There is no cov system in DF. The only thing we work towards atm is faction rep renown, and those unlock new cosmetics, recipes and some story Q's to roll with.

I think the only two main grind points for the expac so far are doing faction reps and crafting, as well as the primalist invasions to get the currency to trade in for semi-raid tier gear, and sparks of ingenuity for crafting semi-raid tier gear. 

Apart from that it's a pretty lax expansion to do at your own pace. Most folks atm are doing the raids and queue raids wings are all up now, as well as other folks doing M+ dungeon runs (since raids, pvp and M+ dungeons all count towards unlocking a piece of randomly awarded gear each week per slot). 

Devs: "I'm an artist"

>blurs the ever loving fuck out of everything they render, so you cannot see the final image

Me who already has to wear glasses and suffers from paranoid blur vision whenever CA is involved:

I know I hated crushed blacks and lens flare during the old battlefield days, but CA feels like it's been abused so wrongly in gaming, that it almost feels devilishly evil. 

Report: Embracer leases Tomb Raider franchise to Amazon in $600 million deal
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/90192/report-embracer-leases-tomb-raider-franchise-to-amazon-in-600-million-deal/index.html
Amazon has reportedly paid $600 million to secure the rights to the Tomb Raider franchise, plans to release multimedia like games, films, TV shows.

For the record, Embracer paid just $300 million, and that wasn't only for Tomb Raider. Someone at Square-Enix must be kicking themselves right about now.

Now? That amount was ridiculously bad from the beginning. When I first heard about the deal, thought it had to be fake. Nintendo got 375 million dollars for Rare in 2002. In a market where their contemporaries where getting billions for far less, Square Enix dumped their western studios for 300 million. If I was shareholder, I would have been livid. Heads should of rolled the moment that deal was announced.

I'd argue Nvidia's high-end GPUs are a consequence and afterthought of their main business, CUDA and GPGPUs for data centers.

Since CDNA is its own non-graphical thing and Ponte Vecchio exists only on paper, it's doubtful either AMD or Intel will release anything comparable. They could, but it's just not worth designing it just for gaming, financially speaking.

This is also why the main threat to Nvidia's business isn't nice AMD or Intel GPUs taking over their marketshare, it's CUDA being abandoned in favor of an open parallel computing architecture. Both of these companies know this, which is why they're beginning to sell packages with CPUs included in that market, to help drive down CUDA adoption.

It's hard to believe, but January is already gone. But well, there's something good about starting a new month, because that means that there's a ...

NEW CONTEST
Win an Intel Core i9-13900KS processor
https://www.club386.com/win-an-intel-core-i9-13900ks-processor/
or https://gleam.io/nRZmH/win-an-intel-core-i913900ks-processor

The contest is GLOBAL.

Good luck!

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has four Deals of the Day and two new sales:

• These are the four DotD, that will last until Friday:
  • The first one is Coromon, 40% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/coromon
  • Star Renegades gets a 60% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/star_renegades
  • Evoland 2 Deluxe Edition is 75% off: https://www.gog.com/en/game/evoland_2_deluxe_edition
  • The last one is Agarest: Generations of War, with an 80% discount: https://www.gog.com/en/game/agarest_generations_of_war
• The Midweek Sale comes with up to 90% discounts during 4 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20230201_midweek_sale
• And the new Kawaii Sale features up to 90% discounts during the next 7 days: https://www.gog.com/en/promo/20230201_kawaii_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children will be 50% off until next Tuesday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/
• And the Dead Age Franchise Sale comes with up to 85% discounts until February 7: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/Dead-Age-Franchise-Sale

And Fanatical's new Star Deal is Nioh 2 - The Complete Edition, 51% off during 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/nioh-2-the-complete-edition.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

INTEL Arc & Iris Graphics Driver 31.0.101.4091
https://videocardz.com/driver/intel-arc-iris-graphics-driver-31-0-101-4091

Highlights

• Launch driver for 13th Generation Intel® Core™ Mobile Processors with Intel® Iris® Xe and UHD Graphics (Codename Raptor Lake-P).
• Intel® Arc™ Control now supports a standalone desktop mode

Fixed Issues

Intel® Arc™ Graphics Products:

• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (DX12) may experience application crash during character selection.

