Hi-Rez Studios announces Paladins Battlegrounds, a new battle royale mode coming to Paladins, their free-to-play multiplayer shooter. PlayStation Universe has details from the Hi-Rez Expo, saying: "The map will be 300 times bigger than the current Paladins’ Siege map, and you’ll be able to jump on mounts and explore the area picking up loot at various outposts. Like other Battle Royale game modes, only one team can survive!" Paladins has been accused of borrowing from Overwatch before this move into the battle royale trendy genre, so perhaps the only surprise here is that they didn't name this Paladin Unknown's Battlegrounds? Here's a trailer showing things off which says this is coming some time this year. Continue here to read the full story.

Jagex announces they are celebrating the fifth anniversary of Old School RuneScape with the launch of Dragon Slayer II, an epic grandmaster quest that comes just 16 years after the first Dragon Slayer in the original RuneScape. Here are the details:

Old School RuneScape is calling on players to face their toughest questing challenge yet with the launch of Dragon Slayer II, an epic grandmaster quest and sequel to one of the most iconic adventures in RuneScape history. Launching today, Dragon Slayer II comes at the start of Old School RuneScape’s fifth anniversary year, and tells a story of intrigue, unforgettable battles, and high-end rewards!

In addition to the grandmaster quest itself, new free-to-play content linked to Dragon Slayer II has been released, including a new novice quest – The Corsair Curse – and settlement, Corsair Cove. Dragon Slayer II also sees the launch of a new questing guild, The Myths Guild, located on the south-western tip of the Feldip Hills and only accessible to players with 200 or more quest points and those who successfully complete the new grandmaster quest.

“More than 16 years after the original Dragon Slayer quest launched and gave players their toughest challenge, we’re giving them an even grander challenge to overcome with Dragon Slayer II, one of our most memorable adventures yet!” said Mathew Kemp, Senior Product Manager, Old School RuneScape. “2018 is a real milestone year for Old School RuneScape; in addition to celebrating our fifth anniversary next month, we’re of course looking forward to the launch of Old School on mobile platforms soon!”

A cinematic trailer from Total War: Thrones of Britannia introduces Alfred The Great, the first playable faction leader Creative Assembly is revealing for their new A Total War Saga series. Here's word:

Alfred the Great's victory at the Battle of Edington, in which he stood fast against the Viking invaders and changed the future of the British Isles, marks the player's historical starting point of 878 AD in the forthcoming A Total War Saga game, Thrones of Britannia.

See King Alfred alter the course of history in the first in-engine cinematic trailer here: https://youtu.be/5MUdiBfXo04

Like Alfred, each playable faction leader will face a series of unique events and branching dilemmas based on historical events. The choices made will have far-reaching and impactful consequences allowing players to write their own story and re-write history.

Players can attempt to achieve victory in a number of ways: by aggressively expanding through force of arms, by increasing their faction's fame through construction, advanced technology and influence, and by completing a series of unique objectives based on their chosen faction's history. A final, ultimate victory condition can also be aimed for, presenting the player with a unique and significant late-game challenge.

Continue here to read the full story.

The Dota 2 Blog announces the 2018 Galaxy Battles tournament will no longer be considered a "Major," and the Dota 2 tourney will have to continue without any involvement from Valve. They explain this is because of concerns raised by new government regulations for esports players entering the Philippines. Here are the details:

Based on information we’ve recently confirmed regarding new government regulations for esports players entering the Philippines, we have decided to rescind the tournament’s Major designation, including the Pro Circuit qualifying points, for the Galaxy Battles 2018 tournament. This is based on what we feel are unreasonable infringements on the privacy of the players, as a condition to enter the country. The tournament itself may still proceed, but without any involvement of Valve or the Dota Pro Circuit. This isn’t a reflection on how we feel about fans in the Philippines, and we are sorry for those that were planning on attending the event.

As a result, we’re talking to tournament organizers to try to find a way to run a Major with the invited and qualifying teams, including the Pro Circuit points that would have been available in Galaxy Battles 2018.

• Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (Classic, 2005) Multiplayer Patch Update. Thanks DSOGaming.
• Zombasite version 1.019.

• League of Legends Champion and skin sale: 01.05 - 01.08.
• Save 50% on Phantom Brave PC - ファントム・ブレイブ PC on Steam.

• Overview of Esports. Online course offered by UC, Irvine Division of Continuing Education.
• Watch Live on Steam - SMITE World Championships.

• Xbox Live Currently Experiencing Issues With Game Purchases.
• OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes Arrives January 23 on PS4.

• White House bans personal cell phones for staff and guests.

• Intel Issues Updates to Protect Systems from Security Exploits. Thanks Hypothermia.
• Mozilla Firefox version 57.0.4. Thanks Frans.
• Animaniacs to get brand-new series on Hulu. Thanks Ant.
• ‘See you soon’- Logan Paul steps away from YouTube.
• Microsoft shares pre-order details for the $319 Cortana thermostat.

• Testing Windows 10 Performance Before and After the Meltdown Flaw Emergency Patch.
• NVIDIA Gaming Performance Minimally Impacted By KPTI Patches.
• Midrange, high-end graphics card prices to rise. Thanks [H]ardOCP.
• PC Perspective Podcast #481 - NVIDIA TITAN V Deep Learning, NVIDIA EULA Changes, and more.

• Reddit investigating internal hack.
• Microsoft patches Windows to cool off Intel's Meltdown – wait, antivirus- Slow your roll.
• What Chrome users should do following Spectre vulnerability.

• “Vote out” congresspeople who won’t back net neutrality, advocates say.
• SuperFish cram scandal: Lenovo must now ask nicely before stuffing new PCs with crapware. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.

• Want to Git Gud at PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or Fortnite? Battle Royale Trainer is for you…

Link of the Day: Two Experiments Show Fourth Spatial Dimension Effect. Thanks Neutronbeam.

The Verge has details from French technologists the Blade Group on their efforts at making streaming PC games from the cloud more viable. This has arguably failed to live up to the hype that surrounded the initial introduction of the idea of playing on a remote computer using a lower-powered device as a front-end after several companies worked on ironing out latency issues. Blade's take on this involves each user having a computer dedicated to their sessions, and they are now expanding trials of the service to the U.S. starting in California. This will not be cheap, as this ends up running between $420 and $600 per year, and their preliminary hands-on experience with the beta does not necessarily suggest this is worth it. Word is:

I was able to give Shadow a brief test in The Verge offices in New York City — two and a half thousand miles away from Blade’s California data center — on Blade’s dedicated box, a Mac, and an Android phone (with a Bluetooth controller). While the experience was occasionally jittery between our office Wi-Fi and the less than optimal test conditions, playing Rise of the Tomb Raider on an Android phone was still a pretty impressive experience. But we’ll have to wait to see how it handles under intended conditions before we make any final judgements.

Blade has only sold a few thousand devices in France, largely due to the speed at which it can scale up, since each user needs a dedicated machine in an at least somewhat local data center for the service to work well. The model may come under strain on the larger scale (in terms of both users and geography) that Blade is seeking in the United States.

Aside from the service’s very limited availability, there’s also the price. Giving users dedicated machines is a costly venture, and Blade subscriptions aren’t exactly cheap, running at $34.95/month for a one-year subscription, $39.95/month for three months, or $49.95/month without any long term commitments. Subscribers are looking at what basically amounts to renting a high-end gaming PC for between $420 to $600 per year, and that’s before you factor in the cost of games, which you’ll have to buy and install on your cloud machine just like you would on any other PC.

Cats are said to have nine lives, and that apparently applies to mad catz as well, as peripheral maker Mad Catz announces their return, less than a year after closing down amid a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. They say they have new management and new products, which sounds a bit like the Ship of Theseus. Word is they will be prowling around CES showing off their new wares:

Mad Catz Global Limited, the legendary brand, leading innovation in gaming hardware for almost three decades, announced today a surprise return to the international gaming scene.

Less than a year after the much-loved brand disappeared from the gaming landscape, Mad Catz is back: under new management, with new ideas, new attitude and most importantly, an entire range of new, high-quality gaming products!

