This Week in Gaming (Week 32)

Welcome to the first week of August where this week's major release takes us to Sicily, and it might involve suits and guns. The rest of this week's releases kicks off with some gun-fu, followed by some demon slaying, space exploration, a cozy bookshop, ending with a bit of subterranean horror.

Mafia: The Old Country / This week's major release / Thursday 7 August
Uncover the origins of organized crime in Mafia: The Old Country, a gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily. Fight to survive as Enzo Favara and prove your worth to the Family in this immersive third-person action-adventure set during a dangerous, unforgiving era. Enzo will do anything for a better life. After a brutal childhood of forced labor, he's ready to risk everything to become a man of honor in the Torrisi crime family. Steam link Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/339542/this-...ng-week-32

(PR) THQ Nordic Showcase 2025 Recap: All Announcements & Trailers

The THQ Nordic Digital Showcase 2025 has wrapped - and what a ride it was! Whether you were tuning in for updates, unexpected news, or a first look at tomorrow's biggest adventures, this year's showcase delivered the goods. Couldn't catch it live? No worries! The full show is now available on demand across all our official channels. So grab a snack, press play, and dive into everything we revealed.

THQ Nordic Showcase Sale
And the celebrations don't stop there, we're also kicking off the THQ Nordic Showcase Sale on Steam! From August 1-8, fans can explore a curated event page packed with great deals across our portfolio. Expect deep discounts on beloved titles like Darksiders (up to 80% off), plus some brand-new offers: Jagged Alliance 3 drops to 60% off for the first time ever, and Alone in the Dark is now also 60% off with its new, lower base price. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/339521/thq-n...s-trailers

(PR) Pulsar Gaming Gears Unveils the Pulsar Pro Series JV-X Mouse with JessieVash

Pulsar Gaming Gears, a leading developer of high-performance esports peripherals, today proudly announced the official launch of the Pulsar Pro Series JV-X mouse. This groundbreaking new peripheral is the direct result of a close collaboration with JessieVash of Team Secret, one of the most celebrated and experienced figures in professional VALORANT.

Pulsar has been a dedicated sponsor of JessieVash and Team Secret since February, 2024, fostering a deep partnership aimed at developing cutting-edge products that truly empower esports athletes. The Pulsar Pro Series JV-X stands as a testament to this synergy, marking it as the first Filipino-developed pro-series Pulsar mouse. It has been meticulously designed with JessieVash's unparalleled insights and demands, drawing from his extensive career as a competitive player, prominent streamer, and content creator for Team Secret, and beyond. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/339382/pulsa...jessievash

Rockstar Job Listings Point to GTA VI User-Generated Content Platform

Rockstar Games has put up two job listings for its Creator Platform, which is its team that is dedicated to enabling community- and user-generated content in its video games—features that have made games like Roblox, VRChat, and Second Life so popular. The job openings are for a senior product manager and an associate compliance manager, suggesting Rockstar is looking to bring the army of GTA modders into the fold in a more official capacity—there is even a mention of monetization in the job listings, which suggests some form of a paid mod or game mode platform that pays creators for their contributions. Including UGC in GTA 6 will also likely mean that Rockstar will be able to exercise greater levels of control over what can and cannot be included in things like mods.

This is not the first time we've heard of the potential for user-generated content in GTA 6, with previous leaks revealing that Rockstar had been quietly contacting popular Fortnite and Roblox UGC creators, although these job listings are more concrete evidence that the upcoming open-world action game may contain UGC. If the ambitions pan out, GTA 6 might include a Creator Platform with community-generated content, including custom game modes and mods. The job listing specifically mentions dedicated servers, so it stands to reason these features will be open to both multiplayer and single-player gameplay modes. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/339439/rocks...t-platform

Sony Sues Tencent for Stolen Concepts From Horizon Game Series

Tencent's Polaris Quest recently announced Light of Motiram as a free-to-play survival game set in a vast open world overrun by large mechanical beasts—Mechanimals, they're called—and what few humans still roam the lands eke out a tribal existence. It's not difficult to see why Sony Entertainment just initiated legal proceedings against Tencent over intellectual property infringement (via Reuters), alleging that the new game is infringing on its Horizon franchise.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of Horizon Forbidden West is now live]

When Light of Motiram was announced, many gaming publications reported on its similarities to Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, and this reporting is part of Sony's case. However, Sony's legal claims stem from more than just game journalists and online voices picking up on the similarities. According to the complaint, Tencent initially tried to collaborate with Sony on the upcoming Light of Motiram, as a new game in the Horizon universe, but decided to go ahead with the announcement and development of the game despite Sony declining the collaboration. Sony says that Light of Motiram also features identical gameplay elements, in-game art, and themes to the Horizon series. It should be noted, though, that while there are obvious aesthetic similarities, Light of Motiram is a survival-craft MMO, whereas games in the Horizon franchise are story-driven single-player games.


https://www.techpowerup.com/339363/sony-...ame-series

Lisuan Tech Unveils 7G106—China's First 6 Nanometer Gaming GPU

Presenting the new 7G106 gaming GPU. Its creator, Lisuan Tech, is a Chinese deep-tech startup that set out to develop their own gaming chip with the potential to grab a large slice of the PC gaming graphics market, beginning with China. The Chinese gaming industry is built on the philosophy of interesting and engaging gameplay without trying to wow the audience with cutting-edge visual effects; which means it's trying to target the largest possible install-base with mainstream GPUs. The new Lisuan Tech 7G106 is designed to be a locally designed and familiar GPU that gamers can reach out to, without getting entangled in the pricing mess of established brands.

