Anandtech's AMD Radeon R9 Fury X Review includes word that AMD has ceased further optimization for the Mantle low-level graphics API they introduced amid some fanfare less than two years ago (thanks DSOGaming). Word is they are not dropping support outright, but have "essentially deprecated" Mantle, leading Anadtech to conclude: "The experiment that is Mantle has come to an end." Here's what they report:

The situation then is that in discussing the performance results of the R9 Fury X with Mantle, AMD has confirmed that while they are not outright dropping Mantle support, they have ceased all further Mantle optimization. Of particular note, the Mantle driver has not been optimized at all for GCN 1.2, which includes not just R9 Fury X, but R9 285, R9 380, and the Carrizo APU as well. Mantle titles will probably still work on these products – and for the record we can’t get Civilization: Beyond Earth to play nicely with the R9 285 via Mantle – but performance is another matter. Mantle is essentially deprecated at this point, and while AMD isn’t going out of their way to break backwards compatibility they aren’t going to put resources into helping it either. The experiment that is Mantle has come to an end.

CD Projekt RED reveals they will not be offering free DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt this week as they finish up work on a version 1.07 patch for the RPG sequel (thanks VG247). This includes some solutions for some inventory issues among other things:

As some of you may know, we are finishing up work on our next big patch, Patch 1.07. It’s a very large update introducing some key changes, including:

• A new, alternative (optional) movement response mode for Geralt.
• A player stash for storing items, available in various locations throughout the game. Stash locations are marked on the player's map.
• Crafting and alchemy components no longer add to the overall inventory weight.
• Books are now placed in a dedicated tab in the Inventory and books that have already been read are properly grayed out.
• Multiple sorting options are now available in the Inventory.
• Alchemy formulas and crafting diagrams can be "pinned", meaning all components and ingredients required to make them will be conveniently marked in the Shop panel.
• Dozens of fixes for quest related issues, both major and minor.
• A few performance enhancements, including the optimization of FX, scenes and general gameplay.
• Various improvements to horse behavior.

Since it's been all hands on deck working to finish and release this patch on time, we won’t be publishing a free DLC this week (don’t worry - free content comes back next week). We hope you understand our decision. We’ve gathered so much feedback from you over the past couple of weeks and we want to implement as much of it as possible. The full change list for the patch 1.07 will be coming later this week. Stay tuned for info about the release of the update itself.

Kalypso Media announces the OS X edition of the Paradise Lost DLC bundle for Tropico 5 is now available, noting this collection of three DLC packs is also now available for the Xbox 360 edition of the island dictator sequel. Here's word :

'Paradise Lost,' the second add-on bundle pack for Tropico 5, is out now for the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Games Store and via an in-app purchase for the Mac App Store version, serving up three thrilling scenarios complete with new buildings and additional avatar accessories. In Surfs Up! El Presidente must look to the dolphins to save the world from an intergalactic menace. Then, get in touch with your humanitarian side in Gone Green and transform Tropico into a sustainable paradise by making use of clean energy sources. But if all this nobility gets too much for you, then you can instead help El Prez seize ultimate power in Supervillain, becoming the world’s most dangerous ruler and achieving global domination. Also included in Paradise Lost are three swinging new music tracks and three new maps for each game mode.

WBIE unveils the Mortal Kombat X Predator Bundle, a new DLC package coming to the fighting game sequel tomorrow. This trailer shows off the playable Predator and other features of the pack, and there are more details in this announcement:

Today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed the Mortal Kombat™ X Predator Bundle, new downloadable content (DLC) that features the ultimate hunter, Predator from the films of the same name, as a playable character and three new character skins including Commando Johnny, Infrared Scorpion and Carl Weathers as Jax.

The Predator Bundle is a part of the Mortal Kombat X Kombat Pack, providing fans with Mortal Kombat X DLC for £24.99. Players who already own the Kombat Pack will be able to download the Mortal Kombat X Predator Bundle starting tomorrow, 7th July.

Players wishing to purchase the Predator Bundle separately will be able to do so beginning Tuesday, 14th July from the PlayStation Store, Xbox Marketplace and Steam for £6.49. Predator will be sold separately for £3.99 and the Predator Prey Pack including the three new skins will be available for purchase separately for £3.29.

Fans can witness Predator ruthlessly decimate his opponents in the new Mortal Kombat X: Predator Official Trailer, unveiled this morning.

Continue here to read the full story.