Known for their award-winning range of R.A.T.™ gaming mice, arcade FightSticks, gaming headsets and much more besides, the new Mad Catz will focus first on quality, committed to producing innovative gaming products, designed and engineered in-house to stand out amongst the competition and deliver superlative performance for gamers of all abilities.

At CES 2018, Mad Catz will be previewing the first products in the new range, a line of all-new PC gaming hardware including new R.A.T. mice, S.T.R.I.K.E.™ keyboards, F.R.E.Q.™ gaming headsets and G.L.I.D.E.™ gaming surfaces.

Key products in the new range include the R.A.T.AIR™ an-all new version of the iconic, fully-adjustable gaming mouse, now with a state-of-the-art wireless power system. The R.A.T.AIR requires no unreliable battery pack to operate, instead drawing power via the wireless activation gaming surface, included in pack. For gamers preferring to use their own gaming surface, the R.A.T.AIR also includes a robust USB cable in pack, instantly converting the R.A.T. to a wired mouse.

The S.T.R.I.K.E.4 gaming keyboard features a fully mechanical key bed, aluminum frame and RGB lighting, and the F.R.E.Q.4 gaming headset, utilizes high-quality 40mm neodymium drivers and a metal plated frame. Further details of new products in the range are expected to be announced shortly.

“We couldn’t be more excited than to begin 2018 by announcing the return of Mad Catz to the global gaming arena. Mad Catz has been a permanent fixture in gaming for almost three decades and we firmly believe it’s best days lie ahead,” said Selena Chang, Director of Sales and Operations for Mad Catz Global Limited. “Through listening to gamers worldwide, we plan to once again forge a path of innovation in the gaming hardware community, and we’re already working on delivering products which we believe will enhance gamers’ abilities and do justice to the Mad Catz name. We can’t wait to unveil a little more at CES 2018 and in the months to come.’

Sabotage Studio announces The Messenger, a "Metroidvania-style" ninja adventure game coming later this year to Windows and consoles. This features a twist on the throwback concept, as gameplay features switching back-and-forth between 8-bit and 16-bit graphics modes, which is shown off in this trailer. This project has already picked up a couple of prizes at the Montreal Independent Games Festival, and here is their messaging for The Messenger:

Sabotage Studio, an indie studio that specializes in combining retro aesthetics and modern game design, today announced that The Messenger, a new action platformer with generation-leaping visuals, will be available for Windows PC and console later this year. First presented as an 8-bit action platformer, this epic ninja tale takes the hero forward in time, supported visually by a shift to 16-bit, where the adventure and gameplay mechanics become much deeper than players would expect.

In The Messenger, you play as a young ninja tasked with carrying a powerful scroll, upon which his clan’s survival depends, through his cursed world. As he battles the demon army that besieged his village, what appeared to be a simple homage story and love letter to 8-bit platformers, slowly evolves into a clever time traveling tale, revealing itself as a 16-bit Metroidvania game packed with deep replay value and deadpan humor. Do you have what it takes to decipher the secrets of The Messenger?

Continue here to read the full story.

WBIE announces details about a new Champions pack coming to LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 that will add characters from Marvel's Champions comic series to the action/adventure sequel. This can be purchased separately, and it is part of the game's season pass. Here are the details:

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced today the characters in Champions, the next downloadable Character Pack for LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes 2. The upcoming pack, priced at $1.99, will add characters from Marvel Comics’ popular Champions comic book series, offering players the chance to unleash the limitless strength of Amadeus Cho and supersonic flight of Nova. The pack also includes Ironheart, Devil Dinosaur, Moon Girl, Viv, Wasp (Nadia Pym), and Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), expanding the main game’s roster of over 200 Super Heroes and Super Villains.

The Champions are a group of teenage Super Heroes started by three Avengers disillusioned by the behavior of their elders and the general state of distrust by the people towards super-powered beings. Eager to show the world what it truly means to be a Super Hero, they formed their own team and soon recruited other teenagers with similar ideals to their cause. Together they are determined to change the world their own way!

