If I wasnt gaming, my photography/videography hobby would probably overtake my interests.

Going to upgrade my Ryzen 3600 to a 5700x. Should keep me going for another 2-3 years without having to upgrade the motherboard/ram. Oblivion Remastered is the first game I've not been able to hit consistent 60fps with the CPU. Not getting a 5800x or 5700x3D as my build is in a fractal node 202. Don't want to put a 105w TDP CPU in this thing.

Streaming Oblivion from my desktop to my Steam Deck has been a great experience.

Go the 5900 if you want the best 65W CPU for AM4.
I can't bring myself to having 8 cores or less these days... But I do a lot of non-gaming stuff that can use the extra threads.
But even titles like Civilization loves the extra cores anyway.

The 5800X3D can undervolt really well if you don't mind tinkering to that degree.

In saying that... The 5700X3D only uses 20w of extra power over the 5700 anyway, you will thermal throttle these days before you damage anything.
https://www.techspot.com/review/2801-amd-ryzen-5700x3d/

It’s Thursday and these are the gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Hazelight's Split Fiction sells over 4 million copies in 2 months
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/hazelights-split-fiction-sells-over-4-million-copies-in-2-months/
One of the year's most pleasant surprises was Hazelight's Split Fiction, which left PC Gamer's Fraser Brown breathless with its pace and variety: "it's hard to imagine another game cramming so many surprises and script-flips into a single 15-hour romp."
The studio has carved out a sizeable niche for itself with excellent co-op adventures such as A Way Out and It Takes Two, with Split Fiction very much in that lineage and proving an instant success: selling no less than a million copies in the first two days of release.
Now publisher EA has announced, as part of its latest financial results, that the game had a "hugely successful launch" and sold just under four million copies. That number was swiftly shared by Hazelight itself to confirm that, yep, it had tipped over the four million mark.

This week, the Epic Storegives away:

• Deadtime Defenders: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/deadtime-defenders-3e9fc8
• Touch Type Tale: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/touch-type-tale

Next week, the free games will be two mystery games.

GOG has launched four new promo/sales:

• The Mystery & Romance Promo will have games up to 95% off during 6 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250507_mystery_romance_promo
• The new Weekly Deals are here with up to 91% discounts during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250508_weekly_deals_2_may
• The Feel the Atmosphere Promo is going to have games up to 95% off during 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250508_feel_the_atmosphere
• And the Pixel Games Promo features up to 94% discounts during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250508_pixel_games_promo

Steam has new deals and sales/events:

• Scene Investigators, that has a demo, will be 40% off until the 21st of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1159830/Scene_Investigators/
• Karate Survivor will have a 50% discount until May, the 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3027930/Karate_Survivor/
• Cafe Owner Simulator is going to be 70% off until May 21: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1498140/Cafe_Owner_Simulator/
• Urbek City Builder will also have a 70% discount until the same 21st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1411740/Urbek_City_Builder/
• And these are the sales/events:
  • PAX East has its own page, with demos, upcoming games and some games on sale. The page event should last until the 11th of May, but the length of the discounts vary from game to game: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/paxeast2025
  • The Mortal Kombat franchise is on sale, up to 90% off until the 13th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34133273/sale/mortalkombatmay25
  • And the last one is weird, just like what happened yesterday. Publisher/developer Monster Couch has launched a publisher sale that will last until May 17 and has... no discounts: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35075530/sale/MonsterCouch2025

At Humble Bundle we find the 9 Circles of Bullet Hell: A Survivors Bundle, featuring 9 games during the next 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/9-circles-bullet-hell-survivors-bundle.

Fanatical has three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Journey to the Savage Planet, 83% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/journey-to-the-savage-planet
• Publisher/Developer Jackbox Games puts its games on sale with up to 60% discounts during 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/jackbox-games
• And the Slitherine Strategy Bundle has 10 games split into three tiers of 3, 7 and 10 during the next 27 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/slitherine-strategy-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 25.5.1 driver
https://videocardz.com/driver/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-25-5-1

HIGHLIGHTS
New Product Support

• AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE
  • NOTE: Radeon Software for Linux packaged drivers for this product will be available later this month.