Cloud Imperium Games announces they've opened a new studio in Frankfurt, the hotbed of CryENGINE development, to further support creation of Star Citizen, their upcoming space combat game. Here's the plan:

Cloud Imperium™ Games (CIG), the creators of the first person universe space simulator, Star Citizen™, formally announced today the opening of its newest development office in Frankfurt, Germany. Managed by CIG’s Foundry 42 Ltd. in Manchester, the Frankfurt office is comprised of some of the top engineers, artists and designers in Europe, many of whom had responsibility in creating the engine technology, CryEngine, which is the foundational framework for Star Citizen.

“These are some of the top game developers in this part of the world,” said CIG’s co-founder and creative director, Chris Roberts. “We are extremely pleased to have them on our team and working with CIG in all aspects of creating Star Citizen. Their experience in working on CryEngine will pay huge dividends for us in the very near future. Some of their contributions are already showing up in in our single player game, Squadron 42, and our first person shooter elements.”

The new Foundry 42 office sits on the western side of Frankfurt in a new business complex close to the city’s convention center and shopping district. There currently are 21 people on the team, but that number is expected to increase to 50 by the end of the year. Cloud Imperium’s job listings, including those currently open in Frankfurt can be found at https://cloudimperiumgames.com/jobs.

• Neverending Nightmares on Steam. Save 66%.
• Shadowgate (2014) on Steam. Save 80%.

• Inafune: Kickstarter is "confidence-building" for Japanese devs.
• INFRA - Indiegogo. "INFRA is a first-person puzzle adventure game. While the main focus of the game is on puzzle solving, it also has a strong emphasis on story, world and atmosphere, similar to games like The Talos Principle and Portal 2."
• RED ASH - The Indelible Legend by concept USA, LLC — Kickstarter. "RED ASH is an opportunity to not only fulfill Keiji Inafune's desire to create a game that pays homage to Japanese animation, but also his vision of 'immersing players in a freely explorable anime world'." Pitch wordy and confusing, even for Kickstarter. Thanks MCV.

• Fnatic CS-GO takes home $100,000 thanks to ESL and ESEA.
• Hi-Rez capping Smite World Championship prize pool at $1m.

• Into the Stars on Space Game Junkie.

• PS4 sales hit 23 million, Xbox One trails behind with 12 million.
• New PS4 is quieter and cooler than current model.
• No Time To Explain is Now Available for Digital Pre-order on Xbox One.
• “Gimme a Hell Yeah”- 2K Announces Stone Cold Steve Austin as WWE 2K16 Cover Superstar.

• Cownado! on the App Store on iTunes.

• Amazon announces July 15th is Prime Day. More deals than Black Friday for their members on their 20th anniversary.
• “We screwed up,” says reddit CEO in formal apology.
• Reddit revolt continues as user petition calls for resignation of CEO Ellen Pao. Thanks Acleacius.
• PewDiePie Productions made $7.45m in 2014.

• Quad-Core Gaming Roundup: How Much CPU Do You Really Need?
• Samsung adds huge 2TB SSDs to its 850 Evo and 850 Pro families.

• Hacking Team hacked- firm sold spying tools to repressive regimes, documents claim.

• Senate advances secret plan forcing Internet services to report terror activity.
• After 20 month delay, a furious Newegg still can’t appeal $2.3M patent loss.
• 'Pirate' Site Admin Ordered to Pay Hollywood $12.8m. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Former Valve economist Yanis Varoufakis quits as finance minister of Greece…
• Project CARS (Original Soundtrack) by Stephen Baysted is now available…

Link of the Day: Extremely low pass by Libyan MIG 23. Sphincter check.

The LinkedIn profile of Alex Mayberry now lists Cloud Imperium Games as a previous employer, leading to speculation that he's no longer the Executive Producer on Star Citizen, though his current position still reads "Executive Producer at Cloud Imperium Games." PC Invasion reports a response from CIG to this stated: "Needless speculation into personnel matters at CIG are neither constructive, or fair to the people being talked about." The counterpoint is that this is a high-profile position for a high-profile project that rated its own announcement at the time the former Blizzard producer joined the team, so their 920K customers/investors already on the hook for almost $85 million for the crowdfunded space game probably have a right to be concerned with this, and CIG's lack of a denial suggests such speculation is neither "needless" nor "unfair." Update: PC Invasion now confirms that Alex has left CIG, getting word from the company that "a lot" of his duties will be assumed by Erin Roberts.

The Sims 4 slips back into the top spot on the GFK Chart-Track top 30 chart of the bestselling PC games in the U.K. for the week ending July 4th. Last week's number one FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward slips all the way to number nine. On their all platforms top 40 Batman: Arkham Knight retains the top spot. Here's the snappy summary:

With little in the way of new releases ‘Batman Arkham Knight’ (-74%) comfortably holds on to the No1 crown for a second week.

