A free week is underway on Steam for Dog Duty to help decide if you want to step in this Early Access action/strategy game. Word is: "This free to try week offers players the chance to take down evil octo-bosses and provide feedback. This feedback will be gathered by SOEDESCO to further improve Dog Duty. SOEDESCO also created a survey that gives players the opportunity to choose which language they would like to see supported in the game." The game's retro style is shown off in the previously released Early Access Trailer. Here's a description of the game:

Control a squad of misfits as they go up against some evil bigwig Octopus Commander and his army who are threatening world-peace. In this fun, fast-paced Real Time Tactics game, you go into combat and use guerrilla warfare to eliminate all octo-scum. Fight on top of your moving vehicle as you go from island to island to liberate outposts and defeat wicked bosses in their crazy octo-machines. Wreck those squids up, but beware, they’re well-armed.

Features

• Assemble a 3-person squad and fight in Real Time Squid combat
• Liberate outposts to cut-off weapon, armor and other octo-supplies
• Defeat epic bosses and kill your way to the Evil Octopus Commander
• Fight on top of your armored octo-frying vehicle while driving

Continue here to read the full story.

Fated Kingdom is now out of Early Access and officially released on Steam, offering a digital sandbox board game for Windows. This twist of fate is shown off in a new Release Trailer which features gameplay. Here's an explanation:

Fated Kingdom is an old school digital board game sandbox for 2-4 players with shared physical space and no rules enforced by computer. The Kingdom of Kinmarr is falling apart, and to survive in this dark times, players need to roll the dice, draw cards from the decks and move along a game board.

GAME FEATURES

• Old School Digital Boardgame Sandbox
• CO-OP and Multiplayer for 2-4 People
• 5 Characters with Unique Abilities
• 200 Well Designed Cards
• Roguelike Game Board Generation
• Realistic Physics and Great Visuals
• Easy to Learn but Deep Combat System
• Shared Physical Space and No Forced Rules

Continue here to read the full story.

Blacksad: Under the Skin is now expected on November 14th, offering a noir adventure game for Windows based on a Spanish comic book series. This features anthropomorphic characters, as seen in this Gameplay Video. This date represents a delay, as the game was previously expected on September 26th. The release is coming to GOG.com and Steam, and GOG.com is trying to earn your business by offering a free copy of Yesterday Origins to everyone who buys a copy through them between now and November 21st. Here's word on the game:

Conduct the investigation in your own way. Make use of your feline senses as you hunt for new clues. Make decisions on behalf of Blacksad and influence the outcome of the case.

Features:

• An official and all-new story for BLACKSAD, set in the comic book series’ unique world, perfectly recreated for gamers.
• An investigative narrative game with gameplay combining investigations, puzzles, quick time events (QTE) and multiple-choice dialog.
• Choices that directly influence the development of the character and the story's ending.
• More than 30 characters, including new faces and old favorites, each with their own story.
• An immersive world with a jazz soundtrack to rival the very best of Hollywood’s film noir.
• Fans of adventure games will love its gameplay and narration while fans of the comic book series will be thrilled to rediscover the characters and graphic style of this unique world.
• A dark world of anthropomorphic animals

Continue here to read the full story.

Solo indie developer Rune Skovbo Johansen announces Eye of the Temple, a virtual reality adventure game coming to Steam next year. Word is: "Eye of the Temple puts you in the shoes of an adventurer, letting you explore a vast and treacherous temple using your own feet. Keep your balance as you step from one moving block to another, dodging traps and solving puzzles with your torch and whip in hand." This will require a VR headset, and this Reveal Trailer shows off some VR gameplay. Here's an explanation of how this creates an interface-free experience:

Gameplay in Eye of the Temple has no interface elements or use of buttons, instead letting the player step, dodge, duck, and whip using solely their own body and hand movements. A unique platformer traversal mechanic lets the player lose themselves in the depths of the vast temple without teleportation, artificial locomotion, or other distractions taking them out of the immersion, whether making their way across a wide gorge, descending into deep mines, or escaping sizzling lava chambers.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Steam Daily Deal - Mass Effect, 75% Off.
• Steam Daily Deal - Pro Cycling Manager 2019, 35% Off.
• Steam Daily Deal - Ultimate Chicken Horse, 34% Off.

• A New Roster of WWE Superstars joins Brawlhalla! - Patch 3.51.

• SOULCALIBUR VI - Hilde Character Reveal Trailer.

• "If we're going to be drug dealers, let's not literally mine for addicts" - GamesIndustry.biz.
• Overwatch 2's Jeff Kaplan: Leaks Were 'Extremely Demoralising' - Kotaku Australia.
• Suda 51 Interview: No More Heroes 3 Boss Fuses Thanos, Venom, Joker, Open World Confirmed - WCCFTECH.

