Publisher Tiny Build Games announces BOID will be released on Steam on January 8th, offering early access to this multiplayer real-time strategy game from indie developer Mokus Games. They celebrate the news with the release of a launch trailer showing off gameplay. Here's the deal on the game: "BOID is a streamlined multiplayer RTS that has a big class-based focus on quick-thinking and bluffing, rather than simply building up units and overpowering your enemy. Games last mere minutes, and the losing player can potentially turn the tables with last-minute stealth attacks and clever maneuvers." Continue here to read the full story.

This trailer shows off gameplay from Red Goddess, a side-scroller coming next year to Windows, OS X, and Linux (as well as consoles and mobiles) from indie developer Yanim Studio. In the game, The story revolves around a troubled goddess named Divine. She feels confused and haunted by her past. Something mysterious and unknown is tearing her apart from the inside out, destroying her mind, her soul ….and her altogether! Our journey begins when Divine decides to right this wrong by exploring her own subconscious. She will discover a planet within her own mind made up of mountains, forests, caves, and unknown perils. Discovering who she is, who she was, and what she will become is our quest…..but soon we realize that there is more to this adventure than what we first thought. Explore a mysterious Planet driven by the subconscious mind of the main character: Divine. Continue here to read the full story.

The Bethesda Blog points the way to this blog post by someone who has figured out how to play QUAKE on an oscilloscope. This is an interesting exercise, and the article goes into the ups and downs of the process. The author includes a video of this in action, obviously shot off the screen, though calling footage of an oscilloscope "shaky-cam" seems redundant at best. Continue here to read the full story.

• Born 2 Race Bundle on Bundle Stars.
• Sacred series on GOG.com. Save 75%.
• The Steam Holiday Sale Day 12.
• The Steam Holiday Sale Day 11.

• Oculus VR CTO John Carmack: The extended Q&A. Not as in-depth as the title implies.

• Our Favorite Games of 2014 - GamesIndustry.biz.
• The Top Video Games Of 2015 - Forbes.

• Xbox Live founder Boyd Multerer leaves Microsoft.
• Almost every single Xbox executive we profiled in this video last year has left the company.
• Halo 5: Guardians - Pre-Order Details, Multiplayer Beta Starts Today on Xbox LIVE.
• Final Chance to Buy Xbox One Starting at $349.
• $250 Halo 5 Collector's Edition Revealed.
• Still Can’t Connect To PlayStation Network? Here's How To Adjust Your Settings.
• New Iwata interview tackles Miyamoto's method, Nintendo history.

• The first device with a Snapdragon 810 is… the Galaxy Note 4?!
• UK banks wary of Apple Pay data collection, but early 2015 launch possible.

• Microsoft is building a new browser as part of its Windows 10 push. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Google Tracker 2015: Everything we know Google is working on for the new year. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Young people are 'lost generation' who can no longer fix gadgets, warns professor.

• Inside the NSA's War on Internet Security. Thanks HARDOCP.
• The Great Firewall keeps growing, as China blocks all Gmail access.

• FBI claimed to be investigating Xbox Live, PlayStation Network DDoS perps.
• Apple offers EU customers 14-day money-back returns on e-purchases.
• Movie Studios Claim That Google Fiber Leads To More Piracy. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Metal Gear Solid- Ground Zeroes – Modders Figured Out Ways To Let You Play As Hideo Kojima…

Link of the Day: Happy 50th birthday to the Star Trek Original Series Enterprise Model.

The Steam Game and Player Statistics page shows that over the weekend Steam achieved a new record for concurrent users, showing a peak of 8,357,541 players were online at once at some point yesterday. Thanks NeoGAF via DSOGaming.

NeoGAF has word on a post that has since been deleted from the Steam forums for The Talos Principle, indicating the game has an interesting approach to piracy. According to the report, players using illegal copies of Croteam's first-person puzzle game will end up stuck in an elevator forever, which is not Croteam's first such effort at messing with stolen copies of their games. There's apparently even a QR code on the elevator wall with a hint about what's going on, but no word if they are sadistic enough to include Muzak. Thanks PCGamesN.

The holidays are not keeping the industrious folks at GfK Chart-Track from their namesake task of chart-tracking in the U.K. They offer this list of the top 30 PC games for the week ending December 27th, which looks pretty similar to the previous week's chart with Football Manager 2015 maintaining a toehold on the top spot, though the Truckin' Collection from SCS Software pulls in at #22. The status quo remains in effect on the all platforms chart as well, with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare remaining number one. Here's their summary of the activity:

‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’ (+20%) signs off the year in style taking its 5th No1 crown since launch.

