Blizzard announces Leoric Hero Week is underway in Heroes of the Storm, their team-brawler MOBA. They offer a page outlining his abilities which includes a new trailer. Here's word:

Once the good and noble king of Khanduras, Diablo’s influence slowly turned Leoric to madness before he was slain by his own captain and raised from death to serve the Burning Hells as the Skeleton King. Rising from the Royal Crypts below the Tristram Cathedral, Leoric is ready to wade into enemy heroes with his towering mace and add to his army of the dead.

The Skeleton King is a melee Warrior that never truly leaves the battlefield, making him a formidable opponent not to be taken lightly. Skeletal Swing will slow enemies down while Drain Hope can weaken others and sustain you during the fight. Should anyone try to get away, Wraith Walk should help close the distance and seal their fate. If Leoric is brought down, the Undying trait will allow you to stay on the battlefield as a ghost until your health regenerates to full, putting you back in the action.

Be sure to check out Leoric’s Hero Page and spotlight video to get an even more in-depth look at this ghastly hero’s abilities!

Continue here to read the full story.

A Steam Community Group Announcement has the surprising news of a new patch for STAR WARS Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, which adds support for OS X, Linux, Steam Workshop, Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud saves, widescreen monitors, 5K resolutions, and more. Eurogamer has some further details on the first patch in over a decade for Obsidian's RPG sequel, saying that it includes suggestions from Zbigniew Staniewicz, described as "a key part of The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod." Here's word on the patch:

Aspyr in partnership with Disney Interactive and LucasArts is proud to announce STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II - The Sith Lords™ is now available on Mac and LInux, along with a massive update to all 3 platforms.

New features include:

• 37 achievements to be earned through gameplay
• Steam Cloud saves
• Native widescreen resolution support
• Resolution support up to 4K and 5K
• Support for controllers, including Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, and Playstation 4, along with several others (check the system requirements for details)
• Steam Workshop support! We proudly worked with the Restored Content Mod Team to have their famous TSLRCM up on launch day

Oh...and we added a "Force Speed Effects" option in the menu ;)

Telltale Games announces the release of A Nest of Vipers, the fifth of six chapters in Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series, the episodic adventure. There's a look at the episode in this recent trailer, and here's word on the release:

Based on the award-winning HBO television drama series, Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series tells the story of House Forrester. Caught up in the fight for the Iron Throne, they are placed in a precarious position where members of the household must do everything they can to prevent the house from meeting its doom.

The fifth episode is available now on PC/Mac from the Telltale Online Store, Steam, and other digital distribution services, and on PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 in North America (SCEA) and Europe (SCEE). The episode will be available July 22nd on the Xbox Games Store for Xbox One® and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and will be coming to compatible iOS devices via the App Store and to Android-based devices on July 23rd.

Continue here to read the full story.

Steam News announces the release of TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT, Gamefreak's action/adventure game. The launch has not been perfect, however, as they note: "We're really sorry that the Tembo launch hasn't gone to plan, we are working to fix this and expect a solution within a few hours. Again, we are sorry that you're not able to enjoy the game for now but we hope to have you all playing soon." Here's word on how this is supposed to work when things are fixed:

Shell City is plunged into a state of emergency after coming under attack from the devastating forces of PHANTOM. As the National Army struggle to contain the terrifying war machines, they call upon the only thing that stands between Shell City’s obliteration and its salvation; the peanut chompin’, villain stompin’, TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT!

A new "Infinite Worlds" trailer from No Man's Sky shows off gameplay from Hello Game's upcoming space combat game. The clip title also says PS4, but presumably it is visually representative of the PC edition as well. The clip does not come with any details or description. Thanks DSOGaming. Continue here to read the full story.

Developer KnightMayor announces Mooncrest, a fantasy-themed RPG that these former BioWare developers hope "harkens back to the great BioWare RPGs of old (Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights)." The KnightMayor website has the announcement and a new Q&A about the project talking with artists Simon Kopp and Max Degen. Word is:

KnightMayor is pleased to announce our premier title: Mooncrest. A character driven fantasy RPG, Mooncrest is inspired by such classic games as Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, and Jade Empire while incorporating modern combat design philosophies of titles such as Dark Souls.

