Thanks for sharing.

Samsung pitches zHBM with 8x HBM5 performance, but it is still only a concept

https://videocardz.com/newz/samsung-pitches-zhbm-with-8x-hbm5-performance-but-it-is-still-only-a-concept

Samsung becomes first TV maker to launch HDR10+ ADVANCED

https://videocardz.com/newz/samsung-becomes-first-tv-maker-to-launch-hdr10-advanced

NVIDIA cancels $4,600 GeForce RTX 5090 order after ASUS rejects pre-price hike pricing, new order costs $5,100

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-cancels-4600-geforce-rtx-5090-order-after-asus-rejects-pre-price-hike-pricing-new-order-costs-5100

GIGABYTE GPU prices rise by 20% to 40% in Japan, some orders may be cancelled

https://videocardz.com/newz/gigabyte-gpu-prices-rise-by-20-to-40-in-japan-some-orders-may-be-cancelled

GeForce RTX 50 prices rise by 30% on average in South Korea within days

https://videocardz.com/newz/geforce-rtx-50-prices-rise-by-30-on-average-in-south-korea-within-days

Modder turns Steam Machine faceplate into a Steam Controller charging dock

https://videocardz.com/newz/modder-turns-steam-machine-faceplate-into-a-steam-controller-charging-dock

CXMT Becomes World’s Fastest-Growing DRAM Maker as Revenue Explodes 716% – China’s Memory Champion Charges at the Big Three Club

https://wccftech.com/cxmt-becomes-worlds-fastest-growing-dram-maker-as-revenue-explodes-716-chinas-memory-champion-charges-at-the-big-three-club/

Elon Musk Commits SpaceX Exclusively To NVIDIA GPUs Citing “They’re The Best”, With 10GW Of AI Compute Coming By 2027

https://wccftech.com/elon-musk-commits-spacex-exclusively-to-nvidia-gpus-citing-theyre-the-best/

Former Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger Lavishes Praise On Quantum Computing Company’s Agreement With Secretive Government Agency

https://wccftech.com/former-intel-ceo-patrick-gelsinger-lavishes-praise-on-quantum-computing-companys-agreement-with-secretive-government-agency/

Microsoft just deleted Windows 11’s 32GB RAM recommendation docs, as prices soar and it rushes to sell 8GB RAM PCs

https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/08/05/microsoft-just-deleted-windows-11s-32gb-ram-recommendation-docs-as-prices-soar-and-it-rushes-to-sell-8gb-ram-pcs/

The gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

GOG has two new sales/promos:

• Shooter Promo has games up to 95% off and will last 10 days: https://www.gog.com/es/promo/20260805_shooter_promo
• Thunderful Publisher Sale features games with up to 85% discounts that will last 12 days: https://www.gog.com/es/promo/20260805_thunderful_publisher_sale

Steam has four new deals and three sales/events:

• The infamous MindsEye is going to be 50% off until Friday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3265250/MindsEye/
• Sephiria has a demo and also a 40% discount that will last until August 10: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2436940/Sephiria/
• Rogue Point will be 50% off until the 18th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1843840/Rogue_Point/
• Rogue Legacy gets a 90% discount until the same 18th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/241600/Rogue_Legacy/
• Here are the sales/events:
  • ComiDay Game ShowCase has many upcoming releases as well as a few games on sale with up to 70% discounts. The deals will end between the 8th and the 13th of August: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/46216543/sale/ComiDay30
  • East Asia Indie Games Celebration comes with upcoming titles and games up to 80% off. Unsurprisingly, the length of the deals vary greatly, with some ending later today and others lasting until the 18th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45543967/sale/EastAsiaIndieGamesCelebration2026
  • And Publisher Panic celebrates the launch of its newest games with a sale and games up to 80% off until August 18: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/panicpublishersale2026

Fanatical has three new 24h Flash Deals:

• PEAK gets a 53% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/peak
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Digital Deluxe Edition is 56% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/sonic-racing-crossworlds-digital-deluxe-edition
• And INCISION has a 58% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/incision