• Sony shutting down SingStar servers at the start of next year.
• Yaga Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
• Citadel- Forged with Fire Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• Woven the Game Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
• Big Pharma Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
• Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 Is Now Available.
• November 4th Xbox Insider Release Notes - Beta, Delta and Omega Ring (1911.191030-1945).
• November 4th Xbox Insider Release Notes - Alpha Ring (1911.191101-1945).
• November 4th Xbox Insider Release Notes - Alpha Skip Ahead Ring (2004.191031-2300).
• 'Countdown to Death Stranding' live stream hosted by Geoff Keighley set for November 7.

• Photoshop Camera app auto-edits your smartphone snaps so you don't have to.
• Dell’s Latitude 7220 Rugged Extreme Tablet Gets Quad-Core CPUs & 1000-Nits Display.

• Facebook rebrands as calls for government-led breakup continue. FACEBOOK!
• "Witcher" Producer Talks Family, Magic & Sex.
• Another major streamer leaves Twitch, this time for YouTube.

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX2080Ti cannot run Red Dead Redemption 2 with 60fps in 4K-Ultra.
• AMD Custom Power Plan Boosts Turbo Speeds Of Ryzen 3000 CPUs By 250MHz, Up To 4.6GHz Now Possible On Ryzen 9 3900X. Thanks Simon.
• 1usmus Custom Power Plan for Ryzen 3000 Zen 2 Processors. See above. Thanks Simon.

• Adobe, Twitter and the New York Times team up to fight digital fakes.
• Researchers hack Siri, Alexa, and Google Home by shining lasers at them.
• I Got Access to My Secret Consumer Score. Now You Can Get Yours, Too. Thanks j.c.f.
• Vulnerability Summary for the Week of October 28, 2019. Thanks Ant.
• Spanish companies’ networks shut down as result of ransomware. Thanks Neutronbeam.

• DirecTV kept charging regional sports fee while channel was blacked out. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Apple wants affordable housing in California—but laws stand in the way.
• OneCoin lawyer on trial for role in 'crypto-scam.'

Link of the Day: Your posture is killing you: What gamers should know about ergonomics. Save me from my sciatica!

The Sims are apparently part of the 1%, as GameSpot notes that EA's recent post-earnings conference call revealed that lifetime sales of the Sims series of lifestyle simulations has surpassed $5 billion USD in earnings:

"Engagement across the franchise has led The Sims to surpass $5 billion in lifetime sales," stated Wilson during the call. "The Sims continues to be one of the great franchise in gaming, and we have plans to bring new experiences to its amazing players for a long time to come."

With Red Dead Redemption 2 due for PC tomorrow, NVIDIA now offers new GeForce version 441.12 WHQL Windows drivers. In addition to support for the Windows edition of the wild west action/adventure these are also game-ready for the imminent release of Need For Speed Heat. They also add the recently announced G-SYNC support for LG OLED televisions. There's also this post discussing NVIDIA GPU support for RDR2. Here are the complete release notes for the new drivers explaining these also enhance NVIDIA support for Borderlands 3:

Game Ready for Red Dead Redemption 2
The new Game Ready Driver provides the latest performance optimizations, profiles, and bug fixes
for Red Dead Redemption 2. Read up on recommended settings and GPUs for Red Dead
Redemption 2 in our article here. This new driver also includes the latest optimizations for Need
for Speed Heat and Borderlands 3.

New G-SYNC Compatible Monitors
The list of G-SYNC Compatible displays increases to over 55 options with the addition of the LG
B9, C9, and E9 4K OLED TVs. Make sure to update your firmware first for the best experience.

Jarvis Kaye, a pro gamer with Faze Clan has received a lifetime ban from Fortnite for cheating using an aimbot in Epic's battle royale game. Kaye posted this video to apologize to his nearly two million subscribers for his actions and to explain he uploaded videos of his cheating because he thought people would find them interesting and entertaining, not realizing that doing so would draw a ban, since this did not involve competitive matches. The comments to his video are divided between those who feel his punishment is justified and those who disagree. Thanks Blasting News. Continue here to read the full story.

A story on Digitimes says Apple and Valve are "reportedly" collaborating on head-mounted AR devices which they say "may" be unveiled in the second half of 2020. This is a subscriber-only article, but Apple Insider says this unconfirmed rumor is attributed to supply chain reports. They also note we should consider seasoning this with a grain of salt, since Digitimes does not have the greatest track record on this topic, saying: "Digitimes does not have the greatest reliability in its Apple reporting. Most significantly, it claimed in July that Apple had abandoned its AR Glasses project entirely. This new report admits that wasn't correct, but attributes it to Apple purportedly closing its internal project in favor of this collaboration with Valve."

