Piranha Games announces Transverse, a flight-based, sci-fi MMORPG from the creators of MechWarrior Online. They say a variety of preorder options are offered on the Transverse website, but don't mention there's a crowd-sourced funding campaign there as well, which has an ultimate goal of one million dollars. Here's a reveal trailer and the announcement:

Humanity has begun its first tentative steps beyond its home solar system. However, the journey has not been entirely peaceful...

From the creators of MechWarrior Online comes Transverse, a galactic flight-based MMORPG set in a persistent, distant sector of the galaxy where industry, science and combat shape humanity's interstellar progression.

When the division between humans on Earth and the trans-humans of the outer colonies threatened to develop into a system-wide war, the development of an interstellar jump drive offered an alternative and the trans-humans in the outer colonies were given the drive and a choice: integrate or emigrate.

They chose isolation.

Now immortal through the ability to transfer their consciousness into different host bodies, the trans-humans have multiple hosts that can be modified and improved to advance a pilot's skill. The future path humanity takes among the stars is in your hands.

With incredibly detailed ship and station construction, massive solar-system-wide player events and real-time, physics-based combat, Transverse puts the power in the pilot's hands. A fluctuating, real-time economy fueled by industry drives trade in a dynamic resource ecosystem, and player-generated contracts and missions can shift the balance of power at any given moment. Your reputation as a pilot throughout the galaxy will be judged by how well you fly, and the decisions you make.

Transverse is now available for pre-order via a variety of tiers starting at $30 USD.

Continue here to read the full story.

The Creative Assembly announces plans to unveil the next installment in their Total War series of strategy games at EGX on September 25th. With the full reveal yet to come, here's all they are saying for now:

Hot on the sandaled heels of the Total War: ROME II – Emperor Edition (out next week), Creative Assembly will reveal the next title in the award-winning strategy series at this year’s EGX on Thursday the 25th September.

As part of their developer stage session at 4pm, CA will give attendees an exclusive insight into ongoing production on the title and the world first look at the new game in action. Be prepared for the odd surprise too…

This unannounced title joins ongoing ROME II content development and the previously announced ARENA F2P project at the UK developer’s studio in Horsham. Visitors to EGX will also find CA in the recruitment fair and on the show floor with soon-to-be-released Alien: Isolation.

There are still currently limited tickets available for Thursday at EGX, hurry here to pick up yours: www.egxlondon.net

Stardock announces an agreement to publish an upcoming unannounced strategy game from BonusXP, a recently formed developer that includes veterans of Ensemble Studios from the age of the Age of Empires series. Apparently undaunted by the prospect of living up to the classic real-time strategy series, they also note that AIAS hall of fame designer Bruce Shelley has joined BonusXP to direct their upcoming game projects, including this one. "Working with Stardock is fantastic opportunity," said BonusXP CEO Dave Pottinger. "Stardock shares our vision of great games made by passionate people. We're thrilled to work with a publishing partner that rejects the tired mentality of churning through developers in the name of mindless sequels. While we could have self-published our next title, this partnership allows us to leverage the talent of both companies to create the game we have been dying to make. It’s not often that two veteran studios get a chance to work together on something like this. We cannot wait to share it with everyone."

Merge Games and Headup Games announce a September 26th release date for the final version of Meridian: New World, their upcoming real-time strategy game that's currently available through Steam early access (this headline was posted earlier today, but there was a glitch, so this is take two). Here's word:

Merge Games and Headup Games are happy to present you the final Steam release date of their one-man-indie-project Meridian: New World - a single-player RTS game developed by Ede Tarsoly, the mastermind behind Elder Games. We would like to thank the numerous Early Access members all over the world for their really helpful feedback and are happy to announce September 26th 2014 as the official release date of the final version on Steam - priced $14.99 (14,99€ / £10.99).

The Battlefield Blog has more details on the upcoming The Final Stand DLC for Battlefield 4. They also announce testing of the add-on is taking place this week, providing instructions on how to try and get into the Community Test Environment to help, which requires a premium account (inspiring us to repeat our joke that paying to beta test is a grand tradition in the Battlefield series). Here's a Final Stand official reveal trailer and here's an excerpt:

With Final Stand, we knew from the start that we wanted to evolve the Battlefield experience and offer weapons and vehicles that behave differently than anything else on the battlefield. Taking place on the artic landscape of Russia, where the scientists of today are experimenting with technology that will define the battlefields of tomorrow (Battlefield 2142, anyone?), Final Stand will deliver four maps that are unique and distinct. With its military installations set against a wintry landscape, expect intense, infantry-focused combat.