Over the next few weeks, we will be pulling the curtain back and revealing more information about Mooncrest. Join us as we follow our pair of heroines on their journey through the enigmatic world of Nocturne.

This announcement has word that today is the release deadline for Breach & Clear: DEADline, saying the action/RPG is now clear of early access. The game is also now available on GOG.com and they celebrate the news by offering a two-for-one deal that's good for the next week. Here is the recent, crack-addled launch date announcement trailer, and here's word:

Breach & Clear: DEADline features a new, robust co-op mode straight from the suggestions of fans in Early Access – eliminating urban parasitic infestations was never so awesome. Once you're dropped into an urban wasteland, you have one mission: Link with your squad, wipe out the source of the virus and escape with your life. Along the way, you'll be tasked with clearing out the infested and leading your squad through increasingly difficult areas using limited resources. By cleverly combining what you are able to find, you can create vicious, brutal weapons and devise clever plans to kill the infested. You'll need to develop your squad, grow their skills, as well as your own plethora of tactical talents, against the ever-mutating hordes of zombies and murderous human survivors.

Continue here to read the full story.

The Project CARS website now offers the Audi Ruapuna Park Track Expansion as free DLC for the racing game from Slightly Mad Studios. This trailer offers a look, and here's word:

Comprising of five unique layouts, Ruapuna Park International Raceway is New Zealand's premier motor racing facility, located 13 kilometers west of Christchurch, New Zealand.

Hosting some of New Zealand's most exciting racing events, including the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy and an annual round of the New Zealand V8s series, the track's main 3.3 kilometer layout runs in an anti-clockwise direction and its challenging layout incorporates many fast sweeping corners that reward smooth and precise drivers.

With the Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, six-time American Le Mans Series winner Audi R8 LMP900, and 1989 Audi 90 IMSA GTO rounding out this expansion, all players will additionally be able to get behind the wheel of the coveted and limited run Audi A1 Quattro with delivery of their second Free Car.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the second pack of Community Liveries includes an amazing community-created livery for the Ford Escort Mk 1 as well as six real-life DTM liveries for the Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evolution2.

Continue here to read the full story.

Publisher Daedalic Entertainment and developer Corbie Games announce Steam Early Access for Bounty Train will begin on August 17th, offering a first crack at this "unique take on the train simulation genre," adding that a full release for Windows and OS X planned by the end of the year. The uniqueness is that this is described as a roguelike as well as a strategic simulation. This trailer offers a look, and here's more on the FTH (faster than horse) game:

Bounty Train features a unique take on the train simulation genre, with the player controlling a steam train in frontier America, following trade routes between towns, fending off attackers and managing the train. Players will hire and manage personnel (including drivers, armed guards and other crew), modify their trains with various engines and wagons, and keep those trains humming by purchasing fuel.

Continue here to read the full story.

Two-person developer Morgondag offers this trailer to celebrate the announcement that RymdResa will come to Steam on August 20th, offering a "poetic, roguelike space odyssey in a procedurally generated world!" Here's the description from the Steam Store Page:

Resources are sparse. The world is infinitive and unknown. The universe is lonely, open and unforgiving.

You're drifting, in a big, empty and silent space. Searching for a new home. You know a few coordinates to some random locations; but this is the only information you got.

RymdResa is a challenging and evolving space adventure, based on randomness, with RPG elements. Abstract poetry and art are expressed throughout a lonesome and calm journey in space.

Travel through a mysterious cosmos, deep and beyond. Discover the solitude of space! Customize your ship, explore and survive in the retro stylized world of RymdResa.

Continue here to read the full story.

