The Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

At the Epic Store we find a new free game: Aven Colony: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/aven-colony
And next week, the free goodie will be the Season Four Epic Pack for Rogue Company.

Fanatical has a new deal:

• The new Star Deal is Detroit: Become Human, 60% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/detroit-become-human
• Remember that the Big Birthday Bash Sale is going on. Have you checked it yet?
• And don't forget about the contest to win some peripherals. You still have 9 days to enter: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/win-big-birthday-bash-gaming-prizes-worth-over-200-contest

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

***Sigh*** Once again, neither DSOGaming nor PCGamer have an article about the new AMD drivers released two days ago so...

AMD Radeon Adrenalin 21.11.1
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-21-11-1

Highlights

• Call of Duty®: Vanguard
• Forza Horizon 5™
  • Up to 23% increase in performance in Forza Horizon 5 @ 4K Extreme Settings, using Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 21.11.1 on the 16 GB Radeon™ RX 6800 XT graphics card, versus the previous software driver version 21.10.2RS-426.

Fixed Issues

• Users may experience display corruption issues when they set their Samsung™ Odyssey G9 C49G95T monitor to 5120X1440 @ 240Hz.
• While playing Call of Duty®: Warzone, some users may observe visual artifacts when moving the cursor in the in-game menu.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Star Wars Battlefront 2015 looks amazing in 8K with this Ray Tracing Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/star-wars-battlefront-2015-looks-amazing-in-8k-with-this-ray-tracing-mod/
Giulio Guglielmi has informed us about a new Ray Tracing Mod that he’s currently creating for Star Wars Battlefront 2015. Now the good news here is that Guglielmi plans to release this mod to the public once it’s complete. Additionally, you can find below an 8K video, showcasing its visual enhancements.

GAMING NEWS

eFootball 2022 is now the worst game release of 2021, Update 1.0.0 has been delayed until Spring 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/efootball-2022-is-now-the-worst-game-release-of-2021-update-1-0-0-has-been-delayed-until-spring-2022/
In September 2021, Konami released eFootball 2022, which quickly became one of the worst game launches of all time. On its launch day, the game had Overwhelmingly Negative Reviews on Steam. After this awful launch, Konami apologized and promised to fix the game via a major update in November 2021. However, the company has just announced that this Update has been delayed until Spring 2022.
>> That's quite a delay for an update. I feel like this update will either rework the entire game or, given how much time will have gone by, never come to light and be the base of the next game.

Brand new screenshots for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/brand-new-screenshots-for-grand-theft-auto-the-trilogy-the-definitive-edition/
The Xbox Store page for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition has revealed some new screenshots from it. These screenshots showcase the remastered graphics of these three classic GTA games.

Friday news, part two:

BioWare has no plans to end Star Wars: The Old Republic anytime soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bioware-has-no-plans-to-end-star-wars-the-old-republic-anytime-soon/
I was an optimistic 20-something when I rolled my first Bounty Hunter, with his bad scars and bad attitude, in Star Wars: The Old Republic. A decade later, I'm dour and approaching middle-age, but I'm still gleefully rolling alts and chewing through some of my favourite MMO stories. I'm ravenous for them. And, lucky me, it looks like BioWare doesn't have any plans to call off the galactic wars and Sith intrigue.

League of Legends, Valorant, and Riot's other games have all come to the Epic Store
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/league-of-legends-epic-game-store/
Riot Games is branching out. Alongside the launch of its new Netflix series Arcane, Riot has partnered up with Epic to add a Jinx skin to Fortnite and bring its whole PC library to the Epic Games Store.
>> You can read more about Jinx coming to Fortnite here.

Devolver Digital has gone public with Sony acquiring a minority stake
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/devolver-digital-has-gone-public-with-sony-acquiring-a-minority-stake/
Indie publisher Devolver Digital has gone public today, with Sony already acquiring a minority stake.
It's the largest US-based company to ever go live on the London Stock Exchange, floating at around $950 million (thanks, gamesindustry.biz). Sony has already made a 5% investment in the publisher, with Chinese videogame behemoth NetEase purchasing an 8% stake. Devolver says its staff are still the majority owners though, with its founders and all current employees owning a stake in the company.

Take-Two boss says 'digital collectible goods' don't have value just because they're NFTs
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/take-two-boss-says-digital-collectible-goods-dont-have-value-just-because-theyre-nfts/
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has held a few contrarian opinions over the years. In 2019 he declared that Fortnite "never affected the [videogame] industry," and a year later he said he was "highly skeptical" that subscription services like Xbox Game Pass would become a primary distribution method for games. He was even more forceful in his thoughts on the future of VR, saying that he was thankful Take-Two "didn't waste any money on it."
On the non-fungible front, though, he's definitely rolling with the crowd. Following closely behind Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, Zelnick told GamesIndustry that he's a "big believer" in NFTs—although not necessarily as they exist right now.

