The PS5 Pro article is a great reminder to why Flops mean nothing when it comes to gaming. Almost three times the figure of the regular PS5 GPU yet even Sony only expects a 45% increase in performance.

We'll see if even that figure is correct and what how much that premium will cost.

It would be awesome if reviewers re-reviewed the 13 and 14th gen processors to see how much those changes will impact their performance and, when it comes to reviewing the new CPUs, do default reviews with a mobo set to Intel's default settings, plus another review with whatever crap Asus and Co do, to show us the whole picture.

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the top 100)

GOG has four new sales:

• The Anshar Publisher Sale features up to 60% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240423_anshar_publisher_sale
• The Sekai Project Publisher Sale is live with up to 85% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240507_sekai_publisher_sale
• A new Weekly Sale has launched and has games up to 90% off: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240507_weekly_deals_2_may
• And the Craft Away Sale puts those kinds of games up to 90% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240507_craft_away_sale

Steam has several deals, including new weeklong deals:

• Car Mechanic Simulator 2021, that has a demo, will be 52% off until the 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1190000/Car_Mechanic_Simulator_2021/
• The Polish Constitution Days 2024 features upt o 90% discounts until May the 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Acram/sale/polishconstitutiondays2024
• Publisher Sekai Project also puts its games on sale here, up to 90% off until the 13th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/sekaipublishersale24
• Root features a 60% discount until the 20th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/965580/Root/
• And here’s a small sample of the weeklong deals:
  • Kukoro: Stream chat games is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1166990/Kukoro_Stream_chat_games/
  • INVERSUS Deluxe, that has a demo, has a 40% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/432980/INVERSUS_Deluxe/
  • Unspottable, that also has a demo, is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1243960/Unspottable/
  • Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe features a 65% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/452570/Battle_Chef_Brigade_Deluxe/
  • 9 Monkeys of Shaolin is going to be 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/739080/9_Monkeys_of_Shaolin/
  • The last one is The Guest, also with a demo and a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/402040/The_Guest/

Fanatical has new Flash Deals and a bundle:

• These are the new 24h Flash Deals:
  • DREDGE is 42% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/dredge
  • Luck be a Landlord gets a 57% deal: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/luck-be-a-landlord
  • And the last one is IXION, with a 66% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/ixion
• And the Mystery Mayhem Bundle has launched with up to 20 unknown games to get: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/mystery-mayhem-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Here’s another look at Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with RTX Remix Path Tracing
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/heres-another-look-at-grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-with-rtx-remix-path-tracing/
Now here are some controversial screenshots. A new set of screenshots were shared on the RTX Remix Discord server, and they showcase the latest version of an RTX Remix Mod for GTA: San Andreas.
Now the good news here is that, although the mod is still a WIP project, GTA: San Andreas looks amazing with Full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing. The bad news is that the game appears to have lost its colorgraded lighting.
I’m certain that some die-hard San Andreas fans will be displeased by the new lighting. Tech-wise, this new lighting looks incredible. So, I’m curious to see whether the modders will be able to somehow add some color grading effects to it.

The Witcher 3 REDkit Modding Tools Will Be Officially Released on May 21st
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-3-redkit-modding-tools-will-be-officially-released-on-may-21st/
CD Projekt RED has just revealed that the official REDkit Modding Tools for The Witcher 3 will be released on May 21st. The Witcher 3 REDkit is an extensive mod editor based on the game’s engine, that will be made available for free to everyone.

GAMING NEWS

Remedy has canceled its co-op multiplayer game, Project Kestrel
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/remedy-has-canceled-its-co-op-multiplayer-game-project-kestrel/
Remedy Entertainment and Tencent have just announced the cancelation of their game project that was codenamed Kestrel. Project Kestrel had a small team working on the early concept stage of a premium cooperative multiplayer game.

