Don't think I'm buying anything but got a cool dinosaur profile pic at least.

It's not really a conspiracy, it's a joke that Yahtzee started wat back in 2011, and since then the net has been running with that joke since.

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Tekken 8 has sold 2 million copies, but suffers from pluggers, cheaters and major gameplay bugs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tekken-8-has-sold-2-million-copies-but-suffers-from-pluggers-cheaters-and-major-gameplay-bugs/
Bandai Namco has announced that its latest fighting game, Tekken 8, has sold 2 million copies worldwide. Tekken 8 came out on January 26th, meaning that it took a month in order to hit this sales goal. And while this is great news for Bandai Namco, the game suffers from MAJOR issues.

Besides the Dinos vs Robots Fest, Steam has more opportunities for us, including new weeklong deals:

• The Age of Empires Sale puts the games up to 75% off until the 29th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/AgeOfEmpiresFranchiseSale
• PICO PARK gets a 30% discount until next Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1509960/PICO_PARK/
• Zero Hour, still in Early Access, will be 40% off until the 4th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1359090/Zero_Hour/
• The Midwinter in Middle-Earth Sale features up to 85% discounts until Monday, March 4th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/midwinterinmiddleearthsale
• With the Nacon Publisher Sale, you'll find its games up to 90% off until the 10th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/naconpublishersale2024
• And this is a glimpse of the weeklong deals:
  • The Early Access title Toy Tactics gets a 25% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1772530/Toy_Tactics/
  • Amnesia: The Bunker is 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944430/Amnesia_The_Bunker/
  • Homebody gets a 50% deal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1959350/Homebody/
  • Little Big Workshop has a 65% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/574720/Little_Big_Workshop/
  • Pilgrims is going to be 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049280/Pilgrims/
  • And the last one, Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, that has a demo, features a massive 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/801480/Agent_A_A_puzzle_in_disguise/

The Humble Store has the Nacon Publisher Sale, with up to 90% discounts during 12 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/nacon-publisher-sale/.

Fanatical has two deals:

• The new Star Deal is Steelrising, 71% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/steelrising
• And the BYO Trinity Bundle, Spring Edition, features 15 titles to choose from for your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-trinity-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 31.0.101.5333 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-31-0-101-5333

Highlights
GAMING HIGHLIGHTS:
Intel Game On Driver support on Intel Arc A-series Graphics and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs for:

• Last Epoch
• Sea of Thieves DirectX 12 Update

>> The article also shows the performance improvement of this driver versus the 31.0.101.5252 one is 16 games.

AMD Software Adrenalin 24.2.1 WHQL Released
https://www.techpowerup.com/319640/amd-software-adrenalin-24-2-1-whql-released
New Feature Highlights
New Game Support

• Skull and Bones
• Nightingale

Expanded Vulkan Extensions Support:

• *** 12 extensions that I won't post ***
• Click here for more information about other Vulkan extension support.