For Warner Bros. Interactive it means they maintain their comfortable hold on the All Formats Top 2 positions as ‘Lego Jurassic World’ (-11%) remains at No2. Despite an 11% drop in sales the title is still handed a boost by the arrival of the Wii U version in its 4th week on chart. ‘The Elder Scrolls Online’ (-34%) also maintains No3 spot meaning an unchanged Top 3 for the second week running. ‘The Witcher III: Wild Hunt’ (-31%) climbs a place to No4, while ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (-5%) is up a place to No5.

‘Yoshi’s Woolley World’ (-60%) is down two places to No6 in its second week. ‘Minecraft: Xbox Edition’ (+0%) climbs four places back into the Top 10 to No7 just ahead of ‘FIFA 15’ (-21%), which is a non-mover at No8. ‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’ (-25%) is down two places to No9 while ‘Minecraft: Playstation Edition’ (+0%) just edges out ‘Destiny’ to round off the Top 10.

Interdimensional Games offers a new gameplay teaser trailer from CONSORTIUM: The Tower Prophecy with a look at the Unreal Engine 4 graphics of this upcoming first-person shooter sequel. CONSORTIUM was inspired by Cavedog's cancelled shooter Amen: The Awakening, and it was released early last year following a successful Kickstarter. They are set to launch a Kickstarter for the follow-up, and outline their plans thusly:

The Tower Prophecy is both a direct sequel to last year’s fourth wall breaking Consortium, and also a stand-alone game in its own right. “It’s not well known yet, but I’m proud to say that even one year after its release, Consortium remains a highly unique first-person interactive narrative,” Gregory MacMartin, CEO of iDGi said. “No two players can have the exact same experience. The iDGi-1 Interactive Narrative Technology allows for a unique combination of scripted narrative and player agency. By harnessing and building upon existing technology, mechanics and content developed for Consortium, The Tower Prophecy will push the boundaries of seamlessly blending narrative and player freedom even further, and will offer a more polished and well-rounded experience.”

Continue here to read the full story.

• At the Mountains of Madness - Steam Greenlight. "...a Indie Lovecraftian PC game based in the novel by H.P. Lovecraft, currently under development."
• Redemption: Eternal Quest - Steam Greenlight. "...a unique and challenging RPG/Sim where you manage a group of adventurers, guiding them through thrilling quests and collecting treasure and relics."

• Interstellar Rift on GameWatcher. Video.

• Sony Reveals First Flight Crowdfunding Platform for Employees, Might Be Used for Video Game.
• PlayStation Now turned my awful Samsung Smart TV into a fun gaming system.

• Safari isn’t the problem, but the lack of browser choice in iOS is. Thanks OS news via Ant.
• Apple's new iPhone rumored to feature 4K-capable, 12-megapixel camera.
• How many iPhones does it take to stop a bullet? Because? Thanks Joashag.

• Doom on Raspberry Pi (bare metal assembly). Doesn't look quite as authentic as they say. Thanks Doomworld via Ant.

• How Good Is Facial Recognition Technology, Really—and How Should We Regulate It? Thanks HARDOCP.
• Russian parliament approves Internet privacy bill. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Hacked! - How I met my identity thief. Thanks HARDOCP.

• BenQ XL2730Z FreeSync Gaming Monitor on pcGameware.
• Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 on True PC Gaming.
• Serpent in the Staglands on True PC Gaming.
• Super 3-D Noah's Ark on Christ Centered Gamer.
• Whispering Willows on Just Adventure.

• ASUS X99 Sabertooth Motherboard on Hardware Canucks.
• Deepcool Captain 240 Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.org.
• Microsoft Surface 3 on TechSpot.
• SAPPHIRE R9 Fury X on Vortez.
• Supermicro S5 Gaming Mid-tower Chassis on Techgage.

Congrats to the U.S. women's team on their World Cup victory. Our men's team has obviously struggled playing the world's favorite sport (it's been downhill after a stirring third place in 1930), but the women's team has been amazing, with three out of seven championships, and their worst-ever finish being third place. Very impressive.

FIFA Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Newton's Law. Idle Business.
Links:	Leave U2 alone- Why did one of our best rock bands become so loathed?
Stories:	How American Fans Pirated Japanese Cartoons Into Careers. Man mocks alligators, jumps in water and is killed in Texas. Thanks Boing Boing.
Science:	Your Facial Bone Structure Has a Big Influence on How People See You.
Images:	Not a bug. Clever.
Media:	TEENS PLAY ALADDIN (SEGA GENESIS) (Teens React- Retro Gaming). Last Week Tonight with John Oliver- Shallow Dives (Web Excl.) NSFW. Spaghetti Western Meets Star Wars In The Twelve Parsec Stare. Thanks Neutronbeam.
The Funnies:	Anticip… - FoxTrot. Middleware « EXTRALIFE.