Let’s go with the Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Epic Store gives away two games this week:

• Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/idle-champions-of-the-forgotten-realms
• Redout 2: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/redout-2

And next week, they’ll give away LEGO® Builder's Journey.

GOG is bringing back The Elder Scrolls Bundle until June, 20th, and it comes with a 73% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/news/release_the_elder_scrolls_bundle.

Steam has three new deals:

• UBOAT, still in Early Access, is going to be 65% off until June 22: https://store.steampowered.com/app/494840/UBOAT/
• A Castle Full of Cats gets a 50% discount until the 26th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2070550/A_Castle_Full_of_Cats/
• And the Cat Quest franchise is on sale, up to 78% off until the 26th of June: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/kepler/sale/catquestfranchise2024

If you have young children, or other equaly young relatives, Humble Bundle has you covered with the new Outright Games: Outfits, Adventure & Best Friends Forever Bundle, featuring up to 9 games to get during the next 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/outright-games-outfits-adventures-best-friends-forever.

And Fanatical has two more deals of their own:

• The new Star Deal is Paleo Pines, 50% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/paleo-pines
• And the Capcom Monster Hunter Bundle, with 2 games and 6 DLCs with an 85% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/capcom-monster-hunter-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Valve is being sued in the UK for $843 million for 'overcharging 14 million PC gamers and abusing its dominant position' with Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valve-is-being-sued-in-the-uk-for-dollar843-million-for-overcharging-14-million-pc-gamers-and-abusing-its-dominant-position-with-steam/
Valve is being sued in the UK for £656 million ($843 million) over claims that it uses Steam's dominance in the PC gaming marketplace to shut out competition and overcharge for games.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of children's digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt by law firm Milberg London (via the BBC), accuses Valve of "overcharging 14 million PC gamers and abusing its dominant position in the UK."
(...)
The lawsuit turns on three key points: That Valve imposes price parity obligation clauses on developers, preventing them from offering lower prices on other platforms; that all add-on content for games purchased on Steam must also be purchased through Steam, a practice known as tying; and that the cut it takes on all sales through Steam—the aforementioned "excessive commission"—has resulted in excessive pricing on games.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Fallout New Vegas Mod Adds Physically-Based Vehicles
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-fallout-new-vegas-mod-adds-physically-based-vehicles/
Modder ‘Balebandr0’ has released a cool new mod for Fallout: New Vegas. This mod adds new, realistic vehicles to the game, replacing the old ones with high-quality models. These new vehicles use materials that look and feel more realistic. So, let’s take a look at what this mod has to offer.
As said, the mod brings in new vehicle models with realistic materials. These vehicles come with LOD models, destroyed versions, DLC support, and TTW. The mod also adds a drivable Highwayman car. Not only that but it can also improve the desert landscapes.
In theory, this mod will work wonderfully with the upcoming RTX Remix Mod. RTX Remix adds full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing effects, and it requires physically-based materials for best results. So, by using this mod alongside RTX Remix, you’ll be able to get an amazing image quality. Again, in theory. From what we know, the RTX Remix Mod for Fallout: New Vegas is still in WIP. In March 2024, we shared a video from it. So, be sure to check it out.
>> The article has some comparison screenshots.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Just Got an AMD FSR 3.0 Frame Generation Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/assassins-creed-valhalla-just-got-an-amd-fsr-3-0-frame-generation-mod/
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla fans, we have some good and some bad news for you today. The good news is that a new AMD FSR 3.0 Frame Generation Mod was released for this AC game. The bad news is that it’s a paid mod.
Created by modder PureDark, this mod adds support for both AMD FSR 3.0 Super Resolution and FSR 3.0 Frame Generation. This mod supports all GPUs, meaning that owners of AMD and Intel GPUs can use it to increase their performance.
>> There’s a 5 minutes mod that, for some reason, it’s taken on a ROG Ally.

GAMING NEWS

Visions of Mana is coming to PC on August 29th, and it will have Denuvo
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/visions-of-mana-is-coming-to-pc-on-august-29th/
Square Enix has announced that Visions of Mana will be released on PC on August 29th. To celebrate this announcement, the publisher has also shared a new trailer that you can find below.

Lego Horizon Adventures is powered by Unreal Engine 5 and it will support Ray Tracing
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/lego-horizon-adventures-is-powered-by-unreal-engine-5-and-it-will-have-ray-tracing/
James Windeler, the narrative director at Guerrilla Games, has revealed that LEGO Horizon Adventures will use Unreal Engine 5. Moreover, the game will feature some Ray Tracing effects. However, we don’t have any additional details about them. Still, Windeler claimed that the game will share some visual similarities with Builder’s Journey.

