Gonna be starting on Assassin's Creed Rogue tonight.

Did some preliminary testing this morning and noticed it requires "Uplay" which is funny because Uplay is not a thing anymore, didnt even bother to update the error message that its Ubisoft Connect.

Tried to install Ubisoft Connect from Ubisoft's own site but the installer is corrupted from their damn website! lol

Had to install Ubisoft Connect through the Microsoft Store which had no issues.

Embarassing UbiShit.

Probable next stop from NVidia after the 5050 release: Making a 5030 that's not even half a 5050, giving it 4GB VRAM and selling it as the next best thing for gamers. All while consuming over 80W so a full 16-pin connector is needed to run the card.

NVIDIA’s Entire GeForce RTX 50 Family Now Showing Up In Steam Hardware Survey, Total Share Reaches 3.69% Since Launch

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-entire-geforce-rtx-50-family-now-showing-up-in-steam-hardware-survey/

NVIDIA’s RTX 50 GPU Supply Expected to Fall By More Than 30% At a Time When Prices Have Finally Started to Stabilize

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-rtx-50-supply-expected-to-fall-by-more-than-30-percent/

Open-Source Library ZLUDA Sees Major Progress in Bringing NVIDIA’s CUDA Code to Other GPUs; Doubles Developer Count

https://wccftech.com/zluda-sees-major-progress-in-bringing-nvidia-cuda-code-to-other-gpus/

ASUS RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X melts 12VHPWR connector due to wrong power cable shipping error

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-rtx-3060-ti-gddr6x-melts-12vhpwr-connector-due-to-wrong-power-cable-shipping-error

GeForce RTX 5050 falls behind Arc B580 and RTX 4060 in first review

https://videocardz.com/newz/geforce-rtx-5050-falls-behind-arc-b580-and-rtx-4060-in-first-review

It's not just the entire RTX 50 series that's showing up, but almost all AMD GPUs from the RDNA 3 and 4 générations do so, too. after a long last...

It’s time for the Thursday gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Palworld's Terraria update lands it back in Steam's Top 10 with over 120,000 players coming back, but its community manager is just waiting for people to brand it a 'dead game' again
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/palworlds-terraria-update-lands-it-back-in-steams-top-10-with-over-120-000-players-coming-back-but-its-community-manager-is-just-waiting-for-people-to-brand-it-a-dead-game-again/
Palworld's latest Terraria-themed update brought a ton of new equipment, dungeons, enemies, and even a fishing mini-game for players to check out. So it's not that surprising to see Palword jump back into Steam's Top 10 most-played games.
Previously sat at number nine, Palworld was wedged between Stardew Valley and Elden Ring Nightreign with a 24-hour peak of 122,397 players—pretty impressive company to be among. This achievement hasn't gone without celebration though with community manager John 'Bucky' Buckley commenting on the continued success of Palworld (via GamesRadar).
"It's nice to see Palworld consistently reach the top 10 every major update," Buckley says on social media. "A million thank yous to you, gamers." But within the same breath, Buckley also admits that the same old hate probably won't be too far behind all of the recent success: "I'm sure it'll be branded a 'dead game' for the 100th time a week from now."

Capcom's financials show that embracing Steam has paid off handsomely: It now accounts for a third of all the publisher's revenue
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/capcoms-financials-show-that-embracing-steam-has-paid-off-handsomely-it-now-accounts-for-a-third-of-all-the-publishers-revenue/
Capcom has released its financial report covering April 2024 to March 2025, and the big takeaway is that Steam is now the publisher's single largest revenue driver. Sales on Steam over the period totalled 52.723 billion yen ($363 million), an increase of 61.1% over the previous fiscal year, which makes Valve's platform responsible for 31.3% of the company's total sales (versus 21.5% in the previous fiscal year).
Things get even more handsome when just looking at Capcom's digital content business, which excludes stuff like arcades, with Steam accounting for 42.1% of total sales (thanks Gamebiz.jp). In comparison, sales of software on PlayStation now account for less than 10% of the total, with Capcom omitting the exact % due to it being below that threshold.
The total number of PC sales was 28,211,000 (a 30% increase from the previous year), and Capcom gives an especial shout-out to Monster Hunter Wilds. On all platforms Wilds sold at least 10 million, but again the strength-in-depth of Capcom's offering is such that Monster Hunter: World sold 3.1 million while Monster Hunter: Rise shifted 2.4 million copies. These figures take the Monster Hunter series to over 100 million copies sold. Elsewhere various Resident Evil games sold a combined total of over 8 million, Street Fighter 6 managed 1.3 million, and Dragon's Dogma 2 sold a million.

