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2026's best RPG might look like Disco Elysium, but it was heavily inspired by Deus Ex, and its creator wants 'to do a first-person game at some point'
AppWizard
July 12, 2026

2026’s best RPG might look like Disco Elysium, but it was heavily inspired by Deus Ex, and its creator wants ‘to do a first-person game at some point’

Christoffer Bodegård began his journey into PC gaming with a DOS machine from his father and first played Disney's The Jungle Book. His passion for role-playing games was ignited by Dragon Age: Origins, which led him to explore many titles, including Planescape: Torment. After eight years of development, his game Esoteric Ebb launched in March to critical acclaim. Currently, he is playing Victoria 3, having logged around 400 hours, and previously played Abiotic Factor. The oldest games on his PC are Heroes of Might and Magic 3, King of Dragon Pass, Deus Ex, and Diablo 2, with Heroes 3 being a favorite. He has logged around 1,000 hours in Esoteric Ebb and is particularly fond of Europa Universalis IV, especially the Anbennar mod. Bodegård has never uninstalled Deus Ex, which greatly influences his design philosophy. He relies on Notepad++ for scripting and has improved his desktop organization from a cluttered state to a cleaner setup.
Lenovo’s stunning new Windows 11 all‑in‑one finally dethrones the Surface Studio with its bold Yoga AIO i Aura design
Winsage
July 8, 2026

Lenovo’s stunning new Windows 11 all‑in‑one finally dethrones the Surface Studio with its bold Yoga AIO i Aura design

The Lenovo Yoga AiO i 32 Aura Edition features a unique upside-down V-shaped stand that supports the display and houses the computing hardware, creating a floating screen illusion. It has a 32-inch 4K OLED panel with a 165Hz refresh rate and a 99% DCI-P3 color rating, making it suitable for creative professionals. The device is powered by an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor and integrated Intel Arc B390 graphics, performing well in various tasks but lacking a dedicated GPU option for high-performance gaming. The built-in speaker system has been reported to produce a persistent hissing noise, affecting audio quality. The port selection is limited, with only a few USB ports and no Ethernet jack or SD card reader, which may require users to invest in additional adapters or peripherals.
Bypassed Windows 11 shows surprising stability on ancient, completely unsupported hardware
Winsage
June 30, 2026

Bypassed Windows 11 shows surprising stability on ancient, completely unsupported hardware

Windows 11 has elevated system requirements, necessitating four times the memory and storage for AI-driven applications. It can technically run on a minimum of 4GB of memory, but current hardware pricing is challenging due to a silicon shortage affecting various memory types. A retro hardware enthusiast named Omores installed Windows 11 on a DDR1-based system using an ASRock ConRoe865PE motherboard, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, 3GB of DDR1 RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP graphics card. He overcame the lack of AGP support in Windows 11 by using legacy drivers, achieving satisfactory performance for older applications and games. However, Windows 11 version 24H2 requires SSE4.2 CPU instructions, which are not supported by processors from the AGP era, making version 23H2 the last compatible release for such systems.
Half-Life Sets Historic Price Record Among PC Games
AppWizard
June 29, 2026

Half-Life Sets Historic Price Record Among PC Games

A sealed copy of the game Half-Life sold for 2,725 at a Goldin auction, receiving 70 bids and starting at [openai_gpt model="gpt-4o-mini" prompt="Summarize the content and extract only the fact described in the text bellow. The summary shall NOT include a title, introduction and conclusion. Text: A remarkable event unfolded recently at a Goldin auction, where a sealed copy of the iconic game Half-Life fetched an impressive ,725. This particular copy, which garnered a total of 70 bids, began its journey at a modest starting price of 0 last month. The auction not only highlighted the enduring popularity of this classic title but also set a new benchmark in the realm of PC gaming collectibles. Record-Breaking Sale This sale marks a significant milestone, as Half-Life has now become the highest-priced PC game ever sold at auction. The sealed copy received an impressive "85+" rating from the Video Game Authority, underscoring its pristine condition and collectible value. According to the lot description on the Goldin website: VGA registry reports confirm only one copy of this edition with a higher grade. Released in 1998 by Sierra On-Line, this sealed copy of Half-Life is a first-person shooter for PC (for Windows 95/98/NT) and the first game in the series. Before this auction, the record for a PC game was held by Akalabeth: World of Doom (1979), which sold for ,211 several years ago. The achievement of Half-Life is a testament to its lasting impact on the gaming community. However, the ,725 price tag, while impressive, still pales in comparison to the staggering amounts commanded by some titles from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Earlier this month, a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. made headlines by selling for an astonishing million at a Heritage Auctions event, illustrating the vast differences in collectible values across gaming platforms." max_tokens="3500" temperature="0.3" top_p="1.0" best_of="1" presence_penalty="0.1" frequency_penalty="frequency_penalty"]. This sale makes Half-Life the highest-priced PC game ever sold at auction. The copy received an "85+" rating from the Video Game Authority and is one of only two copies of this edition with a higher grade. Released in 1998 by Sierra On-Line, it is a first-person shooter for PC. The previous record for a PC game was held by Akalabeth: World of Doom, which sold for ,211.
Sorry, Xbox fans: GTA 6 "will play best on PS5," Sony declares, but with no PC version in sight, I can't say I'm surprised
AppWizard
June 24, 2026

