The Next Frictional Game Website (who knew?) announces survival/horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent is due next year as the next project from the creators of the Penumbra series. The Amnesia website includes a link to a blog update on their development process, shedding some light on the role of darkness in the genre. There's also a trailer for the game on Gamer's Hell.

Steam News announces a new automatic update is now available for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The news of the new version of Infinity Ward's military shooter sequel mentions one change: "Improved IWNet matchmaking."

An Electronic Arts Help Wanted ad on LinkedIn seeks a Senior Online Level Designer for the Dead Space franchise, suggesting the multiplayer support absent from the first Dead Space game will be present in the sequel. They say they are: "Seeking a highly motivated Senior Online Level Designer for the Dead Space franchise on Xbox360 and PS3. This is a major opportunity to contribute creatively to an exciting new franchise." Thanks Joystiq.

Steam News has word of a new update for the Left 4 Dead 2 demo that's available the next time you log in to Steam, and a separate announcement says the Steam client has been updated with additional Left 4 Dead 2 support. There's also an update on the Left 4 Dead Blog clarifying exactly when the game will be available next week based on "an ongoing debate in the office and online as to whether '12 AM' means noon or midnight (for the record the answer is midnight). Word is:

When L4D2 will go live:

     • Tuesday, November 17th, 12:00 AM (midnight) Eastern Standard Time
     • Monday, November 16th, 9:00 PM Pacific Standard Time
     • Monday, November 16th, 10:00 PM Mountain Standard Time
     • Monday, November 16th, 11:00 PM Central Standard Time
     • Tuesday, November 17th, 12:00 AM (midnight) Eastern Standard Time
     • Tuesday, November 17th, 5:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time
     • Tuesday, November 17th, 8:00 AM Moscow Time
     • Tuesday, November 17th, 2:00 PM Japan Standard Time

Also, if you were interested in learning a bit more about the Survivors you'll be playing as this Tuesday(ish), check out our Survivor pages for Nick, Ellis, Coach and Rochelle with character, weapon and item details.

The full 35 minute Assassin's Creed - Lineage movie is now available on the YouTube, offering a high quality live action production in the setting of Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft's upcoming stealth/action sequel. Also, there's a new Assassin's Creed 2 Stealing Gameplay with Commentary Video on GameVideos.

The Tech Report has a list of upcoming Windows games that will incorporate DirectX 11 support, which includes Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Other titles on the list include Aliens versus Predator, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and "Genghis Khan MMO" (KHAAAAAN!).

Alganon Interview with David Allen on The MMO Gamer talks with David Allen, co-founder and President of Quest Online, about Alganon, their debut MMORPG. They cover a wide variety of topics and conclude by asking about the similarities many have noted between this game and World of Warcraft. Here's part of the lengthy reply:

Our biggest fans are the players who take the time to view Alganon as its own product, but you have to play the game to do that. Most of the naysayers never played the game; they base their negative comments on assumptions they’ve made from playing other games, or reading forums, or looking at screenshots. They compare these surface elements and make a list of things they find similar. Even when they do enter the game, they do so with the goal of finding similarities. They don’t bother to ask the most important question of all, “is it fun?”

The debut release of the Dino D-Day modification for Half-Life 2 is now available, offering a World War II/dinosaur mash-up that's a prototype for an upcoming commercial release. This page offers a trailer showing it off, and here's word: "Dino D-Day is an exciting new First Person Shooter from Digital Ranch Interactive. You’ll play as Sgt. Jack Hardgrave, a renowned paleontologist who thought he put his career on hold to go to war…then Hitler resurrected dinosaurs and unleashed them on the Allies in 1942. When the Fuhrer’s monster army saw battle for the first time in North Africa Hardgrave was on the front lines – nearly getting eaten alive by beasts he spent his life studying. This is an HL2:OB mod that has served as a prototype for a commercial release of Dino D-Day slated for 2010. We look forward to community input on this early version of Dino D-Day as we continue crafting the game over the next several months." There's also an interview with the mod's co-creator on Big Download.

Mod DB offers a new version 3.0 of The Haunted modification for Unreal Tournament 3 for the final round of this year's Make Something Unreal competition. Here's the one-liner for the mod: "The Haunted is a fast paced thirdperson horror-action game with focus on a intense multiplayer experience that is all about making a stand and liberating cursed places from the minions of evil. The game features several multiplayer modes such as coop or demons .vs. humans, where enemies are spawned and controlled by players. The outstanding visuals lay a perfect tone for the gameplay." Thanks BeyondUnreal.

The Wings of Prey Interview on SimHQ chats with Gaijin Entertainment's Kirill Yudintsev about Wings of Prey, their upcoming Windows combat flight simulator based on the console-based Birds of Prey. Topics include how this is still a game (though more of a sim than the console game), their target audience, PC features not present in the console version, plans for a demo, realism modes, numbers of planes and missions included, mod support, and more.

Steam News announces yet another new bit of DLC for RailWorks: "The Class 37 Diesel Locomotive RailWorks Add-on includes 4 new scenarios, 1 free roam, the Class 37 Mainline Diesel Locomotive in five liveries, and more."

NYTimes.com - Can D.I.Y. Supplant the First-Person Shooter? Thanks j.c.f.
Video-game companies were once nimble trailblazers born in the countercultural spirit of the 1970s. But it didn’t take long for the industry to grow into a kingdom of conglomerates, spending tens of millions of dollars on big titles. Soaring development costs squeezed out small publishers and stifled creativity. “There are some great mainstream games, but they are getting to be fewer and further between,” says Rob Auten, who used to run video-game production for 20th Century Fox. “Our industry is probably more risk-averse than Hollywood. It is extremely difficult to break the patterns of the establishment.”