This week, the Epic Store gives away two games:

• Backpack Hero: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/backpack-hero-449c5e
• Figment: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/figment

Next week, the free games will be Figment 2: Creed Valley and Sky Racket.

Humble Bundle presents the Summer Splash Bundle, with up to 8 games to get during 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/summer-splash.

Fanatical has launched its Platinum Collection - Build your own Bundle (July 2025), with 17 titles to choose from for your bundles of 3+, 5+ or 7+ games during 34 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

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GAMING NEWS

New trailers for Code Vein 2, The Blood of Dawnwalker & Digimon Story Time Stranger
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-trailers-for-code-vein-2-the-blood-of-dawnwalker-digimon-story-time-stranger/
Bandai Namco has released new trailers for Code Vein 2, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Digimon Story Time Stranger. As such, I’ve decided to share them all in one big article. So, let’s dive in.

RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business Gets Gameplay Overview Trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/robocop-rogue-city-unfinished-business-gets-gameplay-overview-trailer/
NACON has shared the official gameplay overview trailer for RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business. The trailer shows two minutes of gameplay footage. So, if you’re interested in the game, you should check it out.

Part two of the gaming news:

'Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger,' Phil Spencer says, as Microsoft announces another round of mass layoffs at its gaming division
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/our-platform-hardware-and-game-roadmap-have-never-looked-stronger-phil-spencer-says-as-microsoft-announces-another-round-of-mass-layoffs-at-its-gaming-division/
An IGN report says Microsoft has begun a new round of mass layoffs across its gaming division, beginning with a 10% reduction—approximately 200 people—at social game developer King. Layoffs are also being announced at other European studios, according to the report, while US-based studios will be informed about job losses later today.
>> To sum it all in one go, Rare’s Everwild is cancelled, as are Perfect Dark and its studio The Initiative (curl-6 has made a thread about this two). But that’s not all, because a Zenimax MMO has also been cancelled and people have been fired.

The Elder Scrolls Online director Matt Firor, who helped launch ZeniMax Online Studios in 2007, is leaving the company
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-elder-scrolls-online-director-matt-firor-who-helped-launch-zenimax-online-studios-in-2007-is-leaving-the-company/
Matt Firor, president of ZeniMax Online Studios and game director of The Elder Scrolls Online, has announced that he is leaving the company.
"After more than 18 years leading ZeniMax Online Studios, I'll be stepping away later this month," says a message attributed to Firor on the official TESO X account. "The studio and The Elder Scrolls Online will be in great hands under the direction of new Studio Head Jo Burba, along with Executive Producer Susan Kath and Game Director Rich Lambert.

Phil Spencer retirement rumor is made up, says Microsoft
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/phil-spencer-retirement-rumor-is-made-up-says-microsoft/
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has probably not penned his last email thanking employees for their hard work while pointing them to the door.
After Microsoft laid off around 9,000 employees today, including a number from Spencer's gaming division, a rumor began circulating that the Xbox head will step down after the next generation Xbox console comes out, but Microsoft says it's not true.

