Alan Wake 2 outfit Remedy Entertainment have "always" felt pressured to make their games longer, creative director Sam Lake has observed in a new interview which also picks apart the differences between the forthcoming midwestern spookalot, out this October, and the 2010 original. Lake added that, Remedy's sense of audience expectations notwithstanding, he himself has difficulty setting aside hours for longer games. "[It's] just struggling with finding time and you know, being interested in a story, wanting to see it through," he said. "So it can even be daunting at times to start playing a game that you know is really, really long."

Welcome to the New Era. Will you fight for peace, or embrace the khaos?

In addition to the full line of slimmer GAMING SLIM NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, MSI has sneaked a couple of other models to its GeForce RTX 40 series lineup, including the MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 2X White and the RTX 4070 Ti VENTUS 2X White. Featuring an all-white design, the VENTUS 2X WHITE features a dual-fan cooler with a white backplate.

The MSI RTX 4070 Ti VENTUS 2X White works at 2,610 MHz Boost clock, which can be further tuned up to 2,625 via MSI Center, while the MSI RTX 4070 VENTUS 2X works at 2,475 MHz Boost clock which can be further pushed up to 2,490 MHz via MSI Center. The rest of the specifications and the design, other than an all-white color scheme, should be the same as on the standard black versions of these graphics cards. Both feature TORX FAN 4.0 with Zero Frozr, copper baseplate with Core Pipes heatpipe design, and reinforced backplate.

The new FOCUS GX units are ATX 3.0 certified and PCIe 5.0 compliant to power the latest cutting-edge systems, helping to improve overall system performance and long-term reliability, while providing the most stable power necessary at the highest levels of performance. With the included top-quality PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR VGA cable, these units can safely power the latest modern graphics cards, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series.

Filip Pierściński, the lead scene programmer at CD Projekt Red, has been posting some compelling information regarding technical improvements lined up for the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077. Update 2.0 and the major Phantom Liberty DLC campaign are due to launch on September 26—a whole bunch of new features, characters, missions and stories are promised, although the pay-for-pack nets you the majority of upcoming intriguing goodies.

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"Before release CP2077 v2.0 and PL please check conditions of your cooling systems in PC. We use all [that] you have, so workload on CPU 90% on 8 core is expected. To save your time please run Cinebench or similar and check (the) stability of your systems."

Our Chants of Sennaar review - a brilliant game about cracking languages.

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Chants is a game about climbing the Tower of Babel and making sense of the various peoples you meet as you work your way higher. It's an adventure game, generally sort of isometric, with pointing and clicking and the solving of those nested puzzles. All quite traditional, written down like that. But I needed to remind myself that this is the actual genre from time to time, because the game often feels nothing like it. It feels like a revelation, actually, like games have worked out how to do something elegant, impossible, and empowering.

Sega has announced a release date for Football Manager 2024, which will debut on PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and on smartphones from 6th November.

Announcement Trailer

... a backlash from PC players has resulted in an influx of negative reviews. Now, according to Steam 250, it ranks just behind Overwatch 2 in the list of worst reviewed games on Steam.

Much of that backlash is due to this PC version being based on the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, instead of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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For instance, the game's website celebrates features like ProPLAY that "directly translates NBA footage into NBA 2K24 gameplay", as well as personalised career mode The W. These are only available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

With this macguffin's loss, the thread of prophecy is severed. (Spoilers!)

YouTuber BOB_BestOfBugs, however, realized that there's nothing stopping you from putting a Netherstone into a container like a crate or a sack (crucial to the Shadowboxing speedrun tech) and then getting rid of that container. I was able to replicate the trick in my own game, but curiously I only got the game over on losing my second Netherstone⁠, so watch out for potentially soft locking yourself here.

What follows is the most luxurious sort of "you messed up, big time" scene you could possibly ask for, shades of firing a mining laser that wipes out all of humanity in System Shock and its remake.

(SPOILERS) YouTube Link

The most recent Kill Switch master list change details a variety of features and perks disabled in Dead by Daylight in order to resolve a popular survivor exploit. This means that if you’ve experienced it or have even used the technique at some point to become invincible yourself, you won’t be encountering it anymore. Killer mains in DBD, rise up. Now’s your opportunity!

If you’re not yet familiar with the Kill Switch system in DBD, every once in a while Behaviour Interactive disables in-game features to try and combat gameplay issues and exploits. These adjustments are temporary, lasting only until the developer rebalances everything and ensures fair play between fans. For example, Mastermind was disabled previously due to bugs.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag’s unexpected disappearance from the Steam store is down to nothing more exciting than a tech bug - and definitely isn’t a sign of an upcoming remake for the pirate entry in the stealth-action franchise.

We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Stable (default) channel.

