Welcome to the first week of December and the first of advent for those that celebrate it. This week's AAA release is the 2024 release of a FPS shooter that first saw life back in 1998, but under a new developer and publisher. If this isn't your cup of tea, then you can try your luck in beating humans, demolishing things, surviving a bullet hell, finding your lost memories or pretending to be a superhero.

Delta Force / This week's AAA title / Thursday 5 December
Delta Force is back! The iconic series returns as the definitive free-to-play modern team-based tactical shooter and featuring three distinct gameplay modes: large-scale PvP warfare, intense extraction shooter action, and a remake of the legendary Black Hawk Down campaign. Steam link

Humanoid Origin, a game studio started and lead by former Mass Effect creator, Casey Hudson, has just announced that it will be shutting down just 3 years after its creation. The main driving factor behind the closure of Humanoid Origin is a lack of funding, with the announcement coming from a LinkedIn post on Monday, November 25. In the announcement, Hudson places some of the blame on the "broader challenges in the industry" and says that the studio's main goal right now is to support its employees in the transition to new projects.

The fledgling game studio was unable to launch its first project, which was to be an ambitious, large-scale AAA sci-fi game for which it had aggressively been hiring creative talent since the company's 2021 start. This is just the latest studio casualty in what has been a brutal year for the gaming industry as a whole. Earlier this year, studios owned by much larger corporations with deeper pockets also saw similar closures, like the somewhat mysterious shuttering of the Humble Games publishing division, which was later clarified as "restructuring."

Steam is highly valued by many gamers, not only for being a fairly inexpensive, easy way to buy and manage games, but also because it provides statistics on player count and play times, via tools like SteamDB, which are a neat way for gamers to see how the community is participating in games before buying them. According to a post on the FandomPulse Substack, however, Ubisoft has taken issue with Valve's player statistics.

The Substack post quotes Ubisoft insiders who claim that the game developer and "other companies" want Valve to disable or restrict the APIs used by tools like SteamDB and Steam Charts as a direct response to the disappointing performance of Star Wars Outlaws. This news also comes ahead of the early 2025 launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which has already caused significant apprehension as a result of game previews. The claims also mention that Ubisoft seeks to control the narrative of its games and potentially present a rosier image to its investors. If Ubisoft has its way, the gaming industry would lose even more transparency, since tools like SteamDB are often used by game journalists to evaluate the popularity and commercial success of games.

After a couple of slow week's we have a packed week of new releases for you this week, kicking off with some nuclear stalking action in this week's AAA title. This is followed by a tactical turn-based strategy game set in WW2, a fantasy open world survival crafter, a game for wanna be pilots, a MOBA battle royal hero shooter mixup, a murder on a train with a comedy twist and finally a tactical shooter set in an anime universe. Star Wars Outlaws is also out on Steam this week among many other new releases.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl / This week's AAA release / Wednesday 20 November
Discover the vast Chornobyl Exclusion Zone full of dangerous enemies, deadly anomalies and powerful artifacts. Unveil your own epic story as you make your way to the Heart of Chornobyl. Make your choices wisely, as they will determine your fate in the end. Take over a role of the lone stalker and explore photorealistic seamless open world in a 64-km² radioactive zone with a variety of environments that reveal post-apocalyptic atmosphere from different angles. Steam link

As we enter the last week of October and the first few days of November, we have a crammed week of new games, as well as a bunch of old releases that have either been refreshed or released on PC for the first time. This week's AAA title is a single player RPG that appears to have something to do with an age of dragons. This is followed by a mystery on the moon, a strange life, cowboys, some martial arts, a trip through hell, mechanical animals and finally a sequel to Elona.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / This week's first AAA release / Thursday 31 October
When a pair of corrupt ancient gods break free from centuries of darkness, the vibrant land of Thedas needs someone they can count on. Rise as Rook, Dragon Age's newest hero. Be who you want to be and play how you want to play as you fight back and lead your team of seven companions, each with their own rich story. Together you will become The Veilguard. Steam link

Welcome to the last full week of October and boy is it going to be a busy week of new game releases. This week's AAA release is said to force you to go rogue on your tour of duty. Next you'll be starting your own tentacle cult, which if followed by being kicked out of hell for the second time, an inaccurate history lesson, being blown away by the wind and finally being turned into a blue hedgehog.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 / This week's AAA title / Friday 25 October
Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops. The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity. Steam link

While Apple laptops have never really been the first stop for PC gaming, Linux is slowly shaping up to be an excellent gaming platform, largely thanks to open-source development efforts as well as work from the likes of AMD and NVIDIA, who have both put significant work into their respective Linux drivers in recent years. This makes efforts like the Asahi Linux Project all the more intriguing. Asahi Linux is a project that aims to bring Linux to Apple Silicon Macs—a task that has proven rather difficult, thanks to the intricacies of developing a bespoke GPU driver for Apple's custom ARM GPUs. In a recent blog post, the graphics developer behind the Asahi Linux Project showed off a number of AAA games, albeit older titles, running on an Apple M1 processor on the latest Asahi Linux build.

