Steam News announces a free weekend is underway for Depth, offering the chance to dive in and sink your teeth into the game between now and Monday. Here's word:

Play as a shark or a diver in a dark aquatic world and overcome your enemies by employing cunning, teamwork, and stealth. Depth blends tension and visceral action as you team up against AI or be matched with other players in heart pounding combat.

Play as a shark:
As a twenty foot Great White Shark, speed and senses are your greatest weapons. Stalk your prey from across the ocean and tear them in half with your razor sharp teeth.

Play as a diver:
As a human diver you must explore the abyss in search of treasure to upgrade your arsenal. Defend yourself with a range of high powered gear, from spearguns and pistols to underwater assault rifles and explosive sea mines.

Codemasters announces F1 2015 is now available in stores in EMEA territories, and the Formula One racing simulation is also available on Steam, so the announcement in May to expect the game on July 21st in North America may apply to the boxed edition. There are reports of glitches in the release version and the first patch for the game is now available (thanks Kotaku). Here's a launch trailer and here's word:

F1 2015 delivers a truly immersive experience thanks to an all-new ‘broadcast presentation’ style that recreates the unique race day atmosphere of a GRAND PRIX™, complete with introductory grid sequences, new motion-captured pit stops by a real world pit crew, and the iconic podium celebrations. Using voice recognition technology available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, players can become immersed in the cockpit, engaging with their race engineer through in-game voice commands with Kinect for Xbox One and the PlayStation®Camera or compatible headsets and microphones for PlayStation 4. Players compete as their favourite FORMULA ONE star in the all-new Championship Season and push themselves to the limit in the challenging Pro Season mode. The game also features fully playable 2014 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP™ bonus content.

To celebrate the game’s launch, Codemasters have released a new F1 2015 launch trailer that showcases how F1 2015 takes players closer to the real-world experience of racing in the world’s most glamorous, exciting and prestigious motorsport, thanks to a brand new version of Codemasters’ proprietary EGO game engine. In addition to spectacular visual fidelity, F1 2015 offers a significant step forward in the physics-based handling model of the game, which is designed to be inclusive for both seasoned players and those new to the series. The handling model offers enhancements and additions in over 20 areas, including engine and transmission, aerodynamics, fuel tank, force feedback, suspension and most notably, a brand new tyre physics model, to recreate the breathtaking handling characteristics of the world’s fastest and most responsive racing cars.

Continue here to read the full story.

Steam News announces the release of Spectra, a rhythm racing game for Windows, OS X, and Linux, saying this carries a 20% launch discount. Here's word:

Featuring two powerful gameplay modes (Normal and Hardcore) with 10 unique music tracks used to generate procedural levels, race against the beat to experience unlimited playthroughs! Staying sharp is essential and reaction timing vital as memory is obsolete with this nostalgia-driven, arcade-like game. Spectra is a veritable homage to arcade games of old; true mastery will require all your twitch skills and the beautiful retro-style graphics will have you just itching to dig up your Atari!

The Path of Exile website announces that Path of Exile: The Awakening is now live, updating Grinding Gear's free-to-play action/RPG to version 2.0. They offer complete patch notes for the new version, which dj LiTh notes clock in at over 13,000 words. They note that they are offering everyone a free respec, they have freed up inactive character names, and note "The entire game experience has changed from the first level onwards." Here's the overview:

Path of Exile: The Awakening is now live! Check out the patch notes here. For information on how you can win one of two Alienware Gaming Laptops, click here! If you haven't seen the trailer yet, check it out here. If you'd like to help support Path of Exile, please consider purchasing a Supporter Pack, Premium Stash Tab Bundle (on sale today!) or one of the new microtransactions introduced in The Awakening. Thanks again for your generous support. We really hope you enjoy the new Path of Exile.

The servers are holding up well. We're working on fixing some small issues, but so far this is our smoothest launch ever.

A Patch 1.07 Changelog is now online for the upcoming patch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (thanks Verno), though it appears the patch will not be released this week the promised, as the North American Community Manager for the RPG sequel says: "More details on patch 1.07 availability coming next week." The notes are quite lengthy, but another CM post adds: "There are a bunch of smaller changes that weren't explicitly listed in the patch notes." Here's the list:

• Introduces an alternative movement style for Geralt. To enable, go to the Gameplay\Movement Response submenu.
• Fixes a rare issue where the player's horse would not fall to the ground properly.
• Fixes a rare issue where the player could be locked into the aiming animation if hit while throwing a bomb on horseback.
• Fixes a rare issue with an infinite loading screen in the Ladies of the Wood quest.
• Includes a variety of collision fixes.
• Fixes an issue where Wild Hunt warriors would remain present even after the player completed the main storyline.

