Thursday news, part two:

Atlus lead says he'd like to do Persona 1 and 2 remakes, but you're not getting them any time soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/atlus-lead-says-hed-like-to-do-persona-1-and-2-remakes-but-youre-not-getting-them-any-time-soon/
Sometimes I still don't quite believe it. After years, decades, of Atlus stubbornly refusing to put a bunch of Persona games on anything but a PlayStation, I now have 3, 4 and 5—in their expanded-edition forms—plus a 3 remake in my Steam library. What a time to be alive.
Of course, there's still something missing, isn't there? Persona 1 and 2, (...)
The good news is that Persona series general producer Kazuhisa Wada is well-aware people want to get their hands on the originals in some form, and it sounds like he'd like to do it. The bad news is that—if it ever happens—it doesn't sound like it'll be soon. In a chat with GameSpot, Wada said that remakes of the original games weren't "on [his] schedule right now," but he'd "like to do it someday." Which sounds like the kind of thing my parents used to tell me when I asked for a toy I was absolutely, definitively, never, ever going to get.

Deadlock's pause update changed one of its most annoying features to try and stop players from turning the MOBA into a slideshow
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/deadlocks-pause-update-changed-one-of-its-most-annoying-features-to-try-and-stop-players-from-turning-the-moba-into-a-slideshow/
Deadlock is still in its early stages, which is why Valve has been dishing out so many minor updates. We've briefly seen new heroes and ways to traverse the map, whether that be climbing ropes or wall riding, and now there are also changes to the devious pause button. 
>> The game is so far away from release that tracking sites are having a hard time with it.

Steam's approval process dinged this indie game remake for being a remake of the game it's remaking: 'Seems identical to the game you put out 11 years ago'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/steams-approval-process-dinged-this-indie-game-remake-for-being-a-remake-of-the-game-its-remaking-seems-identical-to-the-game-you-put-out-11-years-ago/
InFlux Redux is an upcoming, beautified remake of a 2013 ball-rolling puzzle game from indie dev Joe Wintergreen, who's had a hand in games like Weird West, Adios, and The Forgotten City. For Influx's improved rebirth, Wintergreen rebuilt the game's engine to implement improved physics alongside the graphical upgrades. Unfortunately, despite the substantial overhaul, he apparently caught Steam on a bad day when he submitted Influx Redux for build review.

Helldivers 2 players get all wound up as galactic map briefly reveals the presence of the Illuminate, but Arrowhead CEO dismisses it all as 'fake news'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-players-get-all-wound-up-as-galactic-map-briefly-reveals-the-presence-of-the-illuminate-but-arrowhead-ceo-dismisses-it-all-as-fake-news/
Helldivers 2 players have been waiting a long time, and through multiple teases, for the arrival of the Illuminate, the technologically advanced civilization that, along with the Terminids and Automatons, provided the three enemy factions in the original Helldivers. The Illuminate still haven't made their big appearance, but a fresh new tease suggests they could be getting closer.

WoW's 20th anniversary event will bring Blackrock Depths as a revamped raid, a return to the opening of Ahn'Qiraj, classic dungeon timewalking, and modernized Tier 2 transmogs
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wow-20th-anniversary-event-mount-tier-2-sets/
While it causes me terrible psychic harm to admit, World of Warcraft is almost 20 years old. Earlier today, Blizzard released a video detailing its plans for WoW's 20th anniversary event, where it'll be bringing back classic dungeons, kicking off time-warping public events at the gates of Ahn'Qiraj, modernizing some of the finest armor sets of yesteryear, and generally making millions of Vanilla WoW players feel as though they're at risk of crumbling into dust.

Harebrained reveals its first game following split from Paradox: A survival-horror RPG where you blast limbs off your enemies and then attach them to your own body
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/harebrained-reveals-its-first-game-following-split-from-paradox-a-survival-horror-rpg-where-you-blast-limbs-off-your-enemies-and-then-attach-them-to-your-own-body/
Harebrained, the studio behind the Shadowrun RPG trilogy and the tactical combat game Battletech, has announced the first project of its post-Paradox era: Graft, a "post-cyberpunk survival horror RPG" set aboard a dying space station overrun by sticky, fleshy monstrosities.

