for Fallout 4 that adds ragdoll physics and collision to dead bodies. Thanks to this mod, players will be able to interact with dead bodies. This mod also removes the idle animation when an NPC is dead.
For those unaware, the game adds by default an animation to the NPC when dead. This will send most NPC (models) far away into the sky. By removing the animation and replacing them with ragdoll physics, NPCs are no longer “flying away”. There are still some NPCs that behave weirdly. However, the game is now better than before.
By default, in the game, players can’t bump into or walk over dead bodies – they just sort of pass through them as if the bodies aren’t there. This mod changes that. With the mod, players will collide with the dead bodies, treating them like any other object in the game.
>> There's a slightly over 1 minute long video.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Mod makes your companions fully AI in combat
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/baldurs-gate-3-mod-makes-your-companions-fully-ai-in-combat/
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an amazing turn-based RPG that lets you control each and every member of your group. However, I’m certain that some of you would love to only control your main character and let the AI handle your companions in combat. And there is now a mod that allows for such a thing.
This mod, made by ‘oilnarak01’, turns your companions fully AI during battles. What’s awesome about this mod, unlike some others that tried to do the same thing, is that now all AI companions can use potions, cast spells for self-healing, and correctly use all their skills. As such, your combats will be better than before.
Now I know this mod is not for everyone. Die-hard Baldur’s Gate 3 fans will spit on it. For more casual gamers, though, this may be a must-have mod. After all, it will allow them to enjoy this amazing RPG.
>> There's an almost 3 minutes video of the mod.

New Zelda: Ocarina of Time Demo in Unreal Engine 5 released, featuring DLSS 3 Frame Generation
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/zelda-ocarina-of-time-demo-unreal-engine-5-dlss-3-frame-generation/
CryZENx just dropped a new demo for his The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake in Unreal Engine 5. In this fresh demo, the Lost Woods gets a cool makeover with some extra gameplay stuff. The artist also spruced up a bunch of things, adding new elements to different parts of the game.
Now what’s cool here is that CryZENx has also added support for DLSS 3 Super Resolution and DLSS 3 Frame Generation. As such, owners of all NVIDIA RTX GPUs can use DLSS 3 SR to improve overall performance. On the other hand, owners of an RTX 40 series GPU can use Frame Generation to hit higher framerates. This is a cool addition. Thanks to DLSS 3, you can now enjoy this fan remake at high framerates.
In this Zelda fan game, you can explore the environments and fight several enemies. You can also use your ocarina, break objects, collect items, and speak to NPCs. Not only that but this fan remake of this classic N64 Zelda game in Unreal Engine 5 also has some cut-scenes and an inventory system. In short, it’s more than your typical “remake a map from a popular game in UE5” projects.
>> The article has an over 20 minutes video of the project.

Creator behind hugely popular Skyrim co-op mod gives up on the Starfield version of it because, drum roll please, 'this game is f***ing trash'
https://www.pcgamer.com/creator-behind-hugely-popular-skyrim-co-op-mod-gives-up-on-the-starfield-version-of-it-because-drum-roll-please-this-game-is-fing-trash/
(...)
Skyrim is the most-modded game in history, with Nexus Mods hosting just shy of 130,000 mods across Skyrim and Skyrim: Special Edition. Given that Starfield was widely perceived to be "Skyrim in space", the expectation was that Starfield would see something similar, and indeed the game has already been the subject of over 6,000 mods. Whether it can sustain that mod-mentum is another matter, and a recent development in the Starfield modding community throws doubt on it.
One of the main creators behind Skyrim Together has announced, in pretty brutal language, that they've thrown in the towel on Starfield Together. (...)
"When the game released I was hyped, like a lot of people, but probably for different reasons," said Cosideci. "I spent launch day and a few days after reverse-engineering the game, and porting over gameplay hooks from Skyrim Together to a potential Starfield Together mod. I ported about 70% of Skyrim Together reversed code to Starfield Together.
"There was just one problem: this game is fucking trash."
Tell me what you really think. Cosideci adds "I didn't realize this until after I actually started playing the damn game a week after launch." He goes on to call it "boring," "bland", and says the big draw of Bethesda games is "exploration in a lively and handcrafted world" which is "completely gone" from Starfield.