10 minutes of new leaked gameplay footage from Marvel’s Wolverine
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/10-minutes-of-new-leaked-gameplay-footage-from-marvels-wolverine/
It appears that a new video hit the Internet earlier today, showcasing ten minutes of new leaked gameplay footage from Marvel’s Wolverine. This video shows Wolverine escaping the Weapon X Facility.

Microsoft has closed the studios behind Redfall and The Evil Within/Ghostwire: Tokyo
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/microsoft-has-closed-the-studios-behind-redfall-and-the-evil-within-ghostwire-tokyo/
Microsoft has just announced that it’s shutting down two game development studios: Arkane Austin, responsible for Redfall, and Tango Gameworks, known for The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo. These studios were previously owned by Bethesda. The decision to close them comes shortly after Microsoft acquired Bethesda a few months ago.
>> I think he has confused Bethesda with Activision. Not that it changes the outcome, tho. Shikamo has made a thread about it.

The second, and surprisingly short, part of the Tuesday news:

Dota 2's Pudge becomes the MOBA's first character to be played in over a billion matches
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/dota-2s-pudge-becomes-the-mobas-first-character-to-be-played-in-over-a-billion-matches/
Dota 2's Pudge has become the first character in the MOBA's history to be played in more than a billion matches, making the portly butcher the game's most popular character by about 300 million matches.

It sure looks like The Talos Principle 2 is about to get an expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/it-sure-looks-like-the-talos-principle-2-is-about-to-get-an-expansion/
Events are growing mysterious around The Talos Principle 2. More mysterious than usual, anyway, as it is a game with enigmas at its heart. A flurry of cryptic activity on various social media channels related to the game suggests some sort of major announcement, possibly for an expansion, is in the works.

Hades 2's surprise early access release already has more stuff in it than the first game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/hades-2s-surprise-early-access-release-already-has-more-stuff-in-it-than-the-first-game/
Hades 2 is finally out in early access on Steam and the Epic Games Store and its developer, Supergiant Games, says it's already more substantial than the first game.

'Operation Clean-up' begins for Helldivers 2 players as Sony's PSN plans lie in rubble, with over 70,000 (and counting) positive reviews landing on Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/operation-clean-up-begins-for-helldivers-2-players-as-sonys-psn-plans-lie-in-rubble-with-over-70000-and-counting-positive-reviews-landing-on-steam/
Helldivers 2 players completed what I can only describe as their first real-life Major Order over the weekend. (...)
However at the time of writing, its "Overall" review score is now Mostly Positive, while its "Overwhelming Negative" recent review score has climbed back up to "Mixed". That's because of an initiative the community's calling "Operation Clean-up"—with over 70,000 of divers flipping their negative reviews back to positive so far.
>> And one of Arrowhead’s community managers was almost fired for encouraging the refunds and review bombing.

CPU Market Witnesses 33% Growth In Q1 2024, Intel & AMD Down On Both Client & Server Side But Market Stabilizing

https://wccftech.com/cpu-market-witnesses-33-growth-in-q1-2024-intel-amd-down-on-both-client-server-side-but-market-stabilizing/

AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 “Strix Point” APU has been listed by ASUS

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-ai-9-hx-170-strix-point-apu-has-been-listed-by-asus

These CPU names lol. I remember the days when CPU names were easy to understand...

Nintendo to unveil successor to Switch before April 2025

https://videocardz.com/newz/nintendo-to-unveil-successor-to-switch-before-april-2025

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 reportedly launches before RTX 5090

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5080-reportedly-launches-before-rtx-5090

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 with 12-core AMD “Strix Point” APU listed by retailer at $3700

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-rog-zephyrus-g16-with-12-core-amd-strix-point-apu-listed-by-retailer-at-3700

The games for Humble Choice May have been revealed.

• Amanda the Adventurer
• Bravery and Greed
• Hi-Fi RUSH
• King Of The Castle
• Loddlenaut
• Mediterranea Inferno
• Steelrising
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Thanks, Rhonin.