Fixed Issues

• Improvement to intermittent driver timeout or application crash experienced while playing HELLDIVERS 2 on AMD Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs. AMD is continuing to investigate additional reports of driver timeouts and application crashes while playing HELLDIVERS 2.
• Improvements to excessive stutter while playing various games, including Battlefield 2042, Destiny 2, Overwatch 2, Monster Hunter: World, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS and STAR WARS Battlefront II.
• Deathloop may experience extended loading times on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 6900 XT.
• Dead Space may experience an application crash after enabling RTAO on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 6800.
• Intermittent application crash when first launching Enshrouded or changing Anti-Aliasing settings on Radeon 7000 series graphics products.
• Shadows may appear bright, or reflections may be missing while playing Enshrouded on Radeon 7000 series graphics products.
• HDR settings may intermittently fail to take effect while playing certain games such as Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
• Intermittent driver timeout or application crash may be considered while playing Counterstrike 2 with FSR enabled on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
• Graphics API metric may be incorrectly reported as DirectX 12 for some Vulkan games.
• After a system reboot, Parsec host application may experience a crash on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
• During Microsoft Teams meetings, the camera may intermittently display looped footage on some AMD Products, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U Processor.
• Oculus Rift S may display with a green tint on AMD Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs.
• AFMF may be inaccurately displayed on select hybrid graphics configurations, particularly in systems where one of the devices lacks support for AFMF. AFMF must be supported on the displaying GPU to be activated.
• Mouse lag or stutter may be observed when selecting the discrete GPU as the primary display adapter on certain mobile systems, such as an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS Mobile Processor paired with an AMD Radeon RX 6800S Mobile GPU.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Unreal Tournament 99 RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod Released
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/unreal-tournament-99-rtx-remix-path-tracing-mod-released/
The time has come and so have I. Modder ‘James Horsley’ has just released an RTX Remix Mod for Unreal Tournament 99 that adds Path Tracing to this classic arena shooter. This is a dream come true for a lot of UT fans.
As the modder noted, this is a custom render device for the Unreal Engine, optimized for use with NVIDIA’s RTX Remix. It is built off of the D3D9Drv renderer and it is heavily modified to better support Remix. Right now, the mod only supports UT 99. In theory, though, it can be modded to also support the first Unreal game. Or at least I hope so.
You can download the mod from this link. Make sure to read its installation guide as you need to make some changes to the game’s configuration file. Below you can also find some screenshots. These screenshots can give you an idea of what you can expect from it.

Say farewell to Starfield's cockamamie distance measurements with a mod that replaces astronomical units with light years
https://www.pcgamer.com/say-farewell-to-starfields-cockamamie-distance-measurements-with-a-mod-that-replaces-astronomical-units-with-light-years/
Have you ever thought to yourself, boy, I sure do wish the Starfield HUD displayed interstellar distances in light years instead of astronomical units? If your answer to this question is "yes," then it might be time to take a break and go outside for a while. Or, instead, you could download this extremely purpose-specific Starfield mod called, quite simply, See Distances in Light Years.
"Does what it says on the tin," the mod description states. "Makes your ship's HUD display interstellar distances in light years (LY) instead of astronomical units (AU). Also increases the maximum light second (LS) value from 50,000 to 500,000. If anything is further than that, distance will start being measured at 0.02 LY."
Developer Deebz96 said they created the mod because they "found AU illegible for these sort of distances," and that the light year measure "is much easier to interpret at a glance, especially if you are used to other space games." I found that complaint a little odd at first: To my mind, space games are mostly just made-up nonsense anyway (even the "realistic" ones), so who cares if one incomprehensible unit of measurement is swapped with another?
But apparently I'm a bit like an American dealing with the metric system in that regard, as a quick trip around to Reddit reveals that this is in fact an aspect of the game some players genuinely don't care for. Some of that seems to be related to a general lack of familiarity with what an astronomical unit actually is (it's the distance from Earth to the sun, for the record), but there's also the fact that AU measurements can get really big when you're dealing with interstellar distances.
>> There is one meme'd screenshot.

GAMING NEWS

Sea Fantasy is a new pixel art open-world action RPG
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/sea-fantasy-is-a-new-pixel-art-open-world-action-rpg/
METASLA has announced a new pixel art open-world action RPG, called Sea Fantasy. This new 2D RPG will be released in February 2025, and below you can find its debut gameplay trailer.

Project: White Desert gets a pre-alpha gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/project-white-desert-gets-a-pre-alpha-gameplay-trailer/
PolyDream Studio has shared the first pre-alpha gameplay trailer for its upcoming FPS, Project: White Desert. This new first-person shooter aims to blend stealth, action, and puzzle-solving, and targets a 2026 release date.