New Game Support

• Doom: The Dark Ages
• F1 25

New Game Support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4)

• Ghost of Tsushima
• Frostpunk 2
• Everspace 2
• Fort Solis
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
• The Finals
• Influx Redux

Expanded HYPR-RX Support

• HYPR-Tune Support
  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2
  • Marvel Rivals
  • Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced
  • Kingdom Come Deliverance II
  • Path of Exile 2

Expanded Vulkan Extension Support

• Vulkan 1.4 Support
• VK_EXT_shader_replicated_composites
• VK_KHR_maintenance8
• VK_EXT_image_2d_view_of_3d
• Click HERE for more information about other Vulkan extension support.

FIXED ISSUES

• Failure to detect integrated camera may be observed after driver installation using factory reset option on some Ryzen AI Max and Max+ series products.
• Installation progress may persistently display 0% while installing AMD Chat within the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition user interface after upgrading to AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics products.
• System crash may be observed due to a memory leak when using SteamVR on some AMD Radeon Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 9000 series. Users experiencing this issue are recommended to turn off Motion Smoothing in SteamVR settings.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition.
• Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed while loading Civilization VII with Anti-Lag enabled.

Props for the honesty: Tim Sweeney says the reason 'people characterize the Epic Games launcher as clunky' is—wait for it—'because the Epic Games launcher is clunky'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/props-for-the-honesty-tim-sweeney-says-the-reason-people-characterize-the-epic-games-launcher-as-clunky-is-wait-for-it-because-the-epic-games-launcher-is-clunky/
'The Epic Games Store launcher sucks less than it used to' is not very high praise but it's about as far as I'm willing to go. It has improved, undeniably, but it's still painfully slow, awkward, and just not pleasant to use—not to the point that I refuse to use it, but if I have a choice between Steam and Epic, all else being equal I'm going with Steam. My PR pals at Epic may not be super-happy to hear me say that out loud, but I'm not the only one who feels that way: Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney thinks so too.
"One of the reasons that people characterize the Epic Games launcher as clunky is because the Epic Games launcher is clunky," Sweeney said during a recent interview with Lex Fridman. "We need to improve this."
"We've not put enough emphasis on the quality of life features. We've recognized this very clearly multiple times and we've gone through multiple refactorings. But you know, that's definitely been a disappointment to us and to a lot of users."

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Oblivion Remastered mods restore original colours, extend light radius & enable unique feminine locomotion for female characters
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/oblivion-remastered-mods-restore-original-colours-extend-light-radius-enable-unique-feminine-locomotion-for-female-characters/
Some new mods for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered surfaced last week. So, time to share the ones I found more interesting.
The first one is a UE4SS mod, called Shaders Revised. Shaders Revised aims to fix some shader issues and restore the original colours. As such, you won’t have to use any Reshade Mods to make the game look similar to the original Oblivion.
Shaders Revised enables Lumen reflections on transparent surfaces to fix broken reflections. It also enables fog in Lumen reflections to fix issues on water surfaces. Moreover, it fixes the overly intensive motion blur at some framerates, as well as the DLSS ghosting issues that players could experience in foggy areas.
This is an amazing mod and you can download it from this link. Do note, though, that you’ll also need UE4SS for OblivionRemastered. Otherwise, it won’t work.
The next mod is Enhanced Light Radius. This mod increases the distance you’ll see light from torches, campfires, doomstones, ayleid wells. As such, the game will look more stable while exploring its cities. This is a subtle mod that can improve the game’s visuals. According to the modder, it comes with a 3FPS hit. You can download it from this link.
Finally, we have the Female Locomotion Replacer. This mod adds and enables unique, feminine locomotion to female characters. It includes new walking, running, and sprinting animations, along with a new idle posture. As the modder noted, this is still a WIP. Still, this will make the female characters look and move as, you know, females. It’s pretty neat, so make sure to get it from this link.
>> The article has a shorter than 1 minute long of the third mod.

