The Tuesday news:

Let me tell you that the PC Secret Santa thread is open! If you want to join, come here: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/243930/the-11th-semi-annual-pc-secret-santa-event/

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

PC Gamer Community Build Contest: Holiday Edition
https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-community-build-contest-holiday-edition/
With a new generation of hardware hitting the streets, not to mention games that take advantage of that raw power, now is the time to upgrade your PC or build a totally new one. Picking the right parts for the best build is no easy task. To find the best PC builds in time for Christmas, we’re tapping into the power of the PC Gamer Community in our latest Best PC Builds Competition.
We want to see the best performing builds per dollar or pound spent. Forever immortalized as a master of their craft on the PC Gamer homepage, but they will also receive an Nvidia RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio 10G courtesy of our friends at MSI.

Ubisoft is giving away free games and in-game content for the rest of the week
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ubisoft-giving-away-free-games-in-game-content/
Ubisoft has announced that it will be giving away free games and in-game content for this whole week. From today, December 14th and until December 19th, you will have the chance to claim games and in-game items.
As Ubisoft noted, all games redeemed will be for PC only. In-game items will be available on each platform that you own the game on. So basically, PC gamers are the real winners here.
>> Check the article to know how to claim those free games or items. Yesterday the gift was in-game content for AC Valhalla, and today it's the game Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

Steam has two new deals and also a new bunch of weeklong deals:

• Broken Lines will be 30% off until December 22: https://store.steampowered.com/app/926580/Broken_Lines/
• Necromunda: Underhive Wars will be 40% off until the same December 22: https://store.steampowered.com/app/566440/Necromunda_Underhive_Wars/
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism gets a 20% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1341170/Strategic_Mind_Spectre_of_Communism/
  • Shakedown: Hawaii is 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/598730/Shakedown_Hawaii/
  • Last Year: The Nightmare is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/511440/Last_Year_The_Nightmare/
  • Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 gets a 75% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/887060/Asterix__Obelix_XXL_2/
  • And Moon Hunters is 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/320040/Moon_Hunters/

The Humble Store has two new sales:

• The Tabletop Sale brings up to 80% discounts for the next 2 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/tabletop-sale/
• The Paradox Holiday Sale brings up to 85% discounts for the next 6 days. Most keys are for Steam, but there are some also available for GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/paradox-holiday-sale/

And Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is A Plague Tale: Innocence, 73% off for the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/a-plague-tale-innocence
• And the Winter Mystery Bundle is now live, with up to 10 unknown games to grab: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/winter-mystery-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

The Steam News Hub is now live for everyone
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-steam-news-hub-is-now-live-for-everyone/
The Steam News Hub, previously only available as an experimental Steam Labs feature, went live today. It lets you follow news, quickly find game updates and it also informs you about scheduled downtime and events, all from within Steam. Visually, it hasn't changed much from the last time we looked at it, but it's now even easier to find news curators, which includes news sites like this one.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Grand Theft Auto IV iCEnhancer 4 & RevIVe Mod aims to improve performance and graphics
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/grand-theft-auto-iv-icenhancer-4-revive-mod-aims-to-improve-performance-and-graphics/
Hayssam Keilany, creator of iCEnhancer, is working on a new mod project for Grand Theft Auto 4, iCEnhancer 4 & RevIVe. According to Keilany, the iCEnhancer 4 & RevIVe Mod will improve the performance and quality of GTA IV. Although there is no ETA on when this mod will come out, Keilany shared the following video. This video packs numerous in-game scenes, so it will give you an idea of what you can expect from it.

GAMING NEWS

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood gets an extended gameplay video
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/werewolf-the-apocalypse-earthblood-gets-an-extended-gameplay-video/
NACON and Cyanide have released a 6-minute gameplay video for Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood. According to the press release, thsi gameplay video features the game’s exploration, stealth and brutal action. In addition, Julien “Patch” Desourteaux, Game Director at Cyanide, provided insight into the game’s development, and its roots in the World of Darkness.

Fortnite will get a new PC Performance Mode on December 15th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/fortnite-will-get-a-new-pc-performance-mode-on-december-15th/
Epic Games has announced that Fortnite will receive a new Performance Mode on PC tomorrow. This Performance Mode will be selectable through the in-game settings menu and will offer “significant performance gains by trading out visual quality to lower memory usage and lighten the load on CPU and GPU.”

