Monday gaming news, the third and final part:

Open world, first-person RPG Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is out now with a nice helping of dark fantasy to explore
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/open-world-first-person-rpg-tainted-grail-the-fall-of-avalon-is-out-now-with-a-nice-helping-of-dark-fantasy-to-explore/
First Avowed, then Oblivion Remastered—it's shaping up to be a banner year for fans of first-person RPGs and it's only getting better. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon released last week, joining the year's clearly very rich crop of first person explore-and-slash gaming.
Set in the dark fantasy world of Tainted Grail, inspired by Arthurian legends and set after the fall of Arthur's kingdom, The Fall of Avalon calls itself "a love letter to open-world FPP RPGs." It's something like 50-70 hours long, and claims a branching narrative with proper voice-acted characters.

CD Projekt Red reflects on its hubris following The Witcher 3's success, and how that led to Cyberpunk 2077's problems: 'I think that was the beginning of a bit of magical thinking for the company'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-witcher/cd-projekt-red-reflects-on-its-hubris-following-the-witcher-3s-success-and-how-that-led-to-cyberpunk-2077s-problems-i-think-that-was-the-beginning-of-a-bit-of-magical-thinking-for-the-company/
The Witcher games are one of the clearest examples of improvement over a series in videogame history. No backsliding here: The Witcher was a mess, The Witcher 2 was genuinely quite decent, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was a masterpiece. The Witcher 3's success put CD Projekt Red on Sony's speed-dial, but it had other consequences as well.
"It gave us confidence that we can deliver a truly ambitious and engrossing RPG of a big scale," says Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO and member of the board, speaking to PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens. "And that we can punch above our weight and we can get head to head with the big ones. I remember, I was like, really, really afraid of the standard that Dragon Age: Inquisition's going to set," Nowakowski recalls.
While the two did duke it out for RPG of the Year awards ("I thought it was a fantastic game," Nowakowski says of the competitor), The Witcher 3 was such a smash it changed expectations at CD Projekt Red. "That gave us confidence," Nowakowski says. "Maybe in many ways even too much confidence looking back, to be honest, because I think that was the beginning of a bit of magical thinking for the company, which only stopped after Cyberpunk."

Double Fine dev embarks on a quest to discover Full Throttle's true release date: 'Perhaps the best 30th birthday present I could give Full Throttle was a real birthday'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/double-fine-dev-embarks-on-a-quest-to-discover-full-throttles-true-release-date-perhaps-the-best-30th-birthday-present-i-could-give-full-throttle-was-a-real-birthday/
LucasArts adventure gaming classic Full Throttle recently celebrated its 30th birthday. Exactly how recently, you ask? Well, that's the question. During birthday preparations for Tim Schafer's beloved motorcycle odyssey, Schafer's studio Double Fine Productions realised it didn't know the precise date of Full Throttle's initial release.

After its pre-rendered trailer caused a stir last year, this Dark Messiah-inspired RPG now has a gameplay teaser—but the internet is debating if it's real or not
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/after-its-pre-rendered-trailer-caused-a-stir-last-year-this-dark-messiah-inspired-rpg-now-has-a-gameplay-teaser-but-the-internet-is-debating-if-its-real-or-not/
As the self-appointed Fox Mulder of games about kicking goblins down flights of stairs, I want to believe that fantasy hack 'n' slash Alkahest can revive the underappreciated swashbuckling brilliance of Dark Messiah: Might and Magic. The game debuted last year with a flashy announcement trailer that really sold me on the concept.
But as reported by Andy last year, the trailer also attracted scepticism because it used a mixture of in-game assets and prerendered animations, with the developer acknowledging that "some of the camera angles and animations have been crafted specifically for the trailer, for the sake of spectacle".
As Andy mentioned at the time, game trailers that are either wholly or partly pre-rendered are commonplace, especially in the early stages of a game's marketing. But developer Push On has since released a new teaser trailer that purportedly shows the game in action. Unfortunately, it looks very similar to the announcement trailer, which is causing another round of players to dismiss it as "a cinematic disguised as gameplay".

Warhammer 40,000 games Darktide and Rogue Trader enjoyed a sales bump due to the popularity of Space Marine 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/warhammer-40-000-games-darktide-and-rogue-trader-enjoyed-a-sales-bump-due-to-the-popularity-of-space-marine-2/
Space Marine 2 was a hit, making millions for Games Workshop, and guaranteeing the saga of Ultramarine Demetrian Titus would continue in Space Marine 3. But it was also a boon to developers of other 40K games, like Darktide studio Fatshark and Rogue Trader studio Owlcat.
"We definitely saw a boost in player numbers after Space Marine 2", said Mike Knight, Darktide narrative lead at Fatshark. "It makes sense, people play a game and like it, so they look around for something else that's similar."
Anton Emelianov, brand manager at Owlcat Games, agreed. "Definitely. When one Warhammer game does well, it lifts the others. We saw a noticeable uptick in interest around Rogue Trader when Space Marine 2 launched—people wanted to explore the setting further, often in different genres."