Gears of War: E-Day trailer was NOT rendered in real-time
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/gears-of-war-e-day-trailer-was-not-rendered-in-real-time/
The debut trailer for Gears of War: E-Day turned a lot of heads. Microsoft noted in that trailer that everything we saw was in-engine footage. However, it appears that the trailer was not rendered in real-time.
>> Does this surprise anyone?

The other part of the Thursday news:

Monster Hunter Wilds' hunting horn will be more like World's than Rise's, but Capcom promises new moves: 'If you're a fan of the hunting horn, I'm sure you're going to love it in Wilds'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-hunting-horn-will-be-more-like-worlds-than-rises-but-capcom-promises-new-moves-if-youre-a-fan-of-the-hunting-horn-im-sure-youre-going-to-love-it-in-wilds/
If you want to make the developers behind Monster Hunter laugh, apparently there's an easy way to do it: just ask them about the hunting horn. 
"I'm always surprised by how much we get asked about the hunting horn when we come here," said Monster Wilds (and World) game director Yuya Tokuda.
(...)
Perhaps melding a weapon as slow as a hammer with the musical sensibility of a Saxaboom wasn't the easiest sell; with Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom greatly simplified the hunting horn, making it faster and easier to play songs with, but also robbing it of its expansive repertoire of songs that varied per-horn. This was either a great change or a travesty, depending on your bardic leanings. (The weapon was slightly more popular in Rise).
Well, good news (or bad news), toot squad: We're going back. Tokuda said that Wilds' hunting horn is based less on Rise and more on Monster Hunter World "as a baseline."

Monster Hunter Wilds director says changes to the ecosystem are persistent: 'Even as you return to base, the world outside is moving on and continuing where you left it in the background'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/monster-hunter-wilds-director-says-changes-to-the-ecosystem-are-persistent-even-as-you-return-to-base-the-world-outside-is-moving-on-and-continuing-where-you-left-it-in-the-background/
A decade ago, a Monster Hunter environment was essentially a series of battle rooms, with loading screens between each piece of the map. Chasing down a monster to finish it off meant having to put up with a few of those loads every hunt. With its two latest games, World and Rise, Capcom did away with that technical limitation, but another major bit of rigidity remained: every mission had to be selected from a job board or NPC, then launched to load into a predetermined world state. 
In Monster Hunter Wilds, that's gone, too.
Once you leave the hub and head out into the field to hunt, you can stay there as long as you want—setting up custom camps that serve as fast travel points with no loading, attacking monsters to automatically begin missions, and remaining in the field after slaying and carving up a monster. Those are all niceties that will cut down on the amount of time spent staring at loading screens, but Wilds is going deeper, maintaining the effects of your hunts on the ecosystem even when you do return to the hub. According to game director Yuya Tokuda, there is no reset back to a "default" state.

Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi-P implies that Dawntrail's story will have something to do with the Twelve and the Ascians still, and my brain is on fire
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-14-director-yoshi-p-implies-that-dawntrail-s-story-will-have-something-to-do-with-the-twelve-and-the-ascians-still-and-my-brain-is-on-fire/
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail will be arriving later this month—and with it, the start of a new epic story arc similar to the 10-year saga spanning from A Realm Reborn to Dawntrail. In case you're completely uninitiated, firstly I should warn you that this article will be full of spoilers for Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker. Secondly, you should know that FF14 has a habit of being the best in the business when it comes to foreshadowing.

According to the game's director, the $500 League of Legends Ahri skin wasn't meant for the average fan, but instead 'players who are willing to spend $200 a month on their hobbies'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/according-to-the-games-director-the-dollar500-league-of-legends-ahri-skin-wasnt-meant-for-the-average-fan-but-instead-players-who-are-willing-to-spend-dollar200-a-month-on-their-hobbies/
Riot recently came under fire as League of Legends fans pushed back against its introduction of a cosmetic that cost up to $500. (...)
Since then, we talked to the game director, Pu Liu during a Q&A at Summer Games Fest, where the issue of sky-high cosmetics prices became the topic of discussion, and from the sound of things, the company doesn't want to make a habit of it. 
"I think there are people who are very upset about [the Ahri skin]," Liu says. "And I also think it's kind of justified because when you have a 14-year-old product that starts doing new things that are expensive, when [players] are used to everything living under a certain price point, all of a sudden, it can be kind of jarring." But that still doesn't explain why it was so expensive. After the controversy League of Legends released a video addressing the complaints where a couple of devs explained the price tag was to cover the costs of esports and celebrate iconic pro players.  
>> Cover the costs of esports? So they create their tournaments that lose make money, and players have to cover the cost of that? Cool.