Giant Squid removes Denuvo from ABZU
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/giant-squid-removes-denuvo-from-abzu/
Giant Squid has released a new update that removes the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from ABZU. ABZU is beautiful underwater adventure that evokes the dream of diving from the art director of Journey.

Latest Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Update is more than 3GB, brings PC stability improvements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/latest-call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-update-is-more-than-3gb-brings-pc-stability-improvements/
Treyarch has announced that a brand new update is now available for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, weighing from 3.4GB to 7.1GB in size. In addition, a new patch will come out for Call of Duty Warzone tomorrow, alongside the launch of Season One.

MicroProse announces Carrier Command 2, coming to PC in Q2 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/microprose-announces-carrier-command-2-coming-to-pc-in-q2-2021/
Now here is a pleasant surprise. MicroProse has just announced the sequel to Carrier Command, Carrier Command 2. Carrier Command 2 is coming to PC in Q2 2021, and below you can find its announcement trailer.

Monster Hunter Rise coming to PC nine months after Nintendo Switch, first PC tech details
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/monster-hunter-rise-coming-to-pc-nine-months-after-nintendo-switch-first-pc-tech-details/
Another day, another Capcom leak. As we informed you last month, Capcom plans to bring both Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2 on PC. And, according to some leaked documents, the Japanese company will release this new Monster Hunter game on the PC nine months after its Nintendo Switch release.

Tuesday news, part two:

Age of Empires 2's snowmen-at-arms give a very different meaning to festive cheer
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-2s-snowmen-at-arms-give-a-very-different-meaning-to-festive-cheer/
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition just kicked off its 2020 Winter Celebration, which lets players enjoy the festive season with fun mods for existing factions, and some new items and decorations. Players have until January 1st to secure these new items by completing different daily challenges over a five-day period.

Beautiful action platformer Ender Lilies enters Early Access in January
https://www.pcgamer.com/beautiful-action-platformer-ender-lilies-enters-early-access-in-january/
In metroidvanias, horror and beauty often belong together. Think of the gorgeous yet dark world of Blasphemous or Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, where the dangerous monsters out for your hide are as likely to be overly large kittens as tentacle beasts. With Ender Lilies, developers Live Wire and adglobe are evoking a similar feel, dropping a young girl called Lily into a world where everything the rain touches turns monstrous. If that sounds like a world you'd like to explore, you're in luck—Ender Lilies will release into Steam Early Access on January 21.

Vin Diesel isn't just starring in Ark 2, he's also working on the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/vin-diesel-isnt-just-starring-in-ark-2-hes-also-working-on-the-game/
We recently got our first look at Ark 2, the sequel to the popular GPU-straining dino-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. The extensive cinematic trailer for Ark 2 shown at The Game Awards was a surprise for several reasons, but mostly because Vin Diesel was in it.
It turns out that the Fast and Furious series star isn't just lending his looks, voice, and motion-captured dino-slaying moves to Ark 2. Diesel is actually working on the game itself.

Hearthstone Battlegrounds gets its first ever spells and three new Old God heroes
https://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-battlegrounds-is-its-first-ever-spells-and-three-new-old-god-heroes/
A major new Hearthstone Battlegrounds update is scheduled to roll out tomorrow that will introduce a trio of new heroes based on the Old Gods, plus new limited-time spells called "Darkmoon Prizes" that can be played every four turns—with increasingly powerful effects as the game progresses.
>> That tomorrow is today.

Survival horror game The Callisto Protocol is set in the PUBG universe, for some reason
https://www.pcgamer.com/survival-horror-game-the-callisto-protocol-is-set-in-the-pubg-universe-for-some-reason/
When former Visceral Games boss Glen Schofield announced the launch of Striking Distance Studios in 2019, he said its first game would be "an original narrative in the PUBG universe." Last week, though, they unveiled it as The Callisto Protocol, a sci-fi survival-horror game that looks very much like a spiritual successor to Visceral's Dead Space, and very much not like a PUBG game. Plans change, right?
Except that apparently, they did not change. In an interview with IGN, Schofield said that The Callisto Protocol is in fact set in the PUBG universe, as it was originally billed, but 300 years after the events of PUBG.

