JEMC said: 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

Too bad The Universim didn't get much press, best God Game since Black & White easily, mixing Populous with Civ, some Sim City and some other city builder sims. And I just love the narrator since the Alpha 6 years ago.

It has managed to be one of the best launches of the month and has almost 7000 reviews. I'd say that it's doing fine even without the press attention.

Finally upgrading my PC for the first time in over 8 years. I've bought everything except for the GPU now, waiting on a good deal on a 4060 to upgrade that.

My specs once I get the GPU:

• Motherboard: Asus B550 Plus
• CPU: Ryzen 5 5500
• RAM: 16 GB DDR4 3200 with 16 CAS timings
• SSD: 1 TB PCIe 3.0
• Hard Drive: 1 TB 7200 RPM (reused from my current build, will be moving my Windows Install over to the SSD for faster start-up)
• GPU: RTX 4060

What could constitute a good deal for a 4060 for you? And would an RX 7600 or 6700XT also do the trick?

Well, the cheapest 4060 I see today is $285, which is on Newegg right now on the MSI Ventus White model with a $15 off promo code. It's tempting, but I'm hoping to see a 4060 going for $260 again like I did last month on Amazon, sadly I didn't have the money to buy it at time and it had already gone back up to $300 again before I could get the money. However, if I can't grab one for $260 in the next couple of months, I'll probably settle for $285 or so (the MSI Ventus one seems to hit that price fairly often). 

I would go for an AMD or even Intel card, which are currently cheaper for similar performance, but I'm reusing my old power supply which I don't actually know the maximum output on (the model number is not written on the side I can see from my removable panel, and the site I bought it from is now defunct so I can't look it up on there either), so the 4060 is my best option since it is currently the lowest power draw card with decent performance on the market, with just 115 watt TDP. I'm not sure if I have a beefy enough PSU to power any cards that I can get for cheaper than the 4060 such as a used 3060 (170 watt TDP), Radeon 7600 (165 watt TDP), Radeon 6650 XT (180 watt TDP), Arc a750 (225 watt TDP), or a used 2070 Super (215 watt TDP). The 4060 at 115 watts meanwhile barely uses more than my current overclocked GTX 950, so it should be safe to use on this PSU. And there were recent reports that both RDNA 4/Radeon 8000 series and Intel Arc Battlemage might get delayed to 2025, so I can't really wait on lower power draw cards from Intel or AMD to release.

Also Nvidia cards are the only ones that can use DLSS, which is the best of the 3 upscalers, usually offering better framerates and visual quality than FSR or XeSS (for instance it is the best at resolving aliasing artifacts).

That's a solid build you got yourself. Congratulations.

Yeah, it should meet my needs. Based on the benchmarks I've seen nearly every game on the market right now will run at 1080p, ultra, 60+ fps on it without even needing to use DLSS (even many with RT), only a few like Alan Wake 2 are more demanding and would require using DLSS or dropping below Ultra settings. So I figure that between DLSS and frame generation and eventually dropping below Ultra settings, I should be able to get at least 4 years out of it before I do my next build.

What I loved watching during the 7th gen was Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 gamers screaming at each other saying their game has better graphics... Like somehow 720P and lower and 30fps and lower was something to be proud of.

But it really took off with Crysis, it probably put the PC visually a generation ahead of the 7th gen consoles.

...But even when we go back to the early FPS years with Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena, PC gaming was seen as the "superior" platform with crisp visuals, silky smooth framerates and a responsive input method.

VGA was 640x480. SVGA is 800x600. Which is quite a difference from resolutions of consoles in those days (320x224 at best).

Then again, actual experience was not as numbers would indicate.

I didn't have monitor for Amiga 500, which was hooked to color TV via RF modulator. First time I saw TV Sports Basketball at friends (who had monitor) I was shocked at how bad Amiga looks on proper monitor. Same things few years later when I saw how bad Lost Vikings look on PC monitor, as opposed to smooth color transitions on TV via Amiga. Yes, it was more blurry and less defined, but CRT TVs had that unintentional "magic" to blur pixels for a sort of free antialiasing.

