Daedalic Entertainment and Funatics announce Valhalla Hills, a Viking-themed, civilization-building strategy game with a comedic flair planned for release for Windows, OS X, and Linux by the end of this year following an Early Access period beginning next month. The Valhalla Hills website offers this set of screenshots showing things off, and here's word:

Valhalla Hills is inspired by traditional building games like The Settlers 2* but takes this proud heritage into the modern era, adding procedurally generated mountain landscapes and a rogue-like mechanic to intensify and expand the experience. A clever economic system provides depth and ample challenge for experienced players of strategy games and genre-newcomers alike.

“Funatics and Daedalic are a match made in the heroic halls of Valhalla - two creative powerhouses working together on one great game means gamers can expect wonderful things with Valhalla Hills," says Carsten Fichtelmann, CEO and founder of Daedalic. "We are very proud of how the game is shaping up and can’t wait to share it with the world."

* This is not name-dropping: Creative Director of Valhalla Hills is Thomas Häuser, who held the Lead Programming role on The Settlers 2 (1993).

This video is the first developer diary for Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces, the recently announced World War II standalone RTS expansion. The clip features Relic's Quinn Duffy offering an overview of the British perspective on World War II and how their "unique character and military doctrine influenced the design and development of Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces." Continue here to read the full story.

Rockstar Games announces more bonus experience and spacebux are being tossed around all week in GTA Online:

This week GTA Online Heists continue to be more lucrative than ever with 2X RP and GTA$ payouts for the second four-person Heist: the raid on Humane Labs. This Heist will see you and three associates get to pilot some powerful vehicles: the VTOL Hydra, the Insurgent and the Valkyrie. Master these vehicles safe in the knowledge you'll be pocketing twice the payout and RP all week long. The double GTA$ bonus extends to the Elite Challenges for the Humane Labs Raid, so don't forget to Crew up and focus your efforts on completing the finale in 11:00 flat, not damaging your vehicles and making sure everyone gets out alive.

As with last weekend's Prison Break Heist bonuses, we're also ramping up the RP on select GTA Online Activities and Challenges, aiding you in ranking up while practicing the skills necessary to beat GTA Online's trickiest team challenges.

• Plane Takedown
• Flight School
• Destroy Vehicle Targets
• Complete a Gang Attack
• Deliver an Export Vehicle to Simeon
  Parachuting
• Deathmatch: Kill 2 Enemies Within 10 seconds, Kill an Enemy Within First 30 seconds
• Vehicle Deathmatch: Kill 2 Enemies Within 10 seconds of Each Other, Kill an Enemy Within First 60 seconds, Get a Killstreak, Get First Kill

Finally, each day this week there'll be an additional incentive to make sure you maximize every day of this limited-time offer. Don't miss out on the opportunity to pick up top notch gear for rock bottom prices, and even more Double GTA$ in Adversary Modes. Keep an eye out on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for more details.

• allRPG + Halfway Anniversary Promo on GOG.com.
• Bloons TD 5 on Steam. Save 75%.
• Castle In The Darkness on Steam. Save 50%.
• Cryptic Bundle 2 on Bundle Stars.

• New Witcher 3 Patch Hurts PS4 and Xbox One Frame Rate, Other Issues Reported.
• Microsoft can’t make Xbox 360 console defect litigation go away.
• World of Tanks is coming to Xbox One on July 28.
• Football Season Arrives with the Xbox One Madden NFL 16 Bundle.
• Sorry, rook, you're not that good. Not in Madden, anyway.

• Apple rejected Mojang's Scrolls for iOS prior to its scheduled cancellation.

• Where big ISPs won’t invest, customer-owned ISPs are deploying fiber.
• Tommy Craggs and Max Read Are Resigning from Gawker.

• New AMD A-Series Desktop Processors: Smart Choice for Everyday Computing, Powerful eSports Engine and Ready for Windows 10.
• Samsung Releases PM863 & SM863 Enterprise SATA SSDs- Up to 3.84TB with 3D V-NAND.
• Robots Given Self-Consciousness Artificial Intelligence.
• The Tech Report System Guide- July 2015 edition.

• Apple fights former sapphire provider in bankruptcy court.

• EA SPORTS Announces Alex Morgan and Christine Sinclair as First Ever Female Cover Athletes for EA SPORTS FIFA Franchise in North America…
• Zeratul Player Saves Heroes Of The Storm Team From Certain Defeat…

Link of the Day: Reboot the Suit: Bring Back Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit by Smithsonian Institution — Kickstarter. Almost forgot today is the anniversary of the first moon landing.

