Friday news, part two:

Best chaos god Nurgle brings sweet decay and disease to Total War: Warhammer 3
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/best-chaos-god-nurgle-brings-sweet-decay-and-disease-to-total-war-warhammer-3/
Total Warhammer 3 is the final game in Creative Assembly's humie-bashing trilogy, and it's going to be absolutely massive (which might be why it's delayed until next year). The game has previously shown off the chaos god Tzeentch, and now it's time for the best chaos god of all: Nurgle, the god disease, decay, despair, death and destruction. He's got everything!

Tencent buys a chunk of Yooka-Laylee studio Playtonic
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/tencent-buys-a-chunk-of-yooka-laylee-studio-playtonic/
Tencent, the world's largest game publisher, is now a little larger. Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic announced today that Tencent has acquired a minority stake in the company, which will help it "create more incredible gaming journeys" and also support its newly-launched publishing division, Playtonic Friends.
>> Man! Iwish I had pockets as deep as Tencent's. They have no bottom!

Hundreds of Activision Blizzard employees sign petition demanding Bobby Kotick's removal
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hundreds-of-activision-blizzard-employees-sign-petition-demanding-bobby-koticks-removal/
The pressure on Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick continues to grow, as more than 800 employees and contractors have signed a petition calling for his resignation.
>> That means that there'll be more than 800 vacancies to be filled in the coming months.

Xbox boss is 'evaluating all aspects' of Microsoft's relationship with Activision Blizzard
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/xbox-boss-is-evaluating-all-aspects-of-microsofts-relationship-with-activision-blizzard/
Embattled Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick remains at the head of the company and continues to have the backing of the board of directors, which issued a statement earlier this week saying it "remains confident" in his leadership. But now it's facing pressure to take action from a large number of employees, as well as a couple of very important external sources: A report earlier today revealed that Sony Interactive president and CEO Jim Ryan had criticized Activision Blizzard's "deep-seated culture of discrimination and harassment" in an internal email, and now a Bloomberg report says Xbox boss Phil Spencer has sent a similar email to Microsoft staff.
>> They (both Sony and MSoft) could start by not paying Activision to have earlier access to the multiplayer maps of CoD, for example.

Someday Rust players will be able to raid other servers by boat
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/someday-rust-players-will-be-able-to-raid-other-servers-by-boat/
Survival game Rust takes place on an island surrounded by ocean, but what happens if you hop on a boat and head out to sea? Right now, your boat despawns and you get dunked in the water to die, though that will apparently change at some point in the future.

Bethesda is working on a patch for the Skyrim Anniversary Edition update
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/bethesda-is-working-on-a-patch-for-the-skyrim-anniversary-edition-update/
Skyrim Anniversary Edition came out a week ago, and with it Skyrim Special Edition updated to version 1.6. While Bethesda worked with the Skyrim Script Extender's developers to prevent the update from being too disruptive of the RPG's more ambitious mods, the update has caused a black-screen bug on loading saves, which is even affecting players who don't use mods. (Apparently, completing the Civil War questline consistently sets it off.)
(...)
On Discord, Bethesda has said, "We are aware of the 0kb error some PS4 players are experiencing as well as the 'black screen' issue. The team has been working on a fix for these (it's taking a little longer than we'd like) and hopes to have them resolved as soon as we can." A patch is in the works, and should be ready "early next week".
>> It's no wonder that the fix is taking longer than they'd like, they're used to rely on modders to fix those things.

Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion Legacy of the Sith comes out Dec 14
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/star-wars-the-old-republic-expansion-legacy-of-the-sith-comes-out-december-14/
Legacy of the Sith, the big expansion celebrating the 10th anniversary of Star Wars: The Old Republic, will be out on December 14. BioWare announced the date during a livestream with the development team, following an interview with Enuka Okuma, who voices returning character Tau Idair.

Halo Infinite's Battle Pass now grants you XP for completing a match
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halo-infinites-battle-pass-progression-will-be-changed-following-widespread-criticism/
While Halo Infinite's multiplayer beta is going down a treat, many players have been vocal in their dislike of the Battle Pass, particularly how slow its progress is. We agree. Following hints yesterday that 343 Industries would address the complaints, community manager John Junyszek has outlined the studio's strategy to make it better.
Update: A day after promising changes, 343 Industries has rolled out tweaks to the Halo Infinite battle pass. According to 343, "players can now earn XP by completing matchmade games," which is great news since previously you only got XP for completing challenges.

Halo Infinite's campaign won't feature co-op until May 2022 at the earliest
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halo-infinites-campaign-wont-feature-co-op-until-may-2022-at-the-earliest/
The previews are in: Halo Infinite's campaign is very good, with Wes reckoning it might just pull off an open world rebirth for the venerable series. But while we knew co-op wouldn't arrive until after launch, 343 has reaffirmed that it could be half a year before we crash onto Zeta Halo with a buddy.

