Hey everyone and welcome to the first weekend of the new year. Hopefully everyone is doing well and enjoying the season so far. I just got my booster shot on Thursday and though I was expecting to be more or less laid up while my body reacted to it, it wasn't to be so. The worst I had to deal with -and am still to an extent- is the soreness from the injection itself. A few hours after the shot I couldn't lift my arm over shoulder height without some serious strain. But that was it. I never got the fever and chills and energy drops that the second shot gave me. So here's to that. And here's to everyone getting their vaccines because it's getting harder and harder to find anyone who isn't effected by COVID now. I now know of two friend's kids who have it currently, they're deniers though so to them it's all BS, and an elderly lady who is getting over it after having a relatively mild case. She was fully vaccinated so it didn't hit her hard thank goodness. This is a woman in her late 80's with lots of immune issues and she's recovering now. Vaccines work. Not to mention several folks who got it early on, friends of friends, my own distant family members -some of which didn't not survive. This is a real deal, people who still don't think it's a real thing, please do your research.
Okay let's get to the WRUP...
AMD showed a little peak at Zen 4. That's the Ryzen 7000 series that's set to release later this year on a new socket type. They're going LGA [Land Grid Array] meaning the pins are on the mother board socket now rather than the CPU itself. Intel has done this for a long time. It's harder to damage pins by accidentally dropping your chip but the downside is that if you somehow bend them in the socket you're out a whole main board. LGA 1718 will be AM5 and hopefully it'll last as long as AM4 did. There's even talk of AMD making the current gen Ryzen 5000 chips backwards compatible with the now relatively old B300 boards. Here's a look from PC Gamer at the 70xx. Word has it that there will be a 16 core version of the 70xx series and it will be running at five gigahertz. Whether that's all-core or single core is still somewhat questionable but this is a big step for AMD who hasn't quite been able to get there in frequency. I guess we'll find out in the second half of the year. Unless the scalpers have anything to say about it...
Nvidia still can't read a room... The GPU giant has announced the 3090ti. Yeah, the same GPU die that's in the 3080, 3080ti and 3090 is now being shoved into a new, more expensive SKU rather than getting used to fulfill orders for people who have been waiting for months and months for their 3080. And okay, NVIDIA has to do what investors want which is usually -get us more money or we'll tank your company, but it's so cringey to just add SKU's to ever thinning supplies of silicon all to be picked off by scalper bots and end up in crypto-mining farms anyway.
In better news, Horizon - Forbidden West is almost here. No PC version for quite a while probably but after the success of HZD on PC I would imagine it will get a port. The good news is that if you're like tons of folks who have yet to get your grubby fingers on a PS5, there is a PS4 version HFW. I happen to think that HZD is very nearly the best open world game there is. Above any Elder Scrolls title and with only Witcher 3 edging out the top spot. The world of HZD is so fleshed out, so steeped in history and lore, so full of life and intrigue that it's down right believable to think of something like this actually happening in some apocalyptic future of our own. I may actually get the PS4 version of HFW because I'm not sure I want to wait for a PC port and I'm just not interested in a PS5. But it'll also be fun to get to run around places more or less where I live. Showcases have focused on Yosemite valley and San Fransisco. I live very close to Yosemite and often visit the bay area so I'm curious how the representation will be. HZD had some elements of Yellowstone, Red Rocks, Monument Valley and so on. Here's the official preview from Sony
Okay what are we up to this weekend?
AJ: I just acquired the iam8bit limited edition 30th Anniversary NES version of Mega Man 2 (to go along with the 30th Anniversary Mega Man X, and the Aladdin and Lion King carts I got over the last two weeks), so that, and probably also some Guilty Gear -Strive- and Psychonauts 2.
Tru: Well, Now that I have a Series X, I've been playing through the Halo Games again. I never finished Halo 4, so I finished that last night. Now I'm moving on to Halo 5 Guardians. I've read bad things about it so I'm only playing it on Easy or Normal so I can move on to Halo Infinity. I'll also be trying stuff on Gamepass. Wife picked up up a few more games for the Series X as well like Bendy and the Ink Machine and Skyrim Anniversary Edition... So yeah, I may jump back into Skyrim for the, what would this make it? Six-Billionth time? Yes that is hyperbole, but it sure doesn't feel it. Stay safe, faithful readers.
Greywolfe: whoops. i forgot it was friday yesterday, didn't i? well, space quest 5 is finished, and i've started up with final fantasy 3's pixel remaster. sq5 was surprisingly good. there's a lot of them lampooning star trek, which is fun and the plot and world building are quite strong. ff3, on the other hand is gimmick dungeon central. did your characters get a new job/class? well, the game's going to FORCE you to use it whether you like it or not. i'm not sure what happens in sq5's stead [i'm thinking another infocom game], but i'm sure i'll figure it out during the week :)
Scrooloose: I finished Battlesector, can't wait for the Necrons to join the fray. I also jammed right through Ace Combat 7, loved that. Ace combat 8 is rumored to be using Unreal Engine 5, but not for at least a year or so. I picked up Disco Elysium finally while it was on sale, so I may be getting my detective on.