Continue here to read the full story.

A new Inside Rainbow #3 trailer from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege looks at another of the special forces units that will be part of the upcoming tactical shooter. Today's clip profiles GIGN, the French counter-terrorism unit. Continue here to read the full story.

A new trailer offers an overview of Blood Bowl 2, Cyanide's upcoming sports simulation that puts the fantasy in fantasy football. Focus Home Interactive announces they are now accepting preorders of the game and offer a bonus race as well as multiplayer beta access as incentives for those willing to take a risk on the advance commitment. They say the beta will begin a few weeks prior to its planned September 22nd release.

• Bohemia Interactive 2 on Humble Weekly Bundle.
• Elite: Dangerous on Steam. Save 33%.
• Fair and Square on GOG.com.
• OOTP Baseball 16 on the official website. Save 50%.
• RIDE on Steam. Save 50%.
• The Red Solstice on Steam. Save 20%.
• Total War Weekend on The Humble Store.

• Dishonored 2: Harvey Smith on the idea of player choice - The Guardian. Thanks Acleacius.

• Win a Trip to Play Battleborn at PAX.

• Breaking: Ellen Pao steps down as reddit CEO.
• Getting rid of copper lines has consequences, and the FCC wants you to know them. Thanks Ant.
• Google Improving SPAM Filtering Technology for GMail.

Thanks j.c.f.

• OpenSSL Patches Serious Certificate Forgery Vulnerability.
• Bug in Android ADB Backup System Can Allow Injection of Malicious Apps.
• Despite warnings, majority of firms still run some Windows Server 2003.
• APT-Style Evasion Techniques Spotted in “Kofer” Ransomware Campaign.

• Patent troll lawsuits head toward all-time high.
• US government’s reported number of wiretaps don’t add up.
• Seattle police seek pilot after woman knocked out by falling drone.

• Madcap arcade shooter Mactabilis is now available on Steam including support for Steam Cloud and Achievements…

R.I.P.: Omar Sharif- Lawrence of Arabia star dies aged 83. Thanks Cutter.

The recent round of bans in Heroes of the Storm have been followed by complaints from users claiming they were unfairly flagged for cheating in the MOBA. This is not unusual, as it is generally accepted that someone willing to cheat in a game is also willing to lie to cover it up, but there is a common thread emerging among some of the accounts of banned users claiming innocence. A thread on reddit on a tool to check your system the way Blizzard would leads to a theory that the combination of using the 32-bit client on a 64-bit OS while running ASUS Xonar sound drivers generates a false positive for cheating. This has not been official confirmed or acknowledge, but there are a lot of posts suggesting there may be something to this.

The Beamblog has a tease from last week of an announcement with no payoff, but this new website has details on Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, an expansion they say will add 25 hours of gameplay to Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, the remade version of BioWare's classic D&D RPG (thanks PCGamesN via Dark). This trailer offers a first look, and here's word on the plan:

Though Sarevok is dead and his plan for war averted, peace eludes the citizens of Baldur's Gate. A crusade marches from the north, seizing supplies, forcing locals into military service, and disrupting trade along the Sword Coast. A charismatic warrior known as the Shining Lady leads this army, her background shrouded in mystery. Can the rumors be true—is she, like you, the child of a god?

The closer you get to the Shining Lady, the more you realize your father, the dead Lord of Murder still casts a long shadow upon your path. Baldur's Gate has put its faith in you, but you must determine whose interests you truly serve before you face the Shining Lady among the ruins of Dragonspear Castle...

Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear adds a new chapter to the Bhaalspawn saga. The events occurring between Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II are at last revealed in this 25-hour expansion pack for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition.

Continue here to read the full story.

Ubisoft announces their first quarter 2015-16 sales, saying these came in "above target" at €97 million, inspiring them to reconfirm their 2015-2016 full year projections. Here's word:

Sales
Sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2015-16 came to €96.6 million, down 73.2% (75.6% at constant exchange rates) compared to €360.1 million for first-quarter 2014-15 which saw the release of Watch_Dogs®.

