Bad PSUs can be a nightmare. Those ones automatically mean that I'll never buy a Gigabyte PSU. Ever. They can't be trusted.

Mine managed to last me since 2017 till Dec 2019, which wasn't all that great when you think about it, but I'm glad it didn't blow up on me.

It just terminated itself while I was in the middle of playing a game, and when I realised it wasn't turning back on, I just:

Good morning, guys. I bring you something:

*** NEW CONTEST ***

Win a monitor in the iiyama Kick Ass Curved Giveaway
https://hexus.net/tech/features/monitors/148135-win-monitor-iiyama-kick-ass-curved-giveaway/

Unfortunately, just like the previous contests, this one is UK ONLY.

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

In preparation for the Quakecon (August, 19th), GOG hosts a Quakecon Sale with up to 85% discounts during t he next 13 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/quakecon_2021.

Steam has several new deals, including four Midweek Madness deals (they start a day earlier now or what?) and the new weeklong deals:

• The new daily deal is Iratus: Lord of the Dead, 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/807120/Iratus_Lord_of_the_Dead/
• Iron Harvest, the first of the Midweek Madness deals, will be 70% off until the 12th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/826630/Iron_Harvest/
• The Tiny Teams 2021 Sale brings up to 75% off until... well, Steam says the 12th, but some of the game pages say 14th so your guess is as good as mine: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/tinyteamsfestival
• The LEGO games are up to 85% off until August 13: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/lego
• The last Midweek Madness deal is Overcooked franchise is on sale, up to 80% off until August 16: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/overcookedfranchisesale
• We also have Skater XL - The Ultimate Skateboarding Game, 20% off until August 19: https://store.steampowered.com/app/962730/Skater_XL__The_Ultimate_Skateboarding_Game/
• And these are some of the weeklong deals:
  • Mad Father is 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/483980/Mad_Father/
  • Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town gets a 40% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1097110/Willy_Morgan_and_the_Curse_of_Bone_Town/
  • The Cursed Forest is half its price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/345430/The_Cursed_Forest/
  • Sakura Dungeon gets a 70% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/407330/Sakura_Dungeon/
  • Conarium is 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/313780/Conarium/
  • And Bet On Soldier gets a big 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/335320/Bet_On_Soldier/

The Humble Store has three new sales:

• The Headup Publisher Sale brings up to 80% discounts during the next 6 days. There are keys for Steam and GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/headup-publisher-sale/
• The Metroidvania Sale features up to 80% discounts during the same 6 days. There are keys for Steam and GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/metroidvania-sale/
• And the Tomb Raider Franchise Sale comes with up to 89% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/tomb-raider-franchise-sale/

Fanatical has two new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Remnant: From the Ashes, 66% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/remnant-from-the-ashes
• And they also have a Quakecon Sale with up to 86% discounts during the next 13 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/bethesda-softworks

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

NVIDIA GeForce 471.68 WHQL driver released, optimized for Back 4 Blood’s Beta & Psychonauts 2
NVIDIA GeForce 471.68 WHQL driver released, optimized for Back 4 Blood's Beta & Psychonauts 2 (dsogaming.com)
NVIDIA has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the green team, the NVIDIA GeForce 471.68 WHQL driver offers optimal performance in Psychonauts 2 and Back 4 Blood’s beta. Moreover, it adds support for Naraka: Bladepoint, which utilizes NVIDIA DLSS and NVIDIA Reflex.
Additionally, this driver adds 7 new G-SYNC compatible displays. These new displays are AOC’s AG274FG8R4+ and AG274QG3R4B+, ASUS’ VG258QM and PG32UQ, Lenovo’s G24-20, MSI’s G251F and ViewSonic’s XG320Q.
>> Available from here.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Modders are porting Team Fortress 2 to Source 2 Engine
Modders are porting Team Fortress 2 to Source 2 Engine (dsogaming.com)
A team of modders is currently working on a port of Team Fortress 2 to Source 2 Engine. As the team noted, its ultimate goal is to remake, improve, iterate, and create a new Team Fortress experience on Source 2 engine using s&box.
“This project is a huge undertaking, we would have to consider all nitpicks of TF2 gameplay, try to rebuild every single mechanic to feel similar to the base game, but with enough dedication, I believe that we can do it!”
Now this mod is still in a really early development stage. As such, do not expect to be playing it anytime soon. Still, and since Valve is “pro-modding“, it won’t be issuing any C&D letter to the team. After all, Valve has endorsed both Black Mesa and the upcoming Half Life 2 Remastered Collection.

