IGN has first details on Orcs Must Die! Unchained, a new OMD-based MOBA from Robot Entertainment, saying this will make its free-to-play launch later this year. They have first details on this "5v5 multiplayer game (with solo and co-op vs bots!) for the PC that fuses the OMD! action, strategy, and style with elements of both MOBAs and customizable card games." The game is on display at PAX East and a reveal trailer. Here's a bit:

“We’ve been calling it a fortress siege game,” Robot CEO Patrick Hudson says, explaining the simultaneous attack-and-defend flow. Picture it: instead of just defending against waves of enemies with a maze of gleefully sadistic traps, you get to do that and lead waves of AI allies into head-on battle in an effort to push through someone else’s sadistic traps to reach the other team’s fortress.

By the time of its anticipated launch in late 2014, Robot plans to offer dozens of playable hero characters on two factions: humans of the Order (which has been rebuilt by the War Mage and the Sorceress after OMD2) and the new monster heroes known as the Unchained, who’ve emerged from newly discovered rifts. Each hero is designed with a role in mind, such as offensive melee-focused characters, “leaders” that buff minions, support characters that buff other heroes, defensive classes that can improve traps, and more. Most characters will have at least some ability to sabotage enemy traps to help their minions.

The Supergiant Games blog announces that Transistor will be released on May 20th for PC and PS4 (thanks MCV). They say they will be showing off the sci-fi action/RPG at PAX East this weekend, and will be releasing more details as the release approaches. They are not offering preorders at this time, but they are "looking into it."

Paradox Interactive announces the release of Warlock 2: The Exiled, the turn-based strategy sequel from Ino-Co Plus. The Warlock 2 website leads to where the game can be purchased in one of three flavors, a Great Mage Edition, a Lord Edition, or the standard edition, which we'll dub the thrifty peasant edition. Here's word:

Paradox Interactive today announced that wrongly exiled magicians and sorcerers everywhere can begin their quests to retake Ardania in Warlock 2: The Exiled, the turn-based strategy-fantasy wargame from Ino-Co Plus. Available today via digital retailers worldwide, Warlock 2: The Exiled challenges players to conduct wizardly warfare with a selection of magical creatures, devastating spells, and cunning strategy as they face off against their fellow Great Mages. Warlock 2: The Exiled is available on Windows PC for $29.99, with premium editions also available for $39.99 and $49.99.

Wizards of the Coast announces Magic 2015—Duels of the Planeswalkers, saying the next installment in their virtual card-based strategy series will be released this summer for Windows via Steam as well as Xbox One, Xbox 360, iPad, , Android, and Kindle. Here's word:

The time has come for gamers to Hunt Bigger Game. Wizards of the Coast today announced Magic 2015—Duels of the Planeswalkers, the latest installment for the popular Duels of the Planeswalkers franchise and the first version to release on the new next-generation gaming console, Xbox One. Starting this summer, Magic 2015 will put players at the center of the action as the deadliest hunter in the Magic Multiverse, Garruk Wildspeaker, shifts his hunter’s instinct away from beasts of the wild to the ultimate quarry—you!

Magic 2015—Duels of the Planeswalkers will take the game to a whole new level, deeply engaging fans like never before. With new features including the ability to build customized decks, new booster packs with premium downloadable content, and an even more robust deck builder, players will take on their fiercest opponents culminating in the ultimate battle against Garruk. Magic 2015 will offer gamers the perfect way to start playing the world’s best strategy trading card game priming them for even more action with the upcoming Magic 2015 Core Set. In addition to Xbox One, Magic 2015 will be also be available on Xbox Live Arcade, iPad via the App Store, PC via Steam, Android via Google Play, and Kindle via Amazon Marketplace.

Activision announces a May 8th release date for the PC, PS4, and PS3 editions of the Devastation DLC for Call of Duty: Ghosts, the military shooter sequel. Word is: "Call of Duty®: Ghosts players on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC will have access to Devastation, the game's second of four massive DLC Packs planned for this year, on May 8, 2014. Devastation delivers four small-to-medium sized multiplayer maps, the all-new tactical 2-in-1 "Ripper" SMG/Assault Rifle, and "Episode 2: Mayday" - the next chapter in Extinction's four-part episodic narrative. Devastation is available a la carte for a suggested retail price of $14.99, or as part of the discounted Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC Season Pass."

