Dell intentionally crippled Alienware m15 R5’s GeForce RTX 3070 GPU by disabling 10% of cores

https://videocardz.com/newz/dell-intentionally-crippled-alienware-m15-r5s-geforce-rtx-3070-gpu-by-disabling-10-of-cores



I think we all kinda knew that it was intentional but actually hearing them admit that it was intentional is on another level of stupidity. Idk what makes some of these companies hate AMD so much but man, this is userbenchmark's level of bullshittyness. It's quite a shame because their Alienware laptops have some of the best designs in the market in terms of looks as they are the few laptop manufacturers that do white laptops really well.

What Dell has done is disgusting. I'd love to see someone sue them for that given that they have admited it themselves. This kind of practices are intolerable and go against the end consumer. I have no doubt that, if no reviewer had found about this, Dell would have done absolutely nothing to "address this mistake".

Congratulations for your purchases, zero, you've got yourself lots of hours of entertainment.

Possibly the same that made the OEMs do similar stuff about 20 years ago: Fear of loosing their goodwill and standing with Intel - and more importantly the good deals they have with Intel. I remember that in 2004 AMD once wanted to literally give away some chips to some OEM and they refused for this specific reason, as it would have meant that the prices of Intel chips would skyrocket for them if they would take those AMD chips.

It's bullshit, but that fear is sadly very real.

PC Gaming Show 2021 partial lineup - https://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gaming-show-2021-preview/

Valve also making an appearance. SteamPal perhaps? :o

The E3 is approaching, and that shows in the number of news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Itch.io's Palestinian Aid Bundle includes hundreds of games for $5
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/itchios-palestinian-aid-bundle-includes-hundreds-of-games-for-dollar5/
Indie digital storefront Itch.io has released a new bundle supporting Palestinian aid which features more than 1,000 games, soundtracks, books, and more for a minimum price of $5. All funds raised by the sale of the bundle will go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which will provide food support and health services for people in Gaza.
>> It will last another 4 days.

You can buy over 200 queer games for the price of one blockbuster
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/you-can-buy-over-200-queer-games-for-the-price-of-one-blockbuster/
The Queer Games Bundle 2021 on itch.io is running throughout the month of June to specifically boost the work of queer creators, and “help nurture our diverse queer arts community”. Proceeds from the bundle will be split evenly between all contributors, where it currently sits at just over $50,000 raised in its first week.
>> You still have 27 days to decide if you want it or not.

GOG's new Weekly Sale comes with up to 80% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210607_weekly_sale

Steam has two new daily deals:

• At Dead Of Night is 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1450830/At_Dead_Of_Night/
• And Trials of Fire has a 33% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1038370/Trials_of_Fire/

The Humble Store has two new sales:

• Capcom puts its games up to 80% off during the next 4 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/capcom-publisher-sale/
• CD Projekt Red also puts its games on sale during the next 4 days, with up to 90% discounts. All the keys are for GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/cdpr-publisher-sale/

And Fanatical has three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Trials Rising Gold Edition, 85% off during the next 48 hours. The keys are for UPlay: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/trials-rising-gold-edition
• PQube Limited Games puts its games up to 65% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/pqube-limited
• And the new Platinum Collection BYOB comes with 20 games to make our 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Steam VR update lets you take control of your field of view
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/steam-vr-field-of-view-fov-update/
Those lovely folk over at Valve have updated SteamVR with a few quality of life enhancements that make exploring virtual worlds a little bit easier. SteamVR 1.17 includes enough bug fixes and tweaks to make it worth tracking down on that front alone, but it's the inclusion of three new features that make it stand out: the ability to dock windows to your controllers as well as Field of View and Override World scale options.
The most obvious use of the windows docking feature is to attach your Steam chat to one of your controllers, which means you can communicate with your mates without needing to pull yourself completely out of whatever game you're playing.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Brutal Wolfenstein: UBER HERO Edition Version 0.5 available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/brutal-wolfenstein-uber-hero-edition-version-0-5-available-for-download/
Modder ‘WitheredPoppiMk-4’ has released Version 0.5 for Brutal Wolfenstein: UBER HERO Edition. In order to celebrate this new release, the modder also released a new gameplay trailer that you can find below.
Going into more details, Version 0.5 adds new weapons, enemies and maps. Moreover, it changes the Taunt sounds to the Quake Champions one, and packs a number of bug fixes.
>> You'll find it at ModDB.

