Developer Thekla testifies to a January 26, 2016 release date for The Witness, their upcoming puzzle exploration game. The game is coming to Windows as well as PlayStation 4, but it is in the PlayStation Blog where designer Jonathan Blow discusses the news and offers some details about the game, though they promise to share much more in the time leading up to its release. They also offer this new trailer with a look at the game. Here's a bit from the post on how much game to expect: "There’s a lot here. When we started making this game, I figured it would have between 8 and 12 hours of playtime. As it happens, the game we’ve finally built is around 10 times as big as that: if you are a completionist who wants to wring every last drop out of the game, you might expect to play for 80 hours, or possibly 100. For people who don’t want to go quite that far, the game’s still got plenty for you." Continue here to read the full story.

The Unreal Engine website announces the release of the Infiltrator demo, which shows off the power of Epic's Unreal Engine 4, offering all the code from the demo for developers to play with. Word is: "Infiltrator is a high-end demonstration of Unreal Engine 4’s rendering and cinematic capabilities. Originally shown at GDC 2013, it’s still highly representative of the capabilities of high-end PC GPUs." This older cinematic trailer shows off the demo.

Publisher Degica Games announces the release of Adventurezator: When Pigs Fly for Windows, OS X, and Linux on Steam. This "emergent adventure game where you can create emergent adventure games" from developer: Pigasus Games was in Early Access, but this post announces the game is now in on-time access, and features a 25% discount for the next week. This trailer shows off the game and the ability to use it to create your own adventures. Here's word:

Degica Games in association with Pigasus Games are proud to announce Adventurezator: When Pigs Fly is out of Early Access and now available on Steam. This playful romp through fantasy land has two flavors. First it features a fully narrated and high flying adventure of fairytales, pigs, and gnomes. Second, and maybe most important, is the ability to allow users to craft their own stories, adventures, campaigns, and then share them via Steamworks. Watch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4DzLkFR4I8 or get it on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/300280!

Adventurezator is more than just a game; it’s an entire adventure game building kit! More than just a single level editor, you can craft huge branching quests linked together in a single campaign. Create or use a huge variety of props, characters, triggers, systems, and editors to build any adventure game you’ve dreamt of. From combat to voice acting to scheduled events, timers, and tried and true “pick up everything” adventure games, Adventurezator has the keys to unlock your inner game developer.

See what has already been created in the Steam Workshop at http://store.steampowered.com/app/300280 and discover how adventure really begins when pigs fly!

Continue here to read the full story.

I Can't Escape: Darkness is now available on Steam, offering a dungeon escape adventure for Windows, OS X, and Linux with a 17% launch discount. Here's a launch trailer, and here's word: "I Can’t Escape: Darkness is an atmospheric horror adventure game that pulls you into a living dungeon where everything conspires against your escape. It is an immersive journey into the unknown, personified by the Darkness itself. Your odds of escape are slim, and when you fail, the dungeon will change before you can try again. Defend yourself from the Darkness with whatever light you can find; once your light burns out, the Darkness will consume you." Continue here to read the full story.

Steam now offers Black Sails - The Ghost Ship, a point-and-click adventure for Windows from Deck 13. The description explains this should be played with the lights out, and presumably your bladder. Here goes:

Best played with the lights turned off and the volume turned up, Black Sails is a creepy and mysterious point-and-click adventure game.

A shipwreck. Having lost all hope, two survivors cling to wreckage, trying to survive a few more minutes in the raging sea. Until another ship appears. Hoping for rescue, they are calling out, but nobody answers. They manage to go on board. Will this be their rescue? Or their grave?

Inspired by a true story, the player experiences a journey into the darkest abyss of the human soul until he cannot tell between truth and fiction anymore.

Having been released in Germany a few years ago, gathering much acclaim for its focused story and strong plot, Black Sails is now available with full English localization for the first time ever. We hope you'll enjoy it.

This video from Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 is a "deep dive" developer diary for the upcoming action sequel, showing off some alpha gameplay footage. The clip introduces six new character classes, new variants, and new maps. Word is: "Learn the back story to all the new classes, and see how they bring an increasing amount of depth and variety to the game through their abilities. These newcomers help make up 14 classes, amounting to over 100 characters in GW2." Continue here to read the full story.

• Call of Duty Franchise Sale on Steam.
• Damnation Bundle on Bundle Stars.
• Dead Island Franchise on Steam.
• Dust: An Elysian Tail on Steam. Save 80.
• Edge of Space on Steam. Save 27%.
• Gamemaker Bundle on Humble Weekly Bundle.
• League of Legends Champion and skin sale- 09.18 - 09.21.

• StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Beta Balance Update -- September 17, 2015.

• Hearthstone's Ben Brode on RNG, esports, and Secret Paladin - PC Gamer.

• 2015 League of Legends World Championship rules.
• BlizzCon Opening Week – October 28 to November 1.
• Breaking down League of Legends Worlds 2015 Group C.
• Upcoming Heroes of the Storm Weekly Sales: Americas Championship Edition. Winning heroes and skins to go on sale.
• StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void at TwitchCon.
• Ubisoft Charity Jam Features 4 Days of Live Streaming for a Good Cause.

• Activision Announces Record-Breaking Day-One for Destiny: The Taken King.
• Xbox App On Windows 10: New Updates Available Today And Preview Program Coming Soon.
• NBA LIVE 16 Pro-Am Demo Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• Play FIFA 16 Now Exclusively on Xbox One with EA Access.

• Apple's iOS 9 Adoption Faster Than iOS 8.
• Downton Abbey: The Game on Google Play and App Store.

• Verizon’s required FiOS builds leave 150,000 addresses in NJ unserved.
• As Zombie Rumors Fly, China Punishes Social Media Pranksters. Thanks HARDOCP.

• NVIDIA Chief Scientist Bill Dally Receives Lifetime Achievement Award From Leading Japanese Tech Society. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Microsoft Announces Increase in Quarterly Dividend. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Smart rifle company TrackingPoint restructures and relaunches.
• PC Perspective Podcast #367 - AMD R9 Nano, a Corsair GTX 980Ti, NVIDIA Pascal Rumors and more.
• BBC Breakfast- A robot said 'f--k you' to Charlie Stayt and Louise Minchin live on air. Thanks HARDOCP.

Thanks j.c.f.

• Homeland Security websites vulnerable to cyber attack: audit.
• WordPress Patches XSS, Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities.
• Persistent XSS flaw in SharePoint 2013 revealed, patched.
• Major Malvertising Operation Went Undetected for Three Weeks.
• Google’s own researchers challenge key Android security talking point.

• Apple wins patent ruling against Samsung in U.S. appeals court. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Russian Pleads Guilty in Major Hacking Case. Thanks j.c.f.
• Electronic Arts forced to drop 13 female players from FIFA 16.

• Duncan Jones Reacts to Warcraft "Problem Movie" Comments. Thanks Kxmode…
• Witcher 3 devs launch new studio, Wickerman Games…
• How $400 virtual knives saved Counter-Strike…

Thursday night football tonight... don't forget to get your picks in!

The EverQuest website has the news on a new expansion for the venerable MMORPG, saying this will be released on October 1st, following the release of the game's September update, which is expected next week (thanks Ten Ton Hammer). Here's a bit on the plan:

We are excited to announce we have an expansion on the way – that’s right, expansion – not “campaign.” As we’ve been toiling away this year, the content we’ve been working on evolved and grew more than we expected.

We wanted this expansion to have content that reached beyond the highest-level players. So, in addition to new and updated zones for levels 105, we are including two instanced raid zones for levels 75 to 105 to play in together! These “level agnostic” raid zones will balance themselves to the highest level player in your raid. It just so happens that these two level agnostic zones are the original Plane of Fear and Plane of Hate! So if you never got a chance to raid in those planes, or long for them, you can relive those days with a broader range of players when we launch.

This expansion includes over 15 raids – after getting feedback for more raids over last year’s expansion – and a ton of level-scaling missions and Heroic Adventures! And as with previous releases, there will be new AAs, spells, and gear. The story is innovative and impacts gameplay in interesting ways too.

In addition, if you purchase (or pre-order) the next expansion, you’ll also get access to ALL of the previous expansion content.

A new let's play trailer from Total War: WARHAMMER offers a look at a quest from the Dwarf campaign with over 15 minutes of gameplay footage from Creative Assembly's strategy sequel. Here's the description: "This Let’s Play is an example of an early Quest Battle from the Dwarfs campaign. In the vast tunnels of the Underway, a Dwarfen force lead by High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer is ambushed by a Greenskin horde. Showcasing new features and never-before-seen units battling underground for the first time in a Total War game, this video is a taste of things to come and a glimpse into the dark and exciting fantasy world of Total War: WARHAMMER." Continue here to read the full story.

The World of Warships website announces the launch of World of Warships, the new online military strategy game from Wargaming. A new World of Warships Action Stations trailer celebrates the news, and here's word on a triple experience points event to kick things off:

World of Warships has officially set sail!
Captains, thank you for all your feedback during the alpha and beta. We could not have made it here without you. There are far more smooth seas than stormy ones ahead of us, and we're prepared to navigate it all with your support and enthusiasm. Today also marks the start of Ranked Battles; happy hunting!

