PC Gaming

AMD, October 30th: “Future driver updates with targeted game optimizations will focus on RDNA 3 and RDNA 4 GPUs.”

The Huntsman V3 Pro TKL wired gaming keyboard, among other Razer accessories, can now be customized to feature the Dragon Lore skin from Counter-Strike for an extra fee. It’s a surprising collaboration given that Valve has banned its optional Snap Tap feature in Counter-Strike 2 since last year.

Microsoft tells Tom’s Hardware:

As Bloomberg reports, roughly $1.75 billion of value evaporated from the game’s pricey item skins market after an October 22nd update made it easier for players to acquire knife skins. If you’re an average player, that’s probably a welcome change, but it’s caused chaos for traders making thousands, or even millions, of dollars on high-rarity items.

Valve is testing a new Personal Calendar feature in Steam that generates a calendar of new and upcoming games you might like. Fortunately, you can lower the number of suggestions from the default of 100, which I found made my calendar way less overwhelming.

Razer is announcing a new Phantom White Collection of translucent gaming accessories. The see-through white peripherals are a follow-up to the original Phantom Collection, which was very green — very Razer.

At 9am PT / 12pm ET, I’m answering subscriber questions live in the comments on this story, with an Xbox Ally in my left fist and an Xbox Ally X in my right. Ask me anything about the new handhelds, or the future of gaming in general!

Maingear is making 50 limited edition Doom PCs that look metal af. The $2,999 Hurt Me Plenty, $3,999 Ultra-Violence, and $5,999 Nightmare models are a collaboration with case maker HAVN. Inside each is a TRYX 360 Panorama SE liquid cooler playing clips of classic Doom on its wraparound LCD. 🤘🏻

ARC Raiders, the upcoming extraction shooters from the makers of The Finals, debuts later this month, and Nvidia is ready. Today’s Game Ready driver (version 581.57) includes support for ARC Raiders, Pax Dei, The Outer Worlds 2, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. It also has fixes for Steam overlay stability issues, Black Myth: Wukong graphic glitches, and Madden 26 stability problems.

Embrace looks like Elgato’s answer to Herman Miller’s Embody gaming chair. It has a five-step recline with adjustable tilt tension, a headrest, a mesh back, lumbar support, and arm rests that move up, down, forward, back, in, and out. It will be priced at $499.99, and Elgato is aiming to ship Embrace before the Christmas holiday period.

Does a sale count? Either way, seven months later, Newegg is finally selling an entry-level RX 9070 at MSRP rather than scalping it. Guess it wasn’t “launch-only pricing” after all.

Vampire Survivors developer Poncle is drip-feeding new features coming in the game’s 1.14 update, and online co-op is the first of five teased announcements.

If you want to see an example of the new Web Shops for mobile and PC, check out the web shop for Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms.

You know how Sony’s quietly building a PS5-grade handheld? GPD’s kind of already done it — by stuffing the monster AMD Strix Halo chip in the Framework Desktop and ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet into a handheld that needs SO MUCH electricity. Preorders are live at Indiegogo.

SteelSeries is launching its flagship Arctis Nova Elite gaming headset today, priced at an eye-watering $599.99. It’s the first gaming headset with wireless hi-res audio and SteelSeries is positioning it in a new category of luxury headsets that get closer to audiophile-grade performance. The Nova Elite can also connect to your phone, game console, and PC simultaneously.

Battlefield 6 is arriving next week and Nvidia is releasing a Game Ready driver update just in time. The latest 581.42 release (download here) is optimized for both Battlefield 6 and FBC: Firebreak’s Breakpoint Update.

There’s been a bit of backlash to the Xbox Ally handheld’s $999 price tag, which will be a stiff test of consumer interest in expensive console hardware. But it’s also a test of Microsoft’s “everything is an Xbox” philosophy, because this sure is expensive for an Xbox that only plays PC games, and not everyone is sold:

Steam is redesigning its store menu to make it easier to find games, which is great news if you’re the single Steam user whose problem is not buying enough games on the platform.