We'll see how the new AMD naming goes, if it's real (Lenovo's marketing differs), but it's an opportunity to make it more understandable than what they had before. At least with the "170" part of it, there's room for a higher end 16-core part, if it launches.

And we'll see how's right, Kopite or MLID. The later has had some success as of late, but Kopite seems to know more about Nvidia than anyone else, so I'd go with him.

Awesome news! I played the heck out of the main game!

I personally dont mind PSN linking but they should have made it optional.

Would have been nice if PC versions of games had their own trophies and it gets counted towards your overall trophy count.

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Hades 2 hits 100K concurrent Steam players, crushing the original's record a day after its early access launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/hades-2-hits-100k-concurrent-steam-players-crushing-the-originals-record-days-after-its-early-access-launch/
After a surprise early access release yesterday, Hades 2 has already hit over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, tripling the first game's record on the platform.
Hades 2 hit 103,567 concurrent players earlier today and is hovering around 100,000, according to SteamDB. Hades 1 only reached 37,749 concurrents in 2020, a few days after its full launch on Steam.

GOG has five new Deals of the Day and a new sale:

• These are the DotD, that will last 46 more hours:
  • Geneforge 2 – Infestation is 10% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/geneforge_2_infestation
  • Trepang2 gets a 33% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/trepang2
  • Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Complete Edition is 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/kane_lynch_2_dog_days
  • Legend of Grimrock is also 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/legend_of_grimrock
  • The last one is Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, with a 82% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/tomb_raider_the_angel_of_darkness
• The Mystery & Romance Sale brings up to 90% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240508_mystery_romance_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• Thief Simulator 2 will be 23% off until the 10th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1332720/Thief_Simulator_2/
• Day of Dragons, still in Early Access, will feature a 44% discount until May 14: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1088090/Day_of_Dragons/

Fanatical has three new 24h Flash Deals:

• King Arthur: Knight's Tale is 64% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/king-arthur-knights-tale
• Afterimage gets a 73% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/afterimage
• DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT Legendary Edition also has a 73% deal: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/dragon-ball-z-kakarot-legendary-edition

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Still nothing-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Black Mesa: Military lets you experience the events of Half-Life from the perspective of a Hazardous Environments Combat Unit Marine
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/black-mesa-military-lets-you-experience-the-events-of-half-life-from-the-perspective-of-a-hazardous-environments-combat-unit-marine/
The Black Mesa: Military Development Group just dropped a new mod for Black Mesa called Black Mesa: Military. In this mod, you get to play as Steven Mills, a marine from the Hazardous Environments Combat Unit, and experience the events of Half-Life from his point of view.
In this game, you and your squad have to secure the Black Mesa Research Facility and eliminate any hostile forces. You’ll see the whole disaster from the villains’ side and even come face-to-face with Gordon Freeman himself.
In a way, this project is similar to Half-Life: Opposing Force. Opposing Force portrayed the events of Half-Life from the perspective of a U.S. Marine, one of the enemy characters in the original game. Of course, you don’t control the same marine. Still, both the mod and Opposing Force share the same concept.
The latest 2024 version of the mod includes all the chapters you could play before, but the modders have made them even better. They remastered and made them bigger. Plus, there are now fully captioned scenes. And guess what? There’s a brand-new soundtrack, a new voice actor, and new choreographed sequences for the Marines.
>> There’s a 2 minutes video of the mod.

My new favorite Elden Ring mod replaces Torrent, goats, deer, and boars with capybaras
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/my-new-favorite-elden-ring-mod-replaces-torrent-goats-deer-and-boars-with-capybaras/
If you're anything like me, you're eager for it to be June 21 already, when Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree drops. FromSoftware's largest expansion to date, it promises a slew of new horrific enemies to battle, creepy lands to explore, and weapons to collect. In the meantime, however, we can cruise around the Lands Between in style as we collect all the runes, smithing stones, and talismans our hearts desire on a brand new mount.
A giant capybara.
Delamain's "Capybara Island" mod, available here on Nexus Mods, turns our beloved Torrent into a gigantic fluffy capybara. Apparently it also changes all goats, deer, and wild boars as well, which begs the question of whether or not our intrepid mod author took the time to animate the capybaras rolling around like maniacs. Why do the goats in Elden Ring roll around like that, anyway? Someone ping the lore guys, we've got big questions here.
>> The article only has one screenshot.