Final Fantasy 14 is fast-tracking one of my most-anticipated fixes, releasing an entire month earlier than expected
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/final-fantasy-14-is-fast-tracking-one-of-my-most-anticipated-fixes-releasing-an-entire-month-earlier-than-expected/
Occult Crescent—Final Fantasy 14's newest field operation mode—is good fun, but it's an absolute pain to tackle its 48-player dungeon Forked Tower as a static. That's thanks to the fact the game currently doesn't let you enter in groups larger than eight, leaving folk playing what's been dubbed as 'instance gacha' to try and land everyone in the same place.
It's a pain I've encountered myself across my handful of clears, but director and producer Naoki Yoshida revealed in a June livestream that it was an issue we'd no longer have to deal with once Patch 7.3 released. Which was, unfortunately, at least a month and a half away at that point.
(...)
I have to wonder if Yoshida and Square Enix felt the same way, because in a surprise turn of events we're getting at least some of the fix an entire month early.

Videogames on the scale of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 could be on the way for other World of Darkness TTRPGs, including Mage: The Ascension and Changeling: The Dreaming
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/videogames-on-the-scale-of-vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-could-be-on-the-way-for-other-world-of-darkness-ttrpgs-including-mage-the-ascension-and-changeling-the-dreaming/
After a long and difficult journey, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is finally mere months away from coming out. But as any '90s TTRPG fan will tell you, there's more to the World of Darkness than just blood-suckers, and according to Jason Carl, brand marketing manager of the franchise (and veteran tabletop writer), this may be just the beginning.

'It's not like we applied for the award ourselves': Dave the Diver director reminds people that 'there's nothing indie' about his game and the controversial indie nomination was out of his control
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/its-not-like-we-applied-for-the-award-ourselves-dave-the-diver-director-reminds-people-that-theres-nothing-indie-about-his-game-and-the-controversial-indie-nomination-was-out-of-his-control/
A lotta stuff happened in videogames in 2023: Baldur's Gate 3 released, a staggering number of layoffs occurred, and Dave the Diver was controversially nominated for Best Indie at The Game Awards.
(...)
Now, the game would go on to lose out to the excellent (and actually independently developed) RPG Sea of Stars, and the controversy quickly died down thereafter. The situation was dredged back up in a recent interview between Hwang and 4Gamer, though, with the director reiterating that Mintrocket had nothing to do with the category it was nominated for.

'Instantly lost all desire to even start': Mecha Break's Steam rating lands at an early 'Mixed' as players realize the beta's customization options have been turned into MTX fodder
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/instantly-lost-all-desire-to-even-start-mecha-breaks-steam-rating-lands-at-an-early-mixed-as-players-realize-the-betas-customization-options-have-been-turned-into-mtx-fodder/
Mecha Break launched in the wee hours this morning for those of us in the US, attracting more than 50,000 players in its first 10 minutes through the undeniable allure of cool robots. At time of writing, it's ranked number 12 on Steam's concurrent player charts. But not all that launch day attention has been positive, as early Steam reviewers say the free-to-play mech battler is a bit less free than they'd been led to believe.

French court finds 3 former Ubisoft executives guilty of workplace harassment
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/french-court-finds-3-former-ubisoft-executives-guilty-of-workplace-harassment/
Concluding trials that began last month, a French court has convicted three former Ubisoft executives based on accusations of systemic racism, bullying, and sexual misconduct that emerged in 2020 (via Courthouse News Service).

EA reportedly expects Battlefield 6 to bring in 100 million players, a number that even DICE devs don't think is feasible
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/ea-reportedly-expects-battlefield-6-to-bring-in-100-million-players-a-number-that-even-dice-devs-dont-think-is-feasible/
From the outside, the vibes around Battlefield 6 (yet to be officially titled) are pretty good. Spurred by a creative direction that's essentially "let's do Battlefield 3 and 4 again," folks are liking what they're seeing from those playtests that keep leaking onto Reddit.
From the inside, Battlefield 6 development could be going better. As detailed in a report published today at Ars Technica, EA's grand multi-studio strategy for the future of Battlefield has proven more chaotic than harmonious.
Battlefield 6's budget has reportedly ballooned past $400 million, its campaign is far behind multiplayer, major features are undecided as the project enters alpha, and EA suits are setting sky-high expectations that its own developers don't see as even remotely realistic.

