A new Rust Item Store on Steam offers the chance to buy cosmetic items for real cash for use in Rust, the early access zombie game, apparently the first of many such game-specific item stores. These items are also offered on the marketplace, and prices can be markedly higher or lower, and PC Gamer explains that items will come and go from the store, but the eventual plan is for this to be a store for community created items. There's more on this on garry's blofg, where Rust creator Garry Newman describes why he considers these kinds of microtransactions a win-win situation, concluding with: "When you see the system up close and far away, it’s a total no-brainer. In fact I would go as far as to say that by not being involved in the marketplace we’re screwing our community."

BANDAI NAMCO announces plans for a second closed beta test of Supernova, and they encourage anyone interested in checking out the upcoming MOBA to head over to the Supernova website and register as a prospective tester. Word is: "BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America (BNEA) and Primal Game Studio is announcing a second closed beta for their thrilling sci-fi game Supernova, a real-time strategy (RTS) inspired multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) coming soon to PC. The game will enter its second beta on Monday, November 16 and will feature updates based on data and feedback gathered in the first closed beta test to enhance player experience. To sign up for the closed beta, visit www.supernovagame.com."

The GeForce website now offers new version 358.87 WHQL-certified, game-ready drivers, saying these are the drivers they recommend to play Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Word is: "With Game Ready optimizations for Treyarch's highly-anticipated fast-paced first-person shooter, our new drivers will give you the best possible experience when battling foes and capturing gameplay footage with GeForce Experience and ShadowPlay." They also have a new article up saying the GTX 970 is their recommended GPU for the game, but sadly, they are not offered as free downloads like the drivers.

A new article on Bethesda.net discusses the graphics technology of Fallout 4, the imminent RPG sequel. They explain how they implemented a physically based deferred renderer to the Creation Engine following the release of Skyrim, and discuss the advantages this provides. Here's their summary of what's new:

The player can go anywhere in the world at any time of day, so we added dynamic post-process techniques that enhance the vibrancy and color of our scenery for maximum emotional impact. Our virtual cameras received a major upgrade as well. We’re not going to spoil every improvement we’ve made, but for those of you who enjoy the technical details, here’s a sampling of what we’ve added to the latest version of the Creation Engine:

• Tiled Deferred Lighting
• Temporal Anti-Aliasing
• Screen Space Reflections
• Bokeh Depth of Field
• Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
• Height Fog
• Motion Blur
• Filmic Tonemapping
• Custom Skin and Hair Shading
• Dynamic Dismemberment using Hardware Tessellation
• Volumetric Lighting
• Gamma Correct Physically Based Shading

Ubisoft has released their latest financial reporting, covering the first half of their fiscal 2015-2016 year. They report an "above target" €207.3 million in sales, a growing proportion of revenue from the digital segment, and confirm their full year targets. "The quality of our back-catalog and the growing digitization of our business enabled us to deliver a solid performance in the first half of the year, even though – as planned – we did not release any major titles during the period explains CEO Yves Guillemot. "The fact that more than 80% of our annual sales are expected to be generated in the second half of the year mechanically weighed on our earnings for the first six months."

Topware Interactive announces November 20th is when to expect the Windows, Linux, and OS X release of Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry, the recently revealed rerelease of Reality Pump's seafaring RPG Raven's Cry. The official website is counting down to the release, and the announcement goes into the reasons for reworking the game:

There's life in the old dog yet…

Reality Pump Studios and TopWare Interactive are proud to announce the release date of Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry. After a long, turbulent and seemingly cursed development that saw setbacks of every kind imaginable (including actors being rushed from motion capture recordings directly to the ICU), Christopher Raven is once again ready to set sail on November 20th, 2015. Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry is an all new, standalone game with dozens of new quests, brand new gameplay and over 120 minutes of upgraded cut-scenes featuring completely new voice work. This title will be available for free via our website to all gamers who bought Raven's Cry. This standalone pirate epic will be available on 11/20/2015 as both a standard digital and a Digital Deluxe Edition for PC, Mac, Linux and SteamOS. The retail and PS4 version is scheduled for Q1 2016.

