Granblue Fantasy: VERSUS RISING Announced PS5/PS4/Steam for 2023 Worldwide

Isn't this a downgrade?

Forspoken looks like it's going to be another fail for S-E, the last one in a long series of f*ck-ups.

Also yes, the enhanced graphics of Granblue doesn't look like an enhancement, at all. And why are the browns different? Both for the eyes and the pants. It's strange.

Yeah I heard last night that SE is being super picky with the ppl they are giving the codes to, which is possibly the biggest red flag of them all. Game is going to be absolutely atrocious on PC, I can see it so easily. 

As for 343, I honestly never saw them as the perfect fit for carrying on Halo's legacy, mostly because ever since MS took them on board, the studio started fucking around with the game's lore, and it also didn't help that they warped visuals of the lore itself as well (like the Forerunner tech being massively changed to look non identical to 1's interpretation). 

Overseas dev doesn't exactly spark confidence in me though, since it means the lore could be fractured even more, or hell, more retcons, because we totally want more of those at this point. 

Yea outsourcing isn't exactly the best thing from my experience but I just want MS to try something else instead of continuing the same trajectory. Like they gave 343 nearly a decade worth of chances to make a memorable Halo game but they not only goofed (imo) with Halo 4/Halo 5/Halo Infinite but somehow, they managed to fuck up Halo MCC during launch which required an insane amount of updates to get to a good spot. At this point, MS needs to branch out and see if someone else can breathe new life into the franchise.

M2 Max With 38-Core GPU Loses to Laptop RTX 4070 in OpenCL Benchmark, A Performance Difference of 35 Percent

https://wccftech.com/m2-max-gpu-loses-to-laptop-rtx-4070-opencl-benchmark/

Considering Apple GPUs had a hard time keeping up Ampere, it makes sense why its a lot slower than a 4070

Latest Metal Benchmarks Suggest M2 Max is About 9 Percent Slower Than M1 Ultra

https://wccftech.com/latest-metal-benchmarks-suggest-m2-max-is-about-9-percent-slower-than-m1-ultra/

Likely due to Thermal Throttling as the M1 Ultra Thermal Throttles on the old Macbook already so putting more cores without big redesign means more heat.

Hopefully it's just nonsense

Well they are restructuring under the new head, and his the guy who turned around the MCC collection and has made massive improvements to infinite within the short time he has been working on it. People been saying for ages that 343i needed a shake up to get their act together and it seems like thats whats going on. 

The Monday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam's Top 10

Detroit: Become Human has sold 2.5 million copies on PC
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/detroit-become-human-has-sold-2-5-million-copies-on-pc/
Quantic Dream has announced that its action-adventure game, Detroit: Become Human, has sold 2.5 million copies on PC. Detroit: Become Human came out in 2019, meaning that it took three years in order to hit this milestone.
What’s also interesting here is that the team achieved a significant increase in sales of its three historical PC games compared to 2021. In other words, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human saw an increase in PC sales in 2022.

GOG starts the week with lots of discounts:

• Let's start with the Deals of the Day, that will be available until Wednesday:
  • The first one is Enter the Gungeon, 60% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/enter_the_gungeon
  • The GOG Kinky Bundle (more of that later), featuring 3 games, gets a 65% discount. Be warned that there are only 1500 units: https://www.gog.com/en/game/gog_kinky_bundle
  • Hotline Miami is 80% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/hotline_miami
  • Broken Sword 2: Remastered gets an 85% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/broken_sword_2__the_smoking_mirror
  • The Agony + Agony UNRATED pack is 86% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/agony_agony_unrated
  • Sinking Island features a 90% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/sinking_island
  • And the last one is Syberia, with a 90% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/syberia
• Now, GOG has launched the NSFW Week featuring up to 80% discounts, as well as several bundles, of games with this theme. It will last 7 days, and to learn more you'll be better going here: https://www.gog.com/en/news/nsfw_week_with_hot_games_up_to_80_byobs_kinky_bundle_lust_academy_release_and_new_kagura_games_titles
• On a more traditional note, the New Year and Ziggurat sales are still going on, in case you missed their launches last week

Steam has a new deal: Foregone will be 85% off until January 29: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000760/Foregone/.