Desktop Survivors 98 is an action roguelike that moves at the speed of your mouse, which is to say pretty fast
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/desktop-survivors-98-is-an-action-roguelike-that-moves-at-the-speed-of-your-mouse-which-is-to-say-pretty-fast/
I quite like the whole action roguelike genre that built up around games like Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne and metamorphosed into a whole new thing with the explosive birth of Vampire Survivors.
The latest one to catch my attention is Desktop Survivors 98, a retro explosion of lookalike Windows 98 assets and motifs that has you spraying arcs of solitaire cards and blasting stuff out of the recycling bin and making your cursor shoot more, other cursors.

'They're very determined, suddenly, to see your game fail': Former Dragon Age writer calls out 'anti-fans' who bet on games failing before launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/theyre-very-determined-suddenly-to-see-your-game-fail-former-dragon-age-writer-calls-out-anti-fans-who-bet-on-games-failing-before-launch/
Former BioWare writer David Gaider, who worked on the likes of Baldur's Gate 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the first three Dragon Age games (not including Veilguard), recently spoke out about an issue he dubbed "anti-fans" in an interview with GamesRadar.

Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC Tides of Torment promises to add a treacherous mutant and finally give Warhammer's smartest troll his due
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/total-war-warhammer-3-dlc-tides-of-torment-promises-to-add-a-treacherous-mutant-and-finally-give-warhammers-smartest-troll-his-due/
In March, Creative Assembly revealed the next DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 would feature Dechala, a six-armed snake lady, as the legendary lord for a Slaanesh faction. In the latest dev chat video they've shared some more details about the DLC, which is called Tides of Torment, and also features a Norscan faction led by a treacherous mutated Norscan sorcerer called Sayl the Faithless.

Escape from Duckov is coming back with a new demo
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/escape-from-duckov-is-coming-back-with-a-new-demo/
Y'all ever see a chicken try to knife a duck to death? Y'all ever see a seagull try to beat a duck with a police baton? I hadn't earlier, but now I have thanks to the demo trailer for goofily parodic shooter Escape from Duckov, which is getting a new demo on May 29 that'll last until July 1.

AI companies are running trying to beat the competition instead of doing baby-steps to avoid messing things up.

Therefore, we're doomed.

https://store.steampowered.com/category/zombies_vampires

Hey, it gets even better when there's more similar stuff:

Amazon-Backed AI Model Would Try To Blackmail Engineers Who Threatened To Take It Offline

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthropic-claude-opus-ai-terrorist-blackmail_n_6831e75fe4b0f2b0b14820da

I suppose these could well be a result of Asimov's Laws, but it's still pretty chilling.

Cue the Terminator music:

AsRock has found the issue it seems:

Basically their PBO settings were to agressive through too high shadow voltages (voltage settings that users can't change) and when paired with a higher-end AIO that kept the chips very cool they ran slightly over the limits of the CPUs under PBO, killing them.

AsRock pushed too high, but AMD signed off on those settings, so both are at fault here.

The Tuesday gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

GOG has two more promos for us:

• The PostApo Promo has games up to 90% off during the next 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250527_postapo_promo
• The Turn Based Games Promo features up to 92% discounts during the same 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20250527_turn_based_promo

Steam has a few new deals and sales/events:

• Sniper Elite 5 is going to be 80% off until this Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1029690/Sniper_Elite_5/
• Mad Experiments: Escape Room, that has a demo, features a 62% discount until the 9th of June: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1201550/Mad_Experiments_Escape_Room/
• Insurgency: Sandstorm will be 67% off until June 9: https://store.steampowered.com/app/581320/Insurgency_Sandstorm/
• These are the new sales/events:
  • Publisher Smilegate will have its games on sale with up to 70% discounts until the 2nd of June: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44860621/sale/PublisherSaleMay
  • Publisher tinyBuild also puts its games on sale until June 2, but the games will be up to 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/tinybuild
  • Square Enix puts the Dragon Quest franchise on sale with up to 60% discounts until the 3rd of June: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/1012195/sale/dragonquestsale2025
  • The Sticky Business franchise is on sale, up to 50% off until June, the 9th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33038208/sale/stickybusinessfranchise
• And, of course, there’s also the weeklong deals