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Okay, this time it seems like Valve has *actually* fixed Steam's local game transfer problem
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/okay-this-time-it-seems-like-valve-has-actually-fixed-steams-local-game-transfer-problem/
Last week, Valve finally fixed a longstanding issue with users not being able to access local network game transfers, and all was right with the world. Well, not really, as it has now fixed even more problems causing that issue. But this time, it might be done… hopefully.
In a discussion board announcing a Steam Client Update on August 3, Valve said it has "fixed additional cases preventing local network game transfers from starting."
It doesn't say what exactly those problems are, but one can assume they were reported after the local game transfer fix last week. If you're wondering why people care about this issue, local transfers are a way of bypassing using the internet to transfer games.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

PS1 Classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Gets Unofficial PC Port
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ps1-classic-castlevania-symphony-of-the-night-gets-unofficial-pc-port/
Another day, another unofficial PC port of a classic console game. BlackLabelHQ has released a beta version of their PC port of perhaps the best Castlevania game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. So, if you are a die-hard Castlevania fan, you should definitely check it out.
The goal of this project is to help bring the game to modern PCs without some of the limitations of older consoles. This was accomplished through both recompilation means and decompilation efforts.
As I said, this PC port is still in a beta phase. Therefore, you might encounter some bugs here and there. From what I know, you can already play the entire game, from start to finish. And this is precisely why I’ve decided to share it, even though it has not hit its final 1.0 version.
As with all recompilations, this PC version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night does not contain any in-game assets. This means that you’ll have to use your own PS1 ROM file. Right now, the game only supports the North American PSX version.
>> The article has an over 10 minutes video.

This Fallout: New Vegas Mod Adds 1000+ Immersive Radiant Quests
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/this-fallout-new-vegas-mod-adds-1000-immersive-radiant-quests/
Modder ‘ColdTyrant’ has released a pretty cool mod for Fallout: New Vegas that adds over 1000 radiant quests/objectives across the Mojave Desert. So, let’s take a closer look at it, shall we?
This mod adds Notice Boards to several major population centers and other strategic locations. Players can visit them and accept infinitely repeatable radiant quests with randomly generated parameters.
The main intent of this mod is to provide additional free content to Fallout: New Vegas. The modder tried to make the objectives immersive, fun, and rewarding.
Players will find World Tier Notices and Region Tier Notices. For World Tier Notices, you’ll need to be above Level 25. These quests can randomly generate anywhere in the Mojave Desert. On the other hand, the Region Tier Notices have various levels per region and offer lesser rewards.
Here are all the regions and their recommended levels for the Region Tier Notices:

• Goodsprings ( Recommended Lv1 )
• Primm ( Recommended Lv5 )
• Mojave Outpost ( Recommended Lv7 )
• Novac ( Recommended Lv10 )
• Boulder City ( Recommended Lv13 )
• South Vegas ( Recommended Lv16 )
• North Vegas ( Recommended Lv19 )

All in all, this is a cool new mod for everyone who is currently replaying Fallout: New Vegas. So, if you are one of them, I highly recommend trying it. You can download it from here.
>> The article doesn’t have any media.

WoW will let some WeakAura-style mods function in its next major patch, as the war on combat AddOns turns into more of a truce
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wow-will-let-some-weakaura-style-mods-function-in-its-next-major-patch-as-the-war-on-combat-addons-turns-into-more-of-a-truce/
World of Warcraft calling curtains on combat-based UI mods (AddOns) has been a bit of a mixed bag—while I'm personally more than fine having a class I don't need constant auditory pings and klaxons to play, there have been some missing functionalities and hiccups along the way.
One element of this is, at least, somewhat understandable: Blizzard isn't able to pre-empt every customization desire of its playerbase with nearly the same rapidity that an enthusiastic modding community will, which was one of my fears back when Blizzard first announced it.
The tuning-down has been twofold: Firstly, Blizzard's been gradually adding extra utilities to its new base UI offerings—for example, the upcoming Patch 12.1 will let you keep track of potions and trinkets with its cooldown tracker. But other changes create a lot more leniency with what mod authors can do.

GAMING NEWS

Take a Look at the Ludicrous PC Graphics Settings of Gears of War: E-Day
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/take-a-look-at-the-ludicrous-pc-graphics-settings-of-gears-of-war-e-day/
Gears of War: E-Day is one of the most anticipated games of 2026. From what we’ve heard, the game will use Unreal Engine 5.8 and will support many of the new features introduced in UE5. Not only that, but it will have settings that will go beyond Ultra Settings.
These “higher than Ultra” settings will be called Ludicrous. And, at the end of the article, you can find two videos that will give you a glimpse of them. These videos are from the game’s Closed Beta phase that Microsoft held earlier this month.