Blizzard ends new content development for Warcraft Rumble and lays off staff: Former employee says 'most' of the team has been let go
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/blizzard-ends-new-content-development-for-warcraft-rumble-and-lays-off-staff-former-employee-says-most-of-the-team-has-been-let-go/
Less than a year after making its debut on PC, the real-time strategy game Warcraft Rumble has reached the end of the line. Blizzard announced today that it's made the "extremely hard decision" to end new content releases for the game, although it promised that "updates focused on regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes" will continue.

And today there's a third, but short, part of the gaming news:

2023's true GOTY has had its name and assets jacked by 'some kind of crypto scam,' while bootlickers assure the dev it's actually great publicity
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/2023s-true-goty-has-had-its-entire-style-jacked-by-some-kind-of-crypto-scam-while-bootlickers-assure-the-dev-its-actually-great-publicity/
Chances are that, unless you happened to read my personal GOTY pick from 2023 or just have generally excellent taste in videogames, you're not too familiar with Stonks-9800 (which you can find on Steam). That's a shame, because the early access stock-trading sim set in the salad days of '80s Japan is an absolute banger—oozing style and with a delicious platter of gameplay loops that will keep your eyes fixed on its line graphs for days, weeks, months at a time.
Stonks-9800 is excellent, relatively obscure, and comes from a solo dev who doesn't have the legal resources of a major publisher, which might go some way to explaining why its assets, characters, and name have been purloined by crypto bros claiming affiliation with the SPX6900 coin. Their website plasters itself in art and assets taken from the game and even the Stonks-9800 name itself: "Stonks‑9800 Gave Birth to SPX6900," claims the site, falsely.

Elden Ring Nightreign's Sentient Pest is the second Everdark boss to fall short of expectations set by Gaping Jaw: 'There's almost no challenge'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/elden-ring-nightreigns-sentient-pest-is-the-second-everdark-boss-to-fall-short-of-expectations-set-by-gaping-jaw-theres-almost-no-challenge/
As part of FromSoftware's ongoing post-launch support for Elden Ring Nightreign a new Everdark boss has been tagged into the fight. Everdark bosses are a souped-up version of an existing Nightlord, there's been one for Gapping Jaw and Fulghor, and now the latest one to grace us is the bug buddies, Sentient Pest.

As fans lose it over sanitised nudity and violence, Ready or Not devs promise they haven't changed their 'creative vision': 'We’ve only made changes where absolutely required'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/as-fans-lose-it-over-sanitised-nudity-and-violence-ready-or-not-devs-promise-they-havent-changed-their-creative-vision-weve-only-made-changes-where-absolutely-required/
SWAT sim Ready or Not's recent Steam reviews cratered to Mostly Negative recently, in the wake of changes to the game's content to meet console standards that were—if not widely, then vocally—perceived to be censorship by a number of fans.
(...)
That set fans off to the extent that the devs at VOID Interactive have come out with a statement to try to mollify them. In a post on Steam, VOID said that "misconceptions and misinformation" have been circulating about just how far-ranging the changes are, and explicitly listed—with before-and-after shots—the changes that have been made to the game's PC version. It then went on to reassure fans that "Missions such as Elephant, Neon Tomb, and the infamous Valley of the Dolls," a level which sees you storm the home of a child pornographer, "remain unchanged."

