Intel confirms they are still aiming for Q1 launch for their Arc GPUs

AMD is thinking to add in 5000 CPU support to X370

AMD says AM5 will have a long life span

EVGA warranty changes & Step Up program downgraded, Is the company making up for their losses?

https://wccftech.com/evga-warranty-changes-step-up-program-downgraded-is-the-company-making-up-for-their-losses/

Now if you were to purchase a 20 series GPU in order to step up to anything higher than a 3060, you can't.

ASUS Confirms AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT 4 GB Graphics Card Will Have Starting Price of 299 Euros, 334 Euros For TUF Gaming Custom Model

https://wccftech.com/asus-confirms-amd-radeon-rx-6500-xt-4-gb-graphics-card-will-have-starting-price-of-299-euros-334-euros-for-tuf-gaming-custom-model/

Stolen EVGA GeForce RTX 30 Graphics Cards Found & Being Sold By Vietnamese Retailer

https://wccftech.com/stolen-evga-geforce-rtx-30-graphics-cards-found-being-sold-by-vietnamese-retailer/

Intel Does what AMDon't (Sad times)

I prefer the one with the difficult name, Kaspersky, but anything is preferable to Norton.

I hope to god that if they are making a new AC game, that they keep their Souls designs out of it. 

I want an AC game where I'm facing multiple enemies with lasers, big ass chain guns, rocket pods. None of that "dancing" shit with enemies that I constantly see in 1v1 Souls-like battles. I want me Gundam Wing fix so bad, that I don't want them fucking this up, because we've already waited two gens already for this. 

Cool. Kaspersky is one of the best ones iirc. I honestly cannot recall anyone using Norton for a long time lol.

Yeah I would be down for this. I've not played the later titles though I would try them if they re-released in more modern formats with some updates.

Agreed. There's way too many soul's and like games from them and AC play very differently. The thing I loved in the previous games were was the variety of customizable options and weapons to pick and use and what set up works for particular missions and enemies.

Going to be honest I only ever played the PS1 ones.. so a new modern AC with controls and visuals peaks my interests. And its about time we have a fleshed out and decent mecha game for a new generation.

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has six new deals, and a new range of weeklong deals:

• The first daily deal is Paint the Town Red, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/337320/Paint_the_Town_Red/
• The second daily deal is Just Die Already, 55% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/979070/Just_Die_Already/
• The first of the Midweek Madness deals is Super Meat Boy Forever, 40% off until Thursday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/581660/Super_Meat_Boy_Forever/
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated (pause to catch some breath), gets a 67% discount until Thursday, 13: https://store.steampowered.com/app/969990/SpongeBob_SquarePants_Battle_for_Bikini_Bottom__Rehydrated/
• The Serious Sam franchise is on sale to celebrate its 20th anniversary with up to 90% discounts until Friday, 14th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/SeriousSam
• The last of the Midweek Madness deals is Railway Empire, 67% off until January 17: https://store.steampowered.com/app/503940/Railway_Empire/
• And here are some of the weeklong deals:
  • Severed Steel gets a 25% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227690/Severed_Steel/
  • Greak: Memories of Azur is 40% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1311070/Greak_Memories_of_Azur/
  • Narita Boy, that has a demo, is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069530/Narita_Boy/
  • Bee Simulator gets a 65% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/914750/Bee_Simulator/
  • Sheltered is a 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/356040/Sheltered/
  • And the last one is CASE: Animatronics, with a 90% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/489360/CASE_Animatronics/

The Humble Store has four new sales:

• Publisher Goblinz Studio puts its games up to 80% off during the next 3 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/goblinz-studio-publisher-sale/
• Asmodee puts its games up to 80% off during the next 3 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/asmodee-publisher-sale/
• Stardock also puts its games on sale with up to 80% discounts during the next 3 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/stardock-publisher-sale/
• And Team 17 celebrates its own Winter Sale with up to 90% discounts during the next 22 days. There are keys for Steam, GOG and 1 for EGS: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/team-17-winter-sale-2022/

Fanatical has the new Kings & Queens Bundle, featuring 17 games plit into three tiers of 5, 11 and 17 games and up to 75% discounts: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/kings-and-queens-bundle.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Grand Theft Auto 5: Definitive Edition Mod looks truly amazing
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/grand-theft-auto-5-definitive-edition-mod-looks-truly-amazing/
BadassBaboon has been working on a graphics overhaul mod for GTA V, Grand Theft Auto 5: Definitive Edition. This mod has been in development prior to the announcement of the GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (so no, the modder did not copy that title from this recent release).
GTA V: Definitive Edition is a total texture overhaul that aims to replace the textures of the game world with 2K and 4K PRB textures and parallax textures. The modder has manually upscaled and improved every single texture, specular and normal maps. Additionally, this project features L.A. Roads Remastered.
(...)
Now the bad news is that Grand Theft Auto 5: Definitive Edition is in a beta state, and only available to BadassBaboon’s Patreon members.

GAMING NEWS

PUBG Battlegrounds has transitioned to a free to play model
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pubg-battlegrounds-has-transitioned-to-a-free-to-play-model/
PUBG Battlegrounds, also known as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, was one of the first battle royale games on PC. And today, PUBG Corporation has made this game free to play for everyone.