Players will also discover secret prototype weapons and vehicles that further tie into the fiction around Final Stand, and to some extent the Battlefield series. This includes a Battle pick-up rail gun that fires a single round of powerful kinetic energy, and the hover tank prototype, which uses eight experimental jet propulsion engines to nimbly move around the battlefield. We have a few more surprises up our sleeves that we’ll share with you in the weeks ahead.

We definitely had a lot of fun designing these maps and the future-tech weapons and vehicles of Final Stand and hope you guys have as much fun with them as we do. That’s why we want you to start playing them now. Starting today we are going to be testing pre-release versions of the Final Stand maps on the CTE (Community Test Environment).

Continue here to read the full story.

• The Banner Saga on Steam. Save 50%.
• Hack 'n' Slash on Steam. Save 33%.
• Humble Indie Bundle 12 on Humble Bundle.
• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II on Steam. Save 50%.
• Space Pirates and Zombies on Steam. Save 80%.

• Lapsum by Mirball Games — Kickstarter. "Lapsum is an arcade about spending time in hell."

• An indie developer's thoughts on the state of the gaming industry. Thanks Gaming Blend.

• eSports will be bigger than hockey - ESL CEO.

• Battlecry on Skewed 'n Reviewed.
• Shadow Of Mordor on Skewed 'n Reviewed.

• Microsoft Says They're Replacing Abnormally Noisy Xbox Ones.
• Hit the Ice With NHL 15.
• EA Sports to remove Ray Rice from its Madden video games. Ray Voldemort.
• This Week’s Xbox Deals with Gold.
• Mega Man X5 now available on the NA PlayStation Store.
• PS3 and Xbox 360 Middle-earth- Shadow of Mordor delayed.
• Sunset Overdrive season pass has missions, weapons.

• iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch unveiled at Apple 2014 event.
• Apple iOS 8- Available September 17th.
• iFixit cracks open the Moto 360, finds smaller battery than advertised.
• The iPhone 6 could make playing your favorite games much harder.

Thanks j.c.f.

• DARPA targets complex software algorithm vulnerabilities.
• Social engineering campaign leads to malicious Chrome extension.
• Hackers target Apple Mac OS X with 25 malware variants.
• Dodgy Norton update borks UNDEAD XP systems.
• Dyre malware branches out from banking, adds corporate espionage.

• Kim Dotcom will get back computers seized during Megaupload raid.

• Good Game - Season 10 Episode 32. Thanks Ant…

Link of the Day: Fincher, Ellroy Plan 1950's HBO Noir Series. I am very upset that I am not watching this right now.

Creative Assembly announces Alien: Isolation is gold, and the now-complete survival/horror game will be released on October 7th. They celebrate the news with a "no escape" trailer that kicks off a new "how will you survive" series. Here's word on the new trailer series and the game's upcoming release:

Creative Assembly is pleased to let us know today that Alien: Isolation™ has ‘gone gold’ and will be hitting shelves and digital storefronts worldwide from October 7, 2014. With the release just one month away, the team has put together a series of short trailers, the first out today.

’#HOWWILLYOUSURVIVE?’ is a series of short trailers running through to release, showcasing many of the unique ways that players will discover that surviving the creature, and the world of Sevastopol, means learning a whole new set of skills. In Alien: Isolation, the creature is hunting you. If it hears you, it will track down the source of the noise; if it sees you, it will pursue at speed; tackling it head-on is not for the faint-hearted. It’s ruthless, relentless and unstoppable. Which makes us ask, #howwillyousurvive?

Alien: Isolation is a first-person survival horror game capturing the fear and tension evoked by Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic film. Players find themselves in an atmosphere of constant dread and mortal danger as an unpredictable, ruthless Xenomorph is stalking and killing deep in the shadows. Underpowered and underprepared, you must scavenge resources, improvise solutions and use your wits, not just to succeed in your mission, but to simply stay alive.