Oblivion Remastered mod finally fixes the loot levelling, so no longer do you need to complete quests then wait forever to hand them in
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/oblivion-remastered-mod-finally-fixes-the-loot-levelling-so-no-longer-do-you-need-to-complete-quests-then-wait-forever-to-hand-them-in/
As well as the enormous visual glow-up, Oblivion Remastered went out of its way to tweak elements of the original game that were just a little annoying. So you don't have to grind minor skills anymore in order to level efficiently, and praise the Nine can now actually run through this vast open world. But one crime remained: levelled loot.
Levelled loot has always been a pain for Oblivion players, who over the years have come up with various ways to mitigate this element of the game. The long and short is that Oblivion made certain non-random drops, usually quest rewards, into a levelled version of that item that roughly aligned to your character's level.
Which would be all well and good, except the gear then stays at that level: So pick up Chillrend at a low level, for example, and you've just ensured that one of the game's best weapons will now be useless once you've levelled up further. Some mods fix this by simply making every item the best possible version it can be, but modder TheOneTrueRy now offers a slightly more elegant solution.
The Auto Upgrade Levelled Items mod is one of those that does what it says on the tin. The description says it "automatically replaces leveled unique items obtained as quest rewards with a version fitting for your level as your character progresses. No more worrying about what level you should or shouldn't complete certain quests at!"
TheOneTrueRy clearly felt that he was doing god's work (not Todd's work) after "a 10 hour long hyperfixation where I forgot to eat or sleep" and instead got deep in the guts of Oblivion's tools and scripting. The result now happily means that "the days of waiting tens of levels to tell Farmer Odiil that you actually saved his farm and both his sons years ago so you can get the strongest version of Chillrend are now overrrrrrrrr!"
The mod comes in three different flavours that will automatically upgrade the items in slightly different ways, such as a variant where you cast your own spell to trigger the upgrades. The mod covers over 100 different levelled items and two levelled spells across the base game and all DLCs. The only items currently not supported are those that came with the deluxe edition, but they're to be added in the next update.
>> The article has no media.

New mods bring Star Wars’ Tatooine & Mos Eisley Town to Starfield
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-mods-bring-star-wars-tatooine-mos-eisley-town-to-starfield/
Star Wars and Starfield fans, here is something really cool for you. Two new mods surfaced last week, attempting to bring Tatooine and Mos Eisley Town from Star Wars to Bethesda’s Starfield. These are two really cool mods that a lot of Star Wars fans will appreciate. So, let’s take a closer look at them.
The first mod adds Tatooine from Star Wars as a standalone planet with new factions, creatures, locations, weapons, and more. Currently, there aren’t any quests. However, you can use it with the following mod to acquire new gear and followers.
Star Wars – Mos Eisley adds Mos Eisley Town into Starfield as a unique location. This also includes distinct landmarks and famous ones like Chalmun’s Cantina, which you can visit.
By using these two mods, you can explore Tatooine in Starfield. It’s a cool concept, even though it does not have any quests right now. So, hopefully, the modders will figure out a way to add some.
>> The article has an almost 5 minutes video of the second mod.

GAMING NEWS

La Quimera has been released on Steam Early Access
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/la-quimera-has-been-released-on-steam-early-access/
La Quimera was meant to come out on April 25th. However, at the last minute, Reburn decided to delay it. And today, the devs have released the game on Steam as an Early Access title.
>> It’s easier to justify the negative perception of a game if it’s not fully launched yet.

Thursday news, the second part:

On the prospect of an $80-$90 GTA 6, former PlayStation boss says 'it's an impossible equation' for big-budget studios to keep their prices down
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/on-the-prospect-of-an-usd80-usd90-gta-6-former-playstation-boss-says-its-an-impossible-equation-for-big-budget-studios-to-keep-their-prices-down/
There's every chance that GTA 6 will cost around $80—it's not been confirmed, but the wind is certainly shifting that way. That's as per the Xbox website, which told customers some bad news, writing "Some of our new, first-party games will launch at $79.99 beginning this holiday season."
I should note that while Rockstar is owned by Take-Two Interactive, not Microsoft, this still marks a shift in the big-budget industry and, honestly, having seen the absurd graphical fidelity of GTA 6? If any game's gonna cost $80, it'll be that one.
Former PlayStation boss and Sony vet, Shuhei Yoshida, who left the company in 2024 after a whopping 38 years, thinks it was pretty much only a matter of time. "It was going to happen sooner or later," he tells playstationinside. "Maybe not from Nintendo, but it was going to happen eventually."

FTC loses bid to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which already happened in 2023
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/ftc-loses-bid-to-block-microsofts-acquisition-of-activision-blizzard-which-already-happened-in-2023/
More than a year after Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of videogame behemoth Activision Blizzard was successfully completed, the US Federal Trade Commission's effort to block it has run aground. A federal appeals court has rejected the FTC's appeal of a ruling that denied its request for a preliminary injunction against the deal, saying the lower court applied the "correct legal standard" and that the FTC has not demonstrated that it was likely to win its case.