GAMING NEWS

The next Battlefield is described as a “tremendous live service” game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-next-battlefield-is-described-as-a-tremendous-live-service-game/
Electronic Arts held today its Q4 2024 Earnings Call. In that call, its CEO, Andrew Wilson, said that the next Battlefield game will be a “tremendous live service” title.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Still, this is something that may disappoint a lot of BF fans. But hey, both COD and BF will do their best to offer a GaaS model so that they can keep pushing multiple Seasons.

The news, the sequel:

Bungie continues recent streak of Ws by making most Destiny 2 expansions free to everyone
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/bungie-continues-recent-streak-of-ws-by-making-most-destiny-2-expansions-free-to-everyone/
It's a long-running adage among Destiny fans that Bungie does its best work when its back is against the wall. (...)
The new Onslaught horde mode, and its Brave weapon loot, has brought grinders back in droves. The Pantheon boss rush event is also proving popular, with raid virgins popping their cherries and hardcore teams targeting the hardest version for bragging rights. Hell, we even got new PvP maps this week!
All those additions were aimed squarely at keeping the existing player base occupied in the run up to the release of The Final Shape, which closes out the 10-year-long story arc Destiny is on, on June 3. Today, Bungie revealed how it's going to tempt back long-lapsed and completely new players to the Saga: By making all but one of the current expansions free from now until The Final Shape launches. 
>> Not only that, but you can earn four daily deepsight weapons.

Making good, profitable games 'will no longer keep you safe': industry expresses fury and heartbreak over closure of Hi-Fi Rush and Prey studios
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/making-good-profitable-games-will-no-longer-keep-you-safe-games-industry-expresses-fury-and-heartbreak-over-closure-of-hi-fi-rush-and-prey-studios/
After laying off thousands of employees over the past couple years, games industry executives appear to be adopting a more efficient method of what they euphemistically call "reprioritization": closing entire studios. Take-Two axed two studios just last week, and now Microsoft has bulldozed four more, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, which it acquired when it bought Bethesda in 2021.
The dissolution of these talented, well-respected teams has reinforced the feeling among gamers and developers that nothing is good enough to earn security under big publishers today. In one popular tweet, indie developer Maisie Ó Dorchaidhe listed 11 things "that will no longer keep you safe in this industry," including "a good game," "a profitable game," and "long hours and sacrifice."

Manor Lords' upcoming patch plans involve fine-tuning archers and fixing one problem that robbed my town
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/manor-lords-upcoming-patch-plans-involve-fine-tuning-archers-and-fixing-one-problem-that-robbed-my-town/
We've got some concrete plans for the first Manor Lords patch, and it looks like it could fix some unpopular problems in the new early-access city builder, including one that has bankrupted my town.

Final Fantasy 14 suffers from global round of DDoS attacks, Square Enix 'investigating the attack and taking countermeasures'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/final-fantasy-14-suffers-from-global-round-of-ddos-attacks-square-enix-investigating-the-attack-and-taking-countermeasures/
Final Fantasy 14 has been undergoing a series of DDoS attacks over the last few days, causing players to lag, be logged out at random, and even leaving some data centers inaccessible for hours.  The attacks started on Monday, May 6, which was when the majority of problems were occurring for players. While North American and European servers appear to have bore the brunt of the issues, Japanese and Oceania servers were also impacted. The initial round of attacks lasted over 24 hours, from around 1pm GMT on Monday to 2:30pm GMT on Tuesday.  Unfortunately for fishers, gardeners, and raiders, things aren't over yet. A second wave hit the game yesterday, around 11pm GMT. That one is still ongoing, this time primarily affecting European, North American and Oceanic data centers. In a post on the Lodestone, Square Enix said it is "investigating the attack and taking countermeasures," adding that "additional information will be provided as the situation develops."

