The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Helldivers 2's latest update looks like it's gone down smooth, with player counts not seen since June—from a balance patch, no less
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-s-latest-update-looks-like-it-s-gone-down-smooth-with-player-counts-not-seen-since-june-from-a-balance-patch-no-less/
Helldivers 2's latest patch has, pretty comprehensively, overhauled the game's approach to difficulty, weapon balancing, and loadout variety—and it looks like it's working out pretty well for ol' Arrowhead.
While every major patch brings its own concurrent user jump, I think it's pretty notable here that this patch, as per SteamDB, has seen 24-hour peak player numbers not spied since June—over 68,000 players, which is a heck of a lot for a Tuesday night. It's since dipped back down to 25,000, though I'm willing to bet that's because people need to, y'know, sleep and/or go to work.

GOG has three Limited Time Offers, that will last until Friday:

• Crookz - The Big Heist will be 60% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/crookz_the_big_heist
• The NSFW title Dark Fantasy: Jigsaw Puzzle gets a 70% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/dark_fantasy_jigsaw_puzzle
• And Volley Pals gets a 70% deal: https://www.gog.com/en/game/volley_pals

Steam has two new deals:

• EMPTY SHELL is going to be 25% off until September 24: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2243110/EMPTY_SHELL/
• And ONE PIECE ODYSSEY gets a 50% discount until the same 24th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/814000/ONE_PIECE_ODYSSEY/

Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is INDIKA, with a 40% discount during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/indika
• And Focus Entertainments puts its games up to 77% off during 11 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/focus-entertainment

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc Graphics 32.0.101.6077 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-32-0-101-6077
Highlights
Gaming Highlights:
Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics GPUs and Intel® Core™ Ultra with built-in Intel® Arc™ GPUs for:

• Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Frostpunk 2
• God of War Ragnarok

Fixed Issues
Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics Products:

• The Last of Us Part I (DX12) may experience corruption on certain reflective surfaces during gameplay.
• Age of Empires IV (DX12) may experience corrupted lines on certain textures during gameplay.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty-

GAMING NEWS

God of War: Ragnarok reportedly runs with 100fps at Native 4K/Max Settings on the NVIDIA RTX 4090
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/god-of-war-ragnarok-reportedly-runs-with-100fps-at-native-4k-max-settings-on-nvidia-rtx-4090/
God of War: Ragnarok releases tomorrow on PC and NVIDIA has shared some benchmarks for it. According to the green team, this new GoW game runs with 100fps at Native 4K/Max Settings on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.
It’s worth noting that we don’t know the scene that NVIDIA used for its benchmarks. So, there might be some other more demanding locations in the game. Still, these benchmarks should give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect from it.

Here’s an hour of gameplay from Empire of the Ants
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/heres-an-hour-of-gameplay-from-empire-of-the-ants/
YouTube’s ‘Punish’ has shared a video, showcasing an hour of gameplay footage from the latest preview build of Empires of the Ants. This video will give you a pretty good idea of how the game plays. Thus, you should check it out if you are interested in it.

Wednesday news, part two:

I've been shown Remnant 2's third (and largest) DLC The Dark Horizon, as well as its free roguelike Boss Rush mode and endgame progression system—and it's Gunfire Games' biggest flex so far
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/i-ve-been-shown-remnant-2-s-third-and-largest-dlc-the-dark-horizon-as-well-as-its-free-roguelike-boss-rush-mode-and-endgame-progression-system-and-it-s-gunfire-games-biggest-flex-so-far/
Remnant 2 was one of my favourite games from last year, in part because it knows exactly what it wants to do, does it very well, and doesn't overstay its welcome. It continued to impress with its DLC The Awakened King and The Forgotten Kingdom. Both offer an expansion to the game's core systems—new classes and items—as well as a solid 5-8 hour campaign for a very reasonable price ($10/£8.50 a pop).
The only problem, as I highlighted when it came to The Forgotten Kingdom, is that these DLCs are hard to talk about from a journalistic point of view because, well, they're more of the same (...)
I don't have that problem this time around, though. I got to sit down with principal designer Ben "Tragic" Cureton and principal level designer Cindy To, and I'm pleased to report that while The Dark Horizon does look poised to pile more gravy on your potatoes, it also feels like Gunfire Games' biggest flex in terms of content yet—ending the trio of promised DLC with both a whole new endgame progression system as well as a new roguelike game mode—which are both free, by the way.

Fallout 76's brahmin escort mission is finally available, so you can start fighting off deathclaws and mole people to grow your new outpost
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/fallout-76s-brahim-escort-mission-is-finally-available-so-you-can-start-fighting-off-deathclaws-and-mole-people-to-grow-your-new-outpost/
We've been waiting for the brahmin escort missions ever since Fallout 76's Milepost Zero update was announced alongside the Skyline Valley update earlier this year, and now, months later, it's finally out. 

