Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade was announced for release this spring, and now Stardock specifies we should expect the 4X space strategy expansion on May 4th. The Crusade expansion page on the GalCiv3 website now reflects the new release date, and is there for you if you are looking for more details about the project. Here's their overview:

COMING 05.04.17*

The shield around Earth has been eliminated, but humanity has been anything but idle. Furious that their attempts at diplomacy and goodwill were met with treachery and violence, Earth has turned to its most valuable asset: its people. From spies trained in espionage to soldiers ready to invade enemy planets, the galaxy is ready for a crusade.

*Requires Galactic Civilizations III (sold separately) to play.

Steam News announces the early access release of Earthfall, a Windows co-op sci-fi shooter for up to four players. This post discusses early access and lays out a roadmap to the game's full release, and you can get a look at the game in this early access trailer. Here's word:

EARTHFALL: The end of the world is here! Emerging from the devastation of a global meteor strike, aliens swarm the landscape and ravage the planet. Everyday people must stand together and fight back with a wide variety of weapons, supplies, and defenses as they battle through the towns and wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

Coming to Steam Early Access in early 2017 and later to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Earthfall is a co-operative shooter for up to four players. Using team-based tactics to fortify holdouts and complete objectives, players must work together to survive EARTHFALL!

Continue here to read the full story.

• Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope Valtos Update is now available.

• Demented Pixie on Steam. Save 50%.
• Heroes of the Storm Weekly Collection Update- April 25 - May 2, 2017.
• Selected Digital Downloads - 27-04-17 on Excalibur. Save 50%.
• TerraTech on Steam. Save 33%.

• All-Star Fruit Racing -- Steam Greenlight. "All-Star Fruit Racing is the kart racing game you’ve been waiting for! More exiting, colourful, fruity, strategic and - most importantly - more fun than anything else before. Dodge coconut bowling balls, avoid hungry dinosaurs, race on the moon or Machu Picchu play as many as 4 of your friends in split-screen mode or play online with up to 8 players." Here's a video.

• PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds dev: “I want to find the next me” - GamesIndustry.biz.
• Julian Gollop on Phoenix Point crowdfunding: "There is no Plan B" - GamesIndustry.biz.

• For Honor – Season One Faction War Ends With Viking Victory.

• Lethal League Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
• Brawlhalla Out This Summer, Sign Up for the Closed Beta.
• PS Plus: Free Games for May 2017.

• Amazon’s new $200 Echo Look camera will judge your outfits. No word if it will automatically upload revenge porn.
• Comcast Brings Its Gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 Upgrades to All of Utah.

• New AMD Ryzen Windows Chipset Drivers. Thanks Hypothermia.
• Windows 10 Creators Update vs. Ubuntu 17.04 Linux Radeon Gaming Performance - Phoronix.

• Ajit Pai announces plan to eliminate Title II net neutrality rules.

Thanks Ant.

• Elite: Dangerous players unravel a three-year-old mystery with discovery of derelict megaship…
• MAME version 0.185…
• HeroStorm 2.0 Cartoon…
• Device lets you play video games with your vagina muscles. Mine? Hmm…
• Modiphius plans a Fallout tabletop game…

Link of the Day: M. Night Shyamalan Confirms Sequel for 'Unbreakable' and 'Split'. I liked Unbreakable. No word if M. Night will reprise his tour de force role as "suspicious game attendee." Thanks Kxmode.

R.I.P.: Jonathan Demme Dead: ‘Silence of the Lambs’ Director Was 73.

The promised reveal of Call of Duty: WWII on the Call of Duty website revealed a November 3rd release date for Sledgehammer's upcoming installment in the first-person shooter series. They offered a new trailer (NSFW) to show off the franchise's return to the World War II roots (and Nazi zombies!). The Activision blog has more, saying preorder customers will get access to the private beta, noting the beta will come to the PlayStation 4 before Windows or Xbox One. They offer screenshots along with details, saying that a full multiplayer reveal will come at E3 in June. Here's word:

Today, Activision and Sledgehammer Games provided the first glimpse of the title that’s taking Call of Duty back to its roots - Call of Duty: WWII. We’re talking boots- on- the- ground gameplay delivering a visceral and immersive gameplay experience unlike anything we’ve seen before.