Two hours of PC gameplay footage from God of War with Mouse & Keyboard
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/two-hours-of-pc-gameplay-footage-from-god-of-war-in-4k-with-mouse-keyboard/
God of War releases on PC in three days, and you can find below a video showcasing two hours of PC gameplay footage. Sigma Hawk Gaming, the YT channel that captured this footage, also used the Mouse & Keyboard. As such, this video will give you an idea of how the game plays with this PC control scheme.

Tuesday news, part two:

Rainbow Six Siege creative director departs for 'other opportunities' at Ubisoft
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/rainbow-six-siege-creative-director-departs-for-other-opportunities-at-ubisoft/
For the third time in its six year run, Rainbow Six Siege has a new creative director. Leroy Athanassoff, who took the creative director title after Xavier Marquis left the game in 2020, is moving on after two years. In his place comes art director Alex Karpazis, who started on the Siege team in 2017.

Phil Spencer on dealing with harassment and bad actors: 'We’re not a free speech platform'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/phil-spencer-on-dealing-with-harassment-and-bad-actors-were-not-a-free-speech-platform/
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently spoke to the New York Times about the state of the industry and Microsoft's current strategy across various hot button issues. A topic that reared its ugly head was community and specifically harassment across gaming social networks: interviewer Kara Swisher drew a link between anonymity and the Gamergate saga, asking what lessons the big platform-holders had taken from it.
>> You'll need an account or subscription to read the NYT article.

Elden Ring overtakes Dying Light 2 as Steam's most wishlisted game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/elden-ring-overtakes-dying-light-2-as-steams-most-wishlisted-game/
Astoundingly, we're only one month out from the release of Elden Ring—and to the surprise of no-one, it's quickly become the most wishlisted game on Steam.
Analytics site SteamDB reports that over 278,000 steam users have slammed that "add to wishlist" button under From Software's latest gloomy action-RPG, which launches on February 25th. It takes the spot of Steam's most wanted game from Dying Light 2 which, despite plans to release in late 2021, was delayed into an absolutely packed February 2022.

When will Monster Hunter Rise on PC unlock in your time zone?
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/monster-hunter-rise-pc-release-time-unlock/
The Monster Hunter Rise PC unlock time is fast approaching, and we're counting down the hours until we can set out from Kamura Village to face down giant roary creatures once again. You'll have already been doing so for the last 10 months if you own the game on the Nintendo Switch, but if you've been waiting for the PC version, your patience will be rewarded soon.

Halo Infinite's busted Big Team Battles getting a hotfix 'soon'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halo-infinites-busted-big-team-battles-getting-a-hotfix-soon/
343 Industries has provided an update on the state of Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle mode, which has been pretty busted for around a month now.
In a post on the official Halo forum, community director Brian Jarrard said a "strike force" has been working on a hotfix while the development team were out for the holidays. The 12v12 mode has been plagued with matchmaking and disconnection issues since December, made even worse when you're trying to queue into it with buddies which is half the fun of BTB in the first place. A "few attempts at solving and mitigating before the holiday break" were made, but the issue has gone largely unfixed.

Good cpu's and prices. Ram pricing is down, atleast DDR4. I added a pair to mine. Some PSU deals too here and there. 

Only thing left and getting worse is gpus. Nvidia blocking 3080 12 GB reviews too. Great job. 

NVIDIA announces DLDSR (Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution), coming to GeForce drivers on January 14th

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-announces-dldsr-deep-learning-dynamic-super-resolution-coming-to-geforce-drivers-on-january-14th

"Our January 14th Game Ready Driver updates the NVIDIA DSR feature with AI. DLDSR (Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution) renders a game at higher, more detailed resolution before intelligently shrinking the result back down to the resolution of your monitor. This downsampling method improves image quality by enhancing detail, smoothing edges, and reducing shimmering.

DLDSR improves upon DSR by adding an AI network that requires fewer input pixels, making the image quality of DLDSR 2.25X comparable to that of DSR 4X, but with higher performance. DLDSR works in most games on GeForce RTX GPUs, thanks to their Tensor Cores."

Sounds quite fap worthy. It looks like it's being implemented at a driver level so it should work with every game.

NVIDIA introduces GeForce RTX 3080 12GB with 8960 CUDA cores and 350W TDP

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-introduces-geforce-rtx-3080-12gb-with-8960-cuda-cores-and-350w-tdp

"Unfortunately, NVIDIA did not announce the MSRP for its new card. We have thus far seen custom models going for around 1700 EUR, around 20% more than RTX 3080 10GB, while EVGA lists the cheapest RTX 3080 12GB model at 1249 USD at its official score."

Sigh, remember when a 3080 launched for $700 MSRP?

Final Fantasy VII Remake with Classic PS1 Camera

Actually looks quite insane! I would love a full on remake like this but if SE won't do it, hopefully the modders will continue to work on it.

Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Calls For Cross-Platform Ban Program

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-boss-phil-spencer-calls-for-cross-platform-ban-program/1100-6499488/