I know that Asus sells more motherboards and CPUs than anyone else, maybe even combined, and that means that it has more RMAs than anyone else as well, and in turn, this obviously increases the odds of having problems when dealing with them. But Asus sure seems to have too many "cosmetic related damages" they try to charge for to think that this is not intentional.

Anyway, yesterday came up the cuccesion of Nvidia's Jensen, and today it's another important one: Linux. But they already have a plan that is very... Vatican:

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-linux-kernel-now-has-a-succession-plan-for-when-linus-torvalds-checks-out-which-emerged-after-an-apparently-uplifting-discussion-about-our-eventual-march-toward-death/

(I won't spoil it this time)

AI world building is coming along pretty fast. This is now available to the public (for $250/mo):

Chinese AI Giants Are Now Getting the “Green Light” to Buy NVIDIA’s H200 AI Chips, as Jensen’s Diplomatic Gamble Begins to Bear Fruit

https://wccftech.com/china-ai-giants-are-now-getting-the-green-light-for-buying-nvidia-h200-ai-chip/

Only Three GeForce RTX 50 GPUs Expected To Make Up 75% Of Total NVIDIA GPU Supply In Q1 2026

https://wccftech.com/only-three-geforce-rtx-50-gpus-expected-to-make-up-75-of-total-nvidia-gpu-supply-in-q1-2026/

NVIDIA RTX 5060, RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB, and RTX 5070 12 GB

MAINGEAR Intros Retro98 Gaming PCs: Retro-Styled Designs Featuring Top-Tier Specifications Including The Newly Launched AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, Starting at $2499

https://wccftech.com/maingear-retro98-gaming-pcs-retro-styled-designs-top-specs-amd-ryzen-7-9850x3d/

Streamer shares video of MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming Trio smoking near power connector

https://videocardz.com/newz/streamer-shares-video-of-msi-geforce-rtx-4090-gaming-trio-smoking-near-power-connector

AMD replaced user’s Ryzen 9 7950X3D with 9950X3D during RMA

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-replaced-users-ryzen-9-7950x3d-with-9950x3d-during-rma

FFmpeg devs tell AMD to clean up “AI slop” submissions

https://videocardz.com/newz/ffmpeg-devs-tell-amd-to-clean-up-ai-slop-submissions

Samsung’s profit triples, beating estimates as AI chip demand fuels memory shortage

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/29/samsung-record-q4-2025-profit-ai-hbm-ai-memory-chip-shortage.html

Which are your "biggest" game series on PC?

We’ve made it to the Friday gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 left a gaping, $28 million hole in Paradox's year-end financial report
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-left-a-gaping-usd28-million-hole-in-paradoxs-year-end-financial-report/
Paradox aired its year-end report—where it chats all the money it has and hasn't made for the benefit of investors—earlier today, but don't worry, I watched it for you. Long story short? Paradox raked in a whole lot of cash this quarter: 23% more than it earned in the same quarter last year, making it Paradox's "second-best quarter ever". Hooray! Also, it managed to make 162% less operating profit for an overall loss of 245.4 million Swedish kronor (around $28 million). Uh oh!
And the reason is, well, yeah, it's Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.
"The profit line, or EBIT [earnings before interest and taxes] is affected by a big writedown of the game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2," said Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester. If you'll recall, Paradox announced last November that its troubled sequel to cult classic Bloodlines 1 hadn't sold as well as it had hoped, leading to a write-down of 355 million kronor.
Profit was also impacted by "scheduled amortisation of the entire capitalised development cost [for Bloodlines 2] over the period from October to December 2025, amounting to MSEK 345.7." Unlike the wince-inducing write-down, though, that's just a fairly bog-standard bit of accounting for the game's development costs (though those would, perhaps, have been lower had the game not been such a nightmare to create).
Absent the write-down, Paradox's profit would've shaken out to around 110 million kronor—still a hefty chunk less than its operating profit in the same quarter last year (395.3 million kronor), but, you know, still a profit.
Now, to be fair, vampires weren't the only thing taking a bite out of Paradox's bank account last quarter. Wester and Paradox CFO Alexander Bricca pointed out that the volatility of foreign exchange rates has also been doing a number on the company. "The dollar was down, I think 12% if you look at the quarter average, [the] Euro down 5, 6%—so, all in all it impacts our top line quite significantly," Bricca told investors.

