Bethesda now offers the promised update for Dishonored 2, adding a New Game Plus mode to the assassination sequel. Here's the lowdown:

We’re pleased to announce that Dishonored 2’s first free game update with New Game Plus is now available worldwide for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Dishonored 2 offers the freedom of choice to play and improvise as you like. With this new mode, combine Empress Emily Kaldwin’s abilities with Royal Protector Corvo Attano’s signature powers to create any custom combo of multiple powers that you can imagine. Unlocked once you complete the game as either Emily or Corvo, New Game Plus lets you begin anew as either character with access to each hero’s full suite of abilities plus all the Bonecharm Traits and Runes collected from your previous playthrough that you can re-assign to choose the powers you want.

Even more options to customize your experience will arrive in January with the game’s second free update that will include two new features: Mission Select and additional Custom Difficulty Settings that further tailor to your playstyle and adjust the challenge based on a wide array of settings. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details on the second free update.

Reprise your role as a supernatural assassin in Dishonored 2, the follow up to Arkane Studio's first-person action blockbuster and winner of more than 100 'Game of the Year' awards. Recently honored with ‘Best Action-Adventure Game’ at The Game Awards 2016, Dishonored 2 has been praised by IGN as “amazing” and “a superb sequel”, declared a “masterpiece” by Eurogamer, and hailed “a must-play revenge tale among the best in its class” by Game Informer.

When the mad witch Delilah seizes the throne the fate of your Empire is left hanging in the balance, how far will you go to hunt down your enemies - and take back what’s yours? Will you choose to play as Empress Emily Kaldwin or the royal protector, Corvo Attano? How will you combine your powerful supernatural abilities, weapons and gadgets to eliminate your enemies?

Dawn of War III is on display in a new trailer, or cinematic showcase as SEGA and Relic refer to this look at the upcoming RTS sequel. The pre-rendered sequences and developer commentary in the clip are called "Fog of War #2." They offer the following description: "Relic Entertainment and SEGA have today released the latest trailer for their upcoming highly-anticipated real-time strategy title Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III. Featuring new in-game cinematics and gameplay, as well as exclusive interviews with Game Director Phillip Boulle and Art Director Matt Kuzminski, this new 6 minute video – entitled Fog of War #2 - Cinematic Faction Showcase – provides an in depth look at the game’s factions and characters and their place in the lore of the Warhammer 40K universe." Continue here to read the full story.

Super Dungeon Tactics is now available on Steam, offering a turn-based dungeon crawler for Windows and OS X. The launch trailer provides a look at gameplay, and here's word on the game:

Featuring dynamic combat inspired by its tabletop origins, striking a balance between strategy and chance, Super Dungeon Tactics tasks players with ridding the land of Crystalia of evil through intense dungeon-crawling action!

As a guild master, players command a party of chibi-styled heroes across a vibrant fantasy realm filled with random encounters, side quests and hundreds of lootable items. Take up arms with up to fifteen unlockable heroes, each with their own abilities, weapons, armor and items specialized to their character classes. Loot-based leveling and ability dice generate surprising challenges requiring on-the-fly strategic maneuvering of heroes to best the Dark Consul’s legion. Quests are also a multi-encounter affair with successive multi-part missions and random enemy generation, making each skirmish more exciting than the last.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Dota 2 Update - December 19th 2016.

• Bundle Stars Winter Sale. New deals every day.
• League of Legends Champion and skin sale- 12.20 - 12.23.
• Overwatch on Battle.net. Save 25%.
• Papers, Please on Steam. Save 60%.
• Turmoil on Steam. Save 40%.

• Dragon Quest XI Announced For Nintendo Switch With Universal Studios Attraction.
• Wells Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
• Need for Speed Deluxe Bundle Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• The Biggest Sale Ever For Xbox Store Begins 22 December.

• Mega Man 1 - 6 Coming to iOS and Android.
• Aggressive sales goals pressure T-Mobile workers to sell unwanted services, labor group alleges. Thanks HARDOCP.

• The 5 biggest tech trends of 2016- ZDNet editors sound off. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Deep blacks, bright future—where OLED screens go from here.
• NVIDIA: The Yahoo Finance Company of the Year. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Sorriest technology companies of 2016.

• Stingray use could be unconstitutional, finds House report.
• South Carolina will debate bill to block porn on new computers.
• Nigerian man charged in hacking of 108 LA county employee emails.

• Steam now offers Castle Torgeath: Descent into Darkness, a throwback, action dungeon crawler…
• WB Montreal Cancels Unannounced Suicide Squad Game, Shifts To Batman. Unannounced game gets unannounced cancellation. Thanks nin…
• GamesIndustry.biz presents... 2016- The Year In Numbers…
• Our Favourite Games of 2016 - GamesIndustry.biz and The 15 Best Video Games of 2016 - TIME…
• League of Legends New free champion rotation- Anivia, Garen, Jinx and more…

Link of the Day: The Adventures of Dank and Scud. Brand new site celebrating the 20th anniversary of the online QUAKE comic series.
Link of the Day II: Blade Runner 2049 Announcement Trailer.

Steam News announces the release of Resident Evil 7 - Biohazard 7 Teaser- Beginning Hour on Steam, a playable Windows demo for the new Resident Evil game. Here's word on this opportunity to sample the latest survival/horror gameplay in the series:

You wake up alone on the floor of an abandoned farmhouse. Daylight is quickly fading. You must find a way out.

A thrillingly immersive horror experience for the five senses. This full model change to the frightening "Isolated View" player perspective, and photorealistic graphics of the cutting-edge RE Engine mark a new beginning for survival horror. Enter a terrifyingly new world of horror and survive.