Palworld Patch v0.1.5.0 Released & Detailed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/palworld-patch-v0-1-5-0-released-detailed/
Pocketpair just rolled out a new update for Palworld, its “Pokemon with guns” open-world survival crafting game. This latest update, Title Update 0.1.5.0, brings some cool features. Now, players can fully customize their keyboard keys. Yeah, believe it or not, this basic PC feature wasn’t present. It also adds a backup for your saved game on the world selection screen, so you won’t lose your progress. And hey, they fixed a problem where unnecessary data was piling up in your saved game.

Here are 37 minutes of gameplay from the Unreal Engine 5-powered multiplayer body-cam shooter, Bodycam
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/here-are-37-minutes-of-gameplay-from-the-unreal-engine-5-powered-multiplayer-body-cam-shooter-bodycam/
In January, we informed you about a new multiplayer body-cam shooter that will be powered by Unreal Engine 5, called Bodycam. In a way, Bodycam is Unrecord with multiplayer. And below, you can find a video showcasing 37 minutes of gameplay footage from it.

The news, the sequel:

Epic's thrown a giant bag of money at Lady Gaga to do the next Fortnite festival, but the main thing is she no longer spells it 'Fortnight'
https://www.pcgamer.com/epics-thrown-a-giant-bag-of-money-at-lady-gaga-to-do-the-next-fortnite-concert-but-the-main-thing-is-she-no-longer-spells-it-fortnight/
Pop megastar Lady Gaga is the next artist to collaborate with Fortnite, following in the footsteps of the likes of Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, and Eminem. Gaga will be the headliner for Fortnite festival season 2, which runs until April 22 and features a music-themed battle pass to go alongside its iconic figurehead, which features some surprisingly cool rewards including instruments and jam tracks.

The Dark Pictures Anthology developer Supermassive Games confirms layoffs are happening
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-dark-pictures-anthology-developer-supermassive-games-confirms-layoffs-are-happening/
Just a few weeks after the departure of its founders, Supermassive Games, the developer of Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology series, has confirmed that it is undergoing a "reorganization," and that layoffs will occur as a result.

Stardew Valley's long-awaited 1.6 update is coming to PC in March
https://www.pcgamer.com/stardew-valley-1-6-pc-release-date/
Back in January, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone promised that the long-awaited 1.6 update will "absolutely" be out sometime in 2024. And he wasn't kidding: Barone revealed today—the eighth anniversary of Stardew Valley's release, by the way—that the update will arrive on PC on March 19.

Elden Ring director says Shadow of the Erdtree will have a Sekiro-like leveling system so you can't just steamroll it
https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-director-says-shadow-of-the-erdtree-will-have-a-sekiro-like-leveling-system-so-you-cant-just-steamroll-it/
Max level Elden Ring characters won't be able to breeze through Shadow of the Erdtree when it arrives in June. The DLC will use a separate leveling system borrowed from Sekiro, according to director Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Narrative game studio Die Gute Fabrik has 'halted production' because it can't find funding for a new project
https://www.pcgamer.com/narrative-game-studio-die-gute-fabrik-has-halted-production-because-it-cant-find-funding-for-a-new-project/
Indie studio Die Gute Fabrik, developer of the award-winning "mutant soap opera" Mutazione and the narrative adventure Saltsea Chronicles, has "halted production" due to an inability to find funding for its next project.

Rainbow Six Siege's next operator brings back a classic Rainbow Six character nobody's heard from in 20 years
https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-deimos-gerald-morris/
When it comes to covering Rainbow Six Siege on the internet, there are two types of commenters: those with strong opinions about balancing decisions, and those who like to reminisce about classic Rainbow Six.
Despite never playing the original singleplayer Rainbow Six trilogy myself, through osmosis I've learned of the legendary exploits of John Clark, Ding Chavez, and Daniel Bogart—names left to gather dust in the Tom Clancy archives since Rainbow Six went to Vegas and became a 5v5 hero shooter.
Well break out your feather duster and alert your nearest CD-ROM appreciator, because Rainbow Six Siege's next season includes a nod to the original tactical shooter trilogy. Siege's newest attacker, the mysterious Deimos, has been unmasked as ex-Rainbow operative Gerald Morris. In Siege lore, Morris has been presumed dead since 2012. In real life, he hasn't been seen in over 20 years.

