Microsoft in their infinite wisdom, instead of creating a simple solution for people trying to set up windows without the wifi or lan drivers, which can't always install properly from a usb even when people follow the correct steps, are instead planning to disable the one easy workaround people can use.

Thanks Microsoft, you shouldn't have...

Not sure if it's related but I made a Windows 11 USB for installation on my new build a couple of days ago and It had me worried straight away thinking do I have a problem since every time it changed sections and rebooted whilst installing it brought me to a page saying connection lost and it took a few seconds for my Ethernet to initialize then I had to click next each time.

GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU is 10-15% slower than RTX 5090 in identical system configuration

https://videocardz.com/newz/geforce-rtx-5080-laptop-gpu-is-10-15-slower-than-rtx-5090-in-identical-system-configuration

Intel confirms Panther Lake as a 2026 Client product, discrete GPUs also get a nod

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-confirms-panther-lake-as-a-2026-client-product-discrete-gpus-also-get-a-nod

Over 100 Dead Ryzen 7 9800X3D Cases Have Been Reported Till Now, Mostly On ASRock Motherboards; In Some Cases, The CPU Didn’t Even Run For An Hour

https://wccftech.com/over-100-dead-ryzen-7-9800x3d-cases-have-been-reported-till-now-mostly-on-asrock-motherboards/

Redditor claims Ryzen 9 9950X3D ‘fried’ in ASRock motherboard after 3 weeks of use

https://videocardz.com/newz/redditor-claims-ryzen-9-9950x3d-fried-in-asrock-motherboard-after-3-weeks-of-use

Intel’s Highly-Anticipated 18A Process Enters “Risk Production”; Foundry Division Geared Up To Make a Comeback

https://wccftech.com/intel-highly-anticipated-18a-process-enters-risk-production/

Here come the gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Valve fans come together to smash the Steam concurrents record for the studio's least-popular game: 'We all know Ricochet is the best Valve game ever made'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/ricochet-steam-concurrents-record-attempt/
The Steam concurrents record for 25-year-old Valve game Ricochet has been blown out of the water by a group of players brought together by Half-Life fansite LambdaGeneration.
Valve has made some of the most influential games of all time, but Ricochet probably can't be put in that category. The arena combat game is best known today as the subject of a running joke where, instead of crying out for Half-Life 3, Valve fans demand that the company drop everything to produce Ricochet 2.
It's one of those jokes that has gone on for so long, it's hard to tell how ironic it still is—I think a genuine respect for Ricochet has grown over these two-and-a-half decades. So there may have been some real affection in LambdaGeneration's call for all of us to give Ricochet some love this April Fool's Day.
"The Ricochet SteamDB all-time peak player count stands at a measly 95 players," said the LambdaGeneration team. "This is a travesty. We all know Ricochet is the best Valve game ever made. Justice must be done."
And justice has been done. As I write, over 300 people are playing Ricochet on Steam with the help of Team Fortress 2: Classic server host VaultF4. If you want to join in, you can find more about the event on LambdaGeneration.
>> How many of you knew that this game existed? I didn’t. Anyway, the rush is over and, while it peaked at 353, it’s down to 3 as I’m typing this.

A 60 year old videogame just hit its highest player count ever on Steam and I'm pretty sure it's because people are pirating Schedule 1
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/spacewar-steam-player-count-piracy-pirating-schedule-1/
At time of writing, SteamDB's concurrent player ranking is led by the usual suspects: Counter-Strike 2 is commanding its expected lead with more than a million players while Dota 2 and the breakout drug-selling sim Schedule 1 follow behind. A bit farther down the list, however, is an unexpected title that hit its all-time peak player count just two days ago: It's called Spacewar, and in all likelihood, very few of its current 100,000 players are actually playing it.
How? Well, piracy, probably.
The original Spacewar was one of the world's first videogames, released all the way back in 1962. It's a bit like Asteroids, except instead of blowing up space rocks, players attempt to destroy each other while maneuvering around a gravity well in the center of the screen.
Even if you aren't aware of it, you already own the Steam version. Just enter "steam://run/480" in the address bar of your browser on a machine with Steam installed, and you'll be able to play it after a meager 1.8 MB download.
Spacewar is freely available because its source code is included in the Steamworks SDK as an example project, demonstrating for game developers how to implement Steam's various networking, distribution, and community features. Because Spacewar's got all of Steam's bits and bobs like avatars, friendslists, and matchmaking built in, devs can check against its code when putting those same Steam features in their own games.
Valve also allows developers to use Spacewar's AppID—an identifying, software-specific number assigned to each game listed on Steam—to test networking features during game development. For example, Unreal Engine uses Spacewar's AppID, 480, as a default so that Unreal developers can test Steamworks feature integration.
What a freely-usable AppID also allows, however, is a convenient avenue for players with pirated copies of Steam games to access Valve's multiplayer services.
Because you'd likely trip some alarms if Steam noticed you were trying to play multiplayer with a game your account doesn't own, it's common for cracked versions of pirated Steam games to spoof Spacewar's AppID. You might be playing multiplayer in illicit software, but to Steam—and SteamDB, and all your Steam friends—it'll look like you're playing Spacewar.
>> Congratulations! Thanks to this article you’ve probably learned something new today. Too bad you’ll forget it soon.