The second part of the gaming news:

Endless Legend 2 is escaping early access in September and adding new major, minor and rogue factions
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/endless-legend-2-is-escaping-early-access-in-september-and-adding-new-major-minor-and-rogue-factions/
Endless Legend 2 seriously impressed me when it launched in early access last year. And now it's poised to escape its development shackles and appear fully formed, as the 1.0 launch now has a release date.

Rockstar's great Midnight Club racing series was killed off for one simple reason, and you can probably guess what it was
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/rockstars-great-midnight-club-racing-series-was-killed-off-for-one-simple-reason-and-you-can-probably-guess-what-it-was/
Every few years or so I find myself idly wondering whatever happened to Midnight Club, Rockstar's arcade street racing series. I quite liked Midnight Club 2 back in the day, although I fell away from the series after that because, in fine Rockstar fashion, subsequent games weren't released on PC. The series as a whole ground to a halt in 2008 with Midnight Club: Los Angeles—despite going over well with critics, the series was never heard from again.
In a new interview with Kiwi Talkz on Insider Gaming, former Rockstar designer Kris Roberts, who worked on multiple Midnight Club games and Red Dead Redemption before leaving in 2010, said there were a few factors involved in the decision to kill the series, including missed deadlines and "non-trivial conflict" between Rockstar New York and the San Diego studio where Midnight Club was developed, but the obvious elephant in the room was Grand Theft Auto.
>> How surprising! /sarcasm

Statistically, your PC probably doesn't come close to the recommended RAM requirement for this third-person shooter's upcoming playtest
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/statistically-your-pc-probably-doesnt-come-close-to-the-recommended-ram-requirement-for-this-third-person-shooters-upcoming-playtest/
Cinder City, the upcoming "open-world cinematic third-person shooter set in a fallen near-future Seoul," popped some eyes earlier this year when it came to Steam recommending 64GB of RAM. That turned out to be a mistake, but the minimum requirement is still 32GB, which is a lot—more than the majority of respondents to the most recent Steam Hardware and Software Survey have, anyway—and as PC Gamer's Nick Evanson noted at the time, either the remaining specs contain other, still-uncorrected mistakes, "or the game is an unholy mess of non-optimization."
That complicates the usefulness of those system requirements somewhat, so here's a more practical way of determining whether your rig is up to snuff: A pre-alpha playtest set to run August 14-16, and you can sign up for a shot at access right now.

'I was this close': Teenage dev's $200 joke game made nearly $1.4 million on Steam before the refunds came flooding in
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/i-was-this-close-teenage-devs-usd200-joke-game-made-nearly-usd1-4-million-on-steam-before-the-refunds-came-flooding-in/
This Game Costs 200 Dollars is a game on Steam that, literally, costs $200. The listing describes it as a "psychological 'comedic' experience," and promises it's absolutely worth "every single cent" of its wildly inflated price. You might have doubts, but it was enough of a hook that for one brief, shining moment, developer Stolen Valor Studios—actually 18-year-old Michael Major—was a millionaire.
Major told his tale to WMUR-TV (via GamesRadar), saying This Game Costs 200 Dollars—released on January 30, nominally a sequel to This Game Costs 10 Dollars, which came out just days prior—was intended as a joke, and not something he expected anyone would buy. But a few months later, according to the report, he realized that plenty of people had purchased it—to the tune of nearly $1.4 million.
The problem? Nearly all of the people who bought it—most of them from China—immediately refunded it, most without playing it even once. Major said he doesn't know why people in China were buying and immediately refunding the game, but speculated that it may have come to attention via an ad or "scheme" of some sort.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy will let us recruit a space elf pirate and one of the holy psychics whose lives are nasty, brutish, and short
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/warhammer-40-000-dark-heresy-will-let-us-recruit-a-space-elf-pirate-and-one-of-the-holy-psychics-whose-lives-are-nasty-brutish-and-short/
Dark Heresy is currently in beta, and Owlcat is keeping everyone informed about the inquisitorial CRPG's progress via a quarterly update. Said update collates news including the addition of daemonhosts to the enemies we'll face (if you've gone up against them in Darktide you'll know that's a big deal), community-voted customization options making it into character creation, and two new companions for us to collect for our squad like grim Pokémon.