The Lisuan Tech 7G106 is based on the company's own TrueGPU graphics architecture. "7G"—pronounced similarly to "miracle" in Chinese—reflects the team's ambition behind the GPU and the challenges they had to overcome. The 7G106 graphics processor is based on a monolithic die that's built using the TSMC N6 (6 nm DUV) foundry node. It is a contemporary gaming GPU designed to accelerate games and 3D applications with wide API support: DirectX 12, Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. While DirectX 12 is included, ray tracing is not available, meaning there is no DirectX 12 Ultimate. The 7G106 comes with a feature-packed SIMD engine that is able to run calculations with FP32, and the new INT8 data type. The GPU has a maximum throughput of 24 TFLOP/s (FP32). The main compute language is OpenCL 3.0. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/339298/lisua...gaming-gpu

Those who like to discuss velcom with me. You don't always have to spend a fortune to create a cozy space. In this post, I'll reveal a few tricks that will help you significantly reduce the cost of buying a kitchen, without sacrificing quality and style.

AMD Ryzen AI MAX "Strix Halo" APUs Arrive on Mini‑ITX Boards with 128 GB LPDDR5X

Chinese ODM Sixunited has introduced its STHT1 Thin Mini‑ITX board, bringing AMD's Strix Halo "Ryzen AI MAX" APUs to the PC enthusiast market for the first time. Previously available only in high-end laptops and compact PCs, these Zen 5-based SoCs feature up to 16 CPU cores, an enhanced RDNA 3.5 Radeon 8060S GPU with up to 40 CU, and an integrated AI engine. Sixunited's non-socketed design allows builders to select any Ryzen AI MAX model: from the six-core, 16-thread 380 to the top-tier 16-core, 32-thread 395+ SKU, each supporting a configurable TDP range between 45 and 120 watts. To fully leverage this performance, the STHT1 ships with 128 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory soldered directly onto the board. This unified memory pool feeds the CPU, GPU, and AI engine, ensuring sufficient bandwidth for tasks such as LLM inference and real‑time rendering in a compact footprint.

The STHT1 MoDT (Mobile on Desktop) platform offers plenty of connectivity and storage options. Dual M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots accommodate high-speed NVMe drives, while an M.2 2230 socket supports Wi-Fi modules. The rear panel features HDMI 2.1, a user-selectable DisplayPort, VGA, or COM output, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, additional USB 3.2 Gen 1 and USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and audio jacks. Internally, a robust 16-phase voltage regulator module powers the SoC, alongside a 4+1-phase arrangement for auxiliary components. Supporting the board are two fan headers, a standard four-pin ATX power connector, and a 19-volt DC-in plug, all housed on a 170×170 mm PCB.


https://www.techpowerup.com/339124/amd-r...gb-lpddr5x

(PR) AAEON Releases PICO-TWL4, a Robust, Efficient 2.5-inch SBC for the Industrial A

Premier embedded computing provider AAEON, has announced the release of the PICO-TWL4, a compact Pico-ITX board powered by Intel Processor N-series processors (formerly Twin Lake). The board is available in SKUs featuring both the 6 W, quad-core Intel Processor N150 and the 15 W, octa-core Intel Core 3 Processor N355. On its ultra-small 100 mm x 72 mm PICO-ITX form factor, the PICO-TWL4 leverages the optimized single and multi-thread performance of the newest efficiency-focused Intel processing platform while retaining the robust industrial design that AAEON's Pico-ITX line is known for.

The board offers up to 16 GB of DDR5 memory via SODIMM slot, two LAN ports (2.5GbE and 1GbE), and six USB interfaces, made up of two physical USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and four USB 2.0 via pin header. For display, the PICO-TWL4 has both LVDS and HDMI, with the board's LVDS co-layed with eDP, providing greater variety to users based on project requirements. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/339099/aaeon...ion-market

This Week in Gaming (Week 30)

After a couple of slow weeks, we have a crammed week of new releases ahead of us and it kicks off with an action RPG set in feudal China. This is followed by a kingdom builder, a space PvP shooter with a twist or two, a bicycle race, bicycle race, bicycle race—sorry—a FPS zombie shooter and landing in a Sci-Fi noir mystery. There are a few more new games that didn't quite make the list as well.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers / This week's major release / Thursday 24 July
Become Wuchang, a skilled pirate warrior struck by amnesia, who must navigate the uncertainties of her mysterious past while afflicted by the horrific Feathering disease. Explore the depths of Shu, enhancing your arsenal and mastering new skills harvested from fallen foes. Evolve your fighting style by sacrificing elusive Red Mercury and further develop new techniques obtained throughout your action-packed journey. Augment the weapons in your repertoire with powerful enchantments, allowing for a unique approach to combat and strategy that suits your personal style. Steam link Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/339088/this-...ng-week-30