So, given the distance from monitor vs distance from TV, and crisper picture of CRT monitors vs CRT TVs, proper PC standard (that being SVGA with 24bit color) sort of had to have much higher resolution and more colors. Ultimately, yes it was better, but I'd say people tend to forget (and younger folks don't even know) how CRT TVs looked, and how console games from 3rd/4th gen actually looked on them.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Nier: Automata sells 8 million as Tencent cancels mobile game and Yoko Taro says you've already had the third one anyway
https://www.pcgamer.com/nier-automata-sells-8-million-as-tencent-cancels-mobile-game-and-yoko-taro-says-youve-already-had-the-third-one-anyway/
Nier: Automata is one of those games where the legend keeps growing, and deservedly so. The series began with a flawed 2010 RPG that seemed destined for obscurity, before publisher Square Enix made the wise decision to co-develop sequel Nier: Automata with action specialists PlatinumGames. What resulted remains unique in its looping structure, top-tier customisable combat, unforgettable vistas, and the immaculate vibes at the world's end.
Nier: Automata recently celebrated the seventh anniversary of its Japanese release, and Platinum used the occasion to announce a new sales milestone, and share a bunch of new art from the studio's staff:
"Released in Japan on 23 February 2017, NieR:Automata celebrates its 7th anniversary with the amazing news that it has sold a whopping 8 million copies across the globe!"

GOG has two new sales:

• The new Weekly Sale features up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240227_weekly_deals_3_february
• And there’s also a RPG Sale with the games up to 90% off during the same 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240228_rpg_sale

At Steam, and to celebrate the launch of its 1.0 update, The Witch of Fern Island will be 30% off until the 5th of March: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1550010/The_Witch_of_Fern_Island/.

Fanatical has launched the VIP Mystery Bundle, with 3 unknown games to get: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/vip-mystery-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Amazing Mod Brings to Starfield a Lot of Characters and Aliens From the Star Wars Universe
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/this-amazing-mod-brings-to-starfield-a-lot-of-characters-and-aliens-from-the-star-wars-universe/
Modder ‘radiclown’ has released a new amazing mod for Starfield that brings to it a lot of characters and aliens from the Star Wars universe. This is a must-have for all Star Wars fans out there. So, be sure to download it.
Going into more details, this mod adds several fully animated aliens from Star Wars to the various factions of Starfield. Moreover, it adds alien character presets, new hairs, tattoos, and skin tones. So, not only will you encounter Star Wars NPCs, but you can also make your own character look like Ahsoka or Darth Maul.
Do note that this mod may not be compatible with the Mandalorian Mod or the Galactic Civil War Conversion. So, if you use them, you might want to skip this one. Or you can try it and see if there are any conflicts between them.
>> The article has some screenshots.

Nintendo is suing the creators of the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/nintendo-is-suing-the-creators-of-the-nintendo-switch-emulator-yuzu/
Nintendo has sued the creators of the Yuzu emulator. According to the big “N”, the emulator breaks their game protection and helps with piracy. To be honest, this is quite laughable. But no, this isn’t an out-of-season April’s Fools joke. Nintendo has indeed taken legal action against them.
Nintendo seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator. And if the big “N” wins this case, this could be catastrophic for the console emulation scene.
>> It’s so surprising that there’s a thread about this, made by jvmkdg.

Behold Epic’s Classic FPS Unreal With RTX Remix Path Tracing, Running in 4K on NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4080
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/ureal-rtx-remix-path-tracing-4k-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4080/
Yesterday, we informed you about an RTX Remix Mod for the first Unreal Tournament game. And, from the looks of it, people have figured out a way to load maps from the first single-player Unreal game.
Do note that this is a WIP Mod, and it does not fully support the first Unreal. Not only that but there are numerous graphical glitches and visual issues. For example, the reflections on the gun are glitching like crazy. Still, this is something cool that may interest some of our old-school FPS fans.
To make this RTX Remix Mod work with the first Unreal game, you’ll have to manually load a map into the UT Engine. In other words, you won’t be able to drop this mod into your Unreal folder and play it. After all, the mod right now only supports Unreal Tournament 99.
>> The article has some screenshots and an almost 4 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance PC Requirements Revealed, Will Be Using Denuvo
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/shin-megami-tensei-v-vengeance-pc-requirements-revealed-will-be-using-denuvo/
SEGA has revealed the official PC system requirements for Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. In addition, the publisher revealed that the game will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.