Welcome to, The RoundUp! This is our monthly news post which summarizes the past month in PC gaming, PC tech and new Thermaltake products that you may have missed. On today’s RoundUp for December 2019: we summarize the biggest PC announcements from The Game Awards, talk about VR hardware news for far too long, and Puma announces GAMER SOCKS?! All that and more, in the RoundUp for December 2019!
GAMES RELEASED
December was a relatively quiet month in the world of gaming, as it often tends to be after the mad rush that is October and November.
A few highlights for the PC was the release of Halo Reach and the MasterChief Collection. There are plans to release more previously console only Halo installments into the collection in future.[1]
Apart from that, the turn-based strategy game Phoenix Point released on December 3rd. A few days later, the hack-and-slash game Darksiders Genesis dropped. And lastly, the text-based spin off game Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York released on the 11th.[2]
GENERAL GAMES NEWS
With the release of Halo’s MasterChief Collection to the PC, the game promptly went straight to number one on the Steam carts. The standalone version of Halo Reach also sat pretty at number 3. The game accrued more than 60,000 concurrent players in its first 45 minutes![3]
Red Barrels, the company that made Outlast, have announced a new game in their horror series. The Outlast Trials is a 4 player co-operate survival horror game. Based in the same universe as the previous Outlast Games, you are now a test subject in a mysterious Cold War experiment. You can team up with up to three others to play through the sure to be frightening game.[4]
It seems like every year a new rumour circulates about a new Bioshock game. And 2019 was no exception. This time however, there might be some actual solid proof of it. 2K officially announced their new studio, Cloud Chamber, and the consensus is that this studio is now creating the newest installment in the Bioshock series. Kelley Gilmore is running the studio, the first woman to do so for a 2K studio. Other members of the original Bioshock development team are mentioned to also be involved.[5] However, they are notably missing original game creator Ken Levine.
Doom: Eternal is looking out for all you old school FPS players out there! The game will come with a classic mode at launch, allowing you to hold your weapon in the centre of the screen much like the original games.[6]
Resident Evil fans were given a nice surprise at Sony’s State of Play Event. A Resident Evil 3 PC remake is on the horizon. It will feature a new camera, controls and a ton of upgrades to the visuals. The game is due to release in April, 2020. [7]
Beloved VR game Superhot, grossed over 2 million dollars in a single week! The leading theory is that this is due to many people getting VR headsest over Christmas to prepare for Half Life: Alyx in March, 2020.[8]
And speaking of Half Life: Alyx…
G-man voice actor Mike Shapiro reigned in the new year by posting a video as his iconic character. Shapiro hasn’t confirmed whether this has anything to do with Half-Life: Alyx. However, it’s still a great video for any Half-Life fan[9]. Check it out HERE if you missed it!
THE GAME AWARDS
A big event from December was the yearly Game Awards, hosted by gaming’s favourite guy, Geoff Keighley. Here’s a wrap up of some of the announcements if you missed them…
The Wolf Among Us 2 was formally announced with a teaser trailer, but sadly no release date was announced. [10]
Gears: Tactics, a new turn-based strategy game in the Gears of War series was revealed. Think a game like XCOM, but with Gears’s over the top boss battles. The game releases April 28, 2020. [11]
A Magic: The Gathering MMO is on the way! Developed by Perfect World and its subsidiary Cryptic Studios, the game’s first cinematic trailer looks very impressive! However, there is no real further information available about it at this point.[12]
Gearbox publishing unveiled a new looter-slasher style game, developed by Counterplay Games. Godfall is a third person fantasy action RPG and has some fancy looking armour! You can play either solo or in co-op with up to three players. The game will be available through the Epic Games store, in 2020.[13]
The former Arkane bosses who formed their own studio, revealed their new IP. Weird West is an action RPG, centred around a group of unconventional heroes. There is no confirmed release date.[14]
A very cryptic trailer by the creator of PUBG had many scratching their heads. Prologue’s brief teaser of a damp, quiet forest left many wondering what sort of game this even could be! It is confirmed that it will not be PUBG 2. In fact – it’s not even going to be a shooter! [15] Only time will tell what this mysterious game turns out to be.
On top of announcing the new Xbox console, Microsoft also announced the sequel to 2017’s acclaimed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. It’s called Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga. The game initially was only confirmed for the new Xbox Series X; however, it’s also coming to PC – hooray![16]
CONTROVERSIAL NEWS
The publisher of Rune 2 has sued the game’s ex-developers Human Head Studios. The publishers were assured the game post launch would still be supported, however the ex-studio has refused to provide them with access to the games assets to do so[17]. This is just another spanner in the works for the troubled ex-studio after their closure.
It seems a U.S. congressman got a bit too carried away with Steam sales. The congressman admitted to spending more than $150,000 of campaign funds on an array of items: from plane tickets for his pet rabbits, to upwards of $1,302 on Steam games![18] He has since stepped down from congress.[19]
A few months ago, Rocket League impressed many by doing away with random lootboxes. Sadly, it seems, their alternative system didn’t make people all too happy either. This new system makes it that you are sometimes forced to spend tons of money on 1 item, but before you could get lucky and get that same item for a fraction of the price.[20] After this was initially reported, the devs made some tweaks such as lowering prices and reducing rarity of certain items.[21]Regardless, it seems the loot box dilemma is still not quite as solved as we had hoped.
In a very bizarre move, Puma announced their new gaming socks. That’s right, socks for the predominately stationary activity of gaming?! They cost a whopping $160 and are designed with console gamers in mind. Puma boasts that these socks provide, “seamless comfort, support and grip so gamers can adapt to different active gaming modes and game their best”[22].
