Tried to get my friend a 5090 from cuckegg and cuckbuy at 6am pt. Cuckegg had zero in stock while we were able to add to cart with cuckbuy but their site crashed so we got cucked. Suffices to say it was not worth the 6am early rise.

Smooth Motion will be coming to RTX40 series GPUs in a future update.

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/smooth-motion-is-nvidias-answer-to-amds-fluid-motion-frames/

Not that I'd use driver based frame gen

NVIDIA RTX Video Super Resolution gets a new AI-model which needs less GPU power

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-rtx-video-super-resolution-gets-a-new-ai-model-which-needs-less-gpu-power

Intel says Panther Lake is on track for 2H 2025 launch, Nova Lake in 2026, but cancels Falcon Shores project

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-says-panther-lake-is-on-track-for-2h-2025-launch-nova-lake-in-2026-but-cancels-falcon-shores-project

Intel Nova Lake-S for desktops rumored to feature 2x(8P+16E) configuration

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-nova-lake-s-for-desktops-rumored-to-feature-2x8p16e-configuration

Scalper bots said to be responsible for majority of GeForce RTX 50 Founders Edition sales in Europe

https://videocardz.com/newz/scalper-bots-said-to-be-responsible-for-majority-of-geforce-rtx-50-founders-edition-sales-in-europe

Asus denies reports of quick-release GPU damage, but offers support for affected users

https://www.techspot.com/news/106583-asus-denies-quick-release-gpu-damage-reports-but.html

The Friday news are here!

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Alas, it's been estimated that WoW's $90 FOMO dinosaur mount probably made Blizzard around $15-17 million, and at this point I think we all deserve to be here
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/alas-its-been-estimated-that-wows-usd90-fomo-dinosaur-mount-probably-made-blizzard-around-usd15-17-million-and-at-this-point-i-think-we-all-deserve-to-be-here/
Dear reader, I have a lot of positive words to say about World of Warcraft recently. The way Blizzard and its developers have clawed their way back from the pits of hell in Shadowlands is downright commendable, and the game is in one of the best states it's been in in years. Not perfect, mind you. Rewards systems are still a little wobbly, and there are your usual barrel of glitches, but it's all a damn sight better.
But that $90 dinosaur mount, temporarily added to the store, which had a huge quality of life feature slapped onto the side? It's the most brazenly, transparently-engineered microtransactional nonsense move I've seen out of the company in quite some time. It's utter and complete rot, selling a mobile auction house at a premium for a small window—so that those who bought in have a permanent advantage? Gross. Naturally, though, a ton of players bought them and paraded them around Dornogal in some kind of prehistoric frenzy.
Well, turns out, in an estimate by WoWHead, it probably made Blizzard millions of dollars. Nearly $17 million, though this number comes with some caveats, which I'll get into in a moment.
>>*Sigh* We get what we deserve and, thanks to things like this, we deserve nothing but being milked to death.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Dark Souls 3 Visual Overhaul Mod Available for Download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/dark-souls-3-visual-overhaul-mod-available-for-download/
Modder ‘fromsoftserve’ has just released his Visual Overhaul Mod for the third Dark Souls game, Dark Souls 3. This mod aims to completely overhaul the game’s graphics. So, let’s take a look at it.
DS3 Visual Overhaul LOD removes the object and texture pop-ins that plagued the game. Moreover, it modifies reflectance maps to fix overly metallic look, and enhances the SSAO. The mod also improves pointlights by modifying their falloff, and adds dynamic shadows.
It’s also worth noting that the mod removes the hero light that was used on the main character and the enemies. As such, all characters will now feel more grounded in the environment. Plus, it removes vignette and colorgrading, and it adjusts lightmap usage of normalmaps.
In future versions, the modder will upscale all textures in the game and save them as BC7 texture compression. Furthermore, he will add parallax occlusion mapping to more surfaces.
>> The article has an over 3 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

Invariant is a Half-Life-inspired FPS from former Serious Sam devs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/invariant-is-a-half-life-inspired-fps-from-former-serious-sam-devs/
Now here is a game that passed under my radar. Last month, Faros Interactive released a teaser trailer for its upcoming Half-Life-inspired FPS, Invariant. So, let’s take a look at it, shall we?