And the third and final part of the gaming news:

Larian drops new Baldur's Gate 3 stats and you're all monsters: More non-Durge players killed Alfira than Durge and, worst of all, 9,000 people played on portrait monitors
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/larian-drops-new-baldurs-gate-3-stats-and-youre-all-monsters-more-non-durge-players-killed-alfira-than-durge-and-worst-of-all-9-000-people-played-on-portrait-monitors/

Deadlock's new ranked mode is driving players mad as they try to escape the casual modes and climb back to where they were
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/deadlocks-new-ranked-mode-is-driving-players-mad-as-they-try-to-escape-the-casual-modes-and-climb-back-to-where-they-were/

The deal is done: Electronic Arts is now officially owned by Saudi Arabia
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-deal-is-done-electronic-arts-is-now-officially-owned-by-saudi-arabia/

A special weapon was forged to create Onimusha: Way of the Sword's brutal blade sound effects: 'We wanted that very raw, kind of rough feel'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/a-special-weapon-was-forged-to-create-onimusha-way-of-the-swords-brutal-blade-sound-effects-we-wanted-that-very-raw-kind-of-rough-feel/

That's messed up. You save that ridiculous amount of money to buy the card, only to get the order cancelled. I hope his country has laws against it and ASUS gets a much needed slap.

lol. I'm so used to seeing his name written as Pat that at first I didn't recognize him.

And well, government agencies getting involved in secret agreements with technological companies is something we don't really have to worry about, right?

That's a lot of 30-40% price hikes in Asia on the 5070Ti/5080 it's going to be rough if they make their way to Europe/America when they are already well above the MSRP.

Steam Controller plays Portal music through its haptics, despite having no speakers

https://videocardz.com/newz/steam-controller-plays-portal-music-through-its-haptics-despite-having-no-speakers

NVIDIA RTX Neural Texture Compression adds Windows ARM64 support for RTX Spark

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-rtx-neural-texture-compression-adds-windows-arm64-support-for-rtx-spark

NVIDIA turns RTX 50 MSRP pricing into a QuakeCon attraction

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-turns-rtx-50-msrp-pricing-into-a-quakecon-attraction

Sony adds 2028 physical game warning to new PS5 retail boxes

https://videocardz.com/newz/sony-adds-2028-physical-game-warning-to-new-ps5-retail-boxes

RPCS3 says 90% of PS3 emulator users run Windows, despite better Linux performance

https://videocardz.com/newz/rpcs3-says-90-of-ps3-emulator-users-run-windows-despite-better-linux-performance

AMD Adds New GFX1171 GPU Support To Mesa 26.3, Hinting At Future RDNA 4m Graphics

https://wccftech.com/amd-adds-new-gfx1171-gpu-support-to-mesa-26-3-hinting-at-future-rdna-4m-graphics/

Intel Diamond Rapids “Xeon 7” CPU Surfaces With 32 Cores & Big 240 MB L3 Cache On Oakstream Platform

https://wccftech.com/intel-diamond-rapids-xeon-7-cpu-surfaces-32-cores-big-240-mb-l3-cache-18a-p-node/

PC Motherboards Are Now More Expensive, With ASUS Bumping Up Both AMD & Intel Lineups As PCB Supply Runs Dry

https://wccftech.com/pc-motherboards-are-now-more-expensive-as-asus-bumps-up-amd-intel-lineups/

Memory capacity for all of 2027 has reportedly been booked and sold, with no more DRAM or HBM available

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/113004/memory-capacity-for-all-of-2027-has-reportedly-been-booked-and-sold-with-no-more-dram-or-hbm-available/index.html

The Thursday gaming news:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Grab shopkeeper-dungeoncrawler Moonlighter free on Steam for a limited time
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/grab-shopkeeper-dungeoncrawler-moonlighter-free-on-steam-for-a-limited-time/
Moonlighter is a hybrid of management sim and roguelite dungeon crawl in the vein of Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale. I was more intrigued by its shopkeeping side—where you put your loot on display and hope the locals in your hamlet are in the mood for a magic sword or some banged-up armor—than I was by its dungeon runs and boss battles, but your mileage may vary.
That mileage is currently good value, because right now you can add Moonlighter to your Steam account for free. Digital Sun and 11 Bit Studios have set it to zero dollars until August 9 to celebrate the upcoming release of Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, which is currently in early access but will be hitting 1.0 on September 2.