To run the games on Apple Silicon, Asahi Linux uses a "game playing toolkit," which relies on a number of custom graphics drivers and emulators, including tools from Valve's Proton translation layer, which ironically was also the foundation for Apple's Game Porting Toolkit. Asahi uses FEX to emulate x86 on ARM, Wine as a translation layer for Windows apps, and DXVK and vkd3d-proton for DirectX-Vulkan translation. In the blog post, the Asahi developer claims that the alpha is capable of running games like Control, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077 at playable frame rates. Unfortunately, 60 FPS is not yet attainable in the majority of new high-fidelity games, there are a number of indie titles that run quite well on Asahi Linux, including Hollow Knight, Ghostrunner, and Portal 2.

Welcome to the first full week of October and another busy week of new game releases. This week's AAA release involves balls and dragons, but no need to worry, it's not an adult only game. This is followed by a co-op metroidvania game that actually appears to have a story, this week's remake which involves a ghost town on a hill, a shady parkour platformer, an old-school style JRPG, a turn-based RPG and finally a peaceful exploration game. Also out this week is the Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred DLC.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero / This week's AAA release / Friday 11 October
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero takes the legendary gameplay of the Budokai Tenkaichi series and raises it to whole new levels. Become a super warrior and experience the earth-shaking, limit-breaking power of Dragon Ball battles! Engage in heart-pounding, high-speed 3D battles that stay true to the anime and video game series, with breathtaking visuals and authentic combat moves like beam clashes, rush attacks, movements too quick for the eyes to see, and planet-razing ultimate attacks. Steam link

Welcome to the second half of September and what is nothing but a jam packed week of new game releases. The week kicks off with an almost two-year old PlayStation game that has something to do with Norse mythology gets launched on PC, although it does come with the DLC included and it's not capped at 60 FPS. As for the rest of this week's new games, we have a packed week starting with a lot of spell casting, another PlayStation game, but this time we're taking a JRPG of the highest rank, which is followed by a souls-like RPG game. Next up we have Dr Dr, which oddly enough isn't German at all, followed by another highly anticipated game that involves frozen punks. If there's nothing you like this week, you're most likely not a gamer.

God of War Ragnarök / This week's AAA release / Thursday 19 September
The sequel to the critically acclaimed God of War (2018), God of War Ragnarök picks up with Fimbulwinter well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Odin's forces in Asgard prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world. Along the way, they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. As the threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer, Kratos and Atreus must choose between the safety of their family and the safety of the realms. Steam link

Welcome to another week of September and more new game releases. This week, we have a massive AAA release, well, at least for those that are into hammers of war and marines in space. For those that are not, we still have a busy week of new releases that starts with a very different take on what a car is, a new version of an Atari classic, an RPG farming sim, a normal take on what a car is and finally some eldritch horrors, because it's Friday the 13th.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 / This week's AAA release / Monday 9 September
Embody the superhuman skill and brutality of a Space Marine. Unleash deadly abilities and devastating weaponry to obliterate the relentless Tyranid swarms. Defend the Imperium in spectacular third-person action in solo or multiplayer modes. Steam Link

In a notable step forward for the RISC-V architecture, the Box86 and Box64 emulator developers have successfully run The Witcher 3 on a RISC-V processor. While performance is far from optimal, even on a Milk-V Pioneer with a 64-core processor and an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card, the achievement is remarkable.

RISC-V, a free and open-source instruction set architecture, is still in its early stages compared to established platforms like ARM and x86/x64. Despite this, the Box86/Box64 team, known for creating environments to run Windows programs on Linux, has demonstrated that AAA gaming is possible on RISC-V hardware. To accomplish this feat, the developers utilized Box64 with Wine and DXVK to emulate the necessary instructions.