Humble has a few deals for us:

• Humble Bundle has launched the In Case You Missed It: Gems of 2022 Bundle, with up to 7 games to get during the next 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/in-case-you-missed-it-gems-2022
• Meanwhile, the Humble Store has two things for us:
  • The Winter Sale is now live! It started last Friday and will last until the 7th of February, featuring up to 90% discounts with many publishers (Capcom, SEGA, 505 Games, etc.) on board. Check it out here, and keep in mind that some deals will end sooner than the sale itself: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/winter-sale-2023/
  • And there's a 48 hours Flash Freeze deal. The current one is RimWorld with a 25% discount during another 26 hours: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/rimworld

And Fanatical has two deals:

• The Star Deal is IXION, started yesterday, and comes with a 37% discount during another 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/ixion
• The BYO Lunar Bundle features 16 titles to build your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-lunar-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Fallout 4 gets an HD Texture Pack that adds Next-Gen Parallax Textures
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/fallout-4-gets-an-hd-texture-pack-that-adds-next-gen-parallax-textures/
Modder ‘Tommy Creo’ has released a new HD Texture Pack for Fallout 4 that adds to the game some high-quality next-gen parallax textures. According to the modder, this first version of this pack replaces about 20 textures, primarily landscape and architecture.
Do note that in order to enable these Parallax Textures, you’ll need ENBSeries. Furthermore, ENB Complex Parallax does come with a bit of a performance hit. Additionally, the pack does not change the grass and rocks placed on top of the landscape.
>> Only some screenshots are provided.

New Red Dead Redemption 2 Mods overhaul the textures of medium & large mammals
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/new-red-dead-redemption-2-mods-overhaul-the-textures-of-medium-large-mammals/
Modder ‘WickedHorseMan’ has released two new HD Texture Packs for Red Dead Redemption 2 that overhaul medium and big mammals. WickedHorseMan has used AI techniques in order to upscale the original textures, meaning that these enhanced textures retain the art style of the original.
The HD Texture Pack for medium mammals is 2GB and covers 10 animals. These are Big Horn Ram, Boar, Coyote, Dogs (all breeds), Fox, Goat, Javelina, Pig, Sheep and Wolf. On the other hand, the pack for large mammals is 2.3GB and covers 11 animals. These are Bear, Buck, Buffalo, Deer, Cougar, Cow, Donkey, Elk, Ox, Panther and Pronghorn.
>> Again, only 6 screenshots of 6 different animals.

The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project NextGen showcases White Orchard
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/the-witcher-3-hd-reworked-project-nextgen-showcases-white-orchard/
Modder ‘Halk Hogan PL’ has shared a new video for The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project NextGen, showcasing the new textures for White Orchard.
The HD Reworked Project is a must-have HD Texture Pack for The Witcher 3. While the Next-Gen version of The Witcher 3 features most of the overhauled textures, the modder has been working on a new version that will be compatible with it.

The most vital Dwarf Fortress mod has arrived for Steam, complete with 3D visuals
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-most-vital-dwarf-fortress-mod-has-arrived-for-steam-complete-with-3d-visuals/
The one true mod for Dwarf Fortress has finally released not just one, but two iterations of an alpha for the Steam version of the game, also known as v50. DFHack is a vital piece of equipment for Dwarf Fortress enthusiasts for two reasons: First, it's a full suite of console commands to fix problems and improve performance. Second, it incorporates a popular visualization tool called Stonesense that lets you see an isometric view of your fortress.
First off, if you're running out to try this alpha, I'll warn you: It's an alpha, make a backup of your game, heck, your entire DF folder, before mucking around with this. DFHack's release notes have some advice on how to do that.

Here's four hours of Skyblivion
https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-four-hours-of-skyblivion/
Skyblivion might not be out until 2025, but here's something to keep you busy until then. The modding team behind this retrofit remaking The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion within The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition streamed a four-hour gameplay demonstration and Q&A session, showing the current state of the project.