In addition to watching the worldwide reveal stream today, we also met with Sledgehammer Games Co-Founders and Studio Heads, Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield for added insights on what’s to come in the new game. They explained to us that Call of Duty: WWII is a very personal journey for the team, as they have been hard at work on this project for the last two and a half years. “This is based on one of the most monumental moments in human history, and we get to honor and respect that global sacrifice, to honor the men and women who fought for freedom on all fronts, on a global scale,” said Condrey.

Schofield added that the team named the main character after his father, who passed away during production. “The story Call of Duty: WWII follows a global and diverse cast, but for me it honors my father Ronald “Red” Daniels and his squad, and not just what they went through from a global perspective, but what they went through personally. We like to tell a story within a story, and this is no different.”
Both Condrey and Schofield underscored the fact that Call of Duty: WWII is about a squad’s remarkable journey of personal growth and heroism across Europe in World War II, and is a story about common men and women doing uncommon things to preserve freedom.

Welcome to the Fighting First
No mission too difficult. No sacrifice too great. Duty first!

Call of Duty: WWII focuses on the actions of a squad from 1944 to 1945, but will also touch on events from 1940 to 1944 to help set the stage for the narrative and establish the characters. It takes place in the European theater of conflict, at a time when the Allied forces were finally starting to gather strength on their march into Germany. You and your squad will fight your way through occupied France, Belgium, and across the Rhine into Germany.

The Front Lines and Beyond
Highlighting the diverse ensemble cast, players will also encounter the French resistance movement, featuring strong and vibrant characters who were fighting for their homeland even after all seemed lost. The game takes players from the beaches of Normandy to the liberation of Paris and beyond, across a variety of heart-racing engagements and epic battles.

To complement today’s gameplay reveal trailer and touch on more of the action that is coming in Call of Duty: WWII, here’s a few insights on two of the missions from the Campaign:

• Hürtgen Forest: An old-growth forest on the German border where Allied forces engage in devastating encounters. In the heat of battle, the German Army uses tree burst bombs that detonate at treetop level, showering soldiers with wooden shrapnel. When your unit is zeroed-in-on by hostile artillery, the forest explodes around you as debris rains down.
• Normandy: From inside a Higgins landing boat, your squad will storm Omaha Beach in a visceral audiovisual experience unlike any D-Day landing experienced in a game to date. You and your fellow soldiers must overcome the enemy defenses to serve as the tip of the spear for the Allied invasion.

Multiplayer
There will be a Multiplayer reveal for Call of Duty: WWII at E3, which will take place in Los Angeles from June 13-15. You won’t want to miss it.

Multiplayer elements coming to Call of Duty: WWII include:

• War: This narrative-driven mode brings a gripping new layer of excitement to Axis vs. Allies team play.
• Divisions: A new approach to Create-a-Class and character customization as you enlist in a division and progress through the ranks.
• Headquarters: A brand-new, social feature for Call of Duty, where you rally and interact with your fellow soldiers.

Call of Duty: WWII will be released on November 3, 2017. Pre-orders at participating retailers include access to the Private Beta, available first on the PlayStation4, scheduled for later this year.

Continue here to read the full story.

Reuters reports Vivendi is ramping up efforts to acquire more of Ubisoft (thanks VG247), the latest in an ongoing hostile takeover attempt with roots that stretch back more than a decade to an effort to stave off a different hostile takeover by EA. They include details from a couple of anonymous sources:

French media giant Vivendi will accelerate acquisitions in video games and advertising this year to allay investor concerns about its strategy, mixed results and poor share performance, two sources close to the matter told Reuters.

Advertising group Havas and video games maker Ubisoft are expected to be the first targets as Vivendi moves into the next phase of its expansion, the sources said.

