Modding

The Nintendo Switch is undeniably a juggernaut, one of the most successful consoles ever. However, before the Switch's meteoric rise, Nintendo's most successful home console was 2006's Wii - which introduced the world to motion controls as the primary way to interact with a game.

On YouTube, Gaming enthusiast Tech By Matt has posted a deep dive into his latest creation, turning an original Nintendo Wii console into a gaming PC. One that is powerful enough to (ironically) emulate and play Nintendo Switch games like Super Mario Odyssey at a playable frame rate.

For those with a Nintendo Wii, you might recall that it was a pretty small console - too small to fit an ITX motherboard. So Matt decided instead to use the components from a mini PC - the Minisforum UM773 Lite with a Ryzen 7 7735HS APU. The best part is that the original power button turns on the PC, and the GameCube ports still work when you plug in the original GameCube controllers.

'Environment Textures Overhaul' is a new mod for Cyberpunk 2077 that replaces lower-quality textures found throughout the game's vibrant open-world Night City with new high-resolution versions that not only match the look and feel of the originals but are also optimized for ray-tracing.

Available in 4K and 2K variants, the mod pack includes around 170 new textures for road and wall surfaces and works with the popular HD Reworked Project mod. The 'Environment Textures Overhaul' mod does not impact performance; it simply requires more VRAM. It's worth installing and checking out if you're already running the game with high or ultra-equivalent PC settings.

Created by 'nigeez' and available to download on NexusMods, the 2K version weighs around 500 MB, with the 4K textures at around 650 MB, so it's not a hefty download. As a low-impact mod, it doesn't change the actual gameplay; it simply gives the world a little more detail while making everything look crisper. Here are a few side-by-side examples.

NVIDIA's RTX Remix was released into Open Beta this month, giving PC modders some incredibly easy-to-use and powerful tools to remaster and essentially remake classic games with the help of AI and RTX technologies like DLSS and ray-tracing. With the ability to add path tracing to older games (something NVIDIA showcased with its Portal RTX remaster), the result can be like looking at a brand-new game.

However, this level of ray-tracing is incredibly taxing on GPU hardware - to the point where some of the playing certain RTX Remix mods at high resolutions might be limited to graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER and GeForce RTX 4090.

Take this example of Rockstar's iconic Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, given the RTX Remix treatment.

Even though it's about to be replaced by the upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (yeah, it's a mouthful), the current GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is still a beast of a GPU - able to deliver faster than GeForce RTX 3090 performance. A high-end GPU that often ships with over-the-top triple-fan triple-slot cooling designs - on account of its performance.

What if you could fit a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (a capable 4K gaming card) inside a Small Form Factor (SFF) PC? It's not an out-of-this-world idea because of how power efficient the Ada Lovelace generation of GPUs has been - the lower the power draw, the lower the heat generated.

And so this mod over on Reddit is impressive. It takes the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and puts in a single-fan and dual-slot shroud, which makes the 173mm long and 14.5mm thick dimensions small enough to fit inside even the tiniest PC gaming builds.

Valve has issued two DMCA takedowns and brought the hammer down on two popular mod projects in what's widely regarded as a surprise move for the developer, publisher, and Steam platform owner.

Portal 64, a project that ports Valve's iconic first-person puzzle game to an unlike source - the Nintendo 64 - is one, and Team Fortress: Source 2, which updates the classic shooter with the newer Source 2 engine, is the other.

We previously reported on Portal 64, the ambitious and impressive project from programmer James Lambert. Considering the age of N64 hardware, the fact that it works at all is incredible - with the most recent update to the project confirming that a large portion of the game was complete and up and running.

Recently, Sony released its PlayStation 5 refresh in the form of the new PS5 Slim, which presents a similar shape to the launch model but in a size with 30% less volume and a detachable disc drive. The latter was a smart move because it means those who opt for a purely digital PS5 Slim model can get a disc drive at a later date.