Here is The Ascent with a first-person camera mode
Here is The Ascent with a first-person camera mode (dsogaming.com)
YouTube’s ‘Gaming with Griff Griffin’ has shared a video, showing The Ascent in first-person mode. The Ascent uses Unreal Engine 4 and in order to enable this FPS mode, the YouTuber used the Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker.
In case you weren’t aware of, the Universal Unreal Engine 4 Unlocker can add a free camera, add timestop, add a hud toggle and re-create the in-game console. UUU4 supports all Unreal Engine 4 games, so theoretically you can use it in all of them.
You can download UUU4 from here. Once installed, you can run its executable while The Ascent is running. Then, you can use the console window and type in commands to trigger different effects. You can enable the free flythrough camera via the ‘toggledebugcamera’ code.
>> It doesn't look like you can actually play in this mode, but it goes to show how detailed the game is. Plus you can try it on other games.

Episode Two for the Silent Hill Mod for Fallout 4 is available for download
Episode Two for the Silent Hill Mod for Fallout 4 is available for download (dsogaming.com)
Back in February, we informed you about a Silent Hill mod for Fallout 4. And today, we are happy to report that its second episode is available for download.
As the modder states, Whispering Hills basically turns Fallout 4 into a Silent Hill-like Nightmare. From now on you will be surrounded by Thick Fog, strange sounds and occasionally being dragged into an otherworld where monsters (SirenHead, Mumblers, Lyingfigures, Ghouls, Silent hill Nurses, Twin head Screamers and Dogs) await you. Moreover, Pyramidhead is also present in this mod.
Whispering Hills overhauls all background sounds of the Commonwealth and replaces them with Spooky and creepy ones from Silent Hill. Moreover, it overhauls Combat Music and adds 10 varieties of Fog Weathers. Additionally, it packs a new quest line with voiced NPC and a complete new world to explore.
Episode Two adds a new location, the Alchemilla Hospital. Additionally, it unlocks a large part of the City. Furthermore, its team has added a lot of new music and fixed tons of bugs.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

Ray Tracing is coming to the PC version of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Ray Tracing is coming to the PC version of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (dsogaming.com)
Ninja Theory and QLOC have released a new update for the Xbox Series S|X version of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice that adds Ray Tracing effects. And, according to the teams, the Ray Tracing update will also come on PC.

Resident Evil Village August 10th Update improves performance, full patch notes
Resident Evil Village August 10th Update improves performance, full patch notes (dsogaming.com)
Last month, Capcom released the first PC patch for Resident Evil Village that fixed its stuttering issues and added support for AMD FSR. And today, the company released another PC update that promises to further improve overall performance.

PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS is free to play until August 17th
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS is free to play until August 17th (dsogaming.com)
PUBG Corporation has announced that PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS will be free to play this week. From August 10th and until August 17th, PC gamers can download and play this battle-royale game on Steam.

The news, part two:

Valheim is nerfing some of your favorite foods
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/valheim-is-nerfing-some-of-your-favorite-foods/
One of the coolest things Valheim did with its survival systems was making food technically optional (you don't need to eat and you will never starve to death) yet still incredibly important, because the best Valheim foods increase your HP and stamina so much that eating is just as vital as wearing armor.
The food system is getting some interesting changes in the upcoming Hearth and Home update, and Valheim developer Iron Gate Studios released a short video to ease players into it.

Forza Horizon 5's map is here and the volcano is basically Mount Doom
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/forza-horizon-5s-map-is-here-and-the-volcano-is-basically-mount-doom/
Forza Horizon 5 is going to Mexico this November, and while we got a peek at its diverse biomes already, we finally have the official bird's-eye of the whole place.
The Forza Horizon Twitter account shared the Summer version of the in-game map, which gives us a better idea of how things fit together and what kind of races we might run throughout it.

EVE Online's record-setting war ends with a whimper
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/eve-onlines-record-setting-war-ends-with-a-whimper/
A war of unprecedented magnitude in EVE Online is coming to an unexpected and anti-climactic end. For over a year, some of EVE Online's biggest player-run factions, including TEST Alliance, Pandemic Horde, Fraternity, and Brave Collective—a super-coalition named PAPI—have laid siege to the villainous Imperium with the sole intent of wiping them from the game entirely. The war has been brewing ever since another historic conflict from 2016 called World War Bee, and in the last year has resulted in some of the biggest fights in EVE Online's history. But after 13 long months of war, the PAPI coalition has all but dissolved right on the Imperium's front door.

Cookie Clicker is coming to Steam
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/cookie-clicker-is-coming-to-steam/
Cookie Clicker is a popular browser game about clicking cookies, automating the production of cookies, and relishing the acquisition of millions of virtual cookies. Along with Candy Box, it's one of the games that helped popularise the idle game genre. Both succeeded for fairly obvious reasons: one was about accruing lots of cookies, the other was about accruing lots of candy.
Cookie Clicker is getting a Steam release on September 2. Or, you could just click here and play it.