This week, the Epic Store gives away these two games:

• Beacon Pines : https://store.epicgames.com/p/beacon-pines-629fc3
• We Were Here Together : https://store.epicgames.com/p/we-were-here-together-6a6d66

Next week, the only free games confirmed so far will be Caravan SandWitch .

GOG has launched the new Strategy Games Promo , with games up to 95% off during 10 days: https://www.gog.com/es/promo/20260806_strategy_promo

Steam has six new deals (all show up today) and one new Showcase:

• ALL WILL FALL will have a 35% discount until the 12th of August: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2706020/ALL_WILL_FALL/
• Stranded: Alien Dawn is going ot be 65% off until the same 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1324130/Stranded_Alien_Dawn/
• Little Corners gets a 30% discount that will last until the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3651310/Little_Corners/
• Discounty has a demo and will be 40% off until August 19: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2274620/Discounty/
• Twinkleby also has a demo, but comes with a 65% discount until the same 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3362960/Twinkleby/
• Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator is going to be 70% off until August, the 19th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/
• And the Short Games Showcase (not exactly what you asked for, HoloDust), features a few upcoming titles, demos and games on sale with up to 90% discounts. The length of the deals vary, from those ending later today to others lasting until, at least the 14th of August: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/46191305/sale/ShortGamesShowcase2026

At Humble Bundle there are two novelties for us:

• In Your World VR Bundle has up to 7 games to get during 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/in-your-world-vr-bundle
• No More Robots: The Unhinged Indie Anthology Bundle comes with up to 11 items to get (10 games + 1 DLC) and will also last 20 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/no-more-robots-unhinged-indie-anthology

And we also have Fanatical, with new Flash Deals and a bundle:

• These are the three new 24h Flash Deals:
  • Rise of the Ronin is 58% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/rise-of-the-ronin
  • Sniper Elite: Resistance Deluxe Edition has a 59% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/sniper-elite-resistance-deluxe-edition
  • Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is 93% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/sniper-ghost-warrior-contracts
• Platinum Collection - Build your Own Bundle (August 2026) lands with 17 titles for your bundles of 3+, 5+ or 7+ games. It will last 27 days : https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Super Mario Bros Remastered PC V1.1 RC3 Released & Detailed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/super-mario-bros-remastered-pc-v1-1-rc3-released-detailed/
The team behind the amazing fan remaster of Super Mario Bros. for PC has released a new version of it. Moreover, it has shared its full changelog. So, let’s take a closer look at it.
For those who did not know, Super Mario Bros. Remastered is a fan remake of the classic NES Mario game for PC. Super Mario Bros. Remastered has been recreated from the ground up. Thus, it has improved physics, audio, and graphics. It also has support for full wide-screen monitors. As such, you will see more of the level now on your PC monitor screens.
Super Mario Bros. Remastered includes The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. Special, and an overhauled All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. Right now, downloading LSS levels in the game does not work. The team promised to fix it in a future version.
The modders claim that Nintendo will not be able to take it down. They said they took steps to ensure Nintendo won’t be able to shut it down. As such, Super Mario Bros. Remastered will not have any game assets. To work, it will require a ROM of the original NES game. In other words, it will be similar to the N64 recompilation projects. And, since those are still up, we can assume that this fan remake will also be able to avoid Nintendo’s hammer.
Version 1.1 RC3 massively improves editor performance. It nearly fixes all memory issues, slowdowns, and crashes. This is huge news for those who wanted to create new levels for it.
You can now change the scroll direction of overlay clouds. The update also fixes all audio looping issues by restoring the previous audio system. In addition, it fixes signal drawers that did not move with their parent gizmo. Moving platforms now appear in the correct position when you load a custom level.
Yoshi’s animation starts playing as soon as he appears. Spike no longer changes direction while throwing. Cannonballs now use a default animation. And you can now reset a level in the editor.
You can go ahead and download this latest version of Super Mario Bros. Remastered PC from here.
>> The link is to Github, and the article ha a 10 minutes video.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot Finally Comes to PC After 18 Years
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/condemned-2-bloodshot-finally-comes-to-pc-after-18-years/
Condemned 2: Bloodshot is a first-person action and survival horror game that came out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2008. Now, while the first Condemned game came out on PC, its sequel was never released on our platform. But now, after 18 whole years, we finally get an unofficial PC port of it.
(… several paragraphs describing the game and its mechanics...)
As with all recompilations, Condemned2Recomp does not contain any in-game assets. This means that you will need a copy of the Xbox 360 version to play it.
You can go ahead and download this unofficial PC port of Condemned 2 from here.
>> This article also has a roughly 10 minutes video.