The first-quarter sales figure for 2015-16 were higher than the target of around €80 million announced when Ubisoft released its fiscal 2014-15 results, due to a strong 59.3% increase in back-catalog sales to €91.6 million, led in particular by a better-than-expected performance by Assassin’s Creed ® Unity and sustained demand for Far Cry ® 4, The Crew ® and Watch_Dogs.

Digital segment revenues totaled €54.1 million and represented 56.0% of total sales versus 23.2% the prior year.

Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said "E3 2015 confirmed that the video games industry is in excellent shape. Gamers’ immense enthusiasm for the games presented at the show promises to maintain the current strong growth dynamic in the PC and console market . Ubisoft presented its strongest line-up ever, garnering very positive gamer feedback for our franchises’ latest opuses, including Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Ghost Recon Wildlands and Rainbow Six Siege, as well as for our new brands For Honor and The Division. Fans told us that they particularly appreciated that most of our games could be played hands-on at our booth. E3 was also an opportunity to showcase our advances in multiplayer games, which should have a favourable impact on our digital revenue growth and on our profitability ."

There's a new Letter to the Community on survarium.com with word for Survarium players addressing drama surrounding Vostok's survival game, explaining: "Over the last few months there have been waves of support and waves of agony, both in the studio and in the community," and they run through "a few poignant topics" (thanks Rhialto). Topics include shortcomings of their anti-cheat system, their switch to text from video for their developer diaries, a new graphics renderer, the status of freeplay (which they claim is accurate even after pointing out "The internet is king of many things, chief among which is conspiracy and lies"), the balance between adding features and addressing bugs, community petitions, more on cheating, and the reasons for adding a killcam.

Sorcerer King is due for release out of Early Access next week on July 16th, offering the official release of this fantasy-themed 4X strategy game. To celebrate the news, Stardock offers the intro cinematic and here's the official description of the game as a refresher:

Sorcerer King is a different kind of 4X game from Stardock, one of the longest-tenured independent studios in the video game industry. There are no evenly matched rivals to race against here; the game itself is out to get you. The evil Sorcerer King is slowly sucking the magic from the world and its inhabitants to fuel his ascension to godhood. You must carve out enough of a kingdom from the wreckage to assemble one last army of heroes and soldiers to storm his dark stronghold in a final deadly challenge to his absolute authority. His evil empire will crush you like a bug if you look like too much of a threat, though, so making your move too early will only doom the world’s last hope for survival.

Continue here to read the full story.

Headup Games and Merge Games announce that Onikira: Demon Killer will be officially released on July 30th after a run as an Early Access title. You can see the game in action in this fairly old trailer and its Steam page, though word is this will be offered on other digital distributors as well. Here's a rundown on the game:

Developed by Irish-based Digital Furnace Games, Onikira: Demon Killer is a 2D side-scrolling, beat’em-up set in a fantasy feudal Japan. Players assume role of Yamazaki Jiro, a lone samurai battling to prevent the forces of the Japanese underworld, Yomi, from taking over the world of the living.

Onikira: Demon Killer blends together complex deep fighting mechanics of traditional 3D beat-em’ups and merges them with classic 2D platformer mechanics. Some will prefer to go toe-to toe with heavy weapons and mash some buttons while other players will prefer a ranged game, avoiding heavy melee encounters and the game’s expressive fighting system enables each player to engage in the way that suits them best.

Trion Worlds announces the launch of Trove, a new adventure MMOG they decided to craft for some reason to mine the world of voxel construction. "Trove’s Beta opened our eyes to the amount of rampant creativity and talent that exists in the online gaming community," said Scott Hartsman, CEO of Trion Worlds. "We’ve seen players create entire worlds, going above and beyond our expectations of capabilities. We can’t wait to see what players come up with next as we open Trove’s gates to the wider world." You can have a look in the launch trailer. Continue here to read the full story.

UbiBlog now offers a new trailer with a gameplay walkthrough (drivethrough?) for TrackMania Turbo, the upcoming installment in Nadeo's racing series. Here's the write-up:

Trackmania Turbo is defined by crazy speed, gravity-defying tracks, and simple, accessible controls. To give you a better idea of what’s in store when it launches, Creative Director François Alaux and Director of IP Develoment Tommy François are here to guide you through a handful of its 200 arcade-inspired tracks, taking pains to point out their beautiful settings and dynamic, eye-catching signage. They also show off Double Driver mode, which challenges two players to drive the same car by carefully synchronizing their movements.