General

• Added support for Indonesian language.
• Fixed the "Processing Shaders" dialog flashing when launching a game.
• Fixed manual GPU clocks not getting applied when launching a game.
• Fixed screenshot notifications not showing up when a screenshot is taken.
• Fixed empty folders not being re-created when verifying a game installation.
• Fixed a case where a Library Folder could be forgotten when a drive was unplugged from the system.
• Fixed a case where non-steam games could disappear from the library.
• Fixed issue where some steam:// protocol handlers were not handled correctly due to case sensitivity. Example: steam://url/communityfilepage/<ugcid> was not working correctly.
• Fixed issue with steam://connect/<gameserver ip>:<game server port>/<optional password> was not handled.
• Fixed a case where the System Report upload process would proclaim success even though the operation failed.
• Added a "Save To Desktop" option to the System Report dialog.
• Fixed issue where the virtual keyboard was not showing when requested by the game in game mode.
• Fixed a case where the user would be prompted to install an OS update for a second time after switching between game mode and desktop mode.

Steam Input

• Fixed touchpad input when using the Victrix and Qanba PS4/PS5 arcade sticks
• Reduced lag when switching between pages in the "Edit Layout" view for configurations with large numbers of action sets/layers/mode-shifts
• Fixed the DualSense firmware update dialog from popping up when the controller was connected over Bluetooth and already up to date
• Added the ability to bind Steam Input API trigger actions to button inputs.

Steam Cloud

• Fixed a case where Steam Cloud saves could be synced to a computer that did not have the game installed if the game was available for streaming from another PC.

Remote Play

• Fixed controller buttons being stuck down.
• Added support for 4K high quality streaming presets.
• Fixed occasional crash directly launching a game from the Steam Link UI.
• Fixed device authorization dialog not showing if Steam Link connects while Steam is starting up.

Library

• Fixed some screenshot thumbnails on the activity feed not being properly obscured when marked as spoiler.

Desktop Mode

• Allow the settings window to be resized.
• Improved reliability of Back button.
• Adjusted the low battery notification for laptops/handheld PCs to only fire in the overlay or the main BPM window.
• Fixed windows being able to set minimum sizes larger than their display dimensions.
• Fixed clicking "Play Game" links in event news causing client popup windows to close.
• steamwebhelper support dialog is now shown if the main client window cannot be created at startup.
• Fixed switching from fullscreen to windowed mode when a full-screen video is dismissed.
• Fixed notifications stealing focus when shown in overlay.
• Fixed overlay freezing when a file dialog is shown.
• The overlay tabbed browser will now wait until the overlay has been activated for the first time before restoring saved tabs.
• Added an option to In Game settings that allows toggling whether overlay browser tabs will be restored when starting a game.
• Fixed a bug which could cause a server browser query to stop prematurely without pinging all of the servers.

This impressive overhaul mod for Devil May Cry 5 comes from modder 'Sparky1j' and is called "Devil May Crowbar". Due to the name of the mod, it's easily overlooked, but the project is an impressive project from the modder that deserves to be tried out.

Not only does this mod replace DMC 5's main characters with Gordon Freeman (Dante), Gman (Vergil), Kleiner (Nero), and Grigori (V), but it also replaces various enemies and the character's weapons with weaponry seen in Half-Life. In addition, this DMC 5 Overhaul mod replaces various enemies in the game with Half-Life equivalents. Another cool feature of the mod is that the 'Subhuman' and 'Devil Trigger' themes have been replaced with custom mashups.

YouTube Video Link
Mod Link on Nexus

Even though the Z1 comes with 3x fewer RDNA3 CUs compared to the Z1 Extreme, it offers superb efficiency at 15W.

After months of waiting, benchmarks of AMD's vanilla Ryzen Z1 chip have finally surfaced, giving us some insight into the chip's performance before we see it appear in handhelds later this year like the ROG Ally. We first heard about the APU back in May, alongside the Z1 Extreme, as gaming-optimized mobile APUs designed for handheld gaming PCs, but only the Z1 Extreme was in reviewed systems.

Now, in a review published by David Huang on Zhulanlan using an unnamed gaming handheld, we've learned that that the Z1 excels specifically at low-TDP gaming featuring power ratings around 15W. At 15W, the chip is extremely efficient, featuring vastly superior performance per watt compared to the Ryzen 7 7840U at 25W.

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The Z1 is even more impressive when its power envelope is cut in half to just 15W. At this power rating, the chip only loses 15-18% of its performance while cutting its power consumption in half. Even at 15W, the chip offered mostly playable performance, outputting 31 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 720 p/low, and anywhere between 36 to 60 fps in Genshin Impact, Star Rail Central Starskiff Haven, and Forza Horizon at 720p as well. The only game the Z1 had trouble with was Metro Exodus at 720p normal settings, with a frame rate just below 30FPS. But this problem can easily be remedied by dropping some settings or dropping the base resolution with upscaling.