Intel® Core™ Processor Products:

• Need for Speed Unbound (DX12) May exhibit screen-space color corruption during gameplay.
• Total War: Warhammer III (DX11) May exhibit an intermittent application crash when launching the game.
• Battlefield: 2042 (DX12) May experience color corruption on certain maps.

INTEL® ARC™ CONTROL FIXED ISSUES:

• Arc Control may report incorrect memory bandwidth value.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This Fallout 4 synth power armor mod looks so sick it makes me want to join the Institute
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-fallout-4-synth-power-armor-mod-looks-so-sick-it-makes-me-want-to-join-the-institute/
I'm not sure why, but something about gleaming white armor in science fiction just looks extra… science fiction-y. The stormtroopers from Star Wars, the Combine Elite soldiers from Half-Life 2, even the robots from I, Robot—blindingly white armor feels more futuristic than shiny chrome, gunmetal gray, or any other color.
And in a post-apocalyptic setting, gleaming white armor looks extra badass. "I am above the dirt and dust that covers everything else in this ruined world," it conveys.
I think that's why I love the look of this Fallout 4 synth power armor mod created by modders Tumbajamba and RedLeviathan. Throw in the red visor and it's the best recruitment pitch I've ever seen for signing up with the Institute. I know the Institute's synths work really hard to blend in, but this armor set is perfect if you want to stand out instead.

GAMING NEWS

Dying Light 2 gets a 3GB Update that adds NVIDIA DLSS 3, removes DRM, improves ragdolls physics & more
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/dying-light-2-3gb-update-nvidia-dlss-3-drm-ragdolls-physics/
Techland has released Community Update #2 (1.9.0) for Dying Light 2: Stay Human. This patch adds support for NVIDIA’s DLSS 3 tech. Furthermore, the update improves ragdolls physics and AI reaction, and packs numerous bug fixes.

The Crew Motorfest will be exclusive to Ubisoft Connect & Epic Games Store, gets in-engine 4K trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-crew-motorfest-will-be-exclusive-to-ubisoft-connect-epic-games-store-gets-in-engine-4k-trailer/
Ubisoft has just announced the next part in its The Crew series, The Crew Motorfest. The Crew Motorfest will release in 2023, will be exclusive on Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store, and below you can find its debut in-engine 4K trailer.
>> I guess Ubi's return to Steam is only for "old" titles, not new releases.

STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor has been delayed until April 28th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-wars-jedi-survivor-has-been-delayed-until-april-28th/
Electronic Arts has announced that STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor has been delayed, and will now release on April 28th. The game was originally meant to come out on March 17th, so we’re looking at over a month delay.
>> Well, it's not good but it could have been worse.

NVIDIA DLSS 3 does not work correctly in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, brings performance degradation
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-dlss-3-does-not-work-correctly-in-marvels-midnight-suns-brings-performance-degradation/
A few days ago, Firaxis released a new patch for Marvel’s Midnight Suns that added support for NVIDIA DLSS 3. NVIDIA was kind enough to provide us with a code to test it, and unfortunately, it appears that this DLSS 3 implementation has some major issues.

Project TH is a new Splinter Cell-inspired game, featuring Squid Game’s Heo Sung-tae
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/project-th-splinter-cell-squid-game-heo-sung-tae/
Now here is something that passed under our radar. Two months ago, EVR Studio revealed a new third-person Splinter Cell-like game that will be using Unreal Engine, codenamed Project TH.
>> There's a trailer for it, that can only be seen at Youtube.