GTA Online finally gets BattlEye anti-cheat, and some fans think it's a sign of bigger things to come
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/gta-online-finally-gets-battleye-anti-cheat-and-some-fans-think-its-a-sign-of-bigger-things-to-come/
Nine years after it arrived on PC, Rockstar's multiplayer murder and mayhem sim Grand Theft Auto Online has integrated BattlEye anti-cheat software.
Simply put, BattlEye aims to keep people in online games from doing things they're not supposed to. That's been an ongoing problem in GTA Online for many years, and a real challenge for Rockstar: Cheaters suck and GTAO is often a goat rodeo, but roleplaying servers enabled by mods are also a big part of what makes GTA Online so popular. 
>> The problem is that BattlEye doesn’t work on Linux unless you do something about it, something that Rockstar hasn’t done. Sorry Steam Deck players!

Skate will frontside pop shuvit into early access in 2025
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/skate-will-frontside-pop-shuvit-into-early-access-in-2025/
Ready your fragile skeletons, virtual skaters: Skate will launch in early access in 2025, as announced earlier today in a tweet from the official Skate account on X. "We're incredibly stoked to announce that skate. will be launching in Early Access in 2025. We'll share more details on what to expect in the coming months," developer Full Circle said. Personally, I expect skating. 

'The game is absolutely not dying': XDefiant boss rejects claims that Ubisoft's shooter is struggling to find players
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-game-is-absolutely-not-dying-xdefiant-boss-rejects-claims-that-ubisofts-shooter-is-struggling-to-find-players/
Ubisoft has forcefully denied claims that its free-to-play FPS XDefiant is struggling to find players, saying in its year one update that while there's always room for improvement on the technical and content sides, the game itself is "doing well."

The next Battlefield game has been in 'nearly daily' playtesting for 'well over a year,' and a large-scale community test is planned for early 2025
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-next-battlefield-game-has-been-in-nearly-daily-playtesting-for-well-over-a-year-and-a-large-scale-community-test-is-planned-for-early-2025/
At a big show put on for EA investors today, Battlefield GM Byron Beede announced that some variety of public playtesting for the next Battlefield game will start early next year, and revealed what each Battlefield studio is working on

The next Sims game is doing invite-only multiplayer testing this fall
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-5-is-doing-invite-only-multiplayer-testing-this-fall/
It's been about a year since we've heard anything about the development of The Sims 5, and while there still isn't any real news about it, there's news that news is coming soon…ish. 
In a new blog post today, Maxis talked about a lot of preparations happening for the 25th anniversary of the series coming in February. It confirmed that there's definitely a Sims movie in the works, talked about plans to start co-developing small DLC kits with modders, and gave a small mention to invite-only tests for the next Sims game, codenamed Project Rene, happening this season.

There won't actually be a Sims 5 because EA is going to 'disrupt the sequel model' by shoving The Sims 4, Project Rene, and two other games into one 'massive Sims platform'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/there-wont-actually-be-a-sims-5-because-ea-is-going-to-disrupt-the-sequel-model-by-shoving-the-sims-4-project-rene-and-two-other-games-into-one-massive-sims-platform/
Project Rene, the codename for the next major Sims game, isn't cancelled. In fact, EA will be doing some closed multiplayer testing this fall. But the in-development game we've occasionally called "The Sims 5" isn't actually The Sims 5 at all, it says. Project Rene and The Sims 4 are both going to be part of "the Sims universe" for the foreseeable future.
During an Electronic Arts investor presentation today, EA entertainment & technology president Laura Miele gave a much more thorough breakdown of The Sims series' future than normally comes out of investor-facing presentations.

EA says giving videogame characters 'life and persistence' outside of games with AI is a 'profound opportunity,' which is the kind of talk that leads to dangerous Holodeck malfunctions
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/ea-says-giving-videogame-characters-life-and-persistence-outside-of-games-is-a-profound-opportunity-which-is-the-kind-of-talk-that-leads-to-dangerous-holodeck-malfunctions/
Like so many other companies, EA is going all-in on generative AI. At an investor's conference today, the game development giant talked at length about the ways AI is supposed to transform its business, and chief strategy officer Mihir Vaidya demoed some of the generative AI concepts the company has been working on.

EA says it's got a 3rd and final Star Wars Jedi game cooking in speech to imperial senate of investors—oh, and 40 million people have played the first 2 already
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/ea-says-its-got-a-3rd-and-final-star-wars-jedi-game-cooking-in-speech-to-imperial-senate-of-investorsoh-and-its-made-dollar5-billion-off-the-first-2-already/
Good news, gang: We're finally gonna put an end to these Star Wars. Specifically, an end to the tales of the most tastefully mulleted Jedi to ever grace the galaxy, Cal Kestis. EA's announced that the conclusion to its Star Wars Jedi trilogy is in the works, and that "Respawn is working hard to bring the final chapter of this thrilling story to players."