Peak devs accidentally released a patch that 'made a number of players totally unable to play' so now there's a new public beta Steam branch for everyone to mess around in safely
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/peak-devs-accidentally-released-a-patch-that-made-a-number-of-players-totally-unable-to-play-so-now-theres-a-new-public-beta-steam-branch-for-everyone-to-mess-around-in-safely/
Peak rose to fame almost overnight with this indie co-op climbing game selling two million copies in just nine days. But with this success came a little chaos. Developers Aggro Crab and Landfall came together to make this game for a game jam and as a way to decompress from making bigger games, it was never meant for hundreds of thousands of players to enjoy all at once.
"So, let's talk about stability," Landcrab says in a blog post. "The sheer number of people playing this game means that we're often hearing about hardware or network-specific issues that our internal testers have a lot of trouble catching because, well, there aren't 100,000 of them. Recently this resulted in a patch going live that made a number of players totally unable to play the game, and we had to roll it back immediately. That's bad."
The patch in question was 1.6.a which has now "been reverted due to a variety of bug reports that were missed in testing". The patch was meant to "dramatically improve the stability" allowing players to reconnect to lost games and just a plethora of bug fixes. But while this may not be in effect any more the devs are still looking for ways to improve stability and dish out more bug fixes.
"To help with the stability of future major patches, we're going to be opening up a public beta Steam branch," the post continues. "This will allow anyone who wants to play with new, possibly unstable features to do so safely and report issues to us before they go live to the greater community."

What a load of BS!

This has nothing to do with Nvidia wanting to keep cards at MSRP or above. They sell the GPU and memory chips to its partners at a fixed cost, no matter how much th GPUs sell for. It's the partners that will earn more or less money from each card.

If Nvidia is actually doing this, it's only because they want the extra production capacity to make the Xina specific cards, likely for a higher profit.

Most GPUs in US retail sell well above MSRP, except for unpopular 8GB models

https://videocardz.com/newz/most-gpus-in-us-retail-sell-well-above-msrp-except-for-unpopular-8gb-models

GeForce RTX 5070 Tops The Amazon Best-Selling GPU List; NVIDIA Keeps Over 70% Of Total GPU Market Share

https://wccftech.com/geforce-rtx-5070-tops-the-amazon-best-selling-gpu-list/

China’s Domestic GPU Manufacturers Are Swiftly Making Moves In The Market; Now Advancing Toward Multi-Billion Dollar IPOs

https://wccftech.com/china-domestic-gpu-manufacturers-are-swiftly-making-moves-in-the-market/

Here’s a Look at One Of The World’s Smallest Laptop – The “2-in-1” Piccolo Series81 With Intel’s N100 CPU

https://wccftech.com/review/here-a-look-at-one-of-the-world-smallest-laptop-the-2-in-1-piccolo-series81/

Let’s go with the Friday gaming news!

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

The Humble Store has launched the Monster Hunter Wilds Spotlight Sale, with the three editions of the game being 20% off during 13 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/monster-hunter-wilds-spotlight-sale/.

Fanatical’s new Star Deal is Persona 5 Royal, with a 65% discount during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/persona-5-royal.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Founder of world's biggest mod site hits back at fans angry about upcoming age verification for NSFW mods: 'The law is the law and Nexus Mods will, and must, follow the law'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/founder-of-worlds-biggest-mod-site-hits-back-at-fans-angry-about-upcoming-age-verification-for-nsfw-mods-the-law-is-the-law-and-nexus-mods-will-and-must-follow-the-law/
Last week Nexus Mods said it would be moving to tighten up how it handles access to adult content. The major element is an age verification system, yet to be implemented, and it'll apply to UK and EU users in response to the UK's Online Safety Act and the EU's Digital Services.
"The majority of adult content hosted on the site" for these users will require age verification, though when PCG asked for specifics we were told only that Nexus is "confident we can strike a solid balance between user safety and accessibility." The age verification system will not apply outside of the EU and UK.
This change occurred just weeks after the founder of Nexus Mods, who goes by the handle Dark0ne on the site, departed after 24 years, saying the site had "taken its toll" on his life. The proximity led some users to incorrectly assume that the new age verification system is being imposed by the site's new owners, drunk on the power of denying gooners access to their smutty Stellar Blade mods.
"For the people who think this is the fault of the new owners of Nexus Mods, please either read the news post above properly or read up on the laws around child safety online that are coming to every major western country either this month, or in the coming year (including most states in the US)," says Dark0ne in a new comment on the announcement post.
"We did not write these laws, we have no control over these laws. Nexus Mods is not an underground website operating on the dark web—it's a legitimate business that has to follow the laws of the countries it operates in."