Spectre Divide lowers skin prices just hours after launch: 'We took a swing that we thought would best set us up to support the game. Turns out we swung a bit high'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/spectre-divide-lowers-skin-prices-just-hours-after-launch-we-took-a-swing-that-we-thought-would-best-set-us-up-to-support-the-game-turns-out-we-swung-a-bit-high/
Spectre Divide game director Lee Horn says Mountaintop Studios has "heard your feedback" on the steep costs of the game's characters and weapon skins, and has reduced the costs by 17 to 25%, depending on the skin or bundle in question.
>> They wanted to make quick money and now they’re afraid they may have killed the game.

The latest gameplay videos for Dragon Age: The Veilguard make me think I should play something other than a mage this one time
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-latest-gameplay-videos-for-dragon-age-the-veilguard-make-me-think-i-should-play-something-other-than-a-mage-this-one-time/
Three things stood out to me in IGN's recent "22 Minutes of Gameplay With BioWare" video. The first were that lip-syncing still isn't BioWare's strong suit, and the second that the qunari Rook has a forehead so smooth it looks like the texture hasn't loaded in. But the third and most surprising thing was how much it put me off playing a mage.

Star Wars Outlaws director confesses being 'a little disappointed with the Metacritic' but says 'we're never going to stop improving it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/star-wars-outlaws-director-confesses-being-a-little-disappointed-with-the-metacritic-but-says-were-never-going-to-stop-improving-it/
Star Wars Outlaws—a title designed in a lab to make me erroneously insert a colon into it—has been out for just under a week now. You know what? It's pretty good! A solid 73%, per PCG's Morgan Park in his Star Wars Outlaws review.
It's a similar score in other outlets' reviews, too, which has translated to an overall Metacritic score of 75 out of 100 on Xbox, 76 on PlayStation, and 77 on PC. Ubisoft would have liked to do a little better, it seems. In a chat with GamesRadar, Outlaws' creative director Julian Gerighty confessed to being a "little disappointed with the Metacritic."

Deadlock's best girl is (judging by the fanart) a scrunkly gargoyle with a flat cap and severe back issues, who just so happens to be an absolute sweetheart
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/deadlock-s-best-girl-is-judging-by-the-fanart-a-scrunkly-gargoyle-with-a-flat-cap-and-severe-back-issues-who-is-genuinely-an-absolute-sweetheart/
I will never cease to be amazed, impressed, and terrified by the kinds of unexpected hotties that come out of the gaming community—earlier this year it was Bakool Ja Ja in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, and now Deadlock's got its own fan favourite, the gargoyle Ivy.

Scalpers swarm eBay as Concord kicks the bucket, charging punters up to $25,000 for physical copies of the PS5 edition—and some are spending hundreds
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/scalpers-swarm-ebay-as-concord-kicks-the-bucket-charging-punters-up-to-dollar25000-for-physical-copies-of-the-ps5-editionand-some-are-spending-hundreds/
Forget Oasis tickets, this season's real gold-dust item just dropped. It's, uh, Concord. Yes, the doomed hero shooter from Firewalk Studios that Sony is unceremoniously yanking the plug on tomorrow.
News of the game's imminent demise has been blood in the water to scalpers, who have begun to flood auction sites like eBay with ludicrously expensive PS5 copies of the $40 game. How expensive? Well, who fancies forking over $25,000 for a disc? No? Can I tempt you with $950? How about $500?
Now, I know what you're thinking: These are just chancers trying their luck. No one's actually buying copies of this thing at these absurdly inflated prices. You're kind of right. Sure, nobody is picking up Concord for $25K (yet), but a brief glance at eBay's sold listings reveals someone is paying too much.
>>***sigh***

Baldur's Gate 3 patch 7—the RPG's final major update—is here with an in-game mod browser, evil endings too vile for streaming, and new Honour Mode actions to be scared of
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldur-s-gate-3-patch-7-the-rpg-s-final-major-update-is-here-with-an-in-game-mod-browser-evil-endings-too-vile-for-streaming-and-new-honour-mode-actions-to-be-scared-of/
Baldur's Gate 3's seventh and final patch is finally here—and like most of these major updates, it's one heck of a doozy. Luckily for me and my poor, sore hands, there's not a ton of major new features to go over (though new modding tools should certainly open some floodgates in the future).

Probably? A 4090 consumes like 350W on average despite its TDP, and let's say the 5090 is 168 SMs, so 40 more than the 4090's 128 SMs. That's still less than 500W on average even if efficiency is about the same.

Of course, if you're going for a high-end overclocked Intel processor too... it might not be.