Five years later, Doom megawad Eviternity just got a surprise sequel
https://www.pcgamer.com/five-years-later-doom-megawad-eviternity-just-got-a-surprise-sequel/
In honor of Doom's 30th birthday, a team of Doom modders led by Joshua "Dragonfly" O'Sullivan just released a sequel to six-episode Doom megawad Eviternity. Eviternity two likewise has six chapters, each made up of five maps with one secret map per chapter. That's a grand total of 36 maps you can download right now.
Eviternity 2 uses a newly updated version of the OTEX texture pack, which means it'll look sweet whether you play it in DSDA Doom or GZDoom. I've had a look at the first couple of maps, and there's some nice use of colored lights and rain already.
It's best to play through the original Eviternity first, since this is a sequel in terms of its difficulty as well as its story. In fact it begins by sending you backward through the final levels of Eviternity, which is a nice celebration of your victory. Looking back, Eviternity has some amusing similarities with Doom Eternal, being a quest through transcendent, heavenly locations to confront an angelic being. Though given that Doom Eternal was already in development when Eviternity released they're presumably coincidental, of course. Following the defeat of Hell with a war in Heaven is just the obvious cool thing to do.
>> The article has no screenshots nor videos.

GAMING NEWS

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – Original vs Remake Early Graphics Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/brothers-a-tale-of-two-sons-original-vs-remake-early-graphics-comparison/
A couple of days ago, 505 Games revealed the remake of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. This remake will be powered by Unreal Engine 5, and below you can find an early graphics comparison video between the original version and the remake.

Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3 vs DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO Early Graphics Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/dragon-ball-budokai-tenkaichi-3-vs-dragon-ball-sparking-zero-early-graphics-comparison/
A couple of days ago, Bandai Namco announced a new DB game, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO. And today, YouTuber ‘Loooru’ shared a video comparing it to Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3. The video shows how much better the new DB game looks. So, check it out to see the improvements.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Path Tracing vs Rasterized Graphics Comparison
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3-path-tracing-vs-rasterized-graphics-comparison/
A few days ago, Sledgehammer Games updated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on PC to include Path Tracing. So, here are some comparison screenshots. These screenshots can give you an idea of the visual improvements that Path Tracing brings to the table. They also highlight its huge performance hit.

Crimson Desert has been reportedly delayed until 2025
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/crimson-desert-has-been-reportedly-delayed-until-2025/
Crimson Desert is a game I’m really looking forward to. However, according to a new report from InsightKorea, this new single-player game has been delayed until 2025.

Watch John Romero and John Carmack talk about Wolfenstein, DOOM and Quake
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/watch-john-romero-and-john-carmack-talk-about-wolfenstein-doom-and-quake/
On December 10th, Doom hit its 30th anniversary. And, John Romero and John Carmack got together to talk about Wolfenstein, DOOM and Quake. This is a must-watch video for all old-school FPS fans out there.

Monday news, part two:

Diablo 4 will get a hotfix today to sort out a major issue: its hardest dungeon is too hard
https://www.pcgamer.com/diablo-4-will-get-a-hotfix-today-to-sort-out-a-major-issue-its-hardest-dungeon-is-too-hard/
Earlier this week, Blizzard released the equivalent of a torture rack for Diablo 4's most masochistic players—The Abattoir of Zir (try saying that ten times really fast). It's meant to be an endgame activity designed for the hardest of the hardcore, a task you're "not really supposed to finish." Unfortunately, it hit a couple of speed bumps on the way out.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is getting an offline mode after all, but not until sometime after it's out
https://www.pcgamer.com/suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-is-getting-an-offline-mode-after-all-but-not-until-sometime-after-its-out/
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is starting to look like maybe it might be better than it first appeared, but one big knock against it for me and an awful lot of others out there is its connectivity requirement: You have to be online to play, even if you want to play by yourself. If there's one thing we've learned from games like Payday 3, that can be a real headache when the servers can't keep up, or worse, go offline for good. And there's the simple principle of the thing too, which is what really chaps me. Why should I have to be online to play by myself?
Luckily, it appears that requirement will be going away sometime after launch. Following the release of the new Suicide Squad trailer at The Game Awards last night, a Rocksteady rep said on Discord that an offline mode is coming as a post-launch update.