GAMING NEWS

Since there are no DSoG articles for this sectin, I'll put the short ones from PCGamer

The actors behind Leon Kennedy and Grace Ashcroft will take to the stage for the Future Games Show at Gamescom this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/events-conferences/the-actors-behind-leon-kennedy-and-grace-ashcroft-will-take-to-the-stage-for-the-future-games-show-at-gamescom-this-month/

The guy in charge of EA Sports is now in charge of EA everything
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/the-guy-in-charge-of-ea-sports-is-now-in-charge-of-ea-everything/

Former Bethesda lead artist is looking forward to Fallout 3's remaster because the game they released was '100% not what we intended, and it was very, very constrained'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fallout/former-bethesda-lead-artist-is-looking-forward-to-fallout-3s-remaster-because-the-game-they-released-was-100-percent-not-what-we-intended-and-it-was-very-very-constrained/
>> I don’0t think a remaster will change any of that. A remake could, tho, but that’s not what was announced.

Larian gets briefly kicked off YouTube, TikTok for demonic smut reasons in Baldur's Gate 3
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/larian-gets-briefly-kicked-off-youtube-tiktok-for-demonic-smut-reasons-in-baldurs-gate-3/
>> Hilarious or dumb? I’ll let you decide.

The Thursday gaming news, part two:

EA has fixed a niche Battlefield 6 issue where some Nvidia GPUs were crashing while changing attachments or 'playing on maps with large bodies of water'
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/ea-has-fixed-a-niche-battlefield-6-issue-where-some-nvidia-gpus-were-crashing-while-changing-attachments-or-playing-on-maps-with-large-bodies-of-water/
For some time now, Battlefield 6 players on Nvidia cards were running into a peculiar crash when changing attachments on the SOR-300SC carbine, using custom server search, or "playing on maps with large bodies of water". If you have run into such a problem, you will be happy to know that it should now be fixed.
As announced over on X, Battlefield 6 game update 1.4.1.5 is a "smaller quality-of-life update focused on improving reliability, presentation, and moment-to-moment gameplay"
The specific Nvidia crashes were such a problem that the Battlefield Comms X account put out a separate tweet declaring the fix. If you were unlucky enough to have been hit by the crashes, the fix is in the update that launched on Tuesday, August 4.

Saudi-acquired EA is reportedly planning to make massive cuts after taking $18 billion of debt, and we all know what that means
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/saudi-acquired-ea-is-reportedly-planning-to-make-massive-cuts-after-taking-usd18-billion-of-debt-and-we-all-know-what-that-means/
Electronic Arts has officially now passed into the hands of Saudi Arabia—specifically, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, as well as firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. It is with a grim lack of surprise that I now inform you that this will, reportedly, involve a lot of layoffs.
The news comes courtesy of Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who posted to Bluesky: "EA officially goes private tonight, meaning: EA will no longer trade on the NASDAQ for the first time in 36 years, all stockholders of EA (including many employees) will receive $210/share, [and] EA will take on $18 billion (!) in debt, putting it on the hook to pay ~$1.8 billion/year in interest.
"EA's annual Ebitda is around $1.5 billion, which should be enough to service the interest payments. But the publisher has told debt investors that it will cut $700 million in annual costs including $170 million in 'organizational efficiencies,' per Bloomberg. In other words: mass layoffs."
>> Isn’t it funny how you can go into bedt while buying a company and then shove part of that debt into the company so it’s no longer your problem? … Yeah, no, it’s BS: Oh, well, it was nice (for a while) to know you, EA.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla director comes back to Ubisoft to be game director for the entire brand
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/assassins-creed/assassins-creed-valhalla-director-comes-back-to-ubisoft-to-be-game-director-for-the-entire-brand/
The shakeup at the top of the Assassin's Creed food chain continued today with word that Eric Baptizat, the lead game designer on Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, has returned to the company after several years away to become game director of the Assassin's Creed brand.