The Humble Store presents the Winter Indie Spotlight Sale, featuring up to 90% discounts during 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/winter-indie-spotlight/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty as well-

GAMING NEWS

FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly Remake Gets PC Requirements, PC Demo Coming on March 5th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/fatal-frame-ii-crimson-butterfly-remake-gets-pc-requirements-pc-demo-coming-on-march-5th/
KOEI Tecmo has announced that a PC demo for FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly Remake will come out on March 5th. This demo will let you try the game before it comes out. Moreover, the publisher shared the game’s official PC system requirements. So, let’s dive in.

Darkhaven is a new ARPG from ex-Blizzard devs with a fully deformable world
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/darkhaven-is-a-new-arpg-from-ex-blizzard-devs-with-a-fully-deformable-world/
Moon Beast Productions today announced Darkhaven, a new action RPG that aims to return to the genre’s roots. At the same time, the game aims to push the genre forward with a fully dynamic, persistent world.

First Title Update for Highguard Released – Full Patch Notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-title-update-for-highguard-released-full-patch-notes/
Wildlight Entertainment has released the first title update for its free-to-play PvP raid shooter, Highguard, and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s see what this first patch brings to the table.

A Whisper of Fall: Jinyiwei Is a New Martial Arts-Themed Action RPG
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/a-whisper-of-fall-jinyiwei-is-a-new-martial-arts-themed-action-rpg/
Chengdu Cangmo has announced a new martial arts-themed ARPG game that is set in ancient China, called A Whisper of Fall: Jinyiwei. This game will be coming to PC and PS5, and you can find its debut trailer below.

Genigods: Nezha is a new Unreal Engine 5-powered action RPG
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/genigods-nezha-is-a-new-unreal-engine-5-powered-action-rpg/
Genigods Lab has announced a new hardcore action RPG that will be using Unreal Engine 5, called Genigods: Nezha. To celebrate this announcement, the devs shared the game’s debut trailer, which you can find below.

Friday gaming news, part two:

World of Warcraft: Midnight's new roadmap includes prop hunt, mega-dungeon sized delves, and a new experimental game mode from the folks who brought you Remix and Plunderstorm
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-midnights-new-roadmap-includes-prop-hunt-mega-dungeon-sized-delves-and-a-new-experimental-game-mode-from-the-folks-who-brought-you-remix-and-plunderstorm/
Once of the nice things about World of Warcraft's post-Shadowlands era is its ability to experiment—I never thought I'd see WoW get a Battle Royale-style pirate mode, or a zany, high-powered remix of a past expansion where actual drama happens over something called a Gulp Frog, but here we are.
World of Warcraft: Midnight means to carry on this new philosophy, as stated in a roadmap included in a State of Azeroth video posted to Blizzard's official channels today.
>> Blizzard has also shared some changes/improvements to player housing (link)

Roguelike beat-'em-up Absolum's new update is adding even more variety to 2025's most replayable game
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/roguelike-beat-em-up-absolums-new-update-is-adding-even-more-variety-to-2025s-most-replayable-game/
When it came time to choose my personal pick in our 2025 Game of the Year awards, one game jumped right out at me. Absolum is a brilliantly clever hybrid of classic side-scrolling beat-'em-up combat with a roguelike framework, and I'm not sure it ever quite got the buzz it deserved.
It seems like it found an audience, at least, with 500,000 players, a 94% positive rating on Steam and apparently enough success to fuel a new free update.