With Shadow of the Erdtree, FromSoftware wanted to build a map 'that's not quite open field and not quite legacy dungeon,' but instead 'blends the two together'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/with-shadow-of-the-erdtree-fromsoftware-wanted-to-build-a-map-thats-not-quite-open-field-and-not-quite-legacy-dungeon-but-instead-blends-the-two-together/
As we noted in our preview of Shadow of the Erdtree last week, the expansion's new map is notably different from the Lands Between, which we explored in Elden Ring. It's smaller, yes, but also denser with enemies, activities, and notable locations, and not quite so simple to navigate. You'll find more cliffs, valleys, and bridges blocking off new areas you may have first thought you'd be able to gallop to. 
>> By the way, if you can run the original game, you can run the expansion (which is a weird sentence to make, but it’s not always the case).

Armello studio League of Geeks is 'going into hibernation for the foreseeable future' and may not be back
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/armello-studio-league-of-geeks-is-going-into-hibernation-for-the-foreseeable-future-and-may-not-be-back/
Just six months after laying off more than half its staff and pausing work on its current project, Armello and Solium Infernum developer League of Geeks has announced that the studio is going into "hibernation" for the foreseeable future, and may not return.

Obsidian CEO responds to worries Xbox could shut them down, too: 'I'm not worried about tomorrow'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/obsidian-ceo-responds-to-worries-xbox-could-shut-them-down-too-im-not-worried-about-tomorrow/
A gray cloud loomed over this year's big summer game showcases: Over 16,000 game developers have lost their jobs since 2023, many of whom were casualties of success at companies that reported huge profits this year. (…)
Hours after Microsoft's dazzling June showcase that debuted a new Doom, Perfect Dark, and Gears of War, PC Gamer sat down with Obsidian CEO and founder Feargus Urquhart, who premiered a new Avowed trailer during the show, to get his perspective on layoffs and Xbox ownership in 2024.

Helldivers 2 is hiring a second game master to help Joel carry the weight of a galaxy, and 'inconvenient working hours are expected'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-is-hiring-a-second-game-master-to-help-joel-carry-the-weight-of-a-galaxy-and-inconvenient-working-hours-are-expected/
The team behind Helldivers 2's galactic war is about to double in size, from one to two, as Arrowhead is recruiting an extra pair of hands for game master Joel, the invisible composer of Helldivers 2's metanarrative.

Helldivers 2's enormous balance patch means business—weapons are getting buffed, galactic map supply lines are here, solo patrols are sensible again, and the worst mission modifier is gone
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-s-enormous-balance-patch-means-business-weapons-are-getting-buffed-galactic-map-supply-lines-are-here-solo-patrols-are-sensible-again-and-the-worst-mission-modifier-is-gone/
Arrowhead Games has said time and time again as of late that, when it comes to Helldivers 2 patches, it'd be slowing down its cadence to deliver more on quality—and assuming there's not some catastrophic bug lurking in the shadows, it's clear by this latest patch that the studio meant it.
This morning's update for Helldivers 2 is absolutely massive—so massive, in fact, that I'm not going to be able to cover everything here, though you can always head to the Steam news page and rifle through it yourself. Until then, here's your quick debriefing, soldier.

Everywhere, an upcoming multiplayer sandbox game with a powerful creation suite under the hood, will be opening its toolkit to closed beta testers soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/everywhere-an-upcoming-multiplayer-sandbox-game-with-a-powerful-creation-suite-under-the-hood-will-be-opening-its-toolkit-to-closed-beta-testers-soon/
Everywhere, simply put, wants you to come and make stuff. While games like Fortnite and Roblox have had their own user-generated content (UGC) tools added after-the-fact (and have seen massive success off the back of them) Everywhere is a game that looks to build itself from the ground-up with those tools in mind—making it the lifeblood of its interlocking systems.

It only took them 5 months of player outcry and decline. I've already moved back to DRG and also trying to 100% Cult of the Lamb (They are also getting a co-op update in Aug too).