There's a Chris Roberts interview on Gamers Nexus is the write up of a video interview with the head of Cloud Imperium Games about Star Citizen, getting an update on the FPS module for the space game (thanks TweakTown). Though CIG hasn't committed to a release date following news that the module is delayed, Chris tells them they hope to have this on their test server in three to five weeks, in time for Gamescom, later saying this is "tentative" but "realistic." Word is:

"When I made the [Letter from the Chairman] update -- when we showed it at PAX East, we said we hoped it was going to be out sometime in April, but 'don't hold me to that' was what I actually said. We did the update in May, and obviously people have been waiting a long time for it. A large amount of the company, especially now, has been working on it. We've got extra help from the German studio, which is a bunch of CryEngine experts. I've got a build on my machine with both the FPS and the Gamescom [presentation], so I'm actually helping out with the code a bit. But we didn't want to give a date because, well, we sort of don't want to get burnt by that.

"In reality, we're probably weeks off. We're shooting to have FPS on the PTU round-about Gamescom or slightly after Gamescom. We're really talking about people getting to play FPS in a matter of 3, 4, maybe 5 weeks."

Continue here to read the full story.

Capcom Unity profiles Necalli, a new character they've revealed for Street Fighter V, the upcoming brawler sequel. They offer a bunch of screenshots, and here's part of the description:

Hailing from a mysterious background, Necalli utilizes a wild, animalistic fighting style to brutalize his opponents. There’s no finesse here as all of his attacks have been forged through the heat of battle to inflict maximum pain upon his opponents. However, beneath the surface of the crazed warrior lies a hidden genius that is unleashed upon V-Trigger activation. Players who enjoy a straight forward, hard hitting character will feel right at home with Necalli, as he possesses a wide variety of savage, close range attacks, as well as a command grab, all with the goal of demolishing his foes.

This video is the official trailer for Tremor, a new character coming tomorrow to Mortal Kombat X for owners of the Kombat X Kombat Pack for the fighting game sequel. This will be released along with the Klassic Skins Pack 2 to round out the contents of the Mortal Kombat X Kombat Pack, and both pack will be sold individually on July 28th. Don't worry if that doesn't sound complicated enough, as there are further DLC wrinkles, as they will be offered together as a Tremor Bundle, and the skins will also be offered individually, and they will also be offering a free DLC pack called Klassic Fatalities Pack 2. Here's word:

Today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed the Mortal Kombat X Tremor Bundle, new downloadable content (DLC) which heralds the return of the Black Dragon ninja and Kano’s disciple Tremor. Mortal Kombat X is the Klassic character’s first appearance since Mortal Kombat: Special Forces (2000) and marks the first time Tremor is fully playable. In addition, the bundle includes the Klassic Skins Pack 2 with three new character skins including Quan Chi, Jax and Kung Lao. Also revealed today, as an added bonus for players, is the FREE Klassic Fatalities Pack 2 with fatalities for Mileena, Kitana, Kung Lao and Jax.

Continue here to read the full story.

The Sims 4 holds the number one spot on GfK Chart-Track's top 30 chart of the bestselling PC games in the U.K. for the week ending July 18th. That chart looks pretty stable, the top new entry is Diablo III which returns at 16. There's a new sheriff in town on the all platforms top 40 chart where Rory McIlroy PGA Tour scores a hole in one by debuting in the top spot. Here's their write-up:

Rory is the new Tiger as EA claim No1 after a year out of the golf sim market – ‘Rory McIlroy PGA Tour’ debuts at No1 and is currently the only PS4/Xbox One golf game.

This PGA Tour game drops the year incremental in the title and drops Tiger Woods after 18 years (first was ‘Tiger Woods 99’ on PC back in Oct98). It is also the first PGA golf game to claim No1 since 2008’s ‘Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09’ - both had similar week 1 sales. The PGA golf game series stretches back to ‘PGA Tour Golf’ on PC (Jul90) and the current version launched on Thursday 16th July, the first day of The Open. This is actually the second game in the series to launch on a Thursday – the other was ‘Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14’ which came out on Thursday 28th March, 2013 in advance of Easter Good Friday. Codemasters’ ‘F1 2015’ (-57%) drops to No2 with Warner’s ‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ down 1 to No3 (-36%).