The makers of the excellent Half-Life remake Black Mesa are teasing something new
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-makers-of-the-excellent-half-life-remake-black-mesa-are-teasing-something-new/
Crowbar Collective, the team responsible for the really good remake of Half-Life called Black Mesa, appears to be teasing something new in the making. The studio dropped a very brief teaser on YouTube (via GamesRadar) over the weekend called "Incoming Signal" and invited fans to sign up for "future updates and beta tests."

Cities: Skylines 2 boss says lack of mod support is the 'biggest regret we have'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cities-skylines-2-boss-says-lack-of-mod-support-is-the-biggest-regret-we-have/
The biggest name in city builders has a few cracks in its foundation. When it launched late in 2023, it was pretty obvious that Cities: Skylines 2 would have benefited from some more time in development, and thanks to optimization issues and a lack of mod support, the city builder sequel currently has "Mixed" reviews on Steam—with recent reviews dipping into "Mostly Negative" territory. Ouch.
(...)
Today on the Paradox Forums, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen reiterated the studio's commitment to addressing community requests for improvements, while simultaneously pointing out fixes and changes can't happen overnight.
"We’d much rather be in a different position than we are in at the moment, but we cannot change the past," Hallikainen wrote. "We’re working very hard to catch up on the missing modding support, missing platforms, the content for the Ultimate Edition, and improving the performance and fixing bugs this year. The team is divided to work on different tasks so that we’re seeing progress on all fronts and while it might not feel that it’s fast enough I can assure you we are all doing the best we can."

According to experts on kernel level anticheat, two things are abundantly clear: 1) It's not perfect and 2) It's not going anywhere
https://www.pcgamer.com/according-to-experts-on-kernel-level-anticheat-two-things-are-abundantly-clear-1-its-not-perfect-and-2-its-not-going-anywhere/
Like Denuvo DRM or shader compilation stutter, "kernel level anticheat" is one of the most high profile issues dogging PC gaming in recent years. The default position of most gamers is that it's a crutch used by "lazy devs", it ruins performance, and could even compromise security. However, after reading games marketing veteran Ryan K. Rigney's Push to Talk report, in which he interviews multiple professional anticheat experts, it's clear that the tech's here to stay regardless.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake's final scene gets a script change 2 days before its sequel drops, and it's going down about as well as you'd expect
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-7-remakes-final-scene-gets-a-script-change-2-days-before-its-sequel-drops-and-its-going-down-about-as-well-as-youd-expect/
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth doesn't have a set-in-stone PC port date yet, but it's still coming to the PS5 in a couple of days. In the run-up, the Remake's received a new patch. While the official singular note is just "fixes to several bugs", Square Enix has actually snuck in a change to the english localisation that has fans up-in-arms. Spoilers for the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, in case that wasn't clear.

Sony planning to lay off 900 employees, CEO calls the decision 'inevitable' and says 'several PlayStation Studios are affected'
https://www.pcgamer.com/sony-planning-to-lay-off-900-employees-ceo-calls-the-decision-inevitable-and-says-several-playstation-studios-are-affected/
In what continues to be a very gruesome, tiring, and upsetting trend, Sony has announced that it will be laying off approximately 900 employees, which is around 8% of its workforce, in an attempt to "reduce [its] overall headcount globally". It marks the second-largest layoff in the industry this year.

Skyrim finally truly beaten as fanatical player does 'everything that can be done' in the game, nabbing every item and perk in quest to hit level 1,337
https://www.pcgamer.com/skyrim-finally-truly-beaten-as-fanatical-player-does-everything-that-can-be-done-in-the-game-nabbing-every-item-and-perk-in-quest-to-hit-level-1337/
I don't know whether to describe this as an act of herculean heroism or sisyphean torment, but someone has beaten Skyrim. No, really beaten it. Wrung every last drop of adventure out of it in a trial that left them with every spell, item, and perk in the game at level—wait for it—1,337, entirely without mods or cheats. Why? My friends, why climb the highest mountain? Why fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? Not because they are easy, but because you can brag about it online.

