Slitherine announces the addition to a Soviet Campaign to Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager, adding the space race to the upcoming space sim, allowing the player to play as either the U.S., who landed astronauts on the Moon in 1969, or as the U.S.S.R., whose lunar ambitions were never fully realized. They also announce additional new features, including widescreen support, mix-and-match rockets and payloads, and play-by-email multiplayer support. The game is currently available as an early access release, but word is this new content take additional time, so a new final release date will be revealed soon.

This trailer offers a video preview of the Onslaught DLC coming to Call of Duty: Ghosts, confirming the accuracy of the poster discovered over the weekend. The pack will debut this month on Xbox LIVE before other platforms, and this announcement has more details on its contents, offering a rundown on the four maps and Extinction mission it will include, including how completing a field order on the Fog map turns the player into Michael Myers from John Carpenter's Halloween movies, because that's something that totally happens during combat. There's also an explanation of the dual nature of the DLC's new weapon, saying: "this weapon can be selected in either the Assault or the Sniper Rifle class. As an Assault Rifle the weapon’s fire rate becomes fully-automatic with high damage at a decent range, and as a Sniper Rifle the 'Maverick' sports an advanced scope and a semi-auto rate of fire." Continue here to read the full story.

A new trailer from Road Redemption shows off graphical improvements made to this Road Rash-inspired motorcycle combat racing game since the completion of its Kickstarter, while also providing an early look at the game's Uzi and grenade launcher. They promise a new video soon showing split-screen multiplayer, and invite those interested in the game to head over to its official website to back the project and get in on alpha and beta testing. Continue here to read the full story.

• Arena Wars 2 on Steam. Save 90%.
• Bad Rats: the Rats' Revenge on Steam. Save 90%.
• Deep Black: Reloaded on Steam. Save 75%.
• Full Mojo Rampage on Steam. Save 50%.
• Gomo on GamersGate. Save 25%.
• Iesabel on Steam. Save 75%.
• Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters on Steam. Save 80%.
• Naval Warfare on Steam. Save 80%.
• Pool Nation on Steam. Save 70%.
• Puzzle Quest: Galactrix on Steam. Save 90%.
• Razor2: Hidden Skies on Steam. Save 75%.
• Rune Classic on GOG.com. Save 60%.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series on GamersGate. Save 66%.
• Surgeon Simulator 2013 on Steam. Save 66%.
• Survivor Squad on Steam. Save 50%.
• Turba on Steam. Save 70%.
• Zombie Pirates on Steam. Save 75%.

• Brad McQuaid talks Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.

• Star Swarm on Blue's News. Oxide's Nitrous engine demo.

• The Last of Us 'Left Behind' DLC trailer released.
• Xbox One: The Complete Manual – Available Now.

• Vita could move away from physical games, Sony admits.
• HTC One X and One X+ will not receive KitKat; stuck on Android 4.2 forever. Not upwardly mobile.

• The case for Wi-Fi in the Internet of Things.
• Snapchat apologizes for jump in spam. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Bitcoin Anonymity Upgrade Zerocoin To Become An Independent Cryptocurrency. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Google to buy Nest for $3.2 billion.

Thanks j.c.f.

• Report: NSA bulk metadata collection has “no discernible impact”.
• I Spent Two Hours Talking With the NSA's Bigwigs. Here's What Has Them Mad. Thanks Ant via Linux Security.
• Yahoo malvertising attack linked to larger malware scheme.
• New cyber-attack model helps predict timing of the next Stuxnet.
• Ford Exec Retracts Statements About Tracking Drivers With The GPS In Their Cars. Thanks Acleacius.
• Sefnit Trojan endangers users even after removal.
• New DoS attacks taking down game sites deliver crippling 100Gbps floods.

• U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Internet shopping patent case. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Record Label Asks Google to Censor Artists’ Twitter Accounts. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Study: Why anonymity makes players cheat, but can still be good thing…
• Grand Theft Auto 5 PC petition reaches 650,000 signatures…

Link of the Day: Michael Douglas is playing Hank Pym in Ant-Man! Thanks nin.

Visionary Realms officially announces Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, the MMORPG recently revealed to be the upcoming project from Brad McQuaid (EverQuest, Vanguard) with other MMO developers from games such as original EverQuest "and just about every expansion, the original EverQuest 2 "and just about every expansion," Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, EverQuest Next, Free Realms, Star Wars: Galaxies, Star Trek: Hidden Evil, Myst 3: Exile, and more. The game's promised Kickstarter is underway, seeking $800,000 and showing stretch goals all the way up to $6.7 million, and offering details on the game, including a video Q&A where Brad answers a bunch of questions about the project, all of which seem to have been submitted by himself. The Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen website is also online. Here's a bit on what they have planned:

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is a group-focused MMORPG based on challenging gameplay and open world high fantasy. It takes place on a world populated by deities and heroes, called Terminus. Mortal and planar shards which have collided create the dramatic and epic environment of Terminus. With some of those shards came deities and demigods that, over time, raised empires which forged the turbulent political landscape. Centuries later, new planar collisions have occurred that will pull the players into the world and its politics. The player is a legendary hero, stripped of his or her powerful relics and left to explore the dramatically diverse and epic regions of Terminus with hopes of reclaiming their relics and those of lost heroes.

