The GeForce website now offers new version 375.86 WHQL-certified GeForce drivers for NVIDIA graphics cards. These are the game-ready drivers for Battlefield 1, Civilization VI, Tom Clancy's The Division, and the Steep open beta. They explain: "In the coming weeks, Battlefield 1, Civilization VI and Tom Clancy's The Division will all launch new updates that also require today's Game Ready driver for the fastest and smoothest experience. So if you're a fan of these three titles, be sure to snag the new driver in preparation." Be warned, some are reporting problems with this release, and this thread is where these are being discussed (thanks PCGamesN). Word is that some users are experiencing flickering in SLI configurations and that some users of 1080/1070/1060 cards are experiencing incorrect memory timings.

A new version of Overwatch is now available, adding a new hero to Blizzard's multiplayer shooter along with balance changes, a new arena map, the new arcade feature, and bug fixes. Here's word on the new hero, Sombra:

One of the world's most notorious hackers is stepping out of the shadows: Sombra, a mysterious infiltrator who uses information to control those in power.

Sombra is a master manipulator who can hack her enemies, temporarily blocking their abilities. In addition, she can hack health packs and Torbjörn's turret, making them useless to her opponents. She uses her fully automatic Machine Pistol to take out her enemies, getting into position using her Thermoptic Camo, which allows her to become invisible and move more quickly for short periods of time. This gives her the ability to slip past enemy defenses undetected, but she's instantly revealed if she takes damage or attacks an enemy. She also has a Translocator, which can be tossed like a grenade. When it’s activated, Sombra is teleported to its location (even while it’s in flight).

Sombra's ultimate ability, EMP, discharges electromagnetic energy in a wide radius, hacking anyone caught within range and destroying enemy barriers and shields. To learn more about Sombra, click here.

The promised new update is now live in Heroes of the Storm, adding a new hero and other changes to Blizzard's MOBA, and marks the beginning of their Nexus Challenge event. This post has the complete patch notes, including a rundown on Varian, the new multiclass character. For more on him, check out the Varian Hero Week post with a video and more on his kit. This post has the details on the Nexus Challenge, which will run until January 4th, and will provide in-game rewards for Heroes as well as for Overwatch. Word is: "Get five Heroes free when you play 30 games of Heroes of the Storm with a Friend before January 4. Bonus: Also includes the Oni Genji skin in Overwatch, which is available after you’ve played your first fifteen games with a friend."

The Paragon website announces it is Crunch time, as a new update is available, updating Epic's MOBA to version 34.1, adding the new hero Crunch. You can see Crunch in action in this trailer, and here's the elevator pitch on the character: "Crunch is a melee fighter with a unique combo system. Utilizing each of his abilities, Crunch is capable of fluidly chaining combos together to quickly scrap his opponents." Continue here to read the full story.

Lantern is now available on Steam, offering a serene experience for Windows, including VR support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. There is also a playable demo for those looking to sample what publisher 1C Company calls the game's "joyful atmosphere." Here's more: "Anyone trying to shake off the autumn blues or just wanting to sit back and unwind should not pass Lantern. Its colorful environments and ambient soundtrack offer the opportunity to find one’s inner peace." You can get a look at what this looks like in the launch trailer. Continue here to read the full story.

• MechWarrior Online Patch Notes - 1.4.88 - 15-Nov-2016. Linebacker, Clan Heroes, New Decals, Gameplay and Quirk changes, and much more. Thanks Rhialto.
• Unreal Engine 4.14 Released. "Unreal Engine 4.14 introduces a new forward shading renderer optimized for VR, enabling crisp multi-sampled anti-aliasing in your games. The new Contact Shadows feature renders beautifully detailed shadows for intricate objects. We've also introduced a new automatic LOD generation feature for static meshes that does not require a third-party library."

• Distant Worlds: Universe on Steam. Save 60%.
• Heroes of the Storm Weekly Sale- Nov 15 - 22, 2016.
• Dungeon Defenders II & Terraria on Steam. Save 25%.

• StarCraft II 2016 Ladder Season 5 Has Locked.
• After three years the Power Rangers Dota 2 team has disbanded.

• Watch Dogs 2 Will Patch Out 'Particularly Explicit' Genitalia. Thanks nin.
• Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection Now Available.
• SMITE Console: Arbiter of the Damned - 3.21 Patch Notes.
• Halo And Xbox 15 Year Anniversary Images Being Added To Xbox One Gamerpic Gallery.
• PlayStation Store 10th Anniversary Sale.
• PlayStation Store Update.

• Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Mozilla Firefox version 50.0. The beta mentioned this morning was our error. Apologies. Thanks Frans.
• Snapchat files for one of the biggest tech IPOs in years: sources. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Comcast Gets Rid of $70 Gigabit Pricing, $140 Now Only Option.