EA thinks it got Battlefield right this time, projecting confidence to investors in advance of a summer reveal: 'When we get it right, Battlefield is a giant franchise and often the biggest shooter in the year'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/ea-thinks-it-got-battlefield-right-this-time-projecting-confidence-to-investors-in-advance-of-a-summer-reveal-when-we-get-it-right-battlefield-is-a-giant-franchise-and-often-the-biggest-shooter-in-the-year/
After the unhappy reception for Battlefield 2042, EA went all in on player feedback, methodically addressing complaints and promising that the next Battlefield game will center the opinions of fans from the start, with what EA CEO Andrew Wilson calls "the biggest playtesting initiative in franchise history."
>> And EA feels “very good” after the delay of GTA 6.

Oblivion's gloriously exploitable magic is even more busted in the remaster, letting one player turn into a high-speed leap wizard who can cross Cyrodiil in seconds
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/oblivions-gloriously-exploitable-magic-is-even-more-busted-in-the-remaster-letting-one-player-turn-into-a-high-speed-leap-wizard-who-can-cross-cyrodiil-in-seconds/
Over on Reddit, an Oblivion Remastered player going by the name of purpleturtlehurtler claims to have found the perfect balance of speed and fun. In a 90-second video, their high elven mage (with a custom class called "Master Blaster") leaps from a frozen mountainside, flies through the air to land near the sunny Imperial City, then hops across the water of the Niben without seeming to lose any velocity. It's all done without console commands or mods, or even drinking skooma for that sweet buff to your speed stat.
In the early Elder Scrolls games, being able to craft your own spells and magic items led to some powerfully broken combinations. What purpleturtlehurtler is taking advantage of here is the fact that, while spells that fortify your attributes don't normally stack their bonuses in Oblivion, they do if you craft spells with the same effects but different names.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs to issue its first nerf to an ability that does 2 billion damage: 'We gave it a big damage boost—and clearly overdid it'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/clair-obscur-expedition-33-devs-to-issue-its-first-nerf-to-an-ability-that-does-2-billion-damage-we-gave-it-a-big-damage-boost-and-clearly-overdid-it/
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is getting its first set of hotfixes tomorrow—which'll include a nerf to Stendhal, a skill that's been allowing players to do around 4 billion damage, which, as I observed yesterday, is enough to kill the game's hardest endgame superboss 45 times over.
"We hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early," Sandfall Interactive writes on X, "just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out. Well, Stendhal did."

Diablo 4 players aren't happy with the latest $150 Berserk collaboration, accusing it of being boring and overpriced
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/diablo-4-players-arent-happy-with-the-latest-usd150-berserk-collaboration-accusing-it-of-being-boring-and-overpriced/
Diablo 4's recent collab brings Kentaro Miura's Berserk to the bloodied chaos of Estuar. While I'd love to say that anything Berserk is worth it, I think this crossover pushes the boundaries just a little too much, because altogether, it's way too expensive.
Redditor HilltopHood broke down all the prices for the Berserk sets: "Obtaining all Berserk sets will run you 16,500 platinum." But for whatever reason, there are no bundles, discounts or pricing incentives for buying all of them together at once.
The premium cosmetics are for specific classes only, with the Barbarian getting The Berserker Armour (the best cosmetic, obviously), Rogues getting The Hawk of Light and The Struggler, and Necromancers getting The Skull Knight costume. There's also a pet bundle, a mount and mount armour. Individually, each costs 2,500 platinum (2,800 platinum equals $24.99/ £18.76).

Helldivers 2 is finally adding a sword, and while I'm not soiling my breeches over it as Arrowhead's CEO decreed, it does look very cool
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-is-finally-adding-a-sword-and-while-im-not-soiling-my-breeches-over-it-as-arrowheads-ceo-decreed-it-does-look-very-cool/
Helldivers 2 players were very excited today over a Warbond that, per Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani, would allegedly make players "shit their pants". That's via an offhanded joke by way of Discord message that has spawned an entire swarm of memes.
(...)
Well, now it's out, are my trousers browned? Not exactly, but it does look stylin' for one simple reason: The Masters of Ceremony war bond finally adds a sword. Not a chainsword, not a stun baton, just a straight-up curved saber.
>> It’s been a while since the last Helldivers aritcle.

