Monday news, part two:

This Vampire: The Masquerade battle royale might actually work
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-vampire-the-masquerade-battle-royale-might-actually-work/
As far as bizarre game concepts go, a battle royale based on Vampire: The Masquerade has gotta be up there. But while details still remain vague, Paradox Interactive has stepped in to explain why, exactly, they feel a high-stakes deathmatch is a good fit for the venerable vampire setting.
Following last week's announcement, the publisher put out an FAQ justifying their decision to have new studio Sharkmob develop a bloodsucking battle royale.

Colorado's hellish knot of tangled highways comes to American Truck Simulator on November 12
https://www.pcgamer.com/american-truck-simulator-colorado/
Before Christmas, almost a year ago now, I drove the length of American Truck Simulator, from east to west, documenting the sights and soundtrack as I went. But it was a truncated effort, since SCS Software’s United States are still under construction: eight completed so far, with a ninth coming to Steam on November 12 in the shape of Colorado. No price is currently listed on the store page, but other, older states have cost around $12/£10 at release.

Capcom hit by ransomware attack, is reportedly being extorted for $11 million
https://www.pcgamer.com/capcom-hit-by-ransomware-attack-is-reportedly-being-extorted-for-pound11-million/
Earlier this week it emerged that third-party giant Capcom's internal systems had been hacked, though the company claimed that no customer data was affected. It has now emerged that the publisher was targeted by the Ragnar Locker ransomware, software designed to exfiltrate information from internal networks before encrypting the lot: at which point the victim is locked-out, contacted, and extorted.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War players on PlayStation will earn XP faster
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-players-on-playstation-will-earn-xp-faster/
If you're planning on picking up Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War on PC and squadding up with your PlayStation buds, be ready for the scales to tip in their favor. Sony announced today via the PlayStation Blog a slate of "advantages" that will be exclusive to PS4 and PS5 players.
>> Disgusting.

Take-Two is in talks to acquire Codemasters for nearly $1 billion
https://www.pcgamer.com/take-two-interactive-is-in-talks-to-acquire-codemasters-for-nearly-dollar1-billion/
Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that it has made a "possible offer" to fully acquire UK-based racing studio Codemasters in a deal that Reuters says will be worth $973 million. Assuming the deal is completed, the buyout would also give Take-Two ownership of Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios.
>> And will they launch their games on their console, the Mad Box (that can't be named like that for legal reasons)? Anyway, you can discuss it on the thread dx11332sega made

Each time a hole is plugged, Call of Duty: Warzone cheaters find a new way to worm under the map
https://www.pcgamer.com/each-time-a-hole-is-plugged-call-of-duty-warzone-cheaters-find-a-new-way-to-worm-under-the-map/
Call of Duty: Warzone has a cheating problem. The game's continued troubles with hacking are well-documented, but another issue is exploits that allow players to cheat their way to victory without the need of third-party software. One of the most persistent types of exploit since launch allows players to clip under the map and shoot through the ground.

Ubisoft is removing a 'controversial' UK journalist from Watch Dogs: Legion
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-is-removing-a-controversial-uk-journalist-from-watch-dogs-legion/
Two in-game podcasts in Watch Dogs: Legion that feature British journalist Helen Lewis will be removed as a result of "controversial" statements she's made in the past. Ubisoft said that it was not made aware of Lewis' previous statements until after development of the game was complete.

Apex Legends battle pass changes: We 'just screwed this one up,' Respawn says
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-battle-pass-changes-we-just-screwed-this-one-up-respawn-says/
The new season of Apex Legends got off to a bumpy start earlier this week thanks to changes to the game's battle pass that dramatically slowed player progression. The blowback was enough that EA changed direction almost immediately, but it faced criticism for what some players felt was an attempt to squeeze more money out of them by increasing the pressure to purchase battle pass levels.

Be an AI and terraform Mars next month in Per Aspera
https://www.pcgamer.com/be-an-ai-and-terraform-mars-next-month-in-per-aspera/
Strategic, narrative driven city-builder Per Aspera finally has a release date: December 3rd. We first saw Per Aspera at the 2019 PC Gaming show, and at the time we thought that it was both pretty and promising. Now, we can confirm, that it is in fact both pretty and promising. The game stars voice actor Laila Berzins as artificial intelligence AMI and Troy Baker as Nathan Foster, the doctor who built AMI and sent it out to terraform Mars.

Tekken 7 Season 4 brings Kunimitsu and a Pac-Man theme
https://www.pcgamer.com/tekken-7-season-4-brings-kunimitsu-and-a-pac-man-theme/
The next season of Tekken 7 begins this month. Players who bought the season pass will get access to new character Kunimitsu, also available as DLC 16. The fox-masked ninja is apparently the daughter of the original Kunimitsu from Tekken 2, although since she won't be added to the story mode it's much of a muchness.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is ending its Epic exclusivity
https://www.pcgamer.com/ghostbusters-the-video-game-remastered-is-about-to-end-its-epic-exclusivity-coming-to-steam/
The original version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game was delisted from Steam in 2017, presumably due to the licence running out. When the remastered version was released in October of last year, the PC version was only available on the Epic Games Store. Now it's about ready to end its period of exclusivity, and will be coming to Steam on November 17.
>> A few days after giving it away for free. That's a genius move.