Pantheon’s combat places a focus on preparation and awareness of the enemy. The player can actively dodge, block, or deflect attacks. Spell and ability pre-selection is critical to defeat encounters, as is forging alliances with other players. You won't want to be caught in the wilds of Terminus alone, but exploration of the vast and dramatically diverse world landscapes will be richly rewarding. Through exploration the player can uncover mysteries and unique adventures as well as acquire rare and exotic spells and abilities from dungeons and challenging encounters.

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is an intensely social game for the determined thrill-seeker, because we believe that the greatest sense of accomplishment comes when it is shared. Imagine a vast, detailed world of swords and sorcery, of dragons and knights, of fiery swords and chests overflowing with treasure. A world in which a myriad of sentient races and creatures live and affect change.

Continue here to read the full story.

The SimCity Blog announces the online-only requirement is being removed from the Windows edition of SimCity as of the upcoming Update 10, which adds a single-player mode to the urban-planning game. Here's word from Patrick Buechner, General Manager of the EA's Maxis Emeryville studio:

Let’s get right to it.

SIMCITY OFFLINE IS COMING!

I’ve wanted to say those words for quite some time, so my apologies that I didn’t take the time to say Happy New Year first.

Yes, Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players. When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection. We are in the late phases of wrapping up its development and while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it’s as polished as possible before we release it. So, until then… testing, testing and more testing. As one of the final steps, we’re putting Offline into the hands of some of our most hardcore players, the DevTesters. This group of volunteers is going to put Offline through its paces before we release it.

In Update 10, you can still play solo in Regions on your own, or in Multiplayer with people from around the world. What’s new is the Single Player Mode, which allows you to play the game Offline by yourself. And because your saved games in this mode are stored locally, you can save and load to your heart’s content. Our team will be delivering a follow-up blog that will outline the full details in the near future so stay tuned.

So what does this mean for the Online game? All of the benefits of being connected will remain including access to Multiplayer, the Global Market and Leaderboards. And all of your pre-existing saved cities and regions will still be accessible should you log-in to the Online game.

Continue here to read the full story.

The Jumpgate TRI website is attempting to keep Jumpgate: The Reconstruction Initiative alive, running servers for NetDevil's thought-to-be defunct MMO space combat game. A sequel called Jumpgate Evolution was in the works prior to the layoffs that turned out to be the company's demise, but the last we heard of this, it was still the subject of a lawsuit over NetDevil's failure to deliver the game (see the update at the end of this story). Jumpgate TRI is a community effort that's risen from the ashes of all this, and we reached out to find out if this would be in danger of being shut down if it was publicized, and they were comfortable with us spreading the news, so there my be some unrevealed handshake agreement to allow this to continue. More on efforts at keeping Jumpgate alive can be learned through the English Jumpgate community, the Russian Jumpgate community, and the Facebook Jumpgate community. Thanks Krael. Update: It turns out the Codemasters v. Gazillion lawsuit over Jumpgate Evolution was dismissed in 2011 as the case was settled out-of-court. Thanks Rollory.

Infinity Ward tweets a confirmation that the Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught DLC will be released on January 28th, as was revealed over the weekend via a poster leak. They point the way to a Video on Instagram that looks like a horror movie, which is probably from the new extinction mission from the pack. Onslaught will debut as a timed exclusive for the Xbox versions of the military shooter sequel, so based on previous releases, the Windows and PlayStation versions should be expected about a month later. Thanks CVG.

In response to a Twitter question asking: "Can the next Dirt game please be more Rally oriented? Alot [sic] of us REALLY miss the Colin Mcrae games, longer point to point courses," Codemasters tweets an affirmation, saying "Yes it can and it will :D" (thanks CVG). This is the latest tidbit hinting at plans for a new installment in the DiRT series, following indications multiple installments in the franchise may be in the works and a recent spoilery tease, though a new DiRT game has not yet been announced.

There's only one new/reentry in the GFK Chart-Track full-priced PC game top 20, as Arma III pops up at number 19 and Football Manager 2014 retains a toehold on the top spot. Their all platforms/all prices chart is also still experiencing a holiday lull, with relatively little movement. Here's their write-up:

There’s not much to report for week 2, 2014 apart from the rise or re-entry of various titles due to retailer promotions.

EA remain at No1 with a 7th week for ‘FIFA 14’ (-32%) - the last 4 weeks consecutively. Activision Blizzard remain at No2 with ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ (-41%) and 4 consecutive weeks behind ‘FIFA 14’. EA’s ‘Battlefield 4’ is No3 (-48%), swapping places with Ubisoft’s ‘Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’ at No4 (-52%). Sony’s PS4 ‘Killzone: Shadow Fall’ climbs 13 places back into the Top 10 at No8 (+63%) as PS4 hardware stock hits retail, whilst Sega’s ‘Aliens: Colonial Marines’ (-14%) climbs 5 places to No10 as the average price on all versions drops below £5. Deep Silver/Koch’s ‘Dead Island: Riptide’ re-enters at No16 (+76%) due to strong price promotion and Rockstar/Take 2’s ‘Max Payne 3’ climbs 12 places to No21 (-7%) for the same reasons.