Become a true artist with The Joy of Painting mod for Morrowind
https://www.pcgamer.com/become-a-true-artist-with-the-joy-of-painting-mod-for-morrowind/
A delightful new Morrowind mod adds a diegetic photo mode, of sorts, to the 20-year-old RPG. Up and coming mod The Joy of Painting from modder Merlord lets you carry around a field easel on your back, plop it down, and use it as a portable art station to become the Van Gogh of Vvardenfell.
Joy of Painting adds a quite feature-rich painting mechanic to Morrowind, letting you create sketches, oil and watercolor paintings, and charcoal drawings that exist not just in the game as objects but are also saved as high-res images on your PC so you can use them outside the game.
>> There's an almost 2 minutes video of the mod.

World of Warcraft Classic gets a modern facelift thanks to files ripped out of the latest Portal game
https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcraft-classic-gets-a-modern-facelift-thanks-to-files-ripped-out-of-the-latest-portal-game/
The unflinchingly nostalgic World of Warcraft Classic and the neo-futuristic ideal of real-time ray tracing in absolutely, positively everything don't immediately strike me as a natural match. And yet here we are, with a surprisingly pretty version of the MMO using Nvidia's RTX Remix files ripped right out of Portal RTX.
The video recently went live on r/RTXRemix and the visuals are rather astounding considering this is a complete hack with a bunch of code not actually designed to be used with Blizzard's MMO remake.
>> There's a 10+ minute video of the mod.

GAMING NEWS

Square Enix will end support for Marvel’s Avengers on September 30th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/square-enix-will-end-support-for-marvels-avengers-on-september-30th/
Square Enix has just announced that it will end support for Marvel’s Avengers on September 30th, 2023. Furthermore, and according to the publisher, the game will receive its last content update, Update 2.8, on March 31st.
Square Enix has made it clear that even after official support ceases on September 30th, both single- and multi-player gameplay will continue to be available.

The first two hours of Dead Space Remake have been leaked online
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/the-first-two-hours-from-dead-space-remake-have-been-leaked-online/
It appears that someone has broken the review embargo for Dead Space Remake. YouTube’s “TheJSR67” has shared the following video, showcasing over two hours of gameplay footage from this upcoming horror game.
>> I'd warn you of spoilers, but...

WWE 2K23 PC will be once again based on the old-gen version
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/wwe-2k23-pc-will-be-once-again-based-on-the-old-gen-version/
2K Games has just announced the next part in its WWE 2K series, WWE 2K23. And, as the title implies, PC gamers will be once again getting the old-gen version of this wrestling game. As 2K Games has officially confirmed, WWE 2K23 will be not based on the current-gen (PS5/Xbox Series X) version.
>> The 2K execs should try a new movement and try to shove it up their a**.

Monday news, the long part two:

Already-massive Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous adds new class, quests, companion
https://www.pcgamer.com/already-massive-pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous-adds-new-class-quests-companion/
Owlcat has revealed a trailer and release date for the first installment of its second season of DLC add-ons for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. The Last Sarkorians adds a new class, Shifter, as well as a Shifter companion and his associated questlines.

The Bored Apes NFT game is literally about chasing shit
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-bored-apes-nft-game-is-literally-about-chasing-shit/
After a couple of years of successfully selling ugly scribbles of silly apes for obscene prices to people with too much money, Bored Ape Yacht Club parent company Yuga Labs is moving into game development. And it's doing so exactly as you'd expect: Dookey Dash is a game about swimming through a sewer in pursuit of magical monkey poop.

Psyonix unleashes 'banwave' against the Rocket League bot menace
https://www.pcgamer.com/psyonix-unleashes-banwave-against-the-rocket-league-bot-menace/
A few weeks ago we reported on a new trend in Rocket League: A bot that had been built for fun and learning, Nexto, had been reconfigured by bad actors and used in widespread cheating. Player clips of the bots in action abound, and all show a preternatural command of the ball, as well as a suspicious tendency to stay on the ground most of the time.
At the time, Psyonix told us it was "actively investigating solutions" and now it looks like Nexto's time is up. In an update posted to the Rocket League subreddit, the studio posted a statement acknowledging that this was "a very active topic" around the community, and what it's done about it.