Friday news, part two:

Team Ninja says a Ninja Gaiden 2 Black patch with 'balance adjustments' will arrive in a few weeks, and hopefully kill us all that little bit harder
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/team-ninja-says-a-ninja-gaiden-2-black-patch-with-balance-adjustments-will-arrive-in-a-few-weeks-and-hopefully-kill-us-all-that-little-bit-harder/
Last week saw the surprise announcement of Ninja Gaiden 4, and the simultaneous release of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. The latter's subtitle had me incredibly excited, channeling as it does the definitive version of the original game and promising that, after the disappointing NG Sigma 2, it was time to chop up some baddies properly.
Well, turns out that NG 2 Black gets very close to that, but does have some hangovers from Sigma and is not quite the more direct remaster of the 360 original some were hoping for. As PCG's review said on the way to awarding it a very respectable 85%, this is "not the exact remaster some were hoping for, but Ninja Gaiden Black 2 is still an action game with few equals."
(...)
Team Ninja: Hear my call! Perhaps it has because, alongside releasing a minor patch, the studio now says: "Based on the feedback received, we are preparing a patch aimed for release in mid-February with some balance adjustments and additional features."

My two loves, books and cozy games, meet again in this tiny shop sim demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/my-two-loves-books-and-cozy-games-meet-again-in-this-tiny-shop-sim-demo/
Cozy games are spoiling me lately because there is now not just one, but a second little management game combining my two loves: books and little shop simulators. There may be nothing cozy about working retail in real life, but Book Bound boils the task of slinging paperbacks down to a pleasant little sim, with a demo that you can play right now.

Teasers for The Sims 1 and 2 re-releases continue with this official Y2K-inspired Sims site that's giving me severe nostalgia whiplash
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/teasers-for-the-sims-1-and-2-re-releases-continue-with-this-official-y2k-inspired-sims-site-thats-giving-me-severe-nostalgia-whiplash/
The Sims turns 25 in just a few days, and EA is out to make sure I feel old as hell about it. As part of its ongoing celebrations, which started earlier this month with a rather lackluster Behind the Sims presentation but has slowly been ramping up the goodies, the developer just dropped an atrociously accurate Y2K-style website dedicated to the first two games. Comic Sans and all.

BioWare veterans confirm they were laid off by EA, including senior Dragon Age and Mass Effect devs
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/bioware-veterans-confirm-they-were-laid-off-by-ea-including-senior-dragon-age-and-mass-effect-devs/
Electronic Arts announced a downsizing of BioWare yesterday that saw "many" employees being moved to other studios within the company while "a core team" continues work on the next Mass Effect. EA declined to comment on whether the restructuring would also result in layoffs, but to absolutely no one's surprise, it has, including some serious veteran talent.

Inzoi won't stop promising new features even though its launch is only 2 months away
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/inzoi-wont-stop-promising-new-features-even-though-its-launch-is-only-2-months-away/
Keeping track of the planned features for upcoming life sim Inzoi is nearly a full-time job—for me and probably for several project managers at Krafton—because its game director just won't stop promising more player-requested additions. Every week I nervously look at the calendar as Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim makes new lists of features coming in time for the early access launch date in March. And he just did it again last week with only two months to go.