Atomfall surpasses 1.5 million players to become Rebellion's most successful game launch in 32 years
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/atomfall-surpasses-1-5-million-players-to-become-rebellions-most-successful-game-launch-in-32-years/
Rebellion's been around for a long time, and it's put out a lot of videogames—some of them pretty good! But its newest release, Atomfall, may surpass them all: Rebellion says Atomfall has now surpassed 1.5 million players since its March 27 release, and now stands as the "most successful launch in the company’s 32-year history."
"We are delighted that so many players are enjoying Atomfall," Rebellion co-founder and CEO Jason Kingsley said.
"To have surpassed the one million players in such a short space of time speaks volumes for the creativity and dedication of the entire team here at Rebellion. Our size and stability mean that we can take risks to create something as different as Atomfall. Happily, that risk is paying off."
(Kingsley's statement came when Atomfall surpassed a million players, but Rebellion said earlier today that it's now moved even higher.)

Steam has a few new deals and sales:

• Anomaly Exit is going to be 40% off until the 8th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2232600/Anomaly_Exit/
• Barro F can be yours thanks to a 90% discount until the 12th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239260/Barro_F/
• Dungeons of Sundaria will be 75% off until the 15th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/587520/Dungeons_of_Sundaria/
• 100% Orange Juice, that has a demo, gets an 86% discount until the same 15th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/app/282800/100_Orange_Juice/
• And these are the two new sales:
  • tinyBuild celebrates another Everything Must Go Sale, with games up to 80% off until the 8th of April: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6858705/sale/everything
  • The Earth Appreciation Festival 2025 has demos and lots of games on sale with up to 93% discounts. The festival ends on the 8th, but some deals will end longer than that, so be careful: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/EarthAppreciationFestival2025

Fanatical has a new Star Deal and a new Sale:

• The new Star Deal is Hokko Life, 87% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/hokko-life
• And 11-bit Studios puts its games on sale with up to 92% discounts during 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/11-bit-studios

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Infinity Blade 2 PC Port Available Now for Download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/infinity-blade-2-pc-port-available-now-for-download/
In February 2024, we informed you about an unofficial PC port of Infinity Blade. And today, we are happy to report that its sequel, Infinity Blade 2, has been ported to PC. As such, you can download and play it. And no, this isn’t an April’s Fools joke.
The PC port of Infinity Blade 2 features keybinds for abilities such as dodging, blocking, stabbing, and more. The port comes with a standalone launcher, which allows you to tweak the graphical settings and controls.
Moreover, the PC port offers an improved graphical fidelity over the iOS version. Not only that, but it allows you to toggle dynamic shadows and godrays.
But wait, there is more. If you’ve played the iOS version, you can transfer your saves. As the team that ported the game stated, save files can be transferred by manually copying them across platforms.
The PC port also has some console commands that you can use. For instance, by using “toggledebugcamera”, you will untie the camera from the player. This will allow you to ‘freecam’ across the map. Then we have the “exitbossfight” command. By using it, you can instantly kill any titan you’re fighting. You can also use “setplayergold x” to increase your gold (use an integer number for x).
All in all, this is an amazing PC port of Infinity Blade 2. Since this game was exclusive to iOS, I’m certain a lot of you have not played it. Thus, since this is a free game, I highly recommend trying it.
To play it, you’ll simply have to extract its contents onto your computer. After that, go to the ‘Binaries’ folder and run ‘Infinity Blade Launcher’. And that’s it.
Do note that platforms with a touch screen such as the Steam Deck can take advantage of finger swiping to play the games as intended. Using the mouse to emulate swiping is the default option, but attacks can also be bound to keybinds through the launcher.
>> Besides the link to get the game, the article also has an 8 minutes video.