Also feeling the benefits of keen pricing and re-entering the Top 40 are the following 3 titles: Codemasters' ‘GRID 2’ (+72%) at No29, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ‘Gears of War: Judgement’ (+310%) at No30 and Bethesda’s ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary’ (-1%) at No38.

• Battlefield 4 PC Game Update Jan 13.
• The Dark Eye: Herokon Online beta patched. F2P browser MMORPG adds a new region.

• The Forest on Eurogamer.
• Interplanetary on The Indie Mine.

• Handy Graphic Shows Video Game Console Cost Adjusted For Inflation Up To Current-Gen.
• As console ban lifts, China reveals "hostile" games block.
• PlayStation Plus February: free games supposedly leaked, Outlast PS4 included.
• Fable Anniversary gets retailer-specific preorder bonuses.
• Into the Halo 2 Cairo cutscene room trick - done.

• CES 2014: the wristband that tracks your child's every move via GPS. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Google Maps Editor Lists Berlin Square as 'Adolf-Hitler-Platz'. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Gatorade had a mobile game last year in which water was portrayed as "the enemy that hinders performance". Water? Like out of the toilet?

Thanks Ant.

• Op-ed: AT&T’s new data cap “deal” is just another weapon against regulation.
• U.S. Broadband Speed Improvements Slowing.
• Time Warner Cable Loses Another 215,000 TV Viewers.
• In First Day With Bitcoin, Overstock Does $126,000 in Sales. Thanks HARDOCP.

Thanks Ant.

• Game-streaming-enabled Toshiba TVs shipping Q1 2014.
• Micron provides DDR4 details for servers, high-end desktops.
• Fedora 21 Won't Be Released Before August. Thanks Linux Today.
• DirecTV Hits Back In Weather Channel Spat. Apparently there's still a Weather Channel. Thanks DSLReports.
• The flat-out truth on curved TVs and Why I hope curved screens don't become the norm.

• U.S. Senators Implore Obama to Rein in NSA Surveillance. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Gamers targeted by hackers, Kaspersky Labs warns. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Report: Nieman Marcus, Target weren’t the only holiday hack victims.
• Microsoft cancels Security Essentials for Windows XP. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Glenn Greenwald Says NSA, GCHQ Dismayed They Don't Have Access To In-Flight Internet Communication. Thanks Ant via DSLReports.

• Pirate Bay Grows Despite Filters, ISP 'Six Strikes'.

• Shadow Warrior 2013 on True PC Gaming. Second look.

• AOC Q2963Pm 21-9 SuperWide Monitor on pcGameware.
• ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition Motherboard on Bjorn3D.com.
• BitFenix Prodigy M on Pure Overclock.
• BitFenix Ronin case on DarkVision Hardware.
• CORSAIR Hydro Series H105 CPU Cooler on Mad Shrimps.
• Giotech EX-06 Wireless Stereo Headphones on PlayStation Universe.
• SteelSeries Siberia Elite Gaming Headset on Benchmark Reviews.
• ZAGG High Definition Invisible Shield (Samsung Galaxy Note) on OCmodshop.com.
• Zotax Zbox Nano AQ01 Plus on Bjorn3D.

• Help from Hell - Metal Gear Rising- Revengeance- FAQ/Walkthrough…
• Editorial: 2014 - The Year of the RPG - Strategy Informer. Rundown on games to expect this year…
• LotRO not working on new dungeons, has no plans to merge servers…
• Oh God, They Are Making Another Tekken Movie…
• Halo movie in the works courtesy of Ridley Scott, source claims…

The NFL playoffs were as good as expected over the weekend. My favorite thing about the Denver game is that someone entered the cheat code for big head mode. Concussions are a serious business, but I'd be lying if I denied that helmet made me laugh every time I saw it.

Also, the first Game of Thrones season four trailer debuted last night in all its awesomeness. I just want to know why a show where one of the most oft-repeated phrases is "winter is coming" airs in the spring.

R.I.P.: One of Japan's Oldest (and Most Hardcore) Gamers Passed Away.

Big Head Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Dojo of Death.
Stories:	"Archer" Launches Racy Reddit Ads. Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not. LA Drought to Worsen, Fire Danger Rises.
Science:	Immune cells inadvertently help bacteria form persistent infections. X-Ray Glasses Medical Advancement. Thanks HARDOCP.
Media:	Low Flying and Crazy Fast Passes. NSFW. Olympic Swimming. NSFW. Ninja Baseball Batman - Angry Video Game Nerd. NSFW. Thanks Keisar.
Follow-up:	AMC Reveals Better Call Saul Will Debut in November; Mad Men's Return Date and More.
The Funnies:	xkcd: Inexplicable.