For this month’s IGN First, I visited Remedy’s studio in Finland to play Alan Wake 2. Across more than an hour of play I experienced the entirety of Local Girl, the third chapter of Saga’s story. Within it, I saw plenty of things that will make long-term Alan Wake devotees happy. Manuscripts still litter the world, as do blue thermos flasks. There are generators to power up, and your shadow-burning flashlight is still a fundamental part of combat. A pair of ageing rock stars make a very welcome return. But the shift from nightmare horror to grisly detective thriller on Saga’s side of the story is the first sign of the bold, sweeping changes that Remedy has made in its long-awaited sequel.

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If the opening walk through Watery presents an air of Silent Hill, then this later approach positions Alan Wake 2 close to Resident Evil, which has long used its police stations and villages in a similar manner. That relationship is further emphasised by the abundance of puzzles. As I get closer to Coffee World I stumble across a number of containers, each locked by a brain teaser with a difficulty level that scales in correlation with the rewards inside. I find a basic supply chest that’s protected by a simple memory mini-game, but later discover a lockbox containing a powerful crossbow. Cracking it requires a close study of the surrounding environment, as the bolts embedded in the nearby targets are clues to the padlock’s combination. I appreciate this more involved and ambiguous approach over Resident Evil’s tradition of using an unusual item as a key, although that design does still make an appearance later in the chapter.

Some of Steam’s oldest user accounts are turning 20-years old this week, and Valve is celebrating the anniversary by handing out special digital badges featuring the original Steam colour scheme to the gaming veterans.

Steam first opened its figurative doors all the way back in September 2003, and has since grown into the largest digital PC gaming storefront in the world, which is actively used by tens of millions of players each day.

“In case anyone's curious about the odd colours, that's the colour scheme for the original Steam UI when it first launched,” commented Redditor Penndrachen, referring to the badge's army green colour scheme, which prompted a mixed reaction from players who remembered the platform's earliest days. “I joined in the first six months,” lamented Affectionate-Memory4. “I feel ancient rn.”

Patch 1.1.4 is fairly small compared to the many post-Season 1 patches the game had received. The big deal here is a major buff to Urn of Aggression, one of the key Season Blessings - available as part of the battle pass. Anyone who plays Diablo 4 can take advantage of Season Blessings, as you do not need to own the battle pass.

Advertising for these CPUs will kick off on the 16th of October followed by sales and reviews on the 17th of October, according to VideoCardz. The remaining Raptor Lake refresh CPUs are said to launch sometime in early 2024, most likely with a CES announcement followed by availability sometime in the first quarter. However, it appears that Intel will officially announce the Raptor Lake refresh processors during Intel Innovation 2023, which kicks off next week, on the 19th of September. Early performance leaks suggest that those with a recent CPU won't be overly tempted by these new chips from Intel and most consumers are better off waiting for Intel's move to a new socket next year, if they're looking at getting a new Intel based system.

Greetings Ghostrunners, the entire Ghostrunner team (at One More Level) is proud to share that Ghostrunner has sold over 2.5 million units since it launched on October 27, 2020! Thank you for being a part of the Ghostrunner community and helping to spread the word about Ghostrunner and Ghostrunner 2.

A look at Starfield's file I/O and how it impacts storage and overall game performance.

Starfield has traversal stutter that occurs when the game loads new assets or new areas of the map. Unlike other games, these stutters are not only CPU related. These stutters mostly occur in big cities like New Atlantis.

Some stutters occur in disk IO bound scenarios, even on a Gen5 SSD. Below you can see the SSD hitting 100% usage, followed by a drop in the GPU usage and a stutter.

Bethesda's space behemoth Starfield has now reached another new milestone in Steam concurrent players. Over the weekend, following the game's full release, it hit a peak of 330,723 concurrent players.

That's bigger than Skyrim's 287,411 concurrent player record, though still a way behind Fallout 4, which has a concurrent Steam player count of 472,962

Gearbox is reportedly the latest studio to be affected by Embracer Group's restructuring efforts.

In June, Embracer announced a "comprehensive restructuring programme" to help recover from its large spending spree over recent years and a 40 percent drop in share price following a report of a failed "major strategic partnership" with Savvy Games Group, which is backed by the Saudi Arabian government.

As part of the restructuring, Saints Row developer Volition Games was shut down "effective immediately" at the end of last month. A new report from Reuters claims that Borderlands developer Gearbox will be one of the next studios Embracer sheds.

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UPDATE 5.40pm: Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that Gearbox has today emailed employees confirming Embracer Group is, at the very least, considering parting ways with the Borderlands studio - although a specific course of action is yet to be decided on.

"The base case is that Gearbox remains a part of Embracer," Gearbox chief communications officer Dan Hewitt told staff in an email seen by Bloomberg. "However, there are many options under consideration, including Gearbox's transfer, taking Gearbox independent, and others. Ultimately, we'll move ahead with whichever path is best for both Gearbox and Embracer."

"Nothing has been decided yet," Hewitt added, "but there will be a lot of speculation in the coming weeks."