2K Games has removed Denuvo from Supermassive’s The Quarry
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/2k-games-denuvo-supermassive-the-quarry/
In a surprising move, 2K Games has removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from Supermassive’s latest cinematic game, The Quarry. The Quarry came out in June 2022, meaning that it took 2K Games seven months in order to remove it.

New Dead Island 2 gameplay footage shows off dismemberment & detailed damage system
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-dead-island-2-gameplay-footage-shows-off-dismemberment-detailed-damage-system/
GameInformer has shared a new gameplay video for Dead Island 2 that showcases the game’s zombie dismemberment and highly detailed damage system.
>> The video is long and NSFW.

Atomic Heart gets an official 8-minute gameplay overview trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/atomic-heart-gets-an-official-8-minute-gameplay-overview-trailer/
Focus Entertainment has released a new official 8-minute gameplay overview trailer for its upcoming first-person shooter, Atomic Heart. This trailer gives us a glimpse at the game’s combat, as well as its setting, characters and deep mechanics.

The news, the very long sequel:

Civ 6 streamer figures out how to win without founding any cities in 'extremely impressive' video
https://www.pcgamer.com/civ-6-streamer-figures-out-how-to-win-without-founding-any-cities-in-extremely-impressive-video/
If you ask me, we're ramshackle contraptions designed to hunt, gather, and perish early from preventable disease, and this society stuff all started going downhill the second we got into agriculture. When we were young, hale, and nomadic, roaming the steppes and plains? Those were our glory days. At least we can relive them via a recent video from a streamer called boesthius, who undertook the Civilisation 6 "no settle: domination challenge" to win a match of Civ without founding any cities of his own.

Marvel Snap gets long-awaited battle mode and live balance changes
https://www.pcgamer.com/marvel-snap-gets-long-awaited-battle-mode-and-live-balance-changes/
Marvel Snap, the eminently snackable and streamlined card game that is what some of Hearthstone's creators did next, today receives probably its most-requested feature: a battle mode that lets you play against friends and choose opponents. Until now, Snap has paired players up based on ranking and skill, and there was no way to play with buddies, which does rather stop you from showing off your shiniest variants to buddies.

Invisible players run rampant in Escape from Tarkov—'What an absolute circus'
https://www.pcgamer.com/invisible-players-run-rampant-in-escape-from-tarkovwhat-an-absolute-circus/
Battlestate Games' Escape from Tarkov has re-introduced a persistent bug with its latest update, one that players can use to appear invisible to others. In a game that, let's be honest, comes down to hiding out and shooting people when they don't see you, the consequences of this are pretty drastic.

In 3 months this Konami game is disappearing forever
https://www.pcgamer.com/in-3-months-this-konami-game-is-disappearing-forever/
Konami has announced its intention to "terminate the service" of the detective PvP game Crimesight, less than a year after it launched in April 2022. The publisher put this down to "various circumstances", has already ended sales of bundles with sales of the game to end on 27 February, and said Crimesight will go offline on May 1 2023 at 00:00 PDT.

Overwatch 2 will finally let players earn skins for free again
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2-will-finally-let-players-earn-skins-for-free-again/
(...)
After months of negative feedback about Overwatch 2's underwhelming battle passes and prohibitively expensive microtransactions, Blizzard is budging again. Overwatch Credits (previously retitled to Legacy Credits) are making a return in season 3 as a free reward on the battle pass. Players on the free track can earn up to 1,500 credits by completing the pass, while those on the premium track earn an additional 500.
To coincide with the change, "nearly all" legendary skins will be available to unlock via the Hero Gallery with Overwatch Credits, with a standard legendary costing 1,500 credits. That means that a completely free Overwatch 2 player can earn enough credits to buy one legendary skin of their choosing every few months.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo give E3 the brush off
https://www.pcgamer.com/sony-microsoft-and-nintendo-give-e3-the-brush-off/
The Entertainment Software Association made a big hullabaloo of announcing the return of E3 back in September, with PAX organizer ReedPop taking over the show. E3 2023 is set to be the first in-person version of the event since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. A planned split between business days and public days seemed like a real "have your cake and eat it too" situation, aiming to please the press and developers while still making money off public ticket sales.
But that plan seemingly was not enough to lure back the biggest companies in gaming: according to a report from IGN, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are all skipping this year's show.
>> Hiku made a thread about this, yesterday.