Activision Blizzard set to cough up $23.4M after losing a 9-year-long patent infringement battle, but claims 'We have never used the patented technologies at issue in our games'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/activision-blizzard-set-to-cough-up-dollar234m-after-losing-a-9-year-long-patent-infringement-battle-but-claims-we-have-never-used-the-patented-technologies-at-issue-in-our-games/
It's a bad time to be Activision Blizzard. The publisher is set to fork out $23.4 million to tech incubator Acceleration Bay after a jury ruled that it infringed on two of the company's patents. 
According to Reuters, the patents are related to the "simultaneous sharing of information" used in multiplayer aspects of Activision Blizzard's games. Acceleration Bay originally filed the infringement complaint back in 2015, before being dismissed and refiled a year later.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is 100% shaping up to be medieval Persona and I cannot wait
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/metaphor-refantazio-is-100-shaping-up-to-be-medieval-persona-and-i-cannot-wait/
With Metaphor: ReFantazio just five months away, there's been surprisingly little information for us to glean about Atlus' medieval fantasy RPG. Thankfully, the developer has released in-depth info on some mechanics and dungeons we can expect in the game, and it really is looking to be modern Persona with an aesthetically archaic flair.

Redfall's devs were reportedly building out its massively delayed Hero Pass content 'very recently'—before Microsoft closed Arkane Austin for good
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/redfalls-devs-were-reportedly-building-out-its-massively-delayed-hero-pass-content-very-recentlybefore-microsoft-closed-arkane-austin-for-good/
In case you missed the news, yesterday Microsoft's Xbox division announced the closure of four studios—which included Arkane Austin (Prey, Dishonoured) as well as Tango Gameworks (Tokyo: Ghostwire, Hi-Fi Rush).
(...)
Despite that, it seemed there was a serious effort to try and make Redfall an underdog revival. Updates would follow, and while Redfall was a long way off from a Cyberpunk 2.0 style 'redemption', stranger things have happened. According to IGN's Wesley Yin-Poole, the dream itself didn't die until the shutdown announcements yesterday.

Helldivers 2 patch sneaks out the revelation that when we killed 2 billion bugs in a day, that was actually a bug
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-patch-sneaks-out-the-revelation-that-when-we-killed-2-billion-bugs-in-a-day-that-was-actually-a-bug/
A new day for democracy, a new Helldivers 2 patch. Though this one is perhaps arriving to a more muted reception than usual, as both Arrowhead Game Studios and the game's players lick their wounds following last week's big controversy over Sony account linkage. (...)
Remember how the Helldivers collectively annihilated two billion bugs in less than 24 hours? What a great day for democracy though, even at the time, some wondered if game master Joel had put his thumb on the scale to help out with this major order. Turns out that, appropriately enough, there was a bug in the system:
"Major orders with the 'Kill task' now track score correctly. Previously it counted the entire squad’s kills once for each player, meaning it would multiply the score by the number of people on the mission; this is now amended."

Helldivers 2 players' new battle: A petition for the reinstatement and 'canonization' of community manager fired for supporting review bombing and refunds
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-players-new-battle-a-petition-for-the-reinstatement-and-canonization-of-community-manager-fired-for-supporting-review-bombing-and-refunds/
Fresh off their campaigns against a Sony-imposed PSN sign-in requirement, Helldivers 2 fans are diving into a new battle. This one's with Arrowhead itself, and it comes in the form of a player petition to get the studio to reinstate its recently fired community manager (CM), Spitz (via RPS).
()
Originally, Spitz told the community after the rage had died down that their actions had "Almost. Not quite" gotten them fired. Not much later, Spitz returned to update fans with the news that they had, in fact, been let go from their CM position: "Every war comes with casualties," said Spitz.