Underrail is an old school isometric turn-based RPG set in a distant future, when the life on the Earth’s surface has long since been made impossible and the remnants of humanity now dwell in the Underrail, a vast system of metro station-states that, it seems, are the last bastions of a fading race.

The player takes control of one of the denizens of such a station-state whose life is about to become all that much more interesting and dangerous, as our protagonist is caught midst the conflicting factions of Underrail as the violently struggle to survive in the harsh underground environment.

A free trial weekend for Call of Duty: Black Ops III PC multiplayer is available now on Steam. Fans can download and play the multiplayer portion of the PC game starting today through Sunday, Dec. 20, 1pm PT. During the trial, Steam is also offering a promotional price for the PC version at a suggested retail price of $44.99 and the Digital Deluxe to $79.99.

If you’re an existing player on PC, head to www.rainbow6keys.ubi.com, and you can give up to four buddies full access to the game through Uplay – just enough to fill out your squad. From 3:01 p.m. PST on Friday, December 18, to 9:01 p.m. PST on Sunday, December 20, they can join you (or strike out on their own) in 5v5 multiplayer matches or co-op Terrorist Hunt runs. They can even play through the single-player Situations, which is a good idea anyway, as it’ll help them acclimate to Rainbow Six Siege’s unique pacing and Operator abilities.

If just playing with buddies isn’t enough of an incentive to bring your friends in, referrers will also be rewarded with a 24-hour Renown Booster (to be delivered shortly after the program ends) for each friend that redeems a key. You can send your friends keys right now, giving them the chance to preload through Uplay and be ready to breach at 3:01 p.m. PST on Friday. Best of all, if any “recruits” decide they want to keep playing after Sunday, they’ll be able to get a 25% discount on the full game from Uplay, and keep all the progress they’ve earned.

At last, we are ready to commit to an official release date of the first edition of American Truck Simulator; the game will hit digital and retail stores on February 3, 2016.

As the readers of our blog will no doubt know by now, this release will be just the first step on the road. A couple of trucks and the state of California that we are bringing you with the base game release is only a fraction of our grand vision - to cover all of North America eventually and to chase every relevant truck manufacturer for a license to allow us to include their trucks into the game.

Well, we have to set on the way, and this is where we start. Hold on tight!

• Fixed some issues with stars being awarded or lost incorrectly in specific AR Challenges
• Improved target prioritization during combat
• Restored heavier rain during the opening section of the game
• Fixed missing rain effects on a few remaining player character skins
• Miscellaneous gameplay fixes and stability improvements
• Fixes to some keyboard and mouse prompts after being rebound
• Made frame times more consistent for 60hz monitors running at 30fps with VSync enabled
• Previously equipped gadgets can be selected with keyboard and mouse again after restarting an AR Challenge
• Fixed the default key binding for Harley’s Snare gadget
• Batgirl’s Remote Hacking Device can now be properly selected with keyboard & mouse in AR Challenges
• Minor performance optimizations for certain combinations of hardware
• Fixed keyboard & mouse controls that did not function in DLC AR Challenges when no previous save data existed
• Quick Photo Mode can now be triggered with keyboard and mouse controls when using the Batmobile
• Special Combo Takedowns can now be performed with Quickfire Gadget binds if they were rebound
• Fixed graphical corruption that may occur after Alt-Tabbing
• Improvements and corrections to some localized text
• Added new Classic Harley Quinn skin for use in AR Challenges & the Harley Quinn Story Pack
• Added Arkham Knight as a playable character for AR Challenges & the Red Hood Story Pack
• Added support for December DLC content

The new version 1.1.0 introduces totally re-vamped mod support with a handy browser for launching mods, and now lets mod makers access the built-in editing tools that we used to make content for the game.

We have also added new content to the game in the form of a new special quest featuring a special guest, the notorious Tiberian swamp pirate Arch Fenster! Oh, and just possibly a ship from that other space roguelike-like game created by one of our Kickstarter backers may make an appearance!*

For all of our Steam fans, this update just keeps on giving by adding over fifty achievements, as well as Steam trading cards, badges (not steenking), profile backgrounds and emoticons!

• Into the Stars Patch 0.5 is live.
• Zombasite version 0.911. The change list has details.

• Folk Tale on Steam. Save 25%.
• Rare Ethereal Armor on Entropia Universe. A mere $5000.00.
• Wayback Winter Sale on GOG.com.

• Diablo III on Battle.net. Patch 2.4.0 Preview: Items and Sets.

• The Biggest Sale Ever For Xbox Store Begins Dec. 22.
• This Week On Xbox – December 18, 2015.

• Secret hashtags help teens share dangerous habits. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Seagate: Hard Disk Drives Set to Stay Relevant for 20 Years.
• Intel Xeon E3 1245 v5 Linux Benchmarks.
• Oracle VM VirtualBox version 5.0.12. Thanks Ant.
• Humans Are Slamming Into Driverless Cars and Exposing a Key Flaw. Legal driving apparently unsafe. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Hacker group takes credit for Xbox Live connectivity issues.
• Moonfruit still facing problems after forced service outage.
• Grub2 bootloader flaw leaves locked-down Linux computers at risk.
• iOS banking apps security still not good enough, says researcher.
• Four Network Management Systems Vulnerable to SQLi and XSS Attacks.
• XRTN Ransomware Discovered, Currently Undecryptable.

