Small update from MLex about the CMA and EC:

- The Statement of Objections from the EC is coming next week, spelling out the concerns that they have following the investigation.

- Microsoft will have a chance to rebut them, both in writing and at a hearing.

- Issuing the SO will give MS the chance to access its file, including non-confidential versions of submissions by third parties. This will show exactly how much opposition there is to the deal beyond Sony.

- If there is a SO it’s rare to get an unconditional approval (not unheard-of, but it’s true), but MS hopes that its months of dialogue with EU regulators will have helped to narrow down the concerns, allowing it to target remedies to address them.

- Where the CMA stands now is unclear. They say that “Even Microsoft appears to be in the dark”. In Microsoft's favor is that most of the public responses the inquiry group received in the merger review supported the deal.

In any case, answers to all those questions are coming in the next 2-4 weeks.

Brace for impact! :D

Source: Idas

Ugh, it is like 5 achievements now. Broken game.

MS admitted that "There is no chance that the deal can close before March 31".

But we already knew that.

Also this drama between Blizzard and NetEase is hilarious, NetEase are so damn petty, Lmao.

Today, GSC Game World is a two-pronged company. While 130 employees are still in Ukraine—some of them on the front lines, defending their country—200 have relocated to Prague, which now serves as GSC’s primary headquarters, after an elliptical refugee trek through Eastern Europe.

The GSC employees who are still in Ukraine work remotely from their homes. Game development in a war zone can be close to business as usual—until the wild, terrible uncertainty of the situation rears its ugly head again. Zoom calls are constantly interrupted by air-raid sirens, and if someone is AFK for too long, Grygorovych can’t help but fear the worst.

Lately, Russia has increased its assault on Kyiv’s power grid and heating installations, so GSC coders attempt to squeeze as much work as they can into the scant few hours when the internet is relatively stable. “We have dreams of returning to our office in Kyiv, working as previously,” said Grygorovych. “Everyone wants to return home. But some people actually don’t have a place to return to. Each Ukrainian has lost something during this war because of Russia.”

Building a brand-new development house in a neighboring country is a long, formidable effort. GSC had a killer motion-capture studio in its Kyiv headquarters, which was abandoned when the company migrated to Prague. However, as of October, GSC’s new headquarters is operating at full capacity. When S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 arrives, reportedly sometime in 2023, it will be among the first full-throated statements of Ukrainian artistic expression to launch under the shadow of invasion.

“It was a game about Chornobyl, which is actually located in the Kyiv region, made by a Ukrainian team before the war, and it became something incomparably bigger after the invasion started,” said Grygorovych. “It’s a national product now, aimed to show that Ukraine is not only exceptionally effective and brave on the battlefield, but also equally valuable in a sense of cultural legacy. Something to be shown to the world.”

🥹

Stunning.

You sure you're playing with the right settings that allow achievements to pop?

I don't remember having any problems with Hitman acheivements.

What would those settings be? I am online and in-game it says I am online, I know achievements don't work offline in this game but I am online and 6 achievements have popped so far, but 6 others from the prologue mission haven't, including the one for completing free form training, the one for completing the final test, the one for completing an opportunity on the final test, the one for completing an assassination unnoticed, the one for changing your disguise during the final test, and the one for assassinating Ritter while impersonating Mr. Norfolk. I have retried some of these missions twice now and they still won't pop. 

I'm now attempting to delete my save data and replay all of the prologue missions one last time on a clean save.

Built myself a new PC today. Not necessarily for playing games but my old PC still had parts from pre 2010 so the replacement was overdue. GPU didn't support 4k even though my TV can output it. Couldn't even stream Youtube videos in 1080p without heavy stuttering or freezing.

Holy hell GPUs are expensive nowadays. I tried to get one of the cheapest that still had at least some power and it set me back 240 Euro. That's a beginner's GPU that can't run last gen games any higher than 1080p 60FPS (so maybe PS4 Pro comparable?). For the same kind of money I used to get almost high end GPUs 10-15 years ago.
So in total I spent 650 Euro for a new PC that's barely more competent than a PS4 Pro (except the CPU which should be far better) and it would've been 700 Euro if it wasn't for the old power supply I can still use.
What I'm trying to say is that Series X is an absolute steal. A comparable PC costs at least 900 Euro (without OS).

I don't really remember since it's been so long but I have the feeling there were certain settings like difficulty, starting loadout and maybe even a game mode where achievements wouldn't unlock. But no idea if that was the case for Hitman 1, 2 or 3.

Seems like many people on TA are having issues now, so I'm guessing it's a new thing. Probably because they are switching the servers from everything Hitman 1 and 2 related to Hitman 3.

https://www.trueachievements.com/n52429/hitman-1-2-delisted

Yeah, GPU's are crazy expensive these days. I remember a time, not all that long ago, when most of AMD's and Nvidia's GPU lines were priced between $100 and $350, with only a few high end outliers coming in over $350. The most recent full Nvidia GPU line, the GeForce 30 series, started at $249 for the low end 3050 and went all the way up to $1999 for the high end 3090Ti. Meanwhile the most recent full AMD GPU line, the Rx 6000 series, started at a more reasonable $159 for the low end RX 6400 and went all the way up to $1099 for the high end RX 6950 XT.

Nvidia in particular is price gouging us hard these days, but AMD has also raised their prices considerably these days.

What GPU did you end up getting? I believe the best price/performance GPU currently is AMD's RX 6650 XT if you don't care about raytracing all that much, which ranges from $250 up to around $330 depending on how good of a deal you can find, while the best price/performance card if you want raytracing is Nvidia's 3060 currently, which will run you about $360-400 currently. I'm guessing you got a 3050 from Nvidia or maybe an RX 6600 XT from AMD based on the price you mentioned.