TECH NEWS
According to new data from steam, AMD CPU usage is rising. Steam states that nearly 20% of their users are running their systems on an AMD, a huge jump from 2 years ago when it was only 8%. This is put down to the recent streak of well received products being released from AMD.[23]
It seems leaks are abound for Intel right now. Specs for the new Intel Comet Lake series of CPUs found their way online, showcasing a number of their features. These include model names, speeds and a boost feature to push speeds even higher.[24]
PC Gamer revealed their best hardware pick of 2019, with AMD coming up top picks for both CPUs and GPUs. They awarded their AMD RX 5700XT the best GPU, and the Ryzen 9 3900X best CPU.[25] 2019 truly was a good year to be an AMD fan.
The Oculus Quest will soon support hand tracking. This means that the user won’t need any sort of controller to interact with the environment. For now, it’s only usable in their own in-house programs. They expect third party developers to be able to begin implementing this feature sometime in 2020.[26]
Onto less exciting Oculus Quest news now. The popular VR headset has been back ordered all the way to February 2020! The only place that is still OK stock wise is Amazon, however there is no way to tell how long that will last.[27] So, if you are holding out for a headset for Half-Life: Alyx, get in quick, because now might be your last chance!
And lastly in the VR Hardware news section, a VR glove is promising to bring touch to the VR experience. The Teslasuit Glove can detect hand and finger movements, and then provide feedback to simulate the object you are touching. It also can take your pulse, to track your emotional state and stress. For the moment it’s not designed for gaming, however developers think it easily could be translated to it in future.[28]
THERMALTAKE NEWS
And finally, the RoundUp for December 2019 at Thermaltake!
We released the gorgeous Z-ONE RAM, the more budget friendly younger brother to our ToughRAM. We also released some gorgeous cases including a snow edition for our stunning S500 Case; and the newest in our H series of cases, the H550! Check out our first look on the latter, right HERE!
Over on our YouTube channel, we made you guys an awesome gift guide for PC Accessories UNDER $100. We also did an EPIC snowy themed build for UNDER $1500! The month was educational too, as we taught you guys how to install a GPU Water Block. To cap off an awesome 2019, we also posted some funny blooper moments! I also went a little crazy and stirred up a rather different sort of ad for our ToughRAM, which you can check out below!
Also remember our podcast Thermal Talk is still going strong! Check out the audio versions of it on Spotify, Sound Cloud or Apple Podcasts! A week later, we upload the video versions on our channel too!
Blog wise, you might have missed the 2 posts that went up over the holidays counting down my top games of 2019 AND my top picks for games to upgrade for in 2020!
** P.S. A secret message for those of you who read to the end! **
Thank YOU so much for reading! It’s been a whirlwind of the past 6 months working here and getting this blog up and running again has been quite the task, but I’ve really loved bringing it back to life! I hope you enjoyed it too! And I look forward to writing even more posts for you in 2020!
Sarah 🙂
RESOURCES: [1] https://www.gamespot.com/articles/december-game-release-dates-2019-switch-xbox-one-p/1100-6471611/ [2] https://www.gamespot.com/articles/major-game-release-dates-of-2019-ps4-xbox-one-swit/1100-6460070/ [3] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/halo-the-master-chief-collection-hits-the-top-of-the-charts-on-steam/ [4] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/the-outlast-trials-is-a-4-player-survival-horror-set-during-the-cold-war/ [5] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/bioshock-is-returning-but-its-still-several-years-away/ [6] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/doom-eternal-will-have-centred-weapons-as-an-option-at-launch/ [7] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/resident-evil-3-remake-is-coming-to-pc-in-april/ [8] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/superhot-vr-grosses-over-dollar2-million-in-a-single-week/ [9] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/the-g-man-speaks-for-the-first-time-in-12-years/ [10] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/the-wolf-among-us-2-teaser/ [11] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/gears-tactics-arrives-in-april/ [12] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/magic-legends-is-an-mmo-set-in-the-magic-the-gathering-universe/ [13] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/gearbox-reveals-godfall-a-fantasy-action-rpg-coming-next-year/ [14] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/former-arkane-bosses-reveal-their-new-game-an-action-rpg-called-weird-west/ [15] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/playerunknowns-prologue-isnt-a-sequel-or-a-shooter/ [16] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/hellblade-ii-confirmed-for-both-pc-and-xbox-series-x/ [17] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/rune-2-publisher-sues-human-head-studios-for-abandoning-the-game/ [18] https://www.polygon.com/2019/12/3/20994314/duncan-hunter-congressman-pleads-guilty-steam-games-campaign-funds [19] https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/jan/10/roundtable-duncan-hunter-resigns-now-what/ [20] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/rocket-league-players-arent-happy-with-loot-boxes-being-replaced-by-a-shop/ [21] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/rocket-leagues-new-blueprints-get-a-price-reduction/ [22] https://www.pcgamer.com/au//pumas-gaming-socks-cost-dollar105-and-dont-even-have-rgb-lighting/ [23] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/amd-processor-usage-is-now-over-20-according-to-steam-hardware-survey/ [24] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/specs-for-nearly-a-dozen-intel-comet-lake-cpus-may-have-leaked/ [25] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/hardware-of-the-year-awards-2019/#comment-jump [26] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/hand-tracking-is-headed-to-oculus-quest-ahead-of-schedule/ [27] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/oculus-quest-backorders-now-extend-to-late-february-except-at-amazon-for-now/ [28] https://www.pcgamer.com/au/this-vr-glove-aims-to-bring-the-sense-of-touch-to-virtual-objects/