Double Fine sends word that Hack 'n' Slash is "just weeks away" from an Early Access release on Steam. To help pass the time until then they offer this launch trailer blending live action and gameplay, saying: "Hack ‘n’ Slash, our upcoming puzzle adventure game about hacking and reverse engineering, is just weeks away from its Steam Early Access release! The game will be available at launch on PC, Mac, and Linux for $14.99. To mark the occasion we’ve made a fresh new trailer featuring HnS creator Brandon Dillon himself, as well as a funky beat, crazy special effects, and an important message about the dangers of hacking." Continue here to read the full story.

• Daedalic Weekend Deal on Steam. Save up to 77%.
• Divinity: Dragon Commander on Steam. Save 66%.
• Mirror Mysteries 2 on Steam. Save 15%.
• PewDiePie Saves the Children on Humble Weekly Sale.
• Sniper Elite V2 on Steam. Save 75%.

• World of Tanks 3rd Anniversary Weekend Extravaganza.
• Enter for Your Chance to Win a Trip to E3 2014.

• PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Have a Huge Software Problem. Thanks Devicer.

• Dungeon Quest – Now Available for iOS.
• RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile Now Available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

• Amazon Buys Comixology, The World's Biggest Digital Comics Store. Thanks nin.

• Kids really do grow up too fast thanks to these CompSci researchers.
• Torvalds Is Unconvinced By LTO'ing A Linux Kernel. Thanks

Thanks Ant.

• Canada halts online tax returns in wake of Heartbleed. Thanks Slashdot.
• The worst data breaches of 2014…so far (Q1). Thanks Ant.
• The End Is Nigh for Windows XP: These Anti-Virus Software Products Will Continue to Protect XP after the End of Support. Thanks DSLReports.
• Google to Obama: Leave Us Out of Your Spying Fight. Thanks HARDOCP.

Link of the Day: Stephen Colbert to take over 'Late Show' after David Letterman. Thanks Ant.

Ubisoft announces that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Phantoms is now available for Windows PCs, offering a free-to-play shooter set in the threat-filled world of the late thriller author. The game is available on the Ghost Recon Phantoms website as well as through Steam, and they say the worldwide launch is being supported by new servers in Asia, Australia, and South America to complement those already covering Europe and North America. Here's a new launch trailer and here's word:

Today, Ubisoft announced that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Phantoms is now available on Steam and Windows PC. Formerly Ghost Recon Online, Ghost Recon Phantoms launches with a new identity, new features and worldwide distribution.

A brand-new gaming experience built upon community feedback

Ubisoft has built a new identity for Ghost Recon Phantoms that includes a new background story, new user interface as well as new character and weapon designs for all three classes. Three maps have also been updated with a complete lighting and level redesign. Players will also be able to fully customize their weapons and characters with the new ModMaster feature to help them stand out on the battlefield.

In addition, matchmaking has been improved to guarantee a fair gaming experience by taking into account player skills and level of equipment. To start new players off on the right foot, the new user experience has been retooled to offer players access to better weapons, sooner.

Continue here to read the full story.

An H1Z1 website is now online as home to a newly announced MMORPG SOE plans to bring to PC and PS4. Oddly, the site is basically a link to the sub-reddit devoted to the game, which offers links to various articles, including a video from GameTalk Live where SOE boss John Smedley introduces gameplay footage, showing this to be a zombie game reminiscent of DayZ and Rust. They highlight word that they expect "anyone" to be able to play this within four to six weeks, though there is some confusion over whether this will cost $20.00 or be free, as the game is described as free-to-play. Continue here to read the full story.

Frontier Developments announces the premium beta for Elite Dangerous begins today, allowing access to a single-player build of the space combat remake for those who have backed the game on that level, saying a full premium beta build with multiplayer support will come on May 30th. For other preorder customers, they are also selling upgrades to the premium beta, but they do not bandy the term "premium" about lightly, as this carries a $150.00 price tag. They also describe plans to release one additional alpha to test travel and trading, confusingly saying this will precede the premium beta release, which we presume refers to the May 30th "full" beta. Those who wish to access the alpha can still buy in for the next two weeks, which will set you back $295.00. "The Alpha process has worked well for us. We have gradually built out the key elements of the game, first locally, with single player combat, then with a few thousand players across the internet. On 30th May the Premium Beta extends this to many thousands of players worldwide, with an increasingly rich game," explains David Braben, CEO of Frontier. "I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have played such an important role in Alpha testing, and I’m very happy that we will continue to benefit from their valuable input as they test Beta builds approximately 2 weeks in advance of release."