Welcome to the end of August and this week, we have a bunch of new releases for your perusal. This week's AAA release allegedly has something to do with criminals in a galaxy far far away. The remaining releases this week contain some other big releases as well and the week starts off with a post-apocalyptic survival city builder, which is followed by you waging war as a god, if that's what you're into. If big flying robots are your thing, then there's a game for you this week, alternatively we have a game for those that prefer fast cars. The week ends on a bit of a slower note with a Japanese action-RPG and an office RPG or sorts.

Star Wars Outlaws / This week's AAA release / Friday 30 August
Experience the first-ever open world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Explore distinct locations across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as Kay Vess, a scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy's crime syndicates as you join the galaxy's most wanted. Not on Steam, but available on uPlay and EGS. Gold Preorder ($110) gets headstart on Tuesday

As we enter the second to last week of August, we finally have a massive new AAA release that involves a magical Chinese monkey. As for the rest of this week's upcoming new games, we have a cyberpunk co-op looter shooter, a dusty story-driven action-adventure, a wholesome narrative game, wizards with guns and a game named after a very fast airplane, even though it doesn't even seem to involve any airplanes.

Black Myth: Wukong / This week's AAA release / Tuesday 20 August
Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG rooted in Chinese mythology. The story is based on Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. You shall set out as the Destined One to venture into the challenges and marvels ahead, to uncover the obscured truth beneath the veil of a glorious legend from the past. Steam Link

AMD is developing a new technology that promises to significantly reduce the size on disk of games, as well as reduce the size of game patches and updates. Today's AAA games tend to be over a 100 GB in size, with game updates running into tens of gigabytes, with some of the major updates practically downloading the game all over again. Upcoming games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is reportedly over 300 GB in size, which pushes the game away from those with anything but Internet connections with hundreds of Mbps in speeds. Much of the bulk of the game is made up of visual assets—textures, sprites, and cutscene videos. A modern AAA title could have hundreds of thousands of individual game assets, and sometimes even redundant sets of textures for different image quality settings.

AMD's solution to this problem is the Neural Block Compression technology. The company will get into the nuts and bolts of the tech in its presentation at the 2024 Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (July 3-5), but we have a vague idea of what it could be. Modern games don't drape surfaces of a wireframe with a texture, but also additional layers, such as specular maps, normal maps, roughness maps, etc). AMD's idea is to "flatten" all these layers, including the base texture, into a single asset format, which the game engine could disaggregate into the individual layers using an AI neural network. This is not to be confused with mega-textures—something entirely different, which relies on a single large texture covering all objects in a scene. The idea here is to flatten the various data layers of individual textures and their maps, into a single asset type. In theory, this should yield significant file-size savings, even if it results in some additional compute cost on the client's end.

After a couple of slow weeks of new game releases, we're finally back on track with a wealth of new game releases this week. We even have a AAA title, although some of you might disagree with it being such, mainly due to the blue aliens and there being four different editions of the game. When it comes to the rest of this week's releases, we have a city builder with sacrifices, a medieval inspired MMO, a very sandy game that has nothing to do with giant worms, a Viking inspired online co-op game, a DLC for a very popular RPG game and a dystopian city builder.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora coming to Steam / This week's AAA release / Monday 17 June
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person, action-adventure game set in the Western Frontier. Abducted by the RDA, you, a Na'vi, were molded to serve their purpose. Fifteen years later, you are free, but find yourself a stranger in your birthplace. Reconnect with your lost heritage and discover what it truly means to be Na'vi as you join other clans to protect Pandora. Steam link

Welcome to the 20th week of 2024 and this week kicks off with a huge AAA space saga that some of you have been eagerly waiting for. However, we have a second AAA title this week, which is a few years old Playstation game that, despite the title, doesn't have anything to do with ghosts. The rest of this week's releases involve aliens, rhythms, world wars and pirates.

Homeworld 3 / This week's first AAA title / Monday 13 May
Tactical, beautiful, and wholly unique, the GOTY-winning sci-fi RTS returns with Homeworld 3. Assume control and battle through fleet combat in dazzling, fully 3D space while the award-winning story unfolds on a galactic scale. Strategic freedom is yours. Hulking space derelicts called megaliths bring 3D terrain into the classic Homeworld battlespace. Use the crumbling remains of an ancient civilization to funnel foes into a brilliant ambush or hide your fleet from powerful enemies. Fortresses teem with menacing turrets and invite your strike craft into dangerous trench runs deep behind enemy lines. But not everything is in your control. Dangerous space phenomena like particle storms and asteroid fields will test even senior commanders. Steam Link

As we enter the last full week of April, we're finally back to a busy release schedule again. This week's AAA title apparently had some last minute bugs squashed just this week, so let's hope the released game delivers on its promise. As for the rest of this week you can look forward to a VR horror shooter, a side scrolling action-adventure medtroidvania game, a Robin Hood wannabe game, a dungeon crawler you can play with friends online, a game about a hermit crab, a JRPG and finally a very sandy action RPG.