To help get your voyage off to a swift start we're launching with a weekend x3 XP event! Details below.

We're pleased to now offer our News and other services in Portuguese and Spanish. Check the Latin America Resources page for additional information.

Lauch Day Livestream

Want to meet your Community team and other Wargaming staff, ask questions about the game, and win some prizes? Then tune into the official Wargaming twitch stream from 11:00 PT - 18:00 PT on September 17 for your chance to score some booty: Premium ships, Premium account time, and maybe even Doubloons! You'll need to sign in and participate in the chat to be eligible for prizing. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates whenever we're hosting a stream.

Continue here to read the full story.

BANDAI NAMCO announces April 2016 is the release window for DARK SOULS III, the action/RPG sequel in the works at FROMSOFTWARE. Here's a new trailer with some "early" gameplay footage, and here's the news:

BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. today announced the release date for DARK SOULS™ III, their highly anticipated action role-playing game from famed Japanese developer FROMSOFTWARE. DARK SOULS III will be available throughout North America and South America in April 2016 for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One®, and PC via STEAM®. DARK SOULS III provides players with an all-new world filled with heinous enemies, hidden secrets, and captivating environments as they search to destroy the awakened Lords of Cinder and discover what has happened to this apocalyptic land.

DARK SOULS III pushes a deeper sense of role-playing than previous iterations of the series with key additions that provide players with a set of tools and in-game options to customize their gameplay experience. Skills, a new addition to the DARK SOULS combat mechanics, adds attack modifiers to each weapon type, allowing players an increased tactical advantage in combat. Increase an axe’s attack power with War Cry or break an enemy’s guard with a quick upward swing from Ready Stance. The choice of if and when players use these added abilities is up to them. Players will also be able to equip their character with a wide variety of armor sets, medieval weaponry, as well as come across powerful sorceries and miracles as they develop their own personal style of play.

Continue here to read the full story.

The Dead Island: Epidemic website has word that Deep Silver is deep-sixing Dead Island: Epidemic, the Early Access MOBA based on the Dead Island series of zombie games (thanks Diarmid via GG Pocket News). Here's the news, which says the game servers will shut down on October 15th:

Ever since starting with the Closed Alpha, and all the way through the Closed Beta and Open Beta, we’ve received a great amount of useful criticism and encouraging feedback from our players. This has been invaluable for all the teams involved in developing the game.

Over the past weeks and months we’ve been evaluating how to proceed with Dead Island: Epidemic and looking towards the future for the game. We’re sad to announce today that we’ve come to the conclusion to cease further development.

We will be leaving the servers open until the end of October 15th (Pacific Time), during which time we’ll run a very large discount on all characters and boosts to give everyone a chance to spend any remaining currency on characters and items you may have wanted to try before, but never did.

We want to thank everyone for their support, their feedback, and their time playing Dead Island: Epidemic! The game would not have been the same without you.

After setting a crowdfunding record by collecting more than $6 million on Kickstarter, developer Ys Net has opened another round of crowdfunding on the Shenmue 3 website (thanks MCV). Here's the deal:

Thanks to your support, Shenmue III became the most funded video game on Kickstarter with 69,320 people helping to bring back the Shenmue series back to life.

However, there are so many people told us they could not pledge on Kickstarter, or could not make the deadline, and have asked for a PayPal page for another opportunity to contribute to Shenmue III. So here we go!

The Slacker Backer period will continue through December 31st, and just like the Kickstarter campaign, the funds raised will be used to reach the Stretch Goals to make the game even bigger and deeper.

The PayPal page will feature a selection of rewards from the Kickstarter campaign including the Trial Version and the Collector's Edition.

If you missed out on the Kickstarter, you still have a chance to be part of the Shenmue legacy!

http://shenmue.link/order/

Capcom Unity announces details on the Capcom Fighters Network and introduces Karin, another character returning in Street Fighter V, the next installment in the fighting series. Here's a reveal trailer showing off Karin and screenshots of a heatmap generated by the Capcom Fighters Network (CFN). Here's more on the CFN:

The Capcom Fighters Network (CFN) is a community building tool that will be directly built into the online infrastructure of Street Fighter V.

Here is a list of some of the things that you’ll be able to do in-game via CFN:

• See where battles are happening all over the world on a “heat map”
• View player profiles and detailed match statistics
• Designate “rivals” throughout the world and monitor their performance
• Register friends and follow your favorite players
• Search and watch replay files
• Send online battle invitations
• Check out the latest patch and tournament news
• And much more!