The memory configuration can be an interesting point for the 5080 because, while it will likely be faster than a 4090, the extra VRAM of the later could give it an edge when gaming at 4K or other high resolutions. GDDR7 will help the 5080, but if it's 16 vs 24GB, I don't know if it will be enough.

I wouldn't put too much though on the power consumption leaks/rumors, at least not yet. We don't even know if they refer to only the GPU, or the whole board, for example, and we've seen how the rumors about the 5090 and 5080 went from 400 and 350W to now 600 and 400W.

But well, it's obvious that Nvidia is leaving gaps for the Ti and/or Super cards.

There's a good chance the 5080 is a B202 card instead with these performance targets (and there is also a good chance it could be just some BS Nvidia slide like the '4090 is 4x the 3090 Ti in RT' back then). Then it could have 20-24 GB of memory instead.

I hope Nvidia goes with a 320-bit bus for the 5080 so it can get 20GB, but I wouldn't bet on it. Also yeah, I still remember the slides Nvidia shared for the 4060 cards and how faster those cards where to the old 3060 ones, once you enabled DLSS3 and frame gen.

As always, trust nothing that comes from Nvidia (or AMD or Intel) and check actual reviews to ge tthe real picture.

Here's a couple articles that didn't fit the news round-up:

The good news:

Couch PC gaming could get a whole load more convenient as Microsoft has started testing a virtual keyboard layout for controllers
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/controllers/couch-pc-gaming-could-get-a-whole-load-more-convenient-as-microsoft-has-started-testing-a-virtual-keyboard-layout-for-controllers/
Say what you want about console gaming, but there are some things it does right. One of those things is making using a controller convenient. Well, now it looks like Microsoft is making moves to help controller gaming on PC a little more convenient by rolling out a virtual keyboard layout designed specifically for controllers.

In a blog update for Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4145 (via The Verge), Microsoft says, "We’re beginning to roll out a new Gamepad keyboard layout for the on-screen keyboard in Windows 11 that supports the ability to use your Xbox controller to navigate and type.

"This includes button accelerators (example: X button for backspace, Y button for spacebar) additionally the keyboard keys have been vertically aligned for better controller navigation patterns."

And now the bad news:

It looks like you won't be able to uninstall Recall, the controversial AI-assisted Windows 11 screen-capping feature, and I can't say I'm too surprised
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/windows/it-looks-like-you-wont-be-able-to-uninstall-recall-the-controversial-ai-assisted-windows-11-screen-capping-feature-and-i-cant-say-im-too-surprised/
Despite all the backlash and security problems the upcoming Windows Recall feature has faced, it now looks like Microsoft won't be giving users the option to uninstall it. That's right, whether you use it or not, you're not going to be able to rid your system of the feature.

While notes for a previous Windows update made it seem like Recall would be a feature that can be disabled, Microsoft has told The Verge that the way it was listed in these update notes was a "bug." 

The company states, "We are aware of an issue where Recall is incorrectly listed as an option under the ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ dialog in Control Panel," and confirming, "This will be fixed in an upcoming update."

Could the EU make us a favor and pick Recall, turn it into a ball, and shove it so up into MSoft's A$$ that they don't want to see it ever again? Please?

The Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Fanatical has launched the War Child Charity Bundle, with 9 games to get during the next 4 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/war-child-charity-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty as well-

GAMING NEWS

'We love making the game you love to play': State of Decay 2 devs prepare the last update after 6 years as attention turns to State of Decay 3
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/we-love-making-the-game-you-love-to-play-state-of-decay-2-devs-prepare-the-last-update-after-6-years-as-attention-turns-to-state-of-decay-3/
Undead Labs, the developers behind State of Decay 2, have announced that the upcoming update for the zombie survival game will be the last one, as the team moves focus towards  State of Decay 3. 

The Silent Hill 2 devs explain why you won't need to use UI in the remake: Instead, James will just glare at things devilishly
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/the-silent-hill-2-devs-explain-why-you-wont-need-to-use-ui-in-the-remake-instead-james-will-just-glare-at-things-devilishly/
As we approach the release of the Silent Hill 2 remake, the developers, Bloober Team, are disclosing a couple of must-know facts about the horror game as a way to get players excited for its release. 