GameCritics.com - Now about that terror attack level everyone's talking about.
It's the game groping for an argument that games can be affecting and relevant art. In the end, Modern Warfare 2 is definitely art, but it's as confused, awkward and juvenile as several other titles you can mention.

Still, I believe it was a brave decision on Infinity Ward's part to portray this horrific act ripped straight from the headlines. Today it evokes most recently the tragic shooting at Fort Hood, where a seemingly disgruntled Muslim Army major opened fire at dozens similarly lined up as in the game, killing 13 people.

• Elixir Studios Games on GOG.com. Up to 50% off.
• Joint Operations Combined Arms on Direct2Drive. Save 83%.
  
  Still on sale (previously reported)
   
• 48 Hour Madness on GoGamer. Including Left 4 Dead 2 for 20% off.
• All Aspect Warfare on Steam. Save 50%.
• All Aspect War Pack on Steam. Save 50%.
• Alganon on Direct2Drive. Preorder and get beta access and in-game items.
• Angle of Attack on Steam. Save 50%.
• Best of Indie Bundle Vol. 2 on Direct2Drive. Save 75%.
• Borderlands on Direct2Drive. Save $5.00 with code 5OFFBORDER.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Amazon and Walmart. Includes a $20.00 credit.
• Capitalism II on Impulse. Save 33%.
• Crysis on Steam. Save 50%.
• Crysis Warhead on Steam. Save 50%.
• Demigod on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Dreamkiller on Steam. Save 33%.
• Grappling Hook on SpeedRunGames. Now $14.95.
• Hacker Evolution on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile on Impulse Driven. Save 35%.
• Overlord on Steam. Save 75%.
• Overlord II on Steam. Save 75%.
• Overlord: Raising Hell on Steam. Save 75%.
• Plants vs. Zombies on PCGameStore. Only $6.99.
• Quantz on Steam. Save 50%.
• Sacraboar on Impulse. Save 25%.
• SFI Mission 4-Pack on the Strategy First Website. Four games for $19.99.
• Team Fortress 2 on Best Buy and FRYS.com. Only $9.99. Thanks Johnny.
• THQ Classic FPS Bundle on Impulse. Save 25%.
• Titan Quest on Impulse. Save 25%.
• X-Com Complete Pack on GamersGate. Save 40%.

• BioShock 2 on Computer and Video Games.
• Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned on GameSpot and IGN.
• Just Cause 2 on Eurogamer, GameSpot, GamesRadar, and IGN.
• Left 4 Dead 2 on IGN.
• Napoleon: Total War Napoleon: Total War on GamesRadar.
• The Sims 3: World Adventures on 1UP.
• Star Trek Online on GameSpot.

• Just Cause 2 PlayStation 3 Screenshots.
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Unlockable Costumes And Modes Wii Screenshots.
• Battlefield 1943 Sold 1.2 Million Units. Thanks Ant.
• Alan Wake Trailers on GameTrailers.com.

• De-glitched, the C64’s Up and Running Again. for iPhone. Thanks Ant via Slashdot.
• CyberPower Announces Next-Gen Notebook Gaming Systems With Intel Core i7 Mobile Processors.
• G5 Entertainment Offers App Store Reviewers Chance at Free Game.

• Nvidia says it didn't, won't block Lucid's Hydra.
• HotHardware and TechVi Video Podcast No. 3.

• My Nightmare Interviews With Google. Thanks Ant via Neatorama.

• Beware 'frighteningly bad' Flash flaw, say researchers. Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Switzerland takes Google to court. Thanks Mike Martinez.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Big Download, FiringSquad, Games On Net, and (in German) on Technic3D.
• Cities XL on Gaming Nexus.
• Dragon Age: Origins on Bite My Review.
• League of Legends on Big Download.
• Tropico 3 on Eurogamer.

• AMD ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Card on TrustedReviews.
• EVGA GeForce GT 220 SSC DDR3 Graphics Card on Legit Reviews.
• Galaxy GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB Razor Edition Graphics Card on TweakTown.
• GIGABYTE P55-UD6 P55 Lynnfield Motherboard on PC Perspective.
• Lowepro Outback 100 Camera Bag on ThinkComputers.org.
• Sapphire Vapor X ATI RADEON HD 5750 Graphics Card on Motherboards.org.
• Seagate FreeAgent Go Dock+ on Test Freaks.
• SteelSeries 9HD Mouse Pad on techPowerUp.
• SteelSeries Ikari Optical Mouse on XtremeComputing.
• Tritton Technologies AX51 Pro Precision PC Gaming Headset on Futurelooks.

• Was Modern Warfare 2 Really The -Biggest Launch In History?…
• Valve's holiday cards are amazing…

Well yesterday was Friday the 13th, but we managed to survive around these parts, carefully avoiding walking under ladders or breaking mirrors (actually we try to avoid breaking mirrors every day). Hopefully even if you didn't get lucky yesterday, you avoided the opposite as well.

Lucky Links:	Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez.
Play:	Alien SOS. Communist in space.
Links:	Top Ten Most Badass Animals Native to the USA. Thanks Neutronbeam.
Stories:	Security heightened ahead of Ubisoft's 'Avatar' game release. The Spider Awards: Wired.com’s Arachnid Hall of Fame. Bomb-Fighting Dog, MIA for a Year, is Found in Afghanistan.
Science:	Bacteria in intestines play role key role in weight gain, study finds. Thanks Neatorama. Designing Military Strategies Based on Ants' Movements.
Images:	Dirty, dirty PCs- The X-rated picture guide. Halloween Costume Win. Artist crafts Pentium Nikes.
Media:	Blowing up Toy Cars in Slow Motion. Thanks Digg.
Follow-ups:	NASA finds "lots of water" from moon crash tests. U.S. arrests and charges two Madoff programmers. Thanks Slashdot.