It's taken a CEO to move down to creative lead and some tinkering internally to reach this point, when it could have all been sorted out months beforehand, had AH listened to their community from the very first month, instead of locking themselves to their Yes-man discord. Also one of their lead balance staff previously worked on Hello Neighbour 2, and has a history of pushing away player issues/wishes, opting for his own over others, and then of course Hello Neighbour 2 went through a clusterfuck time before release and that dev bailed before 1.0, so it's not surprising to see him continuing his shitty arrogance with HD2 (They honestly should have removed or demoted him). 

Samsung announces reinforced process technology roadmap with new SF2Z and SF4U nodes

https://videocardz.com/press-release/samsung-announces-reinforced-process-technology-roadmap-with-new-sf2z-and-sf4u-nodes

XFX teases swappable fans for its Radeon RX 7000 GPUs

https://videocardz.com/newz/xfx-teases-swappable-fans-for-its-radeon-rx-7000-gpus

Basemark introduces “GPUScore: Breaking Limit”: a cross-vendor and cross-platform GPU benchmark with ray tracing

https://videocardz.com/newz/basemark-introduces-gpuscore-breaking-limit-a-cross-vendor-and-cross-platform-gpu-benchmark-with-ray-tracing

NVIDIA CEO to deliver a keynote at SIGGRAPH 2024 on July 29

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-ceo-to-deliver-a-keynote-at-siggraph-2024-on-july-29

TSMC’s 3nm Supply Runs Short Amind Huge AI Demand: NVIDIA, Apple, AMD, Qualcomm Consider Raising Chip Prices

https://wccftech.com/tsmc-3nm-supply-runs-short-amind-huge-ai-demand-nvidia-apple-amd-qualcomm-raising-chip-prices/

AMD MI300X Up To 3x Faster Than NVIDIA H100 In LLM Inference AI Benchmarks, Offers Competitive Pricing Too

https://wccftech.com/amd-mi300x-3x-faster-nvidia-h100-llm-inference-ai-benchmarks-competitive-pricing/

But without the usage of TensorRT on H100s, the comparison may as well be an amd marketing slide

Been a long time coming

Based in company press releases and KH on PC.   I suspect Square will be giving a lot more love to PC moving forward.  I suspect they realize how much money they are missing.  

I just wish they had better pricing and improve their port quality going forward, rather than patching up 5yrs later (Like with Neir). 

Though KH collection is now on Steam, any KH fan is naturally going to want the whole kit, which still costs nearly £60, which is still insane to me, despite how old those games are and how old the remasters are as well (throw in the exclusivity waiting period for a triple whammy).

"I know for a fact these guys want a Bloodborne PC port," Miyazaki said, referring to FromSoftware producer Yasuhiro Kitao and interpreter Bobby Simpson seated at the conference table near him. "If I say I want one, I'll get in trouble as well. But it's nothing I'm opposed to." 

I thought that would be the end of the topic, but Miyazaki went on to elaborate on his answer.

"Obviously, as one of the creators of Bloodborne, my personal, pure honest opinion is I'd love more players to be able to enjoy it. Especially as a game that is now coming of age, one of those games of the past that gets lost on older hardware—I think any game like that, it'd be nice to have an opportunity for more players to be able to experience that and relive this relic of the past. So as far as I'm concerned, that's definitely not something I'd be opposed to." 

Personally, although Souls fan, I don't care much for Bloodborne, due to setting and lack of shields, but at this point I'm really puzzled as to why the hell is Sony prolonging bringing it to PC.

Bloodborne on PC would be amazing. 4k with a stable framerate. I would double dip day 1. Souls is better but BB is amazing as well.

Yeah, the management changed and their policies have changed - I'm still doubtful about day 1 releases but it'll come close and I can see them releasing everything multiplat (at least in PC wise) unlike previous years where it was like a flip of a coin - dragon quest builders 1 came out not too long ago for an example.

Still hoping and waiting for FF Crystal Chronicles Remaster and The Last Remnant Remaster.

(Also hoping Star Ocean First Departure comes out on PC).

Well the bundle/package is $100 - through GMG you can get it for $56. $20 a pop for each collection - to me its worth it so I got it.

But ya hopefully they put in more effort for quality control and do more consistent releases.

Yeah, they are sleeping on money now. BB would be a huge hit.

Crazy to think we got God of War, ratchet and clank, Horizon, LittleBigPlanet (through Sackboy), The Last Of Us, Uncharted, etc but no Bloodborne lol