Days Gone Mod makes hordes more challenging, with up to 670 zombies on screen
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/days-gone-mod-makes-hordes-more-challenging-with-up-to-600-zombies-on-screen/
Aigmir has released a must-have mod for all those that have already finished Days Gone. This mod makes all hordes more challenging by raising the number of zombies.
In the vanilla version, the Hordes have between 50 and 500 swarmers. This mod changes that range to 280-600. Furthermore, a boss horde further increases that number to 670 zombies. Now that’s what a real Horde could look like.
Now the good news here is that the modder did not simply increase the number of swarmers to ridiculous numbers in all areas. Nope. Instead, Aigmir followed Bend Studio’s Tier modes.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

Skyrim's Got Talent mod adds a progression system for wannabe bards
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/skyrims-got-talent-mod-adds-a-progression-system-for-wannabe-bards/
Bard mods have been around for Skyrim almost as long as Skyrim itself has—people just want to play instruments in taverns and rock out at Raven Rock. So here's yet another bard mod for you, but this one has a fun progression system where you start out being absolutely terrible at the instruments you play and only improve over time with lots of practice.
Skyrim's Got Talent is a mod for Skyrim Special Edition, with roughly 100 different instrumental songs to learn for your drum, flute, or lute. Each instrument has five ranks—Clueless, Beginner, OK, Pretty Good, and Master—and each rank you climb will improve your skills and add a new handful of songs to your repertoire.

First Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 Mod uncensors the German version
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/first-sniper-ghost-warrior-contracts-2-mod-uncensors-the-german-version/
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 has just been released and, unfortunately, its German version has been censored. Thankfully, though, there is currently a mod to bring back its gore and dismemberment effects.
I don’t know if any other version, besides the German version, lacks the gore effects. Theoretically, though, you can use this mod in those versions too.
All you have to do is download this Gore Mod from here. Once downloaded, copy and paste the modded scripts.pak file to folder “SteamsteamappscommonSniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2gamesdk”. And there you have it.

GAMING NEWS

First gameplay screenshots for Battlefield 2021/Battlefield 6 leaked
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/first-gameplay-screenshots-for-battlefield-2021-battlefield-6-leaked/
While EA and DICE plan to officially reveal the new Battlefield on June 9th, the first gameplay screenshots from it have been leaked online. These screenshots appear to be from the game’s alpha build, and they are of a low resolution. Still, we believe that most BF fans will be interested in them.

City of Atlantis is a new isometric city-building survival game
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/city-of-atlantis-is-a-new-isometric-city-building-survival-game/
CreativeForge Games has announced City of Atlantis; a new isometric city-building survival game for PC. In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher released the game’s debut gameplay trailer that you can find below.

New in-engine trailer released for Total War: WARHAMMER III
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-in-engine-trailer-released-for-total-war-warhammer-iii/
SEGA has released a new in-engine trailer for Total War: WARHAMMER III, dedicated to the World of Khorne. As the title suggests, this trailer features in-engine graphics, so it can give you an idea of how the game will look like.

Here are three new beautiful screenshots for Bright Memory Infinite
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/here-are-three-new-beautiful-screenshots-for-bright-memory-infinite/
FYQD-Studio has released three new beautiful screenshots for Bright Memory Infinite. In addition, the team confirmed that a new gameplay trailer will release on June 10th. This trailer will air during the GameSpot “Play For All” event.

Suicide Squad, Gotham Knights and Hogwarts Legacy won’t likely be present at E3 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/suicide-squad-gotham-knights-and-hogwarts-legacy-wont-likely-be-present-at-e3-2021/
Warner Bros will host an E3 2021 presentation on June 13th. However, it appears that this presentation will be entirely focused on Back 4 Blood. As such, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Gotham Knights and Hogwarts Legacy won’t likely be present (at all) in E3 2021.
>> How long have been the first two games in development? It seems like we've ben hearing of them for ages.

New trailers for Chernobylite, Omno, Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo and more
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-trailers-for-chernobylite-omno-alfred-hitchcock-vertigo-and-more/
A number of new game trailers got released yesterday during the Guerrilla Collective 2021 event. As such, we’ve decided to share most of them in one big article.
>> There are videos of 6 games: the three in the title and "Trifox", "El Paso, Elsewhere" and "Rubi: The Wayward Mira".

