The news!

HITMAN – UPDATE 1.03 NOW AVAILABLE ON THE PC, FEATURES NUMEROUS PC-SPECIFIC IMPROVEMENTS

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/hitman-update-1-03-now-available-on-the-pc/

Square Enix and IO Interactive have released a new update for the PC version of HITMAN. According to the release notes, this patch adds a new challenge pack, a scoring fix, continued updates to both loading times and connectivity and many PC-specific improvements. This patch will be auto-downloaded from Steam, and you can read its complete changelog below.

BLACK DESERT ONLINE HAS SOLD 400K COPIES IN ITS FIRST MONTH

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/black-desert-online-has-sold-400k-copies-in-its-first-month/

Daum Games today announced that Black Desert Online has sold 400.000 copies in its first month on the European and North American markets. Black Desert Online is expected to become one of Korea’s most successful games in the West as it is drawing exceptionally favorable early responses with its new player base.

MAFIA III – NEW SCREENSHOTS FROM PRE-ALPHA BUILD REVEALED

http://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/mafia-iii-new-screenshots-from-pre-alpha-build-revealed/

During his GDC 2016 talk, Seth Rosen showcased some screenshots from the pre-alpha build of Mafia III. These are low-quality images (as they come from a PDF) but we’re pretty sure that Mafia fans will be interested in them. Mafia III is set in a reimagined New Orleans in 1968 and follows the story of Lincoln Clay, a disenfranchised Vietnam veteran, returning from combat and looking for a home and a place to belong.

QUANTUM BREAK TREATS YOU LIKE A PIRATE IF YOU ARE NOT LOGGED INTO WINDOWS STORE

http://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/quantum-break-treats-you-like-a-pirate-if-you-are-not-logged-into-windows-store/

Quantum Break has just been released on the PC and from the looks of it, the game treats you like a pirate if you try to play it without being logged into the Windows Store. Not that you really can, but under a number of circumstances you may lose connection to the Windows Store and the anti-piracy DRM may get triggered.

>>Yet another fail in this port.

THE BANNER SAGA 2 GETS LAUNCH TRAILER

http://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/the-banner-saga-2-gets-launch-trailer/

Stoic and Versus Evil have released the launch trailer for The Banner Saga 2. In this action packed role playing, turn based strategy game, players will continue their epic journey where hard choices have to be made for their survival and the survival of an entire civilization. The Banner Saga 2 will launch on April 19th on the PC.

>>Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f50agI28Yzw

ASSAULT SUIT LEYNOS IS COMING TO THE PC THIS SUMMER, FIRST SCREENSHOTS

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/assault-suit-leynos-is-coming-to-the-pc-this-summer-first-screenshots/

Rising Star Games announced today that Dracue Software’s Assault Suit Leynos remake will be coming to the PC this Summer. Assault Suit Leynos is a side-scrolling shoot em up in which gamers will blast through the opposing enemy forces with devastating weapons like machine guns, rocket launchers, and laser beams while discovering the hidden truth behind the invaders.

THE FAN LEGACY: METAL GEAR SOLID ANNOUNCED – DAVID HAYTER WILL BE INVOLVED, WILL SUPPORT VR

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-fan-legacy-metal-gear-solid-announced-david-hayter-will-be-involved-will-support-vr/

The team behind the cancelled Metal Gear Solid Shadow Moses Remake In Unreal Engine 4 announced its new project, The Fan Legacy: Metal Gear Solid. This project will support VR, will be coming to the PC, and will feature the original voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter.

>>Konami shooting it down in 3, 2, 1...

DUELYST LEAVING OPEN BETA LATER THIS MONTH

http://www.pcgamer.com/duelyst-leaving-open-beta-later-this-month/

On April 27th, Duelyst will finally be leaving its beta phase in favor of a 1.0 label. Counterplay Games announced the news today along with a brand new anime-style cutscene that will play when you launch the game, embedded above.

VALVE SHOWS NEW DOTA 2 VR SPECTATOR MODE

http://www.pcgamer.com/dota-2-vr-spectator-mode/

To promote the launch of the HTC Vive this week (our review is on the way), Valve has put up a few montages of different demos and games on the SteamVR page. Most of these excerpts are stuff we've already played, but one of them stands out: a glance at what appears to be a VR spectator mode in development for Dota 2.

UBISOFT ADDRESSES THE DIVISION CHEATS, SAYS BETTER SYSTEMS ARE COMING

http://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-addresses-the-division-cheats-says-better-systems-are-coming/

Online games and cheating have a long-standing love affair, and The Division is no exception. Ubisoft acknowledged the problem in the latest State of the Game broadcast on Twitch, but promised that better systems for detecting ne'er do wells are on the way—including a new function that will enable players to report cheating from within the game.

>>And...

THE DIVISION 1.1 PATCH NOTES RELEASED

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-division-11-patch-notes-released/

We've already looked at the new “Falcon Lost” incursion that will be added to The Division in the upcoming 1.1 update, and more recently (as in, earlier today) the “/report” function that will give players the ability to report cheating from within the game. But The Division is a big game, and this is a pretty big patch, and so it probably wouldn't hurt to lay eyes on the full patch notes, which Ubisoft has also released.