A Hogwarts Legacy sequel is one of Warner Bros' 'biggest priorities'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-hogwarts-legacy-sequel-is-one-of-warner-bros-biggest-priorities/
At the start of 2024, Warner Bros. went on its own little victory lap over the success of Hogwarts Legacy. WB Interactive Entertainment president David Hassad announced in early January the game had sold over 22 million copies in 2023, more than 2 million of those in the festive period, boasting that this made it "the best-selling game of the year in the entire industry worldwide."
(...)
Success on this kind of scale makes a sequel of some sort inevitable, and WB Discovery’s CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels has now come right out and said it: as well as giving a vague timeframe.

Ubisoft's slump continues: Star Wars Outlaws fails to turn things around, XDefiant numbers are sliding, and we still don't know where The Sands of Time is
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/despite-high-hopes-for-star-wars-outlaws-and-xdefiant-ubisofts-share-price-is-now-sitting-at-a-10-year-low/
The launch of Star Wars Outlaws should have been a triumph for Ubisoft—a milestone moment heralding a turnaround in the company's fortunes. But on the financial front at least, it hasn't really worked out that way. Outlaws has been generally well received by critics, but sales don't appear to be meeting initial expectations, and instead of seeing a surge Ubisoft's share price has tumbled following the game's release to its lowest mark since 2014.

Automatons beware: The next major Helldivers 2 patch will overhaul armor penetration later this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/automatons-beware-the-next-major-helldivers-2-patch-will-overhaul-armor-penetration-later-this-month/
I love me some Helldivers 2, but I don't love me some automatons. From day one, it's been a bit of a bummer whenever the current Major Order wasn't targeting terminids, and there's a simple reason for that: It feels bad to shoot at a killer android without achieving anything. Because the automatons have so many armored enemies and the Helldivers have so few tools to reliably punch through them, the loadouts that feel worthwhile to bring along have gradually grown pretty slim. Luckily, Arrowhead's looking to change that later this month.
In a Steam news post published earlier today, Arrowhead detailed its plans for sweeping combat balance changes that are scheduled to go live on September 17, 2024. As part of its 60-day update plan, Arrowhead has kicked off "in-depth reviews and adjustment of various systems, from weapon balancing and enemy behavior to overall game mechanics." The first overhaul on the docket: armor penetration.

Slork
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/slork/
Deadlock players have discovered an in-progress new hero named Slork, who looks like a half-man, half-shark—or possibly just a guy wearing a weird skeletal shark costume.

'What a sad existence': The first cheaters in Deadlock have been spotted, giving players some pretty bad flashbacks to TF2 and CS
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/what-a-sad-existence-the-first-cheaters-in-deadlock-have-been-spotted-giving-players-some-pretty-bad-flashbacks-to-tf2-and-cs/
Deadlock was only officially announced a few weeks ago, but we're already seeing cheaters start to pop up in lobbies. The players are clearly using aim bots (it's painfully obvious), but what others can't quite understand is why anyone would want to cheat in an invite-only alpha test. 

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, as this video shows, feels like a trial run for its inclusion in Hogwarts Legacy 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/harry-potter-quidditch-champions-as-this-video-shows-feels-like-a-trial-run-for-its-inclusion-in-hogwarts-legacy-2/
After playing some of Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, my immediate reaction is that this feels like a trial run for the magical game's inclusion in the likely-upcoming sequel to Hogwarts Legacy. Sure, it probably didn't start out that way, with my money being on Warner Bros. Games separating out the experiences so they could sell two games to Harry Potter fans instead of just one. Because, you know, money. But following Hogwarts Legacy becoming the best selling game of 2023, I'm not sure a sequel can exist without the inclusion of Quidditch. Their union feels inevitable, as Quidditch would be such an obvious upsell for gamers.

Here are the GOG and Steam deals for the weekend:

+GOG

• The Back to School Sale will end soon. Are you sure you checked everything in it? https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2024_back_to_school_sale
• Larian Studios puts its games on sale, with up to 90% discounts until Tuesday: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20240905_larian_back_to_school