These Cyberpunk 2077 internal bug montage videos are the best thing you’ll see today
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/these-cyberpunk-2077-internal-bug-montage-videos-are-the-best-thing-youll-see-today/
At launch, Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the buggiest games we’ve seen in recent years. And, from the looks of it, CD Projekt RED was fully aware of the game’s issues. Thanks to the recent CDPR hack, the following three bug montage videos surfaced online.

Far Cry 6 will have a third-person mode under certain scenarios
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/far-cry-6-will-have-a-third-person-mode-under-certain-scenarios/
While Far Cry 6 won’t have a map editor, Ubisoft confirmed that the game will come with a third-person mode. However, there is a catch. This mode will not be widely available throughout the game. Instead, players will see their main character from a third-person perspective only under certain scenarios.
>> That's what Ubi thinks. Some modder will find a way to play the whole game with this camera. If the game is good enough to bother, of course.

New gameplay trailer released for Source of Madness
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-gameplay-trailer-released-for-source-of-madness/
IGN has shared a new gameplay trailer for the upcoming Lovecraftian side-scrolling dark action roguelite, Source of Madness. Source of Madness is set in a twisted Lovecraftian-inspired world, featuring procedural generation and AI machine learning.

Monday news, part two:

Dicey Dungeons developer is now electrocuting strangers in Roblox
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dicey-dungeons-developer-is-now-electrocuting-strangers-in-roblox/
Dicey Dungeons and VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh has been on a bit of a Roblox kick as of late. After daring players to climb an impractically large man, the Irish developer is now striking random players with lightning in the succinctly named Anyone could be struck by lightning at any time.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is getting a sequel
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-is-getting-a-sequel/
It took longer than expected for Koji Igarashi's Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to arrive, but the delays proved to be worthwhile (...) It also inspired an 8-bit-style spinoff, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (...).
A Curse of the Moon sequel came out last July, and the Ritual of the Night team has been adding DLC to the bigger game consistently since release. But there wasn't any sign of a sequel until this May, when a quarterly financial report from 505 Games parent company Digital Bros said that Bloodstained had a "second version in development."
(...)
Today, the official Bloodstained Twitter account confirmed that it is.

Bungie says Destiny 2 PC performance is finally 'close to what it was before Beyond Light'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bungie-says-destiny-2-pc-performance-is-finally-close-to-what-it-was-before-beyond-light/
The Destiny 2: Beyond Light expansion made a very positive impression on us, but it also led to reduced performance for some players. The first post in this Reddit thread, for instance, says Beyond Light took the player's game from 100-130 fps to 45-55, with GPU utilization pushing 100%. A large number of responses claim similar problems.
Bungie said in November 2020 that it was looking into reports of "issues related to low performance on PCs," and established a mega-thread tracking updates and possible workarounds. Now, courtesy of the most recent This Week at Bungie update, we've finally got an idea of what went wrong, and why Bungie hasn't made a show of jumping in with both feet to fix the problem.

Mystery-solving life sim The Good Life delayed to Fall
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/mystery-solving-life-sim-the-good-life-delayed-to-fall/
Master of the mundane-yet-strange Hidetaka "Swery65" Suehiro and his company White Owl Inc were due to release their latest game this summer, but life sim and photography game The Good Life won't release until Fall after a delay announced today via Twitter.

Lawsuit alleges Capcom stole art from photographer for Resident Evil and other games
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lawsuit-alleges-capcom-stole-art-from-photographer-for-resident-evil-and-other-games/
A photographer and designer has alleged in a lawsuit that Capcom games from Devil May Cry to Resident Evil 4 used her copyrighted photos extensively as environments, textures, and a primary element of the Resident Evil 4 logo.
>> He sure took some time to sue Capcom!

Sonic co-creator and Balan Wonderworld director Yuji Naka has left Square Enix
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/sonic-co-creator-and-baland-wonderworld-director-yuji-naka-has-left-square-enix/
Yuji Naka has confirmed that he is no longer working for Square Enix as of April this year, and may not work in games again. As he wrote on Twitter, via Google Translate, "I can't talk about the reason now, but I hope I can talk about it when the time comes. As for future activities, I'm 55 years old, so I may retire."

Devolver Direct will return for E3 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/devolver-direct-will-return-for-e3-2021/
Indie game label Devolver Digital will be broadcasting another of the annual high-concept art pieces that serve as trailers for its upcoming games this year. Devolver Direct 2021 will be part of the Summer Game Fest, which is a set of livestreams that overlaps with E3 yet is somehow meaningfully distinct from it for branding purposes, and you'll be able to watch it on Saturday, June 12 at 1:30pm PT.