Counter-Strike gets stickers for... Battlefield 2042?
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/counter-strike-gets-stickers-for-battlefield-2042/
Valve has released a bunch of stickers for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that, rather bizarrely, are themed around Battlefield 2042 iconography. Stickers in CS:GO come in capsules which you have to buy a capsule key to open: after which you'll get one of twelve Battlefield 2042 stickers of varying rarity. The dinosaur one is quite cool to be fair, though of course it's one of the rarest!

And here are the deals from GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The first of the new Flash Deals is Curse of the Dead Gods, 40% off during the next 70 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/curse_of_the_dead_gods
• The second Flash Deal is Stirring Abyss, 50% off until Monday: https://www.gog.com/game/stirring_abyss
• The Weekly Sale brings Czech and Slovak games up to 90% off: https://www.gog.com/partner/Czech_And_Slovak_Games
• The Special Sale with Kalypso, featuring up to 80% discounts, will last another 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/kalypso_sale
• The Midweek Sale brings up to 90% discounts on indie games during another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211117_midweek_sale
• The Weekend Sale features sea related games up to 87% off: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211119_weekend_sale
• There's a Special Sale with Warhammer games up to 80% off during the weekend: https://www.gog.com/promo/2021_warhammer_weekend
• And there's also a publisher sale featuring Focus Home Interactive, that puts its games up to 80% off until November 29: https://www.gog.com/promo/2021_focus_home_interactive_sale

+Steam

• The new daily deal is Stoneshard, still in Early Access, 30% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/625960/Stoneshard/
• Publisher DANGEN Entertainment puts its games up to 90% off until Monday 22: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/dangen_sale2021
• The Early Access title Satisfactory will be 30% off until November 24: https://store.steampowered.com/app/526870/Satisfactory/
• Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition (yes, it's the same game that's free on the Epic Store), is going to be 40% off until the 24th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/317820/Guild_of_Dungeoneering_Ultimate_Edition/
• FIFA 22 will also be 40% off until the 24th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1506830/FIFA_22/
• The Terraria X Don't Starve Together crosssover update brings 50 and 66% discounts respectively until the 24th of November: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/terrariaxdontstarvetogether
• DEATH STRANDING features a 70% discount until the 24th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1190460/DEATH_STRANDING/
• Lastly, Gunfire Reborn is going to be 25% off until December 1st: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1217060/Gunfire_Reborn/
• And well, we can't forget about the weeklong deals, right?

Until next Monday, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

Hundreds of Activision Blizzard employees sign petition demanding Bobby Kotick's removal
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/hundreds-of-activision-blizzard-employees-sign-petition-demanding-bobby-koticks-removal/
The pressure on Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick continues to grow, as more than 800 employees and contractors have signed a petition calling for his resignation.
>> That means that there'll be more than 800 vacancies to be filled in the coming months.

Xbox boss is 'evaluating all aspects' of Microsoft's relationship with Activision Blizzard
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/xbox-boss-is-evaluating-all-aspects-of-microsofts-relationship-with-activision-blizzard/
Embattled Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick remains at the head of the company and continues to have the backing of the board of directors, which issued a statement earlier this week saying it "remains confident" in his leadership. But now it's facing pressure to take action from a large number of employees, as well as a couple of very important external sources: A report earlier today revealed that Sony Interactive president and CEO Jim Ryan had criticized Activision Blizzard's "deep-seated culture of discrimination and harassment" in an internal email, and now a Bloomberg report says Xbox boss Phil Spencer has sent a similar email to Microsoft staff.
>> They (both Sony and MSoft) could start by not paying Activision to have earlier access to the multiplayer maps of CoD, for example.

Your comments make the news fun. Hilarious

Samsung DDR6-12800 Memory Currently In Development, GDDR6+ To Offer Up To 24 Gbps & GDDR7 Up To 32 Gbps For Next-Gen GPUs

https://wccftech.com/samsung-ddr6-12800-memory-currently-in-development-gddr6-to-offer-up-to-24-gbps-gddr7-up-to-32-gbps-for-next-gen-gpus/

DDR5 Memory Are Out of Stock Everywhere Due To Shortage of PMIC Chips

https://wccftech.com/ddr5-memory-are-out-of-stock-everywhere-due-to-shortage-of-pmic-chips/

Halo Infinite Campaign - Hands-On Impressions - Xbox Series X and Series S

So overall, I think my game of the year is gonna be... And I can't believe I am saying this... Guardians of the Galaxy

I was originally going to skip it cause of the poor execution of the Avengers but I am glad that I didn't. It's a single player only game with no micro transactions or any of that nonsense. The thing that really sells this game for me are the character interactions and the very unique and interesting Sci-Fi locations. This is one of those games that will give your eyes a visual orgasm if you like Sci-Fi genre. One of the main reasons I kept playing was just to see the next unique and interesting place we would travel to. The story is also quite good. It won't blow your mind but there are certainly a good amount of interesting points. The choices do matter so it does add to the replay-ability.

