PC Gaming

AMD today at Gamescom unveiled the Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT performance-segment graphics cards. Designed for maxed out gaming at 1440p with ray tracing, the two are designed to square off against NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 series, offering competitive performance and pricing. The two are based on AMD's latest RDNA3 graphics architecture, and use the 5 nm foundry process where it matters. Both cards claim to offer not just superior performance to the specific NVIDIA RTX 40-series SKUs they're designed to compete with, but also better future-proofing, with more video memory on offer.

At the heart of the two is the new "Navi 32" GPU, AMD's second largest chip from this generation. It is a chiplet GPU, just like the "Navi 31" that powers the RX 7900 series, albeit slightly scaled down. The graphics compute die (GCD), the die with the main graphics rendering and compute machinery, is built on the 5 nm EUV foundry node. It is flanked by four memory cache dies (MCDs), each built on the 6 nm foundry node. These are the same MCDs found in the "Navi 31," but four in number instead of six, which gives the "Navi 32" a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface.

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The reason AMD chose the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB for comparisons, is because it intends to price the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT competitively to them. The Radeon RX 7800 XT is priced at USD $499, while the RX 7700 XT is priced at $449. Both cards go on sale from September 6, 2023.

Following Nvidia's DLSS 3.5 announcements at Gamescom, AMD has finally revealed FSR 3 - along with a separate frame generation solution that works on all DX11 and DX12 titles. In a meeting with AMD, Digital Foundry saw both technologies in action and came away impressed.

FSR 3 is a frame generation solution that operates along similar lines to Nvidia's DLSS 3 - combining frame generation (Fluid Motion Frames) with super resolution upscaling (FSR 2) and latency reduction (Anti-Lag+) in a small number of supported games, with Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum set to first debut the technology. FSR 3 will work on Radeon graphics cards, as well as Nvidia and Intel GPUs.

So, how does FSR 3 look? At Gamescom, we had a demonstration of both titles running with the new technology active on a Radeon 7900 XTX running at 4K output. Both were running with v-sync on, which AMD recommends for frame-pacing purposes. In the very small Forspoken demo we saw, the game was running locked at 120 frames per second and looked just as a v-synced 120fps should look. The game was running in FSR 2 quality mode providing its own frame-rate boost, with frame-gen then taking you up to the limit. In terms of fluidity and clarity, FSR 3 looked a match for DLSS 3 - a view shared by Alex, Rich and John, who were all present to see the demos in person. A great start for FSR 3.

Patch #1 is now live for Baldur's Gate 3, addressing over 1000 bugs, glitches, and blockers.

A new action game based on the concept of the ARMORED CORE series that uses the knowledge gained from FromSoftware's recent action game development.

AMD's New $180 Zen 4 CPU, Ryzen 5 7500F vs. Core i5 13400F: Gaming Benchmark

"on average (in the 1080p test) the 7500f delivered 12% more performance with its biggest win coming the way of Fortnite followed by Call of Duty and then F1 23 so all the titles that saw really big frame rates. meanwhile there was just a single example where the 7500f was slower and that was seen when testing the Riftbreaker"

"performance per watt we see that the 7500f is actually the more efficient gaming processor though only by a very small margin we're talking three percent based on this data"

As part of NVIDIA and Microsoft's collaboration to bring more choice to gamers, new Microsoft Store integration has been added to GeForce NOW that lets gamers stream select titles from the Xbox PC Game Pass catalog on GeForce NOW, starting today. With the Microsoft Store integration, members will see a brand-new Xbox button on supported PC games and can seamlessly launch these titles across their devices, provided they either purchased the standalone games through the Microsoft Store or have an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscription.

Hot off our recent Gamescom announcement, four blockbuster titles are coming to GeForce NOW this fall: Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion, Party Animals and PAYDAY 3. Plus, head to the cloud and stream the 25 new titles joining the cloud this week, including DOOM 2016 from Bethesda.