In three years, Chairman Vincent Bollore has spent nearly 15 billion euros ($16 billion) of Vivendi's cash on shareholders and acquisitions, including taking large stakes in Telecom Italia and Italian broadcaster Mediaset.

Yet Vivendi's shares have fallen by about 3 percent over the period and analysts are still awaiting more details from the company about how exactly its strategy will pan out.

Eurogamer refutes the recent rumor that Creative Assembly is working on an Alien: Isolation sequel. The original report on PlayStation Universe cites "sources," but now Eurogamer breaks out their "own sources" to refute this. They hear that the Halo Wars 2 team is prototyping a different project that isn't Alien-related, and that almost none of the original Alien: Isolation team is still with the company. We suggest a steel-cage anonymous source fight to sort out the conflicting rumors, but an alternative approach will be to wait and see how this plays out.

Steam News announces the release of Scanner Sombre, just a couple of days after the game's surprise announcement. Here's the launch trailer, and here's word:

Inspired by Gone Home and Dear Esther, Scanner Sombre is a cave exploration experience. With stunning visuals and a terrifying theme, it is the 6th major video game released by Introversion Software - creators of the BAFTA award winning Prison Architect as well as Uplink, Darwinia and DEFCON.

Continue here to read the full story.

Paradox Interactive announces Death or Dishonor, a new expansion for Hearts of Iron IV coming to the World War II real-time strategy sequel. This focuses on some of the smaller countries involved in the conflict, simulating the difficult position of being caught between a rock and a hard place. This is a paid DLC that's part of the season pass, and it will be accompanied by a free update for all users. Its expected later this year, and in the meantime you can see a bit of how this plays out in this announcement trailer. Here are some details:

Death or Dishonor introduces new National Focus trees for Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, which revolve around navigating the ideological (and physical) land mines of central Europe during World War II. This content furthers Paradox’s goal of capturing the unique wartime experience of every nation involved in World War II, but players will also find new opportunities to change the course of history if they so choose.

Death or Dishonor - and the accompanying free update - will also include:

• Revamp of Air Gameplay: Take to the skies with new mechanics and quality of life updates that make it easier to bring your airpower to bear.
• Equipment Conversion: Update your arsenal by converting older units -- or make use of captured enemy vehicles and gear.
• New Music and Art: Three new thematic musical tracks from composer Andreas Waldetoft, new art content for the four focus nations, and new troop voiceovers.
• New Diplomatic and Puppet Interactions: License military technology to bring other nations’ weapons to the field or sell your advances to the highest bidder. Fascist countries get new subject levels like Reichskommissariat, with access to licenses, industry and strategic resources. The instated governments are held in an iron grip, making it harder for them to break free.
• Improved Map Design and Display: the world map has been clarified to make it easier to follow the action around the world. New impassable areas create tactical choke-points and more historical gameplay

Continue here to read the full story.

Omnigames announces Age of Heroes VR, an upcoming multiplayer action/RPG that brings MMORPG-style gameplay to virtual reality. This will come to VIVE, Rift, and PlayStationVR, with support for cross-platform play between all three. This will support (and require) full body movement, though it can be configured to work without a full room-scale setup. There's no release date yet, but they promise closed beta testing "soon," and they plan on accepting signups from potential testers shortly. "With Age of Heroes, we integrated the traditional role-playing features and first person boss battles into the VR genre to create an immersive and refreshing game experience," explains YongMing Wang, senior producer at Omnigames. "We look forward to receiving player feedback in the upcoming closed beta and then sharing the game with the world upon full launch." Here's an announcement trailer, and here's more:

Age Of Heroes VR is set to include life-like body movement for combat to help the combat experience feel more natural, reduce motion sickness and increase immersion into the game world."We were thinking about how to make the combat more immersive and thrilling in VR. One of the answers is Actual Body Movements: you are not only playing the game with VR controllers but also using your own body." Said Omnigames.