A Kickstarter update for Wasteland 2 has word from inXile entertainment that a new beta is expected to go live next week, which, among other things, will offer the first Linux build of the crowd-funded RPG sequel. They also say they currently expect a "normal playthrough" of the game to take about 50 hours to complete, and describe what they are currently working on:

One thing we were excited to look into were stats showing how long people were playing the game. It can be hard for a developer to estimate exactly how long a game takes because even when playing through fully, we're still too familiar with it to not go through it fast. But now that we've had people playing it and based on how long they've been taking on the live content, we can estimate the full game will likely take the average new player around 50 hours on a normal playthrough. Though it'll take quite a bit longer if you're looking to fully explore every location and mission.

Now let's talk development: at this stage we are working not just on beta builds and polishing those areas, but on tweaking the game's systems and taking lessons learned from beta feedback and applying them throughout the game. Every day our level designers are adding new touches and various levels of reactivity to the game. For example, in this next update you'll find major areas are now open to you right from the moment you leave Ranger Citadel, rather than being plot-gated.

As we're finishing up more Arizona areas we are intensifying our work on Los Angeles, and for the entire game we are making great progress. Much of the team is on California right now, adding layer after layer of depth into the current design.

The Telltale Community blog announces the the promised release of Episode 3 of The Wolf Among Us has occurred, noting that that the entire season is on sale on Steam for 40% off. Also, a new trailer is already online showing off the upcoming fourth episode in the series. Continue here to read the full story.

There's an interview on PC Games Hardware with the English translation of their German conversation with Creative Assembly about Alien: Isolation, the upcoming game based on the Alien/Aliens film franchise. Here's their explanation of the technological advantages to be enjoyed on the PC edition thanks to their custom engine:

Different platforms afford different advantages. Modern PCs with high-spec graphics cards cannot be beaten for shear raw power. What this translates into are higher resolutions and frame rates, which are always good. Also we can afford to scale assets (geometric, textural, animation, etc.) to take advantage of the extra fidelity. With higher resolution and more raw power available tessellation can occur earlier. Shadow algorithms can also be more realistic.

Many full screen effects can be refined due to the available power, for example ambient occlusion, anti-aliasing techniques, motion blur and depth of field and high resolution multi-monitor support can only be achieved by utilizing the GPU power available on the modern PC platform. We're also looking at support for 4k resolution for the best fidelity possible.
[...]
Our engine scales very well with multiple cores. Certainly I can confirm that more cores will increase the performance, if you don't get limited by GPU performance! We have a generalized job system with priorities and dependencies. All of our code uses this. This means, for instance, that if an AI routine can run simultaneously alongside a rendering routine then it 'just will' if the opportunity arises.

ATLUS announces it will publish Citizens of Earth, as the retro-inspired RPG reverts to a traditional funding model after a Kickstarter campaign failed to raise the capital needed for the project. Word is the game will come to Windows, PS4, PS Vita, Wii U, and 3DS later this year as a download-only title. Here's a Citizens of Earth teaser trailer and more can be found on the Citizens of Earth website. Here's the announcement of the game, including details on a contest to help design one of the game's titular citizens:

Being the Vice President of the World means asking not what you can do for your countrymen, but what your countrymen can do for you! And specifically in the case of Citizens of Earth, it means making them fight your battles for you -- and we're talking literal battles here, since Citizens of Earth is a role-playing game from indie developer Eden Industries and published by Atlus U.S.A., Inc. The game will be released later in 2014 as a download-only title for PC, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system, Nintendo 3DS™, and Wii U™. For more information, check out the official website: http://www.atlus.com/citizensofearth

The retro-inspired Citizens of Earth pits players as the second-highest-paid bureaucrat in the land. The game begins just after winning a long, drawn-out candidacy, and the VP returns to his hometown for some taxpayer-funded rest and relaxation. But after just one night passes, the VP awakens to find the world gone berserk! As elected official he has two responsibilities: investigate what's caused people to go crazy... and delegate as much of the dirty work as possible. Citizens of Earth has 40 wacky citizens to recruit and send into battle. Wait, did we just say there are 40 playable characters? Why not make it... 41!

ATLUS Holding Open Contest to Contribute a Playable Citizen to Citizens of Earth

That's right, we're letting Joe or Jill Schmoe get their taste of that game development brass ring by holding a contest to contribute their ideas for a citizen that Eden Industries will then add to the game! Full contest rules and online entry form can be found here: http://www.atlus.com/citizensofearth/coty

Continue here to read the full story.

• Diablo III Patch 2.0.4 Hotfixes - Updated 4/9.

Polygon - Snobbery and fear drive criticisms of free-to-play games and ethics.
After seven years in the "traditional" industry, I've spent eight years building free-to-play projects, so I'm especially sensitive to and interested in these criticisms. The attacks and criticism of free-to-play mechanics are often unfair and selective, and leave questionable but traditional business practices alone.

