This latest Amazon Prime Big Deal Days really is playing all the hits for PC storage. As well as money off the finest Steam Deck microSD, there are savings to be had on our tip-top desktop SSD pick, the WD Black SN850X – which is a few years old now, but still produces superlative gaming load times. Or a lack thereof. The 1TB model is down to £70 at Amazon UK, but I think the Yanks have us beat here, as they can nab the 2TB edition for just $140.
It’s a stubborn little beggar, but the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti’s pricing has been dragged down enough in recent months that it’s now a far tastier prospect than it was at launch. Now, the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sale has a twin-fan Asus model down to £340 in the UK – the lowest this particular graphics card has ever been, and as far as I can tell, the least you’d have to pay for a brand-new RTX 4060 Ti in the current market.
I’m acutely aware someone on RPS, usually me, ends up dealsposting about the Samsung Pro Plus every time there’s a big hardware sale going on. As there currently is, with Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days having returned to town. But don’t let my complete lack of original thinking overshadow two simple facts: one, this is still the best microSD card for the Steam Deck, and two, the 512GB model very nearly half price on both sides of the Atlantic. That’s £38 (down from £74) in the UK, and $40 (down from $76) in the US.
One of the more compelling arguments for gaming graphics degrowth is that all those extreme-fidelity moss textures and Master Chief helmet dents are producing some horrifically engorged installation sizes. That’s a recipe for an SSD upgrade, and if it’s space you’re after, then Amazon Prime Big Deal Days has the 4TB Crucial P3 Plus on some big discounts. It’s down from £250 to just £192 in the UK, and down from $360 to $210 in the US.
It’s time for (yet) another of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, days of big Prime deals that have deals on days for Prime. I don’t know anymore, this is like the third or fourth one this year. But I do> know a good gaming keyboard when I see one, and this latest sale has the lovely Logitech G515 Lightspeed TKL down from £140 to £119. Its first UK discount since launch, no less.
The Silent Hill 2 remake is only out today, but it’s been nearly two years since the first system requirements appeared, immediately distressing our PCs so badly that they started having their own nightmares of fog-smothered towns and James Sunderland in an uncomfortably high-poly nurse outfit. Those requirements have since lowered and> risen, and now we know for sure that nu-Silent Hill 2 is one tough customer for performance – albeit one that benefits greatly from just one or two key settings tweaks.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! It’s a double feature this week - Zach Barths and Matthew Burns of former Zachtronics fame! (Do read Edwin's interview with Zach on their unrealised 40K factory game). Cheers Zach and Matthew! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelves?
Sundays are for more Space Marine 2 operations. Ah, I see you’ve combined incredibly slow progression XP with worthwhile upgrades, forcing me to play for hours. I hate you for this, but I will not stop. Before I pour yet more of my life into making a fake number go up, let’s read some of this week’s writing I personally found interesting about videogames (and game related things!)
Greetings, friends. Do you have a moment to speak about our lord and saviour, the electric heat pad? My spine now resembles a splinter of charred wood, but oh, so worthwhile. It's an absolute godsend as the days get brisker. My flatmate keeps telling me I shouldn't keep the window wide open if I'm getting cold, but he doesn't understand. I need the airflow. I can handle the chill, but if the air's too still, things go downhill!
So, now that we're all sitting comfortably atop our heat pads: what are we all playing this weekend? Let's take a looksie at what we're all clicking on here in the treehouse.
We pitch our tents outside Constantinople and crack open the ale. In the light of the campfire I examine my travel companions as they party. There's an Ashkenazi rabbi, a Saxon serf, some French knights, a Czech spy, a German dwarf, and a pair of inseparable Italian peasants. This rowdy band of roustabouts I've collected in the Crusader Kings 3's Roads To Power expansion has the feeling of a found family, each fellow wanderer sporting their own ambitions and quirks. They won't all make it. Many of the people I'm looking at in the glow of these embers will fall on the road, victims of robbery, landslides, and animal attacks. One of them will sacrifice their life to save the rest of us. All will bring me a step closer to my goal: I am walking from Ireland to China.