Push a button to make it rain missiles in the new Rust update
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/push-a-button-to-make-it-rain-missiles-in-the-new-rust-update/
Rust's November update will give players a new reason to watch the skies, because after today those skies might be filled with up to a dozen rockets screaming toward your base and/or face. The November update adds military bases to the map, and each base has a missile-launching vehicle that can be used to rain death and destruction onto a specifically targeted area.

Lost Ark, the Korean MMO coming West next year, is now in closed beta
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/lost-ark-the-korean-mmo-coming-west-next-year-is-now-in-closed-beta/
Our first glimpse of Lost Ark came in 2014, when we described it as "an exceptionally good looking ARPG." It finally launched four years later, but only in Korea—it wasn't until earlier this year that a Western release was confirmed, with localization being handled by Amazon Games.
Lost Ark is currently expected to be out in early 2022, and with the new year rapidly approaching Amazon and original publisher Smilegate have kicked off a week-long closed beta test. Set to run until November 11, the beta test will feature the new Martial Artist Striker subclass, dungeons and raids, islands to sail to and explore, and other updates to the live game in Korea.

Arm the hot tubs: EVE Fanfest returns next year
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/arm-the-hot-tubs-eve-fanfest-returns-next-year/
The last time EVE Fanfest took place as an in-person event, our intrepid senior reporter Steven Messner got drunk, got naked, got in a hot tub, and discussed the potentialities of machine sentience with the developers—pretty much par for the course at these events, as I understand it. The annual EVE Online convention was cancelled in 2020 and '21 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but CCP announced today that it's returning for 2022.

Amy Hennig's Marvel game has its first confirmed writer
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/amy-hennigs-marvel-game-has-its-first-confirmed-writer/
During the latest FatMan Beyond podcast hosted by Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, the latter confirmed he is working on Amy Hennig's forthcoming Marvel-themed videogame. News of that project emerged last week: it'll be a "narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game" helmed by Skydance New Media, a new arm of film company Skydance Media.
>> And it may (or not) be about Ant-Man or Fantastic Four,

Early Call of Duty: Vanguard reviews point to good multiplayer but a lacklustre campaign
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/early-call-of-duty-vanguard-reviews-point-to-good-multiplayer-but-a-lacklustre-campaign/
Call of Duty: Vanguard reviews are in, though we don't have our own just yet: We haven't played it, so expect to see our verdict some time next week once we've played through the campaign and spent some meaningful time with the new multiplayer and Zombie modes. It's the 18th game in the long-running shooter series (19th if you count Warzone), marks another return to World War 2, and early signs point to another singleplayer campaign that plays a heck of a lot like previous instalments, just maybe not as well.

Here are the games that don't work on Intel Alder Lake, but there is a workaround
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/intel-alder-lake-drm-game-list-workaround/
(...)
Today, there's a complete list of games that are currently incompatible with Intel Alder Lake (nice spot, Andreas Schilling), but which ones work and which don't will depend on whether you have Windows 11 or Windows 10 installed on your PC.

And now, the GOG and Steam weekend deals:

+GOG

• The Midweek Sale comes with up to 90% discounts during another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211103_midweek_sale
• The Special Sale featuring Team17 brings up to 80% off during the next 5 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/team17_sale
• The first of the three Weekend Sales revolves around the Metro franchise, up to 75% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/metro_franchise_weekend
• The second Weekend Sale comes with games from NIS America, up to 75% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/nis_america
• And the third one involves Visual Novels and JRPGs with up to 80% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211105_weekend_sale
• Oh, and Ziggurat have added another two games to its classics catalog and are 33% off until November 12. Learn more here: https://www.gog.com/news/welcome_a_duo_of_true_classics_from_ziggurat_interactive

+Steam

• The first daily deal is T-Minus 30, 25% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371750/TMinus_30/
• The second daily deal is State of Mind, 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/437630/State_of_Mind/
• The first weekend deal is Risk of Rain 2, 40% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/632360/Risk_of_Rain_2/
• Hitman 2 is 80% off until the 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/863550/HITMAN_2/
• THQ Nordic puts its racing games on sale, up to 80% off until Monday 8: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/2021THQNordicRacingGames
• Publisher Hypetrain offers its games with up to 90% discounts until November 8: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hypetrain
• Deep Rock Galactic will be 50% off until November 15: https://store.steampowered.com/app/548430/Deep_Rock_Galactic/
• And of course, there's also the weeklong deals.

That's all folks! Until next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

So after a day of watching reviews and such, I think my overall feelings with Alder Lake is this.

At the top end, it's kinda meh. When AMD was able to beat Intel in workstation and gaming with their 5000 series, it felt like a David vs Goliath situation. It was impressive because AMD who went nearly bankrupt was able to not only beat Intel's current line up (10th gen) but next gen line up (11th gen). That to me was quite the "wow" factor. Intel reclaiming it's throne with Alder Lake, especially with such a low margin feels a lot more meh because they have all this tech and even then, it's only 12%sh faster in average and not in every task. If it was more like 20% on average, I'd be much more impressed but it feels like a pretty meh rendition.