The gameplay isn't really anything to write home about. It's good enough to get you through the game and when it comes together, it can be very rewarding but you won't remember much about the gameplay after you are done. The character interactions between the team has a lot of chemistry that I feel are missing in a lot of games. Now this is a marvel game so if you don't like Marvel Humor, you aren't gonna like this game. But to it's credit, it does have some feels moments.

This game had some patches already but it feels like it's still not as polished as it needs to be as there are still some bugs. But it's nothing game breaking.

I'd say give it a go if you are looking for a game to play this holiday season especially if you like the sci-fi/space setting. It should be on sale on cdkeys if you are on PC but I am sure it will be discounted as well.

That's great to hear, Yuri. Always nice to see others enjoying a game. Lot of times the focus is on negativity with news and discussions.

Glad you liked it after initial tech issues. It is on my play list, eventually.

The original PC versions of GTA 3, GTA Vice City & GTA San Andreas will soon be available for purchase
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-original-pc-versions-of-gta-3-gta-vice-city-gta-san-andreas-will-soon-be-available-for-purchase/
Rockstar has just announced that the classic/original PC Version of GTA 3, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas will be, once again, available for purchase. The team claimed that these classic games will be available as a bundle on Rockstar Store soon. However, there is no word yet on whether these classics will return to Steam.

Thanks. Sometimes I can't help myself and I have to share my thoughts on some of the articles, for good or bad.

I'm actually surprised. Given how many times you've talked about the new Forza Horizon, I thought that would be your choice, not Guardians.

And thanks for the review.

On another note, those DDR6 specs look great (we'll see how the latency grows,tho), but isn't GDDR6+ the same as Micron's GDDR6X?

Yeah, the way Rockstar has been acting lately, I really, really doubt the games will come back to Steam.

Oh, and thanks.

Yea Forza Horizon 5 is a great game but it's a game that you play to pass the time and not really a game that you set some time aside to play if you know what I mean. It's kind of like Call of Duty in a sense where you play it for 20 or so minutes and have fun doing it where as Guardians is something that you play for hours cause you are fixated on the story and characters and want to know what happens next.

Forza is like one of those things that I can play during work on my free time and then pause the game when I have to resolve issues where as Guardians is like something I gotta play on the weekend or when I get home sorta deal.

I believe GDDR6+ is a bit faster than GDDR6X. GDDR6X is generally 19Gb/s-21Gb/s where as GDDR6+ will be 24Gb/s

Here are some extra news (it's a once in a while thing, I leave the hardware news to Yuri), including some interesting news coming from AMD:

Nvidia is offering a free copy of Crysis Remastered for PC to new GeForce Now subscribers
https://www.techspot.com/news/92284-nvidia-offering-free-copy-crysis-remastered-pc-new.html
In brief: If you're thinking about subscribing to GeForce Now for the first time or renewing your subscription, it's worth noting that you can get Crysis Remastered for free by doing so. Those who pre-ordered and already benefit from the new GeForce Now RTX 3080 subscription will also get a free copy of the game.

NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Third Quarter Fiscal 2022
https://www.techpowerup.com/289083/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-third-quarter-fiscal-2022
>> No need for a summary here, they made a ton of money:

MediaTek and AMD Team Up on Wi-Fi 6E Chips for Next-Gen Ryzen PCs
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/mediatek-and-amd-team-up-on-wi-fi-6e-chips-for-next-gen-ryzen-pcs
(also at Guru3D): https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/amd-tries-to-steer-mobo-manufacturers-away-from-intel-wifi-chips.html
MediaTek will be powering AMD's Wi-Fi 6E modules for upcoming Ryzen-based laptops and desktops, the companies announced today. The first to come will be the AMD RZ600 series Wi-Fi 6E modules, which will be based on MediaTek's Filogic 330P chipset.
>> Looks like AMD wants to move further away from Intel.

AMD might move to Samsung for 3nm fabrication due to TSMCs preference for Apple
https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/amd-might-move-to-samsung-for-3nm-fabrication-due-to-tsmcs-preference-for-apple.html
AMD's current CPUs and GPUs are manufactured by the Taiwan-based semiconductor giant TSMC, however, the company might swing towards Samsung when it comes to producing 3nm chips.

TSMC is increasingly reserving more and more wafers for Apple who opened up a huge sack of cash to gain priority. And TSMC is doing exactly that, prioritizing reserving wafers created under future manufacturing methods such as 3nm, the amount of wafers left available for AMD seems to be insufficient in relation to demand. The corporation feels compelled to shift suppliers in order to meet their requirements.

The question now is if Samsung could handle their orders (Qualcomm also wants to jump).

I do get what you mean, yes. You play one to waste some time, but with the other you're actually investing your time in it.

And yes, 6+ may be a bit faster than the current 6X modules, but we don't know if Micron also has plans for a 24GB/s product.