Bend gravity in puzzle-platformer Sky Beneath
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bend-gravity-in-puzzle-platformer-sky-beneath/
Narrative-driven puzzle platformer Sky Beneath showed up on Steam recently, aiming for a release this year, and has a free demo that's pretty promising. The indie by Mindhaven Games is narrative driven, with salvager Cassie looking for scrap around abandoned facilities. To get around, you have to use limited control of gravity to progress through various puzzle-like scenario rooms.

Free, popular survival game Muck exists because a YouTuber got salty
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/free-popular-survival-game-muck-exists-because-a-youtuber-got-salty/
At some point in the past somebody made a comment on a video by YouTube personality Dani that he probably couldn't make a survival game of his own. Probably in response to critique of some other survival game. Naturally(???) Dani got really salty about this and decided to prove the person wrong. If you didn't know this story that's fine, because neither did I until I noticed that nearly 15,000 people were playing a game called Muck that I'd never heard of, released yesterday, and has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews.

Much-needed first patch for Necromunda: Hired Gun arrives
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/much-needed-first-patch-for-necromunda-hired-gun-arrives/
Streum On Studio is the definition of a Eurojank developer, releasing ambitious but buggy games you find yourself playing in spite of their flaws. The latest is Necromunda: Hired Gun, a movement-shooter set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe that gives you a grappling hook, a whole lot of augmetic implants, and a cyber dog. It released with a lot of issues, including performance problems, like stuttering during map load, and CTDs. (...)
Anyway, the first patch is here, and it's done some good work. (...)

Dying Light's dark-fantasy Hellraid DLC now comes with a story mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dying-lights-dark-fantasy-hellraid-dlc-now-comes-with-a-story-mode/
Forget Dying Light 2 for a moment, if you will, as we check back in with its 2015 predecessor. Techland's zombie parkour debut has been receiving steady updates since launch, to the point where its latest update has added a brand new story mode to dungeon-delving fantasy spin-off expansion, Hellraid.

AMD ZEN4 and RDNA3 architectures both rumored to launch in Q4 2022

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-zen4-and-rdna3-architectures-both-rumored-to-launch-in-q4-2022

As it's been confirmed that Zen 3 will get a refresh with V-cache which is set to release early next year, I think it makes sense that Zen 4 has been delayed. Least the good news is that AM4 (assuming zen 3 refresh launches on it) will continue to get support! While we haven't heard about RDNA 3 yet, if it is indeed delayed to Q4, then it will compete more directly against Lovelace which has also been delayed to later that year. It true, this means AMD won't have that performance crown for several months that we were expecting. Still, there is a good chance RDNA 3 will be more powerful than Lovelace even if it's delayed. The only worrying part is that it feels like deja vu and hopefully, the scalping and cryto mining won't be included in this deja vu.

FidelityFX Super Resolution Coming to Xbox, Microsoft Is Excited About It

https://wccftech.com/fidelityfx-super-resolution-coming-to-xbox-microsoft-is-excited-about-it/

Noctua’s NH-P1 Is A Juggernaut Fanless CPU Cooler, $100 US Pricing & Insane Passive Heatsink Design

I do find it funny that it has a 6 year warranty. The only way something like this would not work is if the user goofs it.

Alienware to Return Abducted GPU Cores to m15 R5 Laptop With vBIOS Fix

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/alienware-to-return-abducted-gpu-cores-to-m15-r5-laptop-with-vbios-fix

Should have never happened in the first place but least they aren't making up some other bs

You're telling me I might have to tune into this yearly turd of a show?

DF weighs in on FSR

Basically says to keep your expectations low and they hope to be surprised on June 22nd. They think at best, it will be DLSS 1.0's level but Alex doesn't have much confidence that it will reach it because DLSS 1.0 had some ML which still cleared up some things even though overall, it still wasn't all that good. They hope that it will be better than TAA upscaling that everyone else is using as otherwise, most companies will probably just stick to their TAA that works on all GPUs/consoles anyway. When it comes out on June 22nd, they will be using Unreal Unlocker to compare FSR against TAA Upscaling against Native as the game is supposed to be Godfall. They most likely won't be able to compare it against DLSS unless Godfall had it implemented but kept it disabled.

Haha yeah its usually quite bad.. this years might be worth watching though, for Valves input alone. Hope it something, and not a load of nothing from Valve!

And that Noctua cooler is a beast! Can imagine the incompatibility issues due to size lol