GOG.com is now running their Big Fall Sale, offering over 350 deals with discounts up to 90% along with the opportunity to earn free games over the next 11 days. This blog post outlines how this works:

The floodgates swing open for launch with the first 24 hours of over 350 deals on classics, new releases, and even bundles - all up to 90% off. The first batch of bundles features: Bethesda titles up to 66% off (including The Elder Scrolls and Fallout classics) and the ultimate Interplay Collection at 90% off. You can also Build Your Own Bundle full of Daedalic Adventures including Blackguards 2 and more - here, your discount will increase as you select more games - pick 5 or more to get the full 85% off your purchase! (Or get 80% off 4 games, 75% off 3 games, and so on.)

While you're here, grab a few extra games for free by doing your thing and shopping around. The more you spend, the more you'll get back, so when your total spendings exceed $5, $15, and $30, you'll unlock a new game for FREE. They're pretty good ones too:

--System Shock 2 - free for everyone who spends at least $5.
--The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - free for everyone who spends at least $15.
--Banished - free for everyone who spends at least $30.

This trailer offers a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Bedlam, the recently launched first-person shooter. The walkthrough is presented by Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre, who wrote both the game and the novel upon which it is based. Word is: "In this video Chris walks us through the world of Bedlam, talking about how he came up with the idea for it, and how it was constructed." Continue here to read the full story.

• Fountain War Book by The Mittani Media — Kickstarter. "A book about the epic true stories from EVE Online and the galactic firestorm that culminated in the largest battle in gaming history."
• Lotia - RPG Indie Game by Crayon Ponyfish — Kickstarter. "A JRPG style game that tells a deep and rich story about the Dream... and those who dare to do so!"
• StarBreak -- Steam Greenlight. "StarBreak is a Co-Op Roguelike MMO Action Platformer where you explore strange sci-fi worlds alongside dozens of other players, kill legions of dangerous aliens and fight epic boss battles." Here's a trailer.

• Into the Stars update 0.2 is now live.

• Dragon Fin Soup on Steam. Save 10%.
• Volume on Steam. Save 33%.

Smart Speak - Star Citizen – Interstellar Pirates.

• Gameacon Announces Unreal and Unity Speakers - GameaCon Festival, Nov. 20-22, 2015 - Atlantic City, NJ.
• The StarCraft II WCS Global Finals Start Tomorrow.
• What's In Store for StarCraft at BlizzCon 2015.
• World of Warcraft: Draenor Dungeons Bonus Event November 4 – 9.

• TERA on the official website. "Knockout" update preview.

• A Closer Look At Xbox One Backward Compatibility With FLitz From Smosh Games.
• Buy PS4 avatars from the PS Store starting next week.
• North American PlayStation Store Sales: Best deals, November 3 update.
• Minecraft Halloween Mashup pack coming to console.
• Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition And Pip-Box (Custom Fallout 4 Inspired Xbox One) Giveaway.
• Rock Band 4 PS4 DLC no-show drama rumbles on for another week.
• Research: 42% of women own gaming consoles compared to 37% of men.

• MIT Student Builds Autonomous Self-Flying Drone with Obstacle Avoidance.
• Teens spend 9 hours a day with media, 3-year-olds are “media multitaskers.”

Thanks j.c.f.

• U.S. OPM, victim of large scale data hack, hires new cyber adviser. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Windows Legacy Layer Used to Bypass EMET Security Measures.
• Google patches critical media processing flaws in Android.
• Google Researchers Find 11 Zero-Day Bugs in Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
• Flaw in SAP Firm's XSS Filter Exposed Many Sites to Attacks.

• Apple and sapphire supplier will finally bury their $439 million hatchet.
• UK govt sneaks citizen database aka 'request filters' into proposed internet super-spy law.

• Arma 3 - Community Guide: Defense…

Link of the Day: The Daily Show Will Take a Night Off After Trevor Noah Has Emergency Surgery. Sustainable living family bumped.

R.I.P.: E.T. Screenwriter Melissa Mathison Dead at 65.