Sea of Thieves greets 2023 with a new, limited-time adventure and shorter PvP queues
https://www.pcgamer.com/sea-of-thieves-greets-2023-with-a-new-limited-time-adventure-and-shorter-pvp-queues/
Rare released the first Sea of Thieves news bulletin of 2023 on January 18, showing off the first bit of new content added to the game this year. There's a new PvE adventure, The Secret Wilds, which will run until February 2, as well as a host of cosmetics and some welcome PvP changes.

Wait, again? War Thunder fans just can't help themselves when it comes to posting sensitive military documents
https://www.pcgamer.com/wait-again-war-thunder-fans-just-cant-help-themselves-when-it-comes-to-posting-sensitive-military-documents/
As reported by Aerotime, on January 18 user RanchSauce39 on the War Thunder forums shared scans of an operations manual for the F-15 Eagle fighter jet, data that is potentially against US law to disseminate, in the course of a long forum thread about the history of the vehicle and its performance in the long-running military simulator.

Factorio is getting a price increase in response to inflation
https://www.pcgamer.com/factorio-is-getting-a-price-increase-in-response-to-inflation/
Games usually get cheaper as they age, but in a rare reversal, beloved factory management game Factorio will get a price bump on January 26, going from $30 to $35.
"This is an adjustment to account for the level of inflation since the Steam release in 2016," Factorio's developer announced on Twitter today (spotted by Kotaku). We reviewed Factorio after it shed its early access label in 2020, awarding it a very positive 91%.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer says layoffs were 'painful' but necessary for 'long-term success'
https://www.pcgamer.com/xbox-boss-phil-spencer-says-layoffs-were-painful-but-necessary-for-long-term-success/
In an email sent to employees in Microsoft's gaming division and shared by an employee with Kotaku, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said it "hurts" when people get laid off, but that in the long run it's the best thing for the company.

Phantom Liberty will be the biggest add-on CD Projekt has ever made⁠—by budget
https://www.pcgamer.com/phantom-liberty-will-be-the-biggest-add-on-cd-projekt-has-ever-madeby-budget/
First reported on in English by Wccftech, CD Projekt investor relations manager Marek Bugdoł told the Polish outlet Parkiet that Cyberpunk's Phantom Liberty expansion would be the studio's largest post-launch add-on to date⁠—in terms of budget. CD Projekt global PR director Radek Grabowski was quick to emphasize this point on Twitter, cooling a rush of speculation that the long-awaited expansion would surpass The Witcher 3's highly regarded Blood and Wine in size and scope.

Elder Scrolls Online teases involvement of immortal Lovecraft crab tentacle demon in this year's expansion
https://www.pcgamer.com/elder-scrolls-online-teases-involvement-of-immortal-lovecraft-crab-tentacle-demon-in-this-years-expansion/
As reported by Eurogamer, Zenimax Online has started up the hype machine for the coming year's storyline in The Elder Scrolls Online. Various influencers and members of the press received a mysterious letter that, when viewed under blacklight, contains the symbol of the Daedric prince, Hermaeus Mora, The Demon of Knowledge, Master of the Tides of Fate, The Gardener of Men, Lord of Secrets, the… you know what, you get it. He was one of the main characters in Skyrim's Dragonborn expansion, and you may remember harvesting some souls for him to get a skill book in Oblivion.

Cool Water Alert: Watch water drain from fish tank bullet holes in Phantom Fury
https://www.pcgamer.com/cool-water-alert-watch-water-drain-from-fish-tank-bullet-holes-in-phantom-fury/
Every once in a while PC Gamer's Chris Livingston will post something in the site's slack channel with the tagline "COOL WATER ALERT" and I love it when I'm around for those posts. Why, you might ask? Because cool water is always good. It is good when a videogame does something cool with water.
So it is in Phantom Fury, which Slipgate Ironworks CEO Frederik Schreiber has revealed includes the absolutely delightful ability to put bullet holes in fish tanks and then the water drains out.
>> Things like this one were common in older games, like Splinter Cell. Nowadays, not so much.