Microsoft is looking to buy Japanese studios, according to report
https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-is-looking-to-buy-japanese-studios-according-to-report/
Fresh from acquiring Bethesda, Microsoft are apparently in talks to buy some studios in Japan, Bloomberg have reported: "Several Japan-based game developers, from small to big, said [Microsoft] had approached them about buying their businesses." The developers in question wished to remain anonymous, but this gels with a statement Xbox head Phil Spencer made last year, that "it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular a Japanese studio".
>> Will they go big or small? A Square Enix buy would be amazing, not just for the meltdown that it would cause (although that would be hilarious!), but because it would also include some IPs like Tomb Raider, Deus EX or Sleeping Dogs.

EVE Online players have completed 47 million tasks to help researchers gather coronavirus data
https://www.pcgamer.com/eve-online-players-have-completed-47-million-tasks-to-help-researchers-gather-coronavirus-data/
Back in June, scientists at McGill University's School of Computer Science announced the return of Project Discovery, a minigame that helps them with data gathering. This time around, Project Discovery sheds some light on data about the coronavirus, simply by mapping groups of cell populations in-game. EVE Online players have since really stepped up to help, with more than 171,000 gamers completing a staggering 47 million tasks, according to BBC News.

Counter-Strike 1.0 is 20 years old
https://www.pcgamer.com/counter-strike-10-was-released-20-years-ago-today/
Today is the 20th anniversary of Counter-Strike's release. The king of competitive shooters began as a Half-Life mod, developed by Minh Lee and Jess Cliffe, which began circulating in beta form in June 1999. The co-creators released several more versions over the rest of the year, before in 2000 Valve acquired the IP and brought both in-house. Counter-Strike, which some might call the greatest competitive game of all time, was officially released on November 9, 2000.
>> Feeling old?

Genshin Impact will get a browser-based, visual novel-style event
https://www.pcgamer.com/genshin-impact-will-get-a-browser-based-visual-novel-style-event/
On November 2, miHoYo launched an event for Genshin Impact in China that's playable using your browser only, called Stone Harbor Journal. The same day, the official English Genshin Impact Twitter account announced the event for players on the other side of the globe, without naming a release date yet.

Halo 4 completes the Master Chief Collection on November 17
https://www.pcgamer.com/halo-4-completes-the-master-chief-collection-on-november-17/
Halo 4 will join Halo: The Master Chief Collection on November 17, just under a year after the product's launch. The news comes with a shiny trailer, which you can watch above.

AMD Radeon RX 6800XT and GeForce RTX 3070 compared side by side



https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6800xt-and-geforce-rtx-3070-compared-side-by-side

They weren't kidding when they said it would be small

It's impressive given that the 6800XT should compete with the 3080, not the 3070.

Still, we'll have to wait and see if that smaller size comes at the cost of the card running hotter or louder, tho I doubt it can be much loud with three fans.

An MSI factory in China seems to have caught fire

https://www.pcgamer.com/an-msi-factory-in-china-seems-to-have-caught-fire/

While I don't like MSI as a company, hopefully the people are alright

^ Apparently no one was injuried and it didn't affect the product line, so nothing to worry, if true.

But this, if true, is worrysome:

AMD Radeon RX 6800 allegedly 1.5x faster than GeForce RTX 3090 in cryptocurrency mining
https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-6800-allegedly-1-5x-faster-than-geforce-rtx-3090-in-cryptocurrency-mining
According to a message posted on QQ (and reprinted by Chiphell), AMD Radeon RX 6800 non-XT is 1.5x faster in cryptocurrency mining than GeForce RTX 3090.

NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3090 is currently the best GPU in terms of profit (including electricity cost), according to the Nicehash profitability calculator. It is estimated that the GPU can generate 3.37 USD worth of cryptocurrency each day, reaching 100 USD per month.

If the rumor about 1.5x better mining performance of Radeon RX 6800 is true, then the graphics card could potentially reach 5 USD per day. That of course applies to a single GPU, The profitability increases dramatically when the GPU cost is considered. The RX 6800 non-XT MSRP is only 579 USD, while RTX 3090 costs at least 1499 USD.

If this is indeed true, don't expect to find RX cards anyware because those crypto b*stards will get them all.

Not my fault. Promise.

AMD has always held the edge in terms of asynchronous compute, which plays heavily in favor of mining.
Which is why people were picking up Polaris GPU's over say... Pascal nVidia GPU's, despite the Pascal GPU's having a massive advantage in gaming.

What makes RDNA2 more attractive is it's powerlevels which means it's more viable.

Some more beta BIOS got leaked which enables support for 5000 series on Asrock A320.

Take it with a grain of salt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/jr9604/news_of_success_with_5600x_on_a320_board/

These are Beta Bioses from the manufacturer if true so... Maybe some of them are planning to support 300 series?

Asrock doing gods work. Lets hope Gigabyte will follow, along ASUS and the like!

This was also already true for the 5700(XT), basically since Polaris AMD outperformed NVidia in Cryptomining in production per dollar of running cost by a fir amount.

Of course, neither of those cards went toe to toe with NVidia on the high end, and NVidia didn't have such hefty supply problems, so that was less of a problem at the time. But if cryptomining makes a comeback now then good luck getting any Ampere or RDNA2 GPU in the next couple months.