After a server glitch, Final Fantasy 11 is dispatching Game Masters to manually assassinate bugged monsters just so the game knows they're really dead: 'God personally stepping in to correct the world itself'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/after-a-server-glitch-final-fantasy-11-is-dispatching-game-masters-to-manually-assassinate-bugged-monsters-just-so-the-game-knows-theyre-really-dead-god-personally-stepping-in-to-correct-the-world-itself/
As it nears its 24th birthday, Final Fantasy 11 is still quietly chugging along. And while FF14's older, weirder MMO sibling has settled into a comfortable rhythm of incremental maintenance updates, its more than two decades of layered expansions and legacy systems still manage to produce some fascinating weirdness.
Sometimes that means needing to navigate a tangle of nested launchers and login accounts to start playing, or needing to suspend character creation 23 years after launch because a sudden burst of activity is overtaxing server infrastructure. Or, as is the case this week, it means Square Enix is having to send out FF11's Game Masters to personally exterminate bugged boss monsters just so everyone can be sure they've actually been killed.

Rainbow Six Siege's next operator is, and I swear this is real, Solid Snake
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/rainbow-six-sieges-next-operator-is-and-i-swear-this-is-real-solid-snake/
Ubisoft is teasing a new Rainbow Six Siege operator that, frankly, I'm having trouble accepting is real. If this 15-second video of Sam Fisher on a Codec call with his stealth franchise rival is to be taken at face value, Solid Snake is coming to Siege.

Phasmophobia's roadmap includes evidence of a 1.0 launch in 2026: a player character overhaul, new event, and Horror 2.0
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/horror/phasmophobias-roadmap-includes-evidence-of-a-1-0-launch-in-2026-the-player-character-overhaul-a-new-event-and-horror-2-0/
Phasmophobia's early access build celebrates its sixth anniversary as a viral ghost-hunting breakout on Steam later this year, but that's assuming we make it to September before the 1.0 launch. If Kinetic Games' latest roadmap stays on track, then we'll be cutting it close, as Phasmophobia is planning for its 1.0 launch with a horror rework and lore update sometime this year.

And here's part three:

'I shouldn’t have announced the game so early,' Eric Barone admits about Haunted Chocolatier, says he had his reasons for doing so but then doesn't tell us what they were: 'The only thing that really matters is that I keep making progress on the game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/i-shouldnt-have-announced-the-game-so-early-eric-barone-admits-about-haunted-chocolatier-says-he-had-his-reasons-for-doing-so-but-then-doesnt-tell-us-what-they-were-the-only-thing-that-really-matters-is-that-i-keep-making-progress-on-the-game/

You can find Code Vein 2's best early-game weapons almost immediately, letting you breeze through MagMell Island
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/code-vein-2-best-early-weapons/

Mighty No. 9 studio Comcept, which somehow still existed, is now officially dead and buried
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mighty-no-9-studio-comcept-which-somehow-still-existed-is-now-officially-dead-and-buried/

One third of US games industry workers were laid off in the last 2 years, GDC survey says
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/one-third-of-us-games-industry-workers-were-laid-off-in-the-last-2-years-gdc-survey-says/

Over 50% of game developers now think generative AI is bad for the industry, a dramatic increase from just 2 years ago: 'I'd rather quit the industry than use generative AI'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/more-than-half-of-game-developers-now-think-generative-ai-is-bad-for-the-industry-a-dramatic-increase-from-just-2-years-ago-id-rather-quit-the-industry-than-use-generative-ai/

Deadlock players have chosen Graves, the goth girl, as the second new character to be added, beating out unicorn lady and demon boy
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/deadlock-players-have-chosen-graves-the-goth-girl-as-the-second-new-character-to-be-added-beating-out-unicorn-lady-and-demon-boy/

Let’s now check the Steam deals for the weekend (GOG has no new deals):