Manor Lords / This week's AAA release / Friday 26 April / Early Access
Manor Lords is a strategy game that allows you to experience the life of a medieval lord. Grow your starting village into a bustling city, manage resources and production chains, and expand your lands through conquest. Inspired by the art and architecture of late 14th century Franconia, Manor Lords prioritizes historical accuracy wherever possible, using it to inform gameplay mechanics and visuals alike. Common medieval tropes are avoided in favor of historical accuracy, in order to make the world feel more authentic, colorful, and believable. Steam Link

Week 12 is really delivering a baker's dozen when it comes to big game releases, as we have both new and old big releases this week, with this week's AAA release being an open world action RPG game. However, if that's not your cup of tea, then we still have a week packed to the brim with big releases, although it starts off with a bug-sized indie game, but its theme carries over to the next release and this game somehow involves robots. This is followed by a game where you might want to have someone's hand to hold, as it can get a bit scary, even if it's a remake. Towards the end of this week we have another major release, which also involves robots and was a big hit on the PlayStation consoles. We end the week on a somewhat similar theme as the first two game releases of the week, even though it's on a much grander scale.

Dragon's Dogma 2 / This week's AAA release / Friday 22 March
Dragon's Dogma is a single player, narrative driven action-RPG series that challenges the players to choose their own experience - from the appearance of their Arisen, their vocation, their party, how to approach different situations and more. Now, in this long-awaited sequel, the deep, explorable fantasy world of Dragon's Dogma 2 awaits. On your journey, you'll be joined by Pawns, mysterious otherworldly beings, in an adventure so unique you will feel as if accompanied by other players while on your own adventure. All of these elements are elevated further through physics technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and the latest in graphics, to create a truly immersive fantasy world in Dragon's Dogma 2. Steam Link

Founded in 2022, Mighty Koi Studio aims to prove that "The Witcher" is not the only Polish fantasy story that can conquer the world. The studio holds the rights to two electrifying titles, offering creators vast creative possibilities. "Thorgal" and "The Night Wanderer" will launch on PS5, Xbox Series and PC. The release date is yet TBA. The team bases its productions on the Unreal Engine 5 with proprietary extensions and utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as photogrammetry and AI.

The approach to plans comes with great ambition, announcing two AA+ / AAA projects and engaging experienced experts from the world of gaming and animation - currently, the team consists of over 100 people, and the number is expected to double by the end of the year, with external studios also being involved. Mighty Koi hopes that the upcoming productions will conquer not only the Polish but also the foreign gaming market and, like "The Witcher," make Polish fantasy literature a world-class product.

As we enter the year of the dragon according to the Chinese zodiac, we have a week full of new game releases to look forward to, although none of them are unfortunately dragon themed. This week's AAA release has a more caribbean theme and has been a long time coming. As for the remaining releases, we're looking at a dash of phobia, banishment, some insight, dwarves, colonisation and a dark town.

Skull & Bones / This week's AAA release / Friday 16 February
Enter the perilous world of Skull and Bones, a co-op pirate open world action RPG experience, to become the most infamous pirate kingpin. Engage in thrilling naval battles, craft a variety of unique ships, forge unlikely alliances as you overcome the odds, and bring mayhem on the seas. Be part of an immersive world that introduces new challenges and features every season

Welcome to February proper, a week that brings one fairly big AAA release, followed by a few lesser titles. We have sparky tales, a remake by MicroProse, dungeons, inquisitors and a space based RPG game for you, none of which can be considered major releases, but might still be fun to play.

Helldivers 2 / This week's AAA release / Thursday 8 February
Helldivers 2 is a 3rd person squad-based shooter that sees the elite forces of the Helldivers battling to win an intergalactic struggle to rid the galaxy of the rising alien threats. From a 3rd person perspective, players use a variety of weapons (pistols, machine guns, flamethrowers) and stratagems (turrets, airstrikes, etc.) to shoot and kill the alien threats. Players can also aim down the sights for a more accurate 1st person camera view. Combat is accompanied by frequent sprays of blood and dismemberment as players exterminate the alien forces or players and squad mates are hit by environmental explosions or friendly fire. Enemy encampments and battlefield environments depict bloodstains and dismembered corpses.