• Congress approves surveillance legislation tucked into budget package.
• Curt Schilling will not testify before RI House Oversight Committee.
• Valve and Blizzard suffer setback in cloning case.
• LifeLock to Pay $100 Million to Consumers to Settle FTC Charges it Violated 2010 Order. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina come out swinging against net neutrality rules.

• Nier's Taro Yoko 'Making Weird Games For Weird People'. GDC 2014 presentation.
• Total Annihilation is now available on Steam for those looking to discover or rediscover Cavedog's classic 1997 RTS game (which is also on GOG.com)…
• Mines of Mars is now available on Steam early access after a successful run as a mobile platformer…
• Zenimax Clarifies Erroneous Reports Of Recent Mass Layoffs At Ireland Support Location. Correction…

Funcom is excited to announce that the company has entered into an agreement with Conan Properties, making it the preferred partner for all PC and console games based on the 'Conan the Barbarian' brand and the world of Hyboria. The two companies have already enjoyed a long and prosperous relationship, having successfully brought to market Funcom's critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online game 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' back in 2008.

"We are tremendously excited to be strengthening our relationship with Conan Properties," said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. "'Conan the Barbarian' is undoubtedly one of the world's greatest and most recognizable fantasy heroes, and as game developers, working with such a character and being able to draw from the fantastically detailed world of Hyboria is nothing short of a dream come true."

As Funcom communicated earlier this year, the company will be announcing three new games in 2016. The first of these games will be based on the 'Conan the Barbarian' brand and will be announced to the public in January next year.

"Working with Funcom through the years has been a rewarding and very enjoyable journey," said Fredrik Malmberg, CEO of Conan Properties. "Making them our preferred partner for all PC and console games based on 'Conan the! Barbarian' is the next step on that great journey. Funcom has shown they are more than capable of managing the rich heritage of Conan and to breathe new life into the world of Hyboria, and we are thrilled to be working together on new, exciting projects."

For more information about Funcom and our games, please visit www.funcom.com.

• Steam's Subscriber Agreement explicitly forbids users to sell their games, despite the transfer of ownership of digital products/licenses being legal.
• Valve declines responsibility in the event that users' personal information is stolen.
• Valve claims ownership of the rights of any user-created content uploaded to Steam.
• It is impossible to get the money on your Steam Wallet back if your account is closed/deleted/banned.
• Valve applies Luxembourg's consumer law regardless of the user's country.

“We paid the bills by working on some of the biggest games in the industry,” such as EA’s “Mass Effect 3” and Microsoft Corp.’s “Gears of War,” the 40-year-old said.

The few who played “Battle-Cars” loved it, Mr. Hagewood said, “so we saw that as a problem of awareness.”

His strategy for “Rocket League” was to get it into as many hands as possible. So he made it a free download for a month for Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Plus subscribers. Otherwise, it was $20 for nonsubscribers and PC users.

Psyonix also passed along the game to players who stream on YouTube and Twitch, in a bid to build word of mouth.

• Counter-Strike- Global Offensive » Release Notes for 12-17-2015.
• Prison Architect Update 2.

• Revenue for Kickstarter games recovers in 2015 - report.

• Sony To Continue "Infamous" Game Franchise.
• Playstation and Xbox Editions get humongous update.

• Why Won't T-Mobile Let Us Binge On All Of It? Thanks Ant.
• Tesla Wars - II on the App Store. Now free.

• Twitter Hires Gaming Boss.
• TheForce.net: Apple Launches Star Wars Radio Channel To Hype Up The Force Awakens. Someone has to hype it. Thanks Ant.
• Rogue Star Wars fans threaten to ruin The Force Awakens via 'spoiler jihad'. Thanks Acleacius.
• First Trailer For Netflix's "Fuller House".

• Quantum dots print tiniest inkjet image. Thanks HARDOCP.

• CES tech show adds new security checks after fears of violence.
• 'Grand Theft Auto 5,' Adobe Photoshop Torrents Most Popular Among At-Work Downloaders, But Watch For Malware. PSA for pirates. Thanks Acleacius.

• Brazil court orders WhatsApp messaging to be suspended. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• Comcast, AT&T, and T-Mobile must explain data cap exemptions to FCC.

• Dirt Rally on PC Invasion.
• King's Quest Chapter 2: Rubble Without A Cause on Just Adventure.

• ASUS Maximus VIII on Hardware Canucks.
• ASUS Strix 2.0 Multi-Platform Gaming Headset on eTeknix and Play3r.net.
• AZZA Zen 8100 on Overclockers Club.
• be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler on Technology X.
• Corsair Carbide Quiet 600Q Chassis on eTeknix.
• Creative Sound BlasterX Pro Gaming H5 Headset on TweakTown.
• ElementPC Millennium Gladiator on Vortez.
• Mad Catz R.A.T. PRO S Gaming Mouse on ThinkComputers.org.
• PNY AnarchyX 2800MHz DDR4 16GB (4x4GB) Quad Channel Memory Kit on eTeknix.
• Razer Mamba (2015) on LAN OC.
• Roccat Kiro Modular Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse on eTeknix.
• Toshiba Canvio Alu 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive on Nikk Tech.

• The Best Perk In Fallout 4 Is Completely Broken. Thanks Acleacius…
• Zenimax closes Galway support center, cuts 300 jobs. Thanks VG247…
• SCRABBLE - The Classic Word Game on Steam…
• Kojima banned from discussing Konami split…