Yeah, these past 3 Nvidia gens are basically telling me to either go 80 series or even 90 series, or just going home and not using RT features at all.

Also doesn't help that the past 3 Nvidia gens have seen Nvidia forcefully cutting down on VRAM, while also locking certain features to only one GPU line or two (DLSS/Frame Gen as examples). With them cutting corners like that, and forcing planned obsolescence, it's going to end up with the customer having to pay that Nvidia tax for each new gen, while also facing the same cuts, locked features and so on.

Nvidia needs to change this tactic, because it's not going to work forever, ppl will have a breaking point as the prices go up, corners getting cut, and GPU's just not cutting it every gen (Would not be surprised if they force it to a point where only the 90 series is truly viable for newer features/tech, making any other number below next to worthless). 

Also I play at 1440p myself, and I'm getting rather sick of some devs just resorting to "use DLSS and you're cool bro" tactic when it comes to game dev design, where they create their games entirely around the band-aid solution, and then when you don't use it, you just get outright punished for it, and that's not what should be happening at all in this modern age (It happened frequently in the old days, which was why we always had to buy the latest and greatest, but not today, not with what we have on offer). 

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The guys at GOG have gone insane with 8 new sales/promos during the next 7 days:

• The Zero Carbon Quest Sale, featuring “publishers and developers that put effort into caring about the planet we live in” has games up to 60% off: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/zero_carbon_quest_2024
• Raw Fury’s Rawcember is back another year with up to 80% discounts: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241204_rawcember
• The Only on GOG Promo has games up to 85% off: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241204_only_on_gog_promo
• The Perfect Gift Promo features up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241204_perfect_gift_promo
• There are new Weekly Deals, with games up to 94% off: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241204_weekly_deals_1_december
• The Last Decade Promo comes in style with up to 95% discounts: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2024_last_decade_promo
• Next up comes the Make Your Choice Promo and its up to 95% discounts: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241204_make_your_choice_promo
• And the last one is Point, Think, Click! Sale, with games up to 95% off: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20241204_point_think_click_promo

And Fanatical has three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Chernobylite Enhanced Edition, 73% off during 24h: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/chernobylite-enhanced-edition
• Publisher Deep Silver puts its games on sale during 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/deep-silver
• The new bundle is the Killer Bundle (BundleFestive Edition), with 11 games and a 93% discount during 34 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/killer-bundle-bundlefestive-edition

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Intel has announced XeSS 2, and here are the first games that will support it
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/intel-has-announced-xess-2-and-here-are-the-first-games-that-will-support-it/
Intel has just announced its Battlemage GPUs, and has revealed the latest version of XeSS, XeSS 2. XeSS 2 will feature XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS Frame Generation and Xe Low Latency. Intel has also revealed the first games that will support XeSS 2. So, let’s take a closer look at what Intel has announced. (...) As for Intel XeSS 2, the blue team claims that the first games to support it will be Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Robocop: Rogue City, F1 24, Dying Light 2 and more. Also, as with DLSS 3 Frame Generation when it launched, XeSS 2 Frame Generation will not be available to the previous Arc GPUs. In other words, it will be exclusive to the Battlemage GPUs. Correction. XeSS 2 Frame Generation will work with the first Arc GPUs.
>> The article has a slide with the 10 games.

INTEL Arc Graphics 32.0.101.6314 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-graphics-32-0-101-6314
Highlights
Fixed Issues
Intel Arc A-Series Graphics Products:

• Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio may experience lower than expected performance on certain workloads.

Intel Core Ultra (Series 1 and 2) with built-in Intel® Arc™ GPUs:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (DX12) may exhibit texture corruption on water surfaces.
• Minecraft Bedrock (DX12) may exhibit texture corruption during gameplay while changing anti-aliasing settings.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

New Yakuza: Like a Dragon Mod brings proper 1:1 mouse input
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-yakuza-like-a-dragon-mod-brings-proper-11-mouse-input/
As you may all know, I’m a huge fan of the Yakuza series. And although Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio recommends a gamepad, I’ve played all of them with keyboard and mouse. Yes, the mouse implementation in most of them is not that good. However, all of them are playable. At least in my opinion. However, if you could not stand the K&M implementation in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, there is now a mod that fixes it. Created by Dawid Freeman, this mod replaces the analog stick emulation for proper 1:1 mouse input with no acceleration. As such, you will be now able to enjoy this Yakuza game with raw mouse input.
>> The article has an over 3 minutes video.