I'd say even before the PS1, when the first SVGA games arrived (640x400 or 640x480 resolution, quadruple of the VGA resolution) and the co-processor of the 80386 was used.

Links 386 Pro (1992):

Microsoft Flight Simulator 5 (1993):

Also Larry 6 SVGA (1993)

While these games did have better graphics, they were also in genres that were not prominent on consoles at the time. It was pretty well established at the time that PC was king when it came to adventures, FPS, (non-J-)RPG and simulations, and those were also the genres where those graphics were mostly found. In other words, there was little to no direct competition yet at the time

kernel level anticheat shouldn't exist it's effectively high end malware/spyware with access to stuff it has no right to and it wouldn't surprise me if before long someone like the EU step in because of how much it breaches a users privacy to shut it down and do us all a favour.

The whole concept is funny to me because I've always seen it as a backhanded compliment that some didn't understand and took it not only seriously, but with pride.

Yep, same for me. Two profiles and a chat sticker.

Denuvo and other similar software should be eliminated. We've seen countless times how legal users are the ones suffering it instead of those who pirate the games.

On the other hand, and tis comes from someone that doesn't touch multiplayer, I think that unless someone finds a better way to deal with cheaters, and sometimes worse, I can't see what else can devs do about it. And with no alternative, I don't know what the EU could do about it.

Only a handfull of "hardware" news today:

FurMark 2 released, cross-platform GPU power and thermal tool leaves beta
https://videocardz.com/newz/furmark-2-released-cross-platform-gpu-power-and-thermal-tool-leaves-beta
FurMark 2 has officially launched and is moving out of its beta phase. This widely used graphics card tool has a long history, tracing back to 2007 with its first major release. The development of version 2.0 commenced in late 2022 and has remained in beta until now.

MSI announces all AMD 600 and most Intel 600/700 motherboards now support DDR5 64GB modules, up to 256GB capacity
https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-announces-all-amd-600-and-most-intel-600-700-motherboards-now-support-ddr5-64gb-modules-up-to-256gb-capacity
(...)
MSI has officially stated that they have completed the implementation of DDR5 64GB memory support across all AMD AM5-based motherboards (the 600-series). In contrast, updates for Intel 600 and 700 series motherboards are slated to continue rolling out through February and March.

GPU Market Sees 6% Increase In Shipments With Notebook Segment Taking The Charge, NVIDIA & AMD Flat But Intel Gains
https://wccftech.com/gpu-market-6-percent-shipment-increase-notebooks-nvidia-amd-flat-intel-gains/
The PC GPU market has witnessed another positive quarter with shipments increasing by 6% in Q4 2023 to 76.2 million units, reports Jon Peddie Research.

Tecno’s Pocket Go Is A Handheld AR Gaming Device Powered By The AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS APU
https://wccftech.com/tecno-pocket-go-handheld-ar-gaming-device-powered-by-amd-ryzen-7-8840hs-apu/
AMD's Ryzen 7 8840HS APU is finding a home in more unique gaming handheld devices such as the Pocket Go AR from Tecno Mobile.

Want to know the best January releases at Steam? Here they are:

JANUARY

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy link	Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator link	BlazBlue Entropy Effect link
Dominions 6 - Rise of the Pantokrator link	Enshrouded (Early Access) link	Granblue Fantasy: Relink link
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth link	Momodora: Moonlit Farewell link	Murders on the Yangtze River link
New Cycle (Early Access) link	Palworld (Early Access) link	Summoners War link
TEKKEN 8 link	The Last Flame (Early Access) link	The Universim link
War Hospital link	Three Kingdoms Zhao Yun link	UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes link
	Winter Memories link