• Apple, a Trendsetter No More. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Chinese company installed secret backdoor on hundreds of thousands of phones.
• Major Linux security hole gapes open. Thanks HARDOCP.

• ASSASSIN’S CREED: HERESY Now Available in Bookstores and Online…
• Assassin's Creed The Essential Guide Now Available…

Link of the Day: Everything Wrong With The Warcraft Movie In 16 Minutes Or Less. Thanks Ant.

The promised fall update for Battlefield 1 is now live, offering a bunch of changes and fixes for DICE's World War 1 first-person shooter. This post is filled with details, but the complete patch notes are even fuller. Among the major alterations are reworks to conquest and operations modes. Here's word on those changes:

OPERATIONS CHANGES:
Going forward we are addressing the balance issues with the Operations game mode. It’s clear that attackers need a boost. To increase the effectiveness of the attacking team, we are increasing the overall tickets for both Operations & Grand Operations. In addition, we are also making it somewhat easier to capture sectors as an attacker by reducing the amount of time it takes to capture a flags in Operations & Grand Operations. We’ve also increased the minimum tickets regained in grand operations to from 30 to 50, as well as increased the amount of tickets regained from killing retreating defenders. This will give more of a fighting chance to capture the next sector after previously capturing a sector while having very few tickets left.

64 player

• Increase attacker maximum tickets from 150 to 250
• Increased the amount of tickets regained from killing retreating defenders after capturing a sector from 2 to 3.
• Increased the amount of minimum ticket regained when capturing a sector in 64p Operations from 30 to 50.
• Slightly reduced the time it takes to capture flags.

40 player

• Increase attacker maximum tickets to 200 from 150
• Increased the amount of tickets regained from killing retreating defenders after capturing a sector from 2 to 3.
• Slightly reduced the time it takes to capture flags.

CONQUEST CHANGES:
We’ve listened to your feedback in regards to the Suez Conquest layout in regards to balance. We will be adding two more flags to the layout, this should result in one team not being able to capture and lock down all flags as easy as before. In addition, we also noticed that it was very difficult to re-capture flags within the capture areas located in the village areas. To solve this we’ve reduced the capture size of these areas to include less buildings. The result of this should make the flags somewhat easier to capture and make sure that a team that has lost and been pushed out of the villages can easier re-capture them and get back into the fight. In addition, to help a team that has been pushed back all the way to their HQ, we’ve added an armored car that players can use to break out of the HQ and flank the opposing team.

• Added two additional flags on the Suez map, giving it a total of 5 flags.
• Added 1 armored car for either team to spawn in their HQ.
• Reduced the size of the capture volumes on the flags located in the villages, old A & B flag. This is to reduce the amount of building interiors located within the capture area. The change should result in the flags being easier to capture.

Road to VR has details on Valve's SteamVR plans from last month's Steam Dev Days event in Seattle, saying to expect betas of SteamVR for Linux and OS X "in the next few months" (thanks Slashdot via Ant). Here's the plan:

The initiative was revealed by Valve’s Joe Ludwig during a talk at this year’s developer-focused Steam Dev Days event in Seattle last month. During the talk, Ludwig outlined the company’s view that VR should be as open to innovation as possible, touting the benefits for the long term evolution of virtual reality and how Valve, with OpenVR, are trying to keep what Ludwig calls platform “gatekeepers” from (as they see it) stifling progression in the VR space. Additionally, Ludwig stated that it’s been listening to developer and user feedback during SteamVR‘s first year in consumer hands, and says that they’ve heard clearly that a version of SteamVR is wanted on other operating systems.

Ludwig presented a screenshot (seen at the top of this article) of SteamVR running on Linux (distribution undefined), powered by the open source graphics API Vulkan, in turn powering an HTC Vive VR headset. Ludwig goes on to say that “we’re actively working on support for both OSX and Linux and we hope to get support for both of them into a beta in the next few months.”

The EVE Online website announces that the promised free-to-play era for EVE Online is underway. This page outlines the difference between free Alpha accounts and premium Omega accounts, with free restrictions including a limit to the number of available ships, lower training speed, and a 24 hour skill queue. In short:

ALPHA CLONES - EVE and some of its most popular ships now available with no monthly subscription. Great for new and returning EVE players.

OMEGA CLONES - are zero-restriction subscription accounts. Full access to every ship, skill, and module in the game makes this the perfect account for the dedicated explorers, combat pilots, and market traders.

Feral Interactive announces a November 22nd release date for their Linux port of Total War: WARHAMMER, the fantasy strategy game. They offer this website has home to this and say the site will be updated with system requirements and other relevant details. This is also home to the game's Mac OS X version, but that does not yet have a release date.