Galactically petty Half-Life 2 modders ban 'anticitizens' who criticised their mod by targeting their Steam IDs, leave the proof visible in code: 'Script kiddies vibes from this lmao'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/galactically-petty-half-life-2-modders-ban-anticitizens-who-criticised-their-mod-by-targeting-their-steam-ids-leave-the-proof-visible-in-code-script-kiddies-vibes-from-this-lmao/
In an act of incredibly targeted pettiness, the developers behind a Half-Life 2 mod that's been available since 2022 have managed to ban a select group of YouTubers from playing the latest version of their work. The mod in question, Half-Life 2: Overcharged, is an "overhaul modification" that adds new enemies and weapons as well as restoring some cut content, promising new ways to play and so on (thanks, RPS).
Except it wasn't all that great. Looking over the user reviews, people generally seem to have had some fun with Overcharged but reckon it could've used a bit more work, and doesn't live up to some of the more grandiose claims. So far, so normal: There are a thousand mods that fit such a description.
Certain YouTubers who specialise in playing and talking about Half-Life 2 mods made videos about Overcharged in the time since its release, and they weren't very kind to it. Again, pretty normal. But last month the Overcharged developers released a 2.0 update for the mod, promising fixes for many of the issues raised by players, and when certain YouTubers went to try this out, they got a nasty surprise.
For them, loading up the mod sees the game crash, and subsequently display an error message that says "STOP talking SH1T about us!"
YouTuber NoClick is one of those affected, and initially assumed this was just a problem with his installs or the mod… before realising that the error message is perhaps a little too pointed. Checking in with some other Half-Life 2 fanciers, he realised that fellow YouTuber Radiation Hazard also had this issue, and in fact four YouTubers in total were targeted in this way.
How? "There is proof the Half-Life 2: Overcharged developers used my SteamID, Scolcer's SteamID, Keron's SteamDB and Radiation Hazard's SteamID to ban us from playing the mod," says NoClick, linking to the mod's code which shows it running checks for all of the above Steam IDs, and referring to them as "anticitizens."
The most obvious thing to say about this is that it's so absolutely, utterly petty that it almost raises a smile. But targeting your critics is never a good idea, and using YouTuber's Steam IDs to ban them from playing your mod is just asking for trouble.
Sure enough, anyone with an interest in Half-Life 2 modding is now very mad with the team behind Overcharged. The ModDB page is now overflowing with negative reviews of the mod, many containing the line "the sun is leaking" in reference to one of Overcharged's more notably lighting glitches, while others are more concerned about whether this falls under Steam's definition of malware.
>> There’s a video with the response of one of those youtubers.

Red Dead Redemption 2 modded so wagons and horses travel at supersonic speeds—and the results are ludicrous
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/red-dead-redemption-2-modded-so-wagons-and-horses-travel-at-supersonic-speeds-and-the-results-are-ludicrous/
You only have to take one look at our Red Dead Redemption 2 review to see that it's a slow-burn masterpiece of an RPG that takes immersion in video games to a fantastic level. RDR2 is a great game, no doubt about it.
But, you know what would make Red Dead Redemption 2 even better? I know what you're thinking, supersonic horses! What better way to take an already great game and inject it with that X-factor to take it to S-rank. What was Rockstar thinking in not making maximum horse and wagon velocity a toggleable option?!
Luckily, talented content creator Blurbstv has got our backs here, modding Red Dead Redemption 2 so that the dream of supersonic stallions is achieved. And, well, as can be seen from the video below, the results are quite frankly ridiculous.
So, yeah. As Blurbstv himself calls out, having horses and wagons operate at supersonic speeds in Read Dead Redemption 2 actually introduces a level of chaotic horror into it. Stallions and carriages just suddenly appear out of nowhere at crazy speeds, making crossing roads a super serious life-or-death situation. At multiple points in the video Arthur Morgan is simply minding his own Wild West business, only to be ambushed out of nowhere by a killer horse and cart combo. Morgan is sent flying, crushed to death by wagon wheels, or simply ragdolled violently into the nearest structure.
What's more, turning horse and wagon speed up to this level seems to totally break the game's engine, too, with horses and wagons sent careering seemingly with no cause into buildings and other NPCs. Then there's the moment when Arthur is trying to catch-up and stop a horse-drawn wagon for a story mission, only to find himself chasing a carriage that is flying around in the sky, with its horses zigging and zagging across the great blue as if they were descendants of Pegasus.
>> Sounds like an awesome prank.