+Steam

• Deep Rock Galactic is going to be free to try until Monday and also 70% off until Tuesday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/548430/Deep_Rock_Galactic/
• Dystopika features a 42% discount until the 5th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379910/Dystopika/
• Dead by Daylight will be free to try during the weekend and 60% off until February 10: https://store.steampowered.com/app/381210/Dead_by_Daylight/
• City Tales - Medieval Era has a demo and a 35% discount that will last until the 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3265070/City_Tales__Medieval_Era/
• The Early Access title Hotel Architect is free to try during the weekend and is also 50% off until the 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1602000/Hotel_Architect/
• And these are the six new sales/events:
  • Dieny puts its games on sale with discounts that range between 65 and 75%, and will last until February 2: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/DisneySale2026
  • Developer/Publisher Amplitude celebrates its 15th anniversary putting sits games up to 80% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/AmplitudePublisherSale
  • The Grounded Franchise Sale features up to 50% discounts until the 5th of February: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/GroundedFranchise
  • Publisher Excalibur Games will have its games up to 90% off until February 12: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32976461/sale/ExcaliburGamesPublisherSale2026
  • Tokyo Games Dungeon 11 features lots of upcoming titles, some demos and a handful of discounts that range from 15 to 30%, tho the page launched today and there’s still room to have more discounts. The Event will last until the 15th, but the discounts will end between tomorrow and the 10th o February: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44802688/sale/TokyoGameDungeon11
  • Good Game Convention Indie Showcase is in a similar position to the last one, as the page has gone up today and still has room for more deals to come. In any case, it has upcoming releases, demos and a handful of deals between 20 and 60% off. The deals vary in length, with some ending later today and others lasting until February 13 : https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45848642/sale/GGCON2026

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

Mine is probably Assassin's Creed with 7 games, split into different platforms, Xbox360, PC and WiiU (lol), stores, Steam, UbiConnect and EGS, and formats, physical and digital.

I just checked the prices of the current-gen GPUs of AMD and NVidia, and these already are some preview of what's to come.

Prices NVidia, available GPUs only:

Prices AMD:

NVidia prices with more than 12GB VRAM are really through the roof to the point of gettign ridiculous, especially the 5060Ti and 5070Ti. Better get a 5070 or 5080 than those cards now.

And yes, the 5070 can be gotten for cheaper than a 16GB 5060Ti despite the rather large performance gap between both cards.

Might and Magic with 18 entries (9 mainline titles, X Legacy, Swords of Xeen, M&M Chess Royale, Crusaders, and 5 HoMM titles), 19 if standalone fan expansion Horn of the Abyss for HoMM 3 counts. Could actually be boosted up to 27 if we could all the Heroes Chronicles chapters, too.

That would depend on how one defines series. Complicating matters are games that are multiple as one entry, plus remakes/remasters.

I have over 20 games from each of the following: Disney; Dungeon and Dragons; Lego; Sakura; Star Wars; Warhammer 40k, but they are split between smaller series and standalone games. Absolute largest of these would be the Sakura games, 40 titles in total; second would be Warhammer 40k with 39.

More single series: Arma 11; Command and Conque 13; Doom 10; Elder Scrolls 9; F1 10; Fallout 9; GTA 8; Half-Life 13; Hitman 10; Leisure Suit Larry 10; Mega Man 9; Monkey Island 10 (6 if not counting the episodic ones separately); Muv-Luv 10; Neptunia 9; Portal 9; Putt-Putt 10; Quake 12; Resident Evil 11; Sam and Max 18 (6 if not counting the episodic ones separately); Serious Sam 15; Sherlock Holmes 10; Sonic 13; Spellforce 9; Tomb Raider 17; Total War 12; Warhammer Fantasy 10; Worms 12; XCOM 9; Yakuza 8; You Don't Know Jack 9;

And speaking of Disney.

Would have been really nice if they had scheduled this sale before the removal of over a dozen games. Guess I'm going to buy some of the ones I am missing just in case.