Fall Guys Season 3 patch notes detail new levels and features ahead of tomorrow's launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/fall-guys-season-3-patch-notes-detail-new-levels-and-features-ahead-of-tomorrows-launch/
Fall Guys, the popular multiplayer videogame featuring guys (or beans?) who fall, kicks off its Season 3 proceedings tomorrow in the form of Winter Knockout. It'll bring some substantial new features to the game, not least seven new levels, which will no doubt have their fair share of slippery ice. It'll bring Ringus Dingus too, who looks unpleasant in a cute way.

CDPR calls Cyberpunk 2077's current NPC and AI problems 'bugs'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cdpr-calls-cyberpunk-2077s-current-npc-and-ai-problems-bugs/
Yesterday CD Projekt issued an apology to customers, mostly those on last gen consoles, who are having a terrible time with Cyberpunk 2077. Following this, the company held an emergency call with investors about the game's launch and subsequent reception, prefaced by a statement from CDP joint-CEO Adam Kiciński that is a real hairshirt moment.

Vulkan Ray Tracing support enables even AMD GPUs to run Quake II RTX
https://www.pcgamer.com/vulkan-ray-tracing-driver-support-quake-ii-rtx-benchmark/
It's more good news from the Vulkan API camp: The open consortium responsible for the popular game API has announced full support for Vulkan Ray Tracing has arrived in its SDK, tools, and across the latest AMD and Nvidia drivers, thus enabling waves of developers to jump on the ray tracing wagon cross-platform. There's even a Vulkan Ray Tracing game ready to go out of the gate: Quake II RTX.

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla update 1.10 fixes a long list of quest bugs, adds Yule Festival support
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-valhalla-update-110-fixes-a-long-list-of-quest-bugs-adds-yule-festival-support/
The latest update for Assassin's Creed Valhalla is here, and it once again brings many much-needed bug fixes and performance improvements. This time, the focus seems to lie squarely on fixing bugs that kept you from completing a number of quests, such as NPCs not moving where they're supposed to, or, in one case, not leaving you alone, ever.

GTA Online did not forget about Dre
https://www.pcgamer.com/gta-online-did-not-forget-about-dre/
A surprise feature of Grand Theft Auto Online's Cayo Perico heist update, released today, is the presence of the legendary rapper and producer Dr. Dre, alongside fellow artist DJ Pooh and record exec Jimmy Iovine. DJ Pooh, real name Mark Jordan, is a longtime collaborator with Rockstar, having written on and co-produced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before returning as a consultant and writer for GTA V and GTA Online.

After RDNA2 I'm not expecting much from RDNA3, amd have stated they are aiming for another 50% Perf/W increase. It's supposed to be released the end of next year.

How they are gonna increase Raster and RTX performance? I thought you and Pemalite had a lot of ideas, the Macos leak suggests that RDNA3 top-end card still has 80CU's. The best way is to achieve another 1.5x performance increase is just to increase IPC by 25% and clocks by 25%, or they can do same trick as Nvidia did, go 128 gpu cores for each CU.

EA play for GamePass delayed to 2021. They make the announcement on the day it was suppose to come out, which was today. 

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/12/15/update-on-ea-play-xbox-game-pass-for-pc-2021/ 

Oh well. 

But what happens when AMD can't cheat their way to performance through process anymore? Nvidia will pull far ahead again and then Intel will catch up.

I'd be amazed if they manage to increase both IPC and clocks at the same time. While knowing nothing about RDNA3 I can only assume that they will actually decrease clocks in favor of going wider and improving IPC. Unless of course they still don't want to compete at 4k.

I personally think AMD's main focus for RDNA 3 is going to be Ray Tracing and ML performance while giving moderate boost to Raster. I doubt they are going to continue with Ray Accelerators like they have been doing with RDNA 2 since it's too slow. Instead they will probably have dedicated RT/ML cores similar to Nvidia. If RDNA 3 releases by the end of next year with these improvements, then Nvidia will probably release Hopper in Q1 2022 which isn't that far off considering the stock situation loll. It's certainly going to be an interesting fight.

I don't know. It's their problem and they'll have to find a solution for that.

In any case, the were able to go from Radeon VII to RX 6900XT at the same 7nm, so it's not like they can't actually improve their products only on node alone.

"Oversupply to Continue Affecting NAND Flash Prices - 10-15% Decline Expected in 1Q21"

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/oversupply-to-continue-affecting-nand-flash-prices-10-15-decline-expected-in-1q21.html

Oversupply on Storage
Undersupply on GPUs

Don't worry, once I save enough again to get a new PC, prices will start to rise once more.