The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Mod Improves Grass Ambient Occlusion
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/the-witcher-3-next-gen-mod-improves-grass-ambient-occlusion/
Modder ‘Ard Carraigh’ has released a pretty cool mod for The Witcher 3 Next-Gen. As the title implies, this mod will improve the ambient occlusion effect for the grass.
What’s interesting here is that the mod works with pretty much all AO settings. Yes, the mod can even enhance the quality of RTAO. It also works with both the DX11 and DX12 APIs. Not only that, but it does not come with a massive performance hit. In fact, the modder claims that there is zero performance penalty. As such, it’s a must for pretty much everyone.
>> The article has some comparison screenshots.

Max Payne 3 HD Texture Pack V3 Available for Download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/max-payne-3-hd-texture-pack-v3-available-for-download/
In November 2024, we informed you about an HD Texture Pack for Max Payne 3. Created by modder MDSXXX1, that pack attempted to overhaul all of the game’s textures. And now, after around five months, we have a new version of it.
Going into more details, this HD Texture Pack overhauls a lot of the original textures. In most cases, the modder used the original textures as a base for the enhanced textures. As such, these enhanced textures retain the art style of the vanilla ones. Plus, the modder has also used some brand new custom textures.
In short, this isn’t just an AI-upscaled HD Texture Pack. Instead, it has both AI-enhanced and custom-made textures.
>> There’s an over 3 minutes video in the article.

Ambitious burrito-lover mods real-life Chipotle orders into Fallout 4, thrilling community who can 'Finally get the food poisoning perk!' in reality
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/ambitious-burrito-lover-mods-real-life-chipotle-orders-into-fallout-4-thrilling-community-who-can-finally-get-the-food-poisoning-perk-in-reality/
Once upon a time, back when videogames were properly visionary, we had a command called /pizza. You could just whack that command into the text chat on EverQuest 2 and, bammo, Pizza Hut would deliver a pie right to your door (after you'd entered your details). It was the closest humanity has ever come to touching the face of God; a dizzying height our fallen world has only become more distant from as the years have dragged on.
But thanks to modders, we can reclaim a flicker of that once bright-burning glory. Meet Chipotle Mobile Order, a mod for Fallout 4 that lets you order Mexican-ish fast food from your Pip-Boy. Real food, I mean. You will literally get Chipotle to your actual door. Mod-maker bp42s pitches the idea as "immersive consumerism," and I can't fault them. "Yes, this is real. Yes, it actually works, you can order real-life chipotle with this. No, the real-life chipotle isn't free. The in-game chipotle order only costs 14 caps though!
"This is an extremely serious mod. Not for the faint of heart."
The mod works by adding a new holotape—Chipotle Mobile Order—to the game. Jam it into your Pip-Boy and, hey presto, suddenly you can order earthly delights like the "New Chipotle honey chicken—Chipotle heat with a touch of sweet." To use it, you'll need to install a couple of prerequisite mods: the Baka Framework plugin and, naturally, the mod that adds the real-life Old Corner Chipotle store to FO4's rendition of Boston. What—are you gonna order from a Chipotle that isn't even in the game? Have some respect for realism, please.
>> There’s no media of this mod.

GAMING NEWS

Official pre-alpha gameplay video released for Den of Wolves
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/official-pre-alpha-gameplay-video-released-for-den-of-wolves/
10 Chambers has unveiled raw gameplay footage of their upcoming techno-thriller co-op FPS, Den of Wolves. The footage showcases an intense gunfight inside an abandoned bank now controlled by the notorious Jötunn Guard gang, alongside the game’s groundbreaking “Dive” mechanic that transports players into surreal mental dimensions.
>> Also, the game satirises itself, not late stage capitalism, even if there are things in common..

Steel Seed has been delayed to April 22nd, gets PC requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/steel-seed-has-been-delayed-to-april-22nd-gets-pc-requirements/
ESDigital Games and Storm in a Teacup announced that their stealth-action adventure, Steel Seed, has been delayed to April 22nd. The game was originally planned to come out on April 10th. So, this is a small delay. Moreover, the devs have revealed the game’s official PC requirements, which you can find below.

Wednesday gaming news, part two:

Schedule 1 just got its 5th patch, teaching its blackjack dealers to no longer let you look at their cards and promising a full-on '1st content update' this weekend
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/schedule-1-just-got-its-5th-patch-teaching-its-blackjack-dealers-to-no-longer-let-you-look-at-their-cards-and-promising-a-full-on-1st-content-update-this-weekend/
The great thing about videogames is that they let me live out my lifelong dream of being a middle-class, British Pablo Escobar without getting shot to death on a rooftop. So it is that Schedule 1 is tearing up the Steam charts, as legions of thwarted Heisenbergs flock to the game to slang yayo and what-have-you.
Developer TVGS has been handling its meteoric rise with aplomb, putting out patch after patch to make sure you stay a street CEO with five digits clenched on the .45, and so on. In fact, we got a new one less than 12 hours ago: post-launch patch 5, which takes aim at a load of "employee bugs, multiplayer bugs, and casino bugs" as well as some pathfinding issues to hopefully stop you crashing quite so often.
>> And here’s the roadmap of the game, so you can see what’s coming.