Continue here to read the full story.

Gather your band of brothers, as Slitherine now offers Battle of the Bulge, a Windows and OS X, edition of this turn-based strategy game based on World War II's brutal battle for the Ardennes. This was first released for iOS, and the Slitherine website has a launch trailer along with details, including word on cross-platform multiplayer support between the desktop and mobile editions. Word is: "December 1944 – The German army is retreating on every front and the final defeat seems inevitable. But a sudden and violent counteroffensive can change the odds. In the snow-covered forest of the Ardennes, Panzer divisions are awaiting a signal from the High Command to take the Allies by surprise. The Battle of the Bulge is about to begin!" Continue here to read the full story.

• Counter-Strike- Source, Day of Defeat- Source, and Half-Life 2- Deathmatch Updates Released.
• Dota 2 Update - September 16, 2015.
• Survarium 0.31 is Live. They also offer a video overview outlining a changed design philosophy.

• Portal Masters Get Ready to Go Full Throttle with Skylanders SuperChargers This Sunday.
• Persona 5 Delayed to 2016.
• Xbox 360 System Update Adds New Features Including 2GB Cloud Storage.

• Samsung Testing Folding-Screen Smartphone.
• Hands-on- Jump the fence with Apple’s “Move to iOS” Android app.
• Microsoft Quietly Rolls Out Windows RT Update To Enable Windows 10 Style Start Menu.
• Glu Launches Next Chapter in Deer Hunter Franchise.
• Amazon introduces a slew of cheap tablets starting at $50, upgraded Fire TV.
• Puz - Sliding Block Puzzler on the App Store.
• Wrecked on the App Store.

• Nine major banks working on Bitcoin-like block chain tech for market trading.
• Comcast raises prices just as CEO says “you can’t raise the price forever.”

• Xerox introduces printed-memory labels to fight counterfeiting. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• MSI And Corsair Launch GTX980Ti SEA HAWK Graphics Card.

Thanks Ant.

• Encryption project issues first free SSL-TLS certificate.
• How Safe and Secure is Open Source OpenStack?
• Seven years of malware linked to Russian state-backed cyber espionage.

• UK hands down first ever conviction for illegal drone flying.
• More California fiber optic cable severed as AT&T offers 250K reward.
• Google sues SEO company over harassing calls selling “Front Page Domination.”

• Mad Max on Zero Punctuation. NSFW.
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on PC Invasion.
• Skyshine's Bedlam on AngryCentaurGaming.

• AMD Radeon R9 Fury X Video Cards in 4-way CrossFire at 4K on TweakTown.
• Asus ROG Poseidon Platinum GTX 980 Ti on Bjorn3D.
• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 550W Power Supply on eTeknix.
• Celeron N3150 CPU on Hardware Secrets.
• CM Storm Quick Fire XTi Mechanical Keyboard on eTeknix.
• E-Blue Mazer K727 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Bjorn3D.com.
• EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC 4GB Video Card on Legit Reviews.
• Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 on Bjorn3D.
• In Win 707 Full Tower Case on Modders-Inc.
• In Win 805 Case on ThinkComputers.org.
• Intel Core i7-6700k und Core i5-6600k on Technic3D. German.
• Kingston HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset on Bigbruin.com.
• Mushkin Reactor 512GB SATA III SSD on TweakTown.
• NZXT S340 on Overclocked Inside. German.
• Razer Mamba Chroma Tournament Edition on Bjorn3D.

• Video Games Are Actually Good For You, BBC Claims. Programme is here, though apparently region-locked, more here. Thanks Acleacius…
• Riot Games privacy policy updated- now easier to read…

I'm gearing up for the end of the grilling season in style, as I have a brisket to smoke, which will be my first effort at smoking anything larger than a rack of ribs. I'll do this over the weekend, since it is a time-consuming affair, but I'm looking forward to the challenge, though I'm tempering my expectations, since it will be my first time.

Stylish Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Loot Heroes 2. Super Pirate Adventure. Where Is Cat?
Story:	Chile quake triggers mass evacuation and tsunami alert.
Science:	This genetically modified yeast can now brew morphine. 'Alice In Wonderland' Reveals How Patients Process Information.
Media:	Most Impressive Video Game Weapons First-Person Action Ever. Jake Byrd at Donald Trump Rally. Thanks nin. Newscaster loses it at the name of this pig.
The Funnies:	"Gratuity" comic. Steam support comic.