Sorry, Xbox fans: GTA 6 “will play best on PS5,” Sony declares, but with no PC version in sight, I can’t say I’m surprised

Sony claims that Grand Theft Auto 6 will provide its best experience on the PlayStation 5, with pre-orders starting at midnight in various time zones. Rockstar Games has released information about the game, including pricing and details about the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition, noting that physical copies will only contain a code and that GTA Online will not be available at launch. Mary Yee, Senior Vice President of Marketing at SIE, stated that "Grand Theft Auto 6 plays best on PS5" and highlighted the PS5's advanced hardware capabilities, including the DualSense controller and 3D audio technology. European retailers have suggested that the game may feature performance and quality modes, although skepticism exists regarding these claims.
“This is the gaming handheld we’ve been waiting for” — MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review of a masterpiece priced for the few
Winsage
June 24, 2026

“This is the gaming handheld we’ve been waiting for” — MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review of a masterpiece priced for the few

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is a gaming handheld powered by Intel's Arc G3 Extreme processor, priced at 9.99. It features an 8-inch FHD+ display (1920x1200) with 500 nits brightness and supports variable refresh rates from 48Hz to 120Hz. The device includes Hall-Effect analog sticks, tactile buttons, and dual front speakers with Bluetooth Core 6.0 support. It scored 6,726 on the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. The 80Whr battery lasts approximately 3.5 hours on demanding games and over five hours on lighter titles. It has Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and dual Thunderbolt 4 ports for desktop functionality when docked.
Millisecond Latency at Scale: Why Our ML Feature Store Runs on Snowflake Postgres
Tech Optimizer
June 23, 2026

Millisecond Latency at Scale: Why Our ML Feature Store Runs on Snowflake Postgres

Organizations are consolidating their fragmented database environments with Snowflake Postgres, phasing out outdated systems and simplifying multivendor setups without extensive code rewrites. Ericsson migrated four legacy databases to Snowflake Postgres, achieving a 99% reduction in data processing time. SimCorp's transition to Snowflake Postgres resulted in a tenfold increase in disk operation speeds. Sigma Computing provides real-time analytics using Snowflake Postgres, eliminating the need for external systems. BlueCloud supports low-latency transactional workloads and analytics on a single platform. Superblocks enables developers to create full-stack applications using Snowflake CoCo, leveraging SQL tools against live data. Snowflake Postgres is approximately four times faster than Databricks Lakebase and has a 99.95% published uptime SLA. It operates on Postgres 18 and accommodates up to 64 TB of storage, surpassing Lakebase's 16 TB limit. Snowflake Postgres simplifies management with in-place major version upgrades and supports standard logical replication, enhancing flexibility for data movement and integration.
New DirectX Dump Files tool will make debugging crashes easier GPU + Windows
Winsage
June 21, 2026

New DirectX Dump Files tool will make debugging crashes easier GPU + Windows

Microsoft has launched a public preview of DirectX Dump Files, designed to improve the debugging process for GPU crashes on Windows. The .dxdmp files are created when a hardware error is detected and contain hardware snapshots, driver data, Direct3D runtime context, and application user data. Developers need to meet specific requirements, including using Windows 24H2 or 25H2 with update KB5089573 or later, Windows 26H1 with update KB5089570 or later, Agility SDK Update Package 1.721.1-preview, and enabling developer mode. Additionally, AMD Software AgilitySDK Developer Preview Edition 26.10.07.02 is required for AMD graphics cards, along with compatible benchmark drivers from Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm, and PIX version 2606.18-preview for analyzing dump files. The tool is currently focused on gathering developer feedback and is not intended for retail game integration. Developers can choose between three operational modes: NOOVERHEAD, MEDIUMOVERHEAD, and HIGH_OVERHEAD. The full launch is expected in fall 2026.
Gothic 1 Remake PC Performance Analysis
AppWizard
June 15, 2026

Gothic 1 Remake PC Performance Analysis

THQ Nordic announced the Gothic 1 Remake for PC, utilizing Unreal Engine 5. The benchmarking was conducted on a high-end setup featuring an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor and various GPUs, including AMD Radeon RX 6900XT and NVIDIA RTX 4090. The game offers extensive graphics settings and supports technologies like NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 and AMD FSR 3.1. It does not include a built-in benchmark tool, so testing was done in a demanding scene. At 1080p with Very High settings, it consistently achieves 60FPS across many GPUs. At 1440p, leading NVIDIA GPUs maintained frame rates above 60FPS, while AMD's RX 9070XT and RX 7900XTX averaged 70FPS and 68FPS, respectively. For Native 4K at Very High settings, the NVIDIA RTX 5090 delivered a minimum of 65FPS. The game scales well with graphics presets, achieving over 60FPS at lower settings. DLSS 4.5 improved performance significantly, with frame rates exceeding 100FPS in some scenarios. The graphics are impressive, though character models may not match the quality of top-tier titles. Minor traversal stutters were noted but did not significantly impact gameplay. Overall, the game performs well across various PC configurations, especially at 1080p with compatible monitors.
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