Following recent indications from Monolith founder Jace Hall about the possibility of a Blood revival, Jace posted a photo to Facebook to fuel whatever speculation this news generated. The photo shows Jace and original Blood designer Nick Newhard sitting in front of a monitor with the Blood logo. Seeming to misunderstand the word, the caption explains they are discussing "secrets," saying, "Sitting here with OG game designer Nick Newhard discussing secrets.. U do the math. #iLiveAgain — with Kevin Kilstrom, Matt Saettler and Nick Newhard."

Though the Splash Damage website and Twitter account are silent on the topic, press release from the Hong Kong exchange indicates that Paul Wedgewood is in the process of selling Splash Damage to Radius Maxima, a subsidiary of Leyou Technology Holdings, a Chinese company that also recently acquired the balance of developer Digital Extremes (which was not noted here at the time). Splash Damage emerged from the QUAKE mod scene, and they have created or contributed to several first-person shooters including Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars, Brink, and Doom III. Here's word on the deal:

The Targets comprise Splash Damage, Fireteam and Warchest. Splash Damage is principally engaged in the development of computer games for different hardware platforms, including consoles, personal computers and mobile devices. Fireteam is principally engaged in the provision of online services and back-end support of computer games. Warchest is principally engaged in owning, publishing and operating competitive multiplayer games with high production values for all leading platforms. The Targets are companies incorporated under the laws of England and Wales.

The Consideration (excluding the Aggregated Adjustment Payment) payable by Radius Maxima to Paul Wedgwood and the Optionholders under the Sale and Purchase Agreements shall not in any event exceed US$150 million (equivalent to approximately RMB996 million). The sum of the Aggregated Adjustment Payment payable by Radius Maxima to Paul Wedgwood and the Optionholders under the Sale and Purchase Agreements shall not in any event exceed US$10 million (equivalent to approximately RMB66 million). The sum of the amount payable by Radius Maxima to the Targets under the Main SPA (including but not limited to any payment obligations under the sub-section headed “Additional project funding” below), shall not in any event exceed US$10 million (equivalent to approximately RMB66 million).

An update to the Team Fortress 2 blog discusses the admittedly rough launch of casual mode in Team Fortress 2, Valve's multiplayer shooter. They offer a new patch to address some issues and remove leaver penalties, and say another patch will follow to allow players to specify the maps to join. Here's a rundown on their concerns:

First, and most important, queue times. The queue times you are currently experiencing are a bug, not a feature. It is something we are actively working to correct. Several backend issues appeared post-launch that culminated in long wait times. Removing this issue is our highest priority right now.

Second, abandonment penalties. We had put in a ten-minute cooldown period to encourage players to complete matches. Your feedback has convinced us that it is more important for players to be able to come and go as they please. Today's patch will remove abandonment cooldown penalties from Casual Mode.

Third, user choice. We'd intended to roll out the number of match options available to players incrementally, so as not to overload the matchmaking system with too many variables on Day One. In retrospect, of all the match options to hold back, map selection should not have been one of them. It is the next feature we are adding to Casual Mode, and you will get it very soon.

Fourth, Casual Mode levels. Levels are a cosmetic feature that show how much you've played. They can never be lost, and they do not affect matchmaking. We did a poor job of communicating that Casual Mode Levels are in no way similar to Competitive Mode Ranks (which do affect matchmaking, and can be lost).

• Dota 2 Update - July 8th, 2016.
• Team Fortress 2 update released.

• No More Halo 5 Monthly Updates, But More Content Coming.

• The great tablet gold rush is over. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• Nintendo stock price up 9% after Pokémon Go launch.
• Gamer finds dead body while testing Pokémon Go’s GPS features.

• Five reasons to upgrade to Windows 10.
• Five reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10.
• LGR - Building a 486 DOS PC. Thanks Ant.

Thanks Ant and j.c.f.

• Smartwatches not secure, give away PIN numbers.
• Best practices for managing the security of BYOD smartphones and tablets.
• Google hopes to thwart quantum computers from cracking internet encryption.
• Caja Toolkit Vulnerabilities Exposed Google Docs Domain to XSS Attacks.
• The truth about bug finders: They're essentially useless.
• Security Updates for Adobe Acrobat and Reader.
• Campaign of Infected WordPress and Joomla Sites Leads to CryptXXX Ransomware.
• Over 6,000 Redis Database Servers Ready for the Taking.
• Google fixes 108 bugs in July Android security update.
• Dangerous GNU wget Vulnerability Still Not Patched in All Linux Distros.

• Inside on PC Invasion.

• Corsair LAPDOG Gaming Control Center on techPowerUp.
• Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 Gaming Graphics Card on LAN OC.
• Linksys EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router on Mad Shrimps.
• OCZ RD400A 512GB SSD on APH Networks.
• Phononic HEX 2.0 Thermoelectric CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
• Razer Naga Hex V2 Mouse on PC & Video Games Examiner.
• SteelSeries Rival 100 Mouse on Technic3D.

• Evolve Player Count Increases Substantially…

I think I'm turning a corner on my Lyme disease, as my aches and pains went away pretty quickly. My energy level is still not quite what it should be, but that's slowly returning to normal as well after about a week on antibiotics. Coincidentally, we just finished treating the Gunnar-man for a different tick-borne illness, and the cure was the same, a round of doxycycline. When the vet prescribed that he warned me it was expensive for dogs because it is in somewhat short supply due to how many humans need it to treat Lyme, and sure enough, it ended up costing a couple of hundred bucks. Then true to the description of the cause, a few weeks later I had to fill my own prescription. Luckily in my case insurance coverage reduced my cost to around twenty bucks.

Drugged Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Catroom Drama: Case 2.
Science:	New research explains why Antarctic sea ice has grown.
Media:	Why no aquarium has a great white shark. Sweet Revenge. Just when you think it can't get worse...