The fan remake of Counter-Strike 1.6 is encountering legal issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-fan-remake-of-counter-strike-1-6-is-encountering-legal-issues/
In March 2025, we informed you about a fan remake of Counter-Strike 1.6 in the Source Engine, CS:Legacy. However, it appears that this fan remake is now running into some legal trouble with Valve.
For those who did not know, CS:Legacy is built from the ground up with 100% custom code and game assets. The game will be using Valve’s official 2013 Source Engine SDK codebase, with its own major rewrites to the renderer, shaders and various systems.
Midnight Madness wants to bring back everything people loved about the original game. It will keep the classic CS style but will also add better graphics, and smoother gameplay. Players can also expect new tech to make it feel more modern.
The devs said they got a message from someone at Valve. That person warned them that using the name and content from Counter-Strike might not be allowed anymore unless they get a special license. If this is true, it could stop them from releasing CS:Legacy as a free remake of CS 1.6. So now, Midnight Madness has two choices: cancel the game, or change it so it doesn’t use anything from Counter-Strike.
Midnight Madness reached out to Valve’s legal team to make sure they get a clear, official stance on this specific matter. They also made sure to tell Valve that they were are ready to make any changes, adaptations or restrictions to their project that they see fit. So far, Valve has not responded to that email.

Cyberpunk 2077 Gets a Brutal and Gory Overhaul with This Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/cyberpunk-2077-gets-a-brutal-and-gory-overhaul-with-this-mod/
Cyberpunk 2077 fans, here is something for you today. Modder Cazanu released the best blood mod for CDPR’s title, and it’s a must for everyone who wants to make the game a bit more gory and brutal.
Going into more details, this mod adds cool animated blood pools to the game. The blood spreads out in a different shape each time and stays on the ground for 10 minutes before going away. There’s also an extra pack that adds new blood splatters with some small pieces of meat in the textures.
Even though this mod sounds simple, it can really make your game feel more intense. Well, that is if you want CP2077 to be more brutal than before. By default, the game allows you to cut off your enemies’ heads or limbs. But with this mod, those effects look even bloodier and gorier.
>> The article has an over 3 minutes video of the mod. Worth watching to see if it’s too much for your taste.

This addon pack adds 40 new cars to GTA 5 Enhanced Edition
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-addon-pack-adds-40-new-cars-to-gta-5-enhanced-edition/
Modder Echox has released a new addon pack that adds 40 new cars to Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Edition. And, since this is a free car pack, I highly recommend getting it.
From what I can see, this pack adds cars like the Ford GT17, Nissan 350Z, BMW M4 CSL, Pagani Huayra R, and Mazda RX-7. You will also get your hands on the Nissan Skyline GT-R 34 Tommy Kaira, Audi RS5, Dodge Viper, Porsche 993, Mazda MX-5, and more.
The good news here is that this addon car pack is also compatible with the NaturalVision Enhanced Mod. So, if you are currently using it, you can download a special version of it. Also, NVE has been updated and is currently compatible with the latest update of GTA 5 Enhanced Edition. You can go ahead and download the addon from this link. A full installation guide is included in the mod file, so make sure to read it.
>> The article doesn’t have any media.