Astarion voice actor Neil Newbon offered Fallout: London modders free work, but they accidentally left him on read for nearly 2 years
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/astarion-voice-actor-neil-newbon-offered-fallout-london-modders-free-work-but-they-accidentally-left-him-on-read-for-nearly-2-years/
Fallout: London is truly impressive, and I say that despite the fact my opening hours with it consisted of three parts crashes to one part game. Still, it's doing a lot better now, and after a few patches the devs reckon one of the most ambitious Fallout modding projects out there should be "solid as a rock".
I wonder if it's that ambition that made the project attractive to Neil Newbon, whom you almost certainly know as Baldur's Gate 3's Astarion, when he signed on to voice a character in the mod. You'd think Team FOLON—the devs—would have been quick to snap up an actor as talented as Newbon as soon as he threw his hat in the ring, but actually, they left him on read. For over a year.
In a chat with GINX TV in a video that'll go up this Sunday, Newbon revealed that he reached out to Team FOLON a long time before he joined the project: "I'd already sent them a message like a year before. Maybe two years—it was a long time ago, saying 'hey, this sounds great. I want to be involved.'
"And they missed my message. For about that year and a half." Which, hey, I get it. Let me take a moment here to apologise to everyone I owe a reply email to—it's not you, it's me. Still, it is kind of funny that someone as talented, and whose name is now as big, as Newbon ended up relegated to the same folder that housed the devs' Tesco Clubcard offers for almost two years.
It sounds like Team FOLON only quite realised what it had on its hands after BG3's meteoric success, but Newbon was still very game. "I'm a fan of Fallout and it's a free mod, that's not an issue. I'd love to offer myself up to help."

GAMING NEWS

STALKER 2 Patch 1.0.3 released, is 19GB in size, fixes mouse controls, missing saves and crash issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/stalker-2-patch-1-0-3-released-is-19gb-in-size-fixes-mouse-controls-missing-saves-and-crash-issues/
GSC GameWorld has released the third patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl and shared its complete changelog. This update is 19GB in size on PC, and it fixes 19 issues in total. So, let’s take a look at it.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle gets official PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-gets-official-pc-requirements/
MachineGames has revealed the official PC system requirements for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. These PC requirements also include the Full Ray Tracing requirements. So, let’s take a look at them.
>> The requirements are a bit higher than usual because it requires GPUs with raytracing hardware.

PUBG: Battlegrounds Patch 33.1 adds destructible terrain to Sanhok, brings numerous visual improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/pubg-battlegrounds-patch-33-1-adds-destructible-terrain-to-sanhok/
PUBG Corporation has released Title Update 33.1 for its battle royale game, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and shared its full patch notes. This update adds destructible terrain to Sanhok, and brings a number of visual improvements to the whole game. So, let’s take a closer look at it.

Crimson Desert gets a new 7-minute gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/crimson-desert-gets-a-new-7-minute-gameplay-trailer/
IGN has shared a new trailer for Crimson Desert, showcasing 7 minutes of new gameplay footage from it. This video shows off another boss battle, this time against Hexe Marie. So, go ahead and take a look at it.

The news, the second part:

The Finals flies to Mexico next season with a new map and a Heavy rifle with 'immense stopping power'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-finals-flies-to-mexico-next-season-with-a-new-map-and-a-heavy-rifle-with-immense-stopping-power/
This time last year, The Finals made its big debut at The Game Awards with a surprise launch that catapulted it among the most-played games on Steam for a time. Now, developer Embark is celebrating The Finals' first anniversary in style: A new map, more toys to play with, a clan system, and visual refreshes for existing maps.

Atlyss is a considerately horny RPG where you can play the thickest furry this side of the internet, but I'm in it for the fun action and oldschool MMO nostalgia, I swear
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/atlyss-is-a-considerately-horny-rpg-where-you-can-play-the-thickest-furry-this-side-of-the-internet-but-im-in-it-for-the-fun-action-and-oldschool-mmo-nostalgia-i-swear/
Dear reader, I want to entreat you to read the rest of this spotlight with an open mind. I have a bit of a history on this site for advocating for the underdog—or the horndog, one might say. I do this because I think it's funnier to try and empathise with the abyss than it is to point and laugh at it. Anyone can poke fun, but to try and genuinely understand something that strikes you as 'weird' is always going to be more interesting than taking cheap shots. It's with this approach in mind that I cautiously approached Atlyss, a pseudo-MMO developed by lone developer Kiseff.