• Gloom -- Steam Greenlight. "Afflicted by severe amnesia, you dive deep into the Common Dream. You scour for the lost pages of the Necronomicon, while clinging on to any little purpose you have left. Faced with mad dreamers, horrible abominations and eldritch deities, you feel drawn to the dark Abyss deep within. With every death you face, you return back to the top layer of the Dream, starting all over again and losing a bit of yourself in the process." Here's a trailer.

• Team Liquid trying out zews as new CS:GO coach.
• Scarlett confirmed as the highest earning female eSports player ever.

• Watch Dogs 2 Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• Watch Dogs 2 online is broken: what works and what doesn't.
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Free Play Weekend Starting Wednesday on PlayStation.
• Worms Anniversary Edition Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• How Gran Turismo Sport Makes the Most of PS4 Pro and PS VR.
• Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• You may get your PSN account suspended if you share pics of Watch Dogs 2’s NPC genitals.

• Verizon buys LQD WiFi, a company that builds urban smart hubs.
• WhatsApp unveils video calls, Skype pops open guest accounts.
• Apple Considers Wearables Expansion With Digital Glasses. Thanks Slashdot.
• Super Mario Run Launches for iPhone & iPad on Dec. 15.
• Chemical traces on your phone reveal your lifestyle, scientists say. Thanks Slashdot.

Thanks Frans.

• Google, Facebook move to restrict ads on fake news sites.
• Mozilla Firefox version 50.0 beta.
• Mozilla Firefox ESR version 45.5.0.
• Twitter expands 'mute' and 'report' features to combat abuse.
• 'Reply-all' email chain sent to all 1.2 million NHS employees. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• GE Digital is taking Predix out to the edge of IoT.

• The Vive wireless adapter’s 60GHz tech could be the weak link in the VR chain.
• NVIDIA and Microsoft Accelerate AI Together. Thanks HARDOCP.
• NVIDIA Teams with National Cancer Institute, U.S. Department of Energy to Create AI Platform for Accelerating Cancer Research. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Samsung sets their Eyes on a Revolutionary Holographic TV. Thanks Slashdot.
• HP's tiny Xeon-powered PC puts the Mac Mini to shame.
• Apple wants to sell you a $300 photo book about its products.

• Shazam song-identification program keeps your mic on, even when you turn it off.

• The Turtles’ $100M trial against Sirius XM starts tomorrow.

• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare on Giant Bomb.

• Adata Ultimate SU800 512GB SSD on CDRLabs and The Tech Report.
• Apacer Z280 240GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive on eTeknix.
• Apple iPhone 7 Smartphone on LAN OC.
• be quiet! Silent Base 800 Window on Play3r.
• Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler on Hardware Asylum and ThinkComputers.org.
• Corsair HARPOON RGB Mouse on Vortez.
• ECS LEE7 Z170-Lightsaber Motherboard on Modders-Inc.
• Fnatic Gear Clutch G1 Mouse on APH Networks.
• Kingston Cloud Stinger Headset on ocaholic.
• Kingston HyperX Savage 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive on Hardware Canucks.
• QNAP TS-853A NAS on TechSpot.
• Samsung 960 EVO SSD on AnandTech and Vortez.
• SteelSeries Arctis 5 7.1 Surround Sound RGB Headset on Techgage.
• Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 600W Power Supply on HARDOCP.
• XFX Radeon RX 470 RS 4GB OC Black Edition Video Card on Mad Shrimps.
• Y-cam Evo Indoor HD Wi-Fi Security Camera on Play3r.
• ZOTAC GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition Graphics Card on Vortez.

• Now Available on Steam - The Martian VR Experience…
• Good Game Series 12 Episode 40. Thanks Ant…
• Clueless Gamer: "Final Fantasy XV" With Elijah Wood…

MrsBlue and I dropped by the doctor's office today for our flu shots. We probably should have done this sooner, but we usually do this with our annual physicals, and those are still a few weeks off. I know some are wary of these, but I'm also pretty sure nobody wants the flu. Of course, mass inoculations are a plotline for a zombie outbreak, so if that turns out to be the case here please remember to shoot me in the head.

Shooting Shots Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	City Rider. Night at the Colosseum.
Story:	'Westworld' renewed for second season.
Science:	Zika virus mosquito possibly spreads dengue in same bite.
Images:	Closest 'Supermoon' Since 1948 Thrills Skywatchers (Photos).
Media:	Game of Thrones - Deleted and extended scenes (Season 6). Thanks GamesRadar+. A HA - TAKE ON ME - POOPYFLUTED. Thanks nin. Leonard Bernstein once owned this amazing cigarette-lighting Rube Goldberg machine.