Warning: Contains scenes of horror and violence. Content may not be suitable for children.

A post on reddit features a For Honor beta tester violating the game's NDA by posting some complaints about Ubisoft's new multiplayer-oriented action game (thanks VG247). At issue is the absence of dedicated servers, and the post includes this video to show delays and problems in peer-to-peer multiplayer play. This is an attempt at a constructive approach to this, as they point to the For Honor reddit were they are petitioning for dedicated servers. Word is: "We need Ubisoft to change their design so the game uses proper dedicated servers to host games. Please sign the petition to help bring awareness to this issue, and share the video if possible." There's a response to these complaints on PCGamesN, where they asked Ubisoft about this, and were told: "no player will have an advantage in a match compared to the others. Some of the connection and networking problems that players have experienced and perceived as consequences of that architecture are rather linked to the fact that we’re still in development."

A new Star Citizen video shows off 10 minutes of emergent gameplay from Star Citizen version 2.6 (thanks DSOGaming). This is posted to the Star Citizen channel, but so was another video we linked over the weekend which ended up being deleted, so we don't know how long this will last. Word from the description is that this shows an effort to secure a giant supply of amphetamines in the space combat game: "Get a taste of what's possible in Star Citizen Alpha 2.6 with this fun emergent adventure that sees players exploring and battling their way across the vast expanse of Crusader for a chance to capture the most valuable haul of all, Big Benny's!" Continue here to read the full story.

Football Manager 2017 keeps its toehold on the top spot on GFK Chart-Track's PC top 30 chart for the week ending December 17th, and The Sims 4 remains number two. On the all platforms chart the top three remain the same, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, FIFA 17, and Battlefield 1. Here's the hot word on all the action:

After its timely return to No1 last week ‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ holds the crown for the Christmas Chart.

In doing so it becomes the 7th Call of Duty title to hold top spot at Christmas, comfortably holding off ‘FIFA 17’, which remains at No2. ‘Battlefield 1’ also remains in third spot while ‘Watch Dogs 2’ climbs two spots to No4. ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ breaks back into the Top 10 climbing to No5 marking a landmark in sales as it does so. Of the 170 weeks since it was first released, it has remained in the Top 10 for over 130.

‘Final Fantasy XV’ moves down two places to No6 ahead of another RPG ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Ed.’ up two places to No7. Retailer promotions help power a second Bethesda title ‘Dishonored 2’ nine places up to No8. Several other titles benefit from Pre-Xmas sales this week with Ubisoft’s ‘Steep’ also climbing nine places to No9. ‘Mafia III’ edges out ‘Rocket League’ for the last spot in the Top 10. ‘Overwatch’ is another title making a nine place jump with sales propelling it up to No12. Finally the addition of the Wii U version of ‘Minecraft: Story Mode – Complete Adv’ helps the title climb five places to No24.

• Nintendo Switch CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed.
• Dynasty Warriors 9 announced, goes open world.

• Research: Consumers are terrible at updating their connected devices. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.

• NVIDIA Pascal GPUs Shatter 3 GHz Frequency World Record. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Rivvr’s wireless VR for Vive and Rift add-on to appear at CES. Thanks HARDOCP.
• The holographic anime “robot” that will keep house for lonely salarymen. Girlfriend in a coffee maker.

• The No More Ransom Project. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.

• Apple given favorable treatment on tax? No way, insists Ireland.
• Apple appeals EU tax ruling, says it was a 'convenient target.' Worst offender always are, aren't they?
• Apple owes $2 million for not giving workers meal breaks. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• FBI Arrests Customer of Xtreme Stresser DDoS-for-Hire Service. Thanks HARDOCP.
• German law would fine social media sites “publishing” fake news.

• SUPERHOT VR on Christ Centered Gamer.

• Asrock Beebox-S 7200U mini PC Kaby Lake vs. Skylake on TechSpot.
• Cooler Master 212 LED CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
• Cooler Master MasterBox 5t Case on APH Networks.
• IN WIN 509 ROG Certified E-ATX Chassis on Nikk Tech.
• KFA2 GAMER SSD L 480GB on Mad Shrimps.
• PowerColor Devil Box Redux on Overclockers Club.
• ROCCAT Cross Headset on Vortez.
• Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear Headphones on ModSynergy.com.
• Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN1080 SFF PC on AnandTech.

• The game industry's disposable workers…
• Freeciv WebGL 3D version Beta 2 available. Thanks Slashdot via Ant…
• Skyrim mod Enderal gets DLC expansion of its own…
• Petition: Dear Disney make Star Wars- Knights of the Old Republic into a movie. Thanks Erik…
• "Assassin's Creed" Film Planned As A Trilogy. Like Lost in Space, John Carter, and others…

Had a little stomach trouble this morning that I was worried was related to some chicken I had last night that may have been a trifle al dente. Now I think I was probably wrong, since I am feeling better already, and Dr. Wikipedia suggests the side effects from undercooked chicken should last longer than a few hours and that actual instances of Salmonella poisoning are "rare." It's certainly good news that I won't be sick for the next few days, though I would prefer to know what was causing problems in the first place. Oh well, I feel better, so that's the main thing.

R.I.P.: Zsa Zsa Gabor dies at 99.

Salmonella Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Super Soccer Noggins Xmas. Santa Run 4.
Science:	World's biggest diamonds may unlock mysteries of Earth's mantle, say geologists.
Media:	If The Lottery Was Honest. If Nintendo Owned Sonic. TEENS PLAY RESIDENT EVIL 7! (PSVR Demo - React Gaming).