+Steam

• Larian Studios also puts its games on sale at Steam, up to 85% off until September 9: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/LarianStudiosPublisherSale2024
• Dome Keeper will be half its price until the 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637320/Dome_Keeper/
• The Early Access title Synergy gets a 30% discount until the 12th of September: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/
• Rebellion puts its games on sale, up to 90% off until the 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/RebellionPublisherSale2024
• Green Hell features a 67% discount until the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/815370/Green_Hell/
• Sea of Thieves is going to be 35% off until September 16: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172620/Sea_of_Thieves_2024_Edition/
• Publisher Focus Entertainment puts its games on sale with up to 87% discounts until the 16th. By the way, Expeditions: A MudRunner Game will be free to try during the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/focuspublishersale2024
• Roboquest, that has a demo, will be 25% off until September, the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/692890/Roboquest/
• The Let's Build a Zoo franchise is on sale, with up to 61% discounts until the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/LetsBuildAZooFranchiseSale
• And The Falconeer will be 80% off until September 19: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1135260/The_Falconeer/

And that's it. Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

For Baldur Gate · fans, here are some articles. Some of them have spoilers, you'll have to check the article:

At PAX West, perennial mad lad Swen Vincke once again said Baldur's Gate 3 was somehow going to be even bigger: 'In our heads, we were going to have so many more regions to make'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/at-pax-west-perennial-mad-lad-swen-vincke-once-again-said-baldurs-gate-3-was-somehow-going-to-be-even-bigger-in-our-heads-we-were-going-to-have-so-many-more-regions-to-make/
Baldur's Gate 3 is big—so big that, according to a message I sent in a Discord group chat in August of 2023, it took me sixty hours just to confirm that the city of Baldur's Gate was, in fact, in the game. Yet despite BG3's playtime clocking in at a week's worth of waking hours, Larian CEO Swen Vincke keeps finding new ways to explain that, impossibly, Baldur's Gate 3 was originally going to be even bigger.

If your favorite Baldur's Gate 3 mods don't work with the new update yet, Larian will let you stick with the older version instead
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/if-your-favorite-baldurs-gate-3-mods-dont-work-with-the-new-update-yet-larian-will-let-you-stick-with-the-older-version-instead/
Baldur's Gate 3 patch 7 is out and holy kapowzers it's a whopper, featuring *deep breath* bug fixes and gameplay tweaks and new and improved evil and Dark Urge endings and a built-in mod manager and toolkit. But with great power comes great responsibility or something like that, and so Larian is also ensuring that players who don't want to upgrade to the new patch don't have to.

Some of Baldur's Gate 3's new evil endings are so nasty they're hard to watch, and there's a unique variation for each origin character
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldur-s-gate-3-s-new-evil-endings-are-so-nasty-they-re-hard-to-watch-and-there-s-a-unique-variation-for-each-origin-character/
If you're anything like me, you greeted the news of Baldur's Gate 3's expanded evil endings in the mammoth Patch 7 with a "Oh, that sounds interesting, but there's no way I could stomach actually unlocking them." Luckily for us soft-hearted roleplayers, those bad boys are on YouTube in force, and they're well-worth seeing⁠—even if it's just to give some added weight to your "canon" happy ending. Spoilers ahead for Patch 7's new endings.

Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 7 tweaked one of the game's most brutal scenes to twist the knife even more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldur-s-gate-3-s-patch-7-tweaked-one-of-the-game-s-most-brutal-scenes-to-twist-the-knife-even-more/
One thing I was particularly curious about in the lead-up to Baldur's Gate 3's mondo-big Patch 7 was its change to Alfira, a fairly significant side-character and quest-giver. In the lead-up to release, Larian mentioned that Alfira would be able to level up and even respec with Withers, raising questions about her storyline and how it intersects with one of BG3's origin paths in particular. In brief: Don't go crazy, she's not a full companion now or anything. Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 Act 1 and The Dark Urge below.

Baldur's Gate 3's new patch has a forbidden evil ending where you get bored and peace out, just before your moment of bloody triumph
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldur-s-gate-3-s-new-patch-has-a-forbidden-evil-ending-where-you-get-bored-and-peace-out-just-before-your-moment-of-bloody-triumph/
Baldur's Gate 3's seventh—and final—major patch released yesterday, bringing with it a smorgasbord of delightfully fiendish endings: Spoilers to follow.

Kind of side question, what are people's personal opinion on frame rate?

60 fps kills 30, such a massive jump
90 fps is a massive jump over 30 fps
120 doesn't seem much different to me than 120 fps

I have played around on a few games, for me 90 fps seems perfect.

Fine with 60 honestly. Steam Deck the sweet spot for me was 48 which is what I played Skyrim at on it. Competitive games, which I rarely play, I run at 100+ but other than that... I don't have a 4090 or something so as high resolution and graphics I can get while keeping solid 60.