Alien: Isolation will be available from October 7, 2014, for Xbox One, PS4™, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PS3™.

There are details on Capcom Unity on plans to bring Resident Evil 5, Dead Rising 2, and Off The Record to Steamworks to replace Games for Windows LIVE, though the changeover won't happen until next year. Here's the deal about the survival of these survival/horror games:

If you're a fan of smashing zombies (and/or zombie-like Majini) on your PC, then we've got some good news for ya - RE5, Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record are all coming to Steamworks early next year. With the global popularity of the Steamworks platform, we’ve seen high demand from fans to bring these highly requested titles to this platform. Moving to Steamworks will allow more fans across the world to enjoy these games.

Current owners of these PC titles will be transitioned over to the Steamworks versions early next year. Once we have specific dates ironed out, we'll have more information about all three titles and their respective launch days so stay tuned.

Steam now offers pre-purchases of Raven's Cry, TopWare's seafaring role-playing game that's coming to Windows and OS X next month. Those who make this advance commitment will be rewarded with some "exclusive" in-game perks and a 10% discount. Here's a rundown: "Right now captains can pre-purchase this dark pirate epic at a 10% discount, as well as some exclusive pre-purchase items. No crafty buccaneer worth his salt would pass this offer by and miss out on the exclusive soundtrack, digital world map, and three exclusive in-game items (the 'Long Hand' pistol, the 'Griffin' figurehead and the sword 'Marrow'). Each of these exclusive items will enhance Christopher’s skills and the capabilities of his ship when you use them."

Here's a new trailer from The Repopulation teasing the alpha version of this sandbox MMORPG. They accompany the clip with word that their Twitch stream on Saturday will reveal "top secret stuff." Here's that: "We have released our next Alpha Teaser video. You can check it out below. In addition, on Saturday at 2 PM EDT (6 PM GMT) we are going to have another Q/A, giveaway, and other top secret stuff so come join us on our Twitch channel this Saturday or check out the video afterwards." Continue here to read the full story.

Daedalic Entertainment announces a collaboration with Martin Ganteföhr to create an unannounced new game:

Daedalic Entertainment, a top producer of multi-platform narrative games, has expanded its creative team with the addition of award-winning author Martin Ganteföhr. Mr. Ganteföhr will be working with Daedalic to craft a wholly new game, to be unveiled at a later date.

"Martin Ganteföhr will be able to work with maximum creative freedom to craft a game fully in the spirit of his previous adventures," confirms Daedalic's founder and CEO Carsten Fichtelmann. "With this new addition, Daedalic not only adds another high quality narrative presence to our Writer’s Room, but we can also work with a valued colleague once again."

Martin Ganteföhr made his mark as the founder of and writer for the adventure studio House of Tales. At House of Tales, Ganteföhr created and launched the literary adventure games "The Moment of Silence" and "Overclocked"- both of which are extraordinary psycho-thriller stories featuring intriguing narratives and structures.

"The Moment of Silence” dealt a scenario in the likes of George Orwell’s “1984” / "Big Brother", depicting total government control of information flow, while "Overclocked" tapped into the substance of psychological trauma after extreme experiences of violence – such as in modern warfare.

"The idea of us working together has long been in the back of our minds, since we share the same view of games as a strong narrative medium,” said Ganteföhr. "The creativity, consequence and sheer joy Daedalic focuses on the narrative genre is unrivaled here, and probably worldwide. I'm looking forward to contributing to their philosophy by integrating some of my core design ideals"

• Death to Spies 3- Stealth Action, Hitman meets Splinter Cell by Haggard Games — Kickstarter. "Third person stealth action game about a soviet agent and his team in the times of WW2 and Cold War (JFK assassination) for PC & Mac."
• Post-Kickstarter Finance By The Numbers; A One-Man Studio Postmortem.
• Xbox One Controller Driver for Mac by Terry Demco — Kickstarter. "Use your Xbox One controller with the Mac. Finally."

Tiny Little Frogs - Gamergate and the RPS response with Brad Wardell. Thanks Mashiki.
I think that’s all fine. But it seems like the gaming media can talk about things other than games without attacking their readers. The objection isn’t about whether there’s a discussion on whether murdering prostitutes should give you HP is a good for society or not. The objection is saying that people who play that game are bad people.