Endless Dungeon has a release date, and you can get Dungeon of the Endless for free
https://www.pcgamer.com/endless-dungeon-has-a-release-date-and-you-can-get-dungeon-of-the-endless-for-free/
The next game in Amplitude's Endless series will be Endless Dungeon, a follow-up to 2014's Dungeon of the Endless, which is my equivocating way of saying it's not actually a sequel. Where that was a roguelike tactical RPG with a bit of tower defense thrown in, the new game seems more like a twin-stick shooter with a bit of tower defense thrown in. And it'll be available on Steam and the Epic Games Store from May 14.

GTA Online has its own Dark Souls-style critical security vulnerability on PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/grand-theft-auto-online-has-its-own-dark-souls-style-critical-security-vulnerability-on-pc/
The Rockstar Games-focused account Tez2 recently shared evidence of security vulnerabilities in Grand Theft Auto Online. A number of players have reported account progress being reversed, as well as being kicked or blocked from joining games on PC. There is a pinned post on the GTA Online subreddit dedicated to the issue and bringing it to Rockstar's attention, and the developer Speyedr, who created the custom GTA 5 firewall tool Guardian, warns that modders using the exploit are on the verge of remote code execution through GTA Online, meaning that hackers could remotely activate malware on PCs running the game.

The neon cities of Industries of Titan rise from the depths to full release this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-neon-cities-of-industries-of-titan-rise-from-the-depths-to-full-release-this-month/
The dilapidated cityscapes and epic spaceship battles of Jovian moon Titan are finally getting a proper release this month, as Industries of Titan will rise from beneath the surface and out of Early Access on January 31st, 2023.

Ready your cyberbike and tear out a robot's guts with a grappling hook in Gripper
https://www.pcgamer.com/ready-your-cyberbike-and-tear-out-a-robots-guts-with-a-grappling-hook-in-gripper/
You ever want to roar across the dystopian wasteland of the future's wastelands and cities on your incredibly slick-looking cyberpunk motorcycle? Yeah, me neither, but I'd love to do that in a videogame, and that's what we're here for.
Gripper is an upcoming action indie all about taking down tough bosses, ripping out their hearts, and using those to customize your absolutely enviable ride. Yeah, it's a boss rush game, one of those where the whole point of the thing is throwing yourself up against tough bosses and figuring out how to tear them to pieces.

The Dead Space remake is too scary for its own technical director
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-dead-space-remake-is-too-scary-for-its-own-technical-director/
The real test of a great horror game is playing it in the dark. Things that don't seem too bad while friendly Mr. Daystar is shining through the window become worrying at night. The last time I got so creeped out I needed to save my game and do something else before bed was Signalis, and I remember doing the same thing in the scarier levels of Thief: The Dark Project. With luck, the Dead Space remake might be another for that list.

This rhythm game just became one of Steam's worst games of all time
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-rhythm-game-just-became-one-of-steams-worst-games-of-all-time/
It's very rare for a game to be so dire that it earns a single-digit rating on Steam. It certainly happens, though, as proven by O2Jam Online's release last week. The rhythm game is currently sitting on a 4% rating, with only around 41 of its 1,000+ reviews recommending it.
>> It may be bad, but it also looks to be quite popular given the number of reviews.

Forespoken metacritic is at 68

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/forspoken

Figured it would be shat

NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti dominates weekly GPU sales at German retailer, more cards sold than RX7000 & Arc combined

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-rtx-4070-ti-dominates-weekly-gpu-sales-at-german-retailer-more-cards-sold-than-rx7000-arc-combined

The good news is 4080 is selling like shat

Display Driver Uninstaller has been updated with new installer

https://videocardz.com/newz/display-driver-uninstaller-has-been-updated-with-new-installer

PS5 can go as low as 20fps at 1080p in quality mode or drop to the mid 40s at 720p in performance mode in some areas. In other areas, its pretty stable 30fps as low as 1080p or 60fps as low as 720p. The fuck SE.