As Elder Scrolls: Legends shuts down, a mod delivers the perfect dedication to the rampers, aggros, mids, late gamers, invaders, ropers, comboers, and everyone else who loved it: 'Whoever you are: You are Legends'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/elder-scrolls-legends-card-game-shuts-down-january-30-send-off/
The Elder Scrolls: Legends players are sharing commiserations online as the digital card game they've been playing for years has gone dark once and for all.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends launched in 2017 and despite the art being a little underwhelming in places, quickly proved to be "a deep and potentially rewarding alternative to Hearthstone." There were rough patches in the early days, but the game seemed to turn a corner with the Isle of Madness expansion in 2019. But it was never able to seriously challenge Blizzard for the card game crown, and development was halted later that same year. The game continued to operate, but in November 2024 Bethesda announced that it would go away for good on January 30.
There was disappointment then, and a little bit of anger over the upcoming loss of a game many players had sunk money into, but that seems mostly gone now. In its place, there's a shared sense of loss and mourning on the Elder Scrolls: Legends subreddit, where players are posting farewell messages and images of their final stats and server error messages.

Midnight Society, the studio co-founded by Dr Disrespect, is closing its doors the same day the disgraced streamer says his YouTube channel is being remonetized
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/midnight-society-the-studio-co-founded-by-dr-disrespect-is-closing-its-doors-the-same-day-the-disgraced-streamer-says-his-youtube-channel-is-being-remonetized/
Just months after laying off a "significant" number of employees in the face of "unexpected challenges," Midnight Society, the studio co-founded in 2021 by Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm, former Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling, and Halo 5 multiplayer designer Quinn Delhoyo, has announced that it's closing completely.

Banks in Japan are blocking Steam payments for sex games, leaving Japanese adult game devs cut off from income
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/banks-in-japan-are-blocking-steam-payments-for-sex-games-leaving-japanese-adult-game-devs-cut-off-from-income/
I'm sure I don't have to tell you if you've ever toggled off Steam's sexual content filters—whether out of curiosity or otherwise is your business—but there's a lot of porn on Steam. At time of writing, of the roughly 122,000 games on Steam, almost 6,000 are marked as Adult Only. That's about 1 in 20, and nearly half of those are tagged as Hentai games. Despite the surplus of horny anime material available for purchase, Japanese adult game devs are apparently being kept from the profits of their Steam sales.
Yesterday, Taro Yamada, a member of the Japanese Diet's House of Councillors, said on X that lawmakers have received reports that banks in Japan are preventing Japanese developers from accessing the revenue from overseas Steam sales of games with adult content (via Automaton). "If the game in question is for adult audiences," Yamada said via machine translation, "their remittances from abroad are rejected by Japanese banks, meaning they are unable to receive the profits."
Additionally, Yamada said that Japanese companies who "deal with adult games" are being prevented from opening bank accounts.
>> Oh, the hypocrisy!

Wayne June, famed narrator of the Darkest Dungeon games, has died
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/wayne-june-famed-narrator-of-the-darkest-dungeon-games-has-died/
Wayne June, the famed narrator of the Darkest Dungeon games, has died. June's passing was announced on Bluesky by Darkest Dungeon creative director Chris Bourassa, who described June as "ancestor, academic, artist, and friend."

Remember the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Kickboxer? They're making a videogame of it now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/remember-the-jean-claude-van-damme-movie-kickboxer-theyre-making-a-videogame-of-it-now/
Maybe you're too young to remember Kickboxer, the 1989 martial arts movie where Jean-Claude Van Damme learns Muay Thai in a training montage, kicks down a banana tree, and dances in a way that suggests his ballet training was all for naught. Even as someone who wasted a good chunk of my life watching martial arts movies, I only just learned that Kickboxer, er, kicked off a series that led to four sequels, a reboot, and a sequel to said reboot. And next: a videogame.
Force Multiplier Studios has the rights to games based on the Kickboxer cinematic universe, and is making a game it says "will combine the rich narrative of Kickboxer with kinetic martial arts action to deliver an intense, high-octane brawler, and feature iconic characters and locations from the franchise".