Compared to previous console refreshes, the PlayStation 5 Slim is a little underwhelming, but it does feature a more efficient 6nm chip and a smaller motherboard. Enter YouTube channel Not From Concentrate, who took it upon themselves to design a working PlayStation 5 Tiny - which not only drastically reduces the PS5's physical footprint compared to the launch model, but presents the console in an entirely new way.

The PlayStation 5 Slim from Sony offered a 30% reduction in volume/size, but the custom PlayStation 5 Tiny takes this to over 60%. The design follows the white and black aesthetic of the console, albeit in a form factor that looks more like a mini PC than a console.

The original Doom from id Software broke new ground in 1993 and helped usher in a new style of PC game, the first-person shooter. Back then, the 3D visuals (with 2D sprites), action, and music were all cutting-edge - but not so much in 2023. As one of the most iconic games of all time and most versatile in engine and optimization, it means that in recent years we've seen Doom running on household appliances alongside consoles like the Nintendo Switch.

The answer to the question, 'Can it run Doom?' is often a yes, and now we can add a keyboard keycap to the growing number of strange objects that can play id Software's classic. Of course, hardware is involved - it's not a magic keycap - with the keyboard component in question housing a tiny custom PCB and the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microprocessor sealed in resin.

This very cool mod was created by Bob from TheKeebProject, using an existing Doom port for the Raspberry Pi RP2040 created by Graham Sanderson with modifications to support the very tiny display. What's remarkable is that you can clearly make out all of the action, and it's fully playable.

The idea of putting a high-end gaming PC underwater is a fairly out-there idea, but being able to use a natural body of water to cool a GeForce RTX 4090 and Intel Core i9 13900K is something we didn't know we had to see. Thanks to the YouTube channel DIY Perks, the idea of building a submersible gaming PC was realized through a series of smart design choices. And it looks stylish, too, with some serious BioShock vibes.

Per the video, the GeForce RTX 4090 (a Zotac model) is paired with the high-end Intel CPU in a build contained within a water-tight acrylic cylinder. And there are no shortcuts; the build even includes three 4TB Crucial T700 SSDs for a whopping 12TB of storage and a high-end 1000W power supply.

With components under load drawing over 800W of power, using a water-tight acrylic cylinder makes you wonder exactly how this is being cooled. With a detailed breakdown of each component and the design process, we see the construction of a fully closed-loop water-cooled system attached to a copper frame that surrounds the PC - which is then cooled by a natural body of water.

NVIDIA and Blizzard have partnered with GeForce Garage collaborator Ron Lee Christianson to create a pretty amazing one-of-a-kind custom Diablo IV PC that doubles as a shrine to Lilith - Blessed Mother.

The Lilith bust here is hand-crafted using source files from Blizzard, with modifications and adjustments made to create the stunning sculpture. The base is awesome, too, with sculpted laval rocks featuring some neat LED lighting taken from artificial fireplaces. There's leather, wood, a custom frame, and so much that if you were to look at the mod head-on simply, you probably wouldn't even think that it was, in fact, a gaming PC.

Turn it around, though, and it's a different story, and it's here where you'll see the components and motherboard cleverly mounted and supported. And it has the hardware to match the formidable and imposing Lilith. Here's the breakdown.

KLEVV, the consumer brand of Essencore, was at Computex 2023 to showcase the latest in its storage and memory technology for PC gaming.

If you're unfamiliar with the KLEVV or Essencore name, all you need to know is that it's one of the world's top vendors of DRAM modules and NAND flash, so its gaming products come with the same focus on performance, stability, and quality.

Taking a stroll through the KLEVV (and Essencore) booth at Computex 2023, it was great to not only to see the new CRAS C950 PCIe Gen5x4 M.2 SSD (with funky aluminum heatsink) push sequential read speeds of up to 12000MB/s and the CRAS V RGB and BOLT V DDR5 gaming memory push speeds of up to 8600MT/s with capacities of up to 48GB - but that all of this hardware was put to good use, in awesome PC mods created by some talented artists and builders.