Stalker 2 devs say the scrubbed mentions of anticipated NPC code A-Life 2.0 (which is busted, but there) were due to a marketing guy going rogue
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/stalker-2-devs-say-the-scrubbed-mentions-of-anticipated-npc-code-a-life-2-0-which-is-busted-but-there-was-due-to-a-marketing-guy-going-rogue/
Stalker 2 is out, and while I'm not exactly a big Stalker-head like our own Joshua Wolens, who gave it a 83 in his Stalker 2 review, I do know one thing about it through sheer cultural osmosis. (...)
One of the things its predecessor was lauded for, aside from a charmingly janky personality, was its A-Life system. This is a fancy term which, boiled down, essentially means that developers GSC nailed a sense of cause and effect with its NPC AI—something our Josh praises in his review when a pack of wild dogs run headfirst into an objective, and the game permits them to simply solve the military checkpoint for him.
As the devs mentioned late last month, A-Life 2.0 is still definitely in Stalker 2, it's just busted right now. But the bugs, combined with the sudden removal of A-Life's mention from the Steam page prompted a flurry of conspiracy theories, particularly on the game's subreddit. The idea being that GSC had simply abandoned the feature entirely. Turns out, it was just because some marketing guy got a little big for his boots at the worst possible moment.

Monster Hunter Wilds game director says the beta's missing hitstop has already been tweaked, thanks to 'very positive feedback' from hitstop-hungry veteran hunters
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/monster-hunter-wilds-game-director-says-the-betas-missing-hitstop-has-already-been-tweaked-thanks-to-very-positive-feedback-from-hitstop-hungry-veteran-hunters/
Back in the Monster Hunter Wilds open beta, something felt off. No, I don't mean the inconsistent framerates or the outbreak of polygonal origami monsters. I mean the baffling decrease in hitstop—an animation technique that intentionally pauses combat animations at the frame where an attack makes contact to add an additional sense of impact. Luckily, Capcom's already been readjusting the amount of hitstop for Wilds's launch in February, according to game director Yuya Tokuda.

Mass Effect boss may have dropped a hint about the next game: 'Make sure you play Lair of the Shadow Broker'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/mass-effect-boss-may-have-dropped-a-hint-about-the-next-game-make-sure-you-play-lair-of-the-shadow-broker/
We don't know much about the next Mass Effect game yet, except that it's happening and Liara T'Soni will be in it. That's left fans of the series eager for whatever scraps of information they can get their hands on, and BioWare's Michael Gamble, who's heading up work on Mass Effect 4, might have just thrown them a bone.

I'm afraid there's a Helldivers 2 sex game, and yes it is called Sexdivers
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/im-afraid-theres-a-helldivers-2-sex-game-and-yes-it-is-called-sexdivers/
A decent metric to judge when a game has truly hit the mainstream is when Steam's active sex game scene sees fit to make a parody. Congrats Helldivers 2, meet SEXDIVERS 🔞, an "intense survival shooter" releasing sometime in 2025. Yes, the emoji is in the title—I didn't know you could do that on Steam either.
>> Two NSFW games in the same days? That’s a first.

StarCraft 2's impossible mission has been beaten after 14 years by a guy who turned the 'Archon Toilet' into an 'Archon Bidet'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rts/starcraft-2s-impossible-mission-has-been-beaten-after-14-years-by-a-guy-who-turned-the-archon-toilet-into-an-archon-bidet/
In Utter Darkness is a mission in StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty that you're destined to lose. The protoss are making a last stand against zerg forces: The goal isn't victory, but to protect the construction of an archive that might aid some future species in their own war against the zerg. Hold the line, kill enough zerg, and you win—even though, y'know, you lose. But what if you could beat back destiny—what if you didn't lose?
YouTuber Davey Gunface set himself to the impossible task, and 14 years after StarCraft 2 launched, he's managed to pull it off. He didn't win, strictly speaking, because there is no win condition, but he didn't lose, either. By employing very high-level StarCraft 2 strategies, and taking advantage of some weaknesses in the enemy AI, he was able to lock the zerg into an effective stalemate.

Fortnite's drastically diminished Save the World XP rewards was a bug, Epic says, but now it's fixed
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/battle-royale/fortnites-drastically-diminished-save-the-world-xp-rewards-is-a-bug-epic-says/
Epic Games says a recent change to Fortnite Save the World that drastically cut back on the XP players could earn was in fact a bug, and the issue is being fixed. Update: Several hours after acknowledging the problems with XP rewards in Fortnite, Epic now says they've been fixed. "We've made several adjustments and fixes to XP across Fortnite!" Epic posted on X. "Daily bonus goal rewards are now higher. Lego Fortnite quest XP has been fixed (now rewarding 25,000 instead of 700). Increased weekly XP earnable in Save The World, Lego Fortnite, Reload, and Creative experiences. "We’ll continue to monitor and ensure that players can earn similar amounts of XP regardless of their game mode and will make further adjustments as needed." The amount of the increases has not been specified.