The Finals is getting blasted on Steam for slowing the game down, except the developer says it didn't change speeds at all
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-finals-is-getting-blasted-on-steam-for-slowing-the-game-down-except-the-developer-says-it-didnt-change-speeds-at-all/
The Finals, the highly-destructible FPS from ex-Battlefield devs, surprise launched at The Game Awards last night. (...) The Finals is one of the most-played games on Steam right now, peaking at over 200,000 concurrent players on PC alone.
There is one hangup, though—a lot of people aren't happy that Embark slowed down player movement between open beta and launch. The pushback is strong enough that The Finals currently sits at "Mixed" on Steam with over 3,000 negative reviews, and a lot of them are about movement.
(...)
Except, Embark says it hasn't changed player speeds at all since open beta, and isn't quite sure why players think it has. They do have a few good guesses, though.

Dave the Diver is teaming up with our other favorite nautical adventure of 2023, Dredge, for a spooky free DLC
https://www.pcgamer.com/dave-the-diver-is-teaming-up-with-our-other-favorite-nautical-adventure-of-2023-dredge-for-a-spooky-free-dlc/
One of the smaller pleasant surprises at this year's Game Awards was the announcement of a free, Dredge-themed crossover DLC for Dave the Diver. The two fishing games will collide when the update launches on December 15.

There's a change buried in Baldur's Gate 3's latest patch that makes it easier than ever to recruit both of its mutually exclusive companions⁠—without breaking the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-a-change-buried-in-baldurs-gate-3s-latest-patch-that-makes-it-easier-than-ever-to-recruit-both-of-its-mutually-exclusive-companionswithout-breaking-the-game/
Deep in Baldur's Gate 3's mammoth patch notes for its fifth main update is a whammy of a line: "Minthara will still appear in Moonrise Towers if she was knocked out in Act 1." That's right⁠, it's now easier than ever to recruit Baldur's Gate 3's "evil" companion without committing to an evil playthrough. Spoilers for Act 1 below.

That game where you farm with your mech finally has a release date
https://www.pcgamer.com/that-game-where-you-farm-with-your-mech-finally-has-a-release-date/
Something like two and a half years after I first saw the concept and thought "that looks neat" we're finally gonna get it. We're finally gonna get a game where you use a mech to plow a field grow and plant some seeds and water them and then harvest a big weird alien fruit.

No Man's Sky will rerun all this year's time-limited events in December
https://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-will-rerun-all-this-years-time-limited-events-this-december/
If you skipped out on No Man's Sky this year then now's your chance to jump back in and see all the goodness they rolled out, as developers Hello Games are taking the holiday season to replay all the expedition events and offer up their rewards. There's even a return of a 2021 expedition, complete with limited-edition golden starship to claim.

Final Fantasy 16 on PC shows signs of life, with producer Yoshi-P saying it will run best on an SSD
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-16-on-pc-shows-signs-of-life-with-producer-yoshi-p-saying-it-will-run-best-on-an-ssd/
We finally got our first word on Final Fantasy 16's promised PC port since its initial announcement in September. Speaking with Famitsu (spotted via Genki_JPN on Twitter), FF16 developers Hiroshi Takai, Takeo Kujiraoka, and Naoki Yoshida (affectionately called Yoshi-P by fans) briefly touched on the PC version in a long interview about the game.

Superb survival city-builder Against the Storm is finally finished and released
https://www.pcgamer.com/superb-survival-city-builder-against-the-storm-is-finally-finished-and-released/
One of the best city building games of recent years, Against the Storm, has come out of early access and into proper release. The survival city-builder beautifully blends roguelite and city-building mechanics into a series of well-balanced, bite-size city building experiences. Developers Eremite Games released the 1.0 update on December 8, adding an ironman challenge mode to cap off the game's launch features.

People are exceptionally thirsty about this free game where you flirt with the grim reaper on text chat
https://www.pcgamer.com/people-are-exceptionally-thirsty-about-this-free-game-where-you-flirt-with-the-grim-reaper-on-text-chat/
What's up visual novel and romance fans, I've got a game here for you about flirting with death. But not like in a "dangerous motorcycle tricks" or "disaster tourism" way, instead in like a very literal way where the Grim Reaper shows up to claim your soul and intead you flirt with him. It's free, to boot.

