Tuesday news:

SALES & "SALES"/DEALS

PUBG was 2017’s breakout success, one in three people on the planet play free-to-play games
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/pubg-was-2017s-breakout-success-one-in-three-people-on-the-planet-play-free-to-play-games/
SuperData Research has just released its 2017 Year in review digital games and interactive media report. According to the report, the mobile market has grown to $59.2B, PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds made $712M in eight months, YouTube’s gaming video content revenue plummeted by 50% and one in three people on the planet play free-to-play games.

The Trine trilogy is super cheap in the Frozenbyte Steam sale
http://www.pcgamer.com/the-trine-trilogy-is-super-cheap-in-the-frozenbyte-steam-sale/
Trine developer Frozenbyte is holding something of a Steam sale this week—through February 10, to be precise. They've got a whole host of games on sale, most of them around 80 percent off. Naturally, the Trine series is the forerunner, but there are other games to be had.

>>That's part of the 1027 weeklong deals on Steam. Others are:

• Rabi-Ribi is 25% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/400910/RabiRibi/
• The House of Da Vinci is also 25% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/522470/The_House_of_Da_Vinci/
• Immortal Redneck is 41% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/595140/Immortal_Redneck/
• Ride 2 is 60% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/477770/Ride_2/
• This Is the Police is 67% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/443810/This_Is_the_Police/
• Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is 75% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/47870/Need_For_Speed_Hot_Pursuit/
• Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition is 80% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/47810/Dragon_Age_Origins__Ultimate_Edition/
• Lastly, the Anno series is also on sale, with 1404, 2070 and 2205 all 75% off.

SOFTWARE

NVIDIA GeForce 390.77 WHQL driver is optimized for Kingdom Come: Deliverance & Metal Gear Survive
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-geforce-390-77-whql-driver-is-optimized-for-kingdom-come-deliverance-metal-gear-survive/
NVIDIA has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce 390.65 WHQL driver provides the optimal gaming experience for Kingdom Come: Deliverance, War Thunder, Black Desert Online, and Metal Gear Survive.

>>You can download them from here.

Facebook takes aim at Twitch and YouTube with 'Gaming Creator Pilot Program'
http://www.pcgamer.com/facebook-takes-aim-at-twitch-and-youtube-with-gaming-creator-pilot-program/
ESL recently signed a deal with Facebook that makes the massive social network its "main broadcast partner" for CS:GO Pro League and ESL One Events. Ahead of the weekend, Facebook took the next step in its process of muscling in on Twitch and 'Tube territory with the launch of the Gaming Creator Pilot Program, a streamer-dedicated initiative focused on "helping gaming creators build more meaningful and more engaged communities on Facebook than anywhere else."

Microsoft purchases cloud gaming platform PlayFab
http://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-purchases-cloud-gaming-platform-playfab/
Microsoft announced today that it has acquired PlayFab, a "complete backend platform for live games" that is used in more than 1200 games, including Killing Floor 2, Pathfinder Adventures, Battletech, and Planetary Annihilation. The company described the move as "an important step forward for gaming at Microsoft" and said that it will help make the creation of connected games more accessible for smaller-scale developers.

MODS/EMULATORS

The first-person mod for Super Mario 64 just got a lot better and is available for download
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-first-person-mod-for-super-mario-64-just-got-a-lot-better-and-is-available-for-download/
Back in December we informed you about a romhack for Super Mario 64 that allowed players to play it in first-person mode. That initial version of this first-person mod had some issues, like the geometry going invisible when the camera is too close to the objects or the terrain. Thankfully, modder ‘Kaze Emanuar’ was able to resolve them.

>>This is a romhack, so you'll need an emulator, and this is the download link of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

Insurgency: Sandstorm gets a gameplay teaser trailer, highlighting new features, vehicles & weapons
http://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/insurgency-sandstorm-gets-a-gameplay-teaser-trailer-highlighting-new-features-vehicles-weapons/
New World Interactive has released a new gameplay teaser trailer for Insurgency: Sandstorm, highlighting its new features, vehicles and weapons. Insurgency: Sandstorm is built in Unreal Engine 4 with upgraded graphics, taking the series into a new era and bringing extended gameplay possibilities, improved immersion, and new co-op and versus objective-based game modes.

This is the Police 2 is coming to the PC in 2018
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/this-is-the-police-2-is-coming-to-the-pc-in-2018/
THQ Nordic has announced that This is the Police 2 will be released on the PC later this year. In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher has also released a brand new trailer for it that you can view below.

Tuesday news, part two:

Play Fallout 4 for free this weekend
http://www.pcgamer.com/play-fallout-4-for-free-this-weekend/
If you've been waiting for just the right moment to finally dive into Fallout 4, then hop onto that springboard and get ready to jump. Fallout 4 will be free to play on PC beginning on Thursday, February 1 through Sunday, February 4. During that time, the base game will also be 33% off.

Fortnite Battle Royale's latest limited mode is all about sniper rifles
http://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-battle-royales-latest-limited-mode-is-all-about-sniper-rifles/
Fortnite Battle Royale's latest limited mode is live, Epic Games announced this morning. Named Sniper Shootout, the mode is what it describes, limiting players to sniper rifles... and revolvers. (Sniping players in the next room was too clumsy to be fun, I'm guessing.) Grenades are out of the picture, though the rest of the consumables are sticking around. Get yourself a bush, pronto.