At the budget end, it's epic. The fact that an i5 12600k is able to compete against 5800X in production workloads while being faster than a 5950x in gaming is nuts. And if the leaks of the much cheaper 12400 is true, than that would be insane value.

Overall, it will be interesting to see what Zen 3D does. Hopefully it's not just at the top end but rather, AMD can finally give something to the budget users as well. For now, Alder Lake S is the go to platform thanks to its new technologies and such. If Intel can keep Alder Lake S priced right, least in the budget segment, AMD may not continue to have an answer.

Intel now do the same with gpus. Something for low and mid end.

I agree with you. That AMD managed to not only get back in the game but also beat Intel was nothing short of unimaginable, specially given how much each company spends in R&D. And yet they managed to do it. On the other hand, Intel managing to come back on top is what one would expect and, given how power hungry their processors are, also feels like a lackluster win.

But the 12600K is an amazing product and, if the leaks are true and the 12400 delivers, AMD will find itself with no valid mid-range product.

Also, you have more faith in the 3D V-Cache and AMD than I do right now.

Someone, I no longer remember who (it could have also been me), posted a couple weeks ago an article giving us some insight on what their GPUs may cost, and it wasn't exactly good news.

Intel Arc Giveaway Reveals ‘Approximate’ Graphics Card Pricing
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-arc-giveaway-reveals-approximate-graphics-card-pricing

You can read the article if you want but the sumary is this: Intel is doing a giveaway and two of their cards are included, among other goods. Since it's a contest, they have to give these prizes an estimated value and, because we know how much the other stuff is priced or can be easily guessed, the "approximate" value of the cards are $825 for the top one and $650 for the other one.

By the way, if someone uses an Intel 4th gen (Haswell) processor to game... and no, I don't mean using it as your CPU paired with a GPU (... I think I'm the only one here still on that kind of setup), but actually gaming using the iGPU on it, well, I have weird news:

Intel Disables DirectX 12 API Loading on Haswell Processors
https://www.techpowerup.com/288676/intel-disables-directx-12-api-loading-on-haswell-processors
Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, codenamed Haswell, are subject to new security exploits. According to the company, a vulnerability exists inside the graphics controller of 4th generation Haswell processors, happening once the DirectX 12 API loading occurs. To fix the problem, Intel has found that disabling this API results in a fix. Starting with Intel graphics driver 15.40.44.5107 applications that run exclusively on DirectX 12 API no longer work with the following Intel Graphics Controllers: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200/5100, HD Graphics 5000/4600/4400/4200, and Intel Pentium and Celeron Processors with Intel HD Graphics based on 4th Generation Intel Core.

So yeah, Haswell and DX12 titles are no longer a go... unless you stick to your old driver and don't update any more.

If AMD were to have Zen 3D from the 5600X and up, or even just the 5800X and up, I don't see any prices changing much. I'd assume they'll use the 2017/2018 Intel, as well as GPU market excuse of, 'we have the halo performance parts and therefore the crown so you can pay more for the entire line up, regardless of mid and low tier performance, period'.

Even if AMD only has the 5900X and 5950X as Zen 3D, I don't personally see them lowering the mid tier prices much. Either that or they'll drop mid tier prices so they're borderline acceptable, then they'll add another $100 to the those 3D parts assuming they take the crown back overall. Just offset the mid tier losses by increasing top tier pricing. Intel got away with murder when it came to insane top tier pricing, so little reason why AMD can't either.

i'm under the assumption that while subbed with gamepass I downloaded AOE2 and didn't delete it when i let GP run out. The GP app doesn't show it currently when reactivated, is there anyway to check if this might be so? it might be only 20GB but its getting me paranoid

It is buggy app. I was playing Celeste and was done with it. Deleted it before as it was to be removed from game pass. It still shows up in my active games and with option to uninstall it. Just weird. Freaking app updates as much as steam now too, like weekly. Still small bugs like this. 

I think they will drop the 5600x/5800x by a good amount tbh. If they have a 5600X/5800X with V-cache, they should still drop the regular 5600x/5800x by a pretty good margin. Micro-Center and some other retailers are already giving pretty deep discounts for 5800X. You can get a 5800X for only $300 for example which is the price of a 5600X:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/630284/amd-ryzen-7-5800x-vermeer-38ghz-8-core-am4-boxed-processor-heatsink-not-included

I don't think AMD can go Intels route of not dropping prices even if their Halo products end up being faster. The only reason the 5600X/5800X didn't get a price drop until now is because the 5600X was still faster than a 11600K and same for 5800X vs i7. But now that an i5 12600K can beat AMD's entire lineup, we are already seeing those much needed discounts come in. And if Vcache doesn't come down to mid tier CPUs, then the 5600X/5800X will still get discounted because otherwise, there is little to no reason to get either of them over an i5 12600K/12600/12400 let alone the i7. Intel gives you a better platform and better performance.