Monday news, the third part:

Train people are dang pleased with this line operations sim because it's not too hardcore, nor too simple
https://www.pcgamer.com/train-people-are-dang-pleased-with-this-line-operations-sim-because-its-not-too-hardcore-nor-too-simple/
A new train game is picking up steam in the train game community, with Railroader picking up 97% positive reviews on Steam since its December 7 Early Access launch. A sim of both driving the trains as well as routing them, choosing cargo, and picking passengers, Railroader looks to appeal to both the sim crowd and the less-hardcore folks who enjoy games like Euro and American Truck Simulator—even roping in a few strategy and transport sim types who enjoy games like Transport Fever.

Here's one for people who like Vampire Survivors, bullet hell, and when games go all meta and screw with you
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-one-for-people-who-like-vampire-survivors-bullet-hell-and-when-games-go-all-meta-and-screw-with-you/
Wild and weird action roguelike Picayune Dreams released from Early Access recently, meaning it's definitely time to enjoy this thing if you're a fan of horde survival roguelikes, bullet hells, or games that get all meta and screwy. Populated by a cast of surrealist 3D renders that look like rejected 1990s clipart and backed up with a very serious drum and bass breakcore soundtrack, this is an indie that's decidedly, committedly into a specific aesthetic.

There's a Starfield bug that makes it crash more often if you don't start New Game+
https://www.pcgamer.com/theres-a-starfield-bug-that-makes-it-crash-more-often-if-you-dont-start-new-game/
Stop me if you've heard this one before. The longer you play this Bethesda RPG, the more unstable it becomes. Am I talking about Oblivion's reference bug, or Skyrim's PS3 lag bug? (That's our brand director Tim Clark there holding Bethesda's feet to the fire on the latter.) Nope, I'm talking about Starfield, where players who have racked up hundreds of hours—not that uncommon in a Bethesda RPG—are experiencing more crashes the longer they play.

WoW Classic's Season of Discovery revives the old-school tradition of random players ruining your day, stealing a vital item that costs five gold to access
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-classics-season-of-discovery-revives-the-old-school-tradition-of-random-players-ruining-your-day-stealing-a-vital-item-that-costs-five-gold-to-access/
One of the more interesting things about WoW Classic's Season of Discovery (SoD) is how it's recaptured that vanilla feeling of going on little adventures. This is done mainly through its runes system.
In case you're unfamiliar, every class in SoD has access to runes that give them important, build-defining abilities. For example, to get a Molten Blast that lets my shaman hold aggro as a tank, I had to team up with three other randoms to Flame Shock a lobster man out of a block of ice.
In other places, these runes have also recaptured the old-school feeling of getting absolutely screwed over by complete strangers.

Laptop Makers Place Bets on AI PC As The Next Big Thing, 11% Growth By 2024 & Almost 250 Million Shipments By 2025

https://wccftech.com/laptop-makers-place-bets-on-ai-pc-as-the-next-big-thing-11-growth-by-2024-almost-250-million-shipments-by-2025/

Here comes more bloatwear I'll likely never use

Sony PlayStation 5 Pro reportedly features AMD RDNA3 GPU with 60 Compute Units

https://videocardz.com/newz/sony-playstation-5-pro-reportedly-features-amd-rdna3-gpu-with-60-compute-units

So that would be a 7800XT essentially

Intel Core Ultra 9 185H specs confirmed: 5.1 GHz, 16 cores and 45W TDP

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-core-ultra-9-185h-specs-confirmed-5-1-ghz-16-cores-and-45w-tdp

The drama continues to be nuts. I really hope Valve removes the game and automatically refunds everyone because there is no future for this game only after 4 days of being released. Crazy turn of events.

The fact that the game actually launched after everything that happened was already surprising.

I wonder the clocks of that PS5 Pro GPU, because it can become a really toasty machine.

Well, with 2 WGP (4CU) disabled for yields and only 2Ghz clock speed, it's probably closer to the 7700XT. Though apparently it will also have the RT hardware from RDNA 4 included, so there's that.

What I find more surprising is that they'll stick with Zen 2 CPU cores, though now with a 4.4 Ghz top speed, and 16 GB RAM. That will limit the performance of the Pro quite a bit imo

I think it makes sense. The "Pro" consoles are mainly for higher visuals and resolution than anything else. With games like FFXVI having a render resolution of as low as 720p and a lot of newer games not fairing much better than 1080p, I think a boost in GPU is the right call assuming the price remains reasonable. There's only so much advancements one can do with a limited price target.