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Catch the full list of games joining the cloud this week:

WrestleQuest (New release on Steam, Aug. 21)
Jumplight Odyssey (New release on Steam, Aug. 21)
Blasphemous 2 (New release on Steam, Aug. 24)
RIDE 5 (New release on Steam, Aug. 24)
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Xbox)
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (Xbox)
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition (Xbox)
Crusader Kings III (Xbox)
Dead Cells (Xbox)
Deathloop (Xbox)
Doom 2016 (Steam)
Gears 5 (Xbox)
Grounded (Xbox)
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (Xbox)
No Man's Sky (Xbox)
Pentiment (Xbox)
Quake (Xbox)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (Xbox)
Stellaris (Xbox)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Xbox)
Trackmania (Steam)
Valheim (Xbox)
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (Xbox)
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Xbox)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Xbox)

Meet a secret society of robotic aliens in update 4.4, ECHOES! Furthering the narrative introduced in INTERCEPTOR, explore the mysteries of the Autophage, perform their rituals, learn their language, and assemble your own ceremonial staff. In deep space, confront huge outlaw dreadnoughts, sweep through their trenches and destroy vulnerable components in new tactical space combat – and much more!

Epic First Run is a new program that aims to attract new releases from smaller developers and publishers.

Over the last year, Xbox has been under one massive spotlight: a giant acquisition and court case, questions about its upcoming AAA portfolio, Starfield on the horizon, Game Pass, and so much more. At gamescom 2023, we were finally able to get some answers from Xbox head Phil Spencer about almost everything.

I'm on the market for a new monitor. Mine is a very old Asus that is a 1080p/60hz monitor.

A few days ago I used to be the occasional competitive player (just playing with friends) and while I might play a competitive game or two again, I'm wondering if I should buy the BenQ Zowie 2546K. Where I'm looking (local market), it's currently the lowest price it's ever been.

But my hesitation lies on the fact that I might have more use for a 4k/140hz monitor.

I guess I'm mostly looking for personal recommendations.

Existing in the intersection of puzzle game, platformer and level editor, It’s A Wrap! casts you as the director of a low-budget, probably bad Hollywood flick that’s surely about to be sued for workplace injury claims. Essentially, you rejig platforms and background props and obstacles in the level (as the director) and then you zoom in for some dangerous side-scrolling goodness (as the actor). Oh, and did I mention that it’s out now? Shadow-drop!

Publisher Playstack and developer 2Awesome have revealed that AK-xolotl will hit consoles and Switch this September. More specifically, the top-down roguelike shooter about a cute but deadly-with-a-gun axolotl will hit PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on September 14. 

The team announced this release date during today’s Future Games Show presentation with a new trailer showing more of the amphibious creature’s violent stroll through the animal kingdom, and it looks great. It features a fun retro throwback visual style and plenty of arcade-like action in combat.

official site
steam link

The official fact sheet of STALKER 2 reveals that the game has been delayed once again and will now launch in Q1 2024 for PC and Xbox Series.

Are there any modern games like Carmageddon?

The freedom of that game was fantastic. You could finish the race, but you could also instead waste all your opponents instead and / or electrocute zombies and perform epic stunts.

Dune: Spice Wars releases out of Early Access in September. Lead one of the Great Houses of the Imperium to dominate Arrakis and the flow of spice. Through intrigue, warfare, economy, and spycraft, you will rule the deserts or be buried in them.

Bazzite isn't an exact clone of SteamOS 3, but its functionality is virtually identical to Valve's operating system. On the surface, Bazzite features an identical desktop experience to SteamOS 3. Thanks to the integration of KDE Plasma — a customizable Linux desktop environment, and Valve's KDE themes from SteamOS, Bazzite shares the same desktop wallpapers, icons, and taskbar as Valve's operating system. If you didn't know any better, you'd think you were running the real SteamOS.

But under the hood, Bazzite's actual operating system is not the same, as it uses an entirely different Linux distro from Valve's operating system. Instead of using a branch of Arch Linux, which is the distro SteamOS 3 is based on, Bazzite is built using a custom version of Fedora 38, which incorporates more hardware and device support than SteamOS 3. Some of the hardware support includes baked-in proprietary Nvidia driver support for GeForce GPUs, to enable GeForce-powered systems to run Bazzite. (Sadly AMD support is unclear — but the OS does support AMD ROCm.)