Blizzard announces they are hiring a Senior Software Engineer to help modernize StarCraft, Warcraft III, and Diablo II, as they are "restoring them to glory" (thanks Verno). Here's word on the plan:

Compelling stories. Intense multiplayer. Endless replayability. Qualities that made StarCraft, Warcraft III, and Diablo II the titans of their day. Evolving operating systems, hardware, and online services have made them more difficult to be experienced by their loyal followers or reaching a new generation.

We’re restoring them to glory, and we need your engineering talents, your passion, and your ability to get tough jobs done.

So if you like wearing many hats, know small teams are the most effective, and look forward to challenges that will create millions of new adventures for our players: we would love to hear from you.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Make gameplay first again on modern operating systems.
• Create conditions for experiences that look as good as they play.
• Own implementation and curation of features new and old.
• Combat hacking to improve multiplayer.
• Diagnose and fix all the things: crashes, deadlocks, overflows, heap corruptions, etc.

REQUIREMENTS

• Expert knowledge of C / C++
• A minimum of 5 years’ development experience
• Experience debugging unfamiliar code
• Passion for games
• Excite us

PLUSES

• Experience debugging Win32 or OS X game software
• Experience using Visual Studio or Xcode
• Experience with x86 assembly

Activision Blizzard says they will no longer announce subscriber counts for World of Warcraft, their subscription MMORPG. In yesterday's financial reporting they revealed the game is down to 5.5 million subscribers, which is still impressive, but well under half the game's peak. With their user count getting smaller every time around, they no longer feel this is in their best interests to continue publicizing the game's gradual decline. GameSpot quotes how they explained this during their post-earnings conference call: "Note that this is the last quarter that we plan to provide subscriber numbers," the company said. "There are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance."

Konami has confirmed the rumor reported yesterday that they have shut down Kojima Productions Los Angeles, their U.S. studio. They have made an official statement on the situation to Polygon:

Konami has made the decision to close its Los Angeles Studio, effective immediately, due to the product development resources being restructured into a more centralized unit. This facility contributed to the recent Metal Gear Solid games. Konami will continue its operations to support all Metal Gear Solid titles, including the recently launched Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online. Metal Gear Online is still scheduled to release for PC Steam in January 2016.

The Los Angeles studio emphasizes Konami and Kojima Productions commitment to expanding our development footprint," Konami Digital Entertainment president Tomoyuki Tsuboi said when the studio opened. "The new studio will put Kojima Productions in the heart of the west which will benefit future releases as it will introduce new talent and creativity to the development teams.

Nordic Games announces the PC edition of Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition will be released tomorrow, offering an update to the hack-and-slash RPG sequel. Those who already own the original version are being offered three different loyalty discounts on the re-release, explained in what they admit are "elaborate" posts on GOG.com and Steam. They outline three tiers of discounts: Owners of the Darksiders franchise pack on Steam or the whole series on GOG.com will get this for free, anyone who owns Darksiders II as of the release will get an 80% discount, and everyone else can get a 20% launch discount for the first week. Here's word on what makes this edition so deathinitive:

Deathinitive Edition Features:

• Darksiders II with All DLCs* included and integrated into the game, offering a total playtime of more than 30 hours
  *(Maker Armor Set, The Abyssal Forge, The Demon Lord Belial, Death Rides, Angel of Death, Deadly Despair, Shadow of Death, Mortis Pack, Rusanov's Axe, Van Der Schmash Hammer, Fletcher's Crow Hammer, Mace Maximus, Argul's Tomb)
• Improved Graphic Render Engine for higher visual quality especially in terms of lighting and shadows, optimised for PC
• Improved and reworked level, character and environment graphics
• Running in native 1080p resolution
• Reworked and tuned game balancing and loot distribution

Yacht Club Games announces the release of a retail version of Shovel Knight, though the PC edition of the package is only offered in Europe. Here's word on what it includes:

It’s all at retail now in North America and Europe at a store near you! Pick it up, and send us pictures. Oogle over the 48 page manual. Make sure to download your free digital soundtrack to take the tunes with you wherever you go. Enjoy placing the beautiful box among your collection, to be enjoyed by the next thousand generations. And most of all, have fun with the game!

If you’re having any trouble with the retail version, please check out our support page:

http://yachtclubgames.com/support/

Thanks Ant.

