The biggest PC gaming stories this week

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

It is officially allergy season in the part of North America I'm sitting in, and though you might think that itchy, swollen eyes would make you a better Valorant player, they do not. That's why I mostly ducked out of competitive games this week and went back to playing Control in the hopes that squinting through pollen tears makes ray tracing look even better.

I'm not so sure that it does, but Control looks fantastic either way. Everything is so shiny! And yet it's also one of the few games that I don't mind pausing every time I find a new note to read. The notes are so good. Hopefully some of the PC gaming news below is also good enough to warrant pausing the world to read, despite how nice the ray tracing is out here.

Nvidia Ampere rumor suggests it will kill the cost of ray tracing

Apparently, Ampere-based GeForce cards may crush existing cards when it comes to ray tracing. It's just a rumor, but it doesn't make my recently purchased RTX 2070 Super feel very good about itself. Sorry, bud.

Cyberpunk 2077 features customizable genitals

The more I hear about this game, the more I feel like there's not going to be a middle-ground: It'll either be dumb as hell, or fantastic. Time will tell!

Assassin's Creed Valhalla 'gameplay trailer' reveals an incredible 2-3 seconds of gameplay

Usually you want to put some gameplay in your gameplay trailers. At least Ubisoft admitted that the trailer was a letdown.

Someone stealth released a full Mario 64 PC port that looks and runs great

As expected, though, Nintendo isn't going to let it slide.

Id details 'complicated relationship' with Doom Eternal composer, won't work with him on DLC

Some accused Doom's audio lead of poorly mixing composer Mick Gordon's tracks for the Doom Eternal OST. Id Software now says that the mixes couldn't be helped, because Gordon missed deadlines and it had to work with the only audio it had. It doesn't look like the two parties will be working together again.

Rumor: Mass Effect trilogy remaster will be out before next April

You had to figure this would happen eventually, but it's nice to hear rumblings of it happening soon.

More things we wrote

A large hog

Look at him, he's so large:

That's all for this week, because what more could you need than that large hog? May all of your CPU cores run cool as a cucumber this weekend.

To stay up-to-date on PC Gamer's news and features, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook, subscribe to our newsletter, listen to our weekly podcast, or just refresh the homepage waiting for whatever happens next.

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the rise of personal computers, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on the early PCs his parents brought home. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Bushido Blade (yeah, he had Bleem!), and all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now. In 2006, Tyler wrote his first professional review of a videogame: Super Dragon Ball Z for the PS2. He thought it was OK. In 2011, he joined PC Gamer, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.