Alleged full specifications leaked for NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB graphics card show extensive reductions beyond merely reducing memory size versus the 8 GB model. If accurate, performance could lag the existing RTX 3050 8 GB SKU by up to 25%, making it weaker competition even for AMD's budget RX 6500 XT. Previous rumors suggested only capacity and bandwidth differences on a partially disabled memory bus between 3050 variants, which would reduce the memory to 6 GB and 96-bit bus, from 8 GB and 128-bit bus.. But leaked specs indicate CUDA core counts, clock speeds, and TDP all see cuts for the upcoming 6 GB version. With 18 SMs and 2304 cores rather than 20 SMs and 2560 cores at lower base and boost frequencies, the impact looks more severe than expected. A 70 W TDP does allow passive cooling but hurts performance versus the 3050 8 GB's 130 W design.

Some napkin math suggests the 3050 6 GB could deliver only 75% of its elder sibling's frame rates, putting it more in line with the entry-level 6500 XT. While having 50% more VRAM helps, dramatic core and clock downgrades counteract that memory advantage. According to rumors, the RTX 3050 6 GB is set to launch in February, bringing lower-end Ampere to even more budget-focused builders. But with specifications seemingly hobbled beyond just capacity, its real-world gaming value remains to be determined. NVIDIA likely intends RTX 3060 6 GB primarily for less demanding esports titles. Given the scale of cutbacks and the modern AAA title's recommended specifications, mainstream AAA gaming performance seems improbable.

Chinese company Sipeed has introduced the Lichee Pocket 4A, one of the first handheld gaming devices based on the RISC-V open-source instruction set architecture (ISA). Sipeed positions the device as a retro gaming platform capable of running simple titles via software rendering or GPU acceleration. At its core is Alibaba's T-Head TH1520 processor featuring four 2.50 GHz Xuantie C910 RISC-V general-purpose CPU cores and an unnamed Imagination GPU. The chip was originally aimed at laptop designs. Memory options include 8 GB or 16 GB LPDDR4X RAM and 32 GB or 128 GB of storage. The Lichee Pocket 4A has a 7-inch 1280x800 LCD touchscreen, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity, and an array of wired ports like USB and Ethernet. It weighs under 500 grams. The device can run Android or Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, and others.

As an early RISC-V gaming entrant, performance expectations should be modest—the focus is retro gaming and small indie titles, not modern AAA games. Specific gaming capabilities remain to be fully tested. However, the release helps showcase RISC-V's potential for consumer electronics and competitive positioning against proprietary ISAs like ARM. Pricing is still undefined, but another Sipeed handheld console retails for around $250 currently. Reception from enthusiasts and developers will demonstrate whether there's a viable market for RISC-V gaming devices. Success could encourage additional hardware experimentation efforts across emerging open architectures. With a 6000 mAh battery, battery life should be decent. Other specifications can be seen in the table below, and the pre-order link is here.

As we enter the last month of the year, the first week of December starts with a movie based AAA title that is likely to be popular with some and loathed by others. The rest of this coming week's releases aren't quite as impressive, with one exception it seems. However, you can look forward to a mix of underworld dreams, some 4X space action, eggs, another post-apocalyptic MMO and a horror game.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora / This week's AAA title / Thursday 7 December
Abducted by the human militaristic corporation known as the RDA, you, a Na'vi, were trained and molded to serve their purpose. Fifteen years later, you are free, but find yourself a stranger in your birthplace. Reconnect with your lost heritage, discover what it truly means to be Na'vi, and join other clans to protect Pandora from the RDA.

As it's getting darker in the northern hemisphere, we're seeing a continuing stream of new game releases and this week's AAA title appears to involve hammers and ruins of some kind. The rest of this week's releases includes tiny civilizations, rhythms, faith, flashbacks and a Japanese game. Take a gander below to see if there's something for you or maybe you're suffering from new game release overload already?

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin / This week's AAA title / Friday 17 November
Wage a campaign of brutal conquest in this realm-shattering real-time strategy game set in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe. Explore the nature of war from the perspectives of righteous champions and villainous warlords. Battle for survival and dominance across a campaign featuring four major factions, including Stormcast Eternals, Orruk Kruleboyz, Nighthaunt and the Disciples of Tzeentch! Experience a cinematic plot, penned in conjunction with acclaimed Black Library author, Gavin Thorpe.