And these are the weekend deals at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The New Year Sale is still going on, and will last for another 4 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2025_new_year_sale
• Publisher Crunching Koalas puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts until the 10th of February: https://www.gog.com/en/games?publishers=crunching-koalas

+Steam

• Crunching Koalas presents the Laughs & Smiles Game Festival 2025, with games from many publishers. There are games up to 90% off, and the length of the deals vary, with some ending Monday while others will last until February 13: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34046344/sale/LaughsAndSmiles2025
• Contraband Police, that has a demo, gets a 51% discount until the 6th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/app/756800/Contraband_Police/
• Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 will be 30% off until February, the 10th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2933620/Call_of_Duty_Black_Ops_6/
• Enshrouded, still in Early Access, features a 20% discount until the 11th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1203620/Enshrouded/
• The last one is Besiege, with an 80% deal until February 13: https://store.steampowered.com/app/346010/Besiege/

That’s it for this week. Until the next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 released here in Brazil.

Here are some prices at Kabum, probably the most popular tech shop around here, where I got my 3050 Galax:

RTX 5080 Palit GamingPro: R$ 9.799,99

RTX 5080 Inno3D X3 OC White: R$ 9.989,99

RTX 5080 MSI VENTUS 3X: R$ 10.789,99

RTX 5080 Gigabyte WINDFORCE: R$ 11.999,99

RTX 5080 ASUS PRIME R$ 13.999,99

RTX 5090 Gamerock: R$ 19.999,99

Yeah... No, thanks. I think I'm fine for now...

That's actually crazy. I mean, people climbing fences of a kindergarten over a GPU? Color me impressed.

I guess PC gaming in Japan must be quite popular.

For context, what are the "official" prices in Brazil?

Here in Spain, the official prices are 2369€ and 1190€ respectively, but I doubt you could find any at that price at launch (that's well above my target and I didn't bother to check it out).

I love this kind of petty attitude:

eBay users are getting back at graphics card scalping bots by listing pictures of the RTX 5090 for $2000, occasionally framed
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/ebay-users-are-getting-back-at-graphics-card-scalping-bots-by-listing-pictures-of-the-rtx-5090-for-usd2000-occasionally-framed/
Another graphics card launch filled with bots, scalpers, and 300% markups. Nvidia's hotly anticipated GPUs, the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, went on sale this week and scalpers have bought as many as they can to sell on for higher prices. Yet there are some seemingly looking to stop them from getting away with it.

To catch out any bots hoovering up these sales, eBay users are now posting fake listings for these graphics cards to trick them.

In both the US and the UK, you can find tonnes of listings for what appears to be an RTX 5090 around the card's MSRP. Many of these also come with a light warning to 'read description' at the end. This clues you into the strange game being played here.

In the description sits a disclaimer that these sellers are actually emailing pictures of RTX cards to unsophisticated bots or even more unsophisticated scalpers, people looking to take advantage of the low supply, high demand situation to resell graphics cards for a pretty penny.

The article is longer than that, and even mentions a couple of successes.

Oh, first of all, I made a mistake. The ASUS PRIME RTX at the list is a 5080, not 5090. The only 5090 in the list is the Gamerock one. Well, I did a quick look at Google, and it looks like the prices are from R$ 9.800 for RTX 5080, up to R$ 23.000 for the RTX 5090. (Source)

Since 1 dollar = aorund R$ 5,80, you can say the price is from 1.689 dollars up to 3.965 dollars. In other words, out of reach for most brazilian people.

Hoping next week's B&H launch has enough 5090 stock for me to snag one. 

I currently connect a 4090 (over oculink) and 4080 (over USB 4) to my laptop for about 40GB of VRAM that I use for DL/RL/ML workloads. 

Would love to switch out the 4080 with a 5090, go from 40GB to 56GB of VRAM, and then put the 4080 in my main gaming PC (like to split work device from gaming device so that I don't get distracted while working.) 

Even the RTX 4080 is overkill for gaming, imo.