PATHOLOGIC STUDIO DELIVERS FIRST SCREENS AND TALKS "DRASTIC CHANGES"

http://www.pcgamer.com/pathologic-studio-delivers-first-screens-and-talks-drastic-changes/

Ice-Pick Lodge has released a dozen “environment draft” screenshots from the first build of its Pathologic “reimagining,” which actually look an awful lot like the original—stylistically, anyway. More interestingly, it also revealed a bit about which elements of the game will remain the same, and which are undergoing “drastic changes” in the new release.

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS CHAMPION TARIC IS GETTING A COMPLETE OVERHAUL

http://www.pcgamer.com/league-of-legends-champion-taric-is-getting-a-complete-overhaul/

The League of Legends hero Taric has been around for almost as long as the game itself, but he hasn't been what you'd call popular with the players for a while. But that may soon change, as Riot is making some big changes to the character, who will soon hit the PBE with an all-new look, story, kit, and audio.

>>So it's basically all new, expect for the name.

TRACER GETS NEW VICTORY POSE, STILL HAS BUTT, WORLD HOPEFULLY MOVES ON

http://www.pcgamer.com/tracer-gets-new-victory-pose-still-has-butt-world-hopefully-moves-on/

It feels like a long time ago now, but just last week many were outraged about the imminent removal of a bum from Overwatch. The Tracer buttroversy, which reached wider and went on for longer than anyone surely dared dream, occurred in the wake of Blizzard's decision to change the character's victory pose to something slightly less butt-focused. Now, it may finally be over. The new pose pictured above has replaced the old one, and if you look closely you can still see some butt. If you want. And so the sun sets on another glorious day on the internet.

ROCK BAND 4 FOR PC NOT LIKELY FOLLOWING CROWDFUNDING FAILURE

http://www.pcgamer.com/rock-band-4-for-pc-not-likely-following-crowdfunding-failure/

When Harmonix announced a Fig crowdfunding campaign for Rock Band 4's PC port in March, it seemed unlikely to fail. In addition to bringing a very popular series to PC for the first time, it was also poised to better its console versions, what with Steam Workshop compatibility and (wait for it) mouse and keyboard support. Alas, it was not to be: the Fig campaign closed hours ago with only a smidgeon over half the funds it hoped to raise.

DOOM OPEN BETA ANNOUNCED; DLC DETAILED

http://www.pcgamer.com/doom-open-beta-announced-dlc-detailed/

People who pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order have been blasting their way around Doom's closed beta since March 31. Soon everyone will be able to join them: open beta falls April 15-18, no codes required.

I'm very skeptical about that ... 

Pascal looks like a serious regression in performance/transistor and it looks to be below the expected 2x perf/watt improvement ... 

Hello GFWL.

We'll see.

The 980 also looked like a let down from the Titan Black because of its lower specs (on paper), and yet it gave roughly a 15% increase in performance. And the new Pascal consumer parts would run at extremely high frequencies.

I'm confident we can see a 40% increase once they launch.

A good half of Maxwell's improvement came from being able to run at higher clockspeeds and the other half was IPC ... 

Pascal does not have the benefit of the former this time around when it's already pushing the thermal limit of a 300 watt TDP and an overclocked GM200 chip can clock almost just as high as Pascal ... 

Consumer Pascal will run quite a bit faster than Maxwell parts.

Nvidia (and AMD) Pro line of products always run at lower speed than consumer variants, yet the P100 runs at 1328/1480 MHz. The stock frequencies of Maxwell's 980Ti are 1000/1075MHz and the 980 ones are 1126/1216MHz. It's not too far fetched to think that the GTX 1080 will achieve a boost clock of 1500MHz at stock speeds.

With that and the advantages that the new architecture could bring (there must be a good reason to shift the focus to more SMs rather than more cores per SM), I keep saying that the 1080/1070 will bring a nice upgrade over not only the 980/970 but also the 980Ti.

Guess I'm going to be the optimistic one here.

Can't wait to see benchmarks for Pascal, cause, honestly, it does not look that impressive on paper, given that full node was skipped....don't get me wrong, it still seems it will perform great, but not maybe as expected/hoped for.

Nvidia's professional parts don't run THAT much slower as of recent. A GTX Titan X runs at a base clock of 1000MHz. The Quadro M6000 runs at 988MHz and the Tesla M60 Accelerator runs at 948MHz. They only run 12MHz and 52MHz slower respectively base clock wise all on a 250 watt TDP. The difference is practically negligible! The GP100 is already eating up it's overclocking headroom by running at a 300 watt TDP for comparison ... 

Boost clocks are not what we should be focusing on, it should be base clocks since they guarantee a baseline ... 

While Pascal did change the SM arrangement, you need twice as many work items as you did before. Nvidia is practically trading in IPC/ILP for more thread level parallelism ... 

I see no reason to believe that we're going to get a higher IPC with Pascal when it has a lower amount of shared memory per thread ...