Activision’s ‘Destiny’ climbs 4 places to No6 (+90%), one of many titles to receive a boost after the inaugural Amazon Prime Day deals. The only other new entry within the Top 40 is Sony’s ‘God of War III: Remastered’ debuting at No9 for PS4 (the original PS3 version launched back in week 11, 2010).

• Gayway by Camouflame — Kickstarter. "A point and click adventure with an irreverent story, a retro graphic and a fresh gameplay. Frank needs your help!"
• SkyRider & the Journey to the AirCitadel by Mike Raznick — Kickstarter. "An action-puzzle-platformer. The player controls both a character and his personal drone in search of justice in a dystopian world." Playable prototype available.

• Guilty Gear Xrd player stands up too early, loses.

Thanks Ant.

• Lighting up a C64 like a Disco.
• The story of the Commodore 64 in pixels - C64 Book kickstarter Success.

• Your body, the battery- Powering gadgets from human “biofuel.”
• Samsung Announces The 8.0" and 9.7" Galaxy Tab S2 Tablets.
• The average mobile YouTube session is now 40 minutes.
• Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days? You know you've wondered. Thanks OS news.
• A Short Visual History of Smartphone Design... Thanks Ant.
• Guardian Sword on the App Store on iTunes.
• Legions of Steel for iPad released.

Thanks Ant.

• Researchers Break Speed, Distance Limitations of Fiber.
• Microsoft Edge for Windows 10: Up to 112% faster than Google Chrome. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Showtime streaming explained: What you get, and how you can get it.

• After 85-year search, massless particle with promise for next-generation electronics found. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Moore’s Law Is Showing Its Age. Thanks HARDOCP.
• San Francisco techies hiring Wiccan witch to protect computers from viruses. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• How To Make Counter-Strike- Global Offensive Run Much Faster On AMD Catalyst For Linux.
• Back to the future- the TRS-80 Model 100.

Thanks Ant.

• Mozilla Winter of Security is back. Thanks LWN.net.
• Hacking Team built drone-based Wi-Fi hacking hardware.
• Hack Brief Possible Breach of CVS and WalMart Canada Customer Data.
• Ashley Madison, an online dating website for cheaters, gets hacked.

• Anonymous At War With Denver Police (Again). Thanks Linux Security via Ant.

• D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die on True PC Gaming.
• Mystery Maze of Balthasar Castle on Just Adventure.
• Sym on Gaming Nexus.
• Traverser PC on GameWatcher.
• The Witcher 3 on True PC Gaming.

• 12K (Triple 4K Monitor) Graphics Test Bench Upgrade on eTeknix.
• Apple Watch on AnandTech.
• ASRock X99E-ITX-ac Motherboard on pcGameware.
• ASUS STRIX GTX 980Ti DC3 OC on Vortez.
• ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 980 Ti 6GB on ocaholic.
• ASUS Strix R9 390X Gaming OC 8G on Bjorn3D.
• Gigabyte MU70-SU0 (Intel C612) Server Motherboard on eTeknix.
• LG G4 on TechSpot.
• OCZ Vector 180 240GB SSD on Mad Shrimps.
• Philips 288P6LJEB UHD Monitor on Overclocked Inside.
• Sapphire Tri-X R9 Fury 4GB Graphics Card on eTeknix.
• TiVo Roamio OTA on Tech Hive.
• XFX R9 380 4G DD, XFX on Bjorn3D.

• The Gear Frank Klepacki Used at Westwood Studios. Thanks cncnz.com via Ant…

I may have been understating the weather report for yesterday, as it may have actually been more than a million degrees, though I didn't endeavor to actually let my ribs just cook themselves though ambient heat. Our living room air conditioner remains in the basement where it spent all last year, but the forecast for today and tomorrow is nasty enough that it may end up coming out of storage.

Roasted Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	No One Was Here. Stealing The Diamond.
Links:	The Art of Video Game Photography. Thanks Digg via nin.
Stories:	Sam Mendes Is Done Directing Bond. Professional Surfer Attacked By Shark During Competition in South Africa.
Science:	Let's Nerd Out About Ants Before You See Ant-Man. Thanks reddit. Better drinking through science.
Images:	Did they warn us about Batman? The Computer Science Section at Barnes and Noble is Pretty Sad.
Media:	A Metal Cover Of 'Stayin' Alive.' Thanks nin. OUTLAST- WHISTLEBLOWER - PART 3 (React- Gaming). Henry the Hoover's Cocaine Overdose. Thanks reddit.
The Funnies:	And now the real truth ( u-hythonyx idea ). Been there.