The early access version of Crest is now available in DRM-free form, offering another way to sample this upcoming god game. Here's word on the release, and how it fits into their Extended Development and Financing goals:

Martin Greip, art director, explains, "We have wanted to make a DRM free version available for players for some time and are very excited to announce it's now available. In the past we've used Itch.io for our other games, like Among Ripples, and we think it's an excellent platform. We hope this will inspire more people to experience Crest."

Eat Create Sleep are also going to release an art book and soundtrack available for purchase on Steam and Itch.io, as part of their modular development system so that they can continue to finance Crest. These items will be available by the end of July.

The studio announced their desire to extend development based on the feedback they've already received from players. In order to continue funding the project, they've devised a system based on modular feature updates to the game. Crest is still on schedule to be released as they first envisioned in full, but depending on how much funding they can receive per month, certain modules can be developed and added into the game. More can be read about that in their in-depth blog post here.

Radiangames announces Inferno 2 is coming Steam on July 29th, offering more bullet hell action/RPG gameplay from one-man studio Luke Schneider (formerly of Outrage and Volition). Here's a recent trailer, and here's word: "Inferno 2 is an atmospheric twin-stick adventure-shooter with 80+ levels and a massive upgrade system. It was originally influenced by melding Gauntlet and Geometry Wars, but expanded into much more than that." Continue here to read the full story.

• Dota 2 Update - July 20th 2015.
• Wave of Darkness patch 1.11.

• Daedalic Sale on The Humble Store.
• Diadra Empty on Steam. Save 50%.
• Game of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series on Steam. Save 50%.
• Humble Jumbo Bundle 4 on Humble Bundle.
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited on Green Man Gaming. $12.00 with coupon from Dealzon.
• Homeworld Remastered Collection on Steam. Save 50%.
• NOT A HERO on Steam. Save 50%.

• Nova Blitz TCG - Real Time Digital Trading Card Game by Dragon Foundry — Kickstarter. "An innovative new TCG. Games are quick, with simultaneous real-time play, and combat that rewards intelligence and bluffing."
• Order of Ancients - The Evolution of Footmen Frenzy by Inkhorn Games — Kickstarter. "Control your hero, command massive armies, conquer the arena; a new PC game inspired by Warcraft III custom mods."

• European Women in Games Conference set for Sept. 2.
• Heroes of the Storm: Cloud 9 Maelstrom and COGnitive Advance. Tempo Storm Can’t Lose.

• Project Cars 'Simply Too Much For The Wii U.'
• Destiny: weekly Nightfall/Heroic Strike reset for July 21, 2015.
• F1 2015 is Now Available for Xbox One.
• TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT is Now Available for Xbox One.
• This Week’s Xbox Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale.
• The Last of Us gets an extravagant $75 vinyl soundtrack.

• Declaring mobile browser performance bankruptcy. Thanks OS news via Ant.
• Hot Seat: quickfire party game on Google Play and iTunes.

• Examining Microsoft Edge Browser Performance.
• After a rush, aviation stopped -progressing- -- the Web might be next.

• Microsoft FY15 Q4 results. "Microsoft Cloud and Hardware Results Drives Fourth Quarter Performance." $2.1B operating loss.
• Toshiba CEO quits over accounting scandal. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Bug in widely used OpenSSH opens servers to password cracking.
• Time to Patch Your Jeep or You Might Get Hacked.
• Researcher takes umbrage after finding his code in Hacking Team malware.

• Google, Facebook get behind Samsung in patent battle with Apple. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Assassin's Creed Syndicate – 9 Cool Secrets from the Demo…
• We’ve chosen a director for the Minecraft movie! Rob McElhenney. That's right, Mac…

Link of the Day: Climbing A Tree Gets A Bit Dark. NSFW. Thanks Ant.

R.I.P.: Grooveshark co-founder, 28, found dead in home. Thanks HARDOCP.