The Trackmania Turbo courses we’ve played through so far have been short but twisty affairs that pack in a lot of visual flair and – despite the three-button controls – take a lot of skill to master. Each hairpin turn and surprise loop left us feeling like we could have handled it just a little better, and the lure of shaving a few more seconds off our lap time was enough to keep us replaying them. Of course, this is a Trackmania game, so if the challenges spread across the 200 tracks and four environments aren’t enough for you, you can easily design and share your own tracks. It’s a compelling package for anyone eager for a burst of speed and a quick, demanding challenge, and players will be able to dive in on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC December 1.

Continue here to read the full story.

• The Bards Tale IV by inXile entertainment — Kickstarter. Final 12 hours of the campaign. Thanks nin.
• Space Food Truck- A Digital Co-op Board Game by One Man Left — Kickstarter. "4 unique roles for 1-4 players. Scour the galaxy for exotic ingredients. Avoid pirates, wormholes, and dancing that gets out of hand." Thanks Gamer's Hell.

• Into the Stars PC Interview - GameWatcher.
• DayZ's Dean Hall- 'I both love and hate Early Access' - Gamasutra.
• Witcher 3 expansions "almost size of Witcher 2." Thanks VG247.

• World of Tanks – Xbox One Beta Weekend.
• Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Bundle and Behind-the-Scenes Video Unveiled at Comic-Con.
• Spectra is Now Available for Xbox One.

Thanks Ant.

• Apple outlines AppleCare service process for downgrading from watchOS 2.0 beta. Thanks OS news.
• Futurama mobile game in development. Good news, everyone!
• "The Expendables" Get A Mobile Game.
• JumpBurger on the App Store on iTunes.

• Broken cable reportedly disconnected US island territory from Internet.
• Private I: Firefox and others deal with unwanted trackers, whether ads or malicious.
• Facebook facelift puts women on top. Thanks Ant.

Thanks Ant.

• On Radeon R9 Fury X Pump Noise & Replacements.
• Microsoft Funds OpenBSD.
• Windows Server 2003 end of support next week. Thanks OS news.
• Five Best Linux Desktop Environments.
• Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 Now Available.
• Airbus e-Fan electric plane successfully crosses the English Channel.

• Lizard Squad attacks PlanetSide 2, H1Z1, more.
• Oracle Critical Patch Update [Java SE]. Thanks Ant.

• Canadian teen who harassed female League of Legend players jailed.
• FBI: Sextortion a growing threat. Thanks Acleacius.
• Uber files motion to limit potential class action suit to three drivers. Thanks HARDOCP.

• F1 2015 on Eurogamer.net.

• AMD Fury X vs. NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti- 2- and 3-Way Multi-GPU Performance on PC Perspective.
• ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer 3.1 Motherboard on pcGameware.
• ASUS STRIX R9 Fury DC3 Video Card on HARDOCP.
• Corsair RMi Series RM1000i Fully-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix.
• CRYORIG H7 CPU Cooler on Nikk Tech.
• Griffin WatchStand Charging Dock for Apple Watch and iPhone on Technogog.
• Inateck HB4009 on APH Networks.
• OCZ Trion 100 SSD on Anandtech, Hardware Canucks, HardwareHeaven, HARDOCP, ocaholic, PC Perspective, The SSD Review, techPowerUp, and TweakTown.
• Toshiba Canvio AeroCast Mobile Wireless Storage Device on TweakTown.
• Tt eSPORTS Ventus X Laser Gaming Mouse on TweakTown.

• Good Game Spawn Point - Series 6 Episode 21. Thanks Ant…
• Positech Games is building a school in Africa…
• How 5 years of burning ambition brought Retro City Rampage to DOS…

My pal MrKawfy sent me this link to follow up on my comment about learning Brian Cox is Scottish. It doesn't get more Scottish than that. And pretty helpful, too.

R.I.P.: Ken Stabler, former Oakland Raiders quarterback, dies. Belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	UFO: Blackstorm Shield. Qubey The Cube. Logical Element.
Links:	The Lost Girls - History of The Runaways.
Media:	The ropes are looking a little frayed. NSFW. Smells Like Teen Shovel. Whose Line -- Unlikely Star Wars Scenes.