And yes, today there’s a third news post:

Blizzard reveals new Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred story details—it's more than just disgusting body horror
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/diablo-4-vessel-of-hatred-reveals-new-campaign-details-it-s-more-than-just-disgusting-body-horror/
Everyone remembers wincing at the trailer for Diablo 4's first expansion Vessel of Hatred. In it, we saw a young girl hallucinate being crucified in hell in excruciating detail. It was a very hard watch that didn't actually say much about what the expansion will have to offer.
In a new video titled "The Next Chapter" a handful of developers explain what that was all about and what's going on in Vessel of Hatred's campaign.

Blizzard has apparently decided the best way to combat the Hearthstone-is-dying narrative is by releasing a $60 Ragnaros hero skin
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/blizzard-has-apparently-decided-the-best-way-to-combat-the-hearthstone-is-dying-narrative-is-by-releasing-a-dollar60-ragnaros-hero-skin/
Hearthstone's been around for a decade now, which is an awfully long time for a videogame. It's understandably not the behemoth it was back in its prime, although Blizzard reassured players in July that despite some less-than-ideal impressions, the game is not dying. And to prove it, Blizzard has done an absolutely normal thing for a game that's not dying and added a wee little fire-faced man who sits at the bottom of your screen, which you can have for your very own for just $60.

For the first time in 20 years, World of Warcraft will let solo players fight its hardest boss in a new 'Story Mode' raid difficulty
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/for-the-first-time-in-20-years-world-of-warcraft-will-let-solo-players-fight-its-hardest-boss-in-a-new-story-mode-raid-difficulty/
World of Warcraft players have spent years asking Blizzard to let them do raids without a full group of players so they can just see how the story ends. Starting today in The War Within, that will finally be possible—with some minor caveats.

Arrowhead creative director agrees Helldivers 2 needs a harder difficulty mode after the 'buff everything' patch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arrowhead-creative-director-agrees-helldivers-2-needs-a-harder-difficulty-mode-after-the-buff-everything-patch/
Arrowhead finally dropped that big Helldivers 2 rebalancing patch that's been over a month in the making, and the word is good: The people are loving how much more powerful guns and stratagems feel across the board, and crucially, they like having way more options to take down Bile Titans, Chargers, and Hulks. The largest Terminid and Automaton threats are now less resilient against weapons many players always thought should deal more damage, like the Autocannon or Thermite Grenade, and are less oppressive as a result.
I'm digging the update too, but I'm also with user Bunny Asap, who told Arrowhead creative director Johan Pilestedt on Twitter: "Everything is great but we need a new harder difficulty now.” (...)
It sounds like Pilestedt is on the same page, at least where difficulty modes are concerned, replying "I agree!" to the user. (...)

Cities: Skylines 2 Creator Packs and the Bridges and Ports Expansion are being delayed so the devs don't have to 'split our focus'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/cities-skylines-2-creator-packs-and-the-bridges-and-ports-expansion-are-being-delayed-so-the-devs-dont-have-to-split-our-focus/
Cities: Skylines 2 just hit another bump in the road as Paradox announced that its upcoming two Creator Packs and the Bridges and Ports Expansion have both been delayed so the team can focus more on improving the base game. 

Games industry hurtles further into self-parody as ESRB leaks existence of a Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/games-industry-hurtles-further-into-self-parody-as-esrb-leaks-existence-of-a-horizon-zero-dawn-remaster/
Benjamin Franklin once said that three may keep a secret so long as none of them is a videogame age-rating board, and he was right. The ESRB, whose main purpose is preventing children from being exposed to too much drugs and violence and whose covert second purpose is undercutting publisher marketing campaigns, has once again leaked a release ahead of its announcement. This time it's, uh, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. Wait, what?
>> It’s a 2017 game, in case you’re wondering.

EA says it's going to use AI to fix The Sims 4's really annoying user content gallery
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/ea-says-its-going-to-use-ai-to-fix-the-sims-4s-really-annoying-user-content-gallery/
Everyone knows that The Sims 4 gallery, the in-game hub where players can share and download their creations, is terrible. It's difficult to browse, search results rarely return what you want, and the hashtag system is finicky at best. Even EA knows, because it has a plan to fix the gallery with AI-powered image searching.