Open-source Morrowind project just got an update 3 years in the making that might have me saying bye to the vanilla game for good—oh, and you can load Skyrim in it now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/open-source-morrowind-project-just-got-an-update-3-years-in-the-making-that-might-have-me-saying-bye-to-the-vanilla-game-for-good-oh-and-you-can-load-skyrim-in-it-now/
Having begun work on it sometime after the domestication of rice, the heroic mad lads over at OpenMW—the open-source engine reimplementation for The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind that lets you play it with a minimum of fuss on pretty much any modern OS—have finally released its much-anticipated 0.49 update. Okay, work actually began on it almost three years ago, but do you remember what you were doing three years ago? Me neither. Pretty much the Bronze Age.
This is a big one, folks, and I strongly recommend trawling through its giganto release post if only because capo, its author, is a genuinely entertaining writer. But to boil it down: Morrowind players have been lusting after a full release for 0.49 for some time, in no small part because of the way it buffs up OpenMW's capacity to handle lua mods.
I can't pretend to have the knowledge required to break down the programming nitty-gritty here, but you can hardly blame me: some parts of it are downright esoteric even to the OpenMW team: "We’ll start with melee combat," say the devs. "Nobody knows how it works, and if you think you do, you don’t. Even if your name is Todd Howard."
But let me try to break down the essence of the upgrade anyway. For a while now, there's been a bit of a split whenever some newbie comes along asking the best way to play Morrowind for the first time. On the one hand, plenty of people recommended pre-0.49 versions of OpenMW—it's easy to setup, stable, and you can pretty much just install it and play the game without much faff, enjoying modcons like 16:9 support and limited gamepad functionality.
On the other hand, plenty of people recommended sticking with vanilla Morrowind and its corpus of scripting and graphics extenders: plugins you can install to expand what mods can do, and that let you get buckwild with the game's graphics, UI, and gameplay. It's not that OpenMW was totally bare of that stuff—modding heroes have done things like turn OpenMW into an isometric game—but there were more mods, and more robust support for them, over on the vanilla Morrowind side. It had the advantage of existing for over two decades.
But now, says the OpenMW team, 0.49 is a "marked step forward for OpenMW-lua," the open-source project's own implementation of the lua black-magic toolkit. "Lua scripting can now interact with the game’s animations, audio, magic, quests, virtual filesystem, create and teleport game objects, load YAML data serialisation format files, load and save the game, and more. It is also much more stable!" Plenty of mods, and the very handy OpenMW mod auto-installer Modding-OpenMW, have required 0.49 release candidates for a while now already, such is its superiority.
That's on top of 0.49's fat tome of other tweaks, updates, additions, and fixes. For instance, you can now set rain not to clip through outdoor coverings. We're in a whole new world, people.
It's excellent news, and at least for me might mark a final goodbye to Morrowind in its vanilla form. At the very least, my next Morrowind playthrough is almost certainly going to be OpenMW-based if only so I can check out all the new bells and whistles.
Oh, and one last surprise: you can play Skyrim in it now. Kind of. "We’ve begun prototyping support for Oblivion (2006), Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4, games based on later revisions of Bethesda’s open-world game engine," writes the OpenMW team. "As we’re picking the low-hanging fruits, early support includes very basic 'walking simulator' functionality." Attached screenshots show a few recognisable spaces—the Imperial City, Whiterun, your bathroom in Fallout 4—devoid of NPCs. Still, it's very impressive and entirely unexpected, at least for me.
>> The article has a couple of screenshots.

GAMING NEWS

Perfect Dark Remake 2024 Demo Was a Playable Vertical Slice
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/perfect-dark-remake-2024-demo-was-a-playable-vertical-slice/
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it’s shutting down The Initiative studio and canceling the game Perfect Dark. A report then surfaced, suggesting that the game’s Xbox Games Showcase 2024 trailer was fake. But that’s not fully true. A former dev said the demo shown was a playable vertical slice.

The Last of Us Part I Patch 1.1.5 Released & Fully Detailed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-last-of-us-part-i-patch-1-1-5-released-fully-detailed/
Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy have released Title Update 1.1.5 for the PC version of The Last of Us Part I. This appears to be a small update. So, let’s take a look at its patch notes to see its tweaks, fixes, and changes.