The Team Fortress 2 Blog announces plans to resume public beta testing of Team Fortress 2, even though the teamplay shooter sequel has been out for more than three years now. They explain this will allow them to update the frequently patched game even more often, while preventing mistakes with the non-beta version of the game. Speaking of the game's frequent updates, Steam News announces another new patch now automatically available. The change list follows. Continue here to read the full story.

GameStop has information about their World of Warcraft: Cataclysm launch events, as approximately 3,500 stores will open at 10:00 pm local time on Monday, December 6 so they can start selling Blizzard's MMORPG expansion at the stroke of Midnight on December 7. Word is there will be: "costumed revelers, along with trivia and dance contests in anticipation of the 12:01 a.m. release. Customers who pick up their copy at midnight will receive the Cataclysm Perk Pack loaded with special partner offers including 20-percent off EVGA/NVIDIA video cards, 20-percent off Linksys/Cisco valet wireless routers and much more. PowerUp Rewards™ members score 50-percent more points when they pre-order then pickup at GameStop on Dec. 7 or Dec. 8."

Cloud gaming service OnLive announces a new unlimited play subscription scheme that seems more appealing than the original PlayPack system that required paying a relatively substantial sum to play games using the service. Under the new plan, players have unlimited access to a "growing library of great games" for $9.99 per month. That fee will kick in starting January 15, 2011, and between now and then, it is in beta for free. Also, Engadget has word that competing cloud gaming service Gaikai is now in closed beta testing, and they offer their first impressions, saying: "Over an up-to-18 megabit AT&T U-Verse internet connection aimed at Gaikai beta servers roughly fifteen miles away, we generally got 10-15 megabits of download bandwidth, and a latency of between 25 and 35 milliseconds. That got us performance just about equal to the 720p video above, both in terms of visual quality and speed, and yet a noticeable amount of input lag -- not too much to make the game unplayable, but not nearly as enjoyable as on a dedicated console or gaming PC."

The Natural Selection 2 Website has news of a new beta build 157 that's now available to those who have preordered Natural Selection 2, the action/strategy sequel in the works at Unknown Worlds. They have altered the behavior of grenades and flamethrowers, and offer this explanation of other changes: "The biggest changes you'll see in this patch are gameplay focused. In particular, we listened to what you had to say about impenetrable Crag/Whip/Hydra builds (making it hard for marines to expand early game) - the resource model has changed enough that you won't see tons of those alien structures and there was a bug where Crags were healing twice as fast as they should have been." Thanks Joao.

Hi-Rez Studios reveals plans to release a new patch tomorrow for Global Agenda to update the teamplay shooter to version 1.39. As a result, there will be downtime they estimate will run from 11:30 am to 5:00 pm EST. They say: "This patch introduces new maps, new PvP rewards, enhancements to the /challenge function, updates to Dome City and new seasonal flair that you can earn during our Holiday event coming later this month!" This page has the full patch notes.

Mod DB now offers multiplayer beta version 1.0 of HL2: Wars, the first public release in more than two years of this modification that turns Half-Life 2 into a real-time strategy game. Word is: "The multiplayer beta has vastly improved performance and entirely reworked code from 0.5 (which is why it has taken more than two years to deliver!) and features three multiplayer game modes: Overrun, Antlion Skirmish and Antlion Capture the Point."

Battlefront.com now offers a new patch for PT Boats: Knights of the Sea to update the World War II naval combat game to version 1.31. The new version addresses a few bugs and adds the mission editor that is included with the new South Gambit standalone expansion. The editor cannot be used on the stock missions in the game, but it can be used to create an unlimited number of new missions. The download is mirrored on WorthPlaying.

A new Darkspore trailer shows off multiplayer play from the action/RPG currently in development at EA's Maxis studio. Word is: "Multiplayer in Darkspore lets up to four gamers fight as a team, combining abilities and coordinating attacks to create awesome battle effects and overwhelm enemies. By working as a team and complementing each other’s abilities, players will find co-op gameplay in Darkspore to be an action packed blast, and this trailer shows off those goods in greater detail than ever shown before!" The embedded clip follows. Continue here to read the full story.

On Direct2Drive 1-in-5 orders is free. Also, there are a bunch of strategy games on sale on Matrix Games.

• AC-130 on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition on Direct2Drive. Save 50%.
• Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition on Games For Windows. Save 90%.
• Fortis on Impulse. Save 75%.
• Gish on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Guardians of Graxia on Impulse. Save 25%.
• Kingdom Elemental: Tactics on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Labyrinthica- The Quest of Lima on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Mass Effect 2 Digital Deluxe Edition on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Sylvenia - Fantasy Poker on Impulse. Save 50%.
• Victoria II on Impulse. Save 30%.
• World of Goo on Games For Windows. Save 75%.
• World War 2 - Time of Wrath on Impulse. Save 83%.
• X2 - The Threat on Impulse. Save 50%.
• X3 - Gold on Impulse. Save 50%.
• X3 - Reunion on Impulse. Save 50%.
• X3 - Terran Conflict on Impulse. Save 50%.
  Still on sale (previously reported). Continue here to read the full story.