NVIDIA and Remedy have teamed up to giveaway an Alan Wake II-inspired GeForce RTX 4090 GPU which looks absolutely gorgeous with its uniquely themed backplate. You continue in Alan Wake's footsteps, 13 years after the original game made its debut and it takes its psychological thriller and horror roots one step further.

Alan Wake II RTX/DLSS3.5 Trailer

Classic point ‘n clicker series Broken Sword is planning a big comeback starting next year with a remaster of the original adventure game, followed by a new sixth entry sometime after. Snooping tourist George and snooping professional (investigative journalist) Nico will reunite in the all-new Broken Sword: Parzival’s Stone, but first, over two decades after it launched, Broken Sword - Shadow Of The Templars: Reforged revamps the first outing of the nosy duo. As you can see from the reveal trailer, it’s enjoying quite a dramatic makeover.

Party Animals is almost here, and developer Recreate Games is inviting players to play the highly-anticipated, ridiculously cute co-op brawler ahead of release.

You can get in on the cuddle puddle mosh pit through three closed beta weekends leading up to release. The betas are to test the servers before the big day, and if you are interested, you can sign up for a chance to receive an invite through Steam or the Xbox Insider Hub app.

Spots are limited, and players who sign up will be randomly chosen. Pre-ordering does not guarantee a beta invite.

Trailer Link

The closed betas will take place on the following dates and times:

September 1 at 8am ET/1pm UK to September 3 at 8am ET/1pm UK
September 8 at 8am ET/1pm UK to September 10 at 8am ET/1pm UK
September 15 at 8am ET/1pm UK to September 19 at 11:59pm ET/4:59am UK (Sept. 20)

Alan Wake 2 creative director Sam Lake stopped by IGN's gamescom studio to discuss the upcoming survival horror sequel and how it hopes to solve one of the original's biggest criticisms.

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This is just one part of Alan Wake's new identity as a survival horror game, and that switch will hopefully address the issues fans had with combat from the first game. According to Lake, some complained that it became too "samey," and the team took that to heart.

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"So, we were looking for solutions and then we just realized that in survival horror, the pacing is slower. It leans much more on building up to an encounter and then having more strategic resource management and all. So we chose to give more variety in combat but also have less combat, instead we'll have more moments to do things with the story. So all of this made us go, 'Wait a minute, why haven’t we thought about this before when we started going into this?' And yeah, it’s been great."

We finally got a successor to Snowrunner. Apparently these are some of the new features and improvements:

• Drones for scouting the environment
• Finer selection of single "items" you want to take along on the roof carrier
• Placeable anchor to connect the winch to
• Actual properties of winch-rope like maximum length, load capacity and material
• "Augmented Display" for detection devices that show results in the world

What we likely won't get but have asked for for years:

• More realistic and usable gearboxes, manual gearboxes

From the creators of The Good Time Garden, and the publisher of Untitled Goose Game, comes Thank Goodness You're Here!

After arriving early for a big meeting with the mayor of a bizarre Northern English town, a traveling salesman takes the time to explore and meet the locals, who are all very eager to give him a series of increasingly odd jobs… “Thank Goodness You’re Here!” is a comedy slapformer, which unfolds over time as the players' exploration and antics leave their mark on the strange town of Barnsworth. With each completed odd job, new areas of the town open up, stranger and stranger tasks become available, and the clock ticks towards our salesman’s big meeting. The town’s colorful inhabitants are brought to life with vibrant hand-drawn animation, fully voiced dialogue, and wall-to-wall double entendres. Thank Goodness You're Here! is coming to PC, Switch and PS5 in 2024.

Steam Link

Season of Blood is coming to #DiabloIV.

☠️ 5 new and returning endgame bosses
⚔️ Updates to renown rewards
💎 Updates to gem & stash storage
🔥 Updates to resistance & status effects

Accompany Erys (voiced by actress and producer, Gemma Chan) as she leads the effort against a deadly new evil threatening Sanctuary.

Join the hunt, October 17th 🩸