NVIDIA restricts GeForce RTX 5060 press drivers, no reviews at launch?

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-restricts-gefoce-rtx-5060-press-drivers-no-reviews-at-launch

Intel addresses 13/14th Gen Core “Raptor Lake” Vmin Shift Instability with new 0x12F microcode update

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-addresses-13-14th-gen-core-raptor-lake-vmin-shift-instability-with-new-0x12f-microcode-update

ASRock X870 Motherboard Kills AMD Ryzen 9 9950X: A Common Phenomena Of Gray Marks On CPU Pins Reported By Users

https://wccftech.com/asrock-x870-motherboard-kills-amd-ryzen-9-9950x/

One-of-the-kind 1998 prototype of NVIDIA RIVA TNT with Jensen Huangs-signed lunch box up for auction

https://videocardz.com/newz/one-of-the-kind-1998-prototype-of-nvidia-riva-tnt-with-jensen-huangs-signed-lunch-box-up-for-auction

Intel Arrow Lake processors bottleneck PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs by 16%, limiting peak speeds to 12Gb/s instead of 14Gb/s

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-arrow-lake-processors-bottleneck-pcie-5-0-nvme-ssds-by-16-percent-limiting-peak-speeds-to-12gb-s-instead-of-14gb-s

&

My train of thought was more like if consoles and GPUs keep increasing in price, there'll be a point where they won't sell anymore.

Spending $400-600 on a smartphone can be justified more easily than a console because it's something useful and that can do lots of things, gaming included. And so a family may be more willing to spend that money on a phone for their kids than on a console/GPU.

And if kids grow up playing on smartphones, they'll be less inclined to buy a console or PC to game. Even more so if console/PC games cost $80, plus all the microtransactions they'll keep having and that may or may not also increase in price.

So yeah, it's not like I think gaming is going to disappear, it's just that how people game will change, and console and PC won't benefit from it.

But that's just my pessimistic view of the situation.

Good choice. Zen3 is when AMD finally had an architecture that could compete with Intel in gaming so, between that, the extra cores and the frequency boost, you should be able to notice the difference.

I don't know if getting a 5900 as Pem suggests is worth it, as the two CCDs it comes with may cause some troubles in a few games when searching data stored on the other chiplet, but it's up to you to decide.

That move, that can only be described as a dick move, is enough to set off all the alarms. The card is a turd, Nvidia knows it and it's trying hard to make it extra difficult to reviewers to tell how bad it will be.

Man, Intel can't catch a break, can they?

Nice!

I finished Saints Row (finished, not completed, there are side quests and other stuff I'm not going to do) and I started Dragon Age Origins just yesterday.

I almost can't play the game because the EA App is messed up and scared the sh*t out of me making the game disappear from my library. it turns out that making games banish from your library is something that happens, and to fix it you need, and I kid you not, to clear cache of the app.

That solved the problem and I could start my journey as a human warrior (because it seems to be the best class to play if you're new).

My only problem so far is with the text. On my 25" 1440p monitor the text is quite small and hard to read. I'll see if I can get used to it or, if not, try to find a mod that fixes this problem.

If I couldn't play games, I'd probably read more. There are a ton of sites where people publish their own stories for free.

I don't personally game at all on my Smartphone. I tend to buy Samsungs flagship in cash (About $1,800 AUD) every 2 years, very cyclic.
...Mostly I use it for photography (Fire/Hazmat/Road Crash Rescue investigation and reporting) and emergency management.

But I did buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ with 8GB of Ram about a year ago which I use for more casual mobile gaming and media consumption. (Nothing like Fortnite etc')

I don't think PC gaming will ever disappear, it's been on a growth trajectory for decades, it's slow, but it's been happening... Low-end APU's are getting significantly more capable and ending up in more form factors (Rog Ally) which has allowed PC gaming to enter more markets.

On consoles, the price of hardware is going to make it hard for lower socio-economic households to buy devices, one of the strengths of consoles has historically been the price of entry. (And also one of the main arguments console gamers use against PC)

But if I had a choice between a $1,000 AUD Xbox Series X or $1,200 AUD Playstation 5 Pro?
I'm going to choose something like an RTX 4060Ti Laptop for around $1,200 on sale instead and access the cheaper games library of PC.

At-least then I can use it for work AND play.