Marvel Rivals is gearing up for season 9.5 with major Vanguard adjustments alongside a teaser for its next hero, The Hood
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/marvel-rivals-is-gearing-up-for-season-9-5-with-major-vanguard-adjustments-alongside-a-teaser-for-its-next-hero-the-hood/
Marvel Rivals' season 9.5 launches today, and it will be bringing with it magical supervillain and hooded cloak aficionado, The Hood, who'll be appearing on August 7. Ahead of that, let's dig into the patch notes.

'Sorry about this!' Big Walk is already fixing its biggest complaint
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/sorry-about-this-big-walk-is-already-fixing-its-biggest-complaint/
Co-op puzzle game Big Walk launched yesterday, and it's off to a great start: it peaked at nearly 50,000 concurrent players on Steam this morning, Steam reviews are "Very Positive," and here at PC Gamer we're all having a great time with it, too.
There's one issue, however, that shows up in pretty much every negative review on Steam. In a game that strongly suggests you don't use Discord but instead rely on the in-game proximity voice chat for communication… people are having trouble hearing each other.

Something big is coming to Helldivers 2 next week: Squid is back on the menu
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/something-big-is-coming-to-helldivers-2-next-week-squid-is-back-on-the-menu/
"Face the unknown," reads the lone message of a new Helldivers 2 trailer published today.
Helldivers 2's next major update is coming August 12. The teaser is light on details, but it's certainly illustrative of what Super Earth will be up against. We see a helldiving teddy bear being consumed by the void—a tear in space that's currently eating up big chunks of the galaxy. The bear is ripped apart limb by limb by some psychic presence before the teddy reappears on a jungle planet. In the reflection of its eye, we see a tall, rounded biped alien reach to pick it up, then cut to release date.

Fields of Mistria officially becomes the best farm sim since Stardew Valley with its 1.0 update today
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/fields-of-mistria-officially-becomes-the-best-farm-sim-since-stardew-valley-now-that-its-launched-a-1-0-update-today/
Farm simmers already know what day it is: It's Fields of Mistria 1.0 day. The magical girl-inspired, '90s anime flashback farm sim has been in early access for two years (to the day) and has just launched its full release version with the conclusion of its main story and, way more importantly, matrimony.

Destiny 2 players are learning how to crack into its infamous content vault by tinkering with old game builds
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/destiny-2-players-are-learning-how-to-crack-into-its-infamous-content-vault-by-tinkering-with-old-builds/
In June 2020, Bungie made what would come to be remembered as one of the most reviled PR incidents in modern videogames: It announced the content vault. To make Destiny 2's long-term development more manageable, the studio said, the launch of its Beyond Light expansion coincided with a culling of in-game content, paring away story campaigns, world regions, and activities of all stripes.
The content vault may have been defensible on technical grounds, but the sunsetting of swaths of game content, many of which players had previously paid to access, left Destiny 2 with a reputational stain that never fully washed out. But now, six years after Destiny 2's downsizing and two months after its end of live service development, its players are learning how to pull some of those lost worlds back out of the vault—not for play, but for preservation.

Path of Exile devs are planning 'an extreme shakeup' in the next major update to address concerns over its stale endgame and lack of exciting loot drops
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/path-of-exile-devs-are-planning-an-extreme-shakeup-in-the-next-major-update-to-address-concerns-over-its-stale-endgame-and-lack-of-exciting-loot-drops/
I'm not that into the original Path of Exile, but playing so much of the sequel has exposed me to plenty of people who do. A huge topic of discussion around the current league is about loot and the lack of it.
(...)
Developer Grinding Gear Games is already addressing some of the immediate issues in upcoming patches, but it's also planning on a much bigger rework in its next major update. Speaking to PoE streamer Zizaran in a recent interview, Christopher "Octavian" Laferriere said to expect "an extreme shakeup of the endgame" in patch 3.30.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword's incredible sword-fighting secret sauce explained: 'We really wanted to focus on creating this very realistic, grounded sword action'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/onimusha-way-of-the-swords-incredible-sword-fighting-secret-sauce-explained-we-really-wanted-to-focus-on-creating-this-very-realistic-grounded-sword-action/
During my world-exclusive hands-on preview of Onimusha: Way of the Sword in Capcom's headquarters in Osaka, Japan, I interviewed the animation director, Hiroshi Yugen, about creating the incredible sword-fighting animations for the game. When the star of the game is the legendary sword master, Miyamoto Musashi, a warrior who won over 60 duels during his lifetime, you're going to want to get these animations right.