Ex-Payday 2 devs think they've solved the problem of player in-fighting for their next co-op heist game: 'The bar is low'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/ex-payday-2-devs-think-theyve-solved-the-problem-of-player-in-fighting-for-their-next-co-op-heist-game-the-bar-is-low/
Payday 2's co-op heists always seem to trigger an argument. Which bank entrance do we use? Do we go stealth or go loud? Why did you just go into that room and trip an alarm when I told you to go into that other room and be quiet!? But thankfully, the ex-Payday devs working on upcoming sci-fi heist game Den of Wolves reckon they've figured out a way to avoid all that bickering, or at the very least, it won't be so tough for players to get along with one another.
>> Maybe not having to talk with your teammates helps.

Inzoi hotfix stops your zois from dying too young, as long as nothing awful happens to them
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/inzoi-hotfix-stops-your-zois-from-dying-too-young-as-long-as-nothing-awful-happens-to-them/
Remember that brief moment immediately after Inzoi's release when we could turn children into tire pizza? Good times. Krafton quickly patched out that little oversight, but it turns out that David Carradine cosplay wasn't the only way young 'uns could check out early, so now developers have done something about that too.
Today's new hotfix, which I'm reasonably certain is not an April Fools gag, makes changes to Inzoi's "lifespan rules" so that only oldzois (described in the announcement as "Zois in senior age groups" but I think my way is catchier) can die of natural causes.
>> And he wants to prove that it’s ”not another Early Access game”. By the way, one of those April Fools jokes in the link is intoday’s news, and there was another yesterday.

Mecha Break competitor Steel Hunters releases in early access on Steam this week, offering a slower, more tactical free-to-play mech game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/mecha-break-competitor-steel-hunters-releases-in-early-access-on-steam-this-week-offering-a-slower-more-tactical-free-to-play-mech-game/
Steel Hunters takes the the spark-filled clashes between Megatron and Optimus Prime and slows them down to create a methodic, tactical experience with familiar hero shooter and extraction elements. The mech battler from World of Tanks developer Wargaming releases in early access on Steam this week, on April 2.

'The original Tetris was a survival game': The man who prised Tetris out of the Soviet system recalls how different it once was
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-original-tetris-was-a-survival-game-the-man-who-prised-tetris-out-of-the-soviet-system-recalls-how-different-it-once-was/
Today sees the publication of Henk Rogers' memoir, The Perfect Game—Tetris: From Russia With Love. Rogers has had a long and storied career in the games industry, but he will undoubtedly always be best-known for his association with Tetris, and in particular his leading role in extricating it from the Soviet bureaucracy and getting the game's creator, Alexey Pajitnov, the credit and money he deserved.
The book is a rollicking read, with the Soviet sections in the 1980s almost veering into John Le Carre territory at points, and I'll be writing up some thoughts on it soon. But the publication also gave PCG the chance to sit down with Rogers and discuss his career, the many gaming luminaries he's known and, of course, Tetris.

One year after surprise launching viral hit Content Warning, Landfall does it again with lightspeed running roguelike Haste
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/one-year-after-surprise-launching-viral-hit-content-warning-landfall-does-it-again-with-lightspeed-running-roguelike-haste/
To the masses, April 1 is April Fools' Day. To the studio behind Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Clustertruck, and last year's viral hit Content Warning, today is Landfall Day. Every Landfall Day, Landfall Games does something big, like put out a new DLC pack for TABS or surprise drop a totally new game. Last year's surprise was Content Warning, a neat little spin on Lethal Company about becoming horror influencers in the post-post-apocalypse.
This year, Landfall has outdone itself by surprise dropping the full version of Haste, its 'lightspeed running' roguelike whose demo caught fire during February's Steam Next Fest. That vertical slice has grown into an entire entree of gnarly jumps, high-speed obstacle avoidance, and a kickin' soundtrack. Haste is the sort of game that you'll know you're going to play after watching a single clip, so here is that clip (...)

ZeniMax workers union votes to authorize a strike against Microsoft over stalled contract negotiations
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/zenimax-workers-union-votes-to-authorize-a-strike-against-microsoft-over-stalled-contract-negotiations/
The ZeniMax Workers United-CWA union has voted "overwhelmingly" to authorize union leadership to call for a strike if contract negotiations with Microsoft continue to drag on without resolution.

