Hiya folks, welcome to the middle of January!

Danial on the writing block for the first time this year and boy have I got something to share about.

BUT FIRST!

So before writing this feature for our newsletter, I was in the midst of upgrading my current war-machine of five years, getting it a new Graphics Card that was going well..

Right until I found out that I didn’t have the connector that it needs to power the fans that’s built into it  to power and perhaps cool it down when I inevitably run Cyberpunk 2077 on it later. But it has led me to think about how dumb I was during my parts picking back in the pandemic era, that was probably done half-assedly, in an attempt to future proof it… in the year that the current gen of consoles were launching.

And while on paper that was a solid idea ,with a 2.5K price in that terrible surge pricing of that graphics card era, that weirdly has feedback loop itself to where we are right now, with the prices of the Nvidia RTX 50 series going bonkers mad. So what should have I done better in my previous attempt, to be honest? Mostly lots of things but we’ll get to it in paragraphs. 

Like for starters, perhaps I should have splurged for a bigger SSD than the 256gb for both windows and even for video games storage. And shouldn’t have relied on a normal Hard Disk that has failed me twice, 2TBs of data gone because I cheapened out on storage while the SSD that’s inside it (with Valorant installed because my brother was also an idiot for installing it there) is still kicking in 2025. 

The RAM situation is fine, since I did personally bump it up from 8 to 16 Gigs via the usual 2by2 format., But then, there was a point in time that I had to choose between an Nvidia GTX 1060 (with 6GBs of VRAM) or the 1050ti (4GB), the latter of which is what I used for the PC and has powered through the last four years rather well. 

And you would think since the dawn of the Steam Deck with the power bandwidth similar to my 1050ti, I would be happy to stick with this for the next decade or so… But the rise of the AI upscaling stuff (which sometimes works) in my PC world has made the new standard of 8GB VRAM for gaming… Shame really. 

Hence the aforementioned upgrade that didn’t really work because, while my PSU has enough cables running around it , my “new” Graphics card, a AMD RX 580 with 8gb this time, needs a connector that would made it run perfect on my Asus Motherboard, so now, you guys are all caught up.

To be frank, I have no idea how I got this far with this PC but I guess good TLC can do wonders for longevity. And while I could have held on to the purchase for something more substantial like a RTX 20 Series card (that hasn’t dropped in price, mind you), I still want to keep the spirit of low-spec gaming alive in my own way. 

With the likes of newer-ish Youtubers like Bringus Studios now being the hallmark of making low-spec stuff run modern games, I still feel like embodying that gung-ho nature of making a machine run whatever it takes, even if it’s the bare minimum because while the current games are rushing for that sweet photogrammetry or upscaling to 4k 30fps, I  just would like to see how solid it runs on the lowest setting. Maybe adding in baked-in god rays if you so desire. 

And honestly, I should build up my PC building skill stat summore.. .or grab a Steam Deck for more low-spec Linux based shenanigans. 

In any case, let's move onto the news.

The NEWS From Last Week

Some interesting highlights that came out of last week, including some from our friends at other sites too.

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows is once again being delayed, with it now releasing in March

• Transformers: Reactivate has been, unfortunately, terminated

• And have you seen the Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 run of Crazy Taxi?

Game Reviews

No reviews just yet but expect something big later this week. In the meantime, Meck has been busy with a certain game about Frames and War.

Plus our friends at NMIA Gaming watched a certain movie franchise about a blue Hedgehog, a twin-tailed Fox and an Echidna fighting Hedgehog John Wick, wonders what’s that all about.

That’s it for this issue. Stay tuned to Gamer Matters and be sure to check the site for new stuff each week!

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Play games and have fun,

—Danial and the Gamer Matters Team