And Fanatical has three new 24h Flash Deals:

• Dark Deity 2 has a 37% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/dark-deity-2
• SILENT HILL 2 is 49% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/silent-hill-2
• And Frostpunk: Game of the Year Edition gets a 92% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/frostpunk-game-of-the-year-edition

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Byond game engine suffers a weeks-long DDoS attack, apparently because a wanna-be Bond villain is trying to force it to go open source: 'Attacks on Byond servers are a symptom of your obstinance'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/byond-game-engine-suffers-a-weeks-long-ddos-attack-apparently-because-a-wanna-be-bond-villain-is-trying-to-force-it-to-go-open-source-attacks-on-byond-servers-are-a-symptom-of-your-obstinance/
Byond is an old, free game engine that's been around since at least the early 2000s in games like Space Station 13, to cite one we've talked about recently. It's also been the subject of a sustained DDoS attack, according to a MassivelyOP report, that's now into at least it's third week.
And why, exactly, would someone launch a DDoS attack against an obscure game engine, and keep it up for this long? According to a now-deleted Reddit post, available via the https://www.reddit.com/r/SS13/comments/1klfusd/where_were_you_during_the_byond_revolution/">Wayback Machine, a group calling itself "the international free and open-source software community" is doing it to pressure Byond creator LummoxJR into making the software open source.
"Attacks on Byond servers are a symptom of your obstinance," the extremely talking-like-Sephiroth message states. "They will persist as long as you ignore the voices of those who keep your platform afloat. We demand you voluntarily side with progress.
"Choose: Let Byond die as a proprietary relic, or let it rise as a free project. Time is running out."
Whether or not that's a legitimate claim, I cannot say. It certainly doesn't sound like a good reason to throw up a sustained DDoS attack, but I've been on the internet long enough to know that 'this sounds too stupid to be true' is at best 50/50 when it comes to predicting whether something actually is true.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty-

GAMING NEWS

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Title Update 1.0.5 releases tomorrow and here are its full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/assassins-creed-shadows-title-update-1-0-5-releases-tomorrow-and-here-are-its-full-patch-notes/
Ubisoft has announced that Title Update 1.0.5 for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will come out tomorrow and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s see what this new update brings to the table.
>> That tomorrow is today.

MindsEye Gets Official Gameplay Overview Trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/mindseye-gets-official-gameplay-overview-trailer/
Build A Rocket Boy has released the official gameplay overview trailer for MindsEye. MindsEye is a new single-player action-adventure thriller that focuses on story, mystery, and high-stakes missions. This trailer packs 6 minutes of gameplay footage from it. So, make sure to watch it.

Tuesday gaming news, part two:

Tim Cain talks about the challenges facing a Fallout remaster: 'How much are we now changing the original Fallout? Is this a quality of life thing or are you making a new game?'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/tim-cain-talks-about-the-challenges-facing-a-fallout-remaster-how-much-are-we-now-changing-the-original-fallout-is-this-a-quality-of-life-thing-or-are-you-making-a-new-game/
Have you ever thought to yourself, wow, the original Fallout would be the perfect candidate for a remaster? Well, first, you are 100% correct. And second, OG Fallout lead Tim Cain says the process of doing so—if and when someone decides they're going to do it—is a whole lot more complicated than you might think

NetherRealm says it's done releasing major updates for Mortal Kombat 1: 'Our team … needs to shift focus to the next project'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fighting/netherrealm-says-its-done-releasing-major-updates-for-mortal-kombat-1-our-team-needs-to-shift-focus-to-the-next-project/
In the world of fighting games, NetherRealm fighters are an odd duck. Games like Guilty Gear, Street Fighter, and Tekken tend to get souped up with DLC for half a decade or more before the next entry is even announced—but like Mortal Kombat 11 before it, Mortal Kombat 1 is dispensing with further major updates after around two years.

A month after Electronic Arts mashed the brakes, WRC rally racing games are coming back with a 'complete reboot' under a new publisher
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/a-month-after-electronic-arts-mashed-the-brakes-wrc-rally-racing-games-are-coming-back-with-a-complete-reboot-under-a-new-publisher/
Less than a month after the end of its licensing deal with Electronic Arts racing studio Codemasters, the FIA has announced a new deal to bring WRC racing games back in 2027 with an "all-new WRC games series" being developed by Nacon.