Developer David Mulder announces Paradox Wrench, a first-person puzzle game coming to Steam on January 16th, to be published by Red Splat Games (paradoxically not Paradox Interactive). This features Spartan visuals with no textures as shown in this trailer, which looks a little like a Portal prototype, but this probably relates to the game's planned $2.99 price point. Here's word:

Paradox Wrench is a first person puzzle game.

You have agreed to be part of an undisclosed experiment. You will be equipped with a special weapon-like tool. This tool has the ability to switch the physical dimension of certain objects, as well as your own.

There is the normal dimension, which you are used. It collides with everything. Then there is a blue and an orange dimension. These dimensions only collide with the same color/dimension as well as the normal dimension.

You will have to discover how this strange tool works, using your wit to complete intricate tests.

Continue here to read the full story.

• ADL takes fight against hate, bias to next level with first game jam.

• Nintendo Switch Becomes the Fastest-Selling Home Video Game System of All Time in the U.S.
• Metal Gear Survive is getting a beta later this month, but it's only on consoles.

• AT&T will launch real mobile 5G in 12 cities this year.
• Samsung Announces New 9810 SoC- DynamiQ & 3rd Gen CPU.
• Bosch joins Intel, BMW, Audi, and Mercedes, buys stake in mapping company Here.
• Dell surprises with a redesigned XPS 13 that's thinner, faster and a little controversial.
• HP Announces the Latest Chromebook 14 G5 and Chromebook 11 G6- Up to 7th Gen Quad Core Celeron.
• It takes 17 hours for an image to burn in on the iPhone X, test shows.

• Blade thinks it’s cracked PC game streaming with the Shadow cloud computer.
• Chrome is turning into the new Internet Explorer 6.
• Hive's new home monitoring camera isn't bound to its base.
• Tivo’s new TV platform will combine cable and streaming.

• Windows 10 Intel Security Update is now available, six triple-A games tested in CPU-bound scenarios.
• Lenovo Announces ThinkVision P32u LCD- 32-inch, 4K, TB3 with Daisy Chaining.
• In Win Rolls Out 305 Chassis. Thanks Hypothermia.

• Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws threaten PCs, phones and servers.
• How to protect your PC against the major ‘Meltdown’ CPU security flaw.
• We translated Intel's crap attempt to spin its way out of CPU security bug PR nightmare.
• Intel CEO is under fire for selling $39 million in stock.
• Android malware mimics Uber's UI to steal your log-in.
• US Homeland Security breach compromised personal info of 200,000+ staff.

• France says anti-fake news election law incoming.

• ASRock X299E-ITX-ac Intel LGA 2066 Mainboard on Overclocked Inside. German.

• Azio Retro Classic Mechanical Keyboard on AnandTech.
• GAMDIAS Hermes P3 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TweakTown.
• HP Envy x360 Laptop on TechSpot.
• MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC Motherboard on PC Perspective.
• Noblechairs Epic Chair on MMORPG.com.
• Samsung Galaxy A8 2018 (SM-A530F) Smartphone on Tech ARP.
• Tesoro GRAM SE Spectrum Keyboard on TechPowerUp.

The storm that began south of here is currently socking the northeast with what they are calling a Bomb Cyclone, a hyperbolic meteorological term I don't recall hearing before reading the book of bombogenesis chapter and verse. The snow right now is pretty light, but steady, and the forecast calls for several inches of accumulation before this is done setting up us the bomb. Here's hoping you aren't in the path of the storm, and if you are, please stay safe and warm.

Warm(?) Links:	Thanks Ant.
Play:	Devrim Racing. Hat Wizard.
Links:	Top 5 Most Annoying Words For 2017. List includes 12 words.
Stories:	No damage reported as 4.4 Berkeley quake rocks Bay Area. Powerful winter storm grounds nearly 3,000 flights. Sessions will end policy that allowed legalized marijuana to prosper.
Media:	How Airlines Price Flights. Tiny Meerkats wait patiently in line for food. Humans Dressed As Sheep IRL Is So Weird. When you've mastered golf.