• MechWarrior Online Patch Notes - 1.4.32 - 03-Nov-2015. Thanks Rhialto.
• Team Fortress 2 update released.
• World of Warcraft Patch 6.2.2a Hotfixes: Oct 6 - Nov 2.
• World of Warcraft 6.2.3 PTR Patch Notes - November 3.

• A Princess To Save Me- Play As a Damsel In Distress by Drunk Dragon Games — Kickstarter. "A story-driven tactical RPG that puts you in a damsel in distress' shoes." Thanks One Angry Gamer.

• We're Psyonix, Developers of Rocket League! Ask us anything! - IAmA. Thanks nin.

• Star Wars Battlefront's Xbox One Early Release Includes 10 Hours of Gameplay.
• Nissan GT-R LM Nismo available as free download for Forza Motorsport 6.
• Fallout 4 Owners Get Fallout 3 Via Xbox One Backward Compatibility Next Week.
• Why everyone thinks Blizzard's Overwatch is coming to console.

• Best Tablets of 2015 - TechSpot.

• Google Research Blog: Computer, respond to this email. Testing auto responses. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.

Thanks Ant.

• Fedora 23 released. Thanks Slashdot.
• Why is hi-tech Japan using cassette tapes and faxes? Thanks Slashdot.
• Watch: MIT Drone Autonomously Avoids Obstacles at 30 MPH. Thanks Slashdot.
• Enjoy The "John Wick" VR Experience.

Thanks Ant.

• How to Protect Your Personal Data—and Humanity—From the Government.
• Google Searches Put Consumers at Risk.
• vBulletin password hack fuels fears of serious Internet-wide 0-day attacks.
• Avast goes on the record- We won't hand over source code to any Gov.
• Stuxnet-style code signing of malware becomes darknet cottage industry.
• 5 signs your Web app has been hacked.
• Baidu Android app component puts 100 million devices at risk.
• TSA airport screeners’ ability to detect weapons declared “pitiful.” Sentence also works with just the first and last words.

• Coast Guard on GameWatcher.
• Expand on Chalgyr's Game Room.

• AZZA Nova 8000 Full Tower Case on Neoseeker.
• Corsair Gaming Strafe on ocaholic.
• Corsair Strafe RGB MX Silent Red Mechanical Keyboard on eTeknix.
• Crucial BX200 480GB SATA 2.5-Inch SSD on Legit Reviews.
• Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum on PC Gamer.
• MSI Z170A Gaming M7 on ocaholic.
• QNAP TS-251 High-Performance 2-Bay Prosumer NAS on eTeknix.
• Scythe Fuma on Overclocked Inside. German.
• TP-LINK Archer CR700 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem Router on TweakTown.
• WD Purple 6TB Surveillance Hard Drive on eTeknix.
• Xbox Elite Wireless Controller on Vortez.

• "Metroid" Live-Action Short Film Making Waves. Thanks nin…

I recently mentioned how much I enjoyed the first season of Blunt Talk, but the good news in the wake of that concluding is that Ash vs. Evil Dead has debuted. Based on the subject and the participation of both Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi this held plenty of promise, but the first episode was even better than I could have hoped, so I am greatly looking forward to that continuing. Yes, Starz is totally killing it right now. Groovy!

Groovy Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	TMNT- The Hyperstone Heist. Finger vs Farmers. Rainbow Poop.
Links:	Ryan Reynolds Trolls Pint-Sized X-Men In "How Deadpool Spent Halloween." Thanks nin. Man Builds A Special Kayak To Take His Dogs On Little Adventures.
Stories:	"Star Wars" Tie-In Book Delay, Lightsaber Ban. Sweetener Used In Gum Blamed For Increase In Accidental Dog Poisonings. Thanks nin.
Science:	The Way That Mushrooms Bring the Rain Will Astound You.
Images:	The Best Space Photos Of The Month.
Media:	Army of Darkness - 8 Bit Cinema. Local News Teams botch Halloween. I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy 2015. Everything Wrong With Casino Royale In 12 Minutes Or Less.
Follow-up:	Robin Williams' widow: 'It was not depression' that killed him.