Threadlings? Tangles? Lashes? New Destiny 2: Lightfall trailer focuses on exotic gear and Strand effects
https://www.pcgamer.com/threadlings-tangles-lashes-new-destiny-2-lightfall-trailer-focuses-on-exotic-gear-and-strand-effects/
There's less than a month to go until the launch of Lightfall, and my girlfriend is already furious that we're having to plan our apartment move around its release date. (I also moved a surgical appointment last year to avoid clashing with Shadowkeep.) Maybe this new trailer, which showcases some of the exotic gear coming in Destiny 2's next big expansion, will help lift her mood*.
(...)
*Narrator: It did not.

Terraria devs want 2023 to be 'the year of Terraria crossplay'
https://www.pcgamer.com/terraria-devs-want-2023-to-be-the-year-of-terraria-crossplay/
If there's one feature above all else that Terraria players have wanted for years, it's crossplay between the PC, consoles, and mobile versions of the game. According to a new "state of the game" post on Terraria's Steam page, that dream is creeping ever closer, though developer Re-Logic is still stopping short of guaranteeing it'll happen.

Rumbleverse, the wrestling battle royale, is shutting down only six months after launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/rumbleverse-the-wrestling-battle-royale-is-shutting-down-only-six-months-after-launch/
When Rumbleverse released in August last year, you might have mistaken it for one of the many other live service games that suddenly arrive and are just as quickly forgotten: think Knockout City, Hyperscape (RIP), Rocket Arena. It certainly bears that distinctive Fortnite-aping style, but unlike Fortnite, it has clearly gained no traction at all: after only six months, the game will stop receiving updates on February 28.

Final Fantasy 14 team sets a raid world first, then gets busted for cheating
https://www.pcgamer.com/final-fantasy-14-team-sets-a-raid-world-first-then-gets-busted-for-cheating/
On Monday, a Japanese Final Fantasy 14 raid team was the first in the world to defeat The Omega Protocol (Ultimate), a grueling endgame boss fight that was recently added to the MMO. A week later, they're the subject of the MMO's biggest controversy, their achievements having been stripped by the game's developer, who called their use of third-party UI mods "extremely disappointing."

Sims 4 is finally turning babies into real Sims on March 14
https://www.pcgamer.com/sims-4-is-finally-turning-babies-into-real-sims-on-march-14/
At long last, The Sims 4's babies will no longer be trapped in crib purgatory. The long-awaited and heavily-teased infants update arrives on March 14 with a lot of new interactions, customization, and interaction with your tiniest human family members.

The next Sims game 'is not an MMO' Maxis clarifies
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-next-sims-game-is-not-an-mmo-maxis-clarifies/
In another Behind the Sims livestream, which also announced the much-awaited babies update, Maxis got to talking about The Sims 5 (codenamed "Project Rene"). Maxis is still very clear that Project Rene is years away, but did want to set the record straight on multiplayer. The Sims 5 will have multiplayer, as it's teased already, but it's definitely not an MMO. Sorry, Sims Online hopefuls.

Sims 4 players love the game's new trans and disability-inclusive cosmetics update
https://www.pcgamer.com/sims-4-players-love-the-games-new-trans-and-disability-inclusive-cosmetics-update/
The Sims 4 is getting a little more inclusive, thanks to a patch that adds new medical wearables, scars, and shapewear. Released yesterday, the Sims update adds trans-affirming top surgery scars and binders, as well as on-body medical devices like hearing aids and glucose monitors to more accurately and comprehensively reflect the wide, wide world of human experience. It also adds light switches. That's not esoteric slang you don't recognise, the patch just adds literal light switches.