Valhalla Game Studios announces Devil's Third Online, the tentative title of a free-to-play PC exclusive spin-off of Devil's Third, the upcoming Wii action/adventure (thanks DSOGaming). Here's word:

2. PC exclusive online game “Devil’s Third Online (tentative title)”
By prior agreement with Nintendo, Valhalla has developed the free-to-play PC exclusive online game “Devil’s Third Online.” To spread “Devil’s Third” around the world, this game service will run from September 2015 onwards, in various regions around the world following the release of the Wii U version in each region. In consideration of cultural characteristics in each region, the content is being optimized via co-development with local publishers. Service territories and the details of game content will be announced accordingly. For your information, “Devil’s Third Online” is the online-exclusive game playable on PC and its service is specialized in matchup. Wii U exclusive “Story Mode” is not included in it.

A new Letter from the Chairman on the Roberts Space Industries website has the latest on Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium Games' upcoming space game, accompanied by a new 10 For the Chairman video answering backer questions. Chris Roberts is never at a loss for words, and he provides a ton of them to address some of the recent discussion of progress on the game, including FPS module delays the departure of its executive producer, though one recent kerfuffle goes untouched, as the words "refund" or "Derek Smart: do not appear in the article. One phrase commonly attached to this project is "feature creep," which he says is not what this project has experienced: ""Is ‘feature creep’ a worry? Sure… it’s always a worry, and we are well aware of it. However, building the game to the stretch goals embraced and endorsed by the community is not feature creep!" And while refunds are not explicitly mentioned, the conclusion touches on how funds are being used, and concludes with inspirational words for backers that make this project sound like a holy crusade:

This is all being made possible by your enthusiasm and support. As we promised since the start of the campaign, we invest every dollar raised into the game. Anyone with knowledge about game development can assess our spending based on the information we share every month. It speaks for itself that from the outset our TOS provides for an accounting to be published if we ever had to stop development before delivering. With the progress and the funds we’ve raised this is no longer an issue, but quite obviously we wouldn’t have provided for this clause, if we weren’t using your funds very carefully for the development of Star Citizen.

The rest of the team and I are immensely grateful for all your support and passion. We’re hard at work on finishing up the next Arena Commander patch, Star Marine, the Persistent Universe, Squadron 42, as well as working on something special to show you all at Gamescom!

We genuinely want people to be happy with their decision to back Star Citizen, because I and everyone else on the team passionately believe in Star Citizen. This is the dream game that all of us have wanted to build all our lives. And while I can’t promise you everything will always go smoothly or features or content won’t arrive later than we want them to, I can promise that we will never stop until we have achieved this dream.

To paraphrase a key speech from the beginning of Squadron 42;

“Several years from now, when you are surrounded by your loved ones, and they ask you what did you do during the battle for Space Sims and PC games, you can look them in the eye and say; I helped make Star Citizen.”

Continue here to read the full story.

The Dota 2 blog has word that Valve has enabled Ranked Matchmaking in the Dota 2 Reborn beta. Here's word on how rank has its privileges:

With today’s update, we’ve enabled Ranked Matchmaking in the Dota 2 Reborn beta. You can now complete Compendium Challenges as well, and doing so in the Reborn beta gives you 50% more coins. While we were at it, we also imported a number of items, including everything from the recently released Immortal Treasure III. Plus, we’ve made a number of other improvements and fixed long list of bugs, which you can check out on our beta updates page. Don’t forget to send us your feedback as you explore the beta.

Though there's no official word on a patch, VG247 reports that a new version of Grand Theft Auto V is now available. The good news is that this apparently addresses framerate issues that followed the last patch, but the bad news is this may break support for some modifications. They offer this quote on the topic from Rockstar:

“We also received some reports linking decreased performance when using Story Mode mods to TU 1.28. As mentioned previously, we are not actively targeting players using mods in Story Mode, nor are we explicitly implementing protections against them in-game,” said the developer.

“Our primary focus is on protecting GTA Online against modifications that could give players an unfair advantage, disrupt gameplay, or cause griefing. However, as a reminder, mods are still unauthorized and as such, Title Updates may cause Story Mode mods to behave in unexpected ways because they are not supported or tested, and players run them at their own risk.”