Another disappointing-looking Project Rene leak makes me wish EA would finally step in and say anything at all to Sims fans
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-sims/another-disappointing-looking-project-rene-leak-makes-me-wish-ea-would-finally-step-in-and-say-anything-at-all-to-sims-fans/
It's happened again: Screenshots and footage from a playtest allegedly for Project Rene have leaked and fans are disappointed. It's me. I'm fans. The cross-platform, online Sims game is still so totally shrouded in mystery and each new playtest leak just makes me wish that Electronic Arts would say anything to its players.

Call of Duty will finally let console players turn off crossplay to dodge PC cheaters, which is potentially terrible news for all the legit PC players
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/call-of-duty-will-finally-let-console-players-turn-off-crossplay-to-dodge-pc-cheaters-which-is-potentially-terrible-news-for-all-the-legit-pc-players/
In a win for console players fed up with Call of Duty's cheating problem, Activision will finally let players turn off crossplay in regular unranked matches starting in Black Ops 6 Season 3. The long-requested feature comes six years after crossplay became a core feature of Call of Duty in the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot.

Details about the canceled Disco Elysium spin-off codenamed X7 have leaked, and it would have let us play as Cuno and Cunoesse
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/details-about-the-canceled-disco-elysium-spin-off-codenamed-x7-have-leaked-and-it-would-have-let-us-play-as-cuno-and-cunoesse/
Earlier this year we found out about Project X7, a standalone Disco Elysium expansion canceled in February. At the same time ZA/UM laid off 24 employees, including Argo Tuulik, the final writer from the original game's credits remaining at the shell of the studio responsible for one of the greatest videogames of all time. It was, to put it lightly, a bummer.
Now a Disco Elysium YouTuber called Jamrock Hobo has uploaded almost 15 minutes of an internal presentation about Project X7 showing where it was at nine months before it was canceled. Given the date of uploading, you'd be forgiven for assuming this is a cruel prank, but you can clearly hear the voice of Dora Klindžić, the now ex-ZA/UM writer working on Summer Eternal, just minutes in. It's obviously real, and heartbreaking.

Hollow Knight: Silksong returns as the #1 wishlisted game on Steam after Inzoi's release—but is it just keeping the seat warm after 6 years of slowly-gathered hype?
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/hollow-knight-silksong-returns-as-the-1-wishlisted-game-on-steam-after-inzois-release-but-is-it-just-keeping-the-seat-warm-after-6-years-of-slowly-gathered-hype/
I've somehow ended up in the unenviable position, dear reader, of being PC Gamer's resident 'the Silksong community's having a bad time' writer—which is a beat I didn't know existed, but hey, I'm here, aren't I? Whenever I have to crack the lid open on said community, like checking in on an ant farm, I sometimes think to myself: 'Is it just us? Are we the only ones who care?'
Turns out: Not by a longshot. At the time of writing, Hollow Knight: Silksong is once more the most wishlisted game on Steam, after Inzoi temporarily hopped onto its throne for a minute. This means it's beating out Valve's own Deadlock and Elden Ring: Nightreign, which take second and third place, respectively.
>> Well, thanks to the Nintendo Direct, we’ve had a whole 3 second of footage and a 2025 release date.

While it's true that heavy RT makes the 5070 Ti's power consumption go up close to 9070 XT levels, the performance difference in heavy RT scenarios between the two GPUs is quite massive.

And yea, they could try and power limit it and do a few tricks but honestly, I don't think they will hold back if a 9080 XT were to be a thing since at that gpu class, power efficiency becomes less of a notable feature. Personally I think if they were to match a 4090 in Raster at 450 Watts, they will likely need 500+ watts of power. But if they price it correctly, the power consumption won't really matter to buyers.

And don't forget, you can also power limit Nvidia and get pretty good results.

If it helps, another workaround has been found that will still allow the use of a local account:

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/an-even-better-microsoft-account-bypass-for-windows-11-has-already-been-discovered

Oh it wasn't a problem for me just made me think initially is something wrong with the LAN port it installed fine and I actually need to log in with a Microsoft account since I bought a digital licence for it many years ago for the ease of just logging in and having your Windows activated whenever you get a new PC or upgrade some parts.

Well, I'm glad you don't need it.

Still, it can be a hassle to have to deal with connecting it to the net even before it has completed the installation so, while you're fine, this new trick may help someone else.

Yeah there should definitely be an option to install Windows offline and shouldn't even need a workaround but sadly big tech companies want the control.