"In Age of Heroes, you need actually move your body like squatting or quickly side-stepping to avoid attacks and boss abilities. If you worried about room size or other problems, you can set different game configurations to finish all these movements in a slight body reaction. It will be fun and feel real!"
About Age Of Heroes VR

Set in a fantasy world, Age Of Heroes pits players against challenging enemies in multiplayer raids. Utilizing actual body movement, players can sling fireballs, summon creatures and heal allies in an engrossing multiplayer virtual reality experience that seeks to provide fans of MMORPG combat with the VR game they have been looking for.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Hawaii’s online gaming curse. Hard to be a pro skier there either. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.

• Xbox 360 And Xbox One Backward Compatibly Service Maintenance.
• Night Trap Remake Brings Live Action Video Gaming to PS4 and Xbox One.
• For Honor: Ubisoft blocks Game DVR and streaming on Xbox One after stability concerns.

• Alphabet's Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.

• Apple's first original series, Carpool Karaoke, delayed to later this year. "Original." Thanks Ant.
• Samsung's refurbished Galaxy Note 7 will reportedly go on sale in June.

• Western Digital Corp., SanDisk to slash jobs at San Jose campuses. Thanks Ant.

• Woman says she suffered 2nd-degree burns after her Fitbit exploded. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Samsung Smart TV pwnable over Wi-Fi Direct, pentester says.
• Netgear says sorry four weeks after losing customer backups.
• Senate staffers issued ID cards whose "security chips" turn out to be just pictures of a chip.

• It's illegal to sell streaming boxes with piracy add-ons, EU court rules.
• Teenage hacker jailed for masterminding attacks on Sony and Microsoft.
• No more paying for viewers on Twitch: streaming site shuts down bot-maker in court.

• Planescape- Torment: Enhanced Edition on Christ Centered Gamer.
• Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War III on DSOGaming. PC Performance Analysis.

• AMD Ryzen 5 1400 CPU on TechSpot.
• ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 OC 6GB 9Gbps Edition Graphics Card on eTeknix.
• Autonomous SmartDesk 2 on BabelTechReviews.
• COUGAR Armor Gaming Chair on Benchmark Reviews.
• Das Fnatic Gear Rush G1 Silent Keyboard on Technic3D. German.
• FSP Windale 6 Cooler on techPowerUp.
• GeIL EVO Forza DDR4-2400 32GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers.org.
• GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming 5 AM4 Motherboard on Hardware Canucks.
• Intel Core i7-7700k versus AMD Ryzen 1700X 14 Game CPU Showdown on Legit Reviews.
• MSI GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G Graphics Card on Overclockers Club.
• Synology RT2600ac Wireless Router on TweakTown.
• Thecus N2810 Pro 2-Bay NAS on techPowerUp.

• Ars is teaming up with GOG and we’re giving away The Witcher to everyone. In case you missed one of the previous giveaways…
• Details On The "Rampage" Movie Plot. Sort of like the "plot" of San Andreas? Thanks Ant…

I have this stuff to put on the car that is supposed to be excellent protection for the finish, something that should be handy for someone without a garage who hates washing the car. This needs to be allowed to cure for a few days after application, so I am watching the weather forecast for a few days in a row without rain. So naturally, there is no such window on the horizon. I'll have to keep waiting for when this is going to work out. In the meantime, I'll just keep kidding myself that the rain is "cleaning" the car.

Clean Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Troll Adventures.
Stories:	Jeff Goldblum Joins 'Jurassic World' Sequel. Disney Adjusts Its Entire Release Date Slate.
Science:	Polyethylene bio-degradation by caterpillars of the wax moth Galleria mellonella. Where did your dog come from? New tree of breeds may hold the answer. Thanks Neutronbeam. Ewe, get a womb! Docs grow baby lambs in shrink-wrap plastic bags.
Media:	Emergency Worker Uses Unique Method to Save Suicidal Girl. Spectacular Avalanche In Kaçkar Mountains. Pipe Cutting Mistake.
Follow-up:	Gerrymandering Has a Solution After All—It's Called Math.