A reddit thread quotes Codemasters community manager Lee Williams explaining that legal hurdles are why there's no modification support in Dirt Rally, and that it's possible this situation will not change (thanks PC Gamer). DSOGaming also notes a comment suggesting that this is not to protect DLC sales for the racing sequel, as they don't envision offering any: "We don’t have any plans for DLC at the moment, it’s unlikely we’ll do any to be honest." Here's word on mod support:

I'd love for us too. Truth is for us to implement it the way people are asking is difficult and sometimes not possible at all.

We couldn't allow people to mod in new cars because of licencing

Even liveries on cars (officially supported) causes licensing issues

Custom tracks - we don't have a tool that would enable you guys to make them.

There are somethings that could be done but it seems that every possible way look at incorporating mod support we hit a legal reason why we can't.

It's not off the cards yet but I really can't promise anything.

A video posted by ValveTime shows how Valve is showing their VR efforts in behind-closed doors demonstrations (thanks HARDOCP). This includes some footage of gameplay using that odd two eyes screen format that's emblematic of the virtual reality era, along with a warning that this will spoil the demo for anyone who will eventually get to play it. Continue here to read the full story.

• World of Warcraft Patch 6.2 Hotfixes: July 20. Thanks Ant.

• TeamLiquid's #WhyILoveSC2 - StarCraft II 5th Annivesary [sic]. Fifth anniversary to arrive before final part of the game.
• ESL responds to esports doping controversy. Thanks PCGamesN.

• Matt Chat 300: Chris Avellone and Richard Bartle. Thanks Ant.
• Sorcerer King PC Interview - GameWatcher. Brad Wardell on their new 4X game.

• Nintendo News: Tomonobu Itagaki’s Devil’s Third Heads to Wii U in the Americas in Q4.

• ASUS Releases Convertible ChromeBook Flip C100.
• Threes devs double daily income with free version.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf - Android Apps on Google Play.

• Visual Studio 2015 launches, with Android, iOS, and even Apple Watch support.

• Microsoft to buy Israeli cyber security firm Adallom: report. Thanks HARDOCP.
• How Human Resources Manipulates and Spies on You, Even When You’re Not at Work. Thanks Acleacius.

• Chip's Challenge 2 on Gaming Nexus.
• Etherium on Christ Centered Gamer.

• ASRock X99 OC FORMULA-3.1 on techPowerUp.
• ASUS ROG G751 17-inch NVIDIA G-Sync Gaming Laptop on TweakTown.
• BitFenix Prodigy M Micro-Tower Chassis on Techgage.
• Micron M510DC (480GB) Enterprise SATA SSD on AnandTech.
• MSI Radeon R7 370 GAMING 4G on Phoronix.
• PNY GTX 960 XLR8 on Overclockers Club.
• Raidmax Narwhal on ocaholic.
• Roku 3 (2015) Streaming Media Player on MEGATechNews.
• Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X Graphics Card on ThinkComputers.org.
• Seagate NAS HDD 4TB ST 400VN000 on Computing on Demand.
• Tesoro Excalibur Spectrum Mechanical Keyboard on Benchmark Reviews.
• XFX R9 380 Double Dissipation 4GB Video Card on HARDOCP.
• ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme Edition Video Card on Futurelooks.

• Good Game - Series 11 Episode 23. Thanks Ant…
• Men who harass women online are quite literally losers, new study finds. Thanks Acleacius…
• Mod DB and Indie DB join Eurogamer parent Gamer Network…

Happy Belgian National Day! Thanks Raf.

R.I.P.: George Coe, 'SNL' original castmember, dies at 86. "Not much left of the old Double Deuce any more. We're all dying off. " Thanks nin.

Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Game Init. Space Flash Arena 2. The Platform.
Science:	What Alien Hunters Plan to Buy With $100 Million. "Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"
Media:	Rocket II Trike - Jay Leno's Garage. Thanks The Flying Penguin. How my dog finds me in a field. 'Nothing short of heroic'- Teen pulls woman from burning car.
Follow-up:	SpaceX says faulty strut led to Falcon failure.