EA's final FIFA game is the best-selling in series history so far
https://www.pcgamer.com/eas-final-fifa-game-is-the-best-selling-in-series-history-so-far/
Electronic Arts has posted its financial results for the third quarter of financial year 2023, which is to say the last three months of 2022, and has said that FIFA 23 is on-track to be the most played and profitable entry in the series to date. The announcement is tinged with the slight irony that this will of course be the last FIFA game ever made by Electronic Arts, which following its bust-up with football's governing body is to re-launch the games this summer under the new EA Sports FC brand.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is ditching QTEs and I couldn't be more upset
https://www.pcgamer.com/resident-evil-4-remake-is-ditching-qtes-and-i-couldnt-be-more-upset/
Details continue to trickle out ahead of Resident Evil 4 Remake's planned March release date, and I've got bad news for your knives. The remake of the 2005 classic is ditching some of the parts that might make the old game feel clunky and archaic in our space-age gaming era, like quick-time events, Ashley's health bar, and Leon's indefatigable, unbreakable knife. But take heart, Capcom is adding brand new sidequests to make up for it.

World of Warcraft's Trading Post is live now and will give you enough free cash to buy most of the stock
https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcrafts-trading-post-is-live-now-and-will-give-you-enough-free-cash-to-buy-most-of-the-stock/
World of Warcraft's Trading Post has flung open its doors today (though not literally, because it's a stall and thus doesn't actually have doors), letting the citizens of Orgrimmar and Stormwind do a bit of shopping. The Trading Post sells cosmetic items, some of which were previously only available for real cash, which will be refreshed monthly.

Well, no one can deny that Embracer knows how to make good deals.

In any case, I hope Amazon's role in the videogames in only the one of publishing it, with no active role in the development, despite the Lara Croft Universe or whatever they may want to build with this license deal.

Intel’s New Arc GPU Driver Achieves Up To 87% Performance Uplift Since Launch, Aggregate 43% Improvement In DX9 Titles

https://wccftech.com/intels-new-arc-gpu-driver-achieves-up-to-87-performance-uplift-since-launch-aggregate-43-improvement-in-dx9-titles/

Very impressive. Keep in mind that the original drivers were broken to begin with so these kinds of uplifs are to be expected. On the other hand, Arc is getting more frequent driver releases than a 6900XT which should really tell you something.

Intel Battlemage Arc GPUs Come In Two Variants: Xe2-HPG For Discrete & Xe2-LPG For Integrated, Raja Koduri Says “Making The Next Generation Will Be Much More Easier”

https://wccftech.com/intel-battlemage-arc-gpus-come-in-two-variants-xe2-hpg-for-discrete-xe2-lpg-for-integrated-raja-koduri-says-making-the-next-generation-will-be-much-more-easier/

Intel drops the price of Arc A750 GPU to just $249, new driver gets performance improvements

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-drops-the-price-of-arc-a750-gpu-to-just-249-new-driver-gets-performance-improvements

AMD A620 motherboards lack PCIe Gen5 support but can overclock RAM

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-a620-motherboards-lack-pcie-gen5-support-but-can-overclock-ram

AMD continues to miss the mark imo. B650 should have been the A620, X670 should have been B650E and if they wanted to keep X670E, then so be it. Instead they now have A620, B650, B650E, X670, X670E of which only B650E and X670E are worth upgrading to.

Intel To Slash Prices of 12th Gen Desktop CPU Prices By Up To 20% To Clear Away Inventory

https://wccftech.com/intel-slash-prices-12th-gen-desktop-cpu-prices-by-up-to-20-percent-clear-away-inventory/

Intel Arc Control GPU software gets ‘Standalone Desktop Mode’

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-arc-control-gpu-software-gets-standalone-desktop-mode

Thank god