This is snobbery; evidence that the old guard is scared of where the industry is headed.

• Teamwork OP: Riot on making ‘good’ the easy choice. Thanks Ant via Slashdot.

• Company of Heroes 2 Interview - Strategy Informer.

• TV DVR: The big killer feature missing from Xbox One. Thanks Ant.
• Forza Motorsport 5 adds Long Beach track for free.
• inFamous: Second Son sells 1m in nine days, meaning roughly a sixth of all PS4 owners bought it.
• Minecraft title update 15 released on Xbox 360.
• EA Sports UFC to get playable demo.
• Xbox One And The PlayStation 4: Weirdest. Console. Transition. Ever.
• Learn More about New Head of Xbox Phil Spencer.
• Watch Dogs PS4 targeting 1080p.

• KLab Unveils a Brand New Way to Experience the Age of Empires Franchise.
• Founding iOS designer to retire following alleged clashes with Jony Ive.

Thanks Ant.

• No more in-app chat: Facebook moving messages to Messenger.
• Dropbox bringing Mailbox email client to the Mac.
• Firefox OS 2.0 UI Gets Exposed, Looks Pretty. Thanks OS news.

Thanks Ant.

• AMD launches low-cost, low-wattage AM1 chipset.
• NVIDIA Releases First Linux Driver with Overclock Features. Thanks Linux Today.
• Intel closes Costa Rica operation, cuts 1,500 jobs. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Tech Gurus Still Don't "Get" Linux. Thanks Linux Today.
• Memory lane: Before everyone loved Windows XP, they hated it.
• Frankenstein Builds CyberPowerPC Zeus Mini and LanETS Overclocking - Hardware Asylum Podcast.

• South Park Gets Name Change (For Some) After Internet Security Flaw. Thanks nin.
• How to recover from Heartbleed. Thanks Ant.
• The Feds Cut a Deal With In-Flight Wi-Fi Providers, and Privacy Groups Are Worried. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Franken: Comcast called Time Warner Cable a competitor until they wanted to merge.
• Man behind Carder.su racketeering, other cybercrime, pleading guilty.

• Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls on IncGamers.com.
• Heroes of Stalingrad on Armchair General.

• ADATA Premier Pro SP920 128GB SSD on TweakTown.
• AMD Athlon 5350 Kabini AM1 APU on eTeknix and Modders-Inc.
• AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB Graphics Card on eTeknix.
• ASUS Xonar U7 USB Sound Card and Amp on Legit Reviews.
• Bitfenix Comrade on ocaholic.
• Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini-ITX Case on HARDOCP.
• Corsair H75 on Technic3D. German.
• Corsair Obsidian 450D on Guru3D.
• Inateck FEU3NS-1 USB 3.0 External Storage Enclosure on TweakTown.
• iOCEAN X7S 8-core Smartphone on Mad Shrimps.
• MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB MINI-ITX Gaming OC Video Card on TweakTown.
• Oregon Scientific ATC Chameleon Dual Lens Action Camera on Nikk Tech.
• Plextor M6S 256GB SSD on AnandTech and TweakTown.
• Sapphire R9 280X VaporX Graphics Card on Bjorn3D.com.
• XFX R9 280 Double Dissipation Black Edition OC 3GB Graphics Card on eTeknix.

• Game Developer Stocks Fall On Amazon Report. Thanks Devicer…
• The Division enlists Ghost Recon developer to create its weapons…

I keep meaning to offer an annual installment in my description of the pain of being a Knicks, fan, but in a timely move, the Bleacher Report did so for me, saving me a little additional anguish of trying to encapsulate their self-inflicted badness. The Mets are already under .500 too, so for my rooting interests, its basically time to start anticipating the NFL draft, but this is a sad state of affairs I am all too used to by now.

R.I.P.: Ken Forsse, Who Brought a Toy Bear to Life, Dies at 77. Thanks Ant.

Self-Inflicted Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Cover Orange Journey Pirates. Ice Run. Feed Us Happy.
Link:	Bad Opinion Generator. Thanks HARDOCP.
Stories:	Smile! TV Land Is Reviving Candid Camera. The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want U.S. to intervene.
Science:	LHC makes clear identification of a weird particle made of four quarks. The silencing of the Deaf. Thanks Slashdot.
Image:	While watching the AFL tonight, i spotted a familiar character...
Media:	TITANFAIL! (TitanFall Parody). NSFW. Clueless Gamer: AT&T Stadium Edition.