• Global Agenda Promo Code Giveaway - Enter to win an Alienware M15x.
• 100,000 Turbine Points Giveaway.

• Heroes of Newerth 2.0 on WorthPlaying.

• XBL has 12.5 Gold members. Doesn't really sound that impressive without the "m."
• Coming soon to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
• UK Study Will Find Out if the Wii Can Help Cure Parkinson's. Thanks Acleacius.
• US Air Force Builds Supercomputer with 1,760 PlayStation 3 Consoles.
• Playing DDR LIKE A BOSS. Thanks Ant.

Thanks Acleacius.

• everyAir 3D – real-time stereo 3D desktop on iPad.
• Smartphones and Tablets Will Take Over in 2011, Researchers Say. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• EA and Harmonix Rock the Mobile Gaming World with ROCK BAND Reloaded.
• Notebook hard drives square off at 7,200 RPM.
• Foursquare TV Series From Endemol USA In The Works.
• Silverlight 5 unveiled- many new features, direction still vague.
• Gowalla 3 Integrates Check-Ins From Foursquare, Facebook.
• Dr. NanoX iPhone game first look.
• Toddler Fun for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

• Play a retro video game in VMware Fusion 3. Thanks Ant.
• 13 Vintage Computer Ads Show How Far We've Come. Thanks Acleacius.

• Who spies on your browsing history? Thanks Ant.
• Mark Zuckerberg '60 Minutes' Interview To Air Sunday. Thanks Acleacius.
• PETA's Super Meat Boy Parody, Super Tofu Boy.
• Mozilla's Aza Raskin on the marriage of Web and TV.
• Google Chrome Surges Past 9%. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.
• Netflix offering $100K for TV episodes. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.

• Preserving a Free and Open Internet.
• Google Promises Stricter Copyright Enforcement. Thanks Slashdot.
• AVG: Some Windows 7 Operating Systems Cannot Be Started After Latest Update. Thanks Ant via Slashdot.
• BlackBerry 6 kernel gets cryptographic seal of approval from U.S. government.
• The physics and biology of the TSA's backscatter security scanners.

Thanks Ant.

• Prosecutors Dismiss Xbox Modding Case Mid-Trial. Thanks nin.
• Homeland Security Admits That It's The Private Police Force Of The Entertainment Industry. Thanks Linux Today.
• How the FBI nabbed a Russian spam king in Las Vegas.
• Google caves in Street View 'trespassing' case, pays $1.
• Jailbreaking Phones Lands A Guy In... Jail! Thanks Slashdot.
• FBI warns of new twists on twisted hitman, handgun and adoption scams.
• LimeWire may have lost zest for legal music downloads, too.
• CALM Act passed, will quiet loud TV commercials within a year.

• Bitfighter version 014 is now available, updating this free multi-player 2D space combat game for Windows, OS X, and Linux…
• 4 More Linux Games to Distract You From Work. Thanks Ant via Linux Today…

Link of the Day: Not-A-Kludge: Pianotop Workstation. Now that's awesome. Thanks Ant.

A playable demo is now available for Emergency 2012, offering a sample of this rescue-themed real-time strategy game. The demo includes a tutorial and a pair of missions, one involving a hurricane destroying the Cologne Cathedral and the other based on a landslide on the Matterhorn. Downloads are being served by AtomicGamer, Gamer's Hell, and WorthPlaying.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is in the works at Wanako, reports USATODAY, saying the sequel to Ghostbusters: The Video Game is headed to Windows, Xbox LIVE, and Playstation Network in spring 2011. They have a couple of screenshots, and the following general description: "The four-player adventure game -- playable locally or online -- lets players again don a proton pack and fend off a new supernatural threat. Promised are gigantic bosses that require teamwork and the entirety of the ghostbusting arsenal: the proton stream, plasma inductor and the fermion shock."

The fourth and final installment in the BBC's episodic Doctor Who: The Adventure Games will be released on Christmas Day, reports MCV. Word is: "Called Shadows of the Vashta Nerada, it will become available to download on the BBC website right after the show’s Christmas TV special on BBC One. The game sees Matt Smith and Karen Gillan reprise their roles as the Doctor and assistant Amy Pond. They find themselves is the sea-bed colony called Poseidon." The game will be free in the U.K., and Big Download points out for those in the U.S. the game is now available for preorder through Direct2Drive.

Paradox Interactive and AGEOD are now accepting signups for the closed beta test of Pride of Nations, a strategy game (like all the * of Nations that have preceded it) that's due to go live next year. This turn-based strategy game is set in the colonial era of the 19th century, and "allows the player to take control of a country and guide it through industrialization, military conquest, and colonization." Applications are being conducted through this page between now and December 13. A preliminary feature list follows. Continue here to read the full story.

• 30 Under 30 lobbying deadline is today.
• $150,000 on offer in global indie talent hunt.

• Diablo III on IncGamers.