After 4 years, Final Fantasy 14 finally has a new exploration zone in the Occult Crescent—and even if I'd have liked one sooner, I can't wait to get stuck in
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/after-4-years-final-fantasy-14-finally-has-a-new-exploration-zone-in-the-occult-crescent-and-even-if-id-have-liked-one-sooner-i-cant-wait-to-get-stuck-in/
For grumpy old Final Fantasy 14 enjoyers like myself who won't stop banging on about how the game doesn't have midcore content—good news! The game has midcore content now, and we can finally shut up until patch 8.0. Released in Patch 7.25 today, the Occult Crescent, a new Bozja-style exploration zone, is now open to the public.

Dragon Age creator says EA execs thought BioWare fans would eat whatever slop they were given since 'the nerds in the cave would always show up for an RPG, because it was an RPG'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/dragon-age-creator-says-ea-execs-thought-bioware-fans-would-eat-whatever-slop-they-were-given-since-the-nerds-in-the-cave-would-always-show-up-for-an-rpg-because-it-was-an-rpg/
Peter Mandelson, the oleaginous right-hand of Tony Blair's Labour Party in the late '90s, once remarked to a colleague that the party had no need to focus on its traditional voter base, and could safely dedicate itself to chasing more affluent, middle-class, conservative voters. After all, said Mandelson, its base had "nowhere else to go". Don't worry, I promise we'll get to Dragon Age.
14 years of Conservative Party rule later and you might think that kind of reasoning has been proven bankrupt, but only if you underestimate the powerful minds of the world's corporate executive class. It's not quite as consequential as the direction of British politics, but it turns out that EA had its own version of that thought process when it came to running BioWare in the 2010s: a notion that RPG fans would gobble up whatever you chucked their way so long as you could plausibly call it an RPG. Instead, they thought, BioWare should focus on making games that appeal to people who don't usually play RPGs.
So says David Gaider, creator of the Dragon Age setting and BioWare veteran, in a recent chat with GamesRadar. Per Gaider, EA bosses used to refer to RPG stalwarts as living "in the cave." That'd be the nerd cave, you see, where the nerds lived. "You made an RPG and the nerds in the cave would always show up for an RPG, because it was an RPG."

CDPR didn't put harsh themes in Cyberpunk 2077 or The Witcher 3 'for the sake of edginess', but because 'you're probably not making art' if the devs are never challenged
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-witcher/cdpr-didnt-put-harsh-themes-in-cyberpunk-2077-or-the-witcher-3-for-the-sake-of-edginess-but-because-youre-probably-not-making-art-if-the-devs-are-never-challenged/
It's not exactly news that Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 both grapple with heavy-hitting themes—but there are a few stand-out moments that can really crawl under your skin. For me, just about all of ol' 2077 was a bit of an existential nightmare, though it was one I was thoroughly enthralled by.
Speaking to our friends at GamesRadar about the Bloody Baron and Sinnerman questlines—which cover themes of miscarriage and domestic abuse in The Witcher 3, and crucifixion in Cyberpunk 2077, respectively—senior quest designer Philipp Weber says that no-one in the studio takes grappling with such themes lightly.

Cities: Skylines 2 can't catch a break, as the long-awaited Bridges and Ports expansion is delayed again
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/cities-skylines-2-cant-catch-a-break-as-the-long-awaited-bridges-and-ports-expansion-is-delayed-again/
Cities: Skylines 2's had a rough ride since it launched in 2023. There's no denying that Colossal Order has made some substantial improvements to the wonky launch build in the nearly two years since it arrived, but it feels like the team is constantly juggling a variety of issues.
(...)
The first expansion, Bridges & Ports, was expected to appear within a few months of Beach Properties, but that never happened. In September 2024, the team announced that it was delaying the expansion so it could improve the base game. It eventually got a release window of the second quarter of 2025. So around now. Well, that won't be happening either.

“80 PLUS Ruby” PSU certification aims at 96.5% peak power efficiency

https://videocardz.com/newz/80-plus-ruby-psu-certification-aims-at-96-5-peak-power-efficiency

Deepcool Unveils Flagship Assassin VC Elite Dual-Tower White With Vapor Chamber & Spartacus 420mm AIO, 2nd Gen AK Series, LQ In Ultra & LCD Flavors

https://wccftech.com/deepcool-flagship-assassin-vc-elite-dual-tower-white-with-vapor-chamber-spartacus-420mm-aio-2nd-gen-ak-series-lq-ultra-lcd-flavors/

AMD B650 Chipset Is Reportedly Discontinued In Favor Of B850 Chipset, But The Remaining Stock Will Be Available For A Few Months

https://wccftech.com/amd-b650-chipset-is-reportedly-discontinued-in-favor-of-b850-chipset/