Grand Theft Auto V (+33%) continues to deliver strong sales climbing to No2 after four successive weeks in 3rd place. ‘FIFA 15’ (+11%) is relegated to No3, which means that for the first time since 2009 a FIFA title doesn’t occupy a Top 2 position in the final week of the year. Price promotions for ‘Assassin’s Creed: Unity’ (+18%) deliver another week on week sales boost as the title climbs a spot to No4. It overtakes a second Ubisoft title in the form of ‘Far Cry 4’ (+4%) which is down to No5. The third of Ubisoft’s Top 10 titles ‘The Crew’ (+7%) remains at No6 for a second week. A price cut for PS4 exclusive ‘Driveclub’ (+24%) propels the title back into the Top 10 at No7. Usual suspects ‘Minecraft: Xbox Edition’ (+3%) and ‘Minecraft: Playstation Edition’ (+4%) are non-movers at No8 and No9 respectively. ‘Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham’ (+11%) is also a non-mover, but a timely sales boost ensures it holds its No10 spot edging out Activision Blizzard title ‘Destiny’ (-11%) which slips to No11.

• Matt Chat 272: Susan Manley on SSI and Electronic Arts. Thanks Ant.

• BlackGuards 2 on GameWatcher.

• Halo 5 Multiplayer Beta Available Today.
• Countdown to 2015 Xbox Daily Deal – Day 14.

• T-Mobile CEO John Legere Offers Up Some Christmas Greetings.
• Samsung Launches A Snapdragon 810 Powered Galaxy Note 4.
• Back-To-Basics Non Casual Mobile Racing Game Kesselberg Released.
• Gold Coins Billionaire: Kingdom Dozer Game with Free Prizes on the App Store on iTunes.

• Apple Suddenly Cancels Its ’12 Days Of Gifts’ Promotion, For The First Time In Six Years. Thanks HARDOCP.
• 'The Interview' Rakes in $15M in Downloads. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Netflix 2015 lineup includes 8 new original series. Thanks HARDOCP.
• The Interview on iTunes. Thanks Ant.
• These 65 movies and TV shows are disappearing from Netflix on New Year's Day.
• Facebook apologizes for morbid results with its “Year in Review” nag.

• Researchers at Cornell invent new low-energy PC memory. Thanks HARDOCP.
• The good, bad and geeky- 55 quotes that defined the tech industry in 2014. Thanks HARDOCP.
• 18 Things to Do After Installing Fedora 21 Workstation. Thanks Ant via Linux Today.

• Chaos Computer Club Says They Can Hack Your Fingerprint. Thanks HARDOCP.
• New documents reveal which encryption tools the NSA couldn't crack. Thanks Digg.
• Internet Systems Consortium site hacked. Thanks Ant via DSLReports.

• Aereo To Be Pieced Out And Auctioned Off To The Highest Bidder. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Possible copyright suit could create a smaller headache for The Interview.

• Gamdias Hephaestus Gaming Headset on pcGameware.
• HP EliteBook 1020 on Ars Technica.
• MicroCool Banchetto 101 Chassis on Hardware Slave.
• QNAP TS-853 Pro 8-bay Intel Bay Trail SMB NAS on AnandTech.
• Razer Deathstalker Expert Keyboard on Benchmark Reviews.
• Seagate NAS Pro DP-6 Network Attached Storage on Modders-Inc.

• Game Giveaway of the Day – The Snow Fable. Thanks Ant…
• #GamerGate Wants Objective Video Game Reviews: What Would Roger Ebert Do?…

Congrats to Verno for winning this year's NFL pool, impressively finishing in the top 0.7%. Vern averaged close to a win per week more than me, as I ended up in the middle of the pack, tied for 14th. In the smaller, but trickier spread pool, LastPlace defied his nickname to finish in first place, landing in the top 0.5% of all ESPN pools, which is pretty impressive. I finished in the middle of that one too, though clearly almost last place if you don't count players who didn't make picks all season. Congrats to the winners and thanks to all for participating, as it was a lot of fun. I'll look for a playoff pool... if anyone has any suggestions for a site to curate our picks for the postseason feel free to make them.

With New Year's Day falling on Thursday it's hard to say how much gaming news there will be this week, so we'll just have to play that by ear.

Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Caravan Beast. Bob The Inventor.
Stories:	2014 Proves a Grim Year in Malaysian Aviation.
Science:	Microbiologists cultivate "microbial dark matter." 5,200 Days in Space. Thanks Digg.
Media:	Happy Holidays! From Patrick Stewart And His Singing Hat. Grandma gets pranked with a chocolate iPhone on Christmas. Thanks HARDOCP. OUTLAST: PART 5 (Teens React: Gaming).