Ubisoft loses faith in free-to-play CoD competitor XDefiant, will shut it down in 2025: 'Many free-to-play games take a long time to find their footing and become profitable'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/ubisoft-loses-faith-in-free-to-play-cod-competitor-xdefiant-will-shut-it-down-in-2025-many-free-to-play-games-take-a-long-time-to-find-their-footing-and-become-profitable/
XDefiant, Ubisoft's free-to-play CoD-like, will close by June next year, the game's official X account has confirmed. According to the announcement the "sunsetting" process will begin today, though the promised Season 3 content will still be rolled out ahead of the game's June 3, 2025 D-Day.

Helldivers 2 hits 'Overwhelmingly Positive' recent reviews on Steam, losing 2,225 negative reviews and gaining over 29,000 positive ones in the past month
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-hits-overwhelmingly-positive-recent-reviews-on-steam-losing-2-225-negative-reviews-and-gaining-over-29-000-positive-ones-in-the-past-month/
Helldivers 2 really does appear to have won its playerbase's enthusiasm back, recent snafus with the Democracy Space Station aside. Its recent reviews are now "Overwhelmingly Positive" on Steam, meaning that over 95% of recent reviewers have been left with a good impression while fighting for Super Earth.

PlayStation co-CEO spits out a bizarre prediction about the future of AI and gaming—one I pray never happens
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/playstation-co-ceo-spits-out-a-bizarre-prediction-about-the-future-of-ai-and-gaming-one-i-pray-never-happens/
The concept of AI-driven game development is a largely untested, pie in the sky dream mostly supported by people who don't actually make games, including Diablo fan Elon Musk, but that hasn't stopped PlayStation co-CEO Hermen Hulst from predicting that it will become the norm.

GSC says it couldn't delay Stalker 2 to fix bugs because 'one more marathon' might have destroyed the devs: 'It has some problems, but it's a game! It's a game with soul'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/gsc-says-it-couldnt-delay-stalker-2-to-fix-bugs-because-one-more-marathon-might-have-destroyed-the-devs-it-has-some-problems-but-its-a-game-its-a-game-with-soul/
Stalker 2 is great. Heck, it's my game of the year, and I said as much in my Stalker 2 review. But it also launched with a hell of a lot of bugs. To its credit, developer GSC Game World is cranking out patches at a dizzying pace, and they seem to be making a difference, but it does raise the question: why didn't the studio just delay the game?
In a chat with Eurogamer, GSC boss Ievgen Grygorovych said the reason was simple: it might have finally, totally broken the devs. "You're in a very intensive work process for many months until release, and you're working over, over, over what you usually can do and in the highest possible stress… You have no energy at all and you decide—should we take one more marathon?"

AMD confirms Radeon RX 8600 and RX 8800 RDNA4 GPU series

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-confirms-radeon-rx-8600-and-rx-8800-rdna4-gpu-series

Intel Arc B580 features three DisplayPort 2.1 connectors, with only one supporting UHBR13.5

https://videocardz.com/pixel/intel-arc-b580-features-three-displayport-2-1-connectors-with-only-one-supporting-uhbr13-5

Meh honestly, a gpu of this range doesn't need full bandwidth realistically

NVIDIA’s Next-Gen “Rubin” Architecture Is Now Rumored To Be Released By “Six Months” Ahead of Schedule

https://wccftech.com/nvidias-next-gen-rubin-architecture-is-now-rumored-to-be-released-by-six-months-ahead-of-schedule/

Intel Apparently Made Former CEO Pat Gelsinger A Scapegoat For Defending Sluggish Business, Claims Channel Partners

https://wccftech.com/intel-apparently-made-former-ceo-pat-gelsinger-a-scapegoat-for-defending-sluggish-business-claims-channel-partners/

AMD Discloses “CES 2025” Press Event Details; Expect RDNA 4 GPUs, Strix Halo/Krackan Point APUs & Much More

https://wccftech.com/amd-discloses-ces-2025-press-event-details-expect-rdna-4-gpus-strix-halo-krackan-point-apus-much-more/

“World’s First” Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite based Mini-PC revealed

https://videocardz.com/newz/worlds-first-qualcomm-snapdragon-x-elite-based-mini-pc-revealed

The higher end models from Intel will arrive later, but we still don't know when. They have decided to launch first their mid-range cards because they'll have that market for themselves for longer than the higher end ones, and the lower end ones aren't that exciting.

Wow, that Vita emulator is amazing.

From PCGH.de they're awaiting prices of 289€ for the B580 and 219€ for the B570. Especially the latter seems like a banger of a price with pretty much zero competition in the price range, as the only "new" cards in it's price range are the RTX 3050 and the RX 6500 and RX 6600 while it's performance is probably more around the RX 6650XT or slightly below the RX 6700 10GB.