If we game a game that is offensive, then tell us. We can take it. To emphasize: Game developers have a tremendous level of respect for gaming sites like RPS. We trust you. Your candid article is great thing. I wish it had come out 3 weeks ago before the well was poisoned by a dozen+ “gamers are losers” articles.

Salon.com - “I want a straight white male gaming convention”: How a culture war exploded in the video gaming world.
The sad thing is that even if you don’t believe that there is serious sexism in the gaming community, gamers do actually have serious reasons to be skeptical of their gaming press and developers. Game companies are nickel-and-diming consumers like never before, cutting out large sections of their games and selling them for full price while selling those add-ons for exorbitant fees. Meanwhile, Zoe Quinn may not be a real scandal, but game publishers and journalists who review games have gotten far too cozy – witness how Ubisoft gave an entire audience of journalists free tablets as they prepared to review its (in my opinion) fairly average game “Watch Dogs.”

• Vector Thrust on Strategy Informer.

• Xbox One System Update Preview: Improvements to Snap, TV experiences.
• Destiny launch- cosplay, Fallen spaceships and awkward dancing.
• FIFA 15 demo launches today.
• PS4 sales hit 1 million in UK.

• Meet the tech company performing ad injections for Big Cable - Ars Technica.
• Australian Online TV Streaming up to 431% More Expensive Than US.

• Home Depot confirms breach but stays mum as to size. Not big into measuring things there.

• Ageod's To End All Wars on Strategy Informer.
• Dead Rising 3 on Strategy Informer.
• Starion Tactics on Space Game Junkie.

• AMD Radeon R9-285 Review Part 2 - Sapphire and PowerColor on HardwareHeaven.com.
• AOC m2870Vq 28 inch LED MVA Monitor on pcGameware.
• ASRock D1800M Motherboard on Hardware Secrets.
• ASUS ROG R9 290X MATRIX Platinum on HARDOCP.
• Corsair Graphite 380T Mini ITX Case on Benchmark Reviews.
• G.SKILL 16GB 2400MHz RipJaws 4 Quad Channel DDR4 Memory Kit on eTeknix.
• G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz Memory Kit on Legit Reviews.
• Gigabyte GA-X99-SOC Force LN2 Motherboard With Special LGA2011-v3 CPU Socket on Legit Reviews.
• Intel Xeon E5-2687W v3 processor on The Tech Report.
• Moto X on Ars Technica.
• Sapphire ITX Compact R9 285 OC on Overclockers Club.
• Scythe Ashura Shadow Kühler on OverClocked inside.
• Steelseries Sensei Wireless on ocaholic.
• Tt eSPORTS Poseidon ZX Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TechwareLabs.
• TYLT Energi 5K Battery Pack Mobile Travel Charger on TweakTown.
• XTracGear Ripper XXL Mousing Surface on DragonSteelMods.
• Zowie FK1 Gaming Mouse on eTeknix.

• EA fixing The Sims 4 gay name block…

Happy birthday Dreamcast, as the star-crossed console was released in North America 15 years ago today, marking SEGA's final entry in the console market. The system had a successful launch, but they ended up killing it just 18 months later after the PlayStation 2 era dawned. And I promised mercy on the non-NFL fans, so here's a separate thread for football discussion.

Star-Crossed Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Sacrifire. Gunnihilation. Jelly Truck.
Stories:	A Superhero of Sorts in a Hunt for Artifacts. Thanks Neutronbeam. British Actor James Corden to Replace Craig Ferguson on "The Late Late Show".
Science:	Stephen Hawking: Research on the ‘God particle’ could cause space-time to collapse. Hundreds of Children Stricken by Rare Respiratory Illness in Colorado. Thanks Slashdot.
Media:	Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Student Debt. Freak Basketball Shot Saves Aussie Dad Millions Of Dollars. Jimmy Kimmel Goes Through Sarah Silverman's Purse. Thanks nin.
Image:	Mel Brooks is always on (count the fingers).
Follow-up:	Three Things To Keep In Mind About The Big Jack The Ripper 'Reveal'.