Hearthstone is finally nerfing Patches the Pirate as part of a major balance update
http://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-is-finally-nerfing-patches-the-pirate-as-part-of-a-major-balance-update/
Some will no doubt says that it's been too long coming, but Blizzard announced today that four of the most obnoxious Hearthstone cards are set to be nerfed in the upcoming Update 10.2, which will go live next month. Leading the pack is the highly contentious Patches the Pirate, which after the update will no longer hit with Charge.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition could come to Steam eventually
http://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-definitive-edition-could-come-to-steam-eventually/
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is set to arrive on February 20 on the Windows Store but not on Steam, an absence that was widely reported as somehow the fault of Valve. "Steam's rules do not allow it," a bold-faced subheader in the Google translation of German gaming site GameStar.de. But the auto-translation from German to English is, to put it generously, a little iffy—"The platform is where people play, and people play in the social spaces of Xbox Live, which means that if Xbox Live exists somewhere, we can get a game out there" is one clear-as-mud bit—and exactly what "rules" would be broken isn't actually specified.

>>Yesterday it was a no, now it's a maybe. As I said, I give them three months before announcing the Steam launch.

The latest Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus DLC is out now
http://www.pcgamer.com/the-latest-wolfenstein-2-the-new-colossus-dlc-is-out-now/
The second DLC episode for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus released earlier today, in the form of 'The Diaries of Agent Silent Death'. As the name implies, it traces the adventures of protagonist Agent Silent Death (her real name being the comparatively benign Jessica Valiant).

PUBG update aims to improve its desert map after players delete game files to skip the map entirely
http://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-update-aims-to-make-its-desert-map-more-fun-after-players-delete-game-files-to-skip-the-map-entirely/
Some PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds players are so bored by its desert map, Miramar, that they're deleting game files so that they automatically leave any round that randomly selects the map from the current pool of two. One user has even created a programme that changes the extensions of the Miramar files so that the game cannot load the map, booting you back out to the menu instead.
Perhaps developer Bluehole has noticed, because the latest update for the game aims to make Miramar more interesting.

Hyper Light Drifter designer Teddy Dief leaves Square Enix Montreal after studio cancels his next game
http://www.pcgamer.com/hyper-light-drifter-designer-teddy-dief-leaves-square-enix-after-studio-cancels-his-next-game/
Hyper Light Drifter designer Teddy Dief was snapped up by Square Enix Montreal soon after the indie RPG released in 2016. As a creative director at the Hitman Go developer he was leading a team designing a new game, but that project has now been canned by the studio, and as a result Dief has decided to leave the company.

First-person roguelike Delver emerges from four years of Early Access this week
http://www.pcgamer.com/first-person-roguelike-delver-emerges-from-four-years-of-early-access-this-week/
First-person pixely dungeon crawler Delver is emerging from a mammoth four-and-a-half year stint in Early Access on Thursday (February 1), developer Priority Interrupt has announced. I think 'slow and steady' would fairly characterise its development since 2013, with updates arriving every six months on average. Still, I remember playing it on my phone five or so years ago and it's clearly come a long way since then.

Well, to wait is the only thing we can do right now. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get something at GDC.

In any case, I don't play multiplayer games so even if they do announce L4D3 (which I still doubt), I'll be safe from the damn microtransactions as I won't care about it.

As I said in todays news, what yesterday was a "no on Steam" is now a "maybe on Steam", and soon it will be an "also on Steam".

AoE4 is harder to tell as it's a completely new game, but since all their strategy games have landed on Steam (AoE 2, Rise of the Nations, Halo Wars...), I hope it also comes to Valve's platform.

I have never actually used the windows Store and I'm not necessarily against using it if it has something exclusive I want. What's so bad about it compared to any other store?

My biggest problem with Windows Store is that it's exclusive to Win10, and I still run Win7, and all those problems from the beginning that have still been unresolved (windowed games instead of fullscreen, lack of mods, etc.)

http://image.ibb.co/mYqMJm/Microsoft_Store.png

And if the cheap, corporate skin doesn't make you run for the hills:
It is Windows Exclusive, meaning there is no support for Linux or MacOS.
This is Microsoft, so they are going to spy on you.
Ect.

There is no support for Sony and Nintendo either.... what do you expect from the Windows Store with Microsoft as platform owner?

Is there Windows support in the Mac AppStore or PS Store or Nintendo eShop or any Linux game store?

And what's your problem with the "corporate skin" of the store? You can filter for game genres and when you click on a game which looks interesting, you get a ton of useful information (game description, system requirements, features, screenshots, links to similar games...).

The Windows Store works just as well as any other digital game store.

Rockstar Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/rockstar-games-bundle

Best bundle ever?

Wow, that's a great deal. I already have all 4 of those games in one form or another but those who don't will get a great deal.

Storage spaces will be slower. Sometimes by up to 30% in some scenarios.

Raid 10 is a solid choice.
This will break it down with all the Pro's and Con's of each.
https://www.prepressure.com/library/technology/raid

Go Western Digital Red. And in my experience... Less drives the better, so go all out on capacity if you can.
Have you thought about going the NAS route? Then your storage won't be tied to your PC.