• PS Plus Early December Release Schedule Includes Free Sam & Max Season 3.
• Xbox 360 Celebrates its Fifth Anniversary in the UK.
• Xona Games Announces Two New Xbox LIVE Indie Games, Decimation X3 and Score Rush.
• Pachter: Kinect and Move to hit 8 million in 2010, over 20 million in 2011.
• Take-Two 'won't annualise' GTA or Red Dead Redemption.
• Castlevania PS3 patch addresses save issues.
• Half of Xbox Live members are Gold subs.
• Microsoft: "This year is going to be our biggest year ever" (registration required).
• Yakuza: Of the End PlayStation 3 Screenshots.

• EA values mobile games market at $3.4bn.
• Windows Phone 7 jailbreak tool comes, goes within a week.
• Trainz Mobile is coming.
• NaturalMotion Games Releases Backbreaker 2: Vengeance on the App Store.
• Braveheart for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.
• Scarlett and the Spark of Life: Scarlett Adventures Episode 1 on the iTunes App Store.
• Bakery Story for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.
• Namco Networks Brings House of Glass Exclusively to iPad.

• Corsair Launches 90GB and 180GB Force Series SSDs.
• Microsoft exec says Google is 'failing' in the enterprise. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.
• Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.37 (Part 1). Thanks Ant via Linux Today.

• Speed Up Firefox by Loading Tabs On-demand.
• StumbleUpon CEO Garrett Camp On The Downside To Getting Our News On Facebook.
• Kataspace: browser-based virtual worlds built with WebGL and HTML5.
• 'The Facebook games gold-rush is over'.
• Gaming Pioneer Zynga, Makers of FarmVille, Launches New Social Game “CityVille”.
• Seattle police to tweet stolen car descriptions. Thanks [H]ard-OCP.

Thanks Acleacius.

• Games industry responds to Panorama addiction show.
• Web bug reveals browsing history.
• Taiwanese animator creates WikiLeaks ‘Cablegate’ video.
• TSA frisks groom children to cooperate with sex predators, abuse expert says.

Thanks Acleacius.

• Net neutrality rules set for showdown in the US.
• High court questions broad use of FOIA exemption.

• Chime on PC Gamer.
• Commander: Conquest of the Americas on Armchair General.
• Company of Heroes: Online - Beta on PCPCGames.
• Fallout: New Vegas on ActionTrip.
• Majesty 2: Battles of Ardania on Gaming Nexus.
• nail'd on AtomicGamer.
• Poker Night at the Inventory on Examiner.com.
• The Sims 3: Late Night on IncGamers.

• Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 LP CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.org.
• Arctic Freezer 13 CPU Cooler on OCIA.net.
• Audio-Technica ATH-A700 Headphone on [H]ard-OCP.
• GIGABYTE Aivia K8100 Keyboard on Vortez.
• GIGABYTE GA-X58-USB3 Motherboard on Legit Reviews.
• GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5670 Graphics Card on Mad Shrimps.
• Motorola Droid Pro Cell Phone on Hardware Secrets.
• MUKii TransImp MD Dual 2.5- Internal Dock on ProClockers.
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 vs. GeForce GTX 460 1GB SLI on [H]ard-OCP.
• Patriot Convoy 425XL SAS-SATA RAID Enclosure on Benchmark Reviews.
• Patriot Memory IRIS 32GB SDHC Class 6 Card on ModSynergy.com.
• Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3 2000MHz RAM on Kit Neoseeker.
• Ultra LSX 750W PSU on Overclockers Club.

• Supermarket Mania 2 is available for PC and Mac, and a 30 minute free trial is available…
• Veterans Protest Black Ops Tournament Held In Sacramento Public Library…
• nail’d walkthrough video guide and TRON Evolution walkthrough video guide…
• Actors Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston to Star in the Video Game Thor: God of Thunder…
• Study says training with video games can help you do your job better…
• Director David O. Russell Talks Uncharted Movie Adaptation and Why Mark Wahlberg Will Make a Bad Nathan Drake…

If Chanukah was really supposed to start at sundown yesterday, then I guess it's not yet underway, since the sun never came out all day due to the rain. The real problem with the weather was the wind, though, which reached 60 MPH at times, to the extent that flights were delayed by hours, but even more dramatically, causing the closure of the Statue of Liberty, which is the first time I've ever heard of a statue being closed due to weather.

Windy Links:	Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez and Acleacius.
Play:	Storm Ops. Crusade 2. Last Flower Defense.
Links:	The 11 Most Racist Video Games. Spacelog: space exploration stories from the original transcripts. Thanks Neatorama. Quiz- Are You a Tron Wizard?
Story:	Ailene Brown & Shmeco Thomas Try To Steal $2,600 Of Clothes In Their Body Fat.
Science:	Miscarriage 'raises heart risk'. Has NASA Made Breakthrough In Search For Extraterrestrial Life? Ball lightning 'may explain UFOs'.
Images:	Super Dead Space Bros. Star Wars Set Photo of Greedo... in high heels. Thanks dakslf. Crosswalk signal flips bird.
Media:	Aperture Science in Typography. Cool Milk Trick.
The Funnies:	UserFriendly. Brevity.
Follow-ups:	Experts call for routine HIV testing in high risk areas. Band Members Face Charges After Blocking Freeway For Publicity Stunt. Thanks Boing Boing.