Rocket League's next season starts this week, brings cowboy stuff
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/rocket-leagues-next-season-starts-this-week-brings-cowboy-stuff/
A new season of car ball is almost upon us. Psyonix reset Rocket League's season count when it went free-to-play last year ("This one simple trick makes your game look 6x younger!"), so we'll only be on Season 4 when the competitive ladder resets this Wednesday, August 11.

PAX Australia 2021 is cancelled
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/pax-australia-2021-is-cancelled/
PAX Australia 2021 has been cancelled, marking the second year in a row the event has lost its physical version due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

6600XT Review day... If you really wanted to know how terrible this card was going to be... Well here it is!

https://videocardz.com/114792/amd-radeon-rx-6600-xt-review-roundup

Now I will focus mainly on techspots review because they have a more comprehensive review than other outlets this time around. So overall, it's effectively a 5700XT with terrible Ray Tracing performance for $20 less than it's original MSRP. Also the higher the resolution you go, the worse value this becomes even compared to a 3060. And let's not forget it's AIBs only (so is a 3060 but not a 3060 Ti).

https://www.techspot.com/review/2305-amd-radeon-rx-6600-xt/

The main thing I wanted to show from Techspot was the difference between PCI-E gen 4 vs Gen 3 as this GPU has only 8 lanes. And in something like Doom... Yea there's a big difference!

Raster:

For Ray Tracing, they compare it against a 3060 Ti which obviously will destroy it so instead, I wanted to post Ray Tracing for an AMD sponsored title to really show how terrible this GPU really is. People said Turing would age bad... But this on the other hand... Essh!

Now RE is fairly light on Ray Tracing. If we look at a game where they really make use of Ray Tracing...

https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/amd-rx-6600-xt-review-ft-gigabyte-gaming-oc-pro/22/

In other news...

NVIDIA GeForce GPU Prices Go Down, AMD Radeon GPU Prices Go Up As Market Adjusts, NVIDIA GPU Availability Improves Significantly

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-gpu-prices-go-down-amd-radeon-gpu-prices-go-up-market-adjusts-nvidia-availability-improves/

Not the best day for RDNA2 fans. Maybe LHR really is working?

Gigabyte servers hacked, 112GB of AMD, Intel and AMI confidential documents might be leaked

https://videocardz.com/newz/gigabyte-servers-hacked-112gb-of-amd-intel-and-ami-confidential-documents-might-be-leaked

From exploding Power Supplies to now this? Gigabyte ain't having a fun time.

Gigabyte AORUS 17G 17YE5 laptop with 14c/20t Intel Alder Lake CPU and DDR5-4800 memory spotted

https://videocardz.com/114795/gigabyte-aorus-17g-17ye5-laptop-with-14c-20t-intel-alder-lake-cpu-and-ddr5-4800-memory-spotted

I think I might hold off on my laptop purchase till Alder Lake or maybe even Lovelace/RDNA 3 at this point.

Epic overestimated potential Fortnite esports revenues by $154 million in 2019

https://dotesports.com/news/epic-overestimated-potential-fortnite-esports-revenues-by-154-million-in-2019

Still made tons of money but I do like when Epic has bad news

Intel Arrow Lake-P GPU rumored to feature 320 Execution Units

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-arrow-lake-p-gpu-rumored-to-feature-320-execution-units

Shining Force Comes to Mobile With New Title In 2022

https://twinfinite.net/2021/08/shining-force-comes-to-mobile-with-new-title-in-2022/

After 13 years since its last release, Shining Force will be making a comeback with a brand new mobile game. The upcoming installment in the Sega series will be making its way to smartphones during the first half of 2022.
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

Skyrim modders have made a working, Breath of the Wild-style paraglider

https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/mod-breath-of-the-wild-paraglider

If you can get your hands on four spirit orbs in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you can earn yourself one neat bit of kit: a paraglider. Link can whip this out to sail around Hyrule’s skies, and it’s not only dead handy but a lot of fun, too. Now, after months of development, some Skyrim modders have recreated a working paraglider inspired by BotW’s and brought it to Bethesda’s RPG game.
Looks nifty.

Stardock announces Start11, public Beta available now

https://www.neowin.net/news/stardock-announces-start11-public-beta-available-now/

Stardock announced Start11, a program that allows users to customize the Windows Start menu. As with previous editions of the StartX products, Start11 allows users to restore the Start menu to appear as it does in previous versions of Windows, as well as customize it to their liking. The beta version is now available at Stardock.