A year later, a Bungie fan artist is still waiting on compensation for the accidental use of their work, though they say the studio's 'working to expedite the process as we speak'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/a-year-later-a-bungie-fan-artist-is-still-waiting-on-compensation-for-the-accidental-use-of-their-work-though-they-say-the-studio-s-working-to-expedite-the-process-as-we-speak/
Late last week, Destiny 2 developer Bungie landed in hot water again for accidentally allowing fanart to make its way into official media and merch—it was a nerf gun, this time, which used artist Tofu_Rabbit's designs from a 2015 commission.
One of my colleagues, however, also brought up that another artist by the name of Julian Faylona (ELEMENTJ21 designs) was still waiting for compensation and—wait a second, hold on, I know this person. I actually spoke to them over a year ago, June 22 to be exact.
"I’m the artist whose artwork was used for the Witness cutscene from last year," Faylona wrote. "It’s been a year and I'm still waiting for that compensation that you said will be given. Haven’t heard a word since."
>> It’s amazing how long it takes to do the things you don’t really want to do.

I'm going to assume you've also read the other posts of this discussion and already have an answer to that question.

Alleged Nintendo Switch 2 design leaks out: 8-inch screen and 12GB LPDDR5X-7500 memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/alleged-nintendo-switch-2-design-leaks-out-8-inch-screen-and-12gb-lpddr5x-7500-memory

Reliable Leaker Leaks Nintendo Switch 2 Potential Price and Launch Date

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/reliable-leaker-leaks-nintendo-switch-2-potential-price-and-launch-date.1675117/

"Nintendo is expected to officially announce its upcoming console with new game bundles in October 2024, but as per rumors the new console will launch no sooner than April 2025. MSRP $400"

Intel Lunar Lake CPUs Deliver Up To 30% More Battery Life Than Apple M3 & M2 MacBooks, Almost A Day Worth of Video Playback Time

https://wccftech.com/intel-lunar-lake-cpus-30-percent-more-battery-life-than-apple-m3-m2-macbooks/

AMD Ryzen 9000 inter-core latency significantly reduced with new AGESA 1202

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-9000-inter-core-latency-significantly-reduced-with-new-agesa-1202

AMD's new Ryzen 9000 CPUs are reportedly suffering the 'worst launch since Bulldozer' thanks to 'disastrous' sales

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/processors/amds-new-ryzen-9000-cpus-are-reportedly-suffering-the-worst-launch-since-bulldozer-thanks-to-disastrous-sales/

CEO Lisa Su says AMD is now a data center-first company — DC is now 4X larger than its gaming sales

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/ceo-lisa-su-says-amd-is-a-data-center-first-company-dc-revenue-topped-dollar28-billion-last-quarter-over-4x-higher-than-its-gaming-business-sales

I don't know if that Switch 2 leak is legit or not, but even if it isn't, kudos to the reddit posted who went the extra mile coming up with the part numbers of all those parts no one ever cares to mention in leaks (audio chip, fans, NFC reader, etc.), plus those renders.

The Lunar Lake battery life show fails to mention the battery size of those laptops. That seems to be an important detail to omit, at least in my humble opinion.

AMD being a Data Center company first is something we saw with Zen5, only data centers will find interesting chips that perform mostly the same but use less energy.

Talking about AMD:

AMD blog fail suggests Fluid Motion Frames 2 is exiting beta in its full September driver release
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/amd-blog-fail-suggests-fluid-motion-frames-2-is-exiting-beta-in-its-full-september-driver-release/
With AMD's FSR 3 frame generation being supported in an ever-increasing number of games and with talk of an AI-based FSR 4, one could be forgiven for forgetting all about AMD's Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF), its driver-based global frame generation tech. AMD certainly hasn't forgotten about it, though, because the company has seemingly just announced that the second generation of the technology will launch with the next Adrenalin driver.

I say "seemingly" because the AMD blog page announcement is short and vague. It says, "We’ve made continuous enhancements to the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition application, introducing valuable updates and innovative features - in this latest version of AMD Software, we're excited to announce AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2." 

Switch 2 will be a much needed jump for 1st party games. I'm still sticking with my PC for 3rd party.

If the specs are true, I like that they went with 12gb of ram. A series S for example as 10gb with 2gb being dedicated to OS. Series X has 10gb of high speed vram where as the remaining 6 is low speed. So if the switch 2 has 12gb with 2gb dedicated to OS, it's in a good spot for game logic.

And let's not forget that memory bandwitch was a big bottlenecj for the Switch. With a wider memory bus plus much faster RAM, that will hopefully not be the case anymore.

Nintendo, alongside The Pokémon Company, has filled a lawsuit against Pocketpair. It seeks an injunction and compensation for alleged patent rights infringements with the videogame Palworld. 

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2024/240919.html

I am not that shocked. What surprises me is that they went with patent infringement. I think they would have a stronger case for copyright violation.