Cathedral is now available on GOG.com and Steam, offering a platforming adventure for Windows, macOS, and Linux (thanks Indie Retro News). Here's a Release Trailer along with word on the game, which made its way through the now-ended Steam Greenlight process a couple of years ago:

Wake up in a world with no recollection of how you got there. A world full of secrets, hidden rooms, dungeons and towns; Cathedral features a vast world, meant for exploring! You control a nameless protagonist, a knight from a different world, who teams up with a spirit known as Soul. Figure out what makes this world tick, and how to get back home.

Unravel the secrets of your past by finding the five elemental orbs. The orbs, placed in ancient times by the demi-god known only as Ardur, are protected by five fearsome guardians. Make your way through their dungeons, meet them head-on in combat, and see if you can best them!

Along the way, you will find magical items that allow you to explore even further, and reach new areas, towns and dungeons.

Continue here to read the full story.

• The Dark Mod Fan Mission: Langhorne Lodge. New content for The Dark Mod, the Thief-inspired project that just celebrated its 10th anniversary.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Prelude I. Kicks off a prequel by the maintainer of the Unofficial patch series for the RPG. Thanks Acleacius.

• HitchHiker Trailer.
• I believe that I have just hit the longest shotgun shot in call of duty history.

• Summer Daze at Hero-U by Corey Cole — Kickstarter. Nears goal with one day remaining.

• Esports Legends Shine and New Games Revealed at BlizzCon 2019.
• Global E-sports Market 2019-2023: Evolution of High-tech Gaming Consoles to Boost the Market Growth.
• 'But mom, video games are my job.' Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 has new CS:GO rules.

• Designing the gameplay and aesthetic of Diablo IV - Gamasutra.
• HIDEO KOJIMA & DEATH STRANDING: Bridging the Worlds of Film and Games. Thanks DSOGaming.
• Why it took this long to add ethnically diverse player characters to World of Warcraft.
• Matt Chat 431- George Ziets on Ravenloft, Arcanum, BG3 and More.

• Diablo 4’s world is grim, and filled with people who need you - Polygon.

• Nest Wi-Fi is a big improvement over Google Wi-Fi. But is it enough?
• Adobe is bringing Illustrator to the iPad in 2020.
• Waze brings back Cookie Monster to give you driving directions.

• Microsoft's Chromium Edge browser arrives January 15th.

• What’s the Difference Between NVIDIA RTX and GTX? Thanks Hypothermia.
• Intel Launches Xeon-E 2200 Series for Servers: 8 Cores, up to 5.0 GHz.
• Samsung Confirms Custom CPU Development Cancellation.
• Seagate Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2020 Financial Results. Thanks Hypothermia.
• Apple commits $2.5B to combat housing crisis in California.
• Microsoft four-day work week 'boosts productivity.'
• Teenager solves car blind spots using a webcam and projector.
• The State of Nvidia RTX Ray Tracing: One Year Later - TechSpot.

• US and Taiwan hold first joint cyber-war exercise.
• Please tell us why you're not securing yourselves, UK.gov asks businesses.
• ISPs lied to Congress to spread confusion about encrypted DNS, Mozilla says.
• Camgirl sites exposed data for millions of users.

• US will grant Huawei trade ban exemptions 'very shortly.'

• Disco Elysium review – video game as first-person novel - Games - The Guardian.
• A Knight's Quest - Christ Centered Gamer.

• Philips Upbeat True Wireless SHB2505 Earbuds on APH Networks.
• Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 5700 XT Graphics Card on ThinkComputers.org.
• Thermaltake TOUGHRAM RGB DDR-3200 MHz CL16 2x8 GB RAM on TechPowerUp.

• The C64 mini is going LARGE and feature packed! - Full sized version of the 80’s best-selling home computer (December 2019)…
• Popular Gaming Website Kotaku Might Be Going Away In Wake of Controversial Management Decisions…

I have a company in the BlueTower today, as I am dogsitting for Jedi the Jindo. Our daily walks came to an end when we moved, and I miss my little buddy (and the exercise) dearly, so it's great to be able to spend some quality time with him. Thankfully my fears he would resent me "abandoning" him were unfounded, as he's always overjoyed when we reunite.

Dogged Links:	Thanks Ant.
Stories:	Niagara Falls boat moves for first time in a century. Disney is making too many Star Wars movies, says CEO. Somehow omitted the word "bad" in there.
Science:	Living Skin Can Now be 3D-Printed With Blood Vessels Included. Thanks Max. How Ancient Technology Made Dead Sea Scroll Last for Millennia. Thanks Max.
Media:	How can you not see the pool? Arnold Schwarzenegger Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters. What does a solar eclipse look like from the edge of space.
Auction:	Olivia Newton-John's 'Grease' ensemble sells for $405,700 -- more than double auction estimate.